Softly Falling

Softly falling ( Manners: an excuse to get three dates)

As he was waiting for someone else that day he almost missed her. Yet even though he had other plans he could not resist. Her eyes were what caught him. They were a green/blue and her shining red hair accentuated them perfectly. They had a confused look in them as she scanned the small café. She sighed and sat down. She was obviously also waiting for someone since she kept checking her watch.

After half an hour, he should've given up and gone home. It was clear that he had been stood up. She wasn't leaving though and something in him compelled me to stay. After an hour we were both still sitting there. She had given up on her watch and put it away in her bag.

When she looked as if she would finally move to leave, he could restrain himself no longer. He walked over and said one simple word. "Hi."

She looked up and looked slightly puzzled.

"Do I know you?" she asked the confusion evident on her face.

"Not yet, no" he responded quickly.

Strangely the cliché worked and she smiled ever so softly in a way that made his knees weak and felt like the ground was moving underneath him.

"Oh really and what does that yet mean?."

He decided to take a risk and do something he had never done before in his life. He took a leap of faith. "Well I've been sitting here for two hours and so have you. I figure you were waiting for someone who's not coming. Now whether or not you're attached I don't know but I noticed you two hours ago and I've sat here since then building up the courage to come speak to you because I know if I did not at least try I would regret it. Now this is all pouring out and I'm going to regret being so forward. Listen I'm sorry I disturbed you. I'll just be going." Already convinced by his defeatist attitude that it was pointless he turned around to leave. Then he felt her grab his hand. The touch sent shockwaves through his body. Her skin was so soft as to be like cotton wool.

"No stay. We'll talk for a while. It is not like we have anything better to be doing or we wouldn't have sat here all this time."

"Ok he replied, I'm john by the way."

"Sarah" she replied with another earth shaking smile.

They spent the next four hours talking until closing time. She had been waiting for a guy she'd met a week ago. She didn't think he was a great catch but she'd been on the rebound from a bad relationship and she just needed someone stable in her life and he was that. He was dull and predictable but nice enough. There was no great passion between them but she knew he liked her. She thought he'd been late because of the bus he caught. It was always getting delayed but never by two hours. She must've had second thoughts. He was a man who was prone to them if anything he tried differed from his routine.

John told her about his job causing him stress. The world of a social worker was not easy but he stayed because he enjoyed helping people. He often worked erratic hours and that made it hard for him to meet people. His current relationship was on its last legs today and he was meeting with his girlfriend to talk things out. When she did not show he assumed she had just gone. It had been going badly for weeks though so he was not surprised. He wasn't even sad about it.

They said a short goodbye outside the café. Then he watched her walk away. Her beautiful form silhouetted by the street lamps that were alight on this dark December evening. He clutched a small piece of paper with a phone number, a date and a time.

They had agreed to meet at the café again.

He spent the next day drifting through his work barely paying attention to the various cases that he dealt with. He couldn't get her image out his mind. The date on the paper was the 12th of December three days from then. He didn't know how he would last that long without hearing her voice.

Two day later, he was in agony. He didn't mind though it was the sort of glorious worried/excited pain that you get when you really want something but you worry so much about whether or not it will go right you are tempted not to try at all in case it goes bad. He couldn't do that. Instead he called her the night before and they talked about their lives and ideas until the early hours of the morning. After that conversation he worried that they would run out of conversation the next day.

He dressed casually and comfortably that day, not needing any fancy clothes but instead feeling that he would be walking a fair amount that day.

They met in the café again. She ordered a hot chocolate full to the brim with marshmallows and spent the next five minutes teasing him by licking melted bits of marshmallow off her fingers. Soon they finished and started strolling, they lacked destination but that wasn't important. His previous worried proved completely wrong and rather than run out of things to say the conversation carried them from place to place.

They went into a shopping mall and into a small shop full of strange plastic objects and strange dark gothic clothing. He said some small teasing insult, which she responded to over sharply. He feigned hurt and she pulled him close. He was a very physical person in all of his dealings. He liked to hug people and to touch. This hug was subtly different to the rest. It just felt right. He slowly kissed up her neck and found her lips. Their touch sparked desire in his body and possibility in his mind. They kissed for only a second and remembering where they were, they walked along innocently for a short while but as they were crossing down an almost deserted side road. He pulled her to him and pressed her again the wall in one fluid motion. His mouth found hers and they kissed passionately, their lips joining and parting only to join again a few seconds later. After what seemed like second but was really minutes they parted. They both walked down the road with smiles on their faces. Five minutes later they came to a park that he had forgotten existed.

It was winter and there was frost on the ground and few trees had leaves. They strolled around. The light began to dim in the late afternoon. He constantly pulled her close and kissed her. He could not resist. She sat down on a tree and he pressed himself against her and kissed her. "You know the way you don't like people touching your feet, why is that?"

"They are really sensitive." She responded puzzled by the inquiry. He slid his hand down her leg and took her foot in his hand. He slowly slipped off her shoe and her sock and started massaging it as softly as he could.

"I'm trying to hard not to kick you right now," she said, "Its really hard because that's my first reaction to anyone touching my foot."

He massaged it for a time until she was comfortable with him doing it, all the while talking. "You know I was reading a book, it said that if you massaged certain areas of the foot it relaxes different parts of the body," then with a smile, "mind if I experiment on you?" She just smiled at him. He put her sock back on and leaned in to kiss her again.

Then he saw the light shining on the spire of the nearby church. He thought it looked so stunning that he jumped up and pulled her along with him to find a good vantage point. He found it on a bend in the path.

There was a light fog rising from the grass, almost hiding it. Only the spire was visible the rest hidden behind a line of trees. In the small dip between the place where he stood and the line of trees marking the end of the park. There was a solitary tree which as if by some miracle still had leaves on it. They were a shade of crimson mixed with brown. It stood directly lined with the spire. The spire itself was stunning in the light. The golden shine of the late afternoon sun shined entirely on one side of it. The sight was breathtaking. He pulled her close from behind. They shared the sight together and grasped its beauty as well as only people who are there can.

As the light dimmed further they ran to try and find some vantage point to watch the sunset. They found it atop a small grassy knoll where a rise slightly off the path provided a view over the high wall that circled the park.

The sun set in a spectacular way behind a hill heralding the perfect end to the perfect day.

The day was not quite over even though the sun had set. A time later they found themselves sitting on a bench in a deserted place. They were locked in embrace, his hands inside her top stroking her silk like skin. He kept trying to restrain himself from touching it and going further but he could not. He gave in to his desire and quickly and easily unclasped her bra with one hand. He cupped her breast and rolled her nipple in his fingers, only for a second though. He quickly remembered where he was and although he longed for more it was impossible. He redid her bra because he had undone it and that was fair. His restraint dominated in the end but she looked disappointed in a sense. Though he knew that she knew nothing could have happened there.

He did not hear from her for a week and he was terrified that he had blown it with his restraint. She had obviously not wanted him to stop but he had. He decided not to call her because he wanted her to make the decision to come to even when he was hesitant. If she did then she would forgive him if it happened again. It was especially trying for him as he was constantly assaulted with the memory of her smell, the feel on his lips upon hers, her fingertips on her skin. What haunted him above the rest was the feel of her soft bud of a nipple against his hands and the feel of her breast as he caressed them with his hands.

He woke up from dozing on his couch some hour before he had to leave. Dozing had become a habit for him when he knew he'd be going out later in the evening.

He was unsure of what to wear before he left. His in-decisiveness had an impact here as much as anywhere else. He settled on a simple light blue shirt and a pair of jeans. He didn't want to appear too formal and had avoided a suit.

He picked up his nice coat for the first time that year. He had not used it much in while. He found his gym card in the right pocket. He'd been looking for it all summer. The gym made it hard to get a new one so when he couldn't find it he gave up going.

Not that it had made much of a difference. He only used to go half an hour a week. Now he just walked instead. He had never really needed it anyway his muscles were big enough for his life but not massive like a body builders. Body builder arms require far too much work. He ran a comb through his short black hair just to get rid of the small tangles that formed while he was sleeping. He then shaved his face slowly taking extreme care not to make any cuts or blemishes

Finally deciding that it would do, he went out the door. He had brought a fairly heavy coat against the cold and was instantly glad of it when he stepped out into the cold December night. The air turned his breath visible and the pavement was cold under his feet. Sarah had said her place was only five minutes from the café which meant ten minutes from him.

His heart was pounding as he walked. The blood was rushing to his head as he slowly saw all the possibilities that lay before him tonight. He was scared, not of doing anything stupid but of screwing things up. He was more scared than he'd ever been in this situation and he didn't know why. His knees began to feel weak and he was glad he was almost there. He paused for a few seconds to regain his composure before ringing her bell and then being buzzed through the door into the apartment complex.

The stairs proved too much of a hassle for his troubled brain and he decided to take the lift. He reached the floor and the door was open, flat number three. He prayed it was right and that he did not walk in on some random scene.

He snuck a peak inside. It was definitely the right place.

So he went and there she was, looking radiant. Dinner was a light Italian pasta dish spaghetti ala carbonara prepared with care. The film chosen was something suitably romantic to match the occasion. Love actually Hugh Grant's slightly idiotic charm and the innocence of the small drummers love for the girl worked there magic and by the end of the evening we could both agree that it had been great. She leaned over at the end of the film and started kissing him. Her soft lips met his for a brief second and then he pulled away. But he could not resist for more than a second and their lips met again. His tongue slid out and brushed her lips, and then she parted them to allow him entry. Their tongues met and danced and writhed in each others touch, mirroring their body's actions.

His hands slid under her and he pulled her closer, truly hugging her without making her feels uncomfortable on his arms. Her hands stroked up and down his back she was clearly turned on.

She moved to pull his t-shirt off; he stopped her then gently pulled away. She clearly looked surprised and stunned.

"Not tonight," the syllables rolled clearly but softly, "I'm really enjoying us spending time together and I don't want to rush into anything. To be clear, I want you, I desire you I just want to get to know you more as a person before anything else happens."

She didn't look annoyed or troubled, she nodded understandingly. So he kissed her gently one last time, gently whispered goodnight into her ear, then stood up and walked out.

He walked home in a daze, confused, happy, but quite dazed. He didn't know why he had stopped. He had been expecting sex that night and had really surprised himself by stopping.

When he reached his flat he was both confused and filled with desire.