Author's note: The following is a work of fiction that contains descriptions of explicit sexual acts and is intended for adults only. All people, places, and events are a product of my imagination and any characters described as engaging in sexual acts are over the age of eighteen. Thank you for reading. All feedback is greatly appreciated.
Elements of fiction and truth in this story about a past event from the Fall of 2004.
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In 2003, I made the decision to move from Rochester NY to Tampa FL. Basically I packed up my van with all my belongings, quit my job and moved south. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. When I moved I had no job lined up or any prospects in the area I was moving to. I was essentially "flying blind" so to speak.
Within the first month of moving to Florida, I had canvassed the area for any kind of jobs including photography related jobs that I knew how to do. I finally landed a job at a photo lab in Tampa which had been in business for nearly 80+ years. Most of their work was focused on Senior School Photographs, school dances and sports.
My job initially was to focus on editing images. My boss noticed my skills especially with color editing and levels in Photoshop. I showed him what I was capable of doing in Photoshop with sample images. In a very short time, my pay was increased and I was moved to a job where I would handle every single image coming into the lab, color balancing it and making sure it looked good. I used a Photoshop macros to handle the heavy grunt work of the job which enabled me to very quickly work through all the images.
The lab was switching from the old optical system to the new digital system using Photoshop. As such, there were still some ladies doing the old school retouching which involved using brushes and paints to touch up errors in photos from printing. I noticed there were even some younger ladies working that section as well.
After a month of working there, my birthday came up and my boss was big on celebrating employee birthdays with cake and playing his trumpet. It was a bit embarrassing but also sweet that he went out of his way to do this. One of the young ladies in the retouching department heard about my birthday and later that day she visited me. I remember this seemingly tall raven haired girl with long curly hair coming up to me and saying "I heard its your birthday so I created this origami duck for you". I thought it was funny because I never met this gal but she though enough of me to create something and give it to me. She struck me as the goth type based on her style of dress many of the times I had seen her around the lab. We talked a few times but I didn't really know her all that well. I found out her name was Julie.
The following Summer in 2004 turned out to be one of the busiest hurricane seasons for Tampa. It was the beginning of August and Hurricane Charley was on our radar. First we had a hurricane watch (5 days out) then a hurricane warning (3 days or less) and people were starting to evacuate to Orlando. I lived in Clearwater right off the water so I was in the evacuation zone for this storm. I had no choice but to leave and seek shelter further inland.
I was looking for a place to stay and asked people at work. I asked this gal Julie and she was like "sure, it will be a blast just you and I for a few days". I told her I had two cats. She told me she had one and they would likely be fine hanging out.
I packed up a few belongings that I wanted to keep near me and my two kitties and headed to Julie's place. She had a second floor apartment by herself in Tampa near the Bucs football stadium. I was able to locate her place pretty easily. I knocked on the door and she answered and showed me where to put the cats for the moment. We were both going to need to pay attention when getting her cat acclimated with my two cats.
I got my stuff stowed away and we started letting the cats smell each other without getting too close. We both agreed to keep them separated for an hour or two then try to see if they get along.
Julie offered me a drink and we both went to her living room and sat down. "Is this your first hurricane?" she asked.
"Yes and first one where I had to be evacuated. My place is about 5-10 feet off the water and they were saying there would be storm surges if it hits directly in Tampa as forecasted" I replied.
"I'm glad you asked to stay with me during this hurricane. I've wanted to get to know you better for a while but was always shy when it came to talking with you" Julie said.
"oh!? I'm surprised you said that. I clearly remember a certain girl approaching me with an origami duck after finding out it was my birthday!" I said.
"Oh my god! I can't believe you remembered that!" she said.
"Oh yes, I remember how you approached me with such grace stepping up to me to hand me that duck" I relished the memory as I told her how her presentation made me feel that day.
"I'm surprised you feel that way! Did you know that I was in a very bad accident" she replied.
"No, you mean a car accident right" I asked.
"Yes, I was driving with a friend one night and two guys were racing down the highway. They both turned the corner and one didn't make it. The first racer slammed into my car head on. He was killed on impact, I pretty much "died" three times on the way to the hospital and my friend in my car only broke his leg. I spent nearly a year in the hospital with numerous surgeries, getting metal implants to fix my broken limbs, physical therapy to learn to walk and eat all over again. It was nearly three years before I felt normal" she told me.
I sat there totally flabbergasted with what she had just said. "Wow! I look at you and I remember you approaching me that day and I just can't see that. The way you walk is so graceful and beautiful. If you had never told me I wouldn't have known.".
She showed me scars. Lots of them. They weren't obvious unless you were looking for them but she almost had a sense of pride in showing me them. It was almost like "look at me see what these have done to me and I'm still here and surviving".
Julie stood up and motioned me to follow her. I walked behind her thinking about what she told me and still not connecting it because I was watching her graceful walk and that cute butt in front of me. She led me to her bedroom and pointed to a display case. Inside the case was a skull. "A goth girl having a skull seems pretty obvious right?" she said. "Only this skull is an exact replica of this" she said as she pointed to her head. "See this little hole and the piece covering it? That too is what is in my head" as she pointed to her right temple. "If you ever see me pull back from anyone getting close to that side of my head, you now understand why. I don't trust people easily with something like this so don't take it personally." she said.
At that point, I literally had to lift my jaw off the floor. My mind still couldn't process that this beautiful girl in front of me went through all this trauma and pain and still had grace, beauty and poise.
"There is one thing I forgot to tell you and this is kind of a funny story. On the day of my accident, my parents drove up from Fort Myers to see me in the hospital. Because of how bad the accident was, they ended up staying at my apartment. My parents discovered a side of me they didn't know about until then. You see, I am into BDSM and had a full closet of toys from the lifestyle that was easily accessible. My parents discovered it during their time staying at my apartment. I was so mortified when my mom acknowledged it. She and I actually had a laugh. By that time, I was so used to being poked, prodded, having my genitals displayed in front of the nurses under their care, that I could only laugh about it." she said.
My eyes got big at her mentioning BDSM and her toys. This was clearly something I had no experience with at that time. "Wow! I would probably be very embarrassed in that situation. Seems like your Mom and Dad were pretty cool about it" I replied.
"yeah they were cool. My poor mom said she could never understand that lifestyle but she loved me all the same." Julie said.
Julie noticed it was getting close to dinner and suggested we head to the kitchen and fix some food. We both checked in on our kitties and figured it was time to let them see each other instead of sniffing around behind barriers. Both of my kitties were hanging back assessing the situation while her cat was a little hissy at first. They both started to sniff each other in a standoffish way then finally after 15 minutes of tense activity, they all seemed to be resigned to hang out together.
