I threw down my pencil in disgust as the words on the page danced in front of my eyes. I still had three days to finish a career-making report and I was totally sick of it. A glance out the window didn’t help. It was mid-morning on a warm sunny Spring day and the air sparkled over the canyons of Manhattan.
I got up, stretched, and walked down the hall to the Ladies’ Room. I looked in the mirror and liked part of what I saw. I know I have a pretty face and my make-up and shoulder length reddish-brown hair looked good that day. I tried not to look below the neck, but, as always, I did. Fat! A twenty five year old, I thought, should be thin and willowy, but I was -- how should I say? -- hefty, full-figured, zaftig. In other words, fat. Everything was in proportion but there was simply too much. I had worn a loose fitting blouse outside my skirt to try and hide my size, but, let's face it, I'm a big girl. Even an expensive bra designed for reduction and containment couldn't disguise my ample proportions.
I walked back to my office and knew that I wouldn’t get another stitch of work done that morning. I needed to leave the building, clear my head, and get refocused on that damned report. After I rode down the elevator I wandered to a street nearby where I window shopped with nothing in particular in mind.
I soon found myself in front of a bookstore and, being an avid reader, went in and started to browse. As always, I ended up in the Women’s Books section and picked off the shelf the latest lesbian whinefest. Well, I thought, there was one good thing about being a lesbian. Thank God my size had never been an issue with any of my girlfriends and they luxuriated in my ample contours.
Just then I noticed that someone was standing next to me. I glanced over and saw one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my life. She was about 50 with fine regular features and lovely silvery hair. People tend to use the word "handsome" for women of that certain age, but she was flat-out beautiful. She looked over toward me and I was instantly enchanted by her large twinkling brown eyes. Even though she was looking right at me I couldn’t keep myself from noticing that she had a large lush curvaceous body that, unlike mine, seemed to make her look exactly the way God had meant her to look..
“Are you a New Yorker?” she asked me. I nodded.
“I’m here from out of town and this is the first time I have ever been here.”
“I hope you like it,” I said, amazed that I couldn’t think of anything less banal to say.
“Oh, I love it,” she said. “I’m leaving tomorrow, though, and I have a million questions about this wonderful place.”
Keeping up the banality, the best I could come up with was “Oh?”
“If you're not in a hurry,” she said, “would you let me buy you an espresso and ask you some of those questions?” I saw she was wearing a diamond engagement ring and a wedding ring on her left hand, but felt like I was being pulled to her by some magnetic force. “Love to,” I said.
We crossed the street and went into a hotel coffee shop and ordered. After a few bits and pieces about New York we started talking about ourselves. She told me about her husband and her two grown daughters, her house near Seattle, and her senior position at a bank. Half of my brain held up my end of the conversation, while the other half was hypnotized by her beauty, ease and charm. I told her about my job, my apartment and that I was unattached, omitting the gender of potential attachees.
Suddenly she glanced at her watch and said “I didn’t realize it was this late already. I’m expecting an e-mail about the contract I'm working on and it should be here by now.”
“I would hate to end this wonderful conversation so abruptly,” she said. “I am staying in this hotel and if you can come up to my room I can check my e-mail and then maybe we can have lunch.”
I suddenly started to feel a warmth between my legs. Reflexively, I almost said no. Maybe she’s a female Ted Bundy! That thought evaporated in a fraction of a second and I told her I would be delighted. I knew all that would happen is that she would download her e-mail, but I did enjoy her company and certainly loved having an excuse not to go back and work on that damned report.
We rode up to her room. She excused herself and went to the bathroom and I sat on the foot of the bed trying to ignore my feelings of arousal. When she came out of the bathroom I expected her to walk across the room to the laptop computer sitting on a table in the corner. Instead, she just walked over and stood in front of me.
I decided at that instant to risk having the most embarrassing moment of my life. I closed my eyes and started slowly unbuttoning my blouse. Any instant I expected to hear words about a misunderstanding or a miscommunication , but she said nothing. When I opened my eyes I saw that her face was flushed and riveted.