Bowling alleys are closed here now due to that blasted pandemic. Some have had to close for good. That's sad, but it got me to thinking, and fantasizing about what might have been.
Back in the day, I bowled on leagues at a couple of different bowling alleys. I had my own ball, red marbled, and blue suede bowling shoes. I was never very good at it, but I had fun. I was never much of a drinker either, but I discovered if I had half of an Amaretto Sour, my game went up by 20 points.
My job had gotten to the point where I worked all sorts of days and shifts so I couldn't commit to a league, but I still loved to bowl.
My friend Maria had recently gotten divorced. She's from Germany and still has a German accent but it has softened over the years. She got the house in the divorce. The house wasn't all that big, but proportionally, the living room and dining rooms were large, and it was near where we worked, so a perfect place to gather.
Maria also loves to cook. She almost always had some roast chicken or other meat, something in the Crock-pot and perhaps some salads and desserts. The food alone attracted the single guys from work.
I got into the habit of going to her place on Wednesdays after I got off work. Two of my best guy friends were usually there. Joe, who was at one point, my friend with benefits, lived next door. He's from Georgia and a few years younger than me. He's my height and all skin, muscle and bone, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a killer smile.
Sam was 18. He's from Hong Kong. He lived two doors down from Maria. We're both pigs in Chinese Astrology so I was 30 at the time. I didn't find out until years later that he was madly in love with me. I should have known. When the weather was cold, we'd cuddle together under a blanket in the corner of Maria's living room. He kept trying to show me how to play a card game but I never figured it out, so I'd always lose. Sometimes he would ask if he could touch my breasts. I'd let him put his hand in my bra and he would feel around in there, moaning.
Joe and Sam were almost always there as they lived so close, but there were usually plenty of other people there as well.
We fell into a pattern. We'd go bowling nearly every Wednesday. There was a bowling alley in North Seattle with a Hawaiian sounding name. A famous rock star once stopped in while I was bowling on a league there. I missed meeting him. I had dislocated my knee while dancing. It was hard to walk with the knee brace on and I knew I was in no shape to bowl, so I stayed home that night. Still kicking myself for that! I could have had him autograph my butt!
Maria began having us over on the weekends as well. We didn't go bowling then because the bowling alley was too busy and usually had some special thing like Moonlight bowling going on.
Her house was often just a meeting place though. Some or all of us might decide to go off on some adventure elsewhere. We always had fun though!
On this particular Wednesday, I had the day off. Joe called me.
"Hey! Wear your yellow dress tonight. Okay?"
The dress was something I made myself, and quickly. I was required to wear a dress on my first day of work and I had nothing suitable. Neither did my friend Patty. I told her not to worry. I'd make her a dress.
In those days, the fabric stores had bolts of fabric with smocking at the top. With careful measuring, you could cut two pieces, sew a seam up each side and have a strapless dress or a long skirt.
I bought blue and red fabric for Patty. I sewed red ribbon straps at the top. She wore a T shirt under it. Then she gave it back to me after our first day of work. She said she would never wear a dress again! She was quite the tomboy!
The yellow fabric had tiny flowers on it and wide horizontal stripes at the bottom, in teal, purple and rose, each with a stripe of the yellow in between. I cut off a strip of the yellow from the bottom and fashioned it into thick straps that crisscrossed the back. The end result was a short sundress.
"You want me to go bowling in a dress?"
Joe snickered. His voice got a little higher. I always knew something was up when he snickered like that and his voice got higher.
"Oh, you can bring your ball if you want to! I don't think you're going to need it though." He snickered again and told me he had to get back to work.
After dinner, I laid out the clothes I would have worn to go bowling. I normally wore jeans for bowling but they were too bulky to fit in my bowling bag so I opted for a pair of red gaucho pants that I'd made and a black lace tank top. I folded them carefully so they wouldn't wrinkle and tucked them into my blue and white bowling bag.
I shook my head as I looked at the yellow dress and slipped it on. Why a dress? And why this dress? Joe had expressed interest in some of my clothes before, but never this dress. Yellow wasn't even his favorite color. He liked blue. Sam's favorite color was yellow though. He told me so.
Some people were at Maria's house when I got there, but not Sam or Joe. They arrived shortly thereafter, but they didn't come in. They just stood on the porch, calling my name through the open door.
I looked around.
"Aren't we going bowling?"
Sue looked up at me from her plate. "Sorry. I'm really beat. I'm going to turn in early."
Janice gave her boyfriend a side hug and a quick smile. "Um... Mike and I have other plans!"
"You three go ahead. We'll bowl next week. I think we're just going to sit around and gossip." Maria waved us on.
"Okay then." My mouth twisted as I spoke and one eye squinted. Something was up, and I felt like everyone but me, knew what that was!
I was elected to drive. Joe sat in the front seat, poking at the radio like guys tend to do. No matter what station I have on or how the radio is set, it's not suitable for the guy. He could always do it better. I was used to that by now.
Sam sat quietly in the back seat.
And then I smelled it.
"Joe!"
He turned pink and doubled over in laughter. He knew all of my secrets. There's a certain men's cologne that turns me on so much I can almost have an orgasm just from sniffing it. He knew this and was always looking for samples of it. They were easy to find as they were commonly inserted into magazines. He and Sam were both wearing this cologne.
"Feeling horny?"
I saw Sam in the rear view mirror. His deep brown eyes grew wide.
"You know I am!"
Joe snickered again. "Drive!"
"Where to?"
"The bowling alley."
"I thought we weren't going bowling."
"We're not."
"Then why are we..."
