Part 1 -- A chance 'Meet'ing scores a perfect 10
One of the perks of being at the top of your field is the ability to set your own schedule. Companies clamber for me to come and work on their contracts because they know that there is no one better at doing what I do -- either designing contracts that are absolutely iron-clad or at hiding some ambiguous language that will allow a company to remove itself from a contract whenever they see fit.
Hey, I didn't say I agreed with how they conduct their business only that I get paid (and paid well) to give them the options they ask for.
The fringe benefits that go with a profession like mine are numerous -- the ability to work when I want, the ability to travel on someone else's dime, the ability to practically name my price. Occasionally, it leads to a fringe benefit of a different nature entirely.
Not all companies I work with are in the heart of some booming metropolis like New York or Los Angeles. I spend just as much time with companies that are miles from anything that resembles those cultural centers. And while the work is always interesting, sometimes the evenings get a bit... stale. That is, unless I can find something to 'occupy my time' so to speak.
One such company was a large shipping conglomerate located on the eastern sea board, and while the company was large and the town was easily located on a map, there really wasn't much going on to keep me occupied.
My preferred work schedule is to arrive on a Thursday night, meet with the principals on Friday, spend the weekend working out the language of the contract, making my paralegal's life miserable on Monday morning getting the forms done and faxed to me by noon for signing after lunch so I can catch a red eye home that evening.
This situation wasn't going to fit into my 'ideal work schedule' from the get go and I knew it the first time I traveled to their facilities. I went through my normal routine, arriving on a Thursday, meeting with them on Friday but when we weren't able to accomplish much due to a sudden snag in the negotiations I was stuck there the entire weekend with nothing to do but watch HBO and empty the mini-bar.
On a lark, as I was heading through the lobby of my hotel I hailed the concierge. "Hey, so just what is there to do on a Friday night in this town?"
He escorted me over to a kiosk near the front desk and pulled a pamphlet from one of the plastic pockets. Without a word he handed it to me. On the front was a splattering of color and a logo depicting an angry looking bull with large curved horns and steam spewing out of its nostrils. 'Gymnastics' was splashed across the middle of the page just under the logo and four very muscular looking girls in skimpy leotards held various poses that made me unconsciously press my knees together in an effort to protect my 'family jewels.'
"So uh, what's with this?" I asked him a little confused.
"On Friday nights the local university draws quite a crowd for their gymnastic meets."
I looked at him a little disbelieving. "Any other sports venues around here?"
"None sir," he said unflinchingly.
"Well, that explains it," I muttered to myself, low enough he could not make out what I said.
"Excuse me, sir?"
"Oh nothing. So how do I get to this gymnastics meet?"
He held up his hand and motioned for a younger man in a similar hotel uniform to join us. "Jonathan here can take you in the hotels car."
What the hell, I thought as I followed the aforementioned Jonathan to the black Crown Victoria that the hotel used for its VIP's. I looked at the pamphlet one more time before tossing it in a garbage bin outside the big sliding doors of the hotel. At least, I thought, their outfits would be interesting.
***
Whatever my expectations were for this event, I was totally blown away. I am a big sports fan and consider myself somewhat of an athlete myself but I had never witnessed anything even remotely close to the spectacle I saw that evening.
These women, none of them over five and a half feet tall, where running and jumping and flipping and swinging and leaping and 'throwing' moves that no athlete I had ever seen could hope to accomplish. The next time I got involved in an argument over who were better athletes, football players or basketball players, I now knew the answer; Neither. Without a doubt these girls would clean their clocks.
I was lucky enough to be sitting among a group of dedicated fans who helped me to grasp the basics of what was going on out on the 'events.' The arena was surprisingly full and the folks around me confirmed that it was always like this, that most of the other sports at the university weren't very good but that this team was always a contender for a national title and they had a lot of support within the community. I have to admit, I was impressed.
And one girl in particularly impressed me in the most carnal way.
Maybe it was the skimpy outfit. Or the positions she put herself in. Or the way she was muscular in a still feminine kind of way. But whatever it was it had me thinking of giving her a score that was a lot higher than a '10' if you know what I mean.
I bought a program and found out from my new friends that her name was Audrey, that she was five foot two, a senior on the team, an environmental science major (whatever the hell that is) and from some town that I had never heard of and was not only some sort of gymnastics champion in high school but had been a beauty queen as well. I looked at her pictures in the program and looked out at her on the floor and didn't doubt it one bit.
Short, yes but she was perfectly proportioned. Except for maybe her breasts, which in her tight outfit looked like they belonged on someone a bit taller -- like that's a real drawback. Her eyes were large and a deep chestnut in color and her hair was just about as dark a shade of brown you could have before having to call it black.
"That Audrey is something else," I remarked to my adopted fan family.
"Oh yeah, she's been a favorite since she came here. Sad that she only has a couple of more meets before she graduates."
"Yeah," another one echoed, "We're going to miss her."
"And such a nice girl," one of the ladies added.
"Oh isn't she just a sweet heart?" the oldest lady amung them piped in. "Last year at the meet and greet we had our grand daughter and she gave her a shirt and signed a poster and then took her out on the floor when the meet was over and let her play around on the mats. She didn't have to do any of it, but my grand daughter still talks about it to this day."
I almost felt guilty for the dirty thoughts I was having about such a nice girl. Almost.
***
When the meet was over and we were all getting ready to leave the people I had been talking to all evening asked me if I wanted to go with them to a local restaurant. I almost said no until someone remarked that it was where the team would end up as well. The chance to maybe get to meet Audrey and spice up an otherwise boring weekend was too much to pass up. And besides it wasn't like I had anything else to do.
The place was a typical sports bar/restaurant theme found all over college towns in America. You know the ones where you can guess the entire menu when you pull into the parking lot. But the company was interesting and the beer on tap brought back memories of my college days and the big screen TV was showing highlights of some spring training games so I figured it wouldn't be a total loss.
After sitting there for an hour my attention alternating between the highlights and the conversation of my new found friends a bit of a disturbance arose at the front of the restaurant. Before I could wonder what was causing the uproar one of the party said "Guess that would be the girls."
I looked up and sure enough almost a dozen of them were filing into the restaurant to loud applause and much fanfare. At first I couldn't spot my quarry but then, sure enough, was Audrey with beaming a huge smile around the dining room.
I watched as she waved to some people, stopped for a word of greeting with others. I was transfixed by her beauty and found myself staring at her. As she continued past our table to a section reserved for her and her teammates our eyes met and locked and a jolt of electricity passed down my spine and right into my balls. She gave me a slight wink and then was gone.
She looked just as amazing dressed as she did half-naked in her uniform. Her dark hair was pulled back in a tight pony tail and she was wearing a sleeveless black dress that was long enough to be appropriate but short enough for me to get a great look at her legs. I hadn't imagined how muscular these girls were from my perch high in the stands at the arena but up close I felt a bit intimidated -- I started counting the days since I had last been to the gym!
