Growing up, Cindee was Sandy's best friend. She always seemed to have a smile for Ben when she came to the house and Ben kind of just grew up knowing her. It never crossed Ben's mind that she could be lonely, or that she might like Him.
She certainly took Ben by surprise when they went for a walk that summer's evening along the river. Sandy had stood her up for some guy and Ben was hanging out in the garden when she came around, obviously at a loose end. She suggested they walk a way and enjoy the evening.
When the rain started they sheltered under a huge oak tree that bent over and leaned towards the river. At some point while they laughed about the rain their eyes met and the laughter stopped. Ben instantly sensed that they were going to kiss and in that moment Cindee changed into the beautiful girl she was but Ben had never noticed. To this day he remembered the surprise and delightful excitement as they kissed, hugged and giggled under that old tree.
When the rain abated they continued their walk, now holding hands and talking a little less. He didn't ask where they were going when she led Ben away from the path and into a small wood. An hour later his hands knew more about a woman's body than they had, his body knew more about a woman's hands than it did, and Ben was no longer a virgin. When he kissed her goodnight at her door that night he was about to ask her when they could go out again but she guessed and put her finger to his lips.
"It was a moment." She smiled softly. "A wonderful, beautiful, moment, let's leave it at that and not screw it up by getting involved."
They shared some secret smiles over the next few years, before Cindee left to work in Seattle, but the moment was never repeated. It was also never forgotten.
Sandy was electric with excitement when Ben came home from work. Sandy hadn't seen Cindee for years but she eventually tracked her old friend down through some family that still lived back home. When Ben was told by his excited sibling that her old friend was coming to visit he couldn't help but smile to himself and remember "the moment". Sandy didn't know of his brief affair with her friend, and now that Sandy and Ben were lovers the situation was really going to be interesting.
"When is she coming?" He asked.
Suddenly someone's hands were placed over his eyes from behind. "Don't turn around yet." She whispered in Ben's ear. "Make a wish. Hey, you never know, I might've brought some luck with me."
Ben made a wish. It wasn't hard to come up with one. Then he turned to see her. "Hi." The familiar smile beamed at Ben and they fell into a hug.
The years had been kind to Cindee. As she moved gently in front of Ben, taking his hand and smiling, he saw a woman in the prime of her life and comfortable with herself. Her hair was a little shorter now and swept back from her face in waves of natural sheen. Turning, her hair moved like a calm sea echoing a moonlit night. Her face was round and cheerful with a beautifully shaped sensual mouth that somehow managed to look even more enticing when she narrowed her eyes and grinned. She had the greenest eyes he had ever seen. Cindee's eyes whispered. Her eyebrows tilted slightly and gave her face an overall mixture of natural sex appeal and elfin mischief. Her whole body had its own divine arithmetic that was an absolute in femininity.
She was wearing a short-sleeved cotton dress that featured bunches of fabric around the shoulders and hem line. It was predominantly white with seemingly random brush strokes of pastel shades merging into the cloth like a water-color painting left out in the rain. Ben thought back to a moment when he was lucky to have her as his first lover, and couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to repeat the experience now.
They small-talked about Sandy and her ex-husband, Cindee's job, Ben's job, their current lack of partners in general everything really, except "the moment".
They talked into the night until Sandy said she was tiered and going to bed. She made the bed into a bed for Cindee, and then went into her room-the room that was hers before she and Ben had become lovers, she was uncomfortable, but knew it was the right thing to do while her friend was here.
Ben, too, went into his room. Never had he been so lonesome in a house full of women. He longed for Cindee. Funny, he thought, no other woman had had this effect on him; he loved Sandy, loved her as more than a sister-as a lover, a soul mate, but he had a special love for Cindee. Ben paced his room wondering if he should dare go to Cindee. Then she was there, across the room from Ben, smiling. He walked towards her and they met in the center of the floor, coming together comfortably in each other's arms.
"Nice to see you again." He whispered. Her head nodded as she laid her cheek against the top of his chest.
Cindee sighed against Ben and he could feel the contentment she was radiating. "It's so good to feel close to you again. It's been too long."
"I knew you'd come." Ben said.
"I didn't."
He wanted to touch her, but couldn't, not yet. "I'm glad you're here though."
"Me too." Her eyes touched Ben. "I'm hoping you'd like to go for a walk."
