Dawn lived next door to Phil. She lived with her husband Gary and had two daughters, though they were both at Uni, so were away most of the time.
Dawn was a bit of an oddball. Of medium build and average height, she had a nice figure and hair which she kept around collar length, but which varied in shades between dark blonde and a purply-red. Although quite attractive, there was something about her which seemed a bit butch -- she was perfectly happy tackling all the physical jobs round the house, from cutting the grass to climbing a ladder in order to clean the upstairs windows.
Having been dumped by her first husband years before, she had obviously become a strong, independent woman, prior to Gary coming on the scene. This often made Phil wonder if she might be bi, and sometimes permitted himself a little fantasy about him, Dawn and another woman having a nice little three-way together.
But she did have what Phil would describe as 'a proper woman shape' -- in other words, she had a discernible waist and a feminine curve to her hips. She was in the habit of wearing very tight jeans, which hugged her strawberry-shaped bottom very nicely -- which she was in the habit of showing off, by bending over at every opportunity. But her most interesting feature was undoubtedly her boobs. They weren't particularly big, probably a C-cup, but Dawn always seemed keen to show them off. Rarely wearing a padded or push-up bra, the ones she did wear, were obviously made of very thin fabric and did very little to hide her nipples.
Dawn seemed to be a bit of a tease, or something of an exhibitionist. Phil frequently wondered if she fancied him a bit, with her mild flirting, or whether it was just the way she was. He could never quite figure out if she was trying to entice him, or whether it was just a case of being reassured by men still wanting to look at her tits. Dawn did seem very proud of her breasts, and she never missed the chance to give him an eyeful.
She most commonly wore a T-shirt with a scooped neck, so when she and Phil chatted over the low wall between their gardens, she would often make a point of bending down on some pretext, to pull out a weed from the drive, or whatever, in the process giving him a delightful view down her cleavage.
Phil never made any effort to disguise the fact that he was staring down her top. 'If you want to show me your tits, why should I pretend I'm not looking?' he would think.
When she stood up, he loved the way her nipples would sometimes harden and poke through the thin fabric; the interesting thing was, she never made any attempt to cover them up, by doing that usual woman thing, of folding their arms in a vain attempt to hide their independent arousal.
Dawn had clearly married Gary as a 'safe bet' after she found herself alone with two teenage daughters. It was pretty obvious she'd snared him to avoid being left on the shelf at around 35 years of age. A steady sort of bloke, he was a bit overweight and was basically lazy. His only real interest was tinkering around with old cars, which were unlikely to ever move again under their own power.
Phil figured that Gary had a modest pension from being in the armed forces, though reckoned that the closest he had probably ever got to any action, would have been serving up food in the canteen.
Gary was one of those people who spent a lot of time watching TV and soaking up all the latest news and current affairs. Consequently, he seemed to have an opinion on everything, which he was prepared to share with anyone who could be bothered to listen -- or who was unable to get away from his endless droning. Phil thought him to be a proper bore and frequently wondered if he was equally dull in the marriage bed. Poor Dawn.
Gary had become a self-employed driving instructor, though he never made much of an effort to really promote his business or indeed, become very successful at it. Phil used to smile when he looked at the car which Gary used, to do the lessons in. The passenger seat was always reclined halfway back, giving the impression that Gary would settle down for a nice nap, as soon as the student took over the wheel. In spite of the fact that he was clearly not that busy doing driving lessons, he still seemed to disappear for many hours most days. Phil never bothered to enquire how he filled in his time.
For a couple of weeks during the summer, there had been a steady flurry of tradesmen working at Dawn's house. During one of their encounters on the driveway, Dawn proudly announced that she had had a new toilet and shower room installed upstairs. Phil had been considering renewing the bathroom in his house, so was interested to see the finished result.
"Come in and have a look," said Dawn, smiling brightly. "It's all finished now, and I'm ever so pleased with it."
Gary was out, as usual. Phil hopped over the low wall which separated the two driveways and Dawn invited Phil into the house. She was wearing her typical attire -- a pair of calf-length jeans, which looked like they'd been sprayed on and a light-coloured T-shirt. She chatted as she led the way through the kitchen and up the stairs. Dawn seemed to be making a special effort to wiggle and sway her shapely bottom as she went up the stairs. Being a few steps higher, her lovely arse was just about at Phil's eye level, giving him the perfect opportunity to survey her womanly curves -- up close! Her bottom was an absolute peach, rounded to perfection, and blended wonderfully into her shapely thighs. All those hours that Dawn spent doing Aerobics and the like, were clearly paying off.
When they got to the new shower room, Dawn excitedly showed Phil how it had all been fitted in so cleverly and proudly showed off all the features. Because it was quite a small space, really intended for one person to use, Phil and Dawn were having to stand quite close together. Close enough for him to smell the scent of her hair and body -- but too close for him to be able to look down properly at the swelling of her breasts, to check if her lovely, mobile nipples had come out to play.
Phil was in that classic dilemma: had Dawn invited him upstairs, merely to show off her new shower room, or did she have something more in mind, which would involve a short detour to one of the three adjacent bedrooms? He was sorely tempted to grab her arse or squeeze her tits and just go for it but was held back by the thought that what he interpreted as seductiveness might be completely unintentional on her part. If that was the case, he could end up with a slapped face and the threat of 'Wait till my husband gets home!'
Dawn didn't make any physical contact... no hand on his arm or any other signal to say, 'It's ok to touch me back.' She carried on chattering away and Phil was forced to think that maybe she was just being neighbourly. He certainly fancied Dawn but wasn't so deeply in lust with her that he couldn't control himself. She was, after all, his next-door neighbour, and if it all went horribly wrong, the coming weeks and months could be difficult, to say the least.
So, he resolved to not make the first move, and instead, made sure that she saw his signals -- his body language and the way he looked into her eyes -- and would know that he was interested in her. Which was probably far more than her dopey husband ever did.
Their encounter ended uneventfully, with them heading back downstairs, exchanging conversation. Phil paid Dawn compliments on the great improvement to her house (she always referred to it as 'my house') and returned back next door.
