We moved down to the coast a couple of months ago and, as with all new homes it took us a while to sort everything out the way we wanted it to be.
New curtains were hanging, paintings and ornaments sorted, and today was the day to give some attention to the garden. We had a local garden service maintain the garden as we inherited it from the previous owners and today, I wanted to start putting my own stamp on it.
The way our house is placed on the land is such that the area to the back of the garage is the place I will visit the least. Just no reason at all to go there so I thought it best to start spraying here first. Mixed and filled the sprayer with weed killer and started making my way around the back.
As I worked the sprayer's pumping mechanism, it generated a snorting sound that reminded me of one time we took the kids to the Zoo and had to endure two turtles mating. Since that day I was always conscious of any sounds I would make when me and the misses were rolling in the sack.
Now I don't know if the neighbour living right behind us visited the same zoo, and saw the same turtles going at each other, but the moment I stood up from pumping the sprayer mechanism, my eye caught a movement just above the boundary wall. I could see my neighbour getting up from whatever she was doing to investigate this unholy snorting sound and for the first-time, I laid eyes on one of the occupants of the house behind ours. Eyes as big as saucers and a blush on her cheeks as if she was expecting to see a wrinkled turtle dick invading an even more wrinkled turtle vagina.
"Hi," I heard from the other side of the fence as I was still trying to file the turtle images to the furthest corners of my memory.
"Good morning to you too. Apologies if I startled you." I managed. "First time I am this side of the house and I didn't expect anyone to be around".
"Startled is putting it mildly! I was ready to hurl a laundry basket towards that sound. I thought the neighbourhood was being invaded. Apology accepted though," she smiled. "I'm Victoria, and welcome to our neighbourhood."
Now whenever I envisage a person with the name Victoria, it is inevitable that lingerie and voluptuous models come to mind. All men at some time have a secret love affair with a Victoria Secret model, but what I saw on the other side of the boundary was someone you would see erecting a catwalk, not walking it. Grassy looking hair, unkept, surrounding a face that either just woke up or was really banished to the further parts of her own garden, and to round it off, all of this was sitting on a hideous orange sweater, on top of a stripy pair of sweatpants three sizes larger than what she was hiding inside it, with the legs just about covering a pair of crocs. Crocs? Really, who wears Crocs?
"Clark," I replied, not sure if I should stick out my hand in a greeting for the fear of contracting 'Crocs Loving Syndrome,' but the gentleman in me took over and did the right thing. A surprisingly soft hand reached out into mine and I could not help to notice the well-manicured nails. A turtle with acrylic nails came to mind. "And thank you, lovely for being part of this little community. Always been our plan to come and settle at the coast. The girls love it out here. Hope it lives up to all our expectations."
"Girls? Will that be your daughters then?" Victoria enquired.
"My lovely wife and our two daughters. They are inside going through a list of stationaries needed for when the schools reopen next week, giving me time to see what I can do about this garden. By the way, that sound you heard was from this sprayer," I said lifting it up for her to see, and to be clear that I do not breed turtles, "and you will hear it for the best part of the morning as I try and take control of all these weeds growing through the paving bricks".
"Don't worry, it will not bother me. Normally I do not come around to this side of the house. My maid did not show up today so I was promoted to doing the laundry at this godforsaken time when I am usually getting my beauty sleep in." she volunteered, making me think she would probably need to sleep until next week to do some catching up on becoming a beauty. "Seems it will be a beautiful day for the laundry to be dry by early afternoon. Hope there will be no new noises when I come to take it off the line later!" she joked.
"I will try and behave." I managed in my best sulking voice. "Spraying should be finished by then. My apologies again for startling you, Victoria".
And just like that she vanished into her oversized attire. Will probably not see here around the back often, as she indicated. Not that one would want to see her more than seeing the occasional turtles necking.
Spraying the weeds are not laborious but surely time consuming as each little bugger must be sprayed for it to be effective and it took me just under two hours to complete the job, bringing me full-circle to where I started earlier. Job done, I emptied the last bit of weed killer from the sprayer and was about to return to the garage when I noticed movement on the other side of the boundary wall.
It was one of those classic double takes one sees in the movies. I expected to see Victoria in her Crocs, but instead, my gaze fell on an ass so tight it must have been on a teenager. There was something familiar about the teenager standing on the other side, taking the now dry laundry from the washing line, but I could not put my finger on it. Does Victoria have a daughter? She certainly looked old enough to have a daughter this age, or maybe a younger sister. Then I make the connection. The hands. It was all in the manicured hands I'd seen on Victoria.
No way this was the same person. Maybe a twin sister was my first thought. Unless I was overcome by some noxious fumes from the weed killer that put me to sleep for a week, while Victoria did her best in getting her beauty sleep in. Nope, it made no sense. She must be a twin sister.
"You finished in the garden Clark?" the tight-ass-one asked.
Goodness, they even have the same voice.
And how does she know my name?
"Cat got your tongue?" she followed up, now walking, oh no, strutting in my direction. Strutting like a Victoria Secret Goddess.
"Uhm..." is all I could get out. If I was not concentrating so hard, I would have made the turtle-snort, ruining all possible communication with this eye fest, now floating in my direction. "No, I am fine. Just startled a bit. Did not expect to see someone outside again" I managed proudly.
The grassy unkept looking hair, has morphed into a perfect French braid; the sleep deprived face was now smooth and make up with just a hint of pink lip-gloss on puckered lips. The catwalk construction outfit was replaced with a white loose blouse, kept in place with spaghetti straps, and a flowing pink skirt reaching midway between her knees and ankles. Thankfully the crocs are also gone, replaced with dainty sandals with bling inserts.
"Surely you did not expect me to show myself in the same way you saw me this morning?" she asked confirming that the two creatures were indeed the same person.
"To be honest, it is much more than what I expected. For a moment I thought you were either your daughter or twin sister. Better looking twin sister, I may ad" hoping it would not get me into trouble with her. Frank should have been my middle name. "I hope your maid is absent more often if this is the reward from my side of the boundary!" I was pushing it a bit I thought.
"Hey, reward should work both ways you know. What will be in it for me?" came the reply, with just the faintest of a twitch in the left side of her mouth, indicating a subtle smile. If only she knew how hard I had to concentrate in not giving her full body a once-over with my eager eyes.
"What will be in it for you? Depends!" was my reply and passing the ball back to her to play.
"Depends on what exactly?" She passed the ball back to me.
"That's easy. Each action should have a reward. With ever more interesting or riskier action, the reward will be bigger and better" I managed, hoping that her next reply would give me the opportunity to legitimately give her the eye.
"Which action that I took today will warrant a reward", came her answer, and the trap was set.
"The action you took was to get dressed in this lovely outfit", I said, now letting my eyes travel from her face to her shoulders, lower to her breasts that I only now noticed not restrained by lingerie, further down to her narrow waist flowing into lovely small hips, which I presume were linked to shapely legs hidden beneath the skirt. I also noticed that her toes were pedicured in the same style as her hands. On returning my gaze to look her in the eye, I passed and lingered on her breasts again and noticed the feint promise of erect nipples.
"And what will my reward be for dressing this way then?"
"I would reward it with a nice compliment, hoping it would lead to another action from your side". She made it so easy for me.
"Clark, you are a very naughty man!"
"Naughty? Me? Never. This is the calm, sedate, and behaved part of my persona, lady!"
"I never got the compliment though."
"Do you want the sedate or naughty compliment?" was my reply in setting the tone of what was to come. If she wanted the sedate compliment it would be a sign that things are going too fast and I would have to back off for a bit. Should she want the naughty compliment, I was convinced I would have a chance with her sooner rather than later.