Breezy

It was spring and I was walking along the river trail enjoying the slight breeze and the ducks gathered at the shoreline. A few other people were out strolling, riding bikes and walking with their dogs. I decided to do a bit of speed walking to catch up to the long legs in shorts just a sprinting distance from me. She stopped at the fountain to get a drink of water and then went into the ladies restroom. I stopped at the fountain, drank a bit of water and was doing knee lifts when she came back out.

"Hi" she said to me.

"Hi. Um, excuse me but I need to get in there before someone else does" I said and hurried into the ladies room. I saw a man and woman approaching and I really needed to relieve my bladder. Lucky me, she was still there when I came out.

I drank a few sips of water and we began to walk. She was as tall as I am. Her short hair was wavy. She had an easy stride and we strolled along till we reached a mile mark. We alternated walking and jogging until we arrived at the parking area where she had left her car. She said she had to go but I wanted a few quiet minutes to sit by the river so she left and I jogged a short distance to the nearest bench. I sat on a bench facing the river for several minutes then walked slowly back to my jeep. As I rolled down the driver's window to let in some fresh air, I heard a horn blow and there she was, parked across from me. I grabbed a towel off the head rest and went to her as she stood against her door.

"Hi again" I smiled broadly. She had left the park, driven a short distance up the highway and returned. We hadn't said much to each other when we were together except talk about our vehicles.

"This is our second meeting, so will you at least tell me your name now?" she asked with her head tilted. She had beautiful eyes and I was trying to be cool as I wiped the perspiration from my brow. My body was cooling down and I was suddenly sweating heavily. My t-shirt was sticking to my body and so was hers. We stood looking into each others eyes, then down to necks and lingered on rising breasts.

"I'm Breezy" I told her still looking at her chest until she lifted my head with a finger under my chin. Suddenly a heat wave went through me. I leaned my back against her car the same as she was doing.

"I'm Vicki. I'm going to give you my cell info and you can call or text me if you decide to go walking tomorrow." She took a slip of paper out the back pocket of her shorts. I was thinking -- damn lucky piece of paper. She slid it into a pocket of my shorts. We both turned our heads in the direction of a whistle. It was a guy getting into his car. Vicki got into her car and I went to mine. We drove out of the park.

That was on a Wednesday. I didn't get to go to the river trail but two or three times a week and I usually tried to do it when I really need to unwind. I had seen Vicki a couple of times previously before speaking to her. Both times she had been ahead of me and I slowed my pace to stay behind her. Third time was a charm. Whew.

By lunch time Friday, I was ready for a run and even if I wasn't, I would have gone just to meet Vicki again. So on lunch break, I sent Vicki a text and we made plans to meet at the park entrance at six o'clock.

"I'm not just doing all this walking and jogging to get up close with nature I said to Vicki patting my right hip, as she walked toward me with a bag from a fast food restaurant, a loaf of bread, and a couple of sodas on a cardboard beverage tray.

"Well we have to eat and I thought we could sit at the river and feed ourselves and the ducks" she said smiling as she appraised my hips. She had brought us both a salad with lite dressing.

My job for five years was behind a desk and before I realized, my hips and thighs had spread. I wanted to get healthier as I got older. About six months ago, I made up my mind to improve my fitness and so I cut back on certain foods and started walking the river trail. The extra activity was working and it didn't take long for my body to loosen up and want more. I had been neglecting myself and once I got into the groove of exercising, my muscles appreciated the effort and wanted to go walking even if my brain sometimes wasn't interested.

We strolled along until we reached a bench close to the water. We tore up bread and tossed it out for the ducks and talked as we ate. After we finished feeding fowl and ourselves we put the trash in a nearby waste container and began to walk. We walked two miles before we felt like jogging and alternated walking. Before we realized, we had reached the end of the trail, so we turned and started back.

"Will you have dinner with me tomorrow?" Vicki asked as we took a break outside the rest room. She was younger by several years and I wasn't sure about getting involved with her. I was already seeing a woman but we had sort of decided to date other people. Well, she had decided that she wanted to date other people and what could I say to stop her.

"You'd better go inside because someone is walking like she needs to go now" I told my walking companion. She went inside and when she came out I let the other woman go ahead of me.

"That was nice of you to let her go before you. I bet you charm a lot of women with that easy breezy manor of yours" Vicki said taking a sip of water.

"Today is Friday, why not dinner tonight? We've worked off the salad dressing" I finally responded to her dinner question.

"I can't tonight. I already have other plans and I can't get out of it."

"Are you married or involved with someone else?" I asked already knowing she didn't wear a ring because I had checked that out the first day I saw her. But no ring didn't necessarily mean she was single. I had been through that emotional rollercoaster twice from women who took their rings off when they played on gay street.

"I'm having dinner with my parents tonight. We dine together at least once a month. Usually it is on a Sunday night, but this coming Sunday is Homecoming which means a full day and eating at church."

My apprehension showed on my face because she walked up closer to me and stroked my chin with an index finger. Hmm, everytime she touched me it was electric. That alone made me cautious. I had to be careful with this one because there was an energy coming from her that I had not felt in a long time. The same time something was telling me to stay away from her, her power was drawing me near.

We were both tired so decided to walk the rest of the way back. We were parked beside each other and stood between our vehicles toweling down. It was a warm day but not all the body heat wasn't coming from the work out. Once again she stroked my chin but this time her index finger traveled down the front of my neck and over my wet tee and stopped at the middle of my chest. She stared into my eyes with a little smirk that said she knew she had me ready to follow her home. However, it was a year later before I even saw her again.

It was summer and I was riding my bike along the river trail when I saw Vicki come out of the ladies rest room. I was undecided if I should nod and keep going or stop. Her smile stopped me.

"I've been here everyday this week about this time hoping to see you. How are you?" Vicki said.

"Fine."

"Yes you are" she said moving a step closer and looked into my eyes questioning.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Fine."

"Yes you are" I said. I pointed to a nearby bench and we sat down.

"I want to apologize for not keeping our dinner date. Things just started happening so fast after the last time I saw you. My mother had a heart attack the Saturday of our date. My father had a stroke a few months prior to that and wasn't in any condition to take care of her. I have a brother but all the responsibility of taking care of my parents fall on me. During the day time a nurse was there with them but they didn't want anyone but me there at night. Therapy, doctor's appointments, house chores, etc and working didn't leave me with much energy to even go for a walk with you. I'm sorry I didn't call ..."

"It's okay. You're not the first woman that stood me up" I smiled as I rubbed her shoulder. As I looked at her closer, she appeared to still be tired. "How are your parents doing now?"

"They are both stronger physically but both are scared to do much unassisted now. They use to be so active and now they don't do much besides go to church. My brother does a bit to help but she has a family of her own, so most of the responsibility falls on me since I'm single and I don't have kids. I've thought about you over the months but made myself not call you."

"You could have called just to talk."

"I was feeling kind of pissed that I didn't have adequate time to get to know you better. It seems that whenever I try to take time for myself, something happens with my family, and I'm the one expected to deal with it. I love my parents dearly and was glad to be there for them, but it ...", Vicki said with her voice fading out and she shook her head.

As we strolled, Vicki continued to tell me more about herself. She had been engaged for a year when she was twenty-five but didn't marry him because she wasn't in love with him. She cared for him but it was not the way she thought a wife should care for her husband. She broke his heart but it was better to do it before they married. She faced the truth about herself and stop making up reasons why she had never really fell for a man other than as a friend.

When she was a teen, she shut off the part of herself that felt more natural and prayed that she would eventually meet a man, marry and have kids. The man she was engaged to was a friend first and she felt comfortable around him like she had never felt with any other guy. So when he asked her to marry him, she said yes. A couple of months before she was to walk down the aisle she met a woman and had a fling. She wanted more but the woman did not because she too was engaged to marry a man, which she eventually did. But try as she might, Vicki couldn't take those vows knowing she was not in-love with him.

Since then, she sometimes went on dates with men but had a longing to be with someone special. Because there are no gay clubs in our small town, she didn't often meet women to date. Now how flattering is that, to attract a woman's attention from afar and have her make the first move? By the end of the year, we were a couple. //Breezy by Salty(c)2010