We'd watched with a mix of awe and confusion as the Coronavirus spread across the world. In China it had seemed so far away that we could be detached, even relaxed about it (judging by all the memes people were sharing, anyway). Then, suddenly, it was upon us. People were panic buying face masks and toilet paper and the case numbers were rising. Tom Hanks got sick! It seemed almost overnight that the world changed, and suddenly that train or bus ride to the office seemed like one risk too many. It was almost a relief when the lockdown came in and we were being told to work from home and do all our meetings through video calls. The lack of direct socialising might suck for a while, but at least we'd be safe.
For me, working from home was going to be pretty easy. I've got the sort of number-crunching finance job you can do from absolutely anywhere on the planet as long as you have a laptop and a decent wi-fi signal.
It wasn't even as though I was going into isolation by myself, either -- I share my flat with a roommate, Maddie. She's rented the other bedroom in the flat for three months now, although most of the time you wouldn't know it. See, Maddie's a night owl -- she works at a couple of bars and sometimes at a nightclub, so she tends to be out most of the time I'm home. We see each other in passing, but our lives are pretty separate -- at least, they had been until the lockdown.
But of course, no bars or nightclubs were allowed to open now, and so Maddie was out of a job. She'd been worried but I'd told her I would cover as much of our rent as she needed me to until this was all over, and she had some money put aside, so she was in a better place than many in her position. The only thing she was going to have to adjust to -- well, that we were both going to have to adjust to -- was having someone else around in the apartment, rather than each being on our own.
In a way though, I was rather looking forward to getting to know my roommate a little better. Maddie's always seemed pretty fun, with her punky cropped hair box-dyed red, her various tattoos and her outgoing, take-no-shit attitude. She's one of those girls who seems to relish whatever new experiences life gives her. Meanwhile I'm more your introspective, thoughtful sort of chap, who tends not to rush into anything -- but I've always envied people like Maddie, and I was hoping a bit of time with her might cause some of her spirit to rub off on me.
The Tuesday that was the first official day of the lockdown, however, the flat was as quiet as it usually was while I made my coffee and set myself up at the table in our open-plan living room/kitchen area. I'd read that keeping a routine is one of the best ways to cope with a sudden transition from being office-based to home working, so I had decided that despite swapping my usual suit for sweatpants and a t-shirt I was still going to be 'at my desk' for 9am. Maddie, though, had no need of such a routine, so I wasn't too surprised that she'd chosen to sleep in.
I beavered away at my work until almost lunchtime before I heard my flatmate come into the kitchen behind me.
"Morning Will," she slurred sleepily behind me.
"Morning, Maddie," I replied, turning to acknowledge her. Then I performed an almost cartoonish double-take.
My flatmate was stark naked.
"Um..?" I began.
"What?"
"Forget something?" I managed. She looked blank for a second, then realisation crossed her face.
"Oh, this," she said, gesturing at herself. "Yeah I always walk around nude here. You know that, right?"
I shook my head. "I've never seen you," I answered.
Maddie looked puzzled. "You sure?" she asked. "I could have sworn I had mentioned it before now. I'm like this most of the time."
My pulse was racing. "No," I squeaked. "I'd remember if you told me something like that."
She shrugged. "Oh, well, I guess you aren't usually here during the day..."
"Lockdown, remember?"
She grinned. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, I'm all over the place first thing in the morning."
"It's lunchtime."
"Maybe to you," she pouted.
There was a silence. Maddie stood completely nonchalant and unembarrassed by her lack of clothing, a quality I found suddenly intriguing. Intriguing in the sort of way that made me glad I was seated behind a desk and wearing sweatpants.
"You don't... mind, do you?" she asked.
I thought.
We were going to be on lockdown for weeks, who knew how long. Maddie wasn't exactly my type of woman; I'm a bit of a vanilla bore in that regard, all my exes have been girls with long straight hair and curvy figures. Maddie, now I could see all of her, was slim almost to the point of being skinny, and pretty flat-chested, her body decorated here and there with tattoos. But in a choice between spending my lockdown with a naked woman to look at, or with one who wasn't naked, it wasn't much of a contest.
"Its fine," I hurriedly assured her.
She grinned disarmingly. "Good, because I'm not changing my ways just 'cause we're stuck indoors together."
I smiled to myself. Evidently Maddie hadn't really been asking for permission. Again, her unapologetic attitude towards her nakedness was something I found myself liking.
Maddie hung out in the kitchen for a while, standing leant against the counter eating a bowl of cereal. I tried to get to learn a little more about this hitherto-unknown-to me-clothing-optional side of hers, but there wasn't much of a story there. She didn't have some unusual passion for going to nude beaches and she wasn't part of some naked social circle with like-minded others. She simply found being unclothed at home more comfortable. It wasn't something she gave much thought to, which perhaps explained her scatterbrainedness when it came to whether or not this was a new sight for me (after a while we established she was confusing me with a previous male flatmate), and she didn't have much to say about it beyond a few monosyllabic responses and some shrugs; but she said enough that I began to understand that she just didn't really see nakedness as taboo, and that for her standing naked in front of me was no more intimate than if she'd been in her pyjamas (which, of course, were something she didn't own). She seemed completely relaxed about the fact I could see every inch of her; her perky nipples and small, flat breasts, the minute swell of her belly, even her patch of fuzzly growing-back pubic hair, and I tried my best to appear as nonchalant as possible in return. I don't know why, but I kind of felt she would lose a lot of respect for me if I started acting like a horny teenage boy around her, even though my inner horny teenage boy was currently feeling very happy about this new development in our living arrangements.
In spite of the fact that she didn't have much to say about her nudity, Maddie was more than happy to hang out, and so it was more than just her state of dress that led me to feel that my idea of getting to know my flatmate more during lockdown was off to a flying start. In the end though, it became obvious that we'd chatted long after I should have returned to work (unsurprisingly, having a naked girl to talk to was something of a distraction), and Maddie, for my benefit, excused herself back to her room, while smiling to myself at my good fortune, I settled back down to work
---
Soon enough it was time for me to wrap up for the day, and almost on cue Maddie made a return appearance. She still, I was pleased to see, hadn't bothered to put on clothes, and once again I felt my cock stir at the sight.
That, I had to admit, was a bit of a problem; I was fairly sure Maddie wasn't strutting around in her birthday suit so as to get me excited. Once again I got the feeling that if she spotted me pitching a tent in my sweatpants, she might start to feel like I wasn't the sort of cool guy she could hang out with and, more importantly, be her naked self with. That I definitely didn't want -- now I'd been given the gift of a naked flatmate, I wasn't keen on having to give it up again. At the same time, I'm a red-blooded heterosexual male, so I wasn't sure I could really do anything about how my body chose to respond.