Dinner was over, thank goodness. It had been for about 30 minutes, which is just about the minimum amount of time you had to socialize afterwards before you could excuse yourself without drawing any attention to yourself.
Conventions were nice for a variety of reasons. In the first place, they got me out of town for a few days. Second, I could always spend some time in the hotel room away from the regular pressures of day-to-day life and just detour from things in general. And, I got to see some old and new faces, good or bad they were at least different from the regular crowd at the high school.
I've only been teaching high school math for 2 years but already was starting to settle into a routine and had discovered which conversations to include myself in or excuse myself from.
Lisa, a science teacher and the only other attendee to the convention from our school, had been standing next to me at the after dinner reception for the last 10 minutes. Since she seemed to be enjoying herself, I figured I could tell her I was leaving to go back to the hotel and she would be willing to cover for me. It was only two blocks and the night was still warm so I was looking forward to the walk as wind down time.
I should tell you that Lisa is a pretty but typical teacher. She dresses conservatively at school so as not to attract attention (especially from the teen age boys) and keeps her conversations in neutral topics. She's not quite completely vanilla but you'd have a hard time locking onto one trait that would make you seek her out for company. Of the figure she does reveal, it has always been full but lean, topped off with a short blonde hair style that kind of came out of the 60's. You know, the one where you comb it down and curl it in with the angled bangs in front? On anyone else it would be old but for some reason it worked for her.
This was the first night that I had seen Lisa in anything that could be considered formfitting attire. Still it was just a simple blue, sleeveless dress with a moderate neckline and came down to her knees. The matching blue shoes and gold jewelry made for a nice but conservative outfit. You'd really have to stretch to catch a glimpse of any bare skin but you could see she had a nice set of round hips and enough of a bust to fill out the front of her dress.
At a pause in her conversation with another of the dinner guests I leaned in to her ear and made her aware of my plans.
"Lisa," I said, "I'm going to sneak out of here and go back to the hotel. I've had enough mingling for one day. Can you cover for me in case anyone comes looking for me?"
Lisa half looked at me and half looked at the crowd while responding to me. "You took the words out of my mouth, Tom. What do you think the chances are we can both escape at the same time? My feet are killing me!"
"Let's go now while the gettin's good," I said. "Otherwise we could be here all night."
"I'm right behind you," she said.
So Lisa and I both walked toward the doors to the hall, casually leaving our half full drink glasses on one of the dinner tables on the way out.
"Do you have a coat or purse you have to get from the check area?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I left all that in my room so I wouldn't have to worry about it."
"Smart thinking," I said.
We exited the convention center and began to walk leisurely back to the hotel, making small talk as we went and careful not to talk about our local school politics. Seemed we both liked the chance to get away from home mentally for a while.
"So, it's only 10 pm," said Lisa. "You can't tell me you are really going to your room for the rest of the night. You must have some other secret entertainment plans in the works, right?"
"Actually, Lisa, I do plan on going to my room and doing some SportsCenter Camping," I said.
"SportsCenter Camping? What in the world is that," she asked. At this point I'm sure she thought I was pulling her leg but it's really what I had in mind.
"It's where I go to my room, order up a couple of drinks from room service, get naked and watch SportsCenter on ESPN til I go to sleep."
Lisa started laughing. "You've got to be kidding!" she said. "That sounds more like something a teenage boy would do, not someone your age. You're not planning on going out somewhere to party?"
I wasn't sure if I had the reputation of being a partier or if she was just fishing for more information on what I was REALLY going to do for the rest of the evening. I didn't much worry about it, though, as she seemed pretty genuinely interested for no reason other than being interested.
"Nope," I told her. "It's a great way to unwind and just totally relax with no one around to bother you or complain about your clothes on the floor or your burpin' or nuthin'." It was kind of nice to be involved in a lighthearted conversation with her for a change. This comment drew a slight chuckle from her. I felt like she might be starting to loosen up a bit.
"What are you planning on doing for the rest of the evening?"
"Well the first order of business is to get out of this outfit and into some jeans. Then I really didn't have much planned," she said.
I wasn't sure if that was an opening for me or not but I thought, what the hell? Might as well indirectly proposition her and have some fun. She won't take me up on anything anyway, but it will be fun to try and make her blush.
"Well," I said, "why don't you change and come to my room. I'll order you a couple of drinks and you can go camping with me."
Lisa nervously giggled. "Yeah, right, just what us girls like to do. Hang out naked, drink and watch cable sports. Oh my!"
We kept walking down the block and it was then that I realized her response wasn't a "yes", but it also wasn't a "no". Maybe if I worked this just a bit the evening could get much more interesting.
"So it must be the sports that turned you off on the idea, huh? I know you drink because I saw you at the dinner. And I'm also going to guess you get naked once in a while to shower and change clothes. So it must've been watching sports that killed the idea, huh?"
Lisa sort of half looked at me while she walked. "Actually I like sports, even on TV. And like you said, I do drink---socially of course. I'm just not so sure about the 'get naked' idea with you."
Then she caught herself.
"Don't get me wrong--you're an attractive man. It's just that we don't know each other all that well and it might not be too relaxing, it being our first evening out together, away from the school."
By this time we were only about 50 yards from the entrance to the hotel. I decided I had one more chance to make this offer more appealing or we'd be in the hotel lobby and I'd never get her up to my room. Based on our conversation so far, I felt my chances were more than 50-50 now, so why not?
"I tell you what," I said. "Change into your jeans, come up to my room and we'll start by having a drink. Then, if you start to feel comfortable, we'll lose a shirt or something and get more into the camping phase. If you want to stop with just the drink and sports, then that's cool, too. At least we get the chance to visit and get a little sports in as well."
By now we reached the front doors of the lobby and Lisa spoke briefly to the doorman and hotel clerk but not to me. Not until we were in the elevator.
"OK, what room are you in?" she asked.
"1541. Out the elevators, go left, end of the hallway."