by Jamie Knight
“Here's what you do,” she said. “Go up to him and compliment him. On anything. It doesn't matter what it is. Then, when he responds, tell him that you remember when he won the last debate and how sexy he was. From there, he'll be putty in your hands. Find a way to nonchalantly ask him if he has plans for the dance. If he says no, ask him if he wants to go with you. I promise you it will work.”
I had all kinds of doubts, but I still did exactly as she had instructed. Much to my surprise, he said yes. And it was a magical night. We had so much fun, dancing the night away. Tommy had been such a gentleman.
I had been a virgin and still am. And I couldn’t say that my connection with Tommy was enough to make me want to lose that—I hadn’t ever wanted to lose it until just recently when I met Bradley. I feel like he’d know exactly what to do with it, whereas all the guys my age wouldn’t.
But still, Tommy was nice and it was a great date. After the dance, we talked a few more times and then ended up just being cordial to each other. From that point on, I didn't question Grace's advice on much of anything.
I pulled into the mall parking lot and spotted Grace right away. She stood at the front doors, waving excitedly. I couldn't help but laugh at how eager she seemed to see me. I know that the main reason was because she was wanted to know how things had been going with Bradley.
I hadn't gone into detail about much of anything on purpose. I wanted to save all of the juicy details for when we had time to be together. It probably was for the best that Bradley hadn't joined us because Grace would have probably exploded, wondering what had happened between us.
I parked and got out of the car. Before I had a chance to even get to the sidewalk, Grace was all over me.
“So, tell me what happened!”
“Geez, can we greet each other first,” I said, toying with her. She ignored me, though.
“I need to know everything,” she said in a high-pitched squeal.
“Alright, alright,” I said, trying to quiet her down. “Let's go inside and grab some smoothies. We can sit and talk then.”
A few people were looking on at us curiously, obviously wondering what was going on. I locked my arm into Grace's and we walked inside, arm-in-arm.
“So, what have you been up to?” I asked, hoping to change the subject for a minute.
“Nothing new,” she said. “Just the same old stuff: parents breathing down my neck about what I'm going to do with my life. Me having panic attacks trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my life. And my best friend having some secret love affair that she won't tell me about.”
“You're being really dramatic,” I said, laughing. “I swear to you, there is no love affair going on here.”
“So, you still aren't going to tell me anything yet?” she whined. She had the saddest look in her eyes like a puppy begging for a treat.
“You really just aren't going to let this go, are you?” I sighed.
I had never seen her so eager. She was usually more patient. I think that the extra pressure that her parents had been putting on her was starting to wear Grace down. It was then that I really looked at her and saw how worn she looked.
Her hair looked uncombed. She had bags under her eyes like she hadn't slept in days. I felt bad. I realized that this trip to the mall was probably more than just the average trip to the mall, like the many that we had taken in the past when we were carefree.
This was probably her window of peace, her chance to get out of the house and have a minor distraction. So, I decided not to make her wait to hear about what had been going on.
“Okay, well, we kissed,” I said, waiting for her reaction.
“What?” she asked, shocked. She paused for a moment and stared at the ground, trying to process things.
“Yeah, but it's not how you think,” I said.
“What do you mean, ‘it's not how I think’? There's really not a whole lot of explanation. It’s a kiss. That's pretty straightforward.”
“Yes and no,” I said, trying to explain. “He's a mechanic by trade. That's what he did in the military. He told me that he could help me fix my car and I told him that he could. Well, we went to the auto parts store to pick up a couple of things that he said that we would need to fix the car and the guy behind the counter was being disgusting. He was some super cheesy guy who kept flirting with me. I was trying to brush him off, but then he made a comment basically saying that Bradley was my dad. And I was so embarrassed. So, I decided to make the counter guy feel embarrassed by kissing Bradley. I wasn't even thinking it all the way through when I did it. I just went in for the kiss.”
“Oh my God! That's crazy! What did he say?” she said, leaning in for my answer. I could tell that any stress she may have had from her parents was now a distant memory.
“He actually didn't say anything at all,” I said, frowning. “At first, it was like he was frozen when I kissed him. But, after a little while, he started to kiss me back. And I don't think that he was trying to make the counter guy feel embarrassed or anything. I think that he genuinely enjoyed the kiss. But, then, that was it. We left the store and neither one of us mentioned it again. We fixed the car and had dinner. I suggested a swim after dinner, but I ended up swimming alone.”
Grace frowned. It wasn't the love story that she was hoping for. It was actually pretty anti-climatic.
“At least, you did something,” said Grace, shrugging.
“Thanks,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. “I just wish that something more would have happened, you know? I'm not even sure what I was hoping for. Or that I should even be hoping for anything. I mean, he is my dad's friend. If anything were to happen between us, I'm not too sure ol’ James would be happy about it.”
“Yeah, if it were me and any of my dad's friends, he would be through the roof. I would probably be disowned and forced to move in with you.”
“And what a tragedy that would be,” I joked. One of my favorite things about Grace was her sense of humor. No matter what was going on, she and I could find ways to laugh about just about anything.
“No, but seriously, I get that you don't want to upset your dad or mess up the relationship that he has with his friend, but when do you get to have your life? When do you get to just be a girl and do things that make you happy?”
She had a wild look in her eye, one that told me that, while she was talking about what was going on with me and Bradley, she wished that she could say the same thing for her.
The words that she had for me she felt were also true for her. I nodded, knowing that her words had some truth to them. And, honestly, despite the possible outcome of things, I still wanted Bradley. He was incredibly sexy and I loved being around him. I knew that I had a small window of time to try to make things happen, since my dad would be coming home soon.
“So, what do I do?” I asked her. Grace thought for a moment, twirling a piece of her dark brown hair around her finger.
“Why don't you just tell him what you want?” she asked.
“There's no way that that will work,” I said, shaking my head. “He's too much of a gentlemen for that. Even if he wants me like I want him, his conscience will kick in and make him feel terrible. I can tell he has a strong moral code and would put being loyal to his friend and doing the right thing even over his own desires. It's one of the things that makes me really like him. There aren't too many guys these days who even care about things like that. But, it's something that he lives by. I can tell.”
“I don't know any guys who would pass up the chance to be with a hot chick, especially if she was basically serving herself on a platter,” said Grace, scratching her head. “But, if you say so.”
I could only hope that Grace ended up being right. Because I really, really wanted Bradley to take me for my very first time.
Chapter 16
Natalia
By that time, we had made it to the food court. We walked up to the smoothie bar and ordered our drinks.
Grace got
her normal green smoothie while I got a simple strawberry-banana one. We found a table and sat down.
“You remember that time we snuck into the movies and saw that foreign film?” said Grace, leaning in like she was telling me a secret.
I remembered that night vividly. Grace had invited me over for a sleep over and after playing board games with her parents all night and raiding the house for snacks, we decided that we were bored and wanted to find something to do.
“There is nothing to do in here,” said Grace. She was lying on the floor in her bedroom with her legs up on the wall.
“I know,” I said. “Maybe we should go out somewhere.”
I was half-joking when I made the suggestion. We were fifteen years old and neither one of us drove, so there really weren't a whole lot of places where we could go.
“Let's go to the movies,” said Grace. I laughed, assuming that she was joking. The movies were about two miles away and it was well after midnight. There probably wouldn't be any movies playing that late, anyway.
But, we decided to go anyway. At the very least, I thought, it will give us a chance to get out and get some fresh air instead of being cooped up in the boring house. Grace put on all black like she was a ninja. She packed a bag of snacks, a rope, a knife, and tape.
“What's the tape for?” I asked her.
“You never know,” she shrugged.
We climbed out of her bedroom window out onto the roof of the garage. There was a decorative ladder with vines on the side of her house that we climbed down. I went first and then Grace.
Right as Grace got ready to jump down, the ladder broke. We both looked up in shock, listening to see if we heard any footsteps. I remember holding my breath, thinking that her parents would come barreling around the corner, scolding us for trying to sneak out of the house. When no footsteps came, we made a run for it. We ran for about three blocks, stopping as soon as the house was out of sight.
We stood catching our breath, gasping for air.
“Is anyone following us?” asked Grace, craning her neck to look behind us. It was dark despite the scattered light from the lights lining the street.
“No,” I said, between breathes. “I don't see anyone.”
We kept walking. We talked and laughed the whole way. Before I knew it, we had made it to the theater. To my surprise, there was a movie showing.
It was a sexy foreign movie. I don't even remember the title of it.
We walked up to the ticket window. The guy standing at the window was a thin man with thin, blonde hair and thick glasses. He took them off, cleaned them, and put them back on, looking at the two of us very confused.
“Sir, I'm so sorry,” said Grace, sounding panicked. “My friend and I are a million miles away from home and lost and I don't have a phone and I'm on my period and... I just need to use the bathroom for a few minutes. Can I please do that?”
The guy opened and closed his mouth a few times, blinking so many times that I thought that his eyeballs were going to roll out his head. After about a minute, he came from behind the booth and opened the door for us.
“Thank you so much,” she said. “We're going to be in and out.”
We went into the bathroom and waited until he wasn't watching anymore. As soon as we had the chance, we made a run for the theater where the movie was being played. There were only a few people there. Some people were even sleeping. We crawled across the floor so that no one would see us.
“Let's go over to the exit,” Grace whispered to me.
I nodded, but I doubted that she saw me in the dark. We crawled like ninjas over to the door on the opposite side of the theater. Grace pushed it open and propped it open with her shoe. We crawled back out the door toward the lobby and the bathroom. We headed for the front door where the ticket booth was.
“Thank you so much,” said Grace again. “You have no idea how much that helped.”
“No problem,” said the guy, grinning. “Do you need to use a phone to call your parents?”
Grace looked confused for a minute and then remembered the story that she had told him.
“Oh, no that's okay,” she said. “I found my cell. I called them and they're going to come and get us soon.”
“Okay, well, if you want to wait inside, you can wait here in the lobby,” he said.
“No, that's okay,” she said, walking out the door. “We're going to go to the restaurant around the corner. I'm not sure how my parents would feel knowing that we were here considering the type of movie that's played this time of night.”
The guy's cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment.
“Uh...well... you ladies have a good night,” he said, turning to busy himself with something on the counter.
Grace and I walked out, trying to keep our composure. After the door closed, we burst out laughing. We laughed so hard that tears came out of our eyes.
“I can't believe that actually worked,” I told Grace, wiping the tears away.
“Well, it did,” she said, proudly. “Guys never know how to react when you mention anything about periods. Now, let's go around back to the door and watch our movie.”
We went back to the door that she had propped open, retrieved her shoe, and sneaked inside. We were slinking low so no one would notice us and found seats near the back.
The movie was very interesting. It was a story about a French man and a waitress. The man was such a gentleman that no matter how hard the waitress tried to get his attention, nothing ever worked.
Every time he came in, she made sure to make her interest known. But he was always very polite and professional. She figured that it was probably because he didn't want to seem forward at her place of work. So, she invited him over for coffee to her apartment that was nearby.
While at the apartment, she tried all types of things to try to seduce him and it seemed like nothing was working. So, she spilled coffee all over herself on purpose. It was funny how she hopped around jumping. It caught the guy off guard. She told him that she had to take a shower and asked if he would wait to make sure that she would be okay.
In true, gentleman-like fashion, he agreed, waiting nervously in the living room for her. She kept making noises like she was in pain. At one point, she called out to him to bring her some ice from the freezer. He ran hurriedly to grab it, almost slipping on an ice cube that had fallen onto the kitchen floor. He ran into the bathroom and caught an eyeful of her nakedness.
At first he turned away, trying not to look. But then, she told him to look at her. He started to really look at her and got horny. They ended up making love right there in the shower. It made me wonder what it would be like to make love for my very first time. I couldn’t wait. I still couldn’t, to this day—even more so now that I had found the guy to do it with: Bradley.
“My parents hadn't even realized that we were gone,” said Grace now, smiling at the memory. “My mom did ask a few weeks later how the ladder had gotten broken. I told her one of the neighbors must have done it. And she believed it because she had this theory for years that the neighbors secretly hated her.”
“That was the first time that I'd ever seen a movie like that,” I told her.
“Me, too,” she said. “But, it actually gave me an idea that might be helpful for you to seduce Bradley. Why don't you take a shower and make sure that he knows that you're taking a shower? Try to find a way to get him to see you naked. Leave the door open or walk out naked and go past his door. Maybe if he sees you naked, he will get so turned on, that he will throw out any bit of conscience that he may have and things will really get hot between you. You said that he kissed you back, right? If he wasn't attracted to you, he wouldn't have kissed you back. So, maybe this is just the encouragement that he needs to take things to the next level.”
She raised her eyebrows, giving me a playful look.
“I guess it's worth a try,” I said, thinking things over.
I wasn't really sure that it would work, but I remembered th
at scene in the movie. It was burned in my brain. The way that he let his passion overtake him, overriding anything that might have held him back, was mesmerizing.
The moans and screams of ecstasy from the waitress as he spread her legs, leaned her over, and plunged his hard dick into her wet pussy, not caring that the water was soaking his clothes, made me so aroused. I remembered that after returning home, I had fingered myself secretly in the dark as I thought about it. It had been the start of my fantasies about being fulfilled by the perfect man—and now, I had found him.
“Yeah, it is,” said Grace, smiling like the cat who ate the canary. “Just make sure that you don't spare any details about what happens. If he sees you naked, I'm almost sure that he won't be able to resist.”
Grace was so sure that it would work, it gave me hope—maybe it would.
Grace and I hung out a little while longer before we went our separate ways. On my drive home, I gripped the steering wheel hard, nervous about how things would go.
What if my plan was crossing the line so much that Bradley didn't even want to stay at the house anymore? How would I explain that to my dad? The thoughts were racing, along with my heart, and I almost decided to give up on the whole plan.
But, then I remembered that scene in the movie.
I could be the waitress. I wanted to be the waitress.
Chapter 17
Natalia
I took a deep breath and walked into the house. Bradley was still sitting in the same spot in the living room. He had turned on the TV and was watching an old western.
“How did it go?” he asked, turning his attention to me as I walked in the room.
“It went really well,” I said, walking past him. “I'm just going to take a shower and head off to bed. I'm pretty worn out now.”
“Okay,” he said. “Well, good night. I'll probably be heading off to bed soon myself.”
