I've always been a busy-body. I work a 45-50 hour week as a waitress, but still I needed something to fill up the free time I had. I had recently received one of those community activities magazines in the mail, you know, those damn things nobody looks at - except me of course. Anyway, I read about a sketching class in the magazine and decided to sign up. It was Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-6:30 p.m., which fit perfectly into my schedule, as I got off from work at 3:30 on those two particular days.
I'm 21 years old and live in a large house with just my father. My mother passed away when I was a baby. I moved out on my own at 18, but three months ago I had to move back home, as I was fired from my job as a Sales Associate. I was down on my luck at the time, but now things were looking up. I had my first real serious boyfriend and a full-time job, which meant I wouldn't have to live with my Dad for too much longer.
Now mind you, I said I had a boyfriend. I didn't say I actually liked him that well, but, truthfully, there was no one else to go out with. I'm a slightly-tall, skinny, lanky thing, with bumps for breasts. Several people have told me I have a pretty face that is surrounded by thick, wavy light brown hair. But as for my body, it wasn't exactly curvaceous. Nevertheless, I feel pretty good about my body. Being 5'7" I particularly take pride in my long legs.
My boyfriend's name is Jake. He really is a nice guy, but I just don't feel any sparks for him. When we met I was a desperate virgin, eager to rid myself of my "virgin label" and we had sex on our first date. He was only a couple years older than me, being 23. He had a good heart, but was kind of dull. I needed someone exciting in my life.
After work that day, I went home to change into my regular clothes and headed on down to the local college for my sketching class. I grabbed my supplies from the backseat and walked into the building, looking for classroom 133. I found it without much trouble. I took a seat at one of desks. I looked around - there were only four other students, but over the next 10 minutes or so, another 15 or 20 showed up. It was nice - there were students of all ages, all races, everything.
At the front of the room, while the students were settling in, stood a woman, maybe 31 or 32, and a nice looking man conversing with her. He was dark and handsome, but not tall at all, standing only maybe 5'8" or 5'9" with a medium build. I couldn't hear what he and the woman were saying, but I could hear him chuckle and with that wide grin, his whole face lit up. It was a unique face - handsome and ordinary at the same time. A face that looked weathered and tired, but still spry. He looked maybe mid or late forties. He had black hair and dark eyes. I smiled inwardly and decided I liked this man.
He and the woman parted ways. The man walked toward the desks and my heart beat a little bit faster, realizing he was going to sit at the desk beside me. He smiled and said hello. I did the same.
The 30ish woman stood at the front of the room and introduced herself as Miss Harris, the instructor. She talked to us a little about art, the history of art, and the elegance of sketching. With that, she took out two big boxes of items in them. She set them on her desk and told us to come up and pick one item that we were to sketch. Of course the bouncy balls and cubes went first. I chose to sketch some sort of wooden pony thing. The dark-haired man beside me had been one of the lucky ones and had to sketch a bouncy ball.
"Wow, it looks like you've got your work cut out for you," he said to me with a smile.
I smiled at him, "It looks like I'll be doing enough of work for both of us."
He chuckled, "What's your name?"
"I'm Christy, and you are...?"
"I'm Sam," he responded. "It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too," I said with a slight blush.
I was interested in him and he seemed genuinely interested in me, asking me what I did for work, what I did for hobbies, etc. He asked my age. I told him I was 21 and he told me he was 47. We talked quietly while we sketched, while Miss Harris went around the room, looking at our drawings and offering criticisms.
Referring to him speaking with Miss Harris at the beginning of the class, I asked him how he knew her.
"She and I used to be neighbors," he replied. "But she moved to the other side of town." He paused, "Christy, after class, would you like to have a drink with me? There's a nice little bar not too far from here. How about it?"
I nodded and giggled, "Yes, I'd like that a lot."
"Me too," he replied.
As I sketched, my hand accidentally brushed his arm. I offered him a shy, muffled 'sorry'. He chuckled at my awkwardness.
At the end of class, I began to pack my supplies into my bag and Sam and I left the classroom, talking away as if we'd known each other longer than a couple hours. We went out to the parking lot and dumped our supplies off into our cars and decided to walk to the bar. The bar was called "Bernie's" and it was a well-lit, decent place to have a drink. I told him I liked the bar, as I had been there before.
He lit up a cigarette. I was surprised, as I didn't smell the smoke on him during class. We walked along the sidewalk. It was pretty well dark already and the headlights shone from the passing cars and the street lights glowed.
I guess I might sound kind of sheltered, but already Sam was very exciting to me! He smoked, he drank. He had somewhat of a tough guy air about him, like he did things his way and didn't care what people thought of him. I found him very appealing and sexy. And what I found even more appealing and sexy is that he kept his right hand in his pocket quite a bit. I giggled inwardly.
He stopped for a minute and told me we'd have to cross the street to get to the bar. Between us and the bar were four lanes of traffic.
He gripped my hand and grinned, "Ready to give it a go, angel?"
I smiled and nodded.
So there we went, running across these lanes of traffic, dodging cars once and a while, all the while hand-in-hand. We heard a screech of someone's tires and by the time we made it across the street to the bar's parking lot, we were laughing so hard our guts hurt.
A car passed us and the passenger yelled out at us, "Crazy asses!"
We laughed harder, realizing it was true. We stood there for a few minutes, just laughing and trying to catch our breath.
"Oh," Sam sighed. "The was one hell of a trip."
"Wasn't it though?"
"Well," he sighed. "Here we are. Let's go inside."
We opened the door and walked over to the bar counter. Sam ordered a vodka and I ordered a whiskey.
"So," Sam started. "Not that it's any of my business, but do you have a boyfriend or are you married?"
I looked into those dark eyes of his and felt sad to tell him that I was already seeing someone. "Sam, to tell you the truth, I do have a boyfriend. But it's not really working out the way I'd like it to."
"What's the problem, angel?"
I couldn't help but laugh a little, "Well, the thing is I'm just so bored with him!"
He chuckled, "Yeah, I guess that happens sometimes."
"He really is a nice guy. His heart is in the right place, but he and I just weren't suited for each other," I said.
He nodded, "I understand what you mean". He paused, "To be honest, I'm a little jealous of him."
"Jealous?"
"Yeah, I mean, I noticed you when I first walked into the classroom today."
