I'd known Kristen for almost two years. Our nine year-old sons played soccer on the same team, so we spent many Saturday mornings alongside the field watching them run around after a white ball. We weren't exactly "good friends", but we talked every time we met, passed the time of day and consoled each other in our single parent status. My wife had left me for her rich boss and how her husband ran off with a girl from a trailer park. We always laughed about how there was a message in there, but we didn't know what it was. I liked talking to Kristen, she was always fun and fresh. After all, who doesn't like talking to beautiful women?
This particular Saturday morning Kristen was looking a little more flustered than her usual self as she arrived at the field and when she finally sent her son off to join the pre-game huddle and unfolded her chair next to mine I had to ask her if she was okay.
"Yes, I guess... fine. Sorry, I'm just a bit out of sorts." At least she could still smile at me. "On the way over here I got a call from my babysitter, saying she can't make it tonight. Now I've no sitter, no time to find one and a hot date who'll be stood up."
Now, I'm no hero, and facilitating another guy being with this lovely creature was not exactly in my nature, but I'm also a sucker for doing a nice lady a favor. "I'll look after Josh if you like," I offered. "The boys get on well together, they'll have fun."
Kristen seemed a little taken aback at first but her face softened and she asked, "Are you sure?"
"No problem," I assured her. "I'll get pizza, we'll watch a movie or they can play computer games. You know what they're like. He might as well sleep over if you're okay with that. Save you worrying about being late tonight. You can pick him up in the morning."
"I'm sure Josh would have a lot of fun." She looked over at the boys as they ran on to the field. "If you really don't mind, that would be great for me."
I looked into her smiling, brilliant blue eyes and could only feel good that I'd made her happy.
*****
I wasn't prepared for her turning up at my door dressed as a biker chick.
"It's a fancy dress party," she smiled to explain the leathers and torn T-shirt. "We're going as Hell's Angels. I tried to get some fake tattoos, but couldn't find any. You think I'll do?" She spun on the spot to give me a three-sixty view of her outfit.
Would she do? Well, for me, the tight-fitting leather pants were just amazing. They hugged her thighs and bottom like they were painted on by an expert in perfect female anatomy. Inside her jacket, Kristen's T-shirt was stretched by her fine chest and I thought I just caught the tell-tale impressions of her nipples that suggested she wasn't wearing a bra. Her flowing black hair was a little more "up" than normal as she'd worked some vampish body into her normally straight locks. Overall, she looked like a raven-haired version of Olivia Newton-John's transformation character in Grease.
"You'll do," I expressed my approval with an intake of breath. I couldn't keep myself from imaging how it would be to slide those pants down her silky legs.
Getting back to reality, the boys ran off to the basement to start a digital war on the games console and I reassured Kristen that everything would be just fine and that she should head off and have a great evening. She thanked me with a peck on the cheek and I closed the door behind her feeling like a million dollars. I had just been kissed by Olivia's double.
I sat in front of the TV and heard the occasional sounds of youthful exuberance as the cyber battle ebbed and flowed below me. It was hard not to let my mind drift off to think about Kristen, dressed to kill and out with another man. Yes I was jealous, but I was the good guy who facilitated my own torture. Or was it my own stupid fault for not asking her out months ago?
*****
She had only been gone an hour or so when my biker chick fantasy arrived back at my door.
Answering the doorbell, I stood there looking puzzled at my leather-clad dream. Kristen still looked stunning, but the exuberance she showed when she last stood on that spot was gone and there were a few tell-tale signs around her eyes that she'd been crying.
Without waiting for me to ask what was wrong she told me, "He didn't turn up. Can you believe it? There I was in a house with all of his friends, and he doesn't turn up." She was trying to put a brave face on it, but failing miserably. "Fucking men. Sorry, I didn't mean to swear."
"Don't worry, a lot of men are assholes." I tried to smile comfortingly and resist wrapping my arms around her. I couldn't comprehend any guy who would stand her up. Me? I would crawl miles across broken glass for a date with Kristen. I know, just asking her might've been easier, but I never did.
"I thought I'd better come and collect Josh. There's no point in wasting your time and effort looking after him now."
I told her it was no problem, and that we'd just ordered the pizza I'd promised for dinner. "Hey, why don't you stick around and have some with us?"
"What?" Kristen used her arms to indicate her costume. "Dressed like this?" She had brightened up a little though.
I told her it was no problem but she insisted she run home and change. Happy as I was to have my biker chick spend some time with me, I was equally delighted when the Kristen I was more familiar with returned to my door, now in jeans and a gray sweater. Returning her hair to its normal, straighter, style was too much for the quick visit home though, which was just fine for me.
I opened a bottle of wine to have with the pizza which we had in the kitchen, the boys declining to join us in favor of more games in the basement, taking their food with them. Kristen talked about her no-show date. She had seen him a few times and was beginning to think they were headed towards a relationship, but now he was nothing to her. Forty-five minutes after he had arranged to meet her at his friend's house he called to say he had car troubles and wouldn't be there. "I thought he was better than most of the others. Why the hell couldn't he have phoned earlier?" She said wistfully as her second glass of wine emptied. "It's so hard to find a good partner in this life, don't you think?"
I laughed and agreed with her. "Just look at us, even when you think you've found one, it can all turn sour pretty quickly."
It was easy to talk to Kristen, and even easier to imagine being naked next to her. Despite the platonic nature of our evening, it was impossible for my fantasies not to arrive at regular intervals as her face brightened with our conversation and not having to spend the evening alone after the pain of her ill-fated date.
As the clock approached ten I thought I'd check on the boys and was surprised to find they had taken it on themselves to unroll sleeping bags in the basement and crash out on the carpet. I called Kristen to come see them asleep. "I never did tell him his sleep over was cancelled," she giggled.
When we got back upstairs I poured the last of the wine into our glasses and we sat back down at the kitchen table. "That's neat for Josh." Kristen smiled as she sipped at her glass. "I think he's had a really great time."
"I hope your own evening has improved a bit too?" I asked with a smile that tried not to be too provocative.
"Yes. Thank you." Kristen smiled and lit a fire that had been missing from my world for too long. "I've had a nice time. I think I'd even managed to forget about the disaster of the party," she laughed.
I had enjoyed having Kristen around and wanted to prolong the evening, so I suggested that if she wasn't in a rush to go she might like to watch a movie with me. With a wide smile she eagerly agreed. I ushered her to the DVD shelf and left her to choose while I cleared up our pizza debris.
As I loaded the dishwasher I couldn't help but glance over and see Kristen bent over examining my DVD collection, that shapely bottom of hers that had been so evident in her biker outfit now back on display. When I saw her like that time stopped while I imagined my hands running over those incredible curves. I thought how delicious it would be to slip a hand between her thighs and press myself up against her while I held her hips.