This is quite pleasant, Fred thought, as he lounged by the community pool, located only steps from his retirement home. He had always liked to swim, even back in Ohio during the cold winters, and the size of the pool permitted him to lap swim and keep fit. Yesterday he did a half-mile, so this was his day to relax. When it cooled later, he would walk a mile or two around the village. It was too bad his ex-wife Betty couldn't enjoy this. Yeah, right, that bitch ran off with a wealthy business man five years ago. Two months after the divorce was final, the big-shot rich man filed for bankruptcy; it seems he was juggling the books so that everyone, along with Betty, was taken in. Betty came around, looking for a second chance, but Fred would have none of it. He didn't trust her.
Fred and Betty Prendergast had once talked about retiring to New Mexico, where they had vacationed often and had friends, but Fred decided that there were too many memories of Betty there. Besides, he had some relatives in Florida near Gainesville, and there were a lot of nice retirement communities located there. Fred also liked the national forests located nearby; he recalled many past adventures of canoeing through the swamps and woodland.
So here he was taking it easy near Lake Oklawaha and having a good time. An unexpected bequest from a distant relative had induced him to retire early from his government job in Cleveland. Maybe in a few months, he would look for something down here to keep busy and earn a little income. Fred missed his kids, but he also knew that they would become snowbirds and drop in on him in the future. After a month he had met enough people to provide a circle of friends.
Fred looked up. His new buddy, Marianne Pucci, was walking toward him. He had just met her at the library four days ago. She taught at a local college and had been dumped her husband three years ago. She was only six years younger than Fred, but looked younger than that, no more than forty. They had hit it off right away; she had grown up in Toledo. He could see yearning and loneliness in her eyes each time they had talked, reminding him of his past few years.
"Hi, Marianne," Fred called out, barely raising his voice. He watched as her face lit up with the joy of seeing him. He felt a stirring within himself too. She seemed to be such a nice woman.
"Hello, Fred, sorry I'm late, but I stayed up half the night reading that book you recommended. It turned out to be a real page turner." Fred was delighted to find someone who shared his own love of books and talked about them in an intelligent, unpretentious manner. He possessed a TV only to watch news, weather, and some special documentary shows.
"Don't give it a thought; it is not as if we are in any great hurry to do anything or go anywhere." He watched as his friend took off her beach robe and arranged herself and her things on the recliner next to him. She had a nice lithe body, hips flaring out from a narrow waist, nice-sized tits, and shapely legs, definitely a sexy lady. His mind had wandered several times over the past two days as he wondered what she might look like naked.
"Well, Fred, here we are again!" Marianne said with a laugh. For the next hour they continued their exchange of personal information in the form of anecdotes of their past lives, with some laughing or sighing, depending on the moment. Fred enjoyed this; it felt good to be able to open up with someone, to even mention a few private thoughts. A noisy group of old ladies arrived and distracted them. Fred looked at his watch and then at the Sun's position.
"Damn!" he said, "Time flies when you're having fun. I need to get to the post office before it closes. Listen, Marianne, would you like to have dinner with me tonight, someplace nice?"
She frowned and said with a sigh, "Dinner would be nice, but I promised to eat tonight with my friend Elizabeth. How about tomorrow?" Fred looked at her pretty face, now filled with a hopeful expression.
"I'll take tomorrow; I'll try to bear up until then," Fred said. "It seems so long to wait, but I guess I can do it." Why did I say that, he thought as soon as the words left his lips; probably because he meant it and it had been so long since he had been on a real date. A few minutes later Fred was in his car, his mind still filled with images and words of Marianne Pucci.
At nine that night he was relaxing with a popular historical novel about the French and Indian War when the telephone rang. "How are you, Fred?" the now familiar voice of Marianne said. "Are you doing anything or are you too tied up to come over for a glass of wine?"
"I think I can juggle you into my busy schedule; Let's see...yup, I can fit you in between the bowling tournament and the midnight basketball league. What happened to Elizabeth?"
"She developed a headache, so I came home."
Minutes later, Fred was tapping on Marianne's door. This would be his first time in her little house. Her voice called out, inviting him in. He walked in and stood in from of a huge built-in aquarium, admiring its arrangement and tasteful assortment of fish. Marianne came in with a tray. She set down the ice, glasses and a bottle and came over to him.
"What do you think of this?" she asked.
