A Seductive Massage

I first met Nikki through my co-worker, Jenna, when she brought Nikki to a happy hour one Friday evening. Over the years that Jenna and I have worked together, we had become good friends, so it was only natural that we had talked about family and friends which meant that I knew some of Nikki's backstory as a shy, chaste woman but had never met her until that night.

Nikki and Jenna are best friends who first met about ten years ago when Jenna moved to the U.S. from South Korea to get married. The first job Jenna got here was at the restaurant owned by Nikki's parents. Nikki's family had also immigrated to the States from South Korea when she was twelve years old which, Jenna said, would be a hard age to make such a cultural change. Jenna also told me that unlike her younger brother, Nikki was never able to fully immerse herself into American culture, seeming to have an unsteady foot in each. That had made it hard for Nikki to make friends through her middle and high school years which led to her being bullied at times. As a result, she developed a shy, reserved personality around strangers which had not been conducive to finding romantic relationships.

Jenna and I would frequently have lunch together and had many interesting conversations, but one reoccurring topic was romantic relationships. We had first gotten onto this subject when we talked about the dating differences between South Korea and the U.S. One fact I found fascinating is how large the influence of family can be on who to date while at the same time impacting the privacy that a couple can expect when dating. Picking back up on the topic of dating at lunch one day Jenna was telling me about how the work culture in South Korea also impacts dating.

Jenna began by saying, "For office workers in Korea, you hardly ever leave until the boss leaves which means that many times the workday may not end until 8 p.m. and even then, there are nights when everyone goes for drinks and dinner afterwork, so you spend a lot of time with work colleagues."

I replied, "If your work is done why do you have to wait for the boss to leave?"

Jenna responded, "That is just how things are done there. It is not always productive, but it gives the impression that everyone is working hard at their job. If you want to advance, you have to be a team player."

I thought for a moment before replying, "If your workday is ending at 8 p.m. and the boss wants to get drinks, are you required to go?"

Jenna said, "Nobody is required to go but it is expected that you will be a team player and attend."

I replied, "It seems that work does not leave much time for a personal life?"

Jenna responded, "The whole office work culture revolves around long hours and team gatherings so that is another reason that dating is different than here. There is not a lot of free time for dating."

Mulling over what she had said before replying, "I am sure that people find the time and places, but my first thought is that must be a lot of twenty somethings in South Korea that have never kissed or been intimate with anyone in their life. I cannot think of anybody I know that was still a virgin by the time they reached twenty-five."

Jenna responded, "I know someone here who was a virgin until she was twenty-six."

I replied, "Why do I have the suspicion you are talking about Nikki?"

Jenna chuckled and said, "I have probably told you too much about her, but it was well after college before Nikki had her first boyfriend."

Skeptical, I said, "So, you are telling me that Nikki never had a boyfriend all through high school and college?"

Jenna responded, "Nope. Never had a date, never went to a school dance and never even made out with a guy. She has read and still reads a lot of romance novels that I believe acts as a surrogate for a real relationship. She tends to feel more comfortable in the fantasy world rather than living in the real world, experiencing real things."

I mulled that information over before asking, "She has had at least one real boyfriend by now, right?"

Jenna replied, "Yeah, she met a guy at her first job and dated him for two years and there were 2 guys after that she dated, both lasting about a year so she is not a total virgin."

Confused I asked, "What do you mean she is not a total virgin?"

Jenna responded, "There was one time she was really down in the dumps about her romantic life and opened up, telling me that none of her past boyfriends had been overly sexual, nothing like the guys in the romance novels. She had, in fact, been quite disappointed in the sexual experience with all three boyfriends."

Jenna continued, "Nikki confessed that she has only experienced vanilla bedroom sex, nothing like, I quote, 'The guy ravaging her with hot kisses and bringing her to the brink of ecstasy.' Feeling dejected, she lamented that nothing sexually spontaneous, exciting or risqué had ever happened to her."

With a sad sigh Jenna said, "She has not had a boyfriend in several years, so I do not believe she has been with anyone in that time, at least none that I know of. Between that and being so sexually inexperienced at her age makes me think of her still being half virgin."

All I could say was, "She is missing out on one of the great pleasures of life though I admit it can be hard to find a willing partner. Her whole situation is interesting."

From what I could surmise is that at the age of thirty-five, Nikki had never experienced a highly passionate, exciting sexual experience. Jenna also told me another reason that Nikki has had such a sparse dating life, having been on only a handful of dates the past several years. It is because she only wants to date Korean guys now for the reason that she just feels they would better understand her life and family. I can certainly understand her choice from a cultural standpoint but with the additional criteria of "tall", "good looking", "ambitious" and "age appropriate" it makes for an extremely small pool of potential dates in our local area.

With what appeared to be a celibate life for a young, single woman, my curiosity was piqued about her sexual thoughts and needs. Did she ever get horny and sexually frustrated? When was the last time she got laid? Had she ever had a one-night stand? Does she masturbate? Had she ever experienced an orgasm? Was she quiet or vocal during sex? Could she be seduced or was sex just not an important part of her life? I really wanted to meet the woman who had prompted so many questions to run through my mind.

I said to Jenna, "Her story is fascinating to me. You have got to introduce her to me so I can see her for myself."

Jenna responded, "I will try to get her to come to a happy hour sometime, but it is not easy getting her out with people she does not know."

It was a Friday a few weeks later, the end of the work week and the clock was ticking towards noon. I walked over to Jenna's desk and asked, "Any ideas on what you want to do for lunch today?"

She pursed her lips as she thought about it and replied, "How about that new Thai place we saw the other day?"

I responded, "Sounds good to me. I will meet you by the elevators in five minutes and I will drive."

The restaurant was not crowded so we were seated quickly. Looking over the menu we discussed several of the items as we tried to decide on a couple of dishes that we could share. This was not as easy as it sounds since the difference between our tolerance of spiciness was night and day. Finally deciding, we placed our order. I poured us both some tea and we settled in to wait on the food. Jenna took a sip of tea and said, "Guess who is coming to happy hour tonight?"

I thought about everyone in the office who was part of the regular crew and nobody different came to mind, so I responded, "I don't know. Who?"

Jenna replied, "Nikki is coming tonight."

I said, "Wow. How did you finally talk into coming out to happy hour? I thought she was a permanent homebody."

Jenna responded, "I have told you about how she complains that she never has any weekend plans. The other night I was at her house and she started whining about how bored she was, and I told her flat out that I had no sympathy for her. She was taken aback, so I reminded her that I had invited her to several of our happy hours and she keeps turning them down. I informed her that her boredom was of her own doing and she needed to get out and do stuff instead of just wishing she had an active social life. Of course, she started with the 'I won't know anybody', but I advised her that the only way to get to know people is to first meet them. That got her thinking, so I believe I guilted her into agreeing to come to tonight's happy hour. She is supposed to meet me there around 6:30 p.m. We will see."

I replied, "That is cool. I will finally get to meet the infamous Nikki. Definitely looking forward to it."

Jenna laughed and said, "Not sure how much insight of her you will get. She has tendency not to engage with strangers so hopefully she won't just sit there quietly all evening."

Lunch arrived and we moved onto other topics as we ate. Back at the office, the rest of the day just seemed to drag for me as I clock watched till 5 o'clock finally arrived but due to too much procrastination I still had a couple of things that I needed to complete before leaving. It was almost six o'clock before my quitting time came.

It was our normal place, a crowded pub with the typical loud buzz of indistinct voices and clinking glasses. The place was mostly a brew pub with the large, cooper beer vats visible through a glass wall. It had the usual décor, a classic oak bar stretching across the back with booths and tables providing the seating. There were over a dozen in-house beers on the menu but it also had a decent variety of wines so there was something for everyone.

A co-worker, Tricia, had gotten there early to grab a large table and everyone filtered in over the following hour or so. Drinks and finger foods were ordered, and the tension of the week began to unwind for everyone.

The problem with a table of ten is that it is difficult to get everyone involved in the same discussion so there was lot of musical chairs going on with the ebb and flow of different conversations. I do not believe people understood at first why I kept shooing them away from the seats that I had reserved for Jenna and Nikki, but I did not want to chance Nikki ending up at the other end of the table.

For some reason I was expecting a drab, plain looking woman but that expectation went out the door the minute I saw Jenna and Nikki enter the bar. Nikki was far better looking than I had expected. Pretty face, light complexion, expressive dark eyes with long eyelashes, full, kissable lips and hair, colored a medium brown, that hung halfway down her back. She was about five-foot five, slim but still had the curves of a woman, slender waist that flared into shapely hips and nicely tapered legs all clad in a tight pair of jeans. She was somewhat small on top, I guess somewhere between an A and B cup. That her breasts were not straining against her top was not that big a deal to me, the most important thing is how sensitive a woman's breasts are to being touched, not how big they are.

After Nikki was introduced to everyone, one of my male co-workers, Carl, gave me a covert nod of approval from down table. With Nikki and Jenna seated across from me, I ordered a round of drinks for us; beers for Jenna and me and wine for Nikki.

At first, Nikki seemed content to just listen to the conversations going on around her, hardly speaking at all. I was determined to get her involved, so it took a couple of drinks, some questions directed to her and paying attention to what she had to say to finally draw her out into the general talk at our end of the table. I believe that my efforts to make her feel welcome made an impression on her since she actually stayed later than Jenna, with just the two of us sitting at the bar by the end of the evening.

Finding her extremely attractive and knowing that she complained to Jenna about being bored on the weekends, I wondered if she would be interested in hanging out with me sometime even if it was in the friend zone. Of course, in the back of my mind was the challenge could I win her interest and charm her out of the friend zone and maybe, even out of her pants.

It was around 11 p.m. when we decided to call it quits for the evening. As I was walking her to her car I said, "I am planning a short hike tomorrow to get out of the house, but it would be fun to have someone go with me. Would you like to go?"

At first, she was hesitant, replying, "I don't know. I have some things I need to do tomorrow."

I responded, "It will be the first nice day we have had in a while, so getting out beats just sitting around the house being bored. Besides, we can continue our debate on the best Rom-Com because you know that I am right."

I could see that she was churning the idea around in her mind, finally nodding yes and replying with a smile, "You know, I do need to make more effort to get out of the house so I will go. It will make Jenna happy too. You are so wrong about the best Rom-Com though."

Arriving at her car, we worked out the details for the next morning said good-bye. I imagine her hesitation was just shyness because I believe she was actually looking forward to doing something other than sitting around the house with her mother who lived with her.

Knowing it was not any kind of date, I still called Jenna the next morning, who was surprised that Nikki had agreed to go on the hike with me.

Incredulously Jenna said, "She actually said yes to hiking with you?"

I responded, "Yep."

Jenna continued, "Nikki had been adamant about the happy hour not being a setup with anyone before agreeing to go. It was supposed to be nothing more than for her to get out of the house."

I replied, "All I know is that I asked if she wanted to go and she said yes though she did add that it would probably make you happy. We talked at the bar until 11 o'clock last night so there was some connection there. I found her easy to talk to once I drew her out of her shell."

Jenna responded, "Wow. I have talked you up a few times to her, but between her shyness and her thing for Korean guys, I am surprised. This is interesting. I am going to need to get the scoop from her on what goes."

I had to get going so I then said, "I am heading to the store now to buy food for the hike, so I was wondering what Nikki would like?"

We talked for a few more minutes as Jenna gave me list of items to choose from and wished me luck. A quick trip to a local Korean market before picking Nikki up and off we went on our first "non-date".

The day was beautiful. The skies were a clear blue and the temperature was around 75 with no humidity. With it being early in the season there were no bugs, so it was perfect outdoor weather, especially for a simple hike of somewhere around two, three miles. I had picked this particular hiking trail because I knew it was easy and there was a good picnic spot with a beautiful view of the valley, a bit of a romantic spot.

Arriving at the lookout point, I set my backpack down, pulled out the blanket and spread it across the ground for us to sit on. We sat down cross-legged on the blanket facing each other about the friend distance of two feet apart. I opened the bottle of wine I had brought and poured it into two plastic cups and handed one of the cups to Nikki.

Nikki took a sip and said, "Mmmm. This is really good."

I responded, "It is a sweet red blend from a local winery that I bought last fall at a wine tasting. I noticed last night that you went with the sweeter wine so thought this would be an appropriate choice."

Taking another taste, she said, "I have to say it was an excellent choice."

Swirling the wine in the cup and giving me a quick glance, she continued, "I am surprised that you noticed what I was drinking last night."

I replied, "I enjoyed talking with you last and hope we can become friends. It is only natural that I would pay attention since that it is part of getting to know you."

She looked down at the cup of wine for several moments before responding, "I am not use to anybody paying much attention to me, so it was unexpected."

We continued talking as I unpacked. I remember the look that Nikki gave me as I set out the Korean dishes. She had a tilt to her head as her eyes did an inquisitive sweep up my body before she looked at me with a thoughtful look and said, "This looks delicious, not like the "woodsy" foods I was expecting. Usually, it has been a dry sandwich and trail mix on other hikes."

She hesitated before adding, "Again you surprise me. I cannot think of any guys that I have been out with that would put any thought into bringing some sort of Korean food I might prefer. How do you know about Korean cuisine?"

I told her about Jenna introducing me to Korean food which led us to discussing the dishes that I liked and disliked so far. She got a good laugh when I told her about the time I bit into a pepper, bringing tears to my eyes and setting my mouth on fire that I fruitlessly tried to drown out with water. She actually reached out and touched my arm in amused sympathy when I told her about choking down a slice of live octopus tentacle. As I said, I knew it was not a date, so there was no flirting, but it was a day we both enjoyed.

When I dropped her off that afternoon she said, "Thanks for inviting me today. I had a really fun time. Give me a call if you want to get together again sometime."

Jenna had told me that Nikki had really enjoyed the hike with me but in the mood of keeping things casual it was over a week before I contacted Nikki again. It was a Wednesday afternoon when I called her. Answering the phone, her voice seemed to indicate that she was happy to hear from me.

We chitchatted for a few minutes before I asked, "You interested in going to a chocolate fest this coming Saturday?"

Her immediate reply was, "Sure. What girl does not love chocolate? It sounds like fun."

I don't know if it was me or the chocolate that made her want to go but no matter the reason, it was the start of us hanging out on a fairly regular basis.

Over the next couple of months, we did a beer festival, couple of wine tastings, bike rides and picnics and even played golf a few times. I got the feeling that she had really come to enjoy hanging out with me when she asked me if I wanted to try out a new Korean BBQ restaurant which had opened near her house. Still, she never made a move on me and I never made a move on her so our relationship stayed in the friend zone but there were times that I got the feeling that she was struggling with stronger feelings for me. I will admit it was very frustrating for me not to try and kiss her but in the back of my mind I always remembered that I was not her type, so I continued to keep things hands off.

It was a little over four months after we started hanging out that things finally changed. It was a Saturday that I woke to the splatter of rain against the window, so I knew that our plans for the outdoor concert were not going to happen. Looking out through the blinds showed me a dreary, rainy Saturday so I called Nikki to get her thoughts.

Nikki answered on the third ring, "Hey. I know what you are going to say, and I agree it's a shitty day out, so the concert is not happening."

I replied, "Yeah, even if they perform, I am not sitting out in the rain. You still want to do something though?"

Nikki responded, "Of course. Come on over and we will figure something out.

Just before hanging up she quickly added, "I forgot to buy coffee so there is none in the house. Can you get me a cup on your way?"

I answered, "Sure, I will bring us coffee. I need to jump in the shower so I will be there in about an hour."