Checking out attractive women was the last thing I expected to find myself doing at work that day. After months of struggling with both physical and emotional love, I was finally in the relationship I'd pined for. I was together with the perfect woman, the girl of my dreams, and things couldn't have been better. I wasn't looking to shop around for girls anymore. I was only 18, but already I felt like the big search of my life was over. A coworker of mine had even mentioned something to me after a couple cute girls walked by us and I didn't even acknowledge them.
But there was something about this girl Gracie that caught my eye. I work as a mover, helping people load or unload all their stuff. Jim, a guy I went to high school with, was my new coworker who went with me on the bigger jobs. We were at this woman Gracie's house to unpack her huge U-Haul. She'd just moved from elsewhere in the state, and as is sometimes the case, she was very talkative with us since she didn't know anyone and wanted to know more about the town.
Gracie had a body that would've caught most guys' attention. She was average height, but had a nice big ass and a huge chest. She was neither a big nor a little girl, but she was built surprisingly solid--the kind of girl who could win Prom Queen but who also might have tried out for the boys football team and made it--and she carried herself with undeniable confidence. It wasn't a surprise that a body like that caught my attention. What did surprise me about my interest, though, was that Gracie was black.
I don't have anything against black girls, but I'm a white guy from a white family from a white neighborhood. I've only dated white girls, and since my school was predominantly white, I'd never had any close black friends. As far as black girls were concerned, I'd never had an interest, sexually. But when I first saw Gracie when she opened the door to greet Jim and I, even before I saw the great curves of her body, I felt a strong, instant attraction.
As the afternoon wore on, this attraction was something I just couldn't shake. Every chance I got to sneak a peak at Gracie, whether it was the sight of her tight jeans hugging her ass or just her dark eyes with the long, black lashes, I had to take it. I actually stumbled a few times as I tried to check out her cleavage and imagined what her nipples would look like. In just a couple hours, I felt more than single again. I felt like I was on the hunt.
"So where's your boyfriend?" I asked kiddingly. Gracie was also a very personable woman, so she was okay with personal questions like that.
"Oh, I've had enough of men," she said half-seriously. "You men need to get together and regroup. Try and figure out what you're doing and what your priorities are."
"That mean you're batting for the other team now?" I joked.
Gracie laughed. "Ok, I'm not that sick of men. I just need to lay low and take it easy for a while." She smiled big. "I hope that didn't just crush all your hopes and dreams."
"Ah, Gracie," I smiled back. "You couldn't handle me." I couldn't believe what I was saying. I was never this forward, especially at work and with a client.
"I don't doubt it!" Gracie shot back. "You men are all too crazy for me to handle any of you! You lie and you're messy and all you ever pay attention to is the damn TV and ESPN."
"I wasn't talking about that," I laughed.
Gracie stopped, put her hands on her hips, and smiled at me. "Oh then what were you talking about?"
I had ideas of what to say, but none were playful enough for the conversation, and none were subtle enough to keep me from getting sued or fired. "I gotta get back out to the truck," I smiled, then escaped outside for more boxes.
A few more box loads later, I was carrying the headboard of Gracie's bed while she went through a box of clothes in the bedroom. She was leaned over, and I could see the top of her red panties peeking out from under her pants. Distracted, I tripped on the carpet and half fell as I set the headboard on the floor. Gracie reached out to help me just in case I needed it, which I didn't, but I appreciated the feel of her fingers against the goose bumped flesh on my arm.
"Man says I couldn't handle him. He can't even handle my headboard," she joked to herself out loud.
Me being 18 and her being at least 26 or so made me feel good about her referring to me as "man", even though she was kind of making fun of me.
"Is that a challenge?" I asked with a smile.
This time my response did get a surprise reaction from Gracie, though her grin told me she was cool about it.
"Oh, you! Boy," she laughed to me, "Those are adult-only games you're talking about."
"So you're not going to give me a chance? You afraid I'll win?"
"No!" she laughed. "Cause I can't lose. If you win, I win. I'm just afraid you'll be wasting my time. That's what I'm afraid of."
"Oh, that hurts, Gracie," I said, faking offense. "What have I ever done to deserve that?"
"Exactly! What have you done? You look too scrawny to have even been with a girl."
Ok, I thought. So I was losing the "man" image. But this was still fun and not at all off-putting. The fact that the conversation was getting more and more risquΓ© kept my spirits up. Besides that, I knew she was merely reaching for insults by calling my scrawny. I wasn't a big guy, but years of manual labor had kept me in pretty decent shape, and everyone I met said I looked older than I was. But Gracie must have worried that I'd really taken some offense, so she was quick to switch gears.
"You have a girl?"
"Yeah," I said. But for that brief instant, I couldn't even remember what Alana looked like.
"How many?"
"Right now?" I laughed.
"Oh, you talk pretty big. No, not right now. How many girls have you been with?"
It didn't seem right to just answer the question with a hard number. That wouldn't have been fun enough.
"How many guys have taken on that head board?" I responded.
We both laughed.
"She white?"
"My girl?"
"Yeah. Your girl."
"Yeah."
"What about the last girl? Was she white?"
I pretended to think back. "Yeah."
"You ever been with a sister?"
"No."
"So you're telling me you've only been with white girls and you think you can talk to me like I'm the one who can't handle it? Let me tell you something Gavin. You're still a virgin as far as I'm concerned. No, you ain't even a virgin. You're still learning about how to be a virgin. And my head board? You take that on and it'll kill you. Blow your mind."
"I wasn't talking about my mind being blown."
Even I had to admit that had taken things too far. Gracie's eyes went wide with shock, and then she looked embarrassed, she was speechless, and though she still smiled and it seemed genuine, she looked down and only softly whispered her next words.
"Ok then."
And then she went back to sorting through her clothes.
"Hey," I started to say, not sure what I was going to say next. But she stopped me.
"You, boy, don't know what you're dealing with. You just better get that cute little ass of yours back to the truck and get the rest of my bed. You're gonna put it together, right?"
"Yeah, I can do that."
"Well that's a start."
There were a lot of mixed signals in that last exchange, and I pondered over it as I did as she told me. Maybe I had gone too far with the 'blow' line, but she still commented on my ass. And then this business with the bed, what was that about? Whatever it all meant, she was still being fun and friendly, and I didn't feel like I'd talked myself into a corner even if that was exactly what I'd done.
I caught up with Jim, who was still loading the bulk of the boxes and things into the living room. I told him that Gracie wanted the bed next, so we did some rearranging in the truck to get it, grabbed the rest of the pieces, then took the mattress in together.
Gracie stood back as we brought the mattress in and leaned it against the wall.
"Okay," I said after Jim left. "Where do you want the bed?"
"No more funny guy, huh?" she asked. "Now it's all business. 'Where's the bed go?' Looks like somebody realized they were in over their head."
"I'd sure like to be," I replied, "But somebody in this room is all talk. Saying I can't handle things because they're afraid I just might."
"Oh please, boy."