Arriving at work early Friday morning, Amy looked dazed. She managed in short order to walk into a chair, then knock over first her pencil jar, then her coffee cup -- fortunately empty.
Janet, her best buddy, office-mate, and closest confidant, watched in amusement until the cup went over, then stepped up and took her gently by the shoulders. "What the HELL is wrong with you this morning, Amy? You act completely rattled. Nothing bad, I hope?"
Janet felt no compunction about asking for private information -- they had worked together closely for a decade now, and were very close indeed, with Janet (approaching sixty-five and more than fifteen years Amy's elder) having been Amy's mother-confessor, advisor and guru most of that time.
Amy shook her head, then shook her entire self as if awakening. She grinned ruefully, shrugged, closed the office door. That surprised Janet -- nobody was the least bit likely to visit until mid-morning at the earliest. Janet waited a few seconds, and Amy got going: "No, it's not anything bad; at least I don't think so..."
She paused, then giggled and went on, her face flushing beet red, something she did regularly and spectacularly. "It's just that, well, I got propositioned, and I do mean in no uncertain terms. On the bus, on my way here this morning! Not twenty minutes ago."
Janet cocked her head: "On the BUS for god's sake? What..." She stopped, cracked a wide grin: "Surely not by Mister Morning Yoga himself? Your conversationalist?"
She could tell she'd hit the mark.
"Okay girl, GIVE! Tell Janet the whole story, with all the gory details. Just exactly what did he say, how did it happen?" A short pause, then "You DID agree, I mean accept, didn't you?"
Amy nodded, muttered "He only gave me about ten seconds to answer, and I was so totally flustered, completely discombobulated, that YES, in fact I actually AGREED! My God, Janet, he's supposed to come here at three today, when I get off, and pick me up! To spend the rest of the afternoon and god knows how much more time at MY place! Doing -- well, he was quite explicit about activities!"
Janet looked delighted. "Hooray for YOU! This is pretty amazing! Tell, tell, tell! What exactly did he say?"
"Well, you know how he and I -- his name is Karl by the way -- anyhow, I've told you about how we've had these conversations that range all over the place? It's certainly a strange thing for people who know one another only twelve minutes at a time, and that in a bus! He's really well educated and well-travelled and rather sophisticated -- and an awfully engaging, nice person too. We have this way of continuing our conversation despite breaks, running a topic from day to day nonstop, just picking it up next day and keeping on with it -- sometimes for several days. It's like a game, actually. And it's neat because it gives you a whole day to think about what you want to say next, then figure out how to get a lot into a small number of words and almost no talk-time whatever. I've told you about all that..."
Janet nodded: it sounded intriguing and certainly resembled no proposition in her experience.
"So, all this week we've been having a multi-part discussion of trust -- especially trust between men and women. Trust and honesty and how difficult it is for people -- especially a man and a woman -- to be completely honest with one another."
Amy paused, shook her head, stamped her foot in a fit of pique at herself: "Today is all MY FAULT, too! This morning, we got to the bus stop simultaneously. It has a shelter and a little bench, and it's rather dark, a long way from the nearest street-lamp. It's actually nice to know he'll be there -- I feel lots safer that way. Anyhow, we were about four or five minutes early -- not unusual -- and we sat there for a few seconds and then, completely out of the blue, he asked if he could kiss me!"
Janet grinned, tilted her head, said "OHO! Indeed, and did he now? And...?"
Amy went a soft pink, giggled once: "Well, I was completely nonplussed and didn't say NO immediately, I mean, I couldn't even get started on saying anything, so he waited about five seconds and then just did it. My GOD, Janet, but that man is a superb kisser! I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly didn't turn out to be a friendly peck on the cheek... more like a little volcano -- or TWO of them, one in my mouth and the other in my belly!"
"Anyhow, I just about melted inside! And it lasted forever -- just went on and on, deeper and deeper, it was like I was mesmerized. It lasted until we heard the bus coming around the corner. When we broke apart I was so flustered that I couldn't say anything -- we just climbed on the bus and sat down. I think we were both of us a little bit dazed."
Janet laughed gently: "I can certainly see why that might be! And then what? Tell!"
Amy nodded: "Well, half-way through the ride, the bus had picked up a few other passengers but Friday is a very light day and we were completely alone in the front half. We were sitting together with his arm around my shoulders, not quite touching, but other passengers are mostly regulars and they seem to think we're an item, so they never sit near us."
"To make it short, I was terribly embarrassed, but instead of just continuing the ride in silence -- which might have been a good idea! -- I finally got my tongue back, did a little harrumph, got cute for some unknown reason... I challenged him, in the name of honesty, to tell me what he really thought about ME -- especially after the kiss.
He declined for a minute, hemming and hawing, then as we were starting down the long hill to his stop he said "Really want to know, no holds barred?"
"Of course I said YES. Remember that old saw, 'Be careful what you ask for, you might just GET IT!"? Well, it's real!"
