This story may have taken place although I don't think it happened like this. There are at least two accounts circulating of what happened that day and this is neither of them.
Warning, this is a slow burn.
***
It started simply enough, at work. At the coffee machine in the morning, waiting for the notoriously particular Liza Black to finish making her selection, Susan Erskine asked Dilani Halder if she had any plans for the weekend. She did it partly out of Friday politeness and partly, well, Susan wasn't sure what. Both Susan and Dilani were quiet and self-contained around the office which was no surprise since they were both young graduates hired to crunch big data, and their skill sets did not naturally overlap with outgoing personalities. And they both always had plenty of work to do, heads down and busy.
"Nothing planned," Dilani admitted. "You?" she asked shyly.
"I'll be going for a bush walk on Sunday," Susan admitted. "that is, if the weather is okay."
Liza, half listening, perked up her attention. "The weather is going to be perfect," she stated, explaining. "I checked, I'm taking the dog to the beach."
"I was going to go alone," Susan admitted. "Do you walk?" she asked Dilani.
"I could walk," Dilani suggested in a way that Liza felt suggested some need to improve her social skills. Liza's face showed that she had to help.
"Nothing healthier than a walk in the fresh air," Liza suggested, hoping that she hadn't pushed them together too hard. Rather than get more involved, Liza picked up her coffee and left them to it.
On Sunday, Susan collected Dilani and drove into the hills to the John Forrest National Park. They talked a little on the drive out.
"Have you done this trail before?" Dilani asked Susan who admitted that she had started it a few weeks before by herself before deciding that she didn't want to do the whole trail alone.
"I didn't feel comfortable being out there with no one else around."
"It's going to be a hot day," Dilani observed later on.
"Warm," Susan corrected. "It's only going to be about twenty-seven degrees."
"I brought water," Dilani replied and took a sip from a bottle she pulled out of her backpack. She accidently brushed Susan's arm as she put the bottle back. "Sorry," she rushed nervously.
"I see you're prepared," Susan noted calmly, as she stole a glance at Dilani before concentrating again on the road. "I don't want to miss the turnoff," she apologised.
Dilani insisted on paying their entrance into the national park. "After all, you did the driving," she pointed out, so Susan backed off from her own aim to pay for both of them.
Susan parked a distance from most of the cars in the carpark. "By the time we get back," she told Dilani, "they'll be in the sun and we'll be in the shade."
Dilani hadn't considered that but quickly worked out that Susan was right. She felt that the day was going to be hotter than Susan's prediction but she didn't rock that boat. She did coat herself with sunscreen once they were out of the car and stretching.
"I didn't think you'd burn," Susan commented as she pasted sunblock over her own pale arms and legs, careful to coat the back of her neck and her face.
"My skin may be a bit dark, but I still burn," Dilani admonished her with a smile as she finished her own sun protection and adjusted her peaked cap.
"You're not that dark, I guess," Susan retreated. "I burn like anything." She smiled an apology, careful that they would still be working together happily on the Monday. "The trail I was talking about I thought we'd take is the Christmas Tree Creek Walk. It's supposed to be a bit of a challenge and it's rated to take four hours. Are you up for that?"
"That sounds fine."
"There's a lookout where you have a great view of Perth on the way. That's as far as I got last time. You won't find many walkers on the track after that."
"We're only thirty minutes out of Perth. And it seems like total outback bushland," Dilani gushed.
Susan smiled carefully because she had thought the same, she just didn't say it. "When you're ready, let's begin," she said instead, as she checked the weight of her daypack, trying to decide if she had too much stuff in it.
Dilani pulled some sort of windbreaker out of her backpack. "I guess I won't need this," she laughed, "can I put it in your boot?"
"Sure," Susan agreed as she clicked the boot open and watched Dilani carefully fold and place the windbreaker there. And she realised that Dilani's shorts went well down past her knees and the sleeves of her blouse covered her elbows. Susan's cap-sleeved t-shirt barely covered her biceps and her track shorts were comfortable even if they did show most of her muscular legs. They set off and in moments they were on an earth trail under a canopy of tall trees.
"Is this pace okay for you," the taller Susan asked.
"I'm good to stay at your pace," Dilani insisted happily.
They walked on in silence. Only the slow wind in the top leaves of the trees and the chirping of insects interrupted the soft footfalls of the two women crunching easily along the track. Susan let Dilani move on ahead of her, so she could keep a pace comfortable to her. She noticed how Dilani moved smoothly and strongly even if her musculature was not apparent under her modest attire.
And her pace suited Susan. "You're quite fit," she admired.
Dilani turned and smiled. "I work out four or five times a week at the gym." But in case that was boasting she added: "But this is completely different from what I usually do."
Susan however was distracted totally. Something about the open warm smile, her large open brown eyes and the way the sun shone on Dilani's soft face woke Susan to see her incredible beauty. It hit Susan so hard she did not know how to process her reaction. For a moment she stood overwhelmed by Dilani's stunning appearance. Dilani, unaware of her effect, turned to keep her eyes on the track. Susan clicked out of her paralysis. She followed Dilani's decent pace but looking at her differently than before.
The track soon widened so Susan could catch up and walk alongside Dilani now noticing her breasts curve out from her chest. What is happening to me, Susan worried, as Dilani showed no grasp of her powers over her colleague. Susan wished they could encounter some other walkers. Partly to regain her sanity and just as much to see if Dilani had that effect on others.
But they reached the lookout without meeting anyone. In Perth's clear air and being about 200 metres above the coastal plain, they could easily see all of Perth's highrise centre, the suburban spread and even the blue shimmer of ocean before Rottnest Island appeared as a thin sliver on the horizon. They tried to spot their houses.
"Unknown territory after this," Susan advised, trying to sound offhand as she found herself studying Dilani's soft hands as the shorter woman handled her phone for the necessary panoramic photos.
"Let me," Susan insisted as she gestured that she would snap Dilani in front of the vista.
"Sure," Dilani agreed.
Their fingers touched as Dilani handed her phone over. Susan let that electricity course into her. Dilani examined and approved of the pics that she took.
"Do you want me to take some?" Dilani asked.
Susan posed but unlike Dilani who stood facing the camera beaming like a natural, Susan turned looking over one shoulder attempting a model's pout. Dilani laughed at that and Susan did too as Dilani snapped her. "Another," Susan suggested and shifted her forward sleeve to bare her shoulder. They both laughed. Susan held the pose but lifted her t-shirt to bare her side. What was she doing? Well, if nothing else she was amusing Dilani who kept snapping with Susan's phone. For one last shot, she held down the side of her shorts enough to bare her hip.
"That's done," Susan decided straightening herself back together.
"Where are you going to publish those racy pics?" Dilani laughed.
"There's no known site that could handle them," Susan insisted with a seriousness that got them both laughing as intended. "Now for our trek into the Never Never," she warned. "Say goodbye to civilisation." It was still the two of them.
They continued as they had before Susan's conversion. Until they heard a noise behind them. They stopped. Someone was coming up the track. A lone man, tall and thin, in the right sort of khaki trekking clothes strode up to them, grunted and continued on.
"Well, hello to you too," Susan mocked as he disappeared around the next bend.
"Quite a catch," echoed Dilani.
"You think?"
"Nah, man in a hurry, on a Sunday, in the bush. Definitely not my type." She smiled "But nice legs," she added, out of character, at least Susan thought. She had never heard Dilani comment on other people.
"You don't give opinions on other people?" Susan asked.
Dilani shook her head, her long dark hair waving a little. "Better to keep such things to yourself sometimes," she replied.
As in the car, as at work they didn't talk much as they strode deeper into the bush that seemed to grow ever denser for a while. As the track widened letting the sun shine onto them through a break in the canopy, they heard a rhythmic clumping sound just ahead of them and stopped, Susan reaching for Dilani's arm for support.
"What do you think?" Dilani asked. "A kangaroo?"
"Maybe," Susan replied, then realising. "God, you're hot," wiping Dilani's sweat onto her own thigh.
"Maybe," Dilani agreed.
"You could take off your blouse. I'm guessing you have a sports bra underneath."
"Yeah, but..."
"But what? If someone sees, they'll think you are dressed sensibly for the weather. Look, okay, so there's no embarrassment I will too." And Susan lifted her t-shirt off revealing a sensible bra covering her pert breasts. And stared at Dilani.
"I feel like I'm running out of choice here," Dilani smiled in a way that Susan couldn't read. But she started to unbutton the blouse. As she slipped it off her shoulders, Susan quietly took it, folded it and placed it in her own backpack. Dilani looked at her with curiosity but didn't say anything. As Susan had hoped, her breasts under her sports bra were more prominent than Susan's.
"Don't you say anything at work," Dilani insisted. "And no photos. I am a natural prude."
"You have my word," Susan smiled. "What would Liza say," she added staring right at Dilani's chest. But Dilani didn't answer that.
They sipped at their waters. Susan felt her own forehead and then Dilani's. "You're still hot," she advised. "I think the problem could be these large sweaty things," she concluded as she started to undo Dilani's shorts.
"What are you doing?" Dilani asked politely of the obvious. "Are you going to try to dominate me?"
"No," Susan smiled, "that's not me. I'll do it by persuasion, by sensible suggestions."
She yanked Dilani's shorts down the rest of the way forcing the shorter woman to step out of them. As she folded them into her backpack she admired what she saw. "I guess I should have checked that you are wearing sensible undies."
