At work the next day Steven was in early and, as usual, Kate was there, always one of the first. Steven had not slept well and was too preoccupied to notice Kate. She startled him.
“Good Morning Steven, did it go well?”
“Huh, sorry?”
He looked up at her as if she was some magician that had somehow just appeared beside him.
“Work last night at Monicas’, that’s what you said…”
“Oh yeah great” Steven grasped the line of the conversation “it went okay but we probably didn’t achieve what we wanted to” he lied. Maybe that wasn’t so far from the truth he thought.
“Look, about tonight, we didn’t finish, so we might be working again tonight. Yeah I know it’s Friday and we were going to the drive-in, but let’s have lunch today and I’ll tell you all about it okay?”
She couldn’t hide her disappointment but she replied brightly enough.
“Lunch is fine, I’ll come get you”.
“NO!” He said it so harshly that she visibly jumped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, it’s just well, I don’t know when I’ll be going so can you just flex a bit until I come get you?”
“Sure Steven, anytime is fine, unless Mr Wellesley has me doing some dictation in the office or something”.
She was backing away as she spoke, and Steven saw she was uncomfortable. She turned and almost ran back to the office. He watched her disappear and then realized that, whatever Monica and Diane had done to him last night, meant that he and Kate were never going to do anything other than pass pleasantries in the office, and that, he would explain to her at lunch. But maybe that is exactly what they wanted him to do, so no goddammit, he wasn’t going to change his life to suit a couple of dykes. He got up out of his chair and went to follow Kate, but Wellesley arrived and waved at Steven as he went into the office. Steven waved back and sat back heavily into his chair again. “Lunch time I’ll tell her” he said softly to his monitor. It hummed back at him.
Monica said nothing to Steven at all on her arrival at work, in fact, it seemed to Steven that she treated him exactly the same as the first couple of weeks that he had started there. Harry was different though, and he had obviously told Marc as well as. They were both eager to hear how it had gone the night before.
“So, spill the beans” Harry said when Monica drifted off for a coffee.
Marcs’ eyes were lit up looking at him as well, obviously dying to hear something juicy.
“Nothing happened at all” Steven said.
“Bullshit, look at you man!” said Harry. “You look like you’ve just been through World War Three, so come on and don’t spare the details”.
“Honest, absolutely nothing happened, I just drank a little too much wine and I feel like shit so just lay off will ya?”
The quiet fury in his voice convinced them both to leave well enough alone. None of them passed a word between each other all morning, even though Mon was the most ‘normal’ of them all. At about one o’clock, Steven stood up and stretched, and told them he was going to grab a bite to eat with Kate. Monica didn’t even look up from her monitor but he knew she was watching him as he wandered over to Kate, who sat looking at him approaching as if World War 3 was about to start.
“Ready?” was all Steven offered her.
She bit her bottom lip and just nodded and began to stand. They ate at a small coffee shop overlooking the river. Steven surprised himself by having no interest in sharing idle chit chat laced with his normal sexual innuendo. He heard Kate prattle on about the office and Mr Wellesley, all the time primly eating her sandwich and drinking her lemon squash and using her napkin after every bite or sip. His eyes casually followed the napkin as she returned it to her lap one time and realized that the table top was glass. She placed her napkin neatly onto her left thigh, and Steven suddenly recognized that her could see up her skirt, just glimpsing her knickers through the tinted glass tabletop. He recalled what Monica had said to him about staying away from Kate and his decision became automatic. Under the pretense of looking at his hands on the edge of the table, Steven focused through the glass to Kates crotch.
“Kate?” He hesitated, studying her shiny red panties, only just barely visible between her closed thighs. He looked up at her face then and nearly changed his mind but pussy was pussy he thought. “Why don’t we still go out tonight? That double feature is on at the drive-in and I still want to see it and I would be privileged if you would accompany me. And I guess I’d be using you ‘coz you have a car and I don’t but I really would like to do it with you.” He used the ambiguity knowing she wouldn’t understand it anyway but if she was that naive that she couldn’t see his ulterior motive, that wasn’t his problem.
“I don’t know Steven. My Mum usually doesn’t like me going out alone” but her voice betrayed her real desire. She really wanted to go out with him, if only to know that SHE could go out with a guy like Steven.
“Okay, I understand. Why don’t you just tell her that you’re meeting a group of us from work or something, and that we are having a farewell drink for somebody?”
She was shaking her head before he was even finished.
“I can’t lie to her like that”.
“Alright then, some other time” Steven looked at her crotch again “well, we had better get back to work”.
“I… I think if I tell her, maybe, that I’m going to a girlfriends’ place, well, that may be okay” she said slowly. “It wouldn’t be so much of a lie would it?”
She looked so serious that Steven stood up, placed some money on the table to cover the check, and then grasped her hand to help her up from the chair. He got a better glimpse as she swiveled in the chair to get up and then he placed his arm around her waist.
“It will be our little secret, if that’s the way you want it?” and he led her from the cafe, his fingers playing with the waistband of her skirt.
The afternoon dragged, not because the quartet weren’t productive, just that conversation was virtually nonexistent. Only once was Mon and Steven alone for a few seconds, just before knock off time.
She hissed at him.
“Are you going out with her?”
“Kate? NO! Gimme a break will you? I remember what you said, and stop acting the jealous bitch will you ‘coz it confuses me.” She stared at him seriously and he couldn’t resist being sarcastic. “Confused, because I don’t know if you are jealous over her, or me”. With that he stood up, switched off his terminal and walked away.
Steven waited at the roadside and saw Kates little orange Honda come around the corner. He had a pillow and a light blanket tucked under one arm, and a bottle of coke in his hand. He saw her face through the windshield as she pulled in beside him, and could see her almost glowing features as if she had just won lotto or something. He waved hi at her and opened the door. He threw the pillow and blanket into the back seat and then jumped into the front, placing the coke at his feet so it wouldn’t roll around. He turned and grasped the seat belt, and then turned back. She was still looking at him, all smiles and radiant.
“I did it” she said, “I told mum I was just going out with Debbie from work and she didn’t say anything!”
She almost sang it in triumph.
“Good for you” Steven said.
He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. She blushed and turned away immediately.
“What was that for?” she said quietly.
“Just saying congratulations, that’s all”.
“I… we’d better go” she said, moving the shifter to low and accelerating away.
She was wearing an ankle length navy blue dress, with lace around the collar and at the ends of the short sleeves, and he had seen her cream cardigan on the back seat.
“You don’t think it will be cold do you?” she asked innocently, eyes intently watching the road.
“Nope, and if it is, I promise I’ll share my blanket with you”. He watched as she blushed again. Maybe she isn’t as naive and innocent as people think Steven thought. “I’m sorry, I hope I didn’t embarrass you, you know what I really mean. We’re just two friends who will share a blanket if it gets to cold, that’s all” and smiled to himself as he saw her nodding in agreement.
“Drive behind the cafeteria” Steven instructed her. He saw her glance. “There isn’t so many kids going back and forward to the shop or the loos back here” was his immediate explanation, and he took her raised eyebrows, and then a nod, as assent.
“Like a swig?” He offered her the coke first as soon as they had parked and the speaker put in place. “I’m sorry I didn’t bring a cup”. She took the bottle and had a tentative sip and her eyes opened wide in surprise. “Southern Comfort”.
He smiled as she took another small sip before handing it back. She sat rigidly through the first half of the movie while Steven half reclined his seat. He let his hand rest on the gearshift, sipping from the bottle occasionally. He offered it to her again and noted approvingly that she took a longer swig this time before handing it back. He briefly closed his hands around hers holding the bottle before taking it and when she didn’t try to pull away, he grasped it gently and lowered them onto her lap. They sat there for the remainder of the movie that way, Steven surreptitiously moving his fingers along her thigh every now and again when it coincided with something on the screen. At the interval, he let her hand go, and asked if she wanted some popcorn or anything else from the cafeteria. She said no softly, but at least she turned her head and looked at him when she answered. Steven waited in the line at the cafeteria with two choc top ice-creams and thought she, Kate that is, wasn’t bad looking at all really, just dowdy and very, very conservative. He noticed all the youngsters everywhere “yuk” he thought to himself.
“Beg your pardon” he heard a voice say.
The cashier was directly in front of him, her name tag identifying her as ‘Abby’. He flashed her one of his winning smiles.
“I’m really sorry… Abby. I was just thinking, here it is Friday night and a spunk like you is stuck taking money of fools like me”.
She raised an all knowing eyebrow at him, and cocked her head to one side as if considering whether she should take him seriously or not.
“It’s not ‘alf bad actually, I clean up and can be at the Club by ten-thirty and don’t ‘ave to be back ‘ere until six-thirty tomorrow night”.
Steven took the obvious offer.
“I’m by myself, so what club would that be”?
She put his change into his hand and slid her index finger along his palm.
“Yeah, well I don’t do this regular you understand, meet guys here I mean, but you know the Jet Club, well it’s there, see ya maybe”.
Then she was turning to the next person in the line. Steven glanced at her as he walked away from the cashier’s desk, and even in her issue brown uniform dress, he could see the makings of a nice body. He took the picture of her shoulder length blonde hair, and cheeky smiling brown eyes with him as he walked back to the car. Kate still sat rigidly behind the steering wheel, just like she had from the moment they’d arrived almost two hours earlier. Doesn’t matter if she does or if she doesn’t now, Steven thought as he opened the door, I can’t lose.
“I… I almost thought you weren’t…” she started.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else” Steven smiled at her, and reached out his hand holding the cone for her.
“Thank you, I do really like these, but you shouldn’t have..” she started off again.
“It’s alright, everybody likes ‘em”. Steven was starting to get a bit annoyed with the way Kate almost stuttered out every thing that she said to him. He reached out and cupped her chin in his hand and she grabbed his wrist, her eyes a little frightened. He turned her head to face him. “Kate, relax! I don’t bite and I’m not going to do anything to you. Wanna sit in the back seat”?
He stretched himself between the front seats and into the back without waiting for her answer then tilted the passenger seat forward against the dash to afford himself an uninterrupted view of the screen once more. He could see the variables going on in her head, and when she pursed her lips tightly together, he thought that it was over. There be no way she’d move from the safe haven of that steering wheel, or the pedals under her feet, the gearshift by her left hand, THE drivers’ seat. She lowered her gaze as the lights dimmed for the ads before the start of the movie.
“At least pass me the Coke” he asked.
He heard her say “Where did you put it”?
It was so soft and tingling with nerves he almost didn’t recognise it as her voice.
“The coke, oh, at the base of my seat”.
They both almost collided heads, she as she moved suddenly to look for it, and he, because he thought she wasn’t going to get it.
“I found it… oh!” She exclaimed as she realized that he was leaning up beside her, almost kissing distance if that’s what she had wanted. Instead he sat back again, and patted the seat beside him.
“C’mon then”.
She clutched tightly at the neck of the bottle, and once again, that lengthy hesitation before she acted. He held out his hand when he saw that she was now going to join him, but instead she offered him the coke bottle.
“I was trying to help you” he said softly. He took the bottle and placed it by his side without taking his eyes from hers. He knew that even without being able to see her eyes, she was looking at him and the light from screen would make his own eyes visible to her. “C’mon” he offered again.
She lifted her left leg and then almost swiveled herself around her seat, and only took his hand as she alighted onto the back seat. Her momentum pulled them together but this time without hesitation, she bent forwards and away from him and hit the lever on the base of the drivers’ seat to fold forward as he had done. He still clutched her hand though and when she sat back, he held it firmly, pulling her to him. She shifted slightly in the seat until their hips contacted and then he put their hands down to rest once again on her thigh.
He did not look at her, he watched the opening credits on the screen. Steven stretched out his right leg and rested his foot up against the gearshift, placed the coke bottle between his thighs with his left hand and undid the lid. He offered her a drink without taking his eyes off the screen or releasing her hand, and when she reached to take the bottle from him he felt her left breast crush into his upper arm. Her nipple was erect and it felt hot against his arm and Steven felt an almost imperceptible tremor flood her body. She moved away from him quickly and drank sparingly once more. She took another drink, a longer one.
“Like it”?
“What… I what”? was all she could stammer back.
“The drink. Are you comfortable”?
Steven looked back at the screen again, knowing she was less nervous when he wasn’t looking at her.
“I’m fine, thank you” she replied.
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