I found that writing about our little rock climbing adventure was quite fulfilling. This time, I thought that I'd offer my version of how Ben and I met. I'm not disputing any of the major facts in Ben's account, however, I feel that I need to polish some of the finer points and provide my perspective on some of the details.
Here goes:
"If I want to paint my fucking toenails, I'll paint my fucking toenails Jason!" I said raising my voice slightly.
"I just want to get to the pool before the kids swarm all over it, that's all." Jason responded.
"Well I wanted to do them last night before I left home, but you said that there wasn't time. Just get over it, it'll only take another five minutes." I explained returning to the task at hand.
I had painted my toenails with the colours of the spectrum ever since that lesson on prisms in science class way back in high school. Our science teacher was Mrs Hansen and she was the only female science teacher in the school. The next weekend, I bumped into Mrs Hansen in the local supermarket and she was wearing sandals. It was then that I saw her toenails and the rest, as they say, is history.
As promised, I had finished with my toenails in no time and was ready to accompany my boyfriend Jason to the swimming pool. We were at the far end of the resort and it took some time to walk over to the pool area. As we approached, we could already hear the calls of excited children and Jason shot me a stern 'I told you so' glance but did not utter a word.
Standing between us and the pool was another couple who had approached the pool just before us. Seeing what Jason had dreaded, the other couple had already turned around and started to walk away from the pool. That couple ended up being Jennifer and Ben.
I have to confess that I didn't like Ben at first. He looked me up and down in a leering, almost sleazy manner. I know better now, but I was certainly not impressed and although I did not say so verbally, I'm sure that my facial expression and body language would have said all that needed to be said on the matter.
He started out by giving me some lame excuse about liking my toenails and I was just waiting for some frivolous, brain dead attempt at flattery involving matching my eyes or something else equally as pathetic. However, when he correctly identified that I was trying to represent the light spectrum, I was caught off guard somewhat. He also seemed to get my fingernails too. Jason didn't even understand my fingernails for fuck sake! I thought at that point that perhaps my gut reaction may require re‑evaluation.
Jennifer and Ben started to talk about alternative activities, that's when I suggested a game of tennis. I used to be pretty good at tennis, but I had not played seriously since I left high school. It was Jennifer who then took the initiative and introduced herself and Ben.
As Ben's already told you in his account, we stopped by their cabin briefly so that they could change into the appropriate footwear and then continued on to the tennis courts. It was the first time that I had actually played tennis naked. Whilst I enjoyed the freedom, having my boobs bouncing around unrestrained took a little getting used to. Anyway, Jennifer and Ben were no match for Jason and I. It was a fun match and they made a valiant effort winning a few games, but even playing in 'friendly' mode and wearing flimsy open-toed sandals, it was hard not to annihilate them, metaphorically speaking of course.
Jennifer and Ben were very gracious in defeat and offered to buy us lunch in the café. We had a wonderful chemistry together. As couples, we were similar ages, had similar interests and we managed to keep the conversation lively well into the afternoon. I was sad that we had to cut our conversation short when Jason reminded me that we were booked in for archery lessons that were due to start in 10 minutes.
We said our hasty farewells and promised to look out for each other around the resort. A few days later, we met by chance at the pool and then the following evening we had dinner together. It was the day after dinner that I encountered Jennifer again.
I decided to go for a walk and clear my head. I collected my purse, left the cabin and headed towards the café. I got myself a cold drink and selected a pastry from their meagre range before paying. As I left the cashier, I saw Jennifer sitting alone at one of the tables, so I decided to go over to say 'hello'.
I ambled over to Jennifer's table and announced myself, "Is this seat taken?"
Jennifer looked up from her book and smiled, "Audrey, no no, please sit down. Where's Jason?"
"Back at our cabin, I guess." I responded.
"You guess? Is everything OK?" Jennifer asked.
"Yes, Jason's just being a total turd at the moment." I said.
"Oh, that's not good. Do you want to talk about it?" Jennifer asked.
"Why are men such fucking dicks?" was all that I could manage.
"What has he done now?" Jennifer asked.
"Just the usual. Typical fucking man!" I responded angrily.
"OK, take a deep breath and start from the beginning. Tell me how you two meet." Jennifer said encouragingly.
"OK then. Um, well Jason was actually the first man that I had seen completely naked standing right in front of me." I explained.
"How old were you when this happened?" Jennifer asked.
"Oh, about thirteen or fourteen I guess. He would have been about sixteen at the time." I responded.
"What happened?" Jennifer asked pushing for more details.
"Well," I began, "I'd seen glimpses of my father naked from time to time, but he was not one to parade around the house naked in front of me, neither of my parents were. Anyway, my friend Anna from school had invited me over to her place for a swim in her pool one afternoon."
"OK" Jennifer said as she listened to my tale.
"I'd obtained permission from my parents so I put on my swimming gear and some normal clothes over the top, picked up a clean towel and rode my bike the block and a half over to Anna's place. Her mother greeted me at the door on her way out to do some grocery shopping. Anna appeared from a door off the hallway wrapped in a large towel with a pretty tropical print on it."
"Sounds fairly normal so far." Jennifer commented.
"Indeed it was." I started, "So from there, we made our way through the house, into the back yard and then over to some pool lounges. In one smooth motion, Anna whipped off her towel and laid it out on one of the lounges, she was totally naked. No bathing suit, just naked, right in front of me, without a care in the world, naked!"
"Mmm, go on." Jennifer encouraged.
"Well, I just stared at her for a while dumbfounded." I paused before proceeding, "I'd been in the ladies' locker room at tennis training many times, but everyone there was so shy and discrete, not just brazenly and unapologetically nude in front of each other. Anna seemed a bit confused by my shocked look and said that she thought that I knew that her family were nudists and that's why I accepted the invitation to swim in her pool. When I told her that I did not know, she said that I could keep my swimwear on if I wanted to, but that she was still swimming in the nude."
"Seems like an honest misunderstanding and a reasonable response." Jennifer said nodding.
"Oh yes it was, I'm not suggesting otherwise. However, staring at Anna's naked body was when the epiphany struck me." I responded.
"Which epiphany would that be?" Jennifer replied.
"Well, I'd obviously seen myself naked in the mirror hundreds of times before and Anna looked," I paused collecting my thoughts again, "she looked just like me. Breasts, nipples, hips, pubic hair, labia, all the same, just like me. I don't know why this came as a revelation to me, I was female, she was female, it stood to reason. It was one of those 'ah ha' life moments when one of the pieces to a puzzle that you didn't even realise was missing just falls into place."
