"I can't believe it, it's him."
I glanced back over my shoulder at the two fellows just walking into the restaurant and then turned back to my old friend, Pam.
"You know them?"
"The one on the right," she grinned. "God, it's been 40 years and he's still looking so good. I can't believe it. My stallion once upon a time when he didn't have a clue."
"What?"
"My luck," the perky little blonde laughed. "I come back to town to visit Mom and I run into you. We go out to lunch and I see him. Makes me wonder who else I'm going to run into while I'm stuck in this hick town. I may get wet panties out of this trip yet "
I let the hick town thing pass, Pam not a whole lot different than when I knew her all those years ago apparently. First to judge, last to admit. It wasn't like we were great friends, trust me. I'm really overstating the friends thing. Passing acquaintances is more like it but years have a habit of changing views. Still, there was something in the way she spoke, in that grin, that made this old lady a little curious.
"So what," I asked, "you guys dated back then?"
"Well," she said slowly, trying to see where the guys had gone to, "it wasn't like we were a couple. We coupled, if you know what I mean but not a couple."
Maybe I was just in a pissy mood, maybe it was the way I despise people assuming things, maybe whatever but I just had to say, "No, I don't know what you mean. Please, tell me."
"Oh Hell, Janie, must I? He was my first, my only, rookie."
Coffee must dull the brain, what I'd just heard didn't register, it didn't make sense. Apparently my stupidity showed.
"A virgin, silly," Pam giggled. "I actually had a virgin. I got to break some cock in one time You?"
Like I mentioned, we never were that good of friends. Ever. Pam was a year ahead of me in school, her family lived down the street but it wasn't like we did each other's hair. Truth be told, we rarely spoke to each other and now, with her royal highness gracing our hick town with a visit, apparently all that was forgotten. So too the little fact I don't generally talk about conquests. Write about them, just not talk about them. I shook my head, more to shake off the conversation than admit the truth.
"You haven't? Too bad. I know some ladies say they're lousy pieces but that one, sweet Jesus, that boy was quite a man, if you know what I mean."
I know I blushed but I had to say it, letting my eyes twinkle as I said, "You mean big. Where it counts."
"Oh, you can be a tramp after all," Pam squealed, still trying to spot where the guys went across the room. "You were Jane Goodie as I recall. The shy little bunny. So you ended up being as bad as me, I take it?"
"That I doubt," I said, forcing a laugh and getting tired of the conversation. At the same time that curiosity thing was setting in, maybe another story in the writing to unfold. I egged Pam on by saying, "So, tell me, you got a first edition? How?"
"They're called boobs, babe. Have you forgotten what I'm carrying here?" Pam laughed, arching her back just enough to remind me of her greatest and probably only asset. "As long as I kept my weight down, they look good. Yeah, they sag now, but we all do, even little things like you. Guys always wanted to feel me up but getting them against their chests, that was the real objective."
"So you got him?" I said, still fighting a partial urge to laugh and a bigger urge to gag for some reason. I ignored the urge to be offended 36C's were little.
"Oh yeah," Pam sighed, giving up on trying to eye the guys and finally turning back to pay attention totally to me. "A first. God, yes, that was sweet. My twentieth birthday present to me."
It must have been the surprised look on my face that made Pam break out in even more laughter. It sure wasn't the salad. She laughed, rolled her eyes and then shook her head before she said, "Didn't you ever get a man for a birthday?"
There must have been some challenge I felt it necessary to answer. That's the only reason I can think of saying, "Yeah, one."
"That's right, I heard you got married," Pam said with an indifferent shrug. She didn't give a shit, why should I. She shrugged again and said, "I guess it was a tradition."
"Tradition?"
The grin was back and almost a blush as she said, "Yeah. I had my first on my nineteenth birthday, I got a rookie on my twentieth. Hell, I should start that tradition up again, I've got a birthday next month."
"Nineteenth?"