I'd been friends with Lovis and her husband, Jerry, for years. When we were younger, I'd spend my breaks at work talking with Lovis about every little thing from the plagues of office labor to the meaning of life. We'd had long discussions about whether there was a God, what the stars were made of, who our favorite TV show character was, and what we'd do if we magically found ourselves in our favorite books. I knew that she was married, so I never made any advances on her. I liked Jerry too. He would bring her lunch sometimes and we'd joke around while we ate. Jerry was a real funny guy.
Time went on and I took a position at a different company across the country. I'd talk to Lovis and Jerry from time to time on the phone, keeping up with the 'what's happenings' and 'who's doing what's,' and a few years later, as luck would have it, my new company sent me back to my hometown. I didn't have a place to stay yet, and Jerry and Lovis offered to let me crash in their spare room. I came in on a Wednesday afternoon and parked in front of the house. Lovis met me at the door and pulled me into a hug. I held her back. It was a pleasantly unfamiliar feeling. I don't think at that point I'd actually touched her before.
"It's good to see you." She smiled up at me from under her golden locks.
"You too." I let her go.
"How was the drive?" Lovis asked, beckoning me through the door.
"Not too bad." I felt a little guilty watching her walk in front of me. She was wearing shorts that left no part of her legs hidden. Lovis was on the shorter side, but she still had legs for days, and the way the fabric of her shorts folded around her perfect curves froze me as if I'd looked into the eyes of Medusa. "It's good and hot down here," I commented on the sweltering summer heat.
"Yeah, well, it is August," Lovis smirked. "You want something to drink?"
"Please."
"I got Dr Pepper, Shiner, and water," Lovis opened me a beer before I had a chance to answer.
"Thanks," I said before taking a sip of the cold, refreshing beverage. "Where's Jerry?"
"He should be home from work any minute." Lovis opened a beer for herself and leaned on the kitchen counter. Her white cotton t-shirt hung from her thin frame like a circus tent on a bean stalk. "Anything you wanna do tonight?"
"I didn't have anything in mind," I told her. "I'm a little beat from driving all day."
"Well don't worry about that," Jerry's voice cheered as he came in the door. "I'll drive."
"Hey, man!" I shook his hand. It was good to see him after so long.
Jerry pulled off his tie, flung it on the dining room table, and nodded to Lovis for a drink.
She popped the cap on a third beer and slid it to him. "How was work today?"
"Ah you know," Jerry put his coat over a chair. "I'm playing that game where since I'm good at my job, I get to do everyone else's too."
"I hear that." I took another swig.
"Do you wanna go to Lucky's tonight?" Lovis asked Jerry.
"I'm game." Jerry nodded.
"Is that new?" I asked confused. "I don't think I've heard of that one before."
"It's newer," Lovis nodded.
Jerry started heading to the bedroom, "Let me get out of this monkey suit, and we'll grab dinner and hit the town."
Jerry drove us up the street and the three of us had a good long night of catching up over drinks on the deck of a bar that used to be an old bank in the sweltering summer heat. At last call, we ordered a few shots of whiskey and then headed back to the house. After stumbling into the living room, Jerry grabbed a few beers and we plopped down on the couches. Jerry turned on the TV for some ambient sound.
"I'm going to sleep good tonight," I chuckled over the last drink of the evening.
"Good thing it's the weekend, right?" Jerry yawned.
"You're telling me." Lovis placed her beer on the coffee table and pulled off her shirt. I was taken aback by her willingness to sit half-naked in the house with company over. Granted the air conditioner wasn't great, and a bra isn't any worse than a bikini top, but I was still caught off guard. I played it cool and avoided staring at her, which was a feat in itself. Lovis was wearing a simple white bra, nothing fancy in itself, but on her, it might as well have been the drapery on Venus de Milo. Lovis pulled in a long swig of her drink, "Aw, it's hot tonight."
"You're hot tonight," Jerry smirked.
"Yeah," I laughed nervously. "I wasn't going to say anything, but..." I waved my beer bottle at them and smiled.
"Well, I mean, it's my house," Lovis grinned.
"We need to get a pool," Jerry joked.
"Or at least a new air conditioner."
Jerry downed the rest of his drink and leaned forward in his seat. The gears turned in his head as his eyes traveled between mine and Lovis's breasts. He filled his lungs and then said, "She does have wonderful breasts."
I don't know why his statement caught me off guard, she was already half nude, and her skin was glimmering with sweat, and as much as I was trying not to stare at perspiration forming on her collarbone and dripping down her cleavage, I found myself unable to look away.
Lovis nodded. "I've got the humiditiddies going on. It's like a jungle down there."
"Well, Mike likes'm," Jerry Hankled.
"Uh, who's Mike?" I asked wondering not only who else appreciated Lovis's Venusian body, but why Jerry was bragging about it.
"Oh, uh," Lovis gave me a nervous laugh. "It's been a while huh."
"We have an open marriage," Jerry said proudly.
"What!! When did that start?" I was finding out all kinds of surprises.
"Kind of forever," Jerry informed me matter of fact. "I mean when we started dating, Lovis was sleeping with Joe."
"The warehouse guy?" I asked.
"Oh yeah," Lovis smiled.
"Huh." I took another swig of my beer, not letting my thoughts escape my mouth, trying to be polite.
"We really need to get that air conditioner fixed." Lovis's arm reached behind her back. "You don't mind do you?"
"Mind what? The heat? Na..." Before I could finish saying the beer was keeping me cool enough, Lovis unlatched her bra and laid it over the arm of the couch. I found myself unable to move, or speak, or do anything besides breathe as Lovis rubbed the sweat off of her breasts. My eyes were locked on her, her chest was everything I'd ever thought they'd be. I heard myself say, "Can I make a confession?" before I realized what was coming out of my mouth.
"Sure," Lovis smiled again, understanding better than I did what was about to happen.
I was trying to process what I wanted to say, how to say it, and why I'd bring it up, but it was too late to go back. I finished my beer for a little more liquid courage and told her, "Back before I left for the other coast, I used to think about you all the time."
"Oh yeah?" Lovis leaned forward, pressing her breasts together between her biceps, making zero attempt to cover herself.
"Yeah."
Jerry stood up, "Anyone want another beer?"
"Whiskey?" Lovis asked him.
"Sure thing, babe." Jerry went to the kitchen a few feet away, still in earshot of everything I was saying.
An intrusive thought made its way into my mind that Jerry was going to be a jealous husband and I'd have to fight him, but I continued, "Yeah, on nights when I was alone, I'd find porn of girls that looked like you, or at the very least had the same haircut, and I'd think about you while I went at it."
The corner of Lovis's lip curled up her cheek. "I had something similar going."
"You did?" Jerry asked returning with a bottle of Irish whiskey and three tumblers full of ice. "That's hot."
"Yeah, it's kind of a shame we never got together," Lovis took a glass of whiskey and handed it to me, making sure our fingers touched as she passed the glass. "Then again we really never hung out outside of work."
"Only once or twice, and those were at someone's going away part." I pulled in a sip of the cold whiskey.
Jerry's glass emptied into his mouth and he poured himself a second quick shot. "Don't take this the wrong way Hank, but you are a handsome man."
"You're not too bad looking yourself," I said, again out of the desire not to be rude, and all of a sudden worried that the night's road might be driving towards Jerry trying to play in my pants. I wasn't a fan of that idea.
"I think you are too," Lovis told me. "And I've always wanted to..." she motioned to the rock-hard erection I didn't notice I'd let grow in my pants.
"Uh, yeah," I smiled nervously. "I haven't done anything like that before."
"There's no way you're a virgin," Jerry laughed.