I didn't mean to make Laura cry. So much has happened in my life since, then, but that moment is burned into my memory. It all happened years ago, but I can remember it as clearly now as if I were still there. I didn't mean for it to happen, but it remains my most cherished memory. It began like this.
Laura and I were friends who fucked. I know that sounds dirty, but it never really felt that way to us. We had been totally platonic friends for years before we ever even considdered having sex with each other. It started when we were both in the middle of a dry spell and were feeling it. One day, when we were commiserating about the complete lack of good prospects, Laura just blurted out, "We should just have sex and get it out of our systems."
It was seriously good sex. In the course of complaining about our various partners we both knew what the other liked. Still we both knew it wasn't going to be anything serious. We just didn't seem compatible enough outside of the bedroom. She had her hobbies like ballroom dancing, Rocky Horror, and knitting. I had mine, like competitive board games, role playing games, and swimming. These things took up a lot of time, and neither of us were willing to give them up.
There was also a question of religion. I wasn't brought up religious. At my core, I believe in God, and think we should mostly follow biblical tenants, but I don't take the Bible literally. She referred to herself as a fallen Catholic. She didn't go to Church or seem to take it seriously, but deep down, she still believed. I know that every once in a while she still did confession. "I just have so much sin to cleanse myself of," she said once.
Naturally, there were some things that we both liked. I mean we were close friends. We had a lot of other friends in common. We liked similar movies, food, and music. We would go to Ren Fairs, museums, and art shows together. And we would support each other's hobbies. I wore her sweaters. When I could, I would go to her dance competitions, and she would sometimes come over for game night, when we were doing something more casual. We both worked in DC near GWU, so we would meet up for lunch or to walk on the mall after work on days when it wasn't crowded or trashy. We would often go out together with groups of other friends.
And when both of us were single, we would get together and fuck. Sometimes we would have a little date beforehand, but it was mostly the same sort of thing we would do when we were single. We would go out to dinner or a movie. If the weather was nice, we might walk all the way back to her place in Arlington, though normally we took the Metro.
But we weren't single very often. You wouldn't think that a guy who was into gaming would get a lot of dates, but I was reasonably attractive, outgoing, and socially fearless. I'm a hair under six feet tall, stay in good shape, and have blue eyes that women seem to find dazzling. Once I was attached, I tended to date one person for a long time.
Laura was always around people, and while her relationships tended to be volatile and short, she never had trouble starting new ones. She was hunting for Mr. Perfect. Once after dumping a guy who she felt took her for granted, she said, "He should treat me like a princess." Before I had a chance to point out how spoiled that sounded, she added, "I deserve it. I treated him like a prince."
My latest girlfriend, Kathy, got a job offer on the West Coast. When I brought up different ways for us to make it work out -- I could find a job out there -- she made it pretty clear that she was moving on without me. It was really hurtful. We had been together for over a year, and everything seemed to be going fine. She was just ready to move on to the next chapter of her life, and I wasn't going to be a part of it.
I told Laura about it during lunch. She said all the appropriate sympathetic things and then added, "things with Charles aren't going that well either. I think we're about to break up." This was really news to me.
"Just a few days ago, you were talking about moving in together. What happened?"
"Oh, he just isn't serious. We're not really going anywhere," she said, vaguely. She didn't seem all that sad about it. A week later, they were history.
We planned to go out to a movie on that Friday. We picked a show at a theater near her place, and I thought the plan was to hook up afterward. It turned out I was wrong.
"Mark," she said, "You're welcome to spend the night on Friday, but I'm still on my period." Laura does even not consider period sex. Her body is too out of tune. She feels generally yucky even a day or two after her period and her nipples are tender. Besides that, she just thinks it's gross. I don't, but I respect her.
That was all fine. We went out to the movie, visited a cafe we both like, and then went back to her place to cuddle. I had been missing having a woman to hold. My Ex had been distant even before she announced that she was leaving. And Laura was a nice woman to hold.
Laura did not have a beautiful face. She has a big nose, mousy brown hair, and small dark brown eyes. If I wanted to compare her to someone famous, I would say that on a good day she looked a bit like Barbara Streisand, but most of the time she looked more like a young Amy Klobuchar. A strong face, a kind face, a motherly face, a face you could wake up to in the morning, but not a face that gets you a lot of free drinks. She's not really ugly, but no one would ever call her pretty.
What she lacks in facial beauty, she more than makes up for with her body. Standing about five foot four, she has a perfect hourglass figure. She is naturally blessed with a nice set of double Ds and wide hips. Dancing has kept her figure lean, and her legs smooth and strong. If she wears something tight, men cannot keep their eyes off her. Cuddling up to her was a treat.
We didn't talk about anything too serious. The subject of our respective break-ups was too raw and maybe too real to broach, and we were both tired of the Washington politics we had to deal with every day. Instead we just chatted about what we normally talked about when I spent the night. What are we going to do tomorrow? It always took a while to agree on anything. There is a lot to do in Washington, but if you're like us and don't have cars, it pays to plan it out in advance a bit. When in doubt, we normally go to one museum or another, and that's what we went for this time.
She had bought a new book that day, and I could tell she wanted to read it. I had nothing to do, so I offered to read it to her. She was a little shy about it because it was an obviously trashy romance. I teased her about it a bit, mostly to see her blush. Then I started reading it to her. It started out pretty slowly. Only a few pages in, I felt her body shudder. She often does that right before falling asleep. After a few shudders, she just lay there breathing slowly. RIght before I turned off the light, I looked back at her. With her eyes closed, her face looked calm and peaceful and smooth. Her hair, was splayed out behind her head, giving her a slightly angelic look, and I thought, "She's really pretty." Then I turned out the light.
We had a good time the next day, and tentatively agreed that I would be over again the next Friday, as neither of us had any plans. The week went by pretty uneventfully. I took advantage of my newly single status to look up some friends I hadn't seen for a while and hang out with them. I met Laura for lunch on Tuesday, and again on Thursday.
On Friday, the weather was nice, so we ended up just going for a walk in Constitution Gardens and then went to our favorite Thai place.
Once when we were there years before, I had had a stunning revelation. It must have shown on my face, because she asked what I was thinking. I had whispered, "Their Tom Yum Gai smells just like your pussy." At first, she thought I was teasing her, but eventually I convinced her I was serious. Since then, it has been one of our most secret in-jokes, and I cannot get Thai food anywhere without thinking of her.
We ended up ordering Green Curry and Drunken Noodles, neither as spicy as I would have liked. While we were ordering, I asked if I should get some Tom Yum Gai, and she deadpanned, "Oh, you'd better, but later." It may have confused the waitress a bit.
