Saturday, March 24, 2012

Natalie's story


Nat’s Story

            What was it about him that made her so angry? He was so aloof and smug that she wanted to take her vinyl stick-on nails and rake his smiling face! He would just look at her and then shake his head implying that she was just another dumb woman that he would have to help out. She wanted him dead, dead but with a long painful passing.
He would look up at her his eyes semi closed like he was picturing her barefoot and in the kitchen. She had experienced sexism before but he could do it without a word. One look from him and many of the women in the workplace would scurry of to the tasks in fear like little ants. Okay, that wasn’t true but she had imagined it.
            To make matters worse, Jennifer, one of the receptionist thought he was hilarious. She would laugh at his antics and sexist remarks as if they were just the funniest jokes she had ever heard. It was pitiable the way that Jennifer suppressed her femininity in order to please him. He was a pig for bullying her the way that he did and she was a cow to stand there and let it be done to her. Well, she had put a stop to his fun and Jennifer had then tried to defend him. It was an outrage, couldn’t the silly woman see what he was doing was wrong?
            It had started their war with each other. He would go out of his way to get at her and she would call his bluff every time. What was so infuriating was how he just let her criticism roll off like it wasn’t serious, like it didn’t matter. He was careful to never say anything directly to her or about her in a sexist manner. He had to know that she would bring him up on sexual harassment charges. She had confronted Jennifer this morning and advised her to file charges against him.
            “But he’s my friend.” Jennifer had said.
            “Look, you don’t have to be afraid of him- I will stand with you in the accusation.” She had countered, thinking that Jennifer was near to losing what little self-respect she had. Jennifer’s face went cold.
            “I know that you hate him, but you don’t really know him.” Jennifer placed her hands on her hips. “He is good guy.”
            “Oh really?”
            “Yes, one of the few.”
            “Few What?”
            “Men in this place.” She gestured with her hands to indicate the room. “He is kind and complimentary and does stuff for me.”
            “Oh come on Jennifer. He is a sexist pig who delights in belittling you and you just sit there and laugh at him.”
            “Now wait just a minute. Where did you get the idea that he belittles me?”
            “I have seen him around you and heard his snide comments.”
            “You have been spying on me?”
            “No- no.” She was stunned at the reversal of the conversation.
            “How dare you!” Jennifer’s voice raised an octave and she pointed her finger at her.
            “No, that’s not what I meant.”
            “You just hate him and me; you’re just jealous and cruel.” She was yelling.
            “But- no I-“
            “Well, you don’t know half of it and it isn’t your bees wax anyway. I will not report him to anyone. And from now on you just stay away from me.”
            “But Jennifer I was just trying to-“
            “To meddle in my life! I am not some weak woman who needs a man to stand up for me. I can’t help it if you can’t or won’t see him for what he’s worth!”
            With that Jennifer stormed out of the break room in tears.
            She felt like a fool for trying to do the right thing. Jennifer was stronger than she looked. How then could she just melt in front of that man when she wouldn’t tolerate the same from any of the other men in the company? She had heard stories of “Jenny the butch bitch queen,” not long after she had been hired. How come Jennifer would allow one man to put her down so thoroughly but none of the others? If she hadn’t seen Jennifer deflect and shame other would be sexual harassers she would figure the woman had lost her spine or was in love with the monster.
            Later, the thought occurred to her that neither of them had even referred to him by name. How weird was that? Maybe his name was too much, was the proof of his monstrosity? She laughed at herself. He was a monster of the worst kind, the wolf in sheep’s clothing kind and his name was Dan.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Dan's Story


Dan’s Story
           
If it hadn’t been raining none of this would have happened. By the time we had found cover, the water had stained our clothes until we shiver as one huddled under the sheltering overhang. The rain made the sky dark with some unknown foreboding that threatened to continue it down falling pounding for some time to come. The sudden downpour and the distance from her car had forced us to race for the promising shelter of the looming cliff face. We stood there looking at the ground longing for a dry place amongst the puddles and mud. The roaring drowned out all other sounds around us, the rest of nature was silent and still.
            We stood there looking around rubbing our own arms and shoulders as if to warm our bodies and dry our clothes at the same time. I glanced once more out at the rain; the noise of her teeth chattering away in rapid riffs brought my attention back to her. She stood there in the darkness shivering looking back into my eyes with a sudden intensity that wasn’t cold at all. I grinned sheepishly and shrugged feeling more like a wolf then. My gaze fell down her face to notice how her wet shirt clung tightly to her narrow shoulders like a second skin. It gripped her breasts and sculpted her erect nipples as they pressed against the ridges of her crossed arms.
            My foolishness burned in my throat like a hot hiccup and I looked back up at her in shegrin only to find her looking down at me as well. I now felt my own cold clothes sticking to my skin. Looking down, I saw that my on nipples stood out against my wet shirt and felt the blood rush to my own face. My eyes slowly rose back to her face to find her guilty stare looking back at mine. We stared at each other’s blushes for some immeasurable time, then she bit her lower lip and we began to laugh.
            Our laughter faded as quickly as it had begun as we returned to our personal hells of embarrassment and desire. We stood still shivering yet standing apart, statues hidden in shadows unable to make the first move, until she mumbled something like so cold. I took a step closer.
“What?”
            She may have heard me or not but she took my movement as an invitation and closed the distance to intimacy and embraced me as my own arms responded. A desperate need drove me to pull her close to share this new warmth I felt within me. The contact of our bodies was a shock as she fit into me with fluid movement. We stood together for a small eternity as I breather the scent of her wet hair and my heart pounded staccato rhythm in my chest.
            Her hands released their hold and I felt her fingers walk up my back. A wide and silly grin spread across my face as she looked up at me. The pleasure in her face melted my sardonic smirk and I hungered for her kiss. I started to say something- ask for permission but she shook her head quickly. I felt her hands slide fingers under my shirt. Cool points walking across my prickled skin searching across my back. Sudden heat spread like fire there as her new embrace took hold.
            Still looking into the deep green pools of her eyes I dived down with my mouth to her own. Our lips met like long lost lovers and the collision was violent and rushed as if there were no time to linger. We kissed in short and long alternating explosions of passion, our breaths steaming around us. Finally, she pulled away gasping for breath and looked at me with shock filling her face.
            “Wow.” She placed her hands on her hips taking quick breaths before slowing to take longer deeper ones.
            I must have looked no less astonished as I was in awe of what had just erupted between us in this moment in the rain. Moving my hands and arms I tried to think of something to do with them and couldn’t. I tried to think of something I could say and couldn’t. I opened my mouth and the breath flowed out and her scent filled my nostrils and I hungered for her touch.
            “I want you.” I heard myself say, my voice a shock since I had just been fumbling for something witty or romantic or appropriate.
            She stood there hip cocked with newfound curiosity, an eyebrow raised. Shaking her head as if to clear it, but her grin kept spreading over her face and her eyes betrayed her inmost fire. She sighed and tried to reply then she walked forward determinedly and threw her arms around me again. The rush returned as if the rain could come down harder, the flurry of her hands peeling my shirt as I tried to find newer ways to improve on kissing. I lost momentary connection as she managed to get my shirt over my head forcing me to stop and help her remove it.
            My vision restored itself to find her pulling her own shirt free. My heart stopped as her breasts came free as she finished pulling her shirt over her head. She reached out and raised my head to look into her own. Her fierce smile laughed at my obvious wonder and lust and she pressed her bare flesh against my own.
            Our hands went wild as we explored our contours and reshaped our realities of us as a unit. Bound by embrace, I mapped her curves over her shoulders and back feeling the thermals rise at my touch. She pulled my head back her finger in my hair long enough to bite my chin and stare into my eyes. Her other hand slid down my stomach to grasp my belt.
            “I want you.” She said as she undid my belt.


            The rain had slowed to a drizzle, beyond the outcrop the water flowed in the wet grass from one pool to the next. I could hardly believe that I sat there observing this all with a woman in my embrace, her back to me. I carefully shifted my arms under her breasts, careful to not disturb her or this dream, should it all be a dream I was having. She breathed against me, comfortable and warm.
            “Do you think it will ever stop?” She said cradling her head under my chin.
            “I hope not.” I actually had said it aloud.
            “Why would you say that?”
            “Because…I am suddenly afraid when we get back that you will want to pretend like this had never happened.”
            “Oh.” I could imagine her biting her lip. I tightened my embrace as her body tensed.
            “My doubts are traitors.” I replied, fear flooding my chest.
            “You’re what?”
            “It’s Shakespeare.”
            “Oh.” She rolled over to look and sat up; she looked at me determination in her face.
            “Shakespeare says that our doubts are traitors to our hearts and make us afraid of trying to follow our- well my desires anyway.” My hands now on her waist, my fingers shaking; I will not be afraid the fear damning my thoughts.
            “Oh.”
            “If you say ‘Oh’ again, I will scream.”
            “Sorry.” She smiled sheepishly her hands rubbing my arms.
            “I am afra-“she leaned in to kiss me long, her eyes closing on my own which were wide open. We stopped and she sat back to look at me the determination back on her face.
            “No.” was all she said. My heart sank.
            “No?”
            “No, I won’t forget what happened here ever.” She blinked as her eyes flooded with tears. “Why would I want to pretend that the best thing that ever happened didn’t?”
            “Oh.” I could breathe again.
            “If you say ‘Oh’ again I am going to scream.” She said laughing, and then crying, then my kiss swallowed her tears and we were one again for moments.
            “I shouldn’t doubt you.” I said after the moment passed, but she didn’t reply as she pressed into me again kissing softly at first then harder.

            Later as the rain continued to pour, the puddles grew into interconnecting pools. She stirred on top of me and sighed, then looked over at the world beyond our cleft. My hand moved across her back wondering if I could ever get beyond the closeness that seemed monumental. She giggled and twitched at my touch, then rolled off me to sit by me in the mud moss that served as our bed. She squeaked at it’s coldness on her bare cheeks and stared at me accusingly. I shrug and patted my chest an invitation to return to its heat.
            She turned around and looked for her panties which she found near her kicked off jeans and shoes. She clambered to her feet and stepped into them gingerly. Pulling them up she caught me gazing at her with a certain hardness. She turned bright red and hid her breasts with her hands and swung around. Well, she had beautiful legs and breasts and shoulders and -well everything was beautiful. I sat up trying to calm the rage of renewed fever in my loins. I looked around for my own pants. Grabbing them I quickly slid them on, careful not to catch anything vital as I failed to spot my boxers in the shadows.
            I jumped up to see her peeking over her shoulder at me. I gave her a guilty shrug and reached down for her shirt. Wringing it out I handed it to her admiring her sleek back, her muscles flowing as she took the shirt and shook it out. Her blades flexing her back as she lifted the shirt and pulled it over her head. Then she snorted and laughed.
            “I guess all that was pointless as you’ve seen it all anyway, well all that counts anyway.”
            “Yes and I will never forget it- I mean them, no I mean you.”
            “I bet you stammer to all the girls.” She said a sly look on her features; then she spread her arms long and pulled them back thrusting her tight and erect torso forward showing her assets. My pulse jumped a notch and I though I might just be sweating, again. I hastily looked down at my hands.
            “No wait, look I was only kidding.” She said. “I knew what you meant. I realize that things will have to be different when we return to the real world. I won’t forget what has happened between us, I mean I want this to mean something.”
            She was biting her lower lip when I looked up at her. I walked over to her as I shrugged on my shirt. I took her hands in my own.
            “I love the way you always bite your lip.”
            She stopped it and looked up at me with a nervous almost embarrassed smile.
            “Kiss me.” She breathed closing her eyes.
            I complied. The kiss stopped the world again as the rain took second seat to the beat of my heart.



The rain had finally stopped and nature had found its voice, bird song floated into our damp haven. She rested her head on my chest as I listened to her breathing.
            “It’s over.” I said.
            “A moment more”
            “A moment in heaven.”
            She sat up a few seconds later and looked down at her muddy clothes. She shook her head in disgust at her appearance, and then looked for her shoes. I handed them to her and she thanked me as she put them on. I climbed to my feet back in my own soaked and muddy clothes. I looked down at her as she finished and held out my hands. She took them and I pulled her to her feet.
            “I need a shower.” She said with some distress, still looking at the mess we had made of ourselves and the soft earth around us.
            “I need a beer.” I replied, the line popping out of my mouth before I could catch it.
            She looked at me then laughed so hard she had to grab my arm to remain upright. I chuckled pleased at her reaction. She stopped and shook her head.
            “To think I hated you up to about two hours ago.” She straightened grinning and peered out in the direction of her car. “Now we are sharing lines from ‘Bird on a Wire.”
            “You hate me?” I guess I had almost hated her too. I shrugged in mock hurt.
            “With a hot and cold fury, yes.”
            We began to walk out into the woods; she grabbed my hand as we went.
            “Wow, and I thought that you were just starting to warm up to me.”
            “Life is funny; Sheri actually accused me of being in love with you this morning and got my blood really boiling. All this week I wanted to destroy you and then we end up out here and-“she stopped and spread her hands.
            “You love me?” I looked at her standing there wet and beautiful although muddy and worn.
            “Men!” She yelled waving her arms. “Are you listening to me? In the car I was fantasizing on ways to do you in! I wanted you dead- or at least sacked and disgraced! I wanted to hurt you for-“
            “You love me.” I said all smiles. God, but she was beautiful and just great. Great in a way I had imagined all my life. She was tough and powerful and stridently independent.
            “What? What is wrong with you? I am trying to tell you how I hated you for being so, so-“she fisted her hand and held them towards me. “So perfect, I mean not Brad Pitt but so nice, so decent, so funny, so smart and so- well something- I just can’t find the words. I mean that you were not what I thought I wanted, but you had this infuriating way of making me look like a fool for thinking I that you weren’t.”
            “You love me.” Gees, I needed to stop saying that- it was driving her crazy, I could see it, but the fact just could stop coming out of my mouth.
            “All this confession and instead of getting mad, you fixate on one thing and stand the babbling it like a fool.” She threw up her hands in exasperation and walked up to me, standing close. “Yes I love you.”
            “You love me.” I said looking into her lovely face, my smile dragging my lips wide. She put her arms around me and sighed.
            “Desperately.”
            “Me too.”


            Back at her car, I looked at her as she rummaged around in her trunk before coming up with a towel and some clothes. She grinned, gym clothes for her. I politely turned my back and she laughed at my sudden embarrassment.
            “It’s not like you haven’t seen it, but thanks anyway.”
            Later, she came around drying her hair, the clean sweats and tee making me want her all over again. The sports bra fitting her breasts perfectly and exposing her lithe and tanned skin, all curves of her body displayed in bright red. She stopped drying her hair to blush and look up at me.
            “What?”
            “Wow.”
            “Really?” She let the towel fall from her dark brown hair, as it tangled around her head.
            “Really-really.” I said taking her all in.
            “Shrek.” She grinned and threw the towel into my face. “Sit on it.”
            I pulled the towel off my head stopping to smell it, her scent strong in its folds.
            “Now what?” she said from the other side of her Honda.
            “You smell really good.”
            “For Pity’s sake. Men are so weird sometimes.” She opened her door and got in.
            I laid the towel out on the passenger seat and sat down carefully. I turned to her as she started the car. I reached out and carefully slid my hand across her shoulder. She jumped and looked into my eyes, a nervous smile replacing the surprise.
            “I love you.” I had to say the words, not being able to go on without them. Wanting to find a solid standing where we were concerned. She leaned over and kissed me quickly and then grinning replied.
            “You love me.”
            “I do.”
            “Keep that in mind when I get you sacked.”
            “Is that in or just sacked period?”
            She sat back laughing.
            “Why couldn’t I see it after all that?” She crossed her arms. “If I didn’t know better, I would suspect that you have loved me from our first fight?”
            “Desperately.”