As I was reaching my car, I heard somebody calling me.
"Mark? What are you doing around these parts?"
It was Melanie, my ex-wife's niece. I sure did not expect seeing her.
"Well hello, what do you know, my favorite niece! Aren't you a long way from home? Let's talk over coffee, if you have time, there must be a place near here?
"I'll take you to one but only if I can get a ride back home."
She got in and directed me to a strip mall nearby. I parked and we walked over to a Hearty Brew outlet near the middle.
"I work in the building you were leaving when I saw you, Millicent's. Women's fashions and stuff, I'm their ace college-bound salesgirl."
"I see. I didn't know you worked so far away. How do you get to here?"
"The subway's just down the street here and my station is only a block and a half from my apartment. It's only twenty minutes each way. What brought you here?"
"I took a new suit in for alterations. Abbott's, third floor, friend of mine. I've been coming here for years. So, how are things going with you and Ricky? Seems to me things were not going so well, am I right or am I right?"
"We broke up, shortly after you two got divorced, I guess. Not in an unpleasant way, really, just congenial incompatibility. I guess that's what it was. But it's okay, I needed a breather. I'm fine with it."
My wife and I had parted company two years earlier and I had not seen Melanie since. I remembered seeing her a few times during our marriage but she had been just another young girl and I could not recall ever paying much attention to her. Now, a cute brunette just out of her teens, she had turned into a delicate, petite young woman. For the first time, I had a good look at her and my body reacted in predictable fashion. Her face was pretty and vivacious and I thought her dark eyes were quite appealing as they had kind of a flirtatious look to them. I did not think Melanie purposefully looked at me with a come-hither look, it was just the way she was. Or the way I imagined she was looking at me, possibly. Now why would a lovely young thing like her want anything to do with me, what with my graying early forties hair and not very assiduous gym schedule?
"You're such a pretty thing, Melanie; boys must be lining up to be with you, and for more!"
"That's what you think, Mark. And you would be right, except that I'm the one who's not welcoming their advances. I'm happy to be alone for a while. I've been saving money for college but I certainly miss certain things about men, things I enjoyed doing with men, and you get what I mean, I'm sure, but I get by. I now know where my G spot is hiding, for instance, and pleasure on my own is infinitely more enjoyable than having to depend on a pimple-faced bozo's poorly defined concept of what a girl's sexual needs are. Or of where said needs are located, exactly. No sir, no way Jose, that's not for me. At least for now. I know my body's intimate requirements perfectly, thank you. No one else seems to. And don't think I'm a frigid woman without normal needs because I'm not. Wow! I wish you knew just how I am not! Cold, I mean."
"Yeah..."
Frankly, I had been taken by surprise by all the things this refreshingly sweet-faced girl-woman had blurted out and I didn't think I should venture on that dangerous ground with her. The only thing I knew for sure was that my rod had heard everything and now was doing its best to make its presence known. All it could do in this particular context was to stand rigidly at attention and it did so vigorously. I sported the mother of all hard-ons and, fortunately for all concerned, I was able to keep it hidden beneath our small table. For the moment.
"I'm sorry Mark; I don't know why I said these things to you. I feel good about seeing you after all this time and I'm happy being here with you. It's so strange! I don't know why I'm having these thoughts, along those lines, I mean, you know, I think of you just now in a way I would never have felt before I saw you get out of my building today. You looked so manly and at the same time so safe to be with. You are, what, twice my age? Maybe it's because I remember that you broke up with my aunt a fairly long time ago and it feels okay to think things about you now, it's been long enough I suppose. Don't take this the wrong way but I like you a lot, yeah, funny but I do! I think being with you in an intimate situation would make me very horny. I hope you will still be okay with me after this, Mark. If you don't think we should continue this conversation, just take me home and forget I ever met you again. And do accept my apologies, just in case you're unable to dismiss me out of politeness. I feel foolish about the whole thing now, you know, no matter the outcome. I was feeling horny just now and the things I said came out unsorted, like. Well, I guess that's that, we'd better go?"
I took her home. I tried to act the gentleman I thought she would want me to be, to remain a gentleman with her seemed the proper thing to do at this point.
My hard-on was still hard and still on, for what it's worth. It's a wonder she did not notice, maybe it was because I had removed my jacket and held it folded in front of me. Or because I did not get out of the car at her place.
I let a week go by then I drove to her shop, parked nearby and watched. This was at about six on a Tuesday and she came out of the building at twenty past.
"Hop in, Melanie."
She turned and saw my car right away.
"Thanks Mark. I'm so glad to see you; I was debating whether to call you..."
I drove to my apartment, on the second floor of a mid-rise in the west end of town.
"I wasn't sure I'd find you so I didn't prepare anything. Do you like Chinese?"
We ordered and I poured beers as we waited for the food.
"I propose sex whenever the urge strikes. My urge or yours. No strings. Deal?"