Chapter One: Innocently Intimate Flirtation
My name is Karen. I am, by trade, a writer and make a reasonably decent living writing short stories and feature articles for several well-known women's magazines. Although I was quite happily married for many years, I am presently divorced and live alone in southern Nevada where I especially enjoy the hot, dry climate and the twenty-four-hour lifestyle.
I live in a quiet cul-de-sac in a secluded neighborhood. A large, shaded veranda stretches along the entire front of my house and, whenever possible, and weather permitting, I enjoy my morning coffee in blissful contemplation of nature, from the veranda, in the comfort of my favorite lounge chair.
One such morning, many months ago, began as routinely as any other but set in motion a chain of events that would dramatically alter my life and change the way I viewed my life in general.
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"Good morning, Karen," my neighbor, Marjorie, greeted with a smile and a wave as she walked from her front door to her car parked in the driveway. She and her teenage son, Jeremy, had been my neighbors for almost two years, moving into the house next to mine several years after I had settled into my home. While we were never the closest of friends, we always maintained a cordial and friendly relationship, and I liked her very much. I never knew her husband; by her own admission, she had been divorced for several years.
"Good morning," I replied with a smile and a wave of my own. Sipping my morning coffee, I watched her absently as she walked to her car and opened the trunk. Jeremy, followed behind her, struggling slightly with his mother's two large sample cases.
As a representative and demonstrator for a cosmetic company, Marjorie was forever lugging those heavy display cases in and out of her house to a variety of demonstration venues.
Jeremy hoisted the cases into the trunk for her, and she closed it with a satisfied nod. After giving Jeremy a quick kiss on the forehead, she was off. She gave me a wiggle of her fingers and a little toot of her horn as her vehicle sped away, a tumble of fallen leaves in the street cascaded along behind her in her wake.
Jeremy meandered slowly, from the driveway, across his yard toward me. "Hey, Mrs. Walters," he called from the beginning of the walkway to my door.
"Good morning, Jeremy," I replied with a smile.
"How're you doing today?" He asked, shading his eyes with his hand and squinting into the morning sunlight.
"Very well, thank you," I said. "How are you?"
"Pretty good I guess," he said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other self-consciously as he looked around at my lawn. "Looks like you're going to need another mowing pretty soon. I can do it for you today, if you want."
I nodded. Since I don't own a lawn mower, I've found it both necessary and convenient to hire Jeremy regularly during the spring and summer to keep my lawn mowed, trimmed, and looking nice. "It's getting to be about that time, isn't it?" I said, surveying the somewhat ragged state of my grass. "But today is my day to water, so how about maybe tomorrow, if you're not busy?"
"Sure," he nodded, squinting, the sunlight directly in his eyes. "Tomorrow's cool."
"Why don't you come over here in the shade and sit down, so you don't have to keep squinting into the sun like that," I smiled, indicating the lounge chair beside mine.
He shrugged with a smile and made his way to the veranda, and flounced into the proffered chair.
"Whew...that's a lot better," he said, rubbing his eyes.
I offered him some coffee but he declined politely and we sat and chatted amiably for several minutes about the lawn and a variety of mundane things.
"Well," I began when the last drops of coffee were drained from my mug, "As much as I enjoy talking to you, I really need to start getting productive this morning. I've got to start the watering and do a few things in my garden out back before it gets too hot."
"Oh, yeah...okay," said Jeremy, jumping self-consciously to his feet. "I...uh...guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Sure," I said, "and thanks for the company."
I stood and collected my cup and coffee paraphernalia, peripherally conscious that Jeremy had not moved away.
"Um...If you ever needed me to...I could maybe help you out in your garden," he offered, shifting his weight self-consciously from foot to foot.
"Oh, gee, honey," I said, smiling appreciatively at his thoughtfulness. "I really don't have all that much gardening work to do this morning, just some watering and maybe a bit of weeding."
He nodded, looking somewhat dejected. "Oh, sure...but, just...you know...if you ever do ever need help with anything..." he stammered.
It suddenly occurred to me that, with his mother working during the day, he was, very likely, spending a great deal of his summer vacation alone. I felt a little sad for him, he seemed lonely.
"But," I said, after a moment's hesitation, "If you don't have to rush right off right away, you are certainly more than welcome to keep me company in the backyard while I putter around."
He brightened immediately and smiled. "Well...sure...okay... Hey, I can get your sprinklers going out here in the front for you too if you want."
"Thanks, sweetie...that'd be really nice," I smiled in return.
While Jeremy unrolled my hose and set the sprinkler in the front yard, I put the coffee things away in the kitchen and made my way around to the back.
Jeremy joined me a few minutes later, taking a seat on my patio and watching as I uncoiled the hose and turned on the water. We resumed our amiable chat while I meandered through my garden and applied water liberally to all my plants.
"Good morning, Karen," called a voice from across the back fence.
"Hey...good morning to you too, Bob," I returned with a wave and a smile.
Bob Roth, an elderly gentleman and my neighbor of many years, returned my wave. We chatted briefly over the fence about the loveliness of the morning as he too began to water and tend to the plants in his own garden.
Several minutes later, I glanced up and started in surprise to see Jeremy standing very near at the edge of the garden.
"Um... Mrs. Walters?" he hissed softly, purposefully keeping his voice low and motioning me to come closer.
"What is it, Jeremy?" I asked, stepping closer to him and lowering my voice in kind.
"I...um...don't know how to tell you this," he stammered, keeping his eyes averted. "Um... it's kind of embarrassing... but I think there's something you should really sort of know about."
"What is it?" I repeated softly, growing somewhat apprehensive by his secretive attitude. I drew even nearer to him and inclined my head toward his.
"Um.... Well, it's just that.... I think you should know that...well...with that...um...dress that you're wearing...and, well... with the sun shining on you like it is...well... I kind of think that Mr. Roth can sort of...see right through it."
I started in surprise. I was wearing my usual outdoor summer attire, a long sundress, sleeveless and loose fitting, which draped loosely from my shoulders to my ankles, with only a small pair of bikini panties beneath.
A momentary wave of mild anxiety coursed through me as I suddenly realized how very transparent my light sundress must be in the direct sunlight. With all my attention to the plants in my garden, it had never even occurred to me at all that my body might be so revealingly silhouetted through the very sheer cotton fabric.
"Oh!" I stammered, feeling the blush rise to my cheeks warmly.
"I kind of thought I better say something to you because I noticed that Mr. Roth keeps looking over this way a lot," he continued in a whispered rush.
I glanced over my shoulder and, indeed, Bob smiled and waved good-naturedly once more.
"Oh...okay, I see," I said, feeling suddenly very exposed and vulnerable in the bright sunlight. "Thank you very much, Jeremy...for bringing this to my attention...Would you mind turning the water off for me, please?"
He turned and sped off toward the house, turning the water off while I quickly gathered up the hose to put away. I joined him on the porch a few moments later and sat down beside him on the bench.
"Thank you," I said, clearing my throat and laughing softly. "I'm more than a little embarrassed. Believe me, I had no idea that I was being such an exhibitionist for old Bob... I'm glad you let me know about it."
"That's all right," he said, smiling and nodding consolingly.
We sat quietly for several minutes. I was absently admiring the look of my garden when I was suddenly struck with a rather stunningly insightful realization. The whole time I had been in the garden, Jeremy had been sitting here on the patio. Looking out toward my garden from where we sat, the sun was in my eyes. Anyone seated here on the patio would undoubtedly have been afforded a particularly revealing and unobstructed view of my silhouetted figure through my dress. A view that would, without a doubt, have been intimately more revealing than anything Bob Roth might have been able to glimpse from his yard, almost three times the distance away.
Pondering this rather salient fact a little longer, I came to the distinct realization that I must have been providing Jeremy with quite a revealing spectacle of myself for at least fifteen to twenty minutes before he had alerted me of my indiscretion. I bit my lower lip to keep the smile from my face. I was not so naïve as to wonder why he might have waited as long as he did before saying anything.
My sudden awareness of Jeremy's somewhat tarnished gallantry quickly elicited a renewed warmth to my cheeks. It was somewhat disconcerting to realize that I had been so vulnerably exposed in front of Jeremy for all that time and, I couldn't help but wonder if Jeremy would have said anything to me at all if it had not been for Bob's timely entrance.
I wasn't at all offended that Jeremy had likely taken personal advantage of my indiscretion. It was, after all, a harmless incident and, I supposed, a completely normal reaction for any young man to seize upon such a golden opportunity as I had inadvertently provided.
