To readers. I hope that what I've worked on here is to your satisfaction. It feels like it flows well; but the writer sees a story a little differently than the readers. If something could have been left out, or detailed better I'll take the suggestions for the next time I write something.
***
It was about a year ago. I worked for a retail chain that on occasion sent me to another city for 'yearly training' which always seemed to be the same thing. I saw her there.
She was certainly a hot body. She was not quite 5'-4", and had a slim but healthy figure; with the right kind of weight which drew eyes. Her hair was a crimson red that she kept in a long ponytail and sometimes let it drop free. Her smile was warm and kind. She walked with pride, but she could be humble, and never forgot about other people. To me, she was perfect.
I consider myself lucky that she was seated at the same table as me. I sparked the conversation, making jokes of course. We hit it off astonishingly quickly.
"Is it me," I said, which was the start of the first conversation. "Or is his voice getting duller every time he speaks?"
"It's not just you," she said with a sullen tone. She turned and faced me smiling wide the moment our eyes met. She leaned a little closer. "Last year I could have sworn he fell asleep during his own lecture."
"Shut up!" said the guy next to us. "This is important!"
"It's the same shit as last year," I said.
"Well, shut up," he said. "Some of us want to hear this."
I scooted a little closer to her and we continued making conversation. The jokes were bad, that much we could agree on, but we couldn't help but enjoying it. Three dulling hours later the last of the speakers walked down from the podium and the lights came back up.
"The next half of the conference will be in two days starting at eleven in the morning," said the lead speaker. "Be sure you're here and ready to take thorough notes."
I stood, picking up the envelopes and papers that had been handed out that I'd never looked at. "Yeah," I muttered. "I'm sure whatever he has to say tomorrow is any more interesting as today."
She giggled softly and when I glanced at the other guy I could see him giving me a dirty look. "I don't think too highly of your attitude," he said.
"I don't care," I said. "Anything you think means nothing to me."
"I happen to be a five year employee of this company," he said. "Can you say the same?"
"No, I only have two years."
"I have seven," she said. She stood and leaned forward on the table. "And what this conference is about is the same as the first time I was here. So if you don't like the conversations we were having, you're welcome to go to a different table."
The other guy, a little deflated, stood and stormed off.
"Nice," I said to her with a smile.
She giggled. "Actually, it's been ten years. I just didn't want to seem any more like I enjoy my job."
I smiled back and extended my hand to shake. "Mark," I said.
"Lillian," she replied shaking back. "But you can call me Lilly." Her hand met mine and I felt an apprehensive jolt in my gut. I had never been so forthcoming with a girl; especially one as cute as she was.
We left together, talking and trading stories about our respective stores. She had some of the best ones as she worked deep in the inner city where the strangest of people came out. Me, I worked on the fringes of the city. Old people and farmers.
"Drink?" I asked her as we left the meeting hall.
"Why not?" she said.
We sat at a two seat table and continued. Politics, religion, points of interest. They all came up, and we both agreed on everything. She left home on a bad note at seventeen from strict Catholic parents. She said she hadn't talked with then in nearly eight years. She was twenty-six. Four years older than myself, but it mattered little.
"What did you do that made your parent so angry with you?"
"They found my birth control pills."
"Oh!" I said. "Pre marital sex?"
"No," she said with a sigh. "I couldn't get away from them to have sex. They were so over controlling."
I could tell that even though she'd had two drinks, the inhibitions were thinning.
I went for a long shot. "So you've never..."
There was a second when she didn't say anything, but she smiled sweetly and looked up. "I have, once," she said. "Worst ever. But since it was the only time, it couldn't be anything but."
My heart jumped a little. I was prying deeper with her. She was opening to me, and for the first time in a while I was getting along and clicking with a girl.
It was eleven o'clock and I realized that we'd been talking for nearly four hours.
"Should we make our way back to the hotel?"
"Yes," she said. "I'd like to do some shopping in the morning. Not every day you get a free trip to Las Vegas."
We got into the hotel and approached the desk. Speaking with the clerk we were taken a little off guard by what he said.
"The company has paired up many of you. We've almost run out of rooms," said the clerk.
He handed me a keycard and looked to Lilly. "And my room?" she asked watching the clerk typing on the computer.