I got the call late one Sunday evening, and the last thing I ever expected was her bouncing voice to come flying over the line at my ears. "Remember me?" She didn't wait for my answer. "It's Cora. I used to live three houses down the street from you."
Remember her? It wasn't like I could forget. How could I ever forget one of those pivotal people in my childhood? And, as far as sexual awakening goes, Cora was the overriding figure of my teenage years.
The years washed away faster than my mind could keep up with as images of her invaded my consciousness and matched with her voice. She was the first girl I ever had a crush on. We hung out a lot back in those days, on the same block of our suburban home town. Cora had shoulder-length jet black hair, the clearest, dusky, skin known to mankind, and a body well-enough developed to have me tongue-tied every time we found ourselves alone. For almost fifteen years now, every time I came across a childhood photograph with both of us in it, I am thrown again by her beauty and the vivacious smile she seemed to display constantly.
We never actually dated, probably more because I never summoned up the courage to ask her, but there was always the feeling that we had a little "special" bond. Well, at least that was how I felt about her.
"O... of course I remember," I almost stammered back down the phone. Some people just have that effect on you. "I can barely believe... after all this time."
"Yeah, I know." Cora giggled; a familiar and comforting sound. "I get dragged off to Montana by my parents, and then I turn up again out of the blue. Who'd ever have figured that?"
I remembered the day that she left. Her father had been transferred and the darkness of my losing Cora far outweighed the brightness of the smile she gave me from the rear window of their departing car. Despite the previous closeness of our families before that, it was the last time I ever saw Cora or heard from her until that night.
She had tracked down my sister, who'd given her my number. Cora was catching up with some friends from her childhood, something that kind of jabbed at me when she told me, as I guess I'd secretly hoped she had specifically tracked me down.
As usual, whenever I was reminded of Cora, my mind went back to the night of "our dance." It was at her family's New Year's Eve party, and we were dancing happily together. When a slow song started playing, I was about to sit down when Cora grabbed my arms and pulled me close to her. Snuggling into her shoulder, smelling her hair and feeling her body, the curve of her breasts, against mine was unforgettable. Of course, the inevitable happened and I became very aroused. At first I tried to hide the bulge and keep it from touching her, but as I brushed against her a couple of times my confidence grew and I nestled back against her, my erection pressing against the side of her body as we danced to a long forgotten ballad. It was not a moment that was about the song!
When the music stopped, we slowly broke from our embrace and I sheepishly looked up at her. "That was nice," she smiled and held my hand until we flopped down next to each other on a sofa.
Nothing else happened that night, or for the remainder of the time Cora lived close to us. Never a word was exchanged between us about the slow dance, or the erection, or whether she noticed anything (although it was hard to imagine she hadn't). That never stopped me thinking about what might have been, or wondering where she was now, or if she remembered anything about that night.
"I moved back to town," she told me excitedly. "A couple of months ago actually, but I've not had chance to catch up with anyone yet."
While we chatted I learned that she was divorced, consumed by work mostly and living in an apartment not far from where we grew up. I laughed at the similarity of our situations after all this time, we talked about my sister and other kids we hung out with, exchanged numbers and emails, and then she was gone again.
We swapped infrequent emails over the next few months, mainly because Cora always seemed to be busy, but at least we managed to stay in touch. There was nothing in those emails that ever gave me cause to think that she might have any romantic leanings towards me or that she even remembered our dance together. On the flip side of that, she never mentioned any man in her life, so I continued to see a glimmer of hope that she just might want to pick up where we never started.
She'd mentioned in one message that she was looking for a bigger apartment but the invitation to her housewarming party was the first I knew she'd moved. It wasn't a personal invitation, the list was huge, but there was no way I was going to pass on meeting up with Cora after all this time.
***
Cora hadn't changed much, at least not in my eyes. Sure, her hair was shorter and there were maybe a couple of lines around her eyes that she didn't want, but it was the same smiling face and body full of promise that opened the door. She greeted me with a warm hug and ushered me in to join the crowd that was already there.
I knew several of the people crowded into the apartment, mostly old friends that I'd managed to stay in touch with, but there were a few I hadn't seen in a while. The evening was fun, but I was really there to see Cora, who was constantly busy mingling with her guests and showing them around her new abode. Just like I had done all those years before, I watched her every move and quietly wanted her.
As the clock moved on and people started to leave I caught her in the kitchen and mentioned that I was also thinking of leaving. "Don't you dare leave yet," she scolded playfully, "I want to catch up with you. We haven't talked all night."
So, I sat and chatted some more, watched her flit around the apartment and was glad to eventually see a steady stream of leavers. There were only four or five guests left when Cora finally walked over and sat beside me. She was wearing a low-cut, tight, black dress that showed every gorgeous curve of her body. She sat close enough that our thighs rubbed against each other and before she spoke, she leaned forward, undid the fasteners on her shoes and kicked them off.
"Well, this has been fun, but I'm tired now." She leaned back in the sofa, her head inclined towards me as our shoulders brushed.
"Yes, it was fun. It's good to see you again." I looked over and saw her smile. "I thought you were nothing but a childhood memory."
"At least I wasn't a childhood nightmare," she laughed. "Sorry we didn't get to chat much tonight. I'm out of practice with all this socializing. I'd forgotten parties were so much hard work."
"No problem," I gallantly dismissed. "I figured I'd hang around now and help you tidy up a little."
