When my boss asked me if I'd be prepared to work at another branch of our company for a few months, I was a little bit reluctant to move, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised it might be good for me. I was in a rut, my life apart from work, was going nowhere, my social life and my sex life was none-existent. Here I was in my mid-forties, just over six foot tall, no Brad Pitt looks wise, but I didn't scare myself too much when I was looking in the shaving mirror. Short dark hair, blue eyes; what was it with blue eyes that women supposedly liked so much? I couldn't figure that one out, I had blue eyes, and as far as I knew my blue eyes had never gotten any woman into bed yet. I had a reasonable physique, and was moderately intelligent, and yet here I was at my age, alone again. Maybe it was time I got out and faced the world once more, and a new location might well bring fresh opportunities. The next morning, with my decision made, I told my boss that I would do it, and so it was arranged. I only had a few days to wind things up where I was, because the move was going to be immediate, they needed me there the next week.
My new location was a small country town, but luckily the company had arranged reasonably nice accommodation for me. A small house on the outskirts of town, where I was met by an older company secretary, who gave me the keys, and showed me around the house. She told me they had arranged for a service company to stop by and clean the house, change the sheets, etc once a week. I'd have to cook for myself or eat out, and she left me to unpack and settle in.
Work was fine, I knew what I was doing, and they were pretty decent and helpful folks, and friendly too. It was when I got home after work that time hung heavily on my hands. I knew nobody in the area apart from work colleagues, and being a small town there wasn't much going on at nights, not that I'm a nightlife sort of person anyway. I hardly touch alcohol, and don't do drugs. The weekends weren't so bad because I'm a keen photographer, and I planned to go out and scout around the area for interesting buildings, scenery, or whatever. I prefer to photograph people, being a sociable kind of guy, but since I knew nobody that option wasn't available just yet.
As the first weekend approached, one of the guys in the office, asked me if I had anything planned that weekend, to which the answer was no! He very kindly invited me to a barbecue on Saturday afternoon, and with nothing better to do I accepted. It would get me out of the house I reasoned, and maybe it would be an opportunity to meet and make new friends. It was only later that I discovered it was a 'Church' barbecue. Now it has to be said that nobody in their wildest dreams could every call me a church goer. If someone has a faith and they didn't try to preach at me or push it down my throat, I'm fine with it, but for myself, I'm a none-believer, with slight agnostic leanings. However it was too late now to pull out without maybe causing offense to my colleague, and so I decided to just go with the flow.
Regarding churches, I had one friend when I was in my twenties who attended a few different churches regularly. When I asked him why, because I knew he wasn't a believer, he explained his theory that there are always women in churches who go because they've always gone. It was habit more than conviction. Furthermore his theory went, they've often been repressed sexually, but if they could just be persuaded to 'sin' they went at it with a rare enthusiasm that the average woman just couldn't match. Once they got the taste for it, they couldn't keep their panties on, or their legs closed. It was an interesting theory, but I remembered laughing about it at the time and thinking he was crazy. Now I was hoping there just may be 'something' in his crazy theory.
Come Saturday I was up early as usual, showered, shaved and ready to go, but far too early for the barbecue. So I did a little housework, nothing strenuous, washing a few cups and plates, just tidying things away, keeping the place in order. Time passed soon enough, and I drove over to the address I'd been given, and that was my first surprise. I was thinking 'church' equals old and traditional, but this was a modern building with lots of glass, and a large welcoming open area where lots of people were gathered. Family groups, mothers, fathers, kids running around having a good time and far enough away from the road to avoid any danger. I parked in the spacious car park at the side and rear of the building, and walked round to join the throng and look for the colleague who had invited me there. He must have been keeping a look out for me, because as I approached the crowd, he walked through between a couple of small groups of people, shook my hand and welcomed me to the barbecue. He led me over to a table set up in front of the church steps and offered me a drink, which I gratefully accepted, and then he started walking me through the crowd introducing me to this person and that person, all of whom I forgot instantaneously. There were a couple of women I paid special note to and remembered their names for future reference. If my friends theory panned out, then I hoped it might be at least one of them.
I could see that this was a very 'fashionable' church, evangelicals I thought, 'happy clappy' types, but nothing wrong with that I mused. The minister in charge of all this introduced himsel, and he followed my pre conceived notions exactly. Tall, well built, good looking with a mane of long dark hair, looking a bit like a rock star, and I could easily imagine some of the ladies in the congregation getting wet during his sermons. We chatted for a few minutes, and he invited me to come to the sermon the next day. I told him I may well do that, but I wasn't in the least bit religious. I thanked him for the invitation in a very none-committal way. I never went back.
A little later I needed to go to the toilet, and when I enquired where they were I was pointed towards the church. As I made my way up the steps, I noticed there was little platform with some musical equipment on it, drums, a keyboard, and a couple of guitars. I stopped momentarily to have a look, but the call of nature was too strong, and so I made my way inside.
As I came out of the toilet I noticed Kelly, one of the women I had been introduced to earlier and she smiled again, which was enough for me to stop and talk to her. We got chatting and I could see almost immediately that she was more than just a guest or an ordinary member of the congregation, because while we were talking people kept coming up to her, asking her about things, or about arrangements, she would tell them, and they would be on their way again. So, I asked her about it, and it seems she was in charge of the Sunday school classes or some such. She was quite friendly considering I was a stranger, and I mused that maybe she thought she could convert me, which was ironic because I was hoping I could convert her.
I had a good look at her while I was talking to her, and the most obvious feature was her height. She was I estimated, about five foot nine inches tall, very slim and elegant. Long dark hair, a wide generous mouth with great teeth, and blue eyes. She was lovely, but not conventionally beautiful, although I found her very attractive, and very desirable. I had an indefinable feeling about her, almost a 'gut' instinct that there was more to this woman than what was on the surface. She just had a special, 'something' and I couldn't for the life of me say what it was. She was about forty, I guessed, although I'm not very good at guessing women's ages. It didn't matter really how old she was I thought, because I could see the wedding ring on her finger, and that allied with the fact that she was a church going 'god-fearing Christian woman,' meant that there was no chance I would be fucking her, much as I liked the idea.
