[This story takes place in the some fictional universe as my previous story
A College Tryst
.]
Prologue – Michelle
There were thousands of students at the City College of New York, tens of thousands in the City University system as a whole. For the fall semester of 1974 there was one of this multitude named Michelle, a graduate of Bayside High School in Queens and now a nineteen-year old sophomore English major. Probably few people who saw her going about on the City College campus or who knew her as their student or classmate thought there was anything extraordinary about her. They would have noticed a fairly tall young woman with lanky brown hair and steel-rimmed glasses. She usually favored cute skirts or faded blue jeans. By the following spring she would sometimes wear woolen or cotton knee socks for what she called her "Joanie Coed, Class of '66" look.
Like most outer-borough New Yorkers she had an ethnic identity that reflected the city's immigrant history; her ancestry was a combination of Irish and Polish. As she sometimes said about herself, "I'm a lapsed Catholic twice over."
There was a boyfriend of course, one she often had over to her Queens apartment. That guy was me, a fellow sophomore. She was only the second girlfriend I ever had; I was her third real boyfriend. Actually I had a crazy but fun time through parts of my sophomore and junior years when I had several overlapping girlfriends going at once. Due to my youthful carelessness this situation turned into a sex farce as everyone eventually found out what everyone else was doing.
One of Michelle's characteristics that endeared her to me was that she was a real maven for role playing games. These events were like appearing in a short movie or stage play. Sometimes these weren't so short; she had the ability to remain in character for up to two hours or more.
She had real talents for both acting and scriptwriting, although much of the dialogue was improvised along the way. There were also matters of costumes, props and settings which she gave her attention to. Often she liked to play these games "on location," in other words partially or wholly in some public or semi-public space.
Meeting Erica
In the summer of 1975, after we had both passed our twentieth birthdays, I had been through several of these games with her. They could be fun but also emotionally demanding as unexpected feelings could emerge when a person was in character.
Michelle got a second pair of glasses that season, ones with black plastic rims. She kept the stainless steel ones too, and wore whatever suited the situation or her mood that day.
Maybe her new eyewear gave her some inspiration, for these glasses figured in a role-play she cooked up for late September 1975. The setup for this would take place at the typesetting company where we both worked part-time. Michelle had been entrusted with a set of keys to the place. There was a bit of risk involved but we had never seen anybody there on a late Sunday afternoon or evening. Even I, a natural worrier, knew the odds were entirely in our favor.
I would play a job applicant, a person probably close to my real self if I wanted to do it that way. Michelle would be one Erica Keller, the assistant office manager/personnel flunky for this company. She would do the interviews for this position which was as a paste-up artist.
She gave me less detail than usual about this scenario. My role as the "follower" was to show up and go with the flow. However I was sure some notable events were going to occur during this.
Thus one evening I was on the elevator of a West Twenties Manhattan loft building going to the tenth floor. Nowadays realtors refer to the Flatiron District but back then it was merely the nondescript border area between Chelsea and the Garment District.
I was wearing the only jacket I owned then, a blue sports coat that dated back to 1972. I had a tie, nondescript pants and my usual unruly hair to make an impression. My résumé was in a manila envelope and that was the extent of my professional gear.
Just before I rang the bell at the company entrance I tried to clear my mind and prepare myself for whoever would let me in. The door was then opened by Erica.
As customary now Michelle gave me a few seconds to examine her creation. My first impression of her appearance was that she was not that different from what I was used to. Most of her clothes seemed to be familiar ones from Michelle's wardrobe. She had bought a blue business suit the previous spring; the skirt came down above her knees. It wasn't that tight but is gave a good indication of what her body was like underneath it.
The rest was neat but basic: a white blouse, pantyhose - well stockings, I couldn't yet confirm that these were pantyhose - and black high-heel shoes. The heels on these were higher than what she usually wore and I assumed they were something new she had gotten.
Her hair was tied up in a bun at the at the back of her head. I liked that even though I was sure she had never done it like that before. Her make-up was impeccable except that her lipstick may have been a bit too red. Her red fingernails matched her lips. And of course she had her black-rimmed glasses on.
I knew I'd get more information when her character was animated, which would happen as soon as I said something.
"Hi, I'm Paul, I have an appointment today."
"Yes, I've been expecting you. I'm Erica Keller, pleased to meet you." A very slight smile was on her face. She put her right arm out with her hand drooping down. It didn't seem like I was supposed to kiss it; I guessed she was just avoiding a manly handshake. I lightly gripped her fingers. In the last year I had touched Michelle in every place that could be touched but this slight contact sent a buzz into my skin.
"I'm glad to meet you Erica . . ."
"It's Miss Keller, if you wouldn't mind using that."
That seemed a bit much but I would go along with what she wanted. I said, "Anyway, I wasn't sure who I was supposed to see today."
"You are supposed to see me, I'm sure of that."
With that she turned and walked away from me. She wobbled on her heels, which confirmed my suspicion that she wasn't used to their height. They did give a nice shimmy to her ass; obviously that had been planned and tested before I got here.
I followed her into one of the offices and she closed the door. "Have a seat, please." She sat herself behind the desk and immediately started some business chatter, "Now I wear several hats here, I fill in as receptionist sometimes and I'm both assistant office manager and also assistant personnel assistant." I think the double use of that word was a Michelle joke but otherwise Erica was already tiring me. I thought of a junior high school-level quip like, you're not wearing a hat right now but I stifled it.
A moment later, "May I see your résumé?" I removed it from the envelope and gave it to her. The amount of time and attention she spent reviewing and marking this skimpy document would have suited the Magna Carta.
Just as I was sinking into job interview boredom and irritation she pulled a big surprise on me. Her timing was perfect. She liked to pull some stunt near the beginning of a game and catch me unprepared.
She rustled through some papers on the desk, "I know you have yet to fill out a full employment application."
Oh no, don't make me spend time working on that. I assumed for the purposes of the role playing I could fake it with sixty seconds of scribbling.
She said, "Excuse me for a moment while I get a form."
