She had caught him looking, or at least Sandy thought he was peering intently at her. I must be kidding myself, she thought.
Joel worked for another mortgage broker in her building and they had often walked in from the parking lot together as they began their work day. He was pleasant, attractive and not too forward. He never made any overtures, so she had pegged him for married, though he didn't wear a ring. Over several months they had developed a friendly rapport, sometimes passing at lunch in the building's common break room. Then about 3 weeks ago he had greeted her at the car as she parked with news to share. He had received a promotion that would allow him to move out of the place he shared with his roommate.
"Ah, a roommate, not a wife." Sandy had thought to herself.
Finding house had happened rather fast for Joel and the paperwork was expedited to get him into the place as quickly as possible. He had just finished the cleaning and painting when he once again waited for her to park and get out of her car.
"I want you to come to dinner. I want you to be the first to see my new place." His brown eyes danced with excitement. "What? Me? What about your family or girlfriend?" "My family lives on the East Coast, I won't see them until Christmas. As for my girlfriend, she broke it off with me about a year ago. She claimed that I was in a nowhere job and she didn't want to wait for me to get somewhere." His fingers wiggled in the air in mock quotations at the statement. "So, will you come to dinner on Friday night, if you are free?"
The slight pleading look on his face had been hard to resist and Sandy was free Friday, so she had agreed. Upon arrival at the house on Friday evening, she had been slightly surprised to see that while it was a nice older home with plenty of charm and character, Joel's house was radically under furnished.
He apologized, "The furniture store doubled booked their delivery schedule, my stuff won't arrive until tomorrow."
So they had their dinner on the floor of the dining room, eaten off the paper plates provided by the pizza delivery guy. It was fun and relaxing and a bit like a picnic. They had discussed his plans for the house and how much nicer it would be once the furniture arrived. Then toasted the promotion that allowed for a general upgrade of his living arrangements. After the dishes were thrown away he guided her into the living room to see the new, massive TV he had purchased. With the exception of a floor lamp, that was the only furniture in the room.
Joel mentioned watching a movie, and Sandy started to decline, but the movie he selected was one that she had missed when it was in the theaters and had really wanted to see. So, she agreed to stay, finding a comfortable place to sit cross legged on the floor, commenting on the cushiness of the new carpeting.
That had been nearly an hour ago and the evening sun had faded enough to warrant turning on the lamp to its lowest setting. Joel was sitting a short distance away and Sandy had adjusted her position from sitting to laying on her stomach, hands under her chin as she became more engrossed in the film. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Joel glance at her, then he did it again.
"That's odd", she thought. At the third glance she felt his eyes linger on her a little longer. She surreptitiously looked down at the front of her blouse and to her great dismay she realized that thanks to the way she was laying, her blouse opened to reveal a generous portion of her breasts. The pale flesh against the teal blouse was as obvious as if she had installed a neon sign saying "Look here!"
She demurely placed her hand across her chest, lightly tanned fingers splayed against the creamy skin and looked at Joel apologetically, "I did not realize..." and began to sit up and straighten herself, blushing slightly.
"You can stay there, it's okay." though trying for a light mood, Joel's voice betrayed him.
"No, I should probably get going, its getting late and I have to be up early in the morning." Sandy stood brushing off imaginary dust from her jeans and straightening her blouse. She had heard the tone in Joel's voice and it made her both uneasy and intrigued. A little voice in her head whispered, "What if?"
"Thanks for dinner and the tour of the house, its really nice and I hope that you will be happy here. Perhaps I'll come back to see it fully furnished", she laughed.