I finished up my glass of wine and leaned back in the chair. Thoughts of Jennifer buzzing around in my head. Her smile, her innocent smile I recalled from the years I've known her. Her witty humor and nerdy
Knocking on the door, "can I come in? You aren't naked in here are ya?" she laughed walking in with her hand over her eyes.
"Do you want me to be?" I joked without missing a beat.
She dropped her hand to her hip and gave me a glare. She strode back to her seat and noticed my empty wine cup, grabbed the bottle and spun around holding it up. "More wine?"
"Of course." I lifted my cup up to her to fill. She extended the bottle toward my cup, paused and then pulled back.
"Why don't we go skate for a little bit and drink out there! I've always wanted to drink and skate!"
"That sounds like a great idea, you going to skate in that?" I gestured to her ensemble. "I can't imagine that would work very well," I said with a sly grin on my face.
"Hmmm, I guess you're right. I will have to change," she said placing the bottle of wine on the desk in front of me. Her hands moved up in slow motion toward her neckline. They stopped at the top most button. Both hands reaching for it as her fingers delicately grasped the white plastic and the blue fabric. I sat in awe as she slid the button through the slit in the shirt. The shirt began to part more, showing the last remaining portion of cleavage as it met the bottom of her black bra. Her hands lowered to the next button exposing the dark cleavage to the white florescent lighting. As her fingers met the next button she hesitated for a second.
I was watching intently at what was happening before my eyes. They were glued to her chest as her shirt parted enough to show about an inch of both sides of her bra. It was a simple article, a very subtle striped design with a thin outline of lace guarding the dark black from her fair skin. When she paused it snapped me out of my gaze. "I can go out there and give you some privacy," I said calmly, the inner teenager in me screaming in protest.
Her hands dropped down to her side as they swung slowly toward the edge of the desk. As they made contact, she lowered her head and leaned forward. I did everything in my power not to look down her shirt. Surprisingly I kept them locked on her eyes. She bit her lip a little and quietly said "you didn't think I was going to change in front of you, did you?" She smiled and laughed quickly. "You're fine, I'm gonna go change in the restroom." She reached down and picked up her bag from the floor, spun and walked out the door again.
"You're a fucking idiot," I yelled at myself. "When was she going to stop had I not said anything? Would she have undone the whole shirt? Unzipped the black pencil skirt? Why in god's name would I have said something at that moment." I hushed the internal berating in my head and got to my feet. I walked out of the office and grabbed my bag from behind the front counter, walked back into the office and sat back down at my desk.
A couple minutes later Jennifer walked back into the room. She had on the same leggings as earlier in the day. She had her hair up in neat pony-tail. Her black skating jacket over her shoulders and zipped up most of the way, about to where her shirt was buttoned before her interview. Her jacket fit snuggly and the bottom settled right at her waist.
"I'm back!" she exclaimed.
"Took you long enough, you have to sew it together?" I laughed
"Ha. Ha. No, women take longer to get ready, you should know that by now!" She sat down at her desk and pulled her skates from her bag.
"I guess you're right." I began to take my skates out of my bag and kicked of my shoes. I stood up, unbuckled my belt and pulled it through the loops and dropped it on my bag. I grabbed the fly of my pants and began to unbutton it. I looked up and saw Jennifer watching me intently as she paused tying her skates. I buttoned them back up and laughed, "I'm only kidding, I don't need to change to go skating, jeans are just fine." I smiled and sat down and began to tie my skates. Jennifer smiled and chuckled before returning her attention to the white laces of her skates.
We made it to the ice, I had flicked on a couple lights, so we weren't in complete darkness. We skated across the rink toward the benches and put our wine and cups down. We skated a few laps around the rink and caught up on life and such. She had asked about my ex and I told her the story of our breakup and that I was okay with it. I told her how work was going and my family. She boasted about her schooling and her sorority and how much fun she's having with both. She broke away to show off some moves she had worked on up at school with her skating team. She was pretty good to begin with, but she'd gotten better. It was almost majestic watching her elegantly flit across the ice. Such grace and elegance.
As we skated, I grew more and more captivated with her essence. I knew so much about her but never fully enveloped myself with her aura. Not much had changed since we were friends a few years earlier; her sense of humor, her mannerisms, punctuality, kindness and intellect are all things I knew but never appreciated. When we were friends I was still with my ex and thought I was with my future wife. I never even gave Jennifer a thought regarding affection, companionship or even sexually. But now... Now I am seeing her in a new light and it's nearly blinding. This intelligent, beautiful, and intoxicating woman has been in my life for years and it seems like I'm just now meeting her for the first time.
About an hour had passed as we skated and talked, engaging in deep and fruitful conversations I had never experienced before. I hadn't noticed that her jacket had unzipped a little, her pale skin soaking up the little light in the rink. When did that happen? I didn't notice it earlier. Did she unzip her jacket? Did it do it on its own? Her cleavage had become visible and it was evident that she did not change to her sports bra which would have been covering some of what was visible. It was nice, but I didn't even seem to care. We stopped and drank some more wine while sitting on the bench.
"Would you like to go to dinner with me?" I shot out quickly and taken back by what just came out of my mouth.
The next 4-5 seconds lasted an eternity as I stared into her eyes and tried to translate her facial expression. Each millisecond ticked by slower than the last. Her face showed no change in emotion. No smile, no anger, no annoyance, her breathing almost stopped along with mine. The 4-5 seconds lasted about as long as I've been alive.
