Fast-forward to the following summer. I can't remember what we did with the kids, but we had the whole afternoon and evening to ourselves. Our only general plan was to see a 5 o'clock movie at the Mattituck theatre, beyond that we would play it by ear. As we dressed to go out I noticed what Paula was wearing. White jeans with a rather thin, printed tank-style top.
"I'll go commando if you do." I offered.
"Is that right."
"Yup."
"This top is way too thin for me to do that."
"Well, those jeans don't look too thin to me." Hoping to at least salvage as much as I could.
Giving me a sideways look, Paula took her jeans back down, pulled off her panties and pulled the jeans back on.
"Happy now?"
"Yes, yes, yes. Thank you." as I kissed her. She kissed back enthusiastically so the plan was working.
We were early for the movie so we had a quick beer at the bar across the street from the theatre. I had read a positive review of the movie in the local newspaper and also hoped we could do a little making out in the theatre. This was another weird thing that we often used to do back then - make out like teenagers at the movies. Don't ask me why, it makes no sense. We have cars and a house for that, yet I would almost attack Paula in the theatre and she was almost always a trooper. She would even let me pet her quite a bit considering the setting, but she would never pet me back.
On a related note: I do remember one movie we went to during this same basic timeframe where she pretty much voluntarily ditched her bra and panties in the theatre bathroom before we went to our seats. I'm so pissed at myself now for not recognizing her level of arousal that day, probably because I hadn't initiated it and also because my normally raging libido was at a nadir at that moment. She wanted to sit in the last row and while she didn't say so (and really never could) I think she wanted to blow me in the theatre. Think Alanis Morriset from 'You oughta know.'. Oh, to have the chance to do things over!
Back to Mattituck: the movie sucked. I mean really sucked. We left like 15 minutes into it, something I've never done before or since. We didn't even stay to make out. With the extra time on our hands we started driving east. Now I should mention that eastern Long Island has like 80 wineries and we had hardly gotten on the road before we came upon one. We agreed to stop and partake of some of their samples. Despite the squandered movie we were in good spirits and the wine contributed to Paula's kissy-ness.
I really can't remember the exact timing but after the winery we made our way to the picturesque town of Greenport. While there are a number of restaurants and bars there, it's not really a party town, at least it wasn't back then. There are shops, bars and restaurants and of course the waterfront. We walked about holding hands and I had to cool my jets as she explored a shop or two. As evening approached we chose a restaurant that had rooftop seating and had a nice dinner. The whole day had been nice and what happened next, while totally unplanned by me, made it forever remarkable to me.
We both stopped at the restrooms on the way out of the restaurant and as we parted I asked Paula, "How about you ditch the bra."
Of course I finished before her and was waiting outside the ladies room when she walked out - and imprinted an image that remains forever and permanently etched in my memory.
"Ta-Da!" Paula chimed as she stepped out, shoulders back and her now obviously unfettered breasts swaying beneath what I then realized was indeed a very thin top.
