I'm a very polite person. Ask anyone. I say 'thank you', 'excuse me', 'Oops, sorry', all the time. And I would never open a closed bathroom door without first knocking. But that's exactly what I did. We were staying with my girlfriend's former college roommate, Amanda, in Colorado Springs, while we all hiked at the nearby national park. Amanda lived alone there; she got the house after divorcing her former husband. We were in the guest bedroom of her 3-bedroom townhouse, although there was just one shared bathroom upstairs.
We had returned from a hike, and my wife Robin went to take a shower. I waited downstairs, watching TV. I heard the water running in the shower. After it stopped, I thought it was my turn. I went upstairs and opened the bathroom door. I was shocked to find Amanda, nude, in the bathroom, getting ready to enter the shower.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry," I stammered. "I heard Robin finish her shower and thought it was empty." While stammering my apologies, I nonetheless got a good look at Amanda's rounded breasts, and her small waist and pubic area. A shapely figure, she had nicely trimmed red pubic hair, gently covering her womanhood. I didn't have time then to savor it, but the image emblazoned itself in my mind. Amanda didn't react immediately; she stood there with a quizzical look on her face, then calmly took a towel and held it in front of her body. It only partially covered her. "A gentleman would have knocked," she said. "Or at least have removed his clothes before entering," she said with a smile.
"Yes, I'm very, very sorry. I'll leave now," I said. I stepped back into the hall, closing the door. But it's hard to put milk back into the container after it's spilled. And I couldn't stop recalling her shapely body, and the cheeky comment, "Or at least have removed his clothes before entering." I was mortified; somehow, she wasn't.
I didn't know Amanda well, but there was never a hint of anything sexual between her and me. Amanda is a very attractive woman, to be sure, but a guy doesn't covet every pretty face that happens by. But when the body that accompanies that pretty face is in the nude, that's another matter. I was intrigued.
I went downstairs and told Robin about what had happened (I didn't want her to hear it first from Amanda.)
"Yeah, that sounds like Amanda," was all that Robin said.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, she always was very free spirited about her body. Most of us were shy, just a few years away from those awkward high school years. But not Amanda. She's the closest thing to a 60's hippie of anyone I've ever known. She'd do anything."
"Like what?" I pressed for details.
"Oh, I don't want to tell tales out of school," Robin said. "If you're curious, ask Amanda to tell you."
"I couldn't ask her something like that," I protested.
"Then you don't know Amanda," Robin replied.
After the "incident", Amanda didn't treat me any differently afterwards than she had before. I would have expected some modest aversion of eyes when she next saw me. Or maybe a joking reference to what happened, to try to make light of it. But nothing. As far as I could tell, she couldn't have cared less.
I was the one transfixed by her nudity. I replayed the scene in my mind. Her look when she turned, my stumbling apologies, her calm, unhurried reach for a towel, and those intriguing words about what a gentleman would have done.
We resumed our hiking the next day. Some of the trails were rigorous. Amanda and Robin are experienced hikers, but I, the tenderfoot from back East, was just along as company. I wasn't accustomed to this much walking and my feet were swelling. We came upon a small stream and I asked to stop to soak my feet in the cold water.
I took off my shoes and socks, and sat along the bank. The girls laughed at my plight, making unfavorable comparisons between me and Lewis and Clark.
"Are you sure you don't want to wash off the sweat and grime from the hike?" Amanda asked me. "We could turn our backs while you take a dip,"
She was teasing me.
"Thanks, but I wouldn't want to arouse you ladies. I'll need all my energy for the hike back," I replied.
It was a joke, deliberately suggestive.
"From what Robin's told me, you are not that easily fatigued," Amanda countered.
A second cheeky comment.
"If you want to try out the waters," I spoke to Amanda, "I could stand life-guard duty."
"Are you trying to see me naked, again?" Amanda asked with a smile.
"All right, you guys" Robin interjected. "Shall I leave you two alone?"
We all laughed. The banter was friendly, but little seeds were being planted.
We finished the hike, and returned to Amanda's townhouse. We each took showers, although this time I made certain the bathroom was unoccupied when it was my turn. After dinner, we gathered around her fireplace, with drinks. After some general conversation, Robin said to Amanda, "Kevin thought you handled his intrusion into your bathroom with great aplomb. I told him he wouldn't be surprised if he knew more about you."
"I guess I'll never live down those crazy years," Amanda began to reminisce. Speaking to me, she began. "I'm sure Robin has told you when I inaugurated the first co-ed, clothing optional dorm at State college."
Robin had told me no such thing.
"Oh," I said, trying to be nonchalant. "I'd love to hear the story from your point of view."
"Not that much to tell. The dorm was constructed as a male-only building, but it had been co-ed for a number of years. They provided separate toilets for the men and women, but only one communal shower area. It was an open area that accommodated 8 people at a time, with 4 shower heads on each side. There were designated times for the sexes to use the showers. In the morning, the men had 7:00 to 7:30 am, and we had 7:30 to 8:00. But as classes began at 8:30 am, this was unfair to the women. We were often rushed, and sometimes late to class. We protested, but the administration wouldn't change the shower times.
"So, I decided that the women needed to crash the party. I was the first. One morning, at 7:15 am, when the showers were busy with men getting ready, I turned up there with my robe and a towel. I hung my robe on a hook, found an empty shower head and proceeded to shower with the guys. They were stunned. No one knew what to make of it, and I saw a few erections out of the corner of my eye. But I stood my ground, washed my body and then my hair. I dried with my towel, then used the hair dryer, giving them a full view of my chest with my arms raised. I ignored a lot of eyes and a few rude comments. I put my robe back on and returned to my room - in plenty of time to get to class."
"There was no going back after that," Amanda continued. "Other women joined me, and before long the showers were used by both sexes whenever they wanted. When that open nudity in the showers didn't cause the sky to fall, everyone became more relaxed about how they dressed. Girls occasionally walked the halls in their bras if the heat made them sweaty, or their laundry washing cycle left them with no clean tops. Guys were in underpants, bare chested, and a few exhibitionists wore even less. The girls didn't rise to that bait, just continued living our lives without the constraint of always having to wear 'appropriate' clothes."
"Wow," was all I could say. No wonder she didn't bat an eye when I barged into her bathroom.
"Did you like seeing men naked?" I asked her.
