I love the city of San Francisco. I live and work here. I had a day off and on a whim I went down to Fisherman's Wharf, wandered down to Pier 39, and back up to Ghirardelli Square. Watching the people more than looking at the goods in the shops. Tourists and locals playing tourist with their friends and relatives.
I was in a souvenir shop, looking at snow globes. Snow globes with cable cars. Snow globes with the Golden Gate Bridge. Etc.
I looked up from the snow globes and out the shop window and my eyes were drawn to a beautiful brown haired woman of about 30 yrs. Nice figure. Gray slacks, white blouse, dark gray sweater. In summer, in San Francisco, a sweater is sensible. We have our own micro-climate.
She was with four other women. All of them extremely attractive. But I couldn't take my eyes off of her. They had stopped outside the shop. I watched as she talked and laughed with her friends. As I watched I got that déjà vu feeling. You know, like I'd dreamed or lived this moment before.
Her friends left her and went into the shop across the way. She walked into this shop, the one I was in. She stopped to look at souvenir shot glasses. Suddenly I understood the déjà vu moment. I hadn't lived this moment before, but there had been a similar moment. It had been, what, nine, maybe ten years ago. I had been on a business trip. I had visited a local mall. I had been people watching then too. I had found myself staring at a lovely young brown haired girl. I had suddenly been struck with a moment of recognition. Just as I was now.
I approached this brown haired beauty, saw she had the same lovely brown eyes I remembered. I said "hello."
She smiled up at me and said "hi" then, a pause, then "uh, do we know each other?"
"Let's say we've met each other. It was about ten years back, in a mall in _______Texas. You were standing outside the Victoria's Secret and I came up and introduced myself."
Ten years before I had recognized the girl from her pictures on the internet. The name she had used on her porn site was Tawnee Stone. Like a lot of men, I had fallen in love with the images of the girl. Never dreaming I would actually meet her.
This was, of course, the same girl, now a woman, both of us ten years or so older. That we should meet each other again, here in my city, is the same sort of coincidence that makes people say that it's a small world. Unlikely, but it happens. Unlikely, but here she was.
She looked at me for a moment, started to say something, stopped, then started again, "You introduced yourself and then invited me to dinner. Then, as I recall, we went to your hotel room and had more than just room service."
I never dreamed what that unexpected chance would lead to.
"Yes." I said.
"Your name is Steve. Oh wow. Imagine running into you. What are you doing here?"
I laughed. "In San Francisco? This is my city."
"Oh wow, it's so good to see you." again a moment as we both just looked at each other. Then she added "I'd like to spend some time with you. Listen I'm with some friends right now, but, could I see you later tonight? Sometime after dinner, maybe, maybe I could come to your place?"
I said "Sure." I wrote my home address and phone number on the back of one of my business cards.
"I'm not sure when I'll be able to get away, it may be late, would that be okay?"
I said "That would be fine." I hated to say it but I added "If you find you can't make it give me a call to let me know."
--interlude--
Four times I answered the phone that night. Each time my heart leapt into my throat. The first call was one of those annoying recorded sales calls. Then there was the call from the guy from work. It was after work hours and on my day off. He should have known better, and I told him so. I also told him to call me in my office day after tomorrow. The next two calls were wrong numbers.
As I waited I had time to think. I thought about Tawnee Stone. The website. It was still there. You could still subscribe to it. But as near as I could tell there hadn't been any new material, no new photo sets or videos, for at least six years. Had she chosen to stop modeling? Or had the man who owned the website decided that a 23/24 year old Tawnee Stone was too old?