There was still a bit of winter chill in the air. Spring was trying hard to push winter into hibernation. At night though you could still feel winter's teeth nibbling at your ear lobes and his cool breath raising goose bumps on your neck. My economics lecture was still rattling around in my head. Interesting and challenging concepts had been presented in a less than thrilling course with a passion and excitement by a prof who had previously failed to be an inspirational influence.
My hand grasped the cold brass handle of my residence door. The shock freed my mind from the ramblings of my prof. The dorm was surprisingly quiet. I expected more commotion when I returned. I had forced myself to leave an impromptu party that was in full swing when the old grandfather clock in the hall chimed 6:45. I expected the party to still be rocking the walls of the dormitory when I returned.
I caught a scent that was hanging in the air and my mind flooded with images of my departure from the joyous event. MMM, Brenda's perfume I was certain. Brenda had made me an offer to return to her room just as the clock was calling to me. She promised me more fun than the party had to offer. I had no doubt she was right; she was not the most attractive woman in the dorm, heck, she probably wasn't one of the five most attractive in the physical sense. But she had charisma. And she had an air of "knowing" about her. I had not sampled her talents, in fact up to this point in time I had avoided sharing a bed with any of the women in our little coed dorm. I had decided that having a lover in the dorm might not be the best idea. A little too confining maybe. A little too much commitment for me (wow, is there any other statement that is more obviously from a man?).
And I figured it left the rest of the coeds on campus available for me to pursue if I kept my quill out of my cohabitants' pleasure wells. I explained to Brenda that I really had to go to this lecture. That I would miss the next two weeks of class because the baseball team would be on road trips. She leaned into me pressing her womanly charms against me and purred into my ear that I should drop by her room after my class. Ah, college days, the man in me sprang to life. It would not have taken more than her warm breath on my neck and she could have held me by the hand and led me to her room like I was a puppy on a leash. I thanked her and said something silly about having a 7:40am accounting class.
Which was true, but who needed sleep in college. She asked what it would take to get me to come to her room later. I quickly replied, "A bottle of Drambuie." Don't ask me why our group had hit on Drambuie as our drink of choice. It seemed the rest of the world was hooked on Grand Marnier and Amaretto. Somehow though, that concoction with the scotch base, blended with herbs, spices and honey had won over our 78 person population. I made the jug of warmth my condition because I figured she wouldn't be able to get her hands on one by the time I returned from class thus keeping my "residence purity" in tact.
The dormitory door clapped shut behind me leaving old man winter to find other ears and necks on which to nibble. I bounded up the stairs to my suite. No one in sight. Not a sound from any room. It was almost eerie. If nothing else there were normally people sitting around talking or studying when I returned from class. I rounded the last corner and headed to my room. My mind was running through tomorrow's schedule. I would go into my room, lay out my clothes and books for the morning, bounce down the hall for a quick brush and wash up, then jump into bed for a full night's sleep.
My key slid in the lock, my mind barely aware of the clicking a key makes in a lock. Do your ears actually hear the tumblers rising and falling as the key slips into the lock or does your mind create the sounds using the vibrations transmitted through the key to your fingers? It wasn't until the door was swinging open that I noticed the white paper taped to my door. White paper with two flashes of yellow high-lighter applied neatly and with precision. "Today's date", and "1 Drambuie". You had to like Brenda's style. No additional information was supplied. None had to be. She had made a request. I had supplied a condition. The condition had obviously been met. I shook my head and sighed. What would I do now? I closed the door to my little room and went about my business of ending today and preparing for tomorrow.
Like a neon sign, the liquor store receipt shone in my eyes as returned from my evening cleansing ritual, towel over my shoulder, shaving kit in hand. I pulled the receipt from my door. "What harm" I muttered. I can go for a drink, have a few laughs and gentlemanly bow out before our clothes start to pile up on the floor.
The dorm was still filled with that same heavy silence as I made my way to Brenda's room. Thoughts of my economics assignment echoed through my mind blending with the echoes of my footsteps off the barren walls, up and down the empty halls, creating an unusual chorus no one else could hear. But then again there seemed to be no one in the place to hear anything. A right. A left. A deep breath. Knock. Knock. Knock.
I thought about blurting out some feeble greeting like "Guess who?" while I rapped on her door. I knew it wasn't required. I knew Brenda would know who it was. I wondered what she would be wearing. I held a vision of what she had worn earlier that night... snug black jeans, old runners a loose fitting cotton v-neck sweater, hair pulled back and held by a barrette. I grinned at the memory. Brenda could bring sex appeal to whatever she wore. Her peer dictated uniform that graced her form earlier in the evening was not an exception.
I heard her hand touch the lock. Suddenly I caught my breath and considered bolting from her suite. At that instant my mind had filled with an image of Brenda and what she might not be wearing when she greeted me. I hadn't prepared myself for that possibility.
The door creaked open. Her warm confident smile greeted me.
"Hi there", rolled from her lips nonchalantly. "Come on in. I've been waiting for you." Assuredness and confidence were woven into her invite.
"Hi. I got your message and couldn't renege on an offer." I stepped past her into the room. I'm sure I could feel her eyes glide over my athletic torso. She closed the door behind me. I heard the lock slide home with the abrupt click of a starter's pistol signaling the beginning of a race.
Sitting on Brenda's desk was the opened bottle of Drambuie and two glasses neatly placed beside it. Each glass contained a 2oz measure of the bronze beverage. Bread was playing softly on her Sony. The room was lit with several candles and the ambient light from one of the common areas between the dorms. I turned to face Brenda. Leaning with her hand on the door knob. Her head cocked. An admiring gaze in her eyes. The grin of a conqueror on her lips. I felt like prey that been cornered by a cunning predator. A well planned hunt that had expended considerable thought, and little energy in obtaining its trophy. I wrestled with the excitement of my predicament, my gentlemanly upbringing, the awareness of being trapped and my desire to share the pleasure of being captured by my talented pursuer.
Brenda had changed her outfit. Her light brown hair now hung freely on her shoulders, framing her face. Her alluring figure was covered by loose fitting faded blue jeans, a white blouse with blue vertical stripes, and soft moccasin slippers on bare feet. Business like sharpness in her crisply pressed blouse and contrasting casual comfort in her jeans and footwear mirrored the mixed tension that hung in the air surrounding our encounter.
She broke her gaze, walked towards me, "Here, let me get you your drink." Her hand gliding across my chest when she brushed past me. Her loose jeans were much more arousing to me than the snug black ones she had been wearing earlier. I'm certain Brenda knew that. As she moved they alternately hid some of her luscious attributes yet revealed other appealing contours of her well shaped legs, buttocks and that gentle curve that ran south from her navel and disappeared in the shadows of her thighs.