I was on my way out of a local warehouse store, one of the big discount chains where everything is on shelves that are stacked twenty five feet high, and the floors are smooth but stained concrete. I had a few very large boxes on the cart, one of the flat ones with a handle to push and six wheels, and was struggling to control it as I headed towards my SUV. I became a little frustrated with the store. No one had even offered to help me get them in my SUV or even asked if I needed help just getting them there. Now, I'm not a weak woman, but I couldn't handle the several hundred pounds that these boxes weighed and it seemed that the cart had a sticky wheel that made it all the more difficult. It was a customer, not even an employee that helped me load the cart in the store. I hadn't even thought about how I was going to get these things in the car or out of them when I got home.
I opened the rear hatch of my Sequoia and folded the seats down. I struggled but managed to get one end of the first box up on the tailgate before I had to stop and rest a moment. I took a sip from my bottle of water and caught my breath. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face. The heat, in the mid nineties, was making my task all that much more difficult, and the noon time sun was right overhead. In the tiny bit of shade that my raised tailgate afforded me, I sat and tried to think of someone to call to help but came up empty, having just moved here from Spain less than a month ago, I knew nobody at all. My husband was at work, and the only people I had met were a couple neighbors the youngest of which were well into their seventies.
I got up and started trying to lift the side of the box from the cart and push it in the back of my SUV, but I just couldn't muster the strength. I tried using my back to push against it but was unable to lift it even the slightest bit. My muscles burned and ached. I had just about had enough and was mere seconds away from bringing the patio set and canopy back to the store for a refund, when a deep voice startled me, making me let out a slight scream. "Could I give you a hand with that?"
"Oh, yes please," I said, as I looked at the man who offered to help me. He was standing next to the bed of a pick-up truck with a large bag of dog food over each arm. He set them in the truck, one at a time, and although he wasn't huge, in fact he was on the thin side, I could see the muscles in his arms tighten and define as he lowered each bag into the bed. He was tall and handsome, the patchy stubble on his face told me he was a little on the young side and his short and clean cut hair made me think he may have been in the military. "Thank you so much for helping me!" I exclaimed, "I was about to bring this stuff back in and return it!"
He laughed, "Yeah, the customer service at these places tends to be very lacking."
We made small talk for a minute or so as he loaded the boxes in my SUV, we both introduced ourselves and Jim, which was his name, handed me a business card. His truck had the same information on the side of it, but his card revealed that he was the owner of 'Buzz Lawns', a landscaping company. He told me he would give me a great deal on cutting my lawn and taking care of the leaves in the fall, he also told me they plowed and shoveled during the winter.
"Thanks, we actually need to get someone lined up for our yard," I explained, "we just moved back to the States about a month ago, and although we are mostly settled in, there still was a lot to take care of including the overgrown grass!" I chuckled.
"Well, how about if I follow you home, and I'll take a look at your yard to give you an estimate, and I'll help you unload these boxes?" he asked politely. I took him up on his offer and within fifteen minutes we were in my driveway. We walked the yard together, he was pacing things out, to get a rough idea of size and looking at the variety of plants and flowers that were growing nicely but were surrounded by a myriad of weeds. We finished the tour of the grounds and headed back to the truck. He sat and wrote down a few things and gave me a price to maintain the grass and keep the flowers and shrubs looking good and weed free. I told him all it was going to take was the seal of approval from my husband, Ed, but it seemed very cheap to me so I didn't see Ed having a problem with it at all.
"Where would you like the patio set and canopy?" he asked.
"Well it needs to go out to the pool, but you can just put it in the garage, my husband will eventually get it out to the patio and put it together." I sighed, resigning to not having any shade outside around the pool for probably a month or more, knowing my husband.
"I'll bring it around back for you. It's no trouble, really." He said with a smile. For a quick second I caught him staring at my chest, although they're not too big, my breasts are firm and perky enough that I rarely have any need for a bra, unless I'm trying to keep my nipples from showing. I don't know why, but my when I looked down after seeing Jim looking at my chest, I saw my nipples were obviously rock hard, my loose fitting sundress was almost hanging from them. I blushed a little, not because I was embarrassed about my very evident nipples, but because I felt aroused when Jim caught them with his eyes. I quickly ignored the feeling in my loins, the excitement from being caught feeling naughty, and walked Jim around the back showing him where to put the boxes.
It took him a couple trips to bring them around back, and by the time he set the last one down I could see the sweat pouring down his face. He was wearing a t-shirt and jeans with a pair of work boots, and in this heat he had to be suffering. "Can I get you something to drink?" I asked.
"Sure," he said, "A beer would be fantastic if you have one!"
I slipped into the house and returned a moment later with an ice cold can of Bud. Jim took it from me and opened it and emptied it in one shot. "Feel free to take a dip in the pool!" I offered Jim.
"Thanks for the offer but, I don't have any shorts with me and I really need to get going, I have a meeting in a couple hours and I need to get cleaned up and changed." Jim said, sounding like he was interested.
I started to thank him for his help and told him how much I appreciated it, when his phone rang, interrupting me. He stood and listened saying only an occasional word or two, mostly agreeing with whoever was on the other end of the line. He hung up the phone, smiling, "Maybe I will take you up on that swim if you don't mind if I go in the nude!" he was laughing, "the meeting this afternoon was pushed out until tomorrow." He wiped the sweat from his brow, "Damn, the sun is really hot here, I can see why you bought some shade!" I went inside and got him another beer, glancing at the clock it was only about half past noon.
When stepped back out on the patio, Jim was gone. I thought for a second he may have left with me even getting the chance to finish thanking him, but a moment later he rounded the corner of the house carrying a small tool box. "What do you say we get this stuff out of the boxes and setup?" he asked in such a way that I don't think he cared about my answer, even though I felt like I it was too much to ask of him. "If you get me a pair of your husband's shorts so I can take a swim, I'll help you set this up," he offered, "sound like a fair deal to you?"
"It sounds more than fair! But feel free to swim in your underwear if you want." I answered excitedly, surprised that I was going to have some shade in no time at all.
"I would swim in my underwear, except I don't wear any." He chuckled.