Chapter 1
Naked Male seeks Clothed Female.
That was my entire online classified post. I was in the thick of an especially long dry-spell and I was starting to feel desperate. I'd never posted anything like that before, and honestly I wasn't sure if I could actually follow through with any responses I got. Turns out I was fretting for nothing, as I didn't get any replies right away anyway. After a couple of weeks I'd forgotten about it all together. Until more than six months later.
It was a Saturday morning, and I was scanning my email's junk folder -- a weekly habit I'd cultivated. Most of the emails were for penis enlargers, boner pills, or Russian brides, but there was one with the subject
re: Naked Male seeks Clothed Female
which stood out from the rest. There was no sender listed, having been anonymized through the classified's service, but it was sent just this past Monday.
It read: Find me in the coffee shop on the corner of 4th and Maple, Saturday 10am. Don't wear underwear, and
don't be late.
My heart raced and it felt like my saliva turned to chalk.
Could I actually do this? Go to meet a strange woman?
I was desperate when I wrote the post, and things hadn't improved for me any since then. And she requested a public place. I glanced at the clock -- 9:25. My thoughts instantly shifted from "
could I do this?
" to "
could I do this in time?
"
The coffee shop was about 20 blocks away -- I could make it if I jogged. Fortunately it was a nice cool autumn day. I grabbed my wallet, my keys and my jacket, and dashed out the door. I locked it, and started to run down the hall. "Fuck." Before I even let go of the doorknob I remembered her stipulation. I hastened to unlock the door again, leaving the key in the lock, and frantically unbuckled my belt and pants. I pulled them half-way down my legs before they got caught on my shoes, nearly causing me to fall over as I hopped on one foot. I managed to wrest the shoes off, stripped off the pants then flung the underwear onto the couch before pulling the pants back up and replacing the shoes.
I glanced at the clock -- 9:34. "Fuck!" I locked the door and practically sprinted out of my building. Half sprinting, half fast-walking to catch my breath, I made my way straight to the coffee shop. I looked at my phone -- 9:58. "Made it." I paused outside the door to catch my breath, panting heavily from my atypical exertion, hunched over with my hands on my knees.
It was 10:00 on the dot when I walked through the door, finally composed. I looked around the room and realized I had no idea who I was looking for. Nobody looked up at my arrival, and there were no obvious signs showing who I was supposed to meet. "Well, her email said 'find me,'" I said to myself. There were five customers seated at various tables, and two baristas behind the counter. Two of the customers were men, so I could discount them -- if one of them sent the message, I wasn't interested anyway.
I thought I'd start with the ladies behind the counter. The main barista was a (very) young girl, maybe 18 if she was a day. Half shaved head, dyed purple on the other side. Black lipstick and a pierced lip. "Hey, I'm supposed to meet somebody here, 'round about now. Do you know anything about that?"
"Sorry, sir." She looked at her co-worker, who also shook her head. "Neither of us. Can I get you a coffee?"
"Yeah, sure." I was slightly relieved that neither of them were my contact. I'd just turned 33 earlier that year and I didn't think getting naked for an 18 year-old would be as fun in practice as it sounds. Especially when I weighed a good 40lbs heavier than where I wanted to be. "Just give me a regular coffee. Black."
I paid, then resumed looking at the other patrons while my coffee was poured. Of the three women remaining, one looked about my age, one looked about 20 years older than me, and one looked nearly 100, sitting on her walker. Of those three, I really hoped it was the one my age. She had long blonde hair, neatly sun-streaked, and a dark complexion, with brown eyes. I sat down at the table with her, and said "Hi."