This story is very difficult to categorize within Literotica. As it is fairly long, written in nine chapters, I will post it the Novella category. It is mostly a story of love ... D/s, femdom, lesbian, communal ...and of three people, and their inner needs, as life brings them together and connects them ... or not. As with most of my stories it develops slowly, and I hope most readers will give it a chance to do so and stick with it. The story tags listed do not pertain to each and every chapter, but are touched upon to greater or lesser extent as the story evolves.
1. Introduction
She had smiled at him.
Sam still couldn't believe it. He was usually invisible to women, a nonentity whose existence was barely acknowledged unless briefly forced upon them by some everyday circumstance, before he then so quickly faded back into the background scenery of life. It wasn't that he was repulsive in appearance, or even below par. Or annoying in demeanor in any way. Nondescript might be the most likely term the majority of people would use to describe him if any gave him a second thought at all.
This was not the way he would have wanted it. Although alone, he wasn't a loner. An only child whose parents had both died a short time after he had graduated from college, he had never had much contact with his few distant relatives, and even that had now dwindled to virtually none. While he had a number of male acquaintances, with whom he interacted reasonably well, none had ever blossomed into a close friendship, possibly because try as he might he could never find much that interested him in men.
But women had always fascinated him, and he had grown to exalt and revere them. It was as if, to him, they all understood some mystery which he did not, and to which he would never be privy. Because of this failure he felt he could never be of any use to them, and none would ever find him to be of any consequence at all. Add to this his innate lack of confidence and an intense shyness and so he had never learned how to approach a woman. Thus he never had.
But she had smiled at him.
He had seen the moving men bring in the many boxes and furniture to the empty apartment down the hall from his own the day before, and he had wondered who might be moving in. As he was leaving his apartment to do some shopping the next afternoon he had looked down the hall and saw her struggling with the lock of her new front door. She glanced up and over at him and immediately graced him with a smile. A welcoming, friendly, no questions asked smile. Startled and shocked to his core, he quickly cast his eyes down to the floor, hoping against hope that she thought he hadn't seen her, and backed into his apartment and rapidly reclosed his door behind him.
Heart pounding and trying to catch his breath and regain his equilibrium he silently berated himself for what he had just done. She was a new neighbor and was probably just trying to be nice and say hello. Even to him. And he had been rude beyond belief. He had little doubt that she knew what he had done, and he knew that this time he fully deserved the disdain with which he was usually met. He had to do something, apologize in some way, and right away. Maybe she was having trouble with her new lock. Maybe he could help. Maybe that might in some small way lead her to forgive him for his incredible crudity. And maybe, just maybe, she would find it in her heart to grant him another undeserved smile.
Steeling himself and taking a huge breath he reopened his door and ventured out into new, and for him, unchartered territory. But the hall was empty. She had obviously worked the lock and was now successfully within her new home. His newfound but fragile courage did not yet extend deep enough for him to take the next step and traverse down to knock on her door and offer himself up to her judgement. Having no desire to do anything at all now, he slipped back into his apartment to further castigate himself.
For the next few days Sam's emotions fluctuated between hope and terror. Hope that he might see her again, and terror that he would. In his heart he knew that he was being foolish. She probably wouldn't remember either him or the incident, and even if she did it would likely be of no consequence to her. This didn't stop him from anxiously looking down toward her door every time he left his apartment, or scanning the downstairs lobby or street outside for her whenever he was there. One time he saw another young woman leave the new apartment, but she didn't even spare him a first glance as she walked by him down the hall.
He wondered if he had been mistaken about her living there, and began to resign himself to the possibility on never seeing her again. Then, one afternoon, on his way downstairs the elevator door opened and alone within it she was there. Holding two large bags of groceries, she appeared distracted as she was trying to decide how to maneuver the two other bags at her feet out of the elevator. Her flustered look changed immediately, however, upon seeing him. The dazzling smile returned.
With nowhere to retreat this time, and suddenly having no desire to do so, Sam took the step he had been rehearsing incessantly in his mind in an infinite variety of ways over the past week. Heart in his throat he stammered out.
"Can I help with these?"
"That would be wonderful" she answered, genuinely thankful.
He took from her the two bags that she was holding and bent down to try to pick up the other two.
"No, please." she said quickly. "I can get these two. I live just down the hall."
"I know." he replied, and then kicked himself mentally for reminding her of their previous encounter.
He allowed her to lead him down to her door, where upon arriving she put her two bags down and began to struggle a bit with her lock once again.
