Rendezvous

Violet was in her office on the first floor of her three story townhome getting some work done when she heard the doorbell. Who's that, she wondered as she headed to the door as she looked through the side window and saw Nedra standing there.

"Hey, girl," Nedra said as she opened the door.

"Hey." Nedra stepped in and took off her jacket and hung it on the coat rack by the door. "What you up to?"

"Just getting some work done, but I'm almost through with that. What are you doing here?"

"Well, the hubby took the boys and I'm taking the opportunity to get out of the house and go shopping for something to wear to the dinner party tonight. You want to come? We can head over to Mayview Square." Nedra said, rubbing her hands together sinisterly. She knew Violet had a thing for shopping, especially at Mayview Square.

"You got a partner. Let me go upstairs and change; I've been lounging and look like it."

"You look fine," Nedra told her.

Violet looked down at her tattered jeans and t-shirt. "You've been married too long. We can't all just let ourselves go." She laughed as she and Nedra went up the stairs.

Roaming through the mall, Nedra and Violet shopped and talked about what was happening in each of their lives.

"Well, I have this freelance shot for a local wine magazine," Nedra said. "It sounds like it's going to be fun. I'll be going out to Woodinville taking some photos and going out to Mt. Vernon also for a shoot."

"You are really busy aren't you? I'm so happy, Nedra, that things are going well for the photography business. How are my godsons Kenny and Kyle doing?"

"Girl, they're fine playing in little league baseball. I cannot get Damien to see that those kids need some time off from sports." Nedra complained.

"Well, the man is a coach, what do you expect?"

As they looked through the racks at Nordstrom Nedra asked about Paul, "So how are things with you and Paul?" She smiled and giggled.

Violet looked away thinking of her handsome 'friend'. "They're good, really good. I'm just so shocked Nedra."

"Shocked about what?"

"That he's still interested. That he's still pursuing me."

"Why wouldn't he be? Wait a second Violet, you have got to know you are a beautiful, smart, dynamic black woman and any man with any sense would be more than lucky to have you look his way!"

Violet blushed a little. She was just so grateful for Nedra; she always made her feel special. "Thank you, sweetie. You know, I think I'm coming to a decision on whether or not to date him."

"Well, what's the verdict, counselor?"

She laughed at Nedra's use of legalese, "I think the verdict is going to be, yes."

Nedra started to jump up and down, clapping her hands and wiggling her hips.

"Nedra, please! You just didn't win the lotto!"

"Yes, but you did: the man lotto. I am so happy for you! The boy deserves a chance; you've had him hanging on for long enough."

"Well, part of that was because of you," Violet stated as Nedra made her whatever face. "Since I'm going to say to him we'll be seeing each other exclusively and dating and all that, I think there will be another yes tonight."

Nedra looked at her to the side with cat that ate the canary grin "Ooohhh, somebody's going to be bad tonight!"

"Yeah, and that somebody is me!" Violet threw her head back and laughed deeply. "I am nervous as all get out, Nedra. You know the last time I had sex was almost 2 years ago. This man is fine and looks like he knows his way around a bedroom. If any of the moments I've spent with him heavy petting say anything, he's drawing the map for the bedroom. He's good Nedra. I haven't forgotten that forbidden time in the Borders bathroom; he brought new meaning to the word ecstasy."

"Well, you're no slouch, are you? I know you remember how it goes; it hasn't been that long and you don't get sex amnesia. Once you get those clothes off, it will come back to you in detail, I would guess. I mean, haven't you been practicing a little with him while you guys heavy pet."

They both laugh, "Yes, we get some practice in but we've been doing a really good job of keeping clothes on, not exactly our hands over the clothing but at least on. Do you think I need some lingerie or something sexy to wear?" Violet asked.

"Well, if he's anything like Damien he'll just be saying 'yeah, that's nice, now take it off'"

"Oh, maybe that was TMI," said Violet. "Too much information."

"Anyway, you know I've told you more than that. Why don't we stop by the lingerie department and see what we can find that will heat Mr. Paul up? And I want details!"

Violet looked at Nedra like she was insane.

"Don't look at me like that. I want details; blow by effing blow, heifer!"

They walked out of the women's department to lingerie, laughing like two schoolgirls.

*****<>*****<>*****

Violet was frantic. Since she was planning on telling Paul she had decided to be in an exclusive girlfriend/boyfriend relationship and intending to have sex with him tonight, she wanted to look perfect for this evening. She'd taken out several outfits and had tried them on to no avail. She wasn't satisfied. She checked the clock: it was 6:10 pm, she had to get going. Luckily she'd already done her hair and make up the clothes were the final piece of the puzzle. She pulled back some items in her closet to reveal a bright red wrap dress she'd bought a few months ago but had never worn. It was some kind of clingy fabric with a deep v-neck and skirt that swung around her thighs. Well, she thought it looked good when she tried it on in the store, let's see if I can handle it tonight. She put it on and decided she did look really good in the dress. Everything was where it was supposed to be and she'd bought a black lace bra and matching black lace thong that went well under this sexy dress. Her breasts were at attention and looking gorgeous and, well, her butt as usual was any man's dream, she thought: nice, high and round. She pulled out a pair of black strappy Manolo Blahnik sandals that looked perfect with the outfit and a black wrap.

She heard the doorbell ring. She looked at her self in the mirror and said, "Violet, this is your night. Your man and you better enjoy it." She picked up her purse and headed downstairs.

She walked down the steps to the front door. She could see Paul's head through the windows at the top of the door. She opened it and almost fell dead. When does this man ever stop looking devastatingly sexy and handsome? Paul was wearing a pair of black slacks, a black fitted turtleneck sweater with a light charcoal gray jacket over it and black Italian loafers. He looked good in black.

Paul looked at her in that red dress and thought 'wow'. He wanted to peel it right off of her and take her standing in the doorway. She was pure enticing sex and he wanted some of it, right now.

"Hi Paul," she said, smiling up at him.

"Hello Violet, you look amazing," he complimented her.

Violet still wasn't used to compliments from him so she looked down and said, "thank you, you don't look bad yourself. I really like your sweater."

"Thanks. It's cashmere. You can touch if you want." He said teasingly.

"That's okay," she said, but she did want to touch it and touch him without it on. She was dying to touch him without any clothes on.

He leaned over and kissed her on the lips gently. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah. Did you get a chance to map out Pam's address?"

"Oh that's okay, I have a navigator in the car and I programmed it in so we should be fine."

"Oh." Violet turned and locked her door and Paul looked down at her luscious rump encased in that red slip of nothing. He thought he'd died and gone to heaven. He wanted so badly to reach out and touch it but the gentlemen in him was calling him to be respectful.

She turned and he took her hand as they walked to the car.

"Oh wow, you brought out the Fastback" she said excitedly.

"Yeah, I brought out the Fastback. I relish any chance I can get to drive it. Would you like to drive it?"

"Are you joking? Don't play with me like that, Paul."

He laughed, "No I'm not joking, you can drive it. You have as much respect for this automobile as I do so I trust you." He handed her the keys.

If Violet hadn't been in those spike heeled sandals she would have jumped up down and done cartwheels on the sidewalk.

She eased in behind the wheel as Paul got in on the passenger's side and leaned back. Violet noticed he seemed awfully relaxed for a man who was about to put his prized automobile in the hands of woman he didn't know especially well, although they had been getting to know each other. She turned and looked at him for a moment. "Are you sure about this?" she asked again.

"Yes, Violet, I am 100 percent sure. I know you know how to drive a sensitive sports car and I trust you behind the wheel of my automobile."

"I'm glad you do, because I wouldn't trust anyone to drive my Corvette."

He leaned over the center console and said, "Well, maybe someday as we get closer, you'll trust me to drive it." Then he put his hand behind her head and pulled her in for a warm, passionate kiss.

Violet let her hands roam up his sturdy arms to grasp him tightly and allowed her tongue to dance in his mouth. He kissed her with a smooth abandon, his arms coming down to take her and draw her closer, he felt her lips soft against his and her tongue swirling within the cavern of his mouth. She was kissing him like a woman on the verge of starving for his kisses he had been thinking about this all day but was surprised that this lustful display was happening so soon, he'd been planning on wooing her later when they got back to his house. He didn't want to stop but he knew if they didn't they would be late for Pam's dinner party or not make it at all. He let his hands glide down her arms to her hands and held them and decreased the pressure of his mouth on hers. As he pulled back so they situated themselves in the seats to get ready to actually leave his eyes opened and he saw a look of wholesale passion on her face. He hadn't been sure about whether she would give their possible relationship a chance but in her face he saw it: the hope to be loved by him, the hope to be happy, and he wanted to make sure he didn't ever let her down.

She opened her beautiful, soulful brown eyes and looked at him and said, "Let's get over to Pam's, sweetheart."

Paul smiled. That was her first time using a term of endearment for him. He liked it and he liked having a new girlfriend.

*****<>*****<>*****

As usual, Pam's house was the liveliest place on her block even with eight people. Pam lived in a 60's style, brick ranch with rows of windows on the back that looked out onto Lake Washington. Her dining room and living room area sat at the back of the house by the windows with the view of the lake. In the background, Brazilian samba was playing and they were relaxing and enjoying a dinner of Asian and Argentine fusion, the majority prepared by Alejandro. He was the most wonderful cook in the world and Pam's absolute heart but she didn't always show it. Alejandro was 6 ft tall, black curly hair cut short, a muscular body and hairy as the sasquatch. Tonight he had on sandals, khaki pants and some kind of shirt in light blue that looked native to Argentina. Pam was wearing a black cocktail dress with a fringe on the bottom. She did have on pair of low black mules but those had been tossed to the side for bare feet about half way through dinner. They were a cute couple but the fights they had were the best: two passionate people (one was a lawyer) and a disagreement, it was great to watch. Once Violet had to leave a bar they were arguing so loud, they soon were tossed out themselves for being too rowdy.

Nedra and Damien were in love even after 10 years of marriage and 7 year old twin boys. They sat at the table hugged up closely as the conversation kicked into high gear. Damien was bald as a cue ball with huge dimples and had skin the color of butterscotch. He was very handsome and Violet had envied the love shared between him and her best friend when they first married but now she was just happy that they were so happy. Damien treated Nedra like a queen. He'd just bought her a new car for her birthday and not a mini-van either, a Lexus. They looked wonderful this evening. Nedra had found a pair of wide leg white linen pants with a matching white linen chemise. She and Damien had decided to at least match in color because he was wearing a pair of white jeans, white t-shirt and white jean jacket. It was almost too sickening for Violet to look at she giggled to herself.

Leonard had shown up with someone new named Oleg who looked Arabic. He was lot taller, thinner, better looking and younger than Leonard. Leonard was such a sugar daddy, but he looked good. He was an immaculate dresser when it came to times like these: three piece slate gray suit, hot pink shirt and a pink and yellow bow tie. You had to admire Leonard's mode of dress. Oleg was just in black skinny jeans, one of those multi-colored button down shirts and some black dress shoes.

Everyone was having a rousing and wonderful time, food was being eaten slowly but surely and it was delicious. Pam and Alejandro were telling wonderful stories of their trip to Argentina to meet his parents, who had not been fans of Argentina's President Fujimora or Pam, since she was Japanese too. The wine was flowing, they were on their fifth bottle and the laughter was getting raucous. Paul had decided to forgo drinking for the evening because of the way Violet felt about drunk driving.

"Oh Paul, you're a newcomer here, so you have to get used to us." Pam told him sympathetically.

"It's okay, I think I'm already used to you guys," he reassured her.

"As I was saying, my mother was eyeing Pam the whole meal and Pam doesn't speak Spanish so I could hear my mother and my sister Bianca talking in the kitchen. I was terrified because it wasn't nice at all." Alejandro said laughing.

"Yeah, later Alejandro told me they were calling me names, saying my butt was flat and I looked pasty. I was horrified."

"The worse part is my father kept laughing at the things they said, he couldn't stop laughing. I was so upset. I was going to break down and say something but Pam did it first." Everyone looked at Pam. They all knew she had a big mouth and didn't hold her tongue for anyone.

"Oh no, Pam please don't tell me you told this man's mama off?" Nedra said in a pleading tone. She and Damien were leaning over laughing on each other.

"You damn right I did! I know I should respect her because she's his mother and elderly, but I was not receiving any respect so none was going to be given," Pam rolled her eyes.

Violet started to laugh to herself. "Well what happened, how'd it go down Pam?" Violet asked.

"It went like this. I told her she could kiss my flat pasty ass."

The table erupted in laughter. Alejandro was shaking his head. "Guys it was terrible, my mama let out a stream of curses I hadn't heard since I'd almost burned our house down as a child. It was awful. I was trying to make them stop. My mama was screaming, Bianca was screaming, and Pam was screaming. It was a shriek fest. My papa was laughing so hard, he fell completely out of his seat and almost injured his back."

The laughter just continued, it wasn't exactly funny that Alejandro's father almost injured himself but Violet, Nedra, Leonard and Damien could see Pam totally going off on Alejandro's mother.

"Oh my goodness, Pam, that woman could have cost you your babee!" Leonard chastised her.

Pam leaned over the table and kissed Alejandro on the lips and told Leonard, "But she didn't."

"You go Pam, go head our geisha flower." Leonard giggled.

"My mama got over it," Alejandro told them. "Actually a little after that the two of them started talking on the phone and became friends. She talks to my mama more than I do."

"Oh, that's sweet," Paul chimed in.

"It is, isn't it? That was a really eventful first meeting with mama and papa Quintero." Pam looked over at Paul. "So Paul, how do you think it's going to be when my girl, Violet, meets your parents?"

Leonard and Oleg laughed with each other. Nedra had to giggle too, Violet hated being put on the spot and no one did it as well as Pam.

"Pam, I am not meeting Paul's parents anytime soon so back up." She warned.

Paul turned to look at her. "Well, that may not be true. Who knows? You may be meeting them before you know it."

Violet's eyes widened and a round of ohs and ahs were heard around the dining room table. Violet ducked her head, Paul was very up front about his feelings for her and sometimes it caught her off guard.

"I think my mom and dad would love Violet. Who wouldn't love her?" Paul said while looking her directly in the eyes. She was fully engrossed in that look and he smiled at her.

"You are right, Mr. Paul my boss is all that and a bag of chips. You better know it." Leonard said as he looked at Paul looking at Violet. And it looked like Paul did. "You two are so cute, aren't they?" Leonard asked the table.

Pam and Nedra nodded in agreement. While Violet was looking into Paul's spectacular sea green pools called eyes, he leaned over and kissed her neck then slid his lips up her to ear and whispered, "Tonight I'm going make every nerve in your body explode."

Violet sucked in a deep breath. She knew that he meant what he just said and she wanted to know how.

*****<>*****<>*****

"So would like to go your place or mine?" Paul asked as they drove across the 1-90 floating bridge.

"Hmm?" Violet was a little distracted about the thought of moving her relationship into full-on physical contact with Paul, not just the messing around stage anymore.

"Your place or mine, Violet?" he said glancing over at her. He thought she looked a little pensive. "Are you okay, love?" he asked because he didn't want to push her into anything she would be uncomfortable with.

"I'm fine, Paul. Your place would be fine, it's a little closer."

"Now, if you want to go to yours, that's okay. You may feel more comfortable that way."

"I'm comfortable with your house. I've seen your bedroom before," she said, looking at him sideways. She turned in her seat and placed her hand over his on the gearshift.

"We may not make it to the bedroom, the way I'm feeling," he told her in all honesty.

"Oh, well this is going to be eventful," she turned to look out the window again. She was really starting to feel a little apprehensive.

He felt her hand leave his and he knew she was nervous "Violet, please don't get nervous. I assure you that I am not going to go anywhere or do anything you don't want me to."

"Well, Paul the fact is we've already been to a couple of places early on in our acquaintance that we probably shouldn't have visited." Violet told him. She was still a little embarrassed by her performance at the bookstore but she couldn't do anything about it now.

Paul put his hand on her shoulder for a moment and massaged it. "Oh listen honey, I never thought anything bad about you after that. You know that. All I ever thought was that you had the sweetest snatch I'd ever tasted and I wanted some more."

She turned to look at him he had this devilish grin on his handsome face. "You are bad. You know that?"

"I do and I'm going to be really bad with you tonight. So, don't worry love, Mr. Dudley has it all under control," he told her confidently.

Violet turned back towards him and smiled. She knew this would be wonderful with him and she thought maybe she was falling in love.

*****<>*****<>*****

He parked the Fastback in the driveway and covered it with a car tarp. Violet watched as his long lean body stretched across the car to cover it. He had the most wonderful body she'd ever seen. She'd never really seen him fully undressed, she'd only felt the hard planes and muscular refinement of this beautiful specimen of man with her hands. He was fine. She wondered, as she watched him in almost awe, what he'd look like totally naked. As she was standing on his walkway staring at him from afar, Paul turned and caught the look on her face. He thought she looked gorgeous, the way she did when they snuck off to the bathroom. She looked...ready, he thought.