I could not, for the life of me, imagine a worse way to spend a nice sunny Saturday afternoon than going to the mall. The sight of all these people shopping, trying to buy their way out of the boredom of human existence when there are a million other, better things to do outside - it just depresses me to no end.
But sometimes, a man doesn't have a choice; for instance, when his cell phone dies on him and he needs to get a new one before that boring meeting on Monday morning. I shudder to think of what would happen if I didn't have my phone to look at during that meeting, and had no choice but to pay attention to the PowerPoint presentations instead...
So I drove to the Fairfield Mall that Saturday, had to walk what felt like fifty miles because the closest parking spot was apparently in a different zip code, then waited in line at the phone store only to be served by some barely literate teenager whose sole purpose in life was to sign me up for an extended warranty. You would think a two-letter word would be very quick to convey, but in the end, it took me the better part of an hour to explain the concept of "NO" to that vendor. I thought they taught teenagers that no means no nowadays, but apparently some of them fall through the cracks!
This was starting to be the worst Saturday afternoon ever when suddenly, as I was taking a shortcut through the food court to go back to my car, I notice a woman waving at me. Right away, I recognized the short blond hair, the full lips and those piercing eyes looking straight at me through her glasses: it was my good friend Laura, whom I hadn't seen for the longest time. Laura and I had always been flirting, but without it leading to anything else... so far.
"Oh my god, what a surprise!" she said as I came near her.
"Good to see you", I said while hugging her.
"What are you doing here?"
"Playing frisbee. Frisbee golf, actually. It's golf, but with a frisbee. I have to say, it's very hard to hit that golf ball with a frisbee."
Oh, the way Laura always laughs at my silly jokes. When her eyes started to shine and her sensual lips parted for just a second to smile, showing a flash of teeth... I could have kissed her right there!
"You got a minute?" I asked instead. "You want to go for coffee?"
"No, I need something hotter than coffee right now" she said in that naughty tone of hers.
"What can be hotter than coffee?"
So she showed me.
She grabbed my hand and dragged me behind her to the nearest department store. Don't even ask me which store it was - I sure wasn't paying attention. All I know is there was a perfume section, then the bras and panties, and then a corner with dresses on racks. She took a quick look at the dresses and chose one, but I could tell she wasn't paying attention either. I had shopped with women before: there is no way she made a choice so fast if she actually cared about which dress she was going to pick! Then again, it probably would have been a very nice dress: low cut enough to show some of her cleavage, and short enough to let everyone get a good look at her sexy thighs.
Then she brought the dress (and me in tow) to the changing rooms, and asked the lady with the customer service tag if she could try it on. The lady opened a changing room for Laura. She went in and closed the door behind her... but as soon as the lady was gone to help another customer, she opened the door and waved me in. I looked around to make sure nobody was paying attention to me, then snuck through the crack in the door.
That changing room was the size of a small closet; there was barely enough room for the two of us to stand. There was a mirror on one wall, a small ledge on which to sit, and a set of hooks on the other side where she hung the dress. That is all I had time to see before I pulled her towards me and covered her lips, her face, her neck with kisses. Gone were all the inhibitions that had held me back before; gone, the fear of ruining our friendship by taking it too far; gone, the need to hide my feelings for Laura. The smell of her perfume, which I already loved when I met her, became intoxicating in such a small space. It felt as if every breath I took was full of that perfume: something like spices and strawberries mixed together. I could have kissed her in that small changing room until the store closed down - and then keep on kissing.
But when I caught my breath for a second and went for a second wave along the other side of her sexy face, she stopped me and put a finger on my lips.
"No", she whispered softly. "I want something hotter than that."
