Authors Note: This is my twenty-first story...even though it's not technically a story. This is a work of fiction, however it IS based on factual people...most importantly, my wonderful friend "R" who has been so good to me over the years and who I simply adore! Enjoy and please remember that all feedback is greatly appreciated!
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We'd been online friends for over five years...I was 16 and he was 17 when we first met online and started chatting.
We had seen each other through relationships, break up's, family issues, friend issues, as well as through many sexual exploits.
He lived in the States and I lived in Canada...we both knew all along that it wasn't very likely we'd ever be able to meet in person, and this is why we had both agreed when our friendship began blossoming into something more complex that neither of us would harbor any thoughts of feelings from the other, but also for neither of us to have any delusions of a long distance romance, since we'd both been down that road and felt that burn before.
Now...here I was...22 years old and going to Toronto for Management Training as I had quickly moved up in "the ranks" of my sales associate job at a nationwide chain of retail stores. Rob was 23 and in graduate school in the States...lucky for us, however, that my trip to Toronto happened to fall during the summer months and he'd been able to request a week off of work.
I had arranged to have my wee of holidays right before the Management Training was to take place and arranged it with the hotel that I pay for a room for a week and the company would pay for the second week.
I had driven all day and all night and finally arrived at the hotel at about three in the morning on a Monday and collapsed into the bed and promptly fell asleep.
I was awoken at approximately 1:30AM by the phone ringing. It was Rob calling me from the edge of the city to let me know he'd be at the hotel in about an hour.
We had arranged to meet in the restaurant on the main floor of the hotel. Rob told me he'd made a reservation for two in his name and whoever got their first would just sit at our table and wait for the other.
I got into the shower and tried to think of anything BUT the fact that in a little less than an hour I would finally be seeing him face to face.
I blow-dried my hair and put on a little bit of foundation, mascara and lip gloss before slipping on my black satin and lace push up bra and a matching black satin thong. I moved to the closet and pulled out the dress I'd bought just for this occasion. It was a shimmery slinky black fabric that felt like heaven against my skin. The dress had little cap sleeves on it and the neckline was in a very deep V to show off more than ample cleavage. It was curve hugging but not tight and fell two inches above my right knee and then was cut on an angle so that it ended two inches below my left knee. I slipped on a pair of black leather sandals with a two inch heal and laces that wrapped up past my ankles and I was ready.
However...I still had about twenty minutes until Rob was expecting to be at the hotel. I admitted to myself that after all these years of emails and chatting and caring so much on so many levels for him...I was nervous about finally meeting him face to face. Very nervous in fact. I took one last look in the mirror...slipped my lip gloss into my hand purse and made my way downstairs to the restaurant.
The hostess sat me at a small two person table in the back corner of the restaurant. It wasn't a booth, but it might as well have been seeing as how it was the farthest table from the kitchen doors and from the front of the restaurant and seemed to be a fair bit away from all the other tables in the place. I moved to sit in the chair that would put my back to the wall (as I always do) and there was a single white rose (my favorite) on the seat of the chair. I blushed slightly and placed it in the vase of water the waiter immediately brought for me.
I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea and sipped at it as I tried very hard to think of anything I could not to make myself more nervous about Rob's arrival.
When I finished my second Long Island I glanced up at the hostess stand at the entrance to the restaurant and saw him standing there with his head cocked as he listened to her say something, but his eyes were looking directly at me. We made eye contact and I felt all the air whoosh out of my body as I tried to calm my nerves and not do something to embarrass myself.
Rob turned to the hostess, thanked her and started making his way towards our table. I watched him walk towards me and couldn't help but notice how well his jeans hugged his legs in all the right places and how his simple black t-shirt was just tight enough to show off his well toned torso and arms.
I stood up as he got closer and once he was within arms reach we both instinctively reached out and hugged each other.
I leaned into his over six foot tall and well muscled body and hugged him so tightly I thought for a moment that I might actually push my way through his body.
His strong arms felt so good around me that I didn't want to pull away, but I knew I had too.
I moved slightly out of the hug and looked up at him and smiled. As usual his skin was a number of shades darker than mine, seeing as how all my very white skin ever managed to do was burn and he worked outside about 25% of the time and had that rich Italian skin that just soaked up the sun.
His dark hair was cut short and his eyes were a deep shade of hazel and I felt as though I might melt into them.
Before I could say or do something to embarrass myself Rob smiled at me and motioned to the table, "Why don't we sit?"
We sat and talked and drank and nibbled on appetizers for over three hours before the dinner crowd started to slowly filter into the restaurant.
I glanced at the table nearest to us where an elderly couple had just been seated. As if reading my mind Rob motioned for the waiter and asked for the bill.
I smiled at him and by smiling back at me and ever so gently rubbing my ankle with his foot he distracted me enough to grab the check as the waiter brought it for us. Being somewhat of a macho guy he insisted on paying for the entire tab.
I'm not sure what the strongest driving force was, if it was the alcohol, the sense of comfort and warmth being around him made me feel, or our long history of sexual tension that made me grin at him and say, "Fine then...you pay for drinks and dinner and I'll just have to find a way to repay you for them!"
He grinned at me as he stood from the table and as I stood beside him and we began walking into the lobby he put his hand on the small of my back...an act which he knew I felt was more intimate than holding hands.
We stood in the lobby for a few minutes deciding what we would do next. Rob suggested we catch a movie and then come back for a later dinner before both adjourning to our own rooms for the night. It sounds like a good idea to me, however I'd left my purse up in my room as I figured I would just charge whatever I ate or drank to my room and pay it later.
We rode up in the elevator in silence. It wasn't one of those awkward elevator silences most people have...it was a relaxed silence between two people who knew they didn't have to use words to fill the silence. Rob still had his hand on the small of my back and to me that said more than any words could have.
I unlocked the door to my hotel room and stepped inside. It had gotten dark while we were in the restaurant and it took me a moment to find the light switch. Eventually I found it and when I flicked it on I turned around expecting to see Rob standing in the doorway. Instead I turned to find him right behind me, so close that as I turned my breasts rubbed against his broad chest and my face was only a couple inches away from his neck.
For a second I was surprised and almost pulled away...then I caught a whiff of his cologne and aftershave and I practically melted. He knew I was a sucker for the smell of men's shaving lotions and he'd found a cologne that seemed to bottle that intoxicating scent. I took in another deep breath, hoping he wouldn't notice, before I moved back a step.
"Sorry about that," I said as I turned towards the chair I'd thrown my purse on when I'd stumbled in the night before. As I was reaching for my purse he gently grabbed my arm and turned me to look at him. "Don't be sorry. There's no need for you to apologize for something I did."