The dinner beforehand was a delight. Adam and Cath just seemed to hit it off from the moment they met outside the restaurant. They shared an easy banter and storytelling that kept them laughing for much of the time.
Cath was in her red dance dress and it took all Adam's control to not stare at the cleavage bulging out the front. No amount of control could do anything about the partial erection which came and went in his pants; more so as Cath from time to time reached across the table to rest a hand on his arm.
Cath was clearly a tactile person. Some degree of physical contact - in this case usually a hand rested upon an arm, although she seemed equally open to resting it on a thigh if that was within easy reach - seemed to be an inherent part of her communication. What should normally have been an almost unnoticed gesture was having an electric effect on Adam. All he could put it down to was that he'd spent so long watching and lusting over Cath, that actually getting to interact with the human she was having an exaggerated effect.
Cath was not immune to arousal either. She was painfully aware of the jutting nipples announcing themselves on high beam in her thin unlined sheath dress and just as aware of the less announced moistness permeating her panties.
But they also teased out of each other some serious background stories.
Cath was 28, a Senior Associate in a large city law firm and it turned out she had been single for two years after a lengthy relationship with a US resident regretfully ended when he had to return to the States. And for all the invitations she'd had, no she hadn't had a fuck since. That wasn't how she operated.
Living wise, she had her own apartment at Manly, a beachside suburb about a half hour drive away in good traffic.
At 32, Adam was an Investment Banker, who also worked in the city and in his case had an apartment at Mosman (a harbour side suburb closer to the city than Manly). Cath managed to reluctantly eventually tease from him that he lamented he hadn't been able to meet yet the girl of his dreams so he could get married. During his twenties, he'd had a number of relationships lasting a year or two. But in most cases, he known from the outset she wasn't the one he wanted to marry and eventually the reality of that caught up with the relationship.
As he'd got older, he'd increasingly become sensitive to the fact he shouldn't waste a woman's fertile years by holding her in a relationship that wasn't going to go anywhere. Dating someone new was fun, but for him it had always rather been the case that the relationship proceeded sex, not the other way around. And recently he hadn't met anyone who he felt enough connection with to take a relationship forward.
Of course, he recognised the friends with benefits arrangements he had with a number of his dance school friends sat strangely with that. But the difference was, they came with no promise. And for both the women and himself, filled what would otherwise be a sexually deprived gap between relationships.
While Cath felt a strong personal attraction to Adam, it still naturally intrigued her as to why all the women in the school chose Adam as the one to share the benefits with. Finding courage enough to ask the question, Adam replied...
"It all sort of started with Kelly. She just came straight out and asked me if I would after one of the classes. She's a bit of a wild woman and wasn't coping well with not having a regular sex partner. Jane overheard her. I've always felt a strong friendship with Jane and when we got a moment alone, she asked if she could get the same benefits.
Frankly, I don't know why Jane needed me. She's an absolute sweetie, stunningly attractive and a decade younger than me. She could have any guy she wants. But until she finds that guy, it seems she needed some frustration relief.
You know how the girls talk. A month later Maddie asked if I could do it for her too.
Lucy was soon aware of these arrangements. But she's in a different category. Let's just say, it helps her out with some issues she's dealing with.
As for why me? I can only guess. I'm not completely ugly, taller than all the other guys, can dance OK and I think they regard me as safe; someone who'll look after them before myself if you know what I mean. You can judge better than me which of that selection of possibilities was likely to be the answer."
"What's going to happen if you form a relationship?"
"Well, that's the thing about friends with benefits isn't it? It's a between relationships things. I suppose it all comes to an end."
"Would that bother you?"
"I'm inherently a relationship sort of guy. I'd rather have a single love of my life than a harem of sexual benefits."
Cath liked the answer and the night moved on to other topics.
What neither really revealed in these conversations was that both noticed the other almost from the first night they'd both come to the club.
Adam's didn't really want to reveal just how strong his visual attraction to Cath had been as he'd watched her dance, let alone his obsession with seeing her panties, or even with determining whether she had any on in the case of the black dress. Nor the almost constant state of arousal she generated in him. But maybe he was being unfair with himself. There were many signals in Cath's appearance as to her countenance, and the message they conveyed to him were no less attractive, even if they didn't have the same effect on his manhood.
As for Cath, well she had visual signals too. Adam, more than anyone else there, matched her lust generating profile of being tall, slim but at the same time conveying a sense of strength and power; not muscle bound strength - something more subtle than that. His easy movement on the dance floor told her he was confident and competent and yet, his obvious curtesy towards his dance partners also told her much about him that she liked. She wasn't unaware of the attraction she had generated in Adam and sometimes played to it.
Their relationship had been primed before they even knew about it, although, as always with these things, its ultimate success would depend on a myriad of factors yet to be explored.
The club was not a nightclub in the sense non-Australians might be more familiar with. It was the North Sydney Rugby League's club. A social club with a football association - a rather sad one since the club had been relegated from the top tier of the game over a decade ago. Like most of these sort of clubs it offered a variety of eating venues (although maybe not of a standard suited to a first date) - and had a multipurpose function room which, it just so happened on Friday nights was used to host bands that catered to ballroom, Latin American and rock and roll dances.
And was only a block and an easy walk away from the restaurant, so they meet their friends there at more or less the usual time.
They spent a bit more than half the night dancing with each other and the rest of the time sharing themselves with their usual dance friends.
