As I sit at my desk at work, I look at the clock again, 12:45pm. My friend and co-worker, sitting behind me giggles at my nervousness. It's all her fault anyway. She set me up to this, it was all her idea. I had been perfectly content living life like a frumpy divorced woman since my husband of many years left me for his too young, very ditzy, secretary who was convinced he hung the moon.
The divorce came as no surprise really. I had known the marriage was dead for years, but had decided to try and stay together for the kids. And while it had pissed me off that he cheated on me, now that the divorce was over, we remained friends. We were always better at that anyway. He now called asking for advice for his new young bride for gifts, romantic getaways, jewelry, and advice on sex. Not that I ever got the gifts, jewelry or getaways while we were married, and the sex was just ok. Everyone thought I was crazy to still be there for him, but he was the father of my kids and we did live together many years.
I look at the clock again, 12:50, and another snicker from behind. I suck in a deep cleansing breath and shot a glare at my friend who is now all out laughing. Yes, this is all her fault. She convinced me to email you, a friend of her husbands. You were living in another state at the time and it all seemed so harmless. You are single, and mentioned to my friend's husband that you would really like a nice lady to chat with to make the day more interesting. Nothing more, just a chat buddy. So your friend passed on my email address and the chatting began.
At first it was a little awkward, not sure how to interact with a unknown person on my computer, but I soon felt I was opening up a little. At first we talked about our day, work load, duties, and soon moved to likes, dislikes, favorite foods, music and kids. We found we had a lot in common and I was soon looking forward to logging on to my email everyday to chat. At first we kept it to workdays and work hours, but after a little while we were logging on during the weekend to just say hi.
I glanced at the clock without really moving my head so Ms. Nosey behind me wouldn't notice. 12:55. The phone rang at my desk and I jumped, almost knocking over my large ice tea as I reached for the phone. Ms. Nosey got a kick out of that too. I seriously needed to reevaluate our friendship. After I transferred the phone call, I took a long drink of my tea and thought of when we first decided to exchange pictures. I must have taken at least a dozen head shots with my cell phone before I got one that was somewhat satisfactory. Without trying to dwell on it too much, I attached the file and hit "send" and held my breath. I told myself it didn't matter what you said, we were just friends, not even in the same state. Your email popped up with your picture attached, I sucked in a breath, and hit "open". I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw. You was standing under a tree, smiling. Arms crossed over your chest, wearing faded blue jeans and a soft looking faded tee shirt. You had short cropped hair; it looked light brown, but was hard to see with the shade of the tree, clean shaven, with a broad smile and a definite twinkle in your eye. You looked happy, like someone who would rather tell a joke than discuss politics. Not too tall, maybe close to 6', medium build. Like someone you could cuddle right up against and watch a good movie. I shook my head at the thought; we were just friends, no need to let the mind take a detour. As I studied your picture, my computer notified me that I had mail. I found that I was holding my breath again as I opened it. It came out in a whoosh as I read that you thought I was very pretty. I suddenly felt like I was in high school and the quarterback of the football team just winked at me.
I looked at the clock; I didn't even try to hide it this time, 1:00. I just had 15 minutes to go before I left for my casual encounter. After exchanging pictures, we soon moved to texting on the phone and that led to late night phone calls. After a month of this you informed me that you were coming here for business and you wanted to see me. I was terrified; it was easy to talk to you on the phone, emails. IM's, but to see each other face to face, that was a whole other nightmare. While the years had been kind to me, child bearing had left its mark. Once smooth skin on my hips and butt was now lined with stretch marks and my once perky boobs, drooped a bit. My once curvy size 7 body was now a frumpy 12. You knew my age, and how many kids I had, had seen pictures of me sitting and complimented me. But what would you think up close and personal? I shook my head and reminded myself again that we were just friends.
I clocked out at 1:15 and hurried to the bathroom to freshen up. As I walked back past my friend, she spoke words of encouragement and reminded me that a woman who could sing Karaoke as bad as I did, and live to sing again would be just fine. A quick hug for luck and I was out the door.
I was walking to the movie theater. It was just across the street from my work and it gave me a moment in the fresh fall air to clear my head. We had decided to meet here, in a theater instead or a crowded restaurant or some park for our first meeting. If there were no sparks of attraction, we could always enjoy the movie and call it a day. But if there were sparks...what? Damn, I had been out of the game for so long I didn't even know how to begin a normal relationship, much less a casual one. Usually I'm a strong confidant woman, I raised a family, budgeted a household income, held down numerous full time jobs, but the thought of dating again scared me shitless. It had been so long since I had sex with a man, I think I forgot how.
I bought my ticket to some comedy and made my way into the theater. We decided that I would arrive first since I was closer, find a seat in the back and wait for you. I knew you weren't to arrive for at least 10 more minutes, but I found myself glancing at other people there seeing if I recognized a face. Satisfied that you weren't here yet I approached the bored looking teenage employee at the snack bar and bought a bottled water. I didn't want to worry about popcorn sticking in my teeth. Not a good thing for a first impression. I handed another bored looking teenager my ticket. With a pop of his gum he waived his hand in the general direction of the theater and mumbled some number. I walked through the double doors and gave my eyes a moment to adjust. I found the back row empty and only a handful of other people in the theater. I sat close to the middle, and changed my mind 3 times until I found a seat that had a good view and was not too sticky under my feet. And now the wait began.
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and I nearly squealed out loud. I looked at the text message "Are you there"? I texed back that I was and you replied that you would be there shortly. My nerves kicked in high gear and my stomach knotted. I rubbed my now sweaty palms on my skirt and tried to suck in a deep calming breath. I tried not to jump every time someone walked into the theater, but I couldn't help it. I took a deep drink of my water and almost spat it out when I noticed someone sit next to me. I closed my eyes briefly sending up a small prayer that this wasn't some creepy psycho just looking for a lone woman to add to his victim list. I opened my eyes slowly and glanced at the handsome man sitting nest to me. You glanced back at me and grinned. I recognized the twinkle in your eyes and instantly relaxed. You had a beautiful mouth, curved slightly with a full bottom lip that I immediately thought of nibbling on. That went straight to imagining sucking your tongue deep into my mouth and....wait a minute, what was I doing? I looked straight ahead and could feel the heat of my blush creep up my face. My nipples tightened almost instantly, traitorous nipples. No matter what kind of bra I wore those puppies stuck out tight and proud at the slightest encouragement. And they wanted you to play. I hoped you didn't notice but a second glance at you showed you did. And you grinned more. You placed your drink in the holder and leaned over to say hi. Damn, you smelled good to, my stupid nipples just got happier. I could feel your breath on my neck as you whispered something in my ear and for the life of me I couldn't make out what you was saying. The sensation shot straight down between my legs. Now my sex tingled and joined my happy nipples in the game. Man, were they going to get a talking to. Not that it would do any good. As we exchanged pleasantries I started to relax more.
The lights dimmed even more and the trailers started rolling. Soon we were commenting on the upcoming movies and all nervousness left. You reached over and laced your fingers through mine. Your long fingers wrapping around mine as your thumb drew tiny circles on my wrist. Oh my nipples really liked that. I scooted closer as and our shoulders brushed. You leaned over and put your lips to my ear and told me I looked nice. You drew in a deep breath and let your lips brush lightly right under my ear and told me I smelled nice too. Now places lower started to warm and tingle again.