Gerry looked forward to his lunches with Tammy. He was careful to call it "lunch", rather than "lunch date", because he just couldn't quite be sure what was developing between them... or if it was anything at all. He liked her, and she seemed to like him, but there was just that horrible thought in his mind that she wasn't interested in him beyond sharing some time at lunch.
Tammy was pretty; there was no doubt about that. She was pretty enough that he was surprised when she agreed to have lunch with him that first time, but, of course, it was only a casual work lunch. That was five lunches ago now. Here she was though, still sitting opposite him, apparently still interested in what he had to say, still picking at the remains of her sandwich, not rushing back to the office and giving him hope for getting closer to her.
He thought she had nice fingers, subtle nail polish and nails that were long and feminine without being long and vicious. Tammy had gorgeous hair too, a crop of tight ringlets that hung down around her face and bulged out from her head like a tidy, planned version of female dreadlocks. He'd touched her hair, reached out and felt a ringlet a couple of lunches ago. She teased him that people did that to her hair all the time, wanted to know what it felt like. To Gerry it felt nice. It had a perm through it probably, but her hair was very distinctive and soft.
The best thing about Tammy was that her face was always smiling, or so it seemed. Her eyes were somewhere between blue and green but always expressive. Big eyes, he thought. Tammy's full lips teased him with the suggestive way they moved, when speaking and just when smiling at him, with any one of the twenty or so smiles he'd seen her use so far. That was the thing about her - she was fun to be with, and seemed to be having fun with him, which was never a bad thing. Over the weeks he'd become pretty sure that she was interested in him romantically, but his mind easily created the shadow of a doubt, mainly the thought, "what's a nice girl like this doing with me". Gerry knew he could be a bit of a dork, but it was hard to shake.
"That was a good lunch. Good choice of venue Gerry, thanks." Tammy finished the last of her coffee and looked out of the window. "It's such a beautiful day. Don't you wish there was somewhere, a nice park or something, where we could take a walk at lunchtime sometimes? Just to blow the cobwebs away."
Gerry stared out of the window. They were in a coffee shop a mile from their office and the plaza around them featured a furniture store, an attorney's office, a gas station and taxidermy store. On the other side of the plaza was a freeway. This was commercial cityscape, hardly "park" country. The immediate area around their office was the same.
"We could drive up to Clay Park sometime." Gerry suggested, starting to enjoy the prospect of walking with Tammy. Any extension of his relationship with her seemed like a good idea, and he thought that taking walk in the park with her would be a step forward.
"Isn't it all sports fields up there, at Clay Park?" Tammy questioned. "I was thinking more about somewhere we could take a walk and enjoy the sunshine, today. There won't be many more days like this before winter. Along a lake or through woods, something like that."
"I haven't been up there for a while but I'm sure there are walking trails." Gerry sounded vaguer than he wanted to, but didn't want to disappoint her and he really didn't know the park well.
Tammy had pulled out her smart phone and was tapping at the keyboard. "It's a bit out of the way too," she said without reprimand, "I don't have to be back in the office for a while, but going up there might take most of the afternoon."
"True." Gerry admitted, looking again at the concrete jungle around him and wondering what other options there might be. "I don't have to be back in a hurry either, but you're right."
"Here," Tammy offered him the screen of her phone, "This place is just a few blocks away. It's an Audubon urban sanctuary. Don't know what it'll be like, but we could check it out at least. It's such a beautiful day."
So, they set off for the sanctuary Tammy had found. She was driving and had given Gerry her phone to navigate with. They missed the entrance first time around, probably not expecting that it was just a small road in between two private houses, but U-turned and got there in a few minutes. Tammy parked in front of a deserted wooden hut that was obviously the facility's office, and they got out to look around.
It was surprisingly quiet, trees and undergrowth everywhere, just a mile from the freeway. The hut was deserted but there were a few cars parked around and a large board with a map of the sanctuary. They looked at the map, seeing several trail lines that stretched from one end of the area to another. On the map it looked like several miles across, but Gerry knew it couldn't be more than a half-mile at its widest point. Surrounded on all sides by houses, this truly was a sanctuary.
Late in the year, the tree coverage was sparse and in varying shades of brown. The start of the trail was easy to see and Tammy nodded towards the opening. "Shall we?" She smiled, almost grinned at the start of their minor adventure.
The trail was mostly dirt and shale with some areas built-up with a wooden boardwalk. It was easy to follow and very pleasant to walk as the late-year sunshine poured in through the bare branches and the fresh fall air surrounded them. Gerry let Tammy walk ahead in the sections of the trail where it was hard to walk side-by-side. He enjoyed being able to look at her.
Tammy was wearing flat heeled work shoes, a short-ish gray skirt and a long woolen cardigan that hung almost as low as her skirt. Under the cardigan she wore a pink top that stretched across her feminine form. She carried a purse with a long strap over her shoulder. From behind Gerry enjoyed another part of Tammy's body as she walked through the branches and her bottom moved enticingly.
Their lunchtime "dates" started when Gerry was appointed to a project that Tammy was participating in and they struck up a strong relationship on the project team. It was an easy thing to do as most of the other team members were at least twenty years older than they were and what started as a rush to catch the cafeteria one afternoon had now turned to a semi-regular thing that was holding more than a little romantic promise... apparently for both of them.
"Wow," she paused for him to catch-up as the trail widened again, "This place is cool eh?" Her smile beamed at him.
Gerry didn't quite see the excitement in a walk through the undergrowth but was enjoying being with Tammy. As he caught up with her she held out her hand and took his, just like it was the most natural thing in the world.
His heart leaped, missed a few beats and started running at an accelerated rate all at once. Tammy's delicate hand felt great in his and it gave him hope that this lunchtime liaison thing they had going was maybe a little more than he'd thought it was so far. Her fingers entwined with his and she held him enthusiastically. Damn, she felt good.
