I was a computer geek back in the nineties, before being a computer geek was cool. When the other guys in my classes were hitting the bars, enjoying freedom and getting laid... I hung out in the computer lab between classes and then went back to my aunt's house after classes.
It was October of my freshman year, and classes were just settling in. I was hanging around at the computer lab on the VAX system, looking through the message boards and checking out what things were happening on campus. I was a strange mix of wanting to be social, without the having to be social part. Sometimes I would show up at social events, pay to get in, and then stay in the background NOT being social.
Reading though the messages I came across one asking for computer help. Janet, the woman that wrote the post, was a year ahead of me, and claimed to be the only person at the university still using a manual typewriter to write term papers. I figured that helping out a person in need couldn't go too wrong, and that I might make a friend in the progress, so I dropped her a reply email offering to help.
*** "Hi. Thanks for the offer of help. How much do you charge."
*** "Don't worry about pay, happy to help."
*** "No, I can't do that... wouldn't be right."
*** "Ok, if you insist, then Pizza and a coke."
I explained to her that I wasn't really a computer wiz when it came to word processing and such, but I could probably help her out to get started. We arranged to meet up at the computer lab Friday afternoon.
Friday afternoon came and I was sitting outside of the computer lab waiting. People came and went; I checked my watch a few times and realized Janet was nearly an hour late. Figuring I had been stood up, I grabbed my backpack and got up when a woman came rushing up to the computer lab gasping for breath. She was average height, about a foot shorted than my 6'6". She had on a neat, professional dress that fit her curves nicely, just long enough to be business appropriate, but just snug enough to appreciate her womanly shape. The top was low enough to show off her large breasts, but not low cut enough to be considered slutty in the office she was an intern at. She had curly shoulder length light brown hair, that was somewhat frazzleed by the rush across campus, and a bag that was overflowing with notebooks and papers.
"Ummm Janet?" I asked tentatively.
"Uhhhh..." gasp... "Yeh... uhhh... Luke...?"
"Yeh, that's me."
"I... Am... So... sorry..." she gradually caught her breath. "Work ran WAY over at the legal office that I am interning at. Then traffic up 84 was a nightmare. I couldn't find parking. I ended up over at the bar, and ran the whole way. I am really sorry, I'm NEVER late... usually..."
We managed to get into the computer lab for the last twenty minutes before it shut and we were kicked out. In the time that we had I showed her around Microsoft Word, how to save a file to disk and open its up again.
When we finished up we went to the local Pizza restaurant. We spent the evening chatting over pizza and coke, and then a few coffees. I found Janet to be friendly and very nice. We talked at length about school and the things that we were interested in. She admitted that she didn't spend a lot of time at the university outside of classes so she didn't have many friends in the area, and that she was hoping that the request for computer help would lead to a friendship.
I decided to be a bit brave, and asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner over the weekend. She laughed and pointed out that we were already out to dinner, and since it was Friday night, she already considered it the weekend; then she graciously accepted my invitation. It came time to leave as the restaurant was closing. I walked her to her car, when she unlocked the door, I opened it for her. She smiled and thanked me, then we both stood there with a bit of awkward silence for a few moments.
A cool wind picked up, Janet didn't have a jacket on so she shivered, and moved closer to me.
"God that's freezing!" she said. I could feel her shivering, pressed up against me, so I put an arm around her and sheltered her from the wind. When it stopped she looked up at me, and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before getting into the car.