*This story is my first submission to a contest on here so please vote!
*
A gust of cold wind blew down the leaf-strewn lane; rattling fence posts and for-sale signs on either side. It was 8 o'clock in the evening on December 31st and Maria was just getting home from work. She had stopped by the grocery store for dinner and some beer on her way, staying inside as long as she could to escape the cold.
She made her way down the dark street to the last house on the right. It was a duplex handed down to her by her grandmother who had given it up to move farther south.
Maria wasn't the typical resident of West Pinecrest Blvd. All of her neighbors were in their 80's and enjoying retirement; calling it a night at 7 and getting up again at 5 the next morning. Unlike most people her age Maria was fine with that, she was only 22 but didn't join in the party lifestyle. She had taken a job as a business manager for a temp service in town right after college. She had flexible hours and it was good pay; that way she had plenty of time to work on her writing.
Another gust of wind twirled around Maria causing her to pull her gray coat around her tighter. She flipped her collar up and readjusted the blue scarf around her neck. Maria quickened her pace muttering to herself about the cold. Gary must be out partying Maria thought to herself looking at the dark windows of the apartment that attached to hers. She unlocked her front door and shut it behind her shivering as the last bit of cold air escaped into the hallway.
Maria was convinced that Gary was her grandmother's last attempt at matchmaking. She had rented the apartment to Gary a month before Maria moved in. She still didn't know that much about him since they had only spoken once or twice beyond the awkward hello in the hallway. She knew he was an architect and working on a building in town, he didn't have a girlfriend since he broke up with the last one about two months ago. Maria guessed he was about 27 but hadn't seen fit to ask him personally. She had to admit that he was good looking. He was tall but not lanky, his broad shoulders filled out his shirt nicely. His hair was shaggy and fell into his green eyes.
Maria took her coat off and hung it on the peg beside the door. She glanced at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a black long sleeve shirt under a maroon vest. The vest went down to mid thigh and buckled under her breasts, boosting them up and turning the vest into more of a corset. She had on dark denim trousers and black high heels.
Running her hands over her stomach she lifted the edge of the shirt up wondering if she would ever be brave enough to wear the corset alone without anything under it. She sighed and picked her bag up. Entering her apartment she flicked the heater up and went to the kitchen to prepare her dinner.
After eating and cleaning up she made her way over to her desk and sat down to write. She stared at the screen before her rereading the sentence she had just typed. Groaning she sat back in her chair suddenly suffocating in the heat of the apartment. Maria unbuckled her vest and shrugged it off flinging it over the arm of the nearby sofa. Stretching her back she leaned forward and began to type again. A paragraph later and she was still hot and uncomfortable. In frustration she stripped off her black shirt leaving her sitting at her desk in a black silk bra and jeans, her high heals kicked off hours ago. She scrolled through the pages she had written the night before trying to figure out where the story had gone wrong. She reread the last chapter. Her characters were in the middle of an intense love making session. Her eyes roaming over the page Maria remembered how horny writing it had made her the night before. She bit her lip and her fingers innocently flickered over the top of her bra, following the deep curve of it down between her breasts. Her fingers continued down to her plump stomach stopping at her jeans. Maria considered only a moment before stripping them off as well. Her black thong and matching bra were the perfect thing for the heat of her apartment she convinced herself. Maria looked at the clock in the right hand corner of her screen; it read 11:24 pm. She sighed and pushed herself away from the computer giving up for the night. Standing up she caught her reflection in the sliding glass door that lead out to the shared back porch. She usually kept the curtains drawn but had opened them that morning to look out at the birds sitting on the fence around the porch. She turned around looking at herself several times before looking beyond her reflection to the hot tub.
She grinned to herself and ran off to her bedroom to change into her bathing suit. Digging in the back of her drawer she pulled out the first one she could find, a teal two piece that was a little to small on her now. Shrugging she pulled her bra and thong off, caressing her skin as she did. That was the beauty of having a closed in deck. It didn't matter because nobody could see you. She pulled on the bottoms and tied them snuggly around her hips. There was a gap where the two sides of the fabric didn't meet but she ignored it. The top barely covered her breasts, the sides clearly visible. She would never dream about wearing it in public.
Maria grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and an ice bucket before making her way out to the porch with a towel. She set the ice bucket on the deck and plunged the beers into it. She threw her towel over a bush to keep it dry then stepped down into the hot tub. It was big enough to sit eight people comfortably. It had a lounger seat that ran the length of one wall, two bench seats, and two bucket seats in the corners that let you sink back into the water with the jets against your neck. Maria settled down into one of these seats and opened her beer taking a sip from it before turning on the jets. The water began to froth up bubbling and breaking up the surface of the water. Maria sat back and enjoyed the relaxing jets massaging her neck, the back of her thighs and her back. She closed her eyes letting one of her hands trail down to her pussy. She rubbed it through the fabric of her bathing suit. Reaching behind her back she pulled the strings of her top and untied it letting the fabric float to the top of the water. Getting braver Maria pulled it over her head and let it drop down on the porch. She smiled to herself and lay back in the water again.
The lights in Gary's apartment turned on and before Maria could move he was opening the porch door. He had on a pair of swimming trunks and had a towel in his hands. He smiled at her. "I thought I heard you out here." He walked closer and if he noticed her lack of a bathing suit top he didn't say anything. "May I join you?"
Maria nodded her head not knowing what else to do and moved over to the far corner. Her mind was racing. Should she get out, should she apologize and put her top back on, should she make some excuse? In the end she decided not to make a big deal of it and hoped he wouldn't say anything. Gary stepped into the water and came to sit down next to her.
"I don't think I've ever seen you out here." He commented.
