An Angler's Tail

When this whole thing had started, he had thought Micki was a cute diversion from the life that hadn't gone as expected. He had encouraged his wife to get a job, since she couldn't have children, to keep her busy. It turned out that his wife was busy more than he expected, trying to get a permanent position at the post office. To do this she had to take on early hours and extra hours to make an impression. He worked a minimum of forty-eight hours a week and over sixty hours on his busy weeks. His wife, while busy with her job, kept gaining weight and since she got paid hourly by the post office had no reason to walk faster than a stroll. Peter didn't know what to do to encourage a positive change, so when she would complain, he would dutifully reply that he loved her for her, and that there was more of her to love. Placated by his words, instead of encouraging change it had the opposite effect, she grew in size.

While this happened, he became increasingly unhappy that she cared so little about staying healthy and even though he prepared almost all of their meals, she clearly didn't adhere to his strict diet. How had she changed so much after they had said "I do," he wondered.

His "friend" at the gym although nearly fifteen years his wife's senior and ten years older than him, ran circles around them both. Micki worked almost as much as he did with a variety of jobs, and still had time to workout once to twice a day at the gym. He worked out extra hard now, due to her tenacity and not wanting to appear inferior to the efforts she put in daily.

When Micki had divulged her age, she stated it as a fact; with none of the emotions other women even his age showed when admitting their age. She was that way with her weight too. When he had first met her she had told him that she was 270 pounds. She had been beautiful when she was heavy, now she was stunning.

She now weighed 210 and was almost pure muscle. She would have denied this fact, but he had been a bodybuilder for over twenty years if you included the football training he had endured during high school. He had initially noticed her at the gym because of her form and structure.

When he had seen that he had her attention as well, he suddenly felt invincible. He loved the feeling, so, even though it was wrong, he indulged her fascination in him. Within four months, and after not seeing her for a few weeks, he found himself asking her to text him some meaningless thing she had shared with him from various research she had done that day.

He could barely control the wavering of his voice as he gave the number. He saw that her thumbs were shaking as she tried to enter the number. He was glad that she seemed even more of a wreck than he was. He had never been on this end of a relationship, he had always maintained strict control. He had also always been the better looking one in his relationships. This was not the case here, although, he sensed a shy insecurity in her, she hid it well behind her quick wit and sharper tongue, but he could make her blush easily and liked the feeling it gave him when her face reddened in the most attractive way.

Suddenly, after a week or two of texting, he felt that he was getting too drawn in by her, so he distanced himself and worked out harder to try and put order to the chaos that she had suddenly inflicted on his emotions. Eventually going back to his old routine and old schedule when he started dreaming about her. When he didn't see her for a while, he found himself spacing out during important meetings and once had to embarrass himself to one of his buddies and explain why, so he could catch up on what he had missed.

"Wow," his friend stated, paused to let out a breath that was a small whistle, and then continued, "man!! You have it bad!" He waited another second then asked, "you have a pic of her? I've got to see the woman that has you in this big of a bunch."

Peter just shook his head.

Peter knew exactly what his friend had meant by his comment; girls and women, both, fell at his feet all the time. He got married to deter the attention. Although, even his wife in her prime, couldn't begin to compare to this woman. So now he felt obligated to get a pic of her, even though this was the sort of thing that could seriously get him into trouble. He had wondered just how far he could push it, maybe he could get a topless pic and finally gaze at her beautiful breasts, maybe then he would be free of her distraction. Maybe she would also think he was a player and lose interest making it easier for him to remain faithful to his spouse.

It was not happening, he had asked, and Micki had neatly diverted. Well played, he thought. It's what I would have done, he concluded. This made her even more alluring of a catch. He didn't know how to play things, so he decided to change his key in time at the gym for a while again, because he was seriously losing it. He needed to stay focused on him. The main reason he had married his wife was because all her focus was on him too; he just hadn't realized at the time what the consequences of the decision would be. His wife had entirely let herself go, and had an excuse for everything, everyone, and even herself.

What Peter was finding he loved about Micki, was her determination, the same thing that had originally drawn him to his wife. Micki truly outdid him at the gym. He watched her as only a cop can, full of subterfuge. He had seen her remarkable progress and fearless tenacity in her approach at a new personal bests, and that she was almost reckless in the way she pushed herself. He, although a cop facing danger every day, felt less than fearless next to her. His respect for Micki grew faster than she remade herself which was very quickly, he had even noticed that she had started focusing less attention on him at the gym and more on her workout now.

While she ignored him at the gym, their texts were full of sexual tension and innuendo. Sometimes she would send him a poem she had written that had bodies tangled and intertwined and flashes of images of what it would be like to savor her sensual affections. She had no shame. He was not the only man that watched her at the gym. Others were even more spellbound than he. He was happy to see that she noticed none of them. She would engage in greeting if she was greeted first, but her main focus was now clearly her workout, not socializing. He missed their in person flirting, missed watching her react to something he said.

When he was on the verge of losing all his self control he texted her a final time telling her to not ever text him ever again, when all she had done was send a simple picture of herself hiking and a text saying it was the end of a long week. The emotions that he had kept down for so long flooded through him and he had the impulse to wrap his arms around her and never let go. This was when he realized he loved her, and more importantly, that he was never truly in love with his wife. That had been why he had been so abrupt and callous in his text. He hadn't realized the situation he was in until now. In love with a woman he can't have because he had already taken another. He had always believed that marriage was forever. He had been told that he should marry the girl that is his best friend, make her happy, and life will be good. He thought he had done that, but in less than four years, it was nothing like he had thought it would be, and here was this amazing woman who actually had a lot of the same hobbies as he did and also a deeply ingrained love of nature.

He had suddenly felt a sharp pain in his lung just after he had sent her that text.

He grabbed the side of his desk and concentrated on breathing in one full deep breath slowly, counting to seven. He held his breath for seven more counts, exhaling for seven and then waiting for seven seconds more before repeating the process six more times. He found it calming, and he used this technique often to clear his mind, or to focus on something. In this case, he tried to focus on anything but her smiling face that had greeted him when he had opened her text. This mindfulness technique had worked clearing her from his mind as he envisioned the symbols for each number of cycles he had completed.

He forced himself to change schedules at the gym again, not knowing that she had done the same until she had crept back into his dreams and he decided he had to see her. He went back to his old schedule working out and got frustrated when she didn't show up. He continued at his regular time, now wanting to see how long it would take her to come back and see him. He was surprised that he didn't see her for weeks. He started thinking that it had been a mistake to hurt her the way he had, giving her no explanation for cutting her off so suddenly.

Then the shutdown happened.

He had tried in the past year to four, or was it five times to divert Micki's attention when she would test the boundaries of their "friendship". although he had never before inferred as much finality as this time.

He remembered the first time she had crossed the line. She had asked if he needed a sponge bath, when he had been recouping from surgery, to which he had just playfully replied, "you just want to see me naked." He couldn't believe he had been so forward even though technically she had started it. Furthermore when he got her response, he had been so disbelieving of what he read, that he had to read the text three times to make sure it really said, "I wish I could feel you naked."

It had taken him so long to reply that she tried to backpedal saying that she was just being honest, and that she was sorry for crossing the line.

Peter shook his head at the memory as if to clear it from his mind. It went, but it brought a friend, and just like that the second time he had put her aside came to mind. She had been out hiking and sending him photos of the scenery and the trail, and had invited him to go with her the next time she went. He had said something about being alone with her and it not being a good idea. Then she had joked about how she had written a couple of sexy stories about dreams she had had of him, and honestly what guy wouldn't want to read that? But he played it like he would be doing her a favor to read them. The short stories were extremely hot and erotic, he had not been expecting that and had read them at his desk in the squad room. That had turned out to be a mistake because he had gotten a boner that wouldn't go away for over forty minutes. At which time he went to the bathroom to read her stories again for pleasure at his leisure.

Everything was good unless he would see her or hear from her before getting his feelings back in check.

When she didn't wait long enough to start up with him again, he would shut her down. He didn't mean to be cruel, he knew if he didn't put a stop to it, the outcome would be far worse later.

With the shutdown now in full swing and the fact he hadn't seen her in over four months, because he had stopped the texts and both had changed gym schedules slightly to avoid one another a couple of months prior to the shutdown, he wondered about her more than he wanted to admit even to himself. At least when the gym had been open he could see from the frequent flyers list that she had continued to workout daily, and usually made the top of the list which meant she had the most key-ins during the month as well, even when he hadn't seen her in a month or so.

About six weeks into the shutdown and his nightly dreams about her were clear, but her face was just starting to blur, she texted him, "miss me yet?" It's what she always texted him when they hadn't seen each other for awhile, although he had started to think she was actually going to never text him again. He hadn't thought that his text would deter her as long as it had even though he had been clear that it had to stop because she had a way of drawing him in. Then came a follow up text, "you and Robin staying well?"

Peter couldn't just ignore her. He had been worried about her without even knowing it, but when he had gotten the first text, a weight lifted off him. He waited ten minutes, then texted back, "you miss meeee..."

Sharp witted as ever she replied, "I miss the gym!"

"Meeee too, stupid virus," Peter responded. It was as if no time had passed between them. They started texting again almost daily.

He wanted a picture of her, so he sent a few pictures of himself holding up his biggest catches over the last couple of months. She was stubbornly not taking the bait. He couldn't let himself ask her for what he wanted, that was not his style. Her always made it seem like everything was the woman's idea; his experience was that any incentive on his part and the two of them would explode like two atomic particles colliding.

A week or so later she finally sent a picture of herself hiking in a very familiar location to him. It was on a trail he used a lot to go fishing. She had her cute vintage army style hat on and her brilliant smile framed by full pink lips. Her tanned skin contrasting with her light blue tank top with spaghetti straps over a gray sports bra, and, of course, shorts. He could tell she had continued to lose weight during the shutdown. She looked absolutely amazing. He had to find a way to see her.

He was careful in his planning. Being an angler had taught him patience was always well rewarded. He would hook her back before she realized it. He would tease her about not catching anything when she went fishing. Compliment her when she sent a photo, no matter what it was a picture of, let himself make her feel valued and interesting, and he would wait.

He knew she would eventually ask him fishing questions. It only took her two more weeks of not catching anything since they had started texting again to ask the exact question he had been hoping for. She wanted to know the places in rivers where the fish were likely to hang out, saying that she had only ever seen fish in the water once. Making a reference to a hike each had made at separate times and the fish that were abundant in the lake the trail circled. It was a secluded hike. Not many people could make it to the trailhead; it was over ten miles up a dirt road that was less maintained the farther up one went. She wouldn't take her car, although she had done it once before, for fear of bottoming out or getting stuck. He had looked at her in astonishment when she had told him she had taken her front wheel drive sedan up there.

It was an amazing hike, and he knew she could keep pace with him, and the bonus was that he could have her all to himself for a few hours. He texted her the offer, making it seem casual, "I was going to make that hike yesterday, but had to wait for a repairman Robin scheduled for my day off, I was thinking maybe I would make the hike next Monday or Tuesday, you can come along if you want."

She texted back within two minutes, "that would be nice, thx."

It was decided that Tuesday would be the day. He had wanted to go on Monday, but Micki had reminded him Monday was a holiday and he should spend it with Robin and that she could wait until Tuesday. He had told her how little time he and his wife spent together. It wasn't that he came out and said these things, it was that Micki was exceptionally perceptive in deciphering meaning from body language and the choice of words people used when saying something casual.

When the day arrived, he was nervous. Not knowing what would happen between them, but knowing what he wanted, he made sure he spent the morning grooming himself. He would leave the decision entirely up to her, but had a feeling that they wouldn't be able to keep their hands off each other.

Their flirty texts were much more steamy than casual flirtation, but without being so crude as to send photos of various body parts, but that was not without some effort toward that end on his part. One of the reasons this woman was so alluring, was that she didn't realize that she was. She rarely wore makeup, or jewelry, and still managed to be the most beautiful girl in the room; his code name for her was "effortlessly flawless", or sometimes just, "flawless". The code name had much more than one meaning, she was effortless to be with, she just made a person feel good about themselves and about her.

Micki was the perfect name for such a woman, because it always ended with a smile when spoken. This was the magic of this woman, to spread joy and love. Not in a sexual way, although he had no doubt that she gave it herself fully there as well. He was hoping to find out very soon.

When he picked her up, he was late, not because he wanted to be, but because he had to make sure that no one would interrupt them on this hike. He would have his buddy follow them up a few minutes behind and deter anyone coming in behind them. As a cop, he planned on all contingencies. He had wanted her for over a year now, and he knew he had formed a deep attachment to her. He hoped that the feelings were mutual.

When she got out of the car, and he saw she was wearing her shortest shorts and had brought some of her homemade wine, he knew she was down. He happily chatted her up the whole drive. Asking how her hike had gone a couple of days before wanting to see pictures and inquired about who she had gone with. He hated that there was a tinge of jealousy in his voice when he asked. She had heard it too and smiled softly. She showed him the couple she had hiked with and a couple of other pictures for the hike leaning towards him flashing her cleavage towards him..

They talked about music and sports, and some of their antics from their pasts. He told her about hobbies he had that she never knew, and he asked her about her poetry and songwriting. He mentioned that he had taken up guitar, it had been because of her, although he didn't tell her that.

Songwriting was her hobby. It was how she coped with the world. She had a soft delicate side, but hid it well. She had certain markers in her behavior when something bothered her, but unless one really knew her and paid attention, one would never know, he could read her like a book, but that was because he had studied her for over a year and a half.

His instinct was to shield and protect her. He was at war with his feelings for her and what he had been taught was right.

When she was near, the battle was lost before the fight had even begun. How had he been able to forget a single curve of her, again she wore no makeup, her waist length sun streamed hair was twisted up into a neat bun at the nape of her beautifully sculpted neck. Her shoulders were wide and well muscled. Her breasts were still full, although not as big as they had been when she had been heavier, and set on top of her full rib cage. Her torso angled into her waist, then flaring back out for her hips and round buttocks.

Her well muscled thighs had a slight jiggle to the top but that was damn sexy as well. He had wanted to lean in to kiss her right there in the parking lot of the park where they had met to pick her up, but knew better than to provide any chance for gossip in the town.

They made the hike in record time. Both panting slightly from the effort of the climb in the high altitude. They arrived at the lake and ate a quick lunch. She popped open the wine and they took turns swigging from the bottle. In her case, small sips, in his, chugging mouthfuls to try and calm himself from trembling.

She made him so nervous.

She seemed calm.

She took off her over shirt and sat on it. He went to relieve himself and sat down right next to her when he came back. She wrapped her arm companionably around his. She leaned sideways into him. She turned her face towards him wanting to smell him. He turned towards her too and their lips met.

He felt the tingle start inside his gut.