Cammie Devries sighed nervously and checked her watch for the hundredth time. It was two minutes later than the last time she'd looked. Her stomach felt like she was riding a roller coaster, and her palms were moist with perspiration. She had been waiting for her blind date to arrive for 20 minutes and the wait was taking a toll on her nerves.
She sat on a bench in the crowded waiting room of the upscale steakhouse where the meeting had been arranged, her heart pounding a little faster each time the front door opened and someone new entered. Cammie had arrived earlier than she'd planned, and she knew now that was a mistake. Too much time to think about what could go wrong. Her date was only a couple of minutes late, but already Cammie was sure she'd been stood up. She had a bad habit of always expecting the worse when she was nervous.
She swore to herself that she'd never, never accept another blind date. Of course, she'd said that before. Terry was always so persuasive, and downright persistent. Terry Carpenter had been Cammie's best friend since they were eight years old, but at that moment Cammie wanted nothing more than to throttle Terry and Terry's boyfriend, Mike Parker, for talking her into this.
She could hear Terry's voice pleading, "Come on Cam, Alec is an old friend of Mike's from high school. He just got out of the Navy and is looking for someone to date. I haven't met him yet myself, but Mike swears he's a great guy." Terry just loved playing matchmaker. Her philosophy was that to be truly happy a person had to be getting laid on a regular basis.
Cammie, who absolutely loved sex and had gone without for longer than she cared to think about, agreed wholeheartedly with Terry's theory. Her craving for a new lover was very strong, but Cammie was gun-shy. She was only six months out of an ugly relationship that had left her hurting and leery of risking her heart again so soon.
Cammie's most recent relationship wasn't the first one to have a bad ending. She wasn't sure if it was because of the men she chose, or simply because of bad luck. Whichever the case, Cammie always seemed to end up getting hurt.
Her most recent boyfriend, whom she now affectionately referred to as Tom the Asshole, had been cheating on her during their entire year-long relationship. Even six months after they'd broken up, it still stung. Before Tom the Asshole, there was Steven the Shithead. Cammie and Steven had never dated exclusively, but it was still painful when he told her that he was in love with someone else. Ouch.
Not surprisingly, Cammie had adamantly resisted the idea of the meeting until Mike showed her a picture of Alec. She took the picture and scrutinized it, finally looking up and grinning at Terry and Mike. "Okay. Even if he turns out to be another asshole I'd be happy enough just looking at him!" Alec appeared to be one fine specimen of masculinity, attractive enough to encourage her to push her worries aside.
Mike told Cammie that the picture had been taken at Alec's going away party just before he left for the Navy. Cammie was taken by his ruggedly handsome face and lopsided grin. His face had strong, masculine features and his hazel eyes appeared to sparkle with good humor. He had close cropped medium brown hair that nicely framed his face. He was only visible from the waist up in the photo, but that was enough for Cammie to make her decision. He had a broad chest, with darker brown curly hair peaking out of the collar of his shirt, and muscular arms that appeared to have been chiseled from granite. Cammie had always had a fondness for men with nice chests and arms.
Terry whooped in victory when Cammie finally agreed to the date. "I knew you'd want to fuck him the minute you saw his picture! I know I sure did." Her expressive brown eyes were filled with mischief and she clapped her small hands together in delight. Terry was very petite at only five feet two inches tall, and she had a youthful appearance. When she got excited she sometimes looked like a kid who'd just been told school had been cancelled permanently.
Mike gave his girlfriend a freezing look and she smiled innocently. "Just kidding, baby. You know you're the only man for me." She sauntered up to him, stood on her tip-toes to reach him, and gave him a reconciling kiss on the cheek. She then turned her back to him and flashed Cammie a conspiratorial wink.
Cammie laughed, shaking her head. "I don't recall saying that I wanted to fuck him. What I said was he's good looking enough for me to get through an evening with, even if I find out he's an asshole. But if he's nice...mmm, THEN I'd have to say he appears to be entirely fuckable!" She sounded like she was joking, but deep down inside she was completely sincere. The idea of getting next to a man that looked like Alec appealed to her in a pulse quickening, carnal way.
Mike rolled his eyes dramatically and said, "Gawd. You women are worse than us guys are. All you think about is dick! Seriously though, Cam, Alec is one of the good guys. I think you'll like him."
"And if you don't," Terry teased, "I'll let you have Mike for a night. You won't get out of this situation still being horny." She reached up and affectionately ruffled his sandy blonde hair. Mike let out a long-suffering sigh and merely shook his head in immitated aggravation.
Within a couple of hours of agreeing to the date, plans had been made. Cammie was to meet Alec the following Friday night at a local steak place that was extremely popular. Mike and Terry were not going to be there since they had previous plans to visit Mike's sister who had recently given birth to a baby boy.
Cammie had been shifting back and forth between being nervous and being excited at the possibilities ever since. Sitting on the bench at the restaurant, however, the minutes crawled by with excruciating slowness and there was no sign of the excitement, or of Alec either.
Ten minutes later Cammie went from feeling like a nervous wreck to feeling mad. After all, she had spent a fair amount of money on this new dress. Not to mention the time she had spent getting ready and the long drive to the restaurant. She had made an investment that apparently wasn't going to have a chance to pay off.
When Alec was officially half an hour late, Cammie got up from the bench and grabbed her purse, preparing to leave. She thought it looked like it was going to be a long Friday night of being pissed at the male gender, followed by a less than satisfying solo masturbation session. She was angry at having been stood up, but she was also more than a little disappointed. No lovin' for Cammie tonight, she thought with a stab of frustration.
As she grasped the handle of the main entrance door and pulled, it was simultaneously pushed open from the other side. And there he was, standing directly in front of her, looking flustered.
"Camille?" he asked breathlessly.
She looked up at him and momentarily couldn't respond. Alec had a tremendous physical presence that couldn't be perceived from a photograph. Although Cammie was no shorty at five feet seven inches tall, Alec towered over her. She guessed him at close to six feet five. He was solidly built, beefy and muscular all over. He was a mountain of a man, probably weighing in at 250 pounds or so.
Cammie took a deep breath and replied, "Yes, I'm Camille. Or you can just call me Cammie. I didn't think you were going to make it, Alec." She was surprised that there was not even a trace of lingering anger in her voice.
"Oh, Camille...Cammie, I'm so terribly sorry I'm late! As silly as it sounds, when I got home from work I found my cat was really sick and I had to take her to the vet. I tried to call here to let you know I was running late, but they told me they don't pass on messages unless it's an emergency. I couldn't convince them that a sick cat and a blind date really was an emergency!"
He was smiling sheepishly and seemed mildly embarrassed at admitting his fondness for his pet.
Cammie thought it was completely endearing, this masculine giant of a man worried about his pet kitty. Her aggravation at his lateness evaporated and she grinned. His story was just odd enough that it had to be true.
"Sick cat? A likely excuse! You were just on the verge of chickening out and changed your mind at the last second," she teased.
