It had been over twenty-five years since I had last seen her.
Somehow, even at alumni reunions or homecoming outings, our paths had never crossed.
She was my college crush during my freshman and sophomore years at the University of Maryland, before I really knew what I was doing from a sexually active standpoint, that is. Sure, I had fucked my share of coeds (well, OK, three), but it was more from dumb luck and circumstance than it was from skill or cunning. And, the classically beautiful Regan Carter Fleming had always eluded my grasp, though she had always been my number one target, such was her timeless beauty and graceful demeanor.
Regan was as regal as her aristocratic name implied. She grew up on the outskirts of the Beltway, the only daughter of a powerful Washington lobbyist and his former runway-model wife, whose stunning looks Regan had inherited, and every slug on Fraternity Row and half of the Sorority girls wanted to get in Regan's tighty-whiteys. She was essentially unattainable though, due to a variety of facts, rumors, innuendos, and half-truth urban legends.
She was shy (which she was); she was stuck-up (perhaps a little); she was a lesbian (that was the hot one, WAS she?); she was a virgin (probably so); she had a boyfriend (girlfriend?) back home.
That last one was the oddest one, she lived less than ten miles from College Park. Though, back in those days, that was the easy, convenient excuse used by any boy towards any girl who refused to share her charms with the male population. As in, "I coulda fucked her, man, but she told me she has a boyfriend at home." A loser's lament, told by one who had a busy post-date self-flagellation session with Mr. Willie Blue Balls.
I, too, was on the short end of the stick when it came to taking my own throws with Regan. I had convinced her to go to a few frat parties with me, and even a trip to Atlantic City for a social function with my frat buddies (yep, an abject disaster), but the best I could show for it was a cold-fish perfunctory goodnight kiss after three dates. It was time to move on, I reckoned, but that didn't mean I ever stopped fantasizing about her.
That's why I was literally shocked dead in my tracks when, out of absolutely nowhere, over two-and-a-half decades later, I saw the e-mail inviting me to join her social network on one of the career web sites. Her photo was on her profile, too, and if possible, she looked even better than she had in the early 80's. She looked like a modern-day Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, jet black raven hair and immaculately attired, her firm, petite body still remarkably intact. I tripped on my tongue reaching for the keyboard to reply.
Several e-mails and then phone calls over the next few weeks followed, where we learned that we were both happily divorced (she had changed her name back to Fleming after the rather contentious divorce) and now once-again single. I was invited by Regan to a dinner 'meeting', as she termed it, careful not to call it a 'date', near her home in Bethany Beach, Delaware. As I drove down Route 13 from my own home outside of Philly, her words resonated in my mind..."I have a spare bedroom, so plan on staying the night, I insist."
As a perfect gentleman should, of course I gladly accepted her insistence. Except I was hoping that she was thinking like me. If the night went swimmingly, no spare bedroom would need to be occupied.
I glided up the driveway of a beautiful beachfront house on the south side of the small coastal town, almost on the border of Fenwick Island, just north of the Maryland state line, and immediately saw Regan's compact frame as she huddled in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest to keep her warm. As I approached her, admiring her still-silky hair blowing over her still-gorgeous face in the chilly winter air, her dark eyes sparkled. My dick hardened immeasurably. "How about that GOOD good-night kiss you've been waiting for?" she asked coyly.
We hugged as she moved her mouth towards mine. "I'm much better at this now, I've had twenty-five years to practice," she murmured, no longer shy. We locked in a kiss well worth waiting a generation for.
The soft, slow, gentle, increasingly passionate kiss in the doorway told me instantly that the chances of this being a one-bedroom, cohabitation evening were enhancing by the minute. An Atlantic Coast Bed and Breakfast, if you will.
Regan was elegantly beautiful as always, time had indeed been a friend to her. She wore the quintessential little black dress with a strand of obviously very expensive pearls draped around the flawless skin of her neck and throat.
We made small talk on her couch for a bit, sharing a wonderful glass of Washington State merlot, our conversation serving as extended foreplay. We soon headed down Coastal Highway to a cozy little Italian restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland, Regan allowing me have the pleasure of driving her late-model teal blue Jaguar while I ogled her slender legs in the passenger seat, squirming while trying to disguise my ever-present hard-on, which was behaving in a less-than-obsequious manner.
Dinner lasted perhaps two hours, as we tried to cram nearly thirty years of catching up in a short window of time. We covered careers, families, hobbies, travel destinations, but consciously avoided the true climactic intent, though the sexual tension was escalating with each passing subject as we gazed deeper into each other's eyes. The restaurant was nearly deserted now, the locals having scurried back to their warm bungalows on this frigid off-season winter's night.
Curiosity got the best of me as we sipped our second bottle of wine, and I finally popped the question. No, no, not THAT question.
"So, Regan, why? Why after all this time did you reach out to me?"
Her dark eyes lowered for a split second, so I hurried to reassure her. "Not that I'm not thrilled, by the way, I'm delighted to see you again, you were always the prettiest coed at UM, and still could win contests on campus, even today, I'm sure of it." She blushed deeply, and my mind flashed back to the vision of the shy girl of long ago as she rebuffed my advances for more than a good-night kiss at her dorm room door.
Regan sighed, took another deep gulp of the delicious wine, and cupped her chin into her downturned palms. "Ok, here goes. I turn fifty next month, and I'd been taking inventory of some things I hadn't done yet." She giggled at herself, listening to her own story. "Sort of a middle-aged bucket list, if you will."
I was quiet as a church mouse as she continued. "I was painfully shy when I met you, and yes, still a virgin. In fact, I invented an imaginary boyfriend at home for the first two years I was at school just so I wouldn't somehow blow my cover to my sorority sisters that I still hadn't had sex." She paused, her eyes scanning the distance now for some long-forgotten memory. "In fact, truth was, I was scared to death at the thought of having sex, it intimated me, though of course, I was extremely curious. All of the sisters in my sorority would talk about nothing else but sex, so I made like I was getting my share at home with my make-believe boyfriend, to whom I was true-blue."
She laughed again at her charade. "That part was true, anyway, I sure wasn't cheating on a boyfriend that didn't exist."