Brian looked from the stairway that he was standing on towards the door and wondered to himself,
just what is she doing here?
The girl that had been in his dreams for the last five years was looking in from the doorway. A little hesitantly she looked around the room, past the person who had opened the door, and her face lit up when her eyes fell on him. She said something to the man with his hand still on the door. He turned toward Brian, opening the door further, leading her in that direction. The rest of the men in the foyer, kitchen, and living room who could see the doorway looked or began to walk towards the beautiful woman. To Brian standing a little above the crowd on the stairway, it looked a lot like Koi drawn to the food sprinkled in their pool of calm water, a single focus of a mass movement.
“Hi Brian.” Clare said in her clear feminine voice. “How have you been?” Her smile almost made his knees buckle.
Clare had been two years ahead of him in high school, he had been in love since the first time he had seen her. As a freshmen Brian had joined the swim team. He was in the pool when the varsity team had just come out of a meeting. She was one of the last to leave and Brian thought he had died and gone to heaven. She was the stuff wet dreams were made of for anyone raised on
Charlie’s Angels
, with a groundwork laid by Marilyn Monroe. Blonde hair, blue eyes, smooth skin, high forehead and cheekbones, near perfect teeth, and a body that seemed to prove that swimming did have visible side effects, sculptured perfection.
That first year Clare’s friends all picked up on the fact that he was an awe struck freshman and teased her, and him, relentlessly. Clare had always been polite to him and even humored him a bit with her own light teasing sometime. The following year it was already a given that he was a helpless love-puppy and things actually got easier for Brian. It didn’t hurt that he was becoming a very good swimmer and ended up in varsity before the year was over.
To Clare competitive swimming, on the other hand, was obviously not going to be in her future. Toward the end of Clare’s senior year she began the body development that would soon turn her into a world class beauty. Having her breasts grow even larger than the nice sized pears she had her junior year did not add to her ability to move through the water. ‘God make me a water molecule!’ was a thought that Brian and most of his buddies had at one time or another when watching her swim laps that year. ‘Just anything to rub along the length of that body!’
And now, three years later, he finds himself standing on the next to last step of the stairway in his parents house, starring into those beautiful blue eyes. ..
.oh, I should be answering
! he realized suddenly.
“I..I..I’m just fine,” he managed to blurt out. Great, now she’ll think I’ve developed a stutter, or am just a complete idiot.
Surprising Brian, she reached up, and he automatically took her hand and stepped down a step while helping her up one. She leaned in close to him and he leaned toward her. “Can we go somewhere a little more private for a second?” she whispered to him. She glanced back at all the men who had suddenly filled the small entryway.
“Of course.” Brian thought her voice sounded a little husky and he looked around himself, surprised, yet somehow proud and happy at the same time. Nearly everyone at the party had managed to show their head and give him the What’s Up? look. Having the only woman in the house walk directly to you was ego stoking anyway, having Clare do it was....almost frightening.
“Come on upstairs,” he turned and automatically reached for her hand again, just as he normally did with his girlfriend. She grasped it and stayed right at his side, as if they had been a couple for years.
Brain’s mind was racing with questions, and his head filled with blood, he could feel the heat in his cheeks and on his neck. Oh yeah! He just remembered. Coach Dawson had said there would be a surprise. Was Clare it? He had invited the coach to the party and the invitation had been returned with a ‘sorry I can’t make it’ note, due to other previous plans. Scribbled at the bottom was line saying he might send along a surprise though. Brian had forgotten about it until now.
“So what’s going on with you Clare?” Brian inquired as they reached the hallway at the top of the stairs.
“I’m in town visiting my mom and sister for a couple of weeks. My mom and I were at the grocery store last week and I saw Coach Dawson. He told me there was going to be a party for the old swim team and so...” she trailed off, giving him a questioning look.
“Oh,” Brian began to smile,
now it’s making sense.
“He was right, there is a swim team party... the boys swim team- from my senior year, we won all state that year!” he finished proudly.
“Oh! Yeah, I heard that. Congratulations! I also heard you made team captain that year,” she was looking right into his eyes with a brilliant smile.
Now Brian knew he was red in the face. It was just so unreal. Standing here in his parents house talking to Clare! “Ahh, thanks.”
