It was mid-afternoon, another hot day in the summertime. I was driving from the east side of town to the west, to run some errands.
My city is a large metropolis with several large, urban universities. One such institution with over 40,000 students straddles one of the major roads that I use often. It's a large but not necessarily sprawling campus with much of what one might expect of a large university -- oak tree-lined streets, modern and old architecture, a massive sports stadium proudly in view of passers-by, and numerous surface parking lots -- with signs and banners of in red and white, the school colors, festooning a long line of lightpoles, seemingly standing at attention.
The drive across campus is generally a pleasant one. It is picturesque, but not in a natural beauty kind of way. It's an urban campus, so the design decisions are more practical than aesthetic. I like being reminded that such a place of higher learning exists, right in the middle of town.
The campus is, effectively, divided into four quadrants by the two major streets that intersect in the middle of it, both three-lane, two-way streets. It can take two minutes or more for the traffic lights to change, to allow all traffic through. There's multiple signal fixtures, including left-turn signals, and those pedestrian signals with red-orange hands upheld next to a ticking seconds-only clock.
I happened to roll up to this intersection on one particular hot day. There wasn't a whole lot of traffic around, as it was between sessions. Mine was the only car at the light. The sidewalks were pretty much deserted.
I was lost in a daydream when a cute guy broke my peripheral vision, starting to cross the street towards my car. He was probably about 5' 8", not a very tall guy, but not scrawny. He had wavy brown hair with a decent amount of curl, and fairly masculine features in the face, but with a touch of the innocence that comes with being a young adult. Fairly thin brows, squinty brown eyes and a mouth with thin lips completed his face. Visually speaking, he was the kind of eye candy I always notice.
It was what he was wearing, however, that stirred me. As he crossed in front of my car, he briefly struck a "vogue" pose, directed at me. He correctly figured out I was checking him out. This one guy had a crop-top on, a standard gray football practice jersey. No number or pattern was on it; it was an ordinary crop-top one might see at a gym or in a public park.
His midriff was clearly showing as he passed in front of my windshield. He had a flat, undeveloped stomach on which was centered a lovely oval innie of about an inch in height, with a sensually dark and deep interior. This area, a strip of skin of about three inches in height, was enough to awaken my crotch.
As my eyes were recording this hottie treat I got in the middle of an otherwise unspectacular day, I found myself wishing I'd had my camera to take a snapshot of him as he passed. But I just continued to stare, transfixed, at his general beauty and navel exposed to the humid summer air.
Only one other time I'd been on this campus, I'd seen a guy in a crop-top with his navel showing. I had signed up to run a 5K race on the school's grounds years ago, and I went by to pick up my number packet. I recall another guy, taller (probably about 5' 10"), with darker, straight hair in bangs and more masculine appearance -- thicker brows and a more chiseled jaw. Sort of like a wrestler, but taller.
That guy, like the twink that I was watching cross the street, was also sporting a gray crop-top that was cut perhaps a bit higher to reveal more like four or five inches of his midsection, again relatively undeveloped, but flat and healthy. This particular guy was fronting a large, round outie bellybutton, easily the size of a quarter.
That guy from my past made my crotch stir, also. There is just nothing like seeing an un-self-conscious hot guy on a college campus, in good shape, with a handsome face and head of hair, wearing a crop-top unapologetically showing his bellybutton to anyone who dared to look at it.
Was this newer hottie I was eyeing an athlete? Was he an engineering major? A drama student? Or did he just throw on a crop-top because it was another hot day in the summertime?
As I was pondering this mystery, he paused at me to wave, big smile, as he neared the curb. I waved back, rolling down my window, then beckoned him over. As this exchange was happening, the light changed back to red. I had two more minutes. No one was behind me.
I asked if he was a model. Amused (in a bashful way) he said he wasn't. I told him he should have been. I asked if he'd be interested in doing photos with me sometime. He said he was game. (Must have been an Aries or Leo. They love cameras. And the cameras love them, I have observed.)
He asked if he had to get naked to do the photos. I told him no, I wanted to photograph him as he was already clad, crop-top and all. He was fine with that.
I asked his social media account handle. He gave it to me. I told him I'd send him a message. Ryan. His name was Ryan. I introduced myself, then drove off, looking forward to our next encounter.
Later in the day I found Ryan online. He had a couple of pics of himself in the crop-top as well as many others where he was shirtless completely. He had a goofy vibe -- playful, even. I really wondered what his major was.
I sent a message to him, proposing what I had in mind, and what I'd be willing to pay him. He was happy to hear that money was involved, students often being low on funds.
I told him we could meet in the parking lot near that intersection at a certain time on Saturday. He punched it into his smartphone. I reminded him of the car I drove and what I looked like so he wouldn't be spooked. He said he'd remember me. I was flattered.
