Chapter 3: A Presentation
Naomi's uniform had long since been hung up in the back of her closet when the leaves of autumn started to appear.
"It's beginning to feel like fall," Naomi said to her husband one Friday morning in late October. They had both decided to take the day off from work, and were out for a walk to the neighborhood grocery store.
"What do you mean? Still feels warm to me," Luke replied.
"I think it's a little cooler."
Luke grunted a noncommittal reply, then noticed that some leaves had already dropped from a tree along the sidewalk. He hadn't noticed if their own yard had such natural "décor." Autumn was Luke's favorite season -- it always started warm and ended cool, but never extremely so in either case. There were also the pretty colors in the trees and sky, and the approaching holidays meant time off from work.
Yet autumn's one drawback was the yardwork requirement. Fall colors meant leaf blowing was coming soon -- and Luke and Naomi's property had its share of trees.
"Are the leaves falling at our house?" he asked Naomi. She tended to notice such things sooner than he.
"I think there are a few on the ground, but not a lot. I don't think you need to fire up the leaf blower just yet," came her reply.
"Okay."
They reached the store, gathered up a few provisions to cover their next few meals, and walked back home. Luke paused to survey their yard as they approached the front door.
"There's quite a few leaves down around that tree," Luke pointed out, gesturing at a maple near the end of the driveway. The gray concrete of the sidewalk was competing with the fallen yellow foliage for which color showed more at that particular patch.
"Yeah, but just that one. Nothing else has started dropping yet." Naomi said.
"Do you think I should do something about them?" Luke didn't want to bear the wrath of the neighborhood busy-bodies, as each homeowner was expected to keep their portion of the sidewalk clear.
"I think it's okay, Luke." Naomi was in favor of waiting until most, if not all, of the leaves on their property had dropped before going on a yard cleanup extravaganza.
"I don't know. I can rake this up real quick." Luke handed a bag of groceries to Naomi, expecting her to take it and go inside -- which is precisely what she did. As Luke rounded the corner outside the house and walked down the driveway to the garage, he imagined her stepping inside and digging right in to the food they had just bought. He was hungry too, but he didn't want to have to bother with this chore again for at least another week, and this would only take a few minutes.
He reached the garage, grabbed a rake from the corner and purposefully strode back to the end of the driveway. In very little time, a clear path began to emerge on the sidewalk.
As he often did during mundane tasks such as raking leaves, Luke allowed his mind to wander to many loosely-connected thoughts. It was therapeutic, he believed, to enjoy some solitary thinking every so often. And today, he found himself pondering his sex life.
It was fantastic, of course. He and his wife enjoyed the physical aspect of their relationship often. Rarely did a week go by without at least one horizontal encounter -- and those encounters also often featured vertical actions. Luke smiled at this thought. Sex while standing up was one of their favorite positions. He loved how his wife could just climb onto him and go to town, so to speak, while he felt her breasts slide up and down his chest as he grabbed and squeezed her supple backside.
And then there was the uniform. It had only been put to use once, and Luke had begun wondering when it would make an appearance again. After all, it had been two months since Naomi wore it. Indeed, that night had been incredible, and, as is the nature of most men, Luke was eager to play with it again. Since that night, he had spent considerable time thinking about things he would like to try during future role-playing encounters with his wife, and now, as he raked leaves, he felt he had a pretty good idea for a role if Naomi were to let him be in charge during a future act.
Yet Luke was not one to ask Naomi to put it on. No, this was Naomi's idea, so to her he yielded all control of it. Luke knew from his experience in the Army that getting into those uniforms was no small task. To do it as accurately as Naomi had done that night last summer took some preparation, and he assumed that when she was ready to step into that role again, she would do so fully -- that is, all the details would be accounted for, and any deviations from the standard would be Naomi's intentional spin to make her appearance even more appealing. Yes, he would continue to quietly pine for another round of role-playing, but patience would have to persevere.
Luke stood up from the half-stooped position he had been in while raking. He rested his palms on the end of the rake handle and focused his vision on nothing in particular down the road. He remained like this for a minute or two, ostensibly to take a break but really just lost in the naughty thoughts of a man who enjoys a healthy sex life with his spouse.
He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and instinctively turned to look. There, in the dining room window, was his wife in a sports bra and undies, climbing up on the dining room table and reaching toward the light fixture. Luke remembered that one of the bulbs had burned out a few days ago, and he was supposed to replace it. He surmised that Naomi was 1) tired of having a dimly lit dining room, and 2) mildly guilty that she was inside while he labored outside, so she was finding things to do to feel better about herself. However, why she was doing this in her underwear -- in the dining room window -- baffled him.
Luke's head cocked to the side. He was enjoying the show, but he definitely didn't want anyone else to feel likewise. He glanced around the neighborhood to check for prying eyes, but seeing no one, quickly returned his eyes back to the dining room window. She would probably be done in just a few seconds, step down, and disappear from sight. But wow, she looked fabulous. Luke thought to himself how she can look great in anything: apparel specifically designed for sex appeal, like the uniform; work clothes; weekend sweats; or, in this case, simple white matching undergarments. He had a great view of her from his spot outside the house: her hair was down, ends just touching around the base of her neck. Her back was mostly turned toward him, showing her defined, broad shoulders tapering down into her trim midsection. A tight little bulge for her hips and posterior transformed seamlessly into her svelte thighs, and then, lower, her taut calf muscles suspended perfectly above her thin ankles. She was barefoot, and seemingly quite comfortable inside, oblivious to the potentially compromising position she had created for herself.
She probably didn't even know how hot she looked doing that,
Luke thought as he watched her climb down off the table. He still couldn't fathom how she went from fully clothed a few minutes ago when she was outside, to barely dressed and changing a lightbulb, but he wouldn't complain. He quickly looked around the neighborhood again for nosy neighbors, and, still seeing none, started wrapping up his leaf cleanup. He would have to ask his about the interesting light-bulb-changing-attire later.
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Inside, Naomi walked into the living room with a mug of hot cocoa for the second time since she and Luke returned from the grocery store.
