"People think I'm weird anyway," was Carson Goodman's response to the question posed by the woman who was making them dinner, Ann Knox, who had wondered aloud what people would think if they saw a 19 year old boy going to an old lady's apartment on a Friday night.
"Besides, you aren't old," the chubby lad said. "You're about the same age as my Mom."
"I bet your Mom's in a lot better shape than I am though," the skinny woman replied. "I don't know what aches more, my back or my feet?"
"My Mom's feet bother her too," Carson answered as his eyes went to the middle-aged woman's facial features, her rather plain look as always not enhanced by any make-up or attempts to make herself look younger. "Sometimes I rub them for her."
"Now that's a lucky lady," Ann Knox declared as she stirred the pot.
"I'll rub yours too if you want," Carson offered. "After dinner that is, unless you have plans."
"Plans? No honey. This is my usual Friday night," Ann explained. "Although this is nicer because I have company."
"Do you need help with anything?" Carson offered as he stood near the woman who he worked alongside of eight hours a day.
"No honey. Almost done here."
Carson nodded as he took in the sight of Ann Knox's arms which were bare to above the elbow in the shirt she had changed into when she got home, quite unlike the long sleeved uniform work shirts they wore each day, and seeing the older woman's slender arms was even better than he had dreamed.
Carson had gotten glimpses of Ann's arms a couple of time just above the wrist, and those peeks of the black hairs on her pale arms paled as he enjoyed the long downy growth that grew on the outer part of her limbs up to her elbow and a little farther up where the sleeve cut off the view.
Why this excited Carson he didn't know and he thought that he must be weird because when he mentioned liking the way that a woman teacher's arms looked - arms that were furry like Ann's were - his friend laughed at him. After that he kept that part of him hidden, much like he did the copy of Playboy that had pictures of a young and natural Madonna in it.
That wasn't the only part of Ann Knox that Carson had gotten a peek at in the couple months they were working together. Once he had seen Ann lift her pant leg and pull up her socks, and while he wasn't much of a look he knew he could get a better view if he was rubbing her feet.
"So tell me Carson," Ann Knox asked near the end of the meal. "None of my business, but I was just wondering if you like boys."
"Boys? You mean like, like?" Carson asked, and when Ann nodded he very strongly answered, "No. Why? Did somebody at work say something? I know they don't like me much but..."
"No honey, nobody said anything to me and besides, they like me a lot less than they like you," Ann assured her young co-worker. "I was just curious."
"You do know that I'm a woman, don't you?" Ann mentioned in an offhand manner.
"Uh. Yeah. Of course."
"Just wanted to make sure. A woman that worked near me before you started thought I was a guy," Ann related. "I think that some of the other guys on our floor told her that. It used to be one of those urban legends in our building, and I know I'm not feminine so that doesn't help."
"You mean your voice?" Carson asked, because Ann's voice was deep, deeper than his own, and then referring to her close cropped black hair style which was very very short he asked. "Your haircut?"
"Yes and yes, among other things," Ann answered as she ran her hands up and down her opposite forearms, and as Carson watched the down slip between Ann's fingers he longed to know whether it felt as soft as it looked. "I think you can guess the other things."
Carson swallowed hard and looked down at his plate, aware that his host had noticed him staring at her arms but was finding it tough not to look.
"I'm sure they must have told you that they call me Ann but my full name is Androgynous," Ann recalled. "That one I've heard for almost all 25 years I've worked there."
"Yeah, somebody said that to me when I started and I laughed," Carson replied. "Mostly because the other guy laughed and I didn't want to admit I didn't know what the word meant. Had to look it up. No, I know you're a lady and I think you're pretty."
"Really," Carson added.
"I believe you. That's why I invited you here and it's also why I'm looking forward to my feet getting rubbed."
******
"I won't be a minute," Ann said before she ran into the bathroom for what she promised would be a quick shower. "I wouldn't be able to enjoy this knowing my feet smelled."
"I don't care," Carson said and reminded his host that he was still wearing his work clothes and was sweaty too.
"That's different. I like sweaty men," Ann had told her guest, and she was quick in there like she had promised, saving the rug Carson was pacing around on from wearing out.
"Now where do you want me?" Ann asked as she looked around her sparsely furnished apartment. "You're the man."
"Uh - the couch?"
"Fine by me," Ann declared and plopped into the far end, swinging her feet up onto the cushions while keeping her long white bathrobe together as best she could.
"That's a nice robe," Carson said while sitting down, and the older woman put her feet on his lap and wiggled her toes.
Carson didn't care about the robe but liked the way that it only came halfway down Ann's calves, exposing incredibly skinny legs that were coated with a profuse amount of hair, especially on the insides of the limbs right down to her ankles.
"Having second thoughts honey?" Ann asked. "No hard feelings if you are."
"No - uh," Carson mumbled as he held his hands above the little feet on his thigh, and they must have been shaking as badly as the lad feared because even Ann could see them quivering.
"You aren't nervous, are you?" Ann said. "My best buddy scared of me?"
"A little nervous," Carson admitted, adding, "Excited too."
"In that case, just look up at me and lower your hands," Ann told the boy, and when he did and his sweaty palms landed on her size 5's, she smiled and said, "There you go."
"Little feet," Carson said as he began to caress them lightly before starting to knead them with a bit more authority.
"Every thing about me is miniature," Ann sighed. "I'm just a bag of bones, even though as you saw I ate as much as you did. I just could never gain weight for whatever reason."
"Wish I could say that," Carson mused aloud, the thirty or extra pounds he was never able to shake from his 5'8" frame always bothering him.