murmured, "You're very lovely, dear heart. Your breasts are perfect. But Jim will suffer the heart attack if you show him that."
She remembered a bra she'd purchased a year earlier. It went with a dress she never wore. She put it on and bent over a final time. Perfect. Just the right combination of lace, ribbon and her lovely figure. If Jim didn’t react, she could assume he’d died and take him out and bury him.
At the party, Julie showed Jim her legs by sitting opposite him during a game of Charades. As she sat down, she slid her skirt up her legs and moved it a little higher each time she moved in her seat. Her legs trailed down and to the side and looked very long and graceful.
She crossed her legs and let the shoe on one foot drop off until it was held by her toes and nothing else. She bounced her foot up and down. The movement distracted Jim from the game. He glanced… then looked… then memorized.
There was a mirror on the wall. Julie kept track of Jim by looking in the mirror. She never looked directly at him.
After the game, she helped serve cookies. She bent at the knees when she held the tray in front of everyone else, but when she offered the plate to Jim, she bent at the waist as she had done in her apartment. She knew her push-up bra made her breasts look full and soft above the cups. The bra had lace across the top and a tiny, blue bow in front.
She watched him as she held out the plate. He brought his eyes up from the cookies until he looked down her dress. His hand stopped halfway to his mouth and his jaw hung open. He froze. Julie paused to see how long he'd stay that way. It didn't end. She realized that people were going to notice if she prolonged it any more. She moved on to the next person and glanced back at Jim. He hadn't moved. The cookie was still suspended in mid-air.
It’s working, Julie thought. He’s finally noticing me . She sunk the hook after the food was eaten. She invited him to clean up the kitchen with her. No sooner had she spoken the words, than he was following behind her as she led the way to the kitchen. If she wasn’t mistaken, she thought she saw him in the mirror studying her ass. Yesss!
While they washed the dishes, they talked about things other than Monica. This time when she spoke, he actually seemed to be hearing her. He conversed with her while looking into her eyes, and asked questions about her life with genuine interest. In spite of the sexual tension, their conversation flowed easily.
They'd finished putting the dishes away when Julie lifted her shoulder and moaned. Jim said, "What's wrong?"
And that’s when Julie sunk her hook. "I have a cramp in my neck. I get these when I stand for a long time." She turned her back to him and lifted her long hair. "See, I've got a knot in the muscles of my shoulder and neck. It hurts."
The Jim that never noticed her, that was slow to act on her suggestions or enticements, disappeared. The new Jim quickly put both hands on her shoulder and neck and massaged. "Does this help?"
"Yes. That's perfect." His touch was amazing, and Julie had waited for this moment for so long. The moment when the man of her dreams was genuinely attracted to her as a man to a woman.
Jim spent time on the muscles in her shoulders. After a few minutes, the massage turned from attention to her muscles to gentle strokes across her skin. She encouraged him by leaning toward the hand that was caressing her the most. She moaned. "This is perfect."
She had to make a decision. Should she acknowledge the change in their relationship or act as if it hadn't happened?
She was
Dana Carpender, Amy Dungan, Rebecca Latham