Turning Lynn around so that her back was pressed against my chest, I continued to pull her blouse up, carefully unbuttoning it along the way.
Soon, her lacy pink bra was exposed, and I could see my face being contorted in the metallic surface of the fire extinguisher beside us. My erection was stiff against her ass cheeks; she began to moan as I forced the tips of my fingers in-between the outer edge of her bra and her breast. The lower half of the bra was hard wire covered with spandex, designed, probably, to help push up her breasts and make them appear bigger. Soon enough, the wire was out of the way. I pulled my hand from her pants and rubbed both breasts simultaneously with my hands—squeezing soft, then hard—as I inhaled her scent, allowing it to fill my lungs. I was floating.
Almost as if she were obeying the command of my thoughts, Lynn turned to face me and I began circling my tongue around her dark brown nipples—first her right one, then her left. The peaks of her nipples were wet thimbles. I’ve heard that the perfect breasts can fit inside two tea cups. Well, Lynn’s were barely tea spoons, but they were still so soft and perfect. Moaning, clutching my body, she was so hot for me.
I contemplated putting my hands further down her panties again but decided against it; we’d already been fortunate enough to have not been disturbed by anyone, and I didn’t want to push our luck. So I backed away from her, panting heavily, and said: “We’d better stop, or this’ll become much too serious.” And I meant it—we were both sweating and panting so heavily that I could have fucked her right then and there. I really didn’t know what to do at that point. Without a second thought I gave her a small hug and a kiss on the cheek, and then held her hand. Still half-dressed, Lynn started to cry. “What’s the matter, baby?” I asked her, truly concerned. Then, as if she had decided to be a big girl again, all of a sudden she stopped crying and asked, “Do you love me?” Flabbergasted, I turned away, hoping that somehow I could just disappear. “Let’s just get on the elevator and take it down to the first floor, and you can catch your bus home.” As if by magic the elevator doors opened just as she finished zipping up her pants. I noticed the security camera peering down on us as we got in and chuckled.
“Why don’t you come back home with me tonight? My mother’s cooking dinner soon,” she said.
“Nah, I can’t really. I have to get home and study for a test tomorrow.”
“Maybe some other time?”
“Sure, sweety.”
“I’m so happy that we’re not fighting anymore,” she said with a big, sappy grin. I didn’t realize that not calling her meant we were fighting, but apparently that’s what she thought.
“No, Lynn,” I replied. “We’re not.”
When we got outside the bus pulled up immediately and as she was about to get on I grabbed her arm and whispered, “You’ve never done that before, right?”
“Done what?”
“You know—let a guy touch you there.”
She was a little confused. “Oh, no, no! Never! But I liked it!” And she smiled like the big tall idiot that she was.
“Okay,” I said, “just checking. See ya.”
With that Lynn boarded the bus and went home. She must have glowed the entire ride back. I was glowing, too, but for a different reason.
When I got home I nestled into the sofa in my den and watched TV for a few hours. I thought about calling Maria, but I was just too damn tired to talk. Being among the hoods at the mall made me exhausted. The mall’s like a big high school dance, only everyone’s shopping instead of dancing. And, like a dance, I’m always tired after I go there, probably because it takes up so much energy to tolerate the people inside.
Late that night, after dinner, I called up Lynn for the first time in weeks—and dumped her.
I couldn’t wait to go out with Maria again. When I called her up, she’d already heard about me and Lynn breaking up—and she was pissed.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you were going to do that?” she asked.
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t want to make her mad, but I didn’t want to look like a jerk, either.
“I’m sorry. It all happened so quickly. I just wanted to go out with you, really.”
“What the hell did you do with her by the elevators?” she asked.
Shit! I didn’t know what to say.
“Well, nothing, we just fooled around a little bit. That’s all!”
“She told me you did a lot more than that! What kind of person are you?” she screeched. That question sunk like a dagger into my heart. I thought: Good question. What kind of person am I?
“No, really, we just kissed a little bit. She really wanted to kiss me, so I kissed her. That’s all! I wanted to let her down easy. I don’t want to ever kiss her again, Maria. I only want to kiss you.”
She paused for a moment. I’m sure she was happy with what I said, but doubts lingered. “So, if we start dating, and you decide to break up with me, what are ya gonna do? Fuck me right before you dump me?” She had a point.
“Listen,” I continued, “just don’t worry about it. Nothing happened. It meant nothing, really. I just didn’t know what to do. I felt bad about breaking up with her, I wanted to make her feel better. Maria, I want to go out with you and you only. Please, let’s stop talking about this crap.”
She paused again. “Fine.”
“That’s it?” Her capacity to end such a heated discussion so quickly and maturely was startling.
“Yeah. Fine. Okay. But I don’t know if Lynn will want to be my friend if we start dating.” She was really worried about her stupid friendship with Lynn.
“Listen, Lynn wasn’t exactly your best friend. If you only knew what she said about you…”
“What did she say?” Maria demanded.
“It’s not so much what she said, really. But I think she wanted to fool around with me to get me to keep going out with her, and avoid dating you.” Was this true? Probably. Partially. But I had no right to say it. I had Maria so confused. I just wanted her to forget about Lynn. I didn’t want her to even see Lynn again. I wanted that part of her life, and mine, to be over with.
“Don’t worry, all that matters is that now we can go out whenever we want to! I really like you, Maria. Please don’t ruin this for us. Just forget about it.”
“Please don’t ruin this for us?” She was so angry and perplexed she sort of stressed every word in that sentence. There was a long pause. But then she gathered her thoughts and calmed down. “All right,” she said. “All right.”
I didn’t let a second go by before I asked her out. I can’t explain how badly I wanted to see her again. It’d been so long since I’d last inhaled her luscious aroma and touched her tiny hand. We’d had only one date in Central Park, that’s it. There was so much more to do.
I thought about how beautiful she was that day in the park, and how she clasped her hand to mine so tightly. I wanted to hold her hand again. I wanted to hold it and never let go. I told her so on the phone. I divulged all of the high hopes I had for us. And I told her that I had a surprise for her when we went out the next time. And I did. I wanted to carve our names into the tree near the pond where we’d sat for hours talking.
“What’s the surprise?” she said.
“Say you’ll go out with me this Saturday, and then you’ll find out. Please.”
“I want to see you again, too, A.J. But, I don’t know, something just doesn’t seem right.”