Okay, let's admit it. We all have a certain type of person that we're attracted to. They could be blonde/brunette/redhead, short/tall, thin/curvy/rubenesque, athletic/nerdy, you name it. But how many of you remember where or when you first discovered those preferences?
For me, it was one afternoon when I was helping clean out my parent's basement. There, hidden on a top shelf, behind a bunch of boxes was a stack of old Playboy magazines. Being the curious guy I was, I slowly paged through them until I got to the December, 1968 issue. The instant I saw the centerfold, I started to break out in a sweat and I felt myself start to harden. Five-foot, three-inches tall, brown eyes, long brown hair, the cutest face I'd ever seen, and a 38F-24-35 figure. The woman of my dreams, and dream about her I did. I fantasized about her in my bedroom, in the shower, and anywhere else I could get away with it.
Needless to say it only got better, or worse, after I left for college and found myself in a single-occupancy room. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of beautiful woman on campus but none of them compared to my dream woman until I was walking across the concourse one afternoon and saw 'her'.
She could have been a twin for my dream woman. She was dressed in a tight, cobalt-blue sweater that accentuated her bust, a pair of jeans that looked like they'd been spray-painted on, a long, black, leather jacket that hung down almost to her ankles, and a pair of stylish, black boots. I was mesmerized by her and the world around me faded away as I watched her. It was only when one of my friends called out to me and brought me back to reality that I realized what I fool I must have looked like at that moment.
"Hey, Steve. Hurry up. We're gonna be late for class."
"Yeah, yeah, okay," I mumbled as I stumbled along behind him. The rest of the day was a blur as I kept reliving the moment I'd seen her, imagining what it would have been like to actually talk to her.
It wasn't until dinner time that things got better. Like most students on campus I had a job to help cover the costs of tuition. In my case, it was working as a dishwasher in the cafeteria. That night, I was so involved in what I was doing I didn't even notice her standing at the window to return some dirty dishes until she called out.
"Helloooooo."
"Oh, hi," I stuttered. "How can I help you?"
"I was wondering what to do with these?" she said as she held up her tray.
"You can just put them there ... or better yet, I'll take them," I said as I reached out, my fingertips brushed across hers, just for a second. A shiver ran up and down my spine.
She turned and began to walk away and I quickly called out after her, "Thank you." She turned slightly and gave me a smile before she continued on.
I watched as she took a seat at a table at the back of the cafeteria. It was full of women that I'd never seen on campus before.
"Shit,"
I thought to myself.
"No chance of getting any information about her from them."
And so I went back to scrubbing the dirty dishes. A little while later, I heard a noise and looked up. There she was, my dream woman!
"Hi, sorry to bother you but one of the people in my study group dropped a glass of soda and the glass broke."
"I'll take care of it," I replied nonchalantly, though inside I was shaking like a leaf.
"Thanks. I'm Cynthia, by the way," she said as she reached out her hand.
"Glad to meet you Cynthia." I said as I reached out my hand only to pull it back quickly. "Sorry about that. My hands are full of gunk from the dishes."
"I understand," she said as she continued standing there.
"Oh yeah. My name's Steve."
"My friends call me Cyn. Glad to meet you, Steve," she said with a smile.
I quickly grabbed a broom and a mop to clean up the mess and followed her back to her table. Once there, I cleaned up and then looked at all the new faces. "Excuse me ladies but I don't recognize any of you. Are you new to the campus?"
"Not really," one woman replied.
"We're here for the Medical Assistant program," another called out.
"We just started last week since it's an accelerated 6-month course."
"Ahhh," I replied though I really didn't have any idea what they were talking about. "Well, glad to meet you but I gotta go. I still need to finish cleaning up in the back. Have a good evening."
"Thank you," several of them called out as I walked away.
When I was done, Cyn and two of her friends were still sitting at the table going through their books and questioning each other about different points. "Excuse me, ladies. I gotta close up."
"Ohmigod," one of the women exclaimed when she noticed the clock. "9:30 already?"
"Yeah," I replied with a shrug of my shoulders.
"We better get going. Our husbands will probably be wondering what we're up to," the first woman said to the woman sitting across from her.
"Do you need someone to escort you to your car?" I said. "I can call Campus Security if you need. The campus isn't bad but the area around it is getting kinda sketchy."
"No, we drove here together and are parked in the student parking lot. What about you, Cyn?"
"I'm parked a couple of blocks away but I should be fine."
"No dice," I said, trying to act chivalrous. "I'll walk you to your car."
"Thanks," she said, the smile on her face seeming to light up the room. The group quickly threw their books into their backpacks and book bags and I led them to the back door.
"This way, ladies. Unless you wanna set off the alarms and have to explain to Campus Security why you're still here."
"I think we'll pass on that adventure for tonight," one of them said as I held the door open.
After they exited, I overheard one of them say, "Such a gentleman. And kinda cute too." At which point the other woman laughed, softly. When I turned around, Cyn was standing a few feet away, waiting.
"Which way?"
"I'm parked over on 'K' street."
"Okay. Lead the way." So I walked her to her car after which I said 'good night' and headed back to my dorm, the whole time thinking about the little time we'd spent together. After that, it became pretty much of ritual. The women, either in a large group or just a few, would come into the cafeteria after their classes were over, eat dinner, and then stay for a few hours to study. And after each study session I'd walk Cyn to her car. It was during one of those walks that I finally got the courage to ask her about herself.
"Not much to tell. I'm 25 years old and have a little boy and a little girl waiting for me at home."
My heart sank. "What about your husband? Doesn't he worry when you stay so late?"
She stopped and looked in my eyes and hesitated before she replied. "Let's just say he's not in the picture anymore."
I stood there, silently, hoping she'd continue.
"He and I were high school sweethearts. He was a jock and I was the girl everyone wanted. Anyway, I landed up getting pregnant and we got married two weeks after graduation. At first, everything was great, then reality hit. The responsibilities of a family, the lack of a job, all his friends telling him about what a great time they were having in college. Anyway, one thing led to another and pretty soon he was leaving me at home with our little boy so he could join his friends at one bar or another. It was just about that time, I found out I was pregnant with our little girl. When I told him he didn't even seem to care. Instead, he started going out 3 or 4 times a week and, sometimes, he didn't come home at all. That's when I started hearing whispers about him meeting women at the bars ... and you can guess the rest. We've been divorced about 2 years now."
"That sucks!"
