"Hey I'm heading off the diner, want to come with?" I asked Annabelle, my next door neighbor as we both walked out of our respective apartments into the hallway.
She and her husband and their had moved in about two years ago and we had developed a neighborly friendship. Dinners over each other's place, water the plants and feed the cat kind of thing. I worked from home freelance and she does the same. Both my wife and her husband worked full time.
"Yeah sure, I was just going out to get something!" she said as she locked the door. "I have a little time."
Annabelle was always fun to be around. Definitely a little more out there than her husband, often saying things that would embarrass him. She was always joking and making light of all the tribulations in life. Our personalities meshed pretty well, although at times my sarcasm was a bit lost on her. We ate our breakfast, laughed a lot and complained about not getting enough work and how our spouse's annoyed us. We walked out the diner and headed back the apartment building.
"So, what are you up to for the rest of the day?" she asked.
"Eh, you know, just laying around the apartment and watch porn all day." I slyly grinned.
Without missing a beat, she said, "Ugh, I would love a day like that. I just usually get a few minutes here and there to porn out. It's so stressful sometimes, always worried that Tim will find my sex ramblings in the browser history, man I try to be so careful. He'd kill me if he found out. That sounds like such a great day, I'm jealous."
And she turned to look at me. My eyes wide, mouth slightly agape. We stopped dead on the sidewalk.
"Um, I guess by the look on your face you were kidding. I'm such an idiot." she said burying her face in her hands. "I can't believe I just confessed that to you."
I was smiling now, not being able to control my reaction to how funny the situation was. I was trying not to just laugh out loud. It didn't work.
"It's fine Annabelle, really." I said between laughing.
We stood there in the middle of the sidewalk in silence for what seemed like eternity.
Hoping to break the awkwardness, "You know about private or incognito browser windows right?"
"Private what?"
"They are windows you can launch in your browser that won't record your browsing history. There are even browsers you can download for your iPad. or phone"
"Really, oh my god, that's brilliant." and she perked up a bit, forgetting her embarrassment. "Can you show me. Please. That would make my life so much easier!"
"Um, yeah, sure."
"Listen, I know this is weird. I can probably figure out on my own if it this is too awkward."
"Nah, it's fine. really. What are porn watching friends for anyway!" I grinned.
"Ha, yeah, great, I have a few hours until a meeting, so is now ok?"
"Yeah, yeah, lets do it."
We walked back to her apartment and I waited in the living room for her to collect her various electronics. I walked her through how to find the settings on the different browsers and helped her find a secret browser to download for her iPad.
It was all a little strange. I was showing my friend next door, a woman, how to surreptitiously watch porn so her husband would not find out.
"Your so lucky that your wife understands that you watch porn. I wish I had that. I would love to be able to share it with Tim. That would be so fun. But alas, he is just too weird about it."
"Uh, she doesn't know. Carol would freak out if she did. Hence me knowing how to watch it with minimal possibility of someone finding out."
"Really! I totally though she would be more open to it. Man too bad our significant others are such prudes!" She smiled. "What sites do you use?
"Ah well, um." I stammered.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't push this, it's just so nice tone able to actually talk about it with someone, you know? But we can stop, it's fine." She said trying not to look too disappointed.
"No, no, it's totally cool. What about you, what do you like to watch or look at? Lets start there."
To say I wasn't attracted to Annabelle would be a lie. She was small, not petite, but had a well rounded, beautiful body, with curves in all the right places, cute short hair. It seemed like she enjoyed showing her cleavage and often wore tights or yoga pants that clung to her legs. I would have to admit she sometime showed up in my fantasies. So was it a bit awkward and a little weird, talking about porn with the woman next door.