I was out for a hot Saturday afternoon run in July when I saw her. She was walking a dog in the field adjacent to where the jogging trail passed by the playground. She wore white shorts and a sleeveless red top. She was still a fox and her body was still fine, just like it was back when we used to be a couple.
Her name was Helen and she had been one of the prettier girls in my high school. She had long brown hair, deep brown eyes and a body that turned heads. She was a very nice and considerate person, but she intimidated a lot of guys in those days, including me, partially because of her exquisite looks, but mostly because her mother was an English teacher at our school. In the spring of our senior year Helen and I acted in a school play together and we hit it off. I found her very easy to talk to with a great sense of humor. She was hot, but she didn't act like it. We dated the last several months of our senior year and through our first year of college. She went to a different school to get her nursing degree so we ended up going our separate ways. We were by this time in our mid-twenties, and it had been over five years since I'd seen her.
"Helen? Helen, is that you?" I asked as I coasted to a stop a few feet away from her. The dog leaped toward me but she yanked back on the leash.
"Down, Babs," Helen said. "Will? Holy Smoke, I can't believe it!"
We shared a brief, sweaty hug and the dog was jumping up almost to my shoulders.
"This is Babs," Helen said. "She's a Jack Russell Terrorist. And not too well trained, I'm afraid."
"Is she your dog?" I asked.
"No, she belongs to my mother. Mom lives right over there," she said, pointing to the entrance to The Ridge, an upscale subdivision of nice homes on fairly large lots.
Her mother was Connie, my old English teacher. She was also a knockout, at least back in high school she had been. I guess she was still in her thirties then, with a slim athletic body, tight ass, firm titties and a beautiful smile. Most of the boys in school thought she was hot, and they all fantasized about her, and that helped make Helen seem hands-off to many of them.
"How's Mrs. Connie doing?" I asked.
"Okay, I guess. But it's Miss Connie now. She and my father split up a couple years ago, but she's doing fine, just hates men nowadays. He was messing around with some little harlot at his work and got caught. So she nailed his ass in the divorce and bought a nice house with a pool and a hot tub!"
"Is she still teaching?"
"Oh yeah," she said, laughing. "Still in the same old classroom, same old syllabus, and still setting adolescent boys' hearts a-flutter!"
"Well, you look good, Helen," I said. "Where are you living these days?"
"All over the place," she said. "I'm a travelling nurse. I go to work at places where there are severe nurse shortages, get paid well and get to see the world. I just got back from Alaska a couple of weeks ago; I was there for six months. I'm staying with Mom for a few weeks now, and then I'm off to South America!"
"South America! Wow."
"Yep, Venezuela. I've been brushing up on my Spanish. How about you? Where are you living? What are you up to?"
"Been selling medical equipment. It's been going pretty well. I bought a town house overlooking the park, about a mile from here."
"Oh, nice, we're practically neighbors! We should get together while I'm here. And I'm sure Mom would love to see you."
I wasn't so sure about that. When I'd taken her classes, she seemed to like me a lot as a student and enjoyed my comments and humor. But after I started dating Helen she'd seemed to act colder toward me.
"Sounds like a great idea," I said, "I'd love to. It will be fun to catch up and see Miss Connie again!"
She told me the phone number and I repeated it a few times so I wouldn't forget. She said to call the next day and I promised I would.
-
When I called the next day Connie answered the phone.
"Well, if it isn't the sparkling wit of Franklin High!" she laughed. "Helen said you might be calling. How are you doing, Will?"
I gave her the brief update and then she told me that Helen was out but they wanted to invite me over for a cookout by the pool.
"How about Thursday evening?" she asked. "Would that work for you?"
"That would be fine," I said.
"Okay, then we're all set. Come over around six. We'll grill out by the pool, have some drinks, catch up on everything and then we'll have a pop quiz on Antigone!"
"Ugh," I groaned, laughing.
"Okay, maybe not Antigone. How about Stevie Ray Vaughan?" she laughed.
She had a nice laugh. It was cool that she remembered that I was into the Blues. And any coolness I had detected from her in the past was nonexistent.
-
On Thursday at six p.m. I was knocking on their door. I held a twelve pack of beer in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, which made hugging awkward when Helen and Connie saw me in. So I put down the merchandise, gave them each a hug and thanked them for having me over.
They both looked ravishing. Helen's hair was in a ponytail and she wore short denim cutoffs and a tight, white t-shirt, her tanned arms and legs glowing in contrast and the lace of her bra contoured through the thin cotton of her shirt. Connie was foxier than ever, and even though she had to be in her mid-forties she didn't look a day older than she had when I'd taken her classes eight and nine years before. Her dirty blond hair was shorter and slightly frizzed. She wore a flowery summer dress hemmed above the knees, and her long legs and arms were beautifully toned and tanned.
I followed them through the house to the pool area out back. I put the beer on ice and grabbed one for myself. They each already had a glass of wine.
"You two look great!" I said, as we took seats on the patio. "And Miss Connie, you don't look a day older than when I was in high school."
"Oh, please," she blushed. "And, it's just Connie, now. We're not in school anymore!"
"Okay, Connie. But, I'm serious, you look great. You must be working out, you look in fabulous shape."
"Pilates, aerobics, I swim a little and I've gotten into running. Helen said she bumped into you when you were running Saturday, so obviously you are still at it."
I had run cross country in high school and college, and kept it up after graduation, running races, marathons, and even a couple ultra-marathons.
"Yes, I'm still at it. My positive addiction, I guess. It helps me justify my beer drinking!" I laughed, raising my bottle.
"You ran a few marathons if I remember correctly," Connie said.
"I have," I answered. "I ran New York last year. None in the plans right now, though."
"I think that would just be an incredible accomplishment," she said. "I've run a few 10Ks, but I don't think I could ever run 26 miles!"
"Oh, if you can do a 10K," I said, "You could do a marathon. It's all just a matter of committing to the training. There aren't any short cuts!"
"Maybe one of these days I'll try it."
"You can do it. Like I said, it's really a matter of planning and training and not rushing it."
The night progressed with easy conversation between the three of us, burgers and chicken on the grill, potato salad and corn on the cob. It was all delicious and I washed it down with a number of beers. At about a quarter till ten Connie said she was going to turn in and said her goodnights. She disappeared behind the French doors that led into her master bedroom. Babs, who had been floating on a raft in the pool for most of the evening, was right behind her.
