[Reading the original Helping A Friend before part 2 is advisable....but not mandatory]
Benney’s world was turned upside down. Hollie was gone. For the past two years they had shared every important event of their lives with one another. Although they only met once per week, each meeting was a renewed familiarity that hurdled absences. Yet, each meeting rang with excitement, with the anticipation of new discoveries.
Hollie had scheduled the meetings randomly. They often met at an out of the way diner, several blocks from the office but on different days of the week and never at the same time. They had been open with one another, divulging their deepest secrets. It was as if they had known one another forever. Still, there was caution about her, an awareness of their surroundings, always on the lookout for danger.
She listened to him, advised him and teased him. She inquired but never pried. In turn, she told him things, secrets. And when he became serious, she laughed, automatically reaching for the strand of strawberry blond hair that always seemed to hide one of her green eyes from view.
On two occasions she had let down her guard. There had been the Christmas office party when Hollie had ventured into his department which was almost vacant. She jokingly pointed to the ceiling in a lawyer’s office, saying there was mistletoe above their heads. They kissed, then moved to the desk where Benney pinned her hips against it, stretching the knit dress with his leg between her thighs. “Too bad I’m wearing these damn pantyhose,” she had laughed when she felt his cock stabbing her stomach.
“I’m sorry about leaving you all blown up and no place to go,” she apologized when they met for lunch at the diner.
“What do you mean?” he ask, thinking he knew what she was referring to but wanting to hear her say it.
“The other day, your....condition,” she answered, blushing.
“Oh?” he teased her.
“You know what I’m talking about,” she said, leaning across the table, making him grin sheepishly. She watched him squirm before adding, “It will
be different next time, I promise.”
~*~
Benney didn’t notice when spring rains were replaced by sprouting flowers and greening grass. His mood did not change. Hollie was gone. Despondent, he felt sorry for himself. Unable to sleep, he took long walks and reflected on those meetings with Hollie, the only female he had ever known as a friend.
He sat on a park bench one early morning, sun drenching his back. Absent mindedly, he watched his shadow transgress the path, letting his mind reflect on their only night together. Tom, Hollie’s husband, had been called to his company’s home office, leaving two tickets to a hockey match. She had invited Benney to go with her.
Between periods Benney had gone to the men’s room. After waiting in a long line to take a leak he had discovered that his shorts were on backwards. His fumbling to get his cock out created a clamorous uproar in the men’s room. Hollie was in a rare carefree mood anyway, showing no concern about being seen in public with her young friend. Learning of his dilemma in the men’s room she elapsed into uncontrollable laughter, making a spectacle of herself. When she returned to her senses she suggested they leave because someone may have recognized her. In his apartment she had helped him change his bed sheets, then maneuvered him into it. They had slow passionate sex that lasted hours before Hollie pulled herself away. Now she was gone. He would never forget her and, unbeknownst to him, she would never forget him.
His head jerked, reacting to a shadow that crossed his, briefly . His eyes followed a trim body jogging down the path, ponytail transiting from side to side as it rounded a bend in the path and disappeared out of sight.
~*~
“Hey, why did you stop?” Jen turned and watched him scoop snow off of the bench. “Anything wrong?” she asked, running in place and blowing frosted breath from her mouth as she watched him take a seat.
“No, I’m fine,” he smiled up at her, “it’s just that I can’t help thinking that this is the first place I saw you, seems like such a long time ago.”
She stopped jogging in place and walked back to him, placing a gloved hand on his cheek. “I know, you remind me every time we pass this bench but you don’t have to stop every time.”
Ben stared up at the girl, wondering how he could be so lucky. A strand of hair had escaped from its binding and crossed her thin cheek. She blew it aside and watched him scrape snow aside to make a place for her.
“I want to show you something,” he said, reaching inside his running jumper.
“Okay, but make it fast, it’s not good to stop in the middle of a run, you’ll get a chill and stiffen up,” she said, taking a seat beside him.
“This came to the office yesterday,” he said, producing an envelope.
“Why didn’t you show it to me last night?” she poked his arm.
“Because I wanted to show it to you here at our bench,” he answered, removing a Christmas picture from the envelope.
“Who’s this?” she asked, taking the card from him. Then, seeing the young woman with the small boy and tall man she knew, even before she read the inscription, ‘from our home to yours, Merry Christmas, Tom, Hollie and Timmie.’ They wore matching green sweaters and stood in front of a two story house. Tom, the smiling executive, was wearing a stocking cap, hiding his receding hair line. Timmie was making a face. Hollie, looking as if she had just shifted a loose strand of her strawberry blond hair into place, was clutching her men as if they would bolt should she let go.
“There’s no return address,” Jen said, searching the envelope front and back. “Where do you suppose they moved?”
“The zip code is from a small town near Denver,” Ben answered, “I
suppose Tom took over the office there.
“Wonder why she didn’t put her address on the envelope.”
“I guess she doesn’t want me to have it.” He had given this thought and decided that Hollie wanted him to know that she was okay but had moved on. She had measured the risk of taking up with him again and considered it too great to chance.
“Come on, lazy, let’s finish, I want to go shopping for some curtains.”
“Aren’t you the domestic one,” he kidded as they resumed their run.
“My parents may stop by over the holidays, I don’t want my mother seeing those awful blinds you have up. What if your parents decide to come by? They’ll think I’m a tasteless decorator if I don’t do something about those windows,” she laughed over her shoulder, already two lengths ahead.
They took a long leisurely shower together and she dressed for shopping, he for housework.
‘Eight months ago I wouldn’t have thought of spending a Saturday morning this way,’ he thought as he plugged the vacuum cleaner cord into the wall outlet. He couldn’t help thinking of all that had transpired since that first meeting.
The day after her shadow had crossed his in the park he recognized the pony tail and the running outfit as he stood in line behind her at a coffee shop. He watched the small frame bounce to stay limber as she unzipped a pocket on her left sleeve. Her head turned to the left to peer into the empty pocket. There were beads of sweat rolling down her nose and cheeks.
“I can’t pay for this,” she was saying to the clerk. Her voice was level, unshaken by the shock of the empty pocket. She was pushing a hot cup of coffee toward the clerk.
