"He's away for work again?" Robert asked his good friend Elise when she showed up to softball without her boyfriend.
"Yeah," she said with a minimally audible sigh. "The calibrations were off again or something like that. He left a couple days ago. Thankfully it's a short trip, so he should be back before the weekend."
"Sweet! Do you have any plans?" Robert asked enthusiastically.
Elise smiled at her friend. "We're going on a wine-tasting weekend. You?"
"Sam and I are going to Wasaga. At least I'm hoping so."
"You're not sure if she's coming down?"
"Well, her son's been sick for the past few days and she's not sure if he'll be well enough to be on his own."
Elise patted Robert's arm and gave it a friendly squeeze. "Here's hoping it'll all work out, then."
"Yeah," Robert said gamely. He didn't tell her that he had doubts about Sam's ability to make it down. She cared for her son very deeply and would not chance leaving him alone if she felt he might need her in any way. Despite the occasional challenges they encountered in their scheduling, he really respected her devotion to her child. It was part of her that made her so special, what made him fall in love with her so deeply. Putting the potential disappointment aside, he focused on warming up for the game. The weather was perfect for softball; one of those timeless summer evenings made for being outside: warm air with a slight breeze to cut the humidity and keep the bugs under control.
Their team was up against one of the division leaders, so while they did not expect to do well, the first few innings game Robert the thought that they just might win, which would be a fabulous boost to their team confidence. Toward the middle of the game, Elise was up to bat and Robert cheered her on as she gave huge swing at the bright yellow ball, smacking it way out into left field. Robert watched as she pumped her fleshy legs toward first base. She wasn't a sprinter by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, her power made up for her lack of speed, so she made it to first base with a few moments to spare. The steam was missing a player in its rotation, so Robert was up after her, managing a triple, mostly due to an outfield error. It meant that Elise was able to get home and score a run for their team.
Unfortunately Robert was stranded on third when the player after him struck out, ending the inning. Robert trotted back to the bench where Elise was waiting for him with his glove and a water bottle. He grabbed his glove and slid in on his hand and took a drink from his bottle. While he was hydrating, Elise wrapped her arms around him and gave him an appreciative hug.
"Thanks for bringing me home!" Elise enthused. Robert hugged her back.
"My pleasure," he said. He could feel her generous breasts against his chest, and wondered for the first time in his life why he hadn't noticed them before. Thinking perhaps she was wearing a new type of bra or something, he didn't dwell on it any longer. The game ended after an infield fly-ball and two strike-outs by their pitcher finished the other team off, giving them the victory. Once again he found himself unexpectedly thinking of Elise's zaftig body while the team members congratulated each other.
More than her breasts caught his attention when she came up unexpectedly behind him to give him a rough-and-tumble bear hug, bouncing her soft body into his back as the rest of the team gathered their stuff. He somehow noticed the smell of her short auburn hair, fruity and a bit spicy from whatever shampoo she had used earlier that morning. The whiff of her hair didn't last long, just a just a transient scent lasting no longer than their proximity. But it inexplicably pierced through to his deeper awareness, stirring up yearnings in his belly. He pushed those thoughts away though, keeping foremost in his mind the fact that they were both in committed relationships, albeit ones that left the two of them keeping each other company during the week.
Kate, the team captain was gathering up the folks for the post-game social at the nearby sports-pub.
"Beers Rob?" she asked.
"Elise, you going gonna hit the pub?" Robert queried over his shoulder before giving his answer.
"Sure Robert, that'll fill the hours until Chris gets back to hotel," said Elise as she finally got around to packing up her own gear up.
"Then it's a yes," agreed Robert nodding to Kate. She gave him a quick smile.
"Checking with the Missus, eh?"
Robert laughed, moving back to Elise, putting his arm playfully around her. "I wish!" he fervently voiced. "Have you tasted her meatloaf?"
"Oh Robert, you can have my meatloaf whenever you want!" Elise teased.
Robert turned to his good friend and gave her a startlingly direct look. "Name the time and I'll be there," he promised. Elise didn't say anything; just looked back at him, her blue eyes holding his gaze for a second or two.
"Let's go already, I'm starving!" Keith, their pitcher, called out, breaking the moment. Robert looked over to his teammate and waved assent. Without another word, he grabbed his glove, water and jacket and plodded off to his car, thoughts of Elise warring in his mind with thoughts of Samantha.
He dumped his stuff in the trunk and then sat in his car a moment, shaking off the odd feelings, and texted a quick love note to Samantha, far away in space, but never far in his thoughts or heart. He waited to see if she was able to respond before he pulled out of his spot. She did send back a quick heart, but that was it. Nonetheless warmed at her little greeting, he felt at least a bit more grounded than he'd been feeling all during the game.
The pub was busy, so much so that the team had to crowd around a table much too small for their numbers. The players were crammed in against each other, elbows jostling for space to grab at drinks and food as the voices jostled to be heard above the din. Robert found himself between Keith and Elise. The soft flesh of her body was pressed in tight against him, arm to arm, thigh to thigh, hip to hip. Every time she reached for her fries, her breast brushed against his bicep. Their hands collided a third time, a fourth time and each time her skin seemed warmer than the last. Robert found himself catching glimpses of her smiling face out of the corner of his eye as she regaled Kate, who sat across from her, about the hilarious goings on at the studio she worked for. Robert noticed how full and red her lips were in the light of the restaurant. He'd never realized just how soft they were; how kissable.
If asked, Robert wouldn't have been able to describe his meal. He ate reflexively, chewing automatically without tasting a thing. Salty, sour, sweet and bitter; generalized impressions of 2-dimensional flavours that vanished from his awareness as soon as he swallowed. He had no more memory of what he ate than what he heard or said. It was all a tumultuous mix in his distracted mind. He finished eating, and looking at his watch, feigning the lateness of the hour, excused himself from his friends. He glanced back at Elise and was gratified to see her glance in his direction as he strode out the door. She gave him a smile and quick wave, both of which he returned before striding out into the cool night.
Robert's departure left a cool spot on Elise's right side as the heat of his body dissipated in the air of the pub. Oddly, Elise missed that warmth, the hard muscle of his bicep against her skin when he'd grabbed for his drink, or food. He was left-handed, so it was that side that been most active, rubbing against her, eliciting small tingles in her chest. Elise had looked at him occasionally as he ate stolidly, seemingly distracted by some deep thoughts. She'd noticed him glancing at her out of the corner of his eye; at least what he thought was the corner of his eye. His glasses gave him a very narrow field of view, so in fact, he'd been turning his head slightly in her direction repeatedly during the evening, even if it was to his right that he should have directed his attention.
As he strode away from the table, Elise found herself staring at his firm hamstrings and butt. She could see the flex of his glutes as he stepped up to the raised central walkway that ran down the axis of the restaurant. Her eyes followed him until he reached the exit, and she made a conscious effort to be looking away just as he stopped to look back at her. Only then did she let herself look back at him, capturing the moment of his eyes meeting hers, before smiling and waving him out. She spent the next 15 minutes or so making plans to get together with some of her closer friends on the team before paying her share of the bill and driving home.
She messaged Christian as soon as she got in the door of her small apartment, hoping he was back from his field work. She ached to have his arms around her, his mouth on her, his hands on her ass, or shoulders, or breasts. She washed up and prepped her lunch for the next day, checking her tablet over and over again. Finally, as the night came to a close, he wrote back.
"Finally in. Let me get cleaned up. 5 mins. Then video chat."
Eagerly, Elise clambered into bed, her T-shirt loose against her tender nipples, already turgid in anticipation of the time to come. She kept her hands under the blankets, to keep them warm, keeping them dangerously close to her crotch, her need. She missed Christian so much when he was away on work travel and longed for his return, but never more so than at night, when the large bed made it painfully apparent that she was alone.
Finally, after what seemed 15 minutes, not 5, her tablet pinged. She answered eagerly, looking at her boyfriend, her lover. His face was drawn, a result of the long hours spent out at the site trying to get his finicky instruments to work reliably in the harsh climate of the arctic. Yet his eyes were bright, a vivid hazel that shone when he looked at her, making her love him all the more, and miss him all the more when he was gone, which had been much too often of late. There was even talk of him having to relocate up north as the rest of the site was developed.
Elise hoped against hope that Chris would not be deployed out there. But if she was honest with herself, she knew that it was only a matter of time. The mine's demands on his time had been increasing at an alarming pace, pulling him away from her, from their tender life together.
"Hey gorgeous!" he greeted her. His voice was crackly over the connection and Elise silently prayed that the bandwidth would hold out for the duration of their time together.
"Oh, my lover," she sympathized. "You look tired. Do you want to hit the sack early tonight?" Of course she was insincere in her concern for his fatigue. After the heady adrenaline of winning the softball game, she was too wired to want to end the night on a quiet note. She needed him more than usual tonight, the ache in her heart outweighing her only partially honest concern for his stamina.
"I'm good, babe," he assured her. "I couldn't pass up spending a bit of time with you."
"Yay!" Elise cheered, buoyed by his devotion to her, his desire to be with her, even if only through a small screen. "How was your day?" she continued.
