Awakening Lucy

by Susan Bella Ikin

  Eventually, after stopping at a bar to watch some karaoke, and making small talk with people we had seen around the ship but did not know, Nick escorted me to my room, making arrangements to meet in the morning for an early breakfast before disembarking the ship. As I took my card from the lanyard that always hung around my neck, Nick stayed my hand before I put the card in the card reader on the door. Very gently he crooked a finger under my chin, and lifted my face to his. With only the lightest brush of his lips to mine, he said:

  "Sleep well Lucy. Tomorrow will be a busy day and I expect we'll be doing a lot of walking, so we both need to get some rest tonight".

  With that, he smiled gently and left me there at the door.

  I entered my room and prepared for bed quietly, with a mood of slight melancholy that I could not explain. Perhaps it was because everything would be different tomorrow. So far on this holiday, because of the limitations imposed by us both sharing rooms with our parents, Nick and I had been forced to have a very platonic romance. That had felt quite safe, even though it was a little frustrating. Tomorrow would be very different, we would both have some decisions to make, and our relationship was bound to change. Would it be a change for the better?

  15.

  The next morning was very busy. Mum and I had retained our carryon bags so that we had what we needed for the evening and the next morning with us - our large suitcases had to be put outside our room earlier in the evening so that the crew could organize them and porter them off the ship for us. As I was not flying straight away, this was not a big deal for me, but for Mum it was quite awkward. Due to the travel restrictions on aircraft within the US, there were items in Mum's carryon that she could not leave there (such as her toiletries) and so Mum had put all of those items in a plastic bag within her carryon bag so that she could repack her large suitcase quickly and easily when she reclaimed it.

  We all met for breakfast, the last meal we would share as a group for some time, and there was a lot of chatter with people saving phone numbers from each other, adding each other to Facebook etc... Some time in the night we had re-entered New York and were even now pulling up to the wharf. Amelia and her family, and Tom and Judy, were going to leave early as they had international flights to meet, Mum and Percy's flight was later in the day so they had a bit more time, and Adam and Sarah, Nick and myself, had organized to leave the ship later again as we only had to find our hotels in the city. Adam and Sarah were staying on the east side of Central Park, somewhere near 5th Avenue, whereas Nick and I were booked into a hotel on the west side of the city, in an area called "Hell's Kitchen". I had asked the room in general why the area was known as that, and Adam was the one to tell me that according to legend, a policeman long ago had said that "The only thing hotter than Hell, is Hell's Kitchen". Apparently in the past, the proximity to the wharves had contributed to the area being somewhat less than desirable, but New York was changing and it was considered quite ‘gentrified’ now. I wasn't at all worried though, as it would all be a big adventure for me.

  We all said our goodbyes, everyone hugged everyone else, then people started drifting off as they needed to join their departure groups. Adam, Sarah, Nick and myself sat in a bar and chatted about some of the attractions we expected to find in New York until it was time to leave, then made our way ashore. We quickly found our bags, then said our goodbyes in the luggage hall. Adam and Sarah needed to find a taxi to get to their hotel, whereas Nick and I had decided to walk, as the wharf was only a couple of blocks from the hotel, all of our bags were the wheeled type, and we doubted that we would be able to get a cab for such a short trip. Nick took my large bag as well as his, and handed me his carryon as he said it would be easier to manage. What we had forgotten was that the hotel was uphill from the wharf! By the time we arrived I was feeling a bit flushed, it was still summer and we were quite warm from our exertions.

  We approached the reception desk and gave our names, the clerk behind the desk checked us in and handed us our keycards. I was secretly relieved to see that we had different rooms – I wouldn’t have put it past Mum to book us one room, she had been so sneaky about the whole arrangement so far. When we arrived at the rooms, Nick took my bag into my room first, and as I turned around the inspect the room, I noticed the door in the wall. Drat that woman! Even though we had separate rooms, they were adjoining! I walked to the door, and sure enough, it was unlocked, the hotel must have been told that we would prefer this arrangement. I heard Nick snort behind me.

  “They are a pair of schemers, eh?” he said as he came to the door. “Well, at least I don’t have to go back out into the passageway to get into my room!”

  At that, he took his bags through to his room and then reappeared in the doorway.

  “Ten minutes to unpack and freshen up ok with you?”

  At my nod, Nick shut the door. I stood for a moment breathing deeply. This was a bit confronting. Although we had separate rooms, and separate beds, this ‘rooming situation’ was very suggestive.

  Realising that I had done nothing, I quickly turned to my bags. I would not need to unpack everything, only what I would need for the next few days. Luckily I had sent some clothes to the laundry on the ship, so I had plenty of clothes to choose from. I took a clean top into the bathroom and changed in there, as I felt a bit sticky from the walk from the ship.

  I had just returned to the room when I heard a gentle tap at the connecting door. I went to open it and found Nick standing there.

  “I didn’t know if you were getting changed or not”, he said, “and didn’t want to intrude if you were. Now, what should we do first?”

  “If you don’t mind, I would like to walk through Central Park – I think it is a fair way away though, we might have to catch the subway perhaps?”

  Nick nodded and we went downstairs where we asked the way to the nearest subway station that would take us to Central Park – we were told that from here we needed a blue line train. We walked to the station, and found that we could purchase a card that would enable us to have unlimited travel for the next week, so we purchased on each, and boarded our first subway train. We were amazed that there didn’t seem to be any timetables, apparently trains were so frequent that they weren’t necessary. Chatting between ourselves we decided that as there were so many people living in this city, as opposed to our native Melbourne, there was a greater demand for public transport and therefore trains were more frequent. We caught a train to the far end of Central Park, and got out at 110th Street, deciding to walk back.

  Nick and I then spent a very pleasant afternoon exploring the western side of Central Park, amazed that such a large green space could exist within such a populous city. At the start of our walk I marveled that the road was closed to most vehicles, but there were plenty of bicycles. Not paying attention, I strayed into their path once, luckily Nick grabbed me and pulled me out of the way. I found myself tight against him, and decided that there were worse places in the world to be. Nick’s head lowered, I thought he was about to kiss me and was looking forward to it when a cyclist yelled at us to get off the road. Pulling apart and giggling, we started our walk. We found hidden treasures such as Belvedere Castle, that cute little bridge that had been in so many movies and we found it was called Winterdale Arch, the Lake, we marveled at the horses but declined a carriage ride, and sat for a while on the grass of Sheep Meadow, watching passers by and sipping on the drinks we had purchased from a cart nearby.

  After a while, I lay down on the soft, green grass, and looked at the blue sky, which was broken only by small white clouds scudding across. Nick stared at me for a while, then laid down beside me, slightly angled towards me so that our heads were touching. We lay like this for a while, discussing some of the highlights of our trip so far, and resting from our long walk. When we left the park, we exited via Columbus Circle and took photos of each other there, another tourist took a photo of the two of us, and the shot looked good in the viewfinder, there were yellow taxis in the back
ground.

  When we arrived back at our hotel in the late afternoon, I was quite tired, and told Nick that I wanted to take a bath before dinner. I soaked in the tub for a long time, flicking through a guide book of New York, trying to work out how much sightseeing we could cram into the short time we had. Eventually I had to stir myself and get out as the water was starting to grow cold. Wrapping a towel around myself, I walked into the bedroom and dropped the book on the bed and then leaned over to open the bedside drawers to choose some underwear. I heard a little noise behind me, and spun around, only preventing my towel from sliding off by grabbing it quickly and holding it to my breasts.

  Nick was standing in the doorway, his eyes transfixed on me as I stood in my towel, struggling with it to prevent it slipping off.

  “Sorry”, he said croakily, “You’ve been so long I thought you were dressed already, I knocked but you mustn’t have heard”. Although Nick had apologised for intruding, he did not turn around and go back into his own room either. We stood there, staring at each other for a while. I wanted to take a step towards him, but I was afraid. I was afraid of what would happen if I did. Would Nick reject me afterwards? Would I disappoint him? He was a handsome man, and must have had a few lovers, whereas I had only had that one awful experience, what could I possibly have to offer him?

  Nick shook his head and turned to go back into his room, just as he closed the door he said:

  "I'll go and wait in the lobby, meet me when you’re ready and we'll find someplace nice to eat".

  So what should I make of that? In all those romantic novels I had read, Nick would have been so overcome with passion that he would have closed the gap between us in only a couple of strides, whisked off my towel and tossed me to the bed. Instead he had reminded me that we were going out to eat. Should I be offended? Happy? I knew that I was confused!

  I dressed carefully, and took a wrap as I didn't know how cold it got in the city when the sun went down. I picked up my bag - realising that I had enjoyed the freedom of not needing one on the ship - and took the elevator downstairs. When I saw Nick sitting in a chair in the lobby, I hesitated where he couldn't see me and watched him for a few seconds. He did not look relaxed, but I was taken aback at how handsome he was. Why on earth was this man bothering with me, when I didn't even know the 'rules' of how grownups would normally behave? I was sure that a more wordly woman would have known what to do in that hotel room, and realised that I was stuck in some sort of weird time warp - I still thought like a teenager instead of an adult. Should I have taken the initiative? What if I had just let my towel fall to the floor, and had smiled invitingly at Nick? Would we have spent the evening in my hotel bed, making love, and ordering room service?

  Someone behind me chattered loudly, and Nick looked around at the noise. He saw me there and smiled. Well, whatever he thought, Nick still seemed happy to see me, so although I was still confused, I was happy that what had just happened had not marred our relationship. Nick stood and took my arm, and we left the hotel.

  "I was told that there are a lot of restaurants on 9th Avenue", Nick bent his head and said quietly to me. "It's not far from here, so if you are ok to walk" - and he twisted his head to see what sort of shoes I was wearing - "we can stroll along until we see something that looks appetising, if that's what you want?"

  I nodded my assent, unable to speak at the moment. Nick's proximity to me, plus the image of him looking at my legs, was continuing to disturb me. We walked to 9th Avenue, then walked along, reading menus which were often displayed at the front of restaurants, until we found something that looked appealing. It was a little Italian place on a corner, and we could sit outside in the balmy summer air. Even though we hadn't had lunch, having had a large breakfast before we left the ship, I declined an entree, as the dessert menu looked good and I wanted to save some room for a yummy tiramisu. We passed a pleasant evening, seeming to recover some of our easy going camaraderie, and I did splurge by having that dessert. I could afford the calories, I thought, after our long walk today.

  After dinner we walked into Times Square and stood with all the other tourists, absorbing all the light and noise. I had my photo taken with an Elmo, Nick took the photo on his phone and teased me that he would be uploading it to Facebook so that Adam and Sarah could tease me later. I smiled at that, realising how far I currently was from that staid receptionist that normally commanded the front desk at Adam's surgery. At my suggestion, we went into M & M world and I bought some novelties for presents, including an M & M themed Statue of Liberty full of the chocolate beanies for my Mum. She really had been looking forward to seeing New York, and her scheming meant that she was missing it.

  We slowly walked back to our hotel, with me swinging the plastic carrier bag randomly. One thing I had noticed about New York was that many of the restaurants and shops didn't seem to have access to dumpsters at the back, but instead put big black plastic bags of garbage out in the street. Wrinkling my nose I caught Nick's eye and smiled, while New York was interesting, this was one thing about it I didn't like!

  We arrived back at our rooms, and as I was rummaging through my bag for my keycard, juggling the carrier bag as well, Nick reached into his pocket and used his card to open his door, ushering me through as it was easier. I looked around, and was interested to see that apart from a couple of minor differences with the decorator items, his room was identical to mine. I don’t know what I had expected, but I suppose I had just assumed that Nick’s room would be different. As I headed towards the connecting door to go to my room, Nick stayed me with a hand on my arm, and as I looked at him, he took the bag and put it on the desk against the wall.

  “Lucy, before you go, can we talk for a minute?” and he pulled out the chair and faced it towards the bed.

  I sat on the chair, and Nick sat on the end of the bed facing me. He drew a deep breath.

  “I think we should clear the air, so we can move forward, agreed?” At my nod, he continued, “I remember Adam telling me about his wonderful receptionist when he first took over the practice, and he has sung your praises many times since, but he has never mentioned a boyfriend, so I think you’ve been single a long time?” Again I nodded. “So, I put that together with the skittishness you’ve shown a few times, and I came to the conclusion that someone hurt you a lot, a long time ago, am I wrong?” This time I shook my head. “I thought so. I have been trying to take things easy, not wanting to scare you off, but it is getting more and more difficult, especially now when you’re going to be just on the other side of that door tonight. What do you want to do? Do you want to get another room, or do you trust me?”

  I drew in a deep breath myself and came to a decision. I stood up and moved towards Nick, seeing the confusion on his face.

  “Yes, I do trust you. No, I don’t want another room. And yes, it is getting more difficult, and not just for you. You’re right that I was hurt a long time ago. It was a really long time ago, and that makes me scared – scared that I could get hurt again, and scared that I will disappoint you because I have no idea what to do”.

  Nick stood up and cupped my face with his hand. I turned my face so that my lips could gently caress his palm. He drew in a ragged breath.

  “How long ago Lucy? “

  “I was sixteen”.

  “Sixteen? That’s it? That was the last time for you?” Then he drew back, “Wait, was that your first time?”

  I nodded, with my eyes misting with tears – I had been right, my inexperience had scared him away. Nick saw the tears forming in my eyes, and surprised me by enveloping me in a hug so tight I thought he was going to squeeze all the air out of my body.

  “Well, now a lot of things make sense. No wonder you seemed so scared of me sometimes, you actually were”. He put me from him and looked at my face searchingly.

  “Whoever he was, whatever he did, one day you will feel comfortable enough to tell me. In the meantime, trust me that I would never knowingly hurt you Lucy”.

&nbs
p; “I do trust you”, I said quietly, “and I know you wouldn’t hurt me. But I’m scared, what if I’m not good enough, what if I disappoint you-“ I never got to finish what I was saying as Nick, with an exasperated sigh took my face in both his hands and began to kiss me deeply. We had kissed before, but not like this. I brought my hands up to either side of Nick’s hands, then moved them to his shoulders, and around his back. Nick was plundering my mouth with his tongue, and with a small noise, he picked me up under my backside, and took a few steps backwards, carrying me and then sitting on the end of the bed, so that I was straddling him.

  In this position I could feel the unmistakable bulge in his trousers, and began to squirm on his lap, both unsure and wanting more. Nick used his hands on my behind to move me backwards and forwards so that our two genital areas were in contact, even though my panties and his trousers were separating us. Somehow I found this sensation increasingly pleasurable, and with a little moan began to move in unison with Nick’s hands, rubbing myself against him. After a while, I broke the kiss and threw my head back to pant in pleasure, and Nick bent his head to nuzzle down the front of my dress, sucking on my breasts through the thin material of the dress. Suddenly, without any warning, I felt a jolt deep inside, and the most amazing waves of pleasure began coursing through my body. Shocked, I realized that I had just had an orgasm, and without any skin to skin contact. I fell against Nick, and buried my head in his shoulder, feeling a little embarrassed.

  Nick must have realized what the problem was as he gently tugged back my head by pulling at my hair, and looked me in the eye.

  “You’re beautiful Lucy, and I would love to see you without clothes. I got an eyeful of your backside earlier, and had a lot of difficulty getting out of the room without pouncing on you then. Whatever you want to do is fine by me, you set the pace”.