So much of my life has changed over the past few months. After a long and close relationship with my neighbor Andrea, she moved to South Carolina to be near their parents. Her parents, and her husband's parents, had both moved there several years ago to get away from the Connecticut winters. Having her so far away put quite a crimp into our morning meetings for coffee. We had agreed that we'd find a way to get together, but that hadn't happened yet. Our phone calls had become less frequent and I was beginning to feel that a portion of my life had passed away from me.
I knew that my interest in having a varied life was not gone though. Whenever I was with other friends, at meetings of women's groups, or wherever, I often looked around and wondered who may share my interest in women. How would I approach someone? Perhaps, just some morning at one of my gatherings, I should ask the question, "hey good-looking women here at the meeting, anyone interested in having a woman on the side relationship? Please submit your lesbian-lover resume at your earliest convenience along with a summary of your preferred activities." I suppose while it would have been interesting, it also would have been quite embarrassing and unlikely to be successful.
So, my physical outlet became my morning visit to the fitness center. Each day, I would head to the local fitness center and use my energy on the elliptic machine which watching the morning news, do a little weight work and then stretch. Throughout all of these activities, my mind would wander off to thoughts of sexual pleasure with the other women at the gym. I would frequently catch myself looking with longing at the other women, especially an attractive blond who was clearly younger than me, but old enough to also have grown children. She wouldn't be there every day, but when she was, I found that my workout was much more energetic. Looking at her, and thinking about her, gave me the energy to exercise. In my mind, I was thinking that I needed to show her I wasn't all that much older than her, that we were the young, energetic women that I pictured her to be.
Over the months since I first saw her, I noticed that her trim body had improved. She most certainly was quite attractive and had little to criticize when I had first seen her. But, there had been noticeable improvement. Her muscles toned as her fitness improved. I noticed that her time on the treadmill was at a faster pace and somewhat longer. Her weight work seemed less strained. As time passed, I found that I couldn't keep my eyes off of her while she worked out, particularly during her post-exercise stretching sessions.
During this time, we also became a little friendly. At first, it was just saying hello. Over time, we also commented on working out, exercising, and the activities of the gym. On the days when we were both there, after my workout was finished, I was disappointed that I hadn't asked her name. I wanted to get friendlier but feared that if I asked her name, she would run in fear from her lesbian stalker. I wanted to make a move to become special friends with her, but worried about what would happen if she wasn't open to such a relationship. So, with each encounter, I smiled a little more, asked more about her exercising and looked for an opportunity to pry into her personal life to learn about her. Over time, I noticed that she was also becoming friendlier toward me. I never saw her talking with anyone else at the fitness center so I just assumed that her friendliness to me was only so that she would have someone to talk to while focusing on her workout.
While at the real estate office one afternoon, our office manager announced to us that the corporate office had instituted a requirement for all local divisions to hold open house meetings for prospective agents to come in and speak with us about becoming real estate agents. The office manager did his best to encourage our participation in this event. Most of the reaction was negative, "why do I need to help bring in more agents to compete with me?" We all knew that there were already too many agents in our town competing for the business. Our manager suggested that we all find a new agent to be our "junior assistant". We could offer to help with the training and have someone to do all of the junk work that we didn't want to do ourselves. There weren't very many agents willing to help until our manager pointed out that referrals would only go to those who participated. So, with that as motivation, I signed up for the first afternoon, figuring that I could get it out of the way quickly.
During that week, I saw my new friend at the fitness center a couple of times and finally decided that if I didn't try to move forward, nothing would happen. As we exchanged greetings one morning, I finally asked her "You know...We talk every time we're here together but I don't know your name. I'm Donna."
With a smile she replied, "It's so great to finally learn your name. I'm Sara." I smiled back at her and said that we should get to work improving our bodies. She laughed as we stepped onto adjacent treadmills and both began our workouts. After finishing our warm-ups, we chatted about nothing in particular, and Sara said that she needed to get to her weight workout. We ventured to the lifting machines and both worked on our muscles for a while. We then went into the yoga classroom and pulled a couple of mats next to each other and finishing with stretching. As she moved about the mat, all I could think of was how I wanted to invite her to my mat and to engage in some mutually beneficial stretching. It was definitely the most arousing workout session that I could imagine. Unfortunately, it was only in my imagination.
The next week, the time for the open house at the office came. A few of us were there waiting for the interested and curious to come in and ask questions about the exciting life of real estate. As the first few came in and there was some chatter about enjoying looking at houses so may as well try to sell them, the door opened and I saw Sara step into the office. She was smartly dressed in a nice tailored suit, looking much more professional than the others. My co-workers also noticed, thinking that this was someone they would partner with for the future. Sara looked over at me and smiled, "wow, Donna, I didn't know you worked here." She walked right past everyone else to greet me with a handshake and a smile.
"Welcome to the real estate office. We're happy to see you Sara. I didn't realize that you're interested in learning about being a real estate agent." I quickly engaged her in the conversation, making it clear to my colleagues that this potential agent was mine, and that I wasn't willing to share her with anyone. We quickly engaged in a conversation about the real estate profession. It became clear to me in a hurry that Sara was very smart and had been thoughtful about her idea of pursuing this career. She seemed to know something about it and had a fairly realistic perspective on what it would mean to be in this profession. Even if I ignored my building lust for her, I knew that she would make a great junior partner in the profession. We talked professionally for an hour and when we were done, she had all the information that she needed to get started on classes, learning and pursuing her license. Now all I had to do was figure out how I could get her out of that suit and into a bed. Only after she left did I begin to have thoughts about what would happen if she rejected my advances. I'd not only lose an exercise partner, I'd lose a business partner and my embarrassment at being rejected, and potentially ousted, would extend to work.
The next morning at the fitness center, I entered and looked around for my new business partner, looking forward to a great workout. I was also ready to be on the lookout for any indication of how she would react to an attempt to increase our relationship to yet another aspect. As I started my workout, there was no sign of Sara at the fitness center. I began my brisk walk on the treadmill as I saw her walk in the door. With a smile she waved to me and went to hang up her jacket. She moved to the treadmill next to me and greeted me warmly, "I am so glad to see you today. I have so many questions about our new relationship." I almost tripped as I thought about the kind of relationship that I wanted to have with her. As she started her workout, she began to ask her questions, spitting them out as quickly as I could answer them. After answering her many questions, she asked me how the listing price for a house was set. I described the process of looking at comparable houses, etc. and then suggested that having a real life example would be a good way to proceed. With that, she invited me over to her house for a post-workout cup of coffee to see her house. While she wasn't interested in selling her house, she was curious about how the price had changed since purchase. I quickly accepted, knowing that I would have an opportunity to speak with her in private, and gauge if she had any serious relationship interest.
