Dan and I had been friends for as long as I could remember. He'd married Lydia right after high school when she was just eighteen and he was only nineteen. They'd made it their mission to introduce me to all the single women they knew but I'd remained single all these years in spite of Dan and Lydia's best efforts to see me married off.
I didn't think I was ugly but I was no Adonis in those days. My hair was already thinning and I still sported a bushy mustache but no beard. I wasn't a slob; I could still look straight down and see my belt buckle and my toes but I didn't have sixpack abs or anything like that.
In the days before cell phones and ubiquitous computers Lydia introduced me to Becky at a party. I was almost thirty and she had just turned twenty. We got along really well and spent most of that first evening sitting by ourselves and getting to know one another. Communication was a bit difficult and slow as I didn't speak a word of her language and she was hard to understand when she attempted to speak mine.
You see, Becky was born profoundly deaf and had never actually heard speech. She'd had plenty of speech therapy in school but, it was difficult for her to imitate something she'd never heard. So, like most deaf people, Becky relied primarily on sign language. Since I didn't know any sign language at all, we spent the evening passing a notebook and pencil back and forth.
Becky was dressed conservatively for the party, in a plain, stand-collar blouse that was buttoned around her long, thin neck. Her blouse was tucked into a pair of high-waisted blue jeans and she wore blue canvas flats with no socks. As much as her outfit concealed, there was no denying this woman's beauty and lovely figure.
Becky was, to my eye, absolutely beautiful. She was fairly tall at about 5'10" and very slim. She styled her bangs but left the rest of her long blond hair loose to the middle of her back. She had smallish boobs and a flat, tight tummy. She had beautiful girlish hips with a narrow butt that was firm and rounded and tight and hard and... I could go on all day about her butt but I think you get the point. Some men are 'breast men' while others are 'leg men;' I'm an 'ass man' and Becky had a beautiful ass that made walking behind her a real pleasure.
Becky sat in a window seat at the party and drank her beer very slowly and had refused a second when it was offered. I discovered, as we penciled notes back and forth that she was sharp witted, smart and funny.
"Do you enjoy going to movies?"
"Sometimes. There's a theatre downtown that plays movies with 'open captions.'"
"Would you like to go sometime?"
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
"Yes. I guess I am."
"They're playing 'Back to the Future' on Friday."
"OK, then. It's a date. Can I take you to dinner before the movie?"
"The movie is at 3:00 in the afternoon. Let's have dinner after."
"That works too. Shall I pick you up at 2:00PM?"
"Yes, please." She handed the notepad back to me with an angelic smile.
I owned a small shop at the time so a Friday afternoon date was easy to arrange. I started on Wednesday afternoon and by Friday morning I'd gotten all my inventory recorded and my accounting work done for the week. I left the store manager in charge and set off to Becky's place.
I arrived at her apartment door at precisely 2:00PM and was about to knock when I realized the futility of that custom. I pressed the lighted doorbell button but heard no chime from inside the apartment; nevertheless, Becky came to the door within thirty seconds and greeted me warmly.
I stopped before entering the apartment and with gestures, asked how she'd known I was at the door. She reached out to press the doorbell button and I saw that it triggered a bright, white strobe light in the hallway of her apartment that could be seen throughout the small apartment. I gave her an exaggerated look of astonishment and she taught me the sign for "Wow!"
That's how it began. She taught me more sign language every time we were together. She gave me a laminated card that was printed with the manual alphabet and quickly taught me how to 'fingerspell' so that we could, if somewhat slowly, communicate without the aid of pencil and paper.
I had kissed her goodnight after our first movie and dinner date and by the fifth date we were sitting in my car after pulling up to her apartment building and making out like a couple of teenagers. I always insisted on walking her to the door after our dates. On this, our fifth date, she opened her door and turned to kiss me again. We kissed as deeply and passionately outside her apartment door as we had in the car. Just as I thought I might have to limp back to my car like a pirate with a wooden leg, Becky took my hand and pulled me into her apartment.
She asked me, in sign language, if I'd like to stay a while and have beer. I accepted and followed her into the tiny kitchen where she pulled two craft brew beers from the fridge, poured them into pint glasses and offered one to me. She explained that she actually loved beer but had refused to drink another at the party because she wasn't interested in that 'piss-water swill' that they'd been serving. I laughed with her and explained with my hands that I couldn't agree more. Beautiful
and
she likes good beer; this girl was a keeper.
The apartment management hadn't yet turned on the air-conditioning for the season so it was pretty warm in her apartment. Becky opened the sliding glass door to her tiny balcony and we stepped outside. There was only room for two chairs and a small, glass topped table between them. We sat and enjoyed the setting sun and drank our beers.
We'd started on our second beers when the apartment had cooled enough to move inside. Becky excused herself and disappeared into the bedroom to change into shorts. She returned to the living room in a loose fitting t-shirt that hung so low that at first I wasn't sure that she'd worn shorts at all. When she sat down on the couch and pulled a leg under herself I saw that she was indeed wearing a pair of dark running shorts with white piping.
We finished our beers and started on yet another. I could feel the effects of the beer by now so I knew that, at her weight, she must be feeling pretty buzzed. We alternately made out and practiced fingerspelling and sign language while we polished off an entire six-pack of good beer and started on another.
Turning on an oscillating fan in the corner, Becky apologized for the heat and said, "I don't have a pair of shorts to fit you." I had kicked off my shoes and socks but I was starting to perspire in my polo shirt and jeans. I excused myself to the bathroom and tried to cool down by splashing cold water on my face and dabbing at my armpits. When I returned to the living room and sat on the couch, she suggested that I might be more comfortable if I removed my shirt.
"You wouldn't mind?"
