After writing several stories and having them posted at a website that had a section for erotica I began an exchange of notes and letters with Cal. He had read a number of the stories. We wrote back and forth about story lines and I kept him updated as I finished new stories and submitted them for posting. As we got more comfortable and relaxed in our correspondence we began discussing more personal things including sexuality. This was natural since all of my stories dealt with various sexual situations and adventures.
I told Cal that I was bisexual. I didn’t have a significant other and that I lived alone, but I had a fairly large circle of intimate friends of like mind. Cal told me that he was married and that he was bi-curious but he figured he would never be able to satisfy his curiosity. We left it at that as we also wrote about work, hobbies, vacations and so on.
As we wrote about work we realized we lived and worked in the same large metropolitan area. I didn’t want Cal to feel I was coming on to him so I let him be the first to suggest we try to meet someplace and get better acquainted. We worked in different parts of the city and Cal suggested we meet for lunch somewhere in between. We set up a day and time and place.
I parked on the street near the cafe Cal had suggested. It was a small neighborhood cafe in the middle of a block of small businesses. When I entered I saw a man sitting alone at the counter. He stood, “Hello, I’m Cal and you are?”
I introduce myself with my pen name, but you can call me Wayne.”
He grinned and extended his hand, “Glad to meet the real you at last, Wayne. Let’s take a table.”
I followed him to a table towards the rear of the cafe. Cal looked to be in his late thirties. He was slightly over six feet tall with an average build. He had dark blonde hair and when he turned and sat down I saw he had dark brown eyes. “I’ve really enjoyed your stories and writing back and forth with you, Wayne.”
“Thanks.”
We ate lunch and chatted mostly about work and sports. That was the first lunch of many. We also met a few times for drinks after work at a neighborhood bar near the cafe. Cal never mentioned his bi curiosity and I didn’t broach the subject either. One late summer afternoon we arranged to meet again for drinks after work. When I walked into the bar I saw Cal was sitting in a booth. When I got closer I saw there was a woman seated with him in the booth.
Cal stood as I approached. “Hi Wayne.” He turned to the woman, “Honey, I’d like you to meet Wayne. Wayne, this is my wife Sharon.” Sharon extended her hand and smiled, “Nice to meet you. Please join us.”
As I sat Cal signaled the cocktail waitress. I ordered a drink. Sharon said she was good for the moment and Cal was still working on his first drink. It was happy hour and all the drinks were two-fers. Sharon turned to me, “Cal told me you met through work.”
I glanced at Cal. He gave me a quick shrug. Well, I thought to myself, writing is work. “Yes. His company contacted mine about some specifications for equipment. The request was given to me. Cal was their contact and that’s how we met.” Cal nodded and gave me a large grin.
We sipped our drinks and chatted. Cal asked for menus so we could order dinner. As we ate, we talked about hobbies. Sharon liked photography and sketching and she was taking painting lessons. Cal had tried his hand at sketching but he really enjoyed puttering around in his small shop. “I like working with wood, but I’m certainly no skilled wood worker.
I told them that I collected books and that I’d been interested in photography since I had been in high school.
“What kind of books?” Sharon asked.
“A few old history and mystery books, but mostly books about erotica.”
“Oh.” Sharon excused herself. As she stood and walked away from the booth, I watched her. She was about five foot four or five. Her full hips swayed as she walked. When she returned, Cal stood and kissed her as she slid back into the booth. She had black hair and coal dark eyes. She had full pouty lips. I think that, years ago, someone had described a movie actress’s with similar lips as being “bee stung.” She also appeared to be rather buxom.
“Sharon, what sort of photography are you doing?”
“Oh, mostly landscape and some nature stuff. I’ll take some photos then use them when I work on my sketching. Do you have any particular interest you’re following?”
“Actually, I guess I’m more into the equipment rather than any particular type of photography. I’ve been using a digital camera for a year or so now and I just bought a digital video camera.”
“That’s interesting, Wayne, because I’ve been thinking about getting a digital camera. I take a lot of pictures and the developing and printing costs get pretty high sometimes.”
“You don’t have a darkroom?”
Cal broke in, “No, I wanted to build one for Sharon, but we’ve never gotten around to doing it.”
“If I had a digital camera, I could do almost everything with the computer when I wanted a print.”
Cal looked at me then at Sharon. “How about if Wayne comes over to our place this weekend. You could bring your digital camera and Sharon and I could see if we might want to buy one.”
Sharon smiled, “That would help us when we start shopping for our own. But, Cal, I’ve got painting lessons from two until six on Saturday and on Sunday we’re going to the beach.”
“I’ll tell you what, Sharon, if Wayne can come over around eleven, I’ll fix lunch on the grill while you and he go over the digital camera. Would that work?”
Sharon smiled at me again, “Could you do that, Wayne?”
“I guess so. Eleven o’clock would be fine, if it isn’t too early for you.”
Cal pulled a business card out of his wallet. He wrote on the back of the card. “Here’s our address and phone number.”
I took the card and put it in my billfold. I picked up the dinner check. “Let me get this since you got the drinks. No argument, please.”
I paid the check. “It’s been nice meeting you, Sharon, and I’m looking forward to next Saturday. I think you’ll find that a digital camera will be what you want.”
We walked to our cars together. “See you Saturday, Wayne.” Sharon waved as they drove away.
Saturday was a bright sunny day. I dressed in a polo shirt, shorts and sandals. The drive across town was smooth. The weekend traffic hadn’t built up yet. When I pulled into their driveway, the garage door was open. Cal was polishing the fuel tank on a motorcycle. “Hi, Cal.” We shook hands. “You never mentioned you’re a motorcyclist.”
“Oh, we just use this for running around. We’ll ride it to the beach tomorrow. Got your camera? Let’s go find Sharon.”
I picked up my camera bag and followed Cal into the house. Sharon was putting tubes of paint into her artist’s box. “Hi, Wayne.”
“I’ll leave you two with the camera. Sharon, I’ll start lunch in about thirty minutes after I finish with the bike.”
