As the train rolled through the countryside, Jen realised that one of the advantages of being unemployed was that you didn't have to travel at the same time as everyone else. Sure, there were all the drawbacks - her rapidly expanding overdraft being the most prominent of those - but for now she could enjoy the fact that the train was almost empty, feeling like a private carriage taking her where she wanted to go. She didn't have to worry about finding a seat or being crammed in with commuters and instead had a whole row to herself. Indeed, except for the couple of people at the other end of the carriage, she was alone, and she was making the most of it. She was petite, so didn't normally take up much space as it was, but now she could spread out on the row of seats, resting her legs out on them as though it were one big couch.
The countryside they were passing through was pretty, but it got boring after a while and she lost herself in her book instead, barely noticing that the train had stopped at a small station and then pulled away again. Jen was only aware of it when she saw that someone else had boarded and sat down on a seat near her. She glanced up from her book, wondering why this person had decided to sit so close to her, when so many other seats were free, hoping it wasn't some guy who was going to try and chat her up. She relaxed inwardly when she saw it was another woman then tensed again, but in a different way, when she saw how attractive the new passenger was.
Jen had always regarded herself as bisexual, but it had been a while since she'd made love with another woman. Indeed, breaking that long empty streak had been part of the reason for this trip up to see Kelly. The two of them had always been friends more than they'd been lovers, even when they were sharing a flat during their final year at University, but they'd both enjoyed scratching the other's itch and providing sexual release when there were no boyfriends around to do it. They'd not seen each other for almost a year since their graduation and Jen had eagerly accepted her Kelly's invitation to come and visit her at the different college where she was studying for a Masters degree, a chance to pretend she was a student again for a few days rather than an unemployed graduate. Neither of them had said it in so many words - they never did - but they'd both lamented their mutual lack of sex lives on the phone when planning Jen's visit and she was sure that this would be rectified for both of them.
Although Jen had been with many more men than women as lovers, she had always preferred female bodies to male ones and the woman sitting opposite her possessed what was easily one of the most beautiful bodies she'd ever seen. Partly because the thought of getting together with Kelly again soon was prominent in her mind, Jen found herself continually looking at the woman, stealing glances up from her book every few moments. The woman was busy looking through papers and talking on a mobile phone to someone, her accent refined and aristocratic, but not disarmingly so.
Her hair caught Jen's attention first - long and a deep shade of red, curling ever so slightly as it flowed over her shoulders. She was in either her late 20s or early 30s, Jen thought, but however old she was she clearly looked after her body and was proud to show it off with its mixture of slim elegance and rounded curves in all the right places. She had a beautifully long, almond-shaped face with high cheekbones rising up from full red lips, her skin just pale enough to offset and accentuate the red of her hair. Her clothes fitted her so well they looked as though they had been made for her and her alone - a perfectly fitting white silk blouse that hugged her stomach and then moved out smoothly to show off her full round breasts and tight leather trousers that seemed to move with her like a tight second skin around long slim legs that tapered down to stiletto boots made of a matching material. Jen was amazed that a woman as beautiful as this was even travelling by train - she looked like the sort of person made to travel everywhere by chauffeured limousine and private jet.
They stopped at another small station. The people at the far end of the carriage got off, leaving the two of them alone as no one else got on board. As the train pulled out of the station and slowly picked up speed again, the woman finished her conversation and put the phone back in her elegant handbag, along with the papers she'd been consulting. Jen turned back to her book.
'Did you like what you saw?' Jen looked up. The woman was staring straight at her, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth, a glint in her grey eyes.
'What do you mean?' Jen asked her, feeling herself blush, embarrassed at being caught out when she thought she'd been subtle. She was expecting the woman to stand up and angrily walk off to the other end of the carriage, but instead she just sat there, her eyes burning into Jen.
'I said, did you like what you saw? You've spent the last half hour looking me up and down, haven't you? Did you think I hadn't noticed?'
'I'm sorry. I -'
'Sorry? Why? Do you think I don't like being looked at by girls? If I didn't like it, I'd have got up and moved.'