My wife had been looking forward to this night's outing for a while. Today she'd spent most of it getting prepared. I was handed the kids, wished good luck, and she was off, her hairdressing appointment uppermost in her mind.
I spent the day looking after the kids. Mary came back from the hairdresser and primped and preened, spending time on her nails, choosing the outfit she would wear (Again. I don't know why. I already knew what her final choice was going to be, so she should.), doing her make-up, redoing her make-up, generally panicking in case she wasn't ready on time.
An hour or so before we were due to depart Nikki, the baby-sitter, turned up. This released me from baby-sitting duties, presumably so I could go and get ready. Not needing two hours to get ready and not wanting to stand around in a tuxedo for ages I deferred everything in favour of watching some TV and assuring Mary that I would be ready on time.
After half an hour of pointed comments, getting more pointed all the time, I wandered off to have a shower and get dressed. But there was no way I was putting on that bow-tie and coat until two minutes before we walked out the door.
I had my shower and strolled back into the bedroom. Now I was naked. So would you be if you had a shower in your own en suite, the one attached to your own bedroom. Like I'm going to get dressed before walking out of the en suite and into the bedroom.
It turns out that maybe I should have got dressed before walking out of the en suite and into the bedroom. Nikki was standing in the bedroom, burrowing into one of Mary's drawers. She was holding several packets of new stockings in her hand. Presumably Mary was afraid of a ladder in her current pair and sent Nikki to grab some spares.
So there am I in all my glory, and there was Nikki, looking at me. At first she just saw that it was me standing there, and held up the stockings.
"Just grabbing these for Mary," she said, smiling. "She's panicking in case she gets a ladder and doesn't have any spares."
"That's what I figured," I thought, watching the smile on Nikki's face sort of slip sidewards as she took in my lack of attire. She now had a red tinge to her cheeks and a rather stunned look. I, naturally enough, expected her to bolt, stammering apologies. Hey, it wasn't up to me to apologise. My bedroom, after all, and she should have heard me moving around in the en suite.
The trouble was Nikki didn't bolt. She just froze in place, staring at me. Even that wouldn't have been so bad, but she was staring hard at my software.
Nikki had always seemed a nice quiet young woman, quite pretty in her own way. We'd known her for several years and I always got on well with her. I teased her a little when she first started developing, giving her what was probably her first wolf whistle. Now she was a mature young woman of around eighteen or nineteen and she was staring hard at me.
The immediate result was that my software became hardware. It seemed to have a mind of its own and it stood right up, waving gently to her, effectively saying, "Hi, pleased to meet you."
Nikki's cheeks went from a pink tinge to a bright red as she watched the transformation. Finally deciding she was at the wrong place at the wrong time she turned, spluttering apologies, and headed for the door. Just in time to meet Mary, who was coming to see what the delay was. The look on her face was worth money to see.
"Hey, not my fault," I put in quickly. "I just came out from my shower and Nikki was here, perving on me. Blame her."
"What? I wasn't perving. I was getting the stockings. He just walked in without clothes."
"Nikki, shower," I said, pointing towards the en suite, "clothes," pointing to the tux hanging from the hook on the door. "All you had to do was turn and leave."
"Not my fault," she muttered. "I got distracted by that thing wriggling around and waving at me."
"Haven't you seen one before?" asked Mary, giggling.
"Of course I have," protested Nikki. "But I just haven't seen one go from lying down to attack mode before."
Mary laughed outright at that comment.
"Don't mind me," I said. "I'm just here to get dressed. Feel free to discuss me as though I wasn't here. Better yet, just chase the child away. I have something I want you to do."
"What?" Mary said with a hint of outrage in her voice. "I'm all dressed and ready. I'm not doing anything that might mess up my outfit or make up. Nikki caused the problem. Let her fix it."
Nikki sounded off with a very shocked sounding, "What?"
I chipped in at the same time.
"Give the kid a break, love," I said, laughing. "She wouldn't know what to do with it."
"Lot you know," said Nikki, sounding irritated. "I do so know."
"Then there's no problem, is there," said Mary. "You can give him a hand job or a blow job or even push him onto the bed and screw him. Just fix his little problem or he'll be walking around like that all night."
Unlikely. If the women had the sense god gave a goose they'd both get out and let me get dressed. I had no doubt that my hardware would return to a software state.
"What, you seriously expect me to, ah, attend to Simon's needs?" asked Nikki incredulously.
"Oh, I wouldn't expect you to actually screw him," Mary said smoothly. "I fully realize that you're rather a small girl and he does have a bit of size on him. Still you could give him a hand."