Susan enjoyed her job at the university. It was her first since qualifying. The others she worked with were good and knowledgeable which meant that she learnt a lot of good practical tips. Her job was not in the academic field, she was a simple gardener, well a landscape gardener to be precise. The university had beautiful gardens and employed a team of workers to keep them looking there best.
It was while she was looking after a small flower bed one day that she met Jessica (Jess for short), a slim blonde girl. Jess was a biology Masters student studying the relationship of landscaping on the environment; at least that was how Susan interpreted it. She wanted to know how the university gardens were planned. Susan knew about the annual plan that was developed each year but she really had to refer Jess on to the head gardener Tom who could answer her questions more fully.
Jess had smiled and thanked Susan when she introduced the blonde to Tom. Susan said her good-byes and left them to their conversations. Later that day she asked Tom how he had got on with Jess. That was the last she saw or heard of the young biologist except when Tom would mention her from time to time as he had several more meetings with her.
A month later Susan was busy at the same flower bed when Jess appeared from nowhere.
"Thanks," the sweet looking blonde said from behind her dark-rimmed glasses. "Your suggestion really paid off."
Susan got to her feet, dusting off the dirt from her hands. "Your welcome, but I didn't do much for you, it was all Tom."
"Yeah, but you introduced us and that counts," Jess grinned. "Anyway I thought I should thank you."
"Did you get a good mark or whatever for your assignment?"
"Oh no," Jess replied. Susan looked shocked. Jess laughed. "It wasn't an assignment, it was for my thesis. I won't finish it for another two years yet."
"That's an awful lot of work," Susan gasped. "Sorry, I didn't realise you were a serious student." Then she blushed at the comment she just made. "Oh, sorry, I mean...oh God I feel a fool now."
"Don't," Jess reassured. "You're probably right, my boyfriend says I'm too serious about my study sometimes." She laughed.
Susan grinned back. "Well, I'm glad that we could be of some help," she said turning back to her flower bed.
"Yeah, thanks again," Jess said. "Might see you around?"
"Yeah," Susan replied as she knelt down to her plants.
There was something about that blonde that kept coming back to Susan over the next week or so, was it her look, the way she spoke or her intelligence? There was something about her, maybe her personality, or maybe all these things. Susan kept thinking about her whenever she was alone in a garden somewhere in the university. She didn't see Jess again that week. The following week she saw the blonde again, entering the big library building with a pile of books. Jess didn't see her though as she crouched in a small shrubbery near the corner of the building, replacing a blown lamp in a floodlight.
"Hi there." Susan almost jumped out of her skin as the voice caught her by surprise.
"Hi Jess," Susan quickly composed herself. Once more she dusted dirt from her hands and stood from her crouched position in the rose garden.
"Seen any interesting gardens lately?" Jess joked as she stepped forward in her short summer dress.
"Nope. I make interesting gardens, not look at them," Susan quipped back.
"Good one," Jess smiled. "Hey I haven't seen Tom around lately and I need to check a few things with him do you know where I will find him?"
"He's away on leave at the moment Jess. He won't be back for another week," Susan broke the news to her.
"Damn! I have to find out this stuff to finish this section I'm writing up for my Professor," Jess' face changed to a scowl as she spoke.
"Hey, is it anything I can help with?" Susan offered. "I know I'm no intellect but maybe I can help."
"Thanks but it is stuff Tom knows so well," Jess was starting to look angry and Susan didn't want to cross her.
"I can let him know as soon as he gets back, I'm sure he will be able to help," Susan offered.
"No, no, it will be too late, I need to know why he made these changes in the 1999 plan. They just don't fit with his philosophy at all." She tapped a grey folder she was carrying with her hand.
"Give me a look Jess, maybe I can find the answer for you," Susan offered putting out her hand. "When do you need it by?"
"I need it today," Jess said, her face softening at the offer.
"I don't think I will be able to do it today, but tomorrow is a different story," Susan looked at her face.
"Well, what if I hold off the Prof' and you get me the answer tomorrow," Jess said. The next day the two girls met outside the library as they had arranged. It hadn't taken Susan long to find the answer. William had worked at the gardens as long as anyone could remember. Even Tom was known to ask his opinion on some matters. He remembered 1999 alright, how the plans had been changed, how Tom had hated having to do it and how he worked late on them to get them just right.
"See that was the year the new computer centre building was built, they had all that underground cabling to do, he had to change things," Susan explained, handing back the folder.
"Thanks Susan, you have saved my butt, 1999 just didn't fit with the flow," Jess' eyes lit up. She lent forward and gave the young gardener a peck on the cheek. "What are you doing tomorrow night?"
Susan was shocked. She had never mixed with the student population, living on the other side of town as she did. A student party she imagined, she had heard about these wild nights but never experienced one.
"I'm not sure...I mean I have never been to one of your...I mean a student party," the young girl answered.
"No, no, I hate those parties, no I meant dinner, at my place. I live off campus. Look here is my address, if you aren't busy," Jess smiled handing her a note with the address and phone number. "I know it will be Saturday night and you are probably going out with your boyfriend."
"No, it's not that. I would love to come. I'm between boyfriends anyway," Susan said, thinking of the bar she was intending to go to with a girlfriend in the hope she would find a guy.
"Ok, let's say seven?"
"Sure."
That night Susan was unsure what to wear let alone how to behave. She thought about it. Jess seemed so much more sophisticated than the other students she had met on her rounds. Her first thought had been jeans and a t-shirt. Then her mind drifted toward the black halter neck dress. She hardly had any reason to get dressed up, so why not make this a special occasion? After all Jess would appreciate the effort, at least she hoped so.
Another thought crossed the tall brunette's mind. There might be others there, maybe even some guys. After all Jess had talked about her boyfriend. Maybe she would get lucky with a student; then maybe not, she was no intellectual giant. She put the thought from her mind, if she dwelled too much on it she would never go.
She was not use to getting all dressed up. The clubs and bars she frequented were more the jeans and casual look. But it was fun once in a while to get done up. Susan cursed the lack of variety in her wardrobe. The only shoes she had that matched the dress were a pair of black spike heels. The heels were coated in a tacky cheap gold finish. She shrugged and put them on.
The hair and make-up were next. Most of the time Susan kept her long dark hair tied back in a pony-tail; very practical. For this evening she decided to do a French plait so first she brushed it until it shone. Finally the make-up. Then it was time to admire herself in the mirror.
It was warm at the moment but Susan knew only too well that it would cool down later when she was ready to come home. Once again the limitations of her wardrobe let her down, the only jacket she owned was a tight fitting denim one. She shrugged again and put it on. At least it made her look less over dressed.
It was a twenty-minute drive to Jess' address across town. She lived in a quiet tree-lined avenue in a small modern house set back from the street on a small well kept section. The light was beginning to fade in the street as Susan drove up in her little blue Honda. She admired the neighbourhood, not what she expected from a student.
Jess answered the knock at the door and invited Susan in. She stepped into a small hall. Off to her right as she entered the side entrance was the laundry and to the left a closed door. Jess led her through the next door to the left. The short passage turned to the right here and Susan guessed it led to the bedrooms and bathroom; all very compact she thought.
They stepped into a lounge room that opened back onto a dinning area with a breakfast bar separating that from the kitchen which is where the other door Susan had seen led. The lounge consisted of an occasional table at the end of a long couch, a single easy chair and a coffee table. In one corner sat a small kitchen table, piled high with books and papers and along one wall was a bookcase jammed with books.
The only light came from a single tall lamp standard in the corner of the room and two large plain white candles on the coffee table. The room gave an air of romantic intimacy that Susan found soothing. The soft sounds of jazz came from a stereo that sat on another small table in a corner.
A sweet lavender smell floated in the air, disguising any smell that came from the kitchen which was a blaze of light.
"Can I take your jacket?" Jess asked as they stopped in the room.
"Thanks," Susan said, blushing slightly as she remembered the denim miss-fit jacket. She slipped it off her tanned shoulders, letting it fall into the blondes hands.
"You look very nice tonight," Jess commented.
"Thanks, I don't often get a chance to dress up."
"I should have tried a little harder myself," Jess laughed.
"Nice place you have," Susan said, turning to face her host. It was now that she took in the beauty of the young blonde, her long straight shoulder-length hair sparkling in the faint light, her body covered in the same white summer dress she had been wearing the other day. Her feet were bare, but Susan felt neither under dressed or over dressed, somehow the sweet smile that Jess flashed her made her feel at home.
