"Mediterranean" Goddess

During the final, I found myself both dreading and rejoicing in the end of the semester. Dreading the fact that I probably wouldn't spend any more time with a wonderful woman like Maria. Rejoicing in the fact that I could eventually put Maria behind me and the constant ache in my heart would eventually pass.

When Mandy handed in her exam, a card was paperclipped to it. Maria gave me a warm smile when she handed in her exam and wish me a happy holidays but then just exited the door -- and apparently my life.

Back in my office, I read Mandy's card:

"Dear Carl,

Thank you for a great semester and a great class. I really learned a lot in your class.

And thank you for the way you treated me. I know that you had my best interests in heart when you said that we probably shouldn't spend any extra time outside of class 'working' together. I respect you more for that than even for your great teaching.

Now that I won't be your student anymore, please know that if you ever want to become better acquainted I'm still open you.

Hugs,

Mandy"

By the time I finished her note, I was trembling slightly. Mandy was far too young for me, and I had no intention whatsoever to "become better acquainted" with her. However, it was heady stuff to receive an invitation like this from such a beautiful young woman. I shook my head at the irony. Why couldn't this sort of card be signed by Maria?

I graded the finals as quickly as possible and had final grades entered within two days. I wanted to feel relieved and tried my best to put the semester behind me, but I still felt regret and a sense of loss when I let myself think about Maria.

When the weekend arrived, I threw myself into shopping for my kids' Christmas presents. My kids might be in their 20's now, but they were going to have the best Christmas since they knew that Santa really brought their presents. I shopped like I had never shopped before, which I hoped would help me forget about Maria. Unfortunately, every time I looked at women's clothes I thought about how they would look on Maria. I walked by the perfume counter, and it made me think of Maria's fragrance. Even when I was in the men's section, I thought of how Maria looked in her business suits.

I was trying to pick out sweaters for my daughter and daughter-in-law, when a woman's voice said, "Hi, Professor Carl." I almost dropped the clothes I was holding when I saw who it was.

"Hi, Frankie. Um. I mean Tanya." Tanya/Frankie was the very last person I expected to run into shopping. She was with a brunette woman also in her forties.

She laughed and retorted, "You remember both my names. I'm surprised. 'Tanya' is good here."

"Of course I remember your name-zzuh." I drew out a hard "s" sound for comedic effect. "Frankly, I'm surprised that you remember me, though." I was truly surprised she recognized me, let alone recalled my name.

Tanya gave me a scolding look. "What we shared doesn't happen every day." She looked at her friend then back at me with accusation in her eyes. "Or maybe you think that I do that sort of thing with everyone."

"Uh. No. I didn't..." I felt my face flush as Tanya's and her friend's eyes bore into me. "It felt... I felt very special. I don't think you're like that." I was fumbling for a way to take my foot out of my mouth. "It's just that I don't think of myself as all that memorable."

Tanya stared harshly at me for a moment more then immediately looked light-hearted. "It's okay. I'm just teasing you. You definitely made an impression. I would have been pretty pissed at you if it wasn't for the flowers."

"That was a nice touch." Her friend interjected.

"I hope you finally hooked up with that waitress who owns your heart." Tanya smiled sincerely.

Huh? "Waitress?" I didn't write to her about a waitress.

Tanya must have seen the confusion on my face because she explained further. "You know. The waitress at the steakhouse. I think her name was Maria. We saw you two sharing dessert." Her friend nodded agreement. Comprehension hit me like a thunderclap.

"Wait two you were at the booth. You're the ones that Maria talked to for so long." Tanya and her friend nodded assent. A sudden boost of adrenaline made my words come out like machine gun fire. "No we never got together. What did you say? How did you know she was the one I mentioned in the card? Tell me what happened."

"Whoa, whoa. One thought at a time." Tanya had put her hands up in front of her is if to deflect some the onslaught of my questions. "How did I know it was her? It was written all over the puppy dog eyes you were looking at her with."

"Yeah, we just couldn't figure out how that chick didn't know that you had the hots for her." Tanya's friend added.

"It was sooo obvious, but she wouldn't believe it even after we told her." Tanya confirmed.

"Wouldn't believe what? What did you tell her?" I was so excited that I didn't worry about being polite to Tanya and her friend, I needed answers.

"I said that she must be the one who holds your heart. She wanted to know what I meant. So, I explained that I made a play for you, but you told me that your heart already belonged to someone else." Tanya could probably see that I was worried how much Maria knew about my relationship with Tanya/Frankie. "Don't worry, I didn't go into any details about the club. We tried to convince her that she must be the one you were in love with, but we couldn't convince her."

"She kept saying that she had spent so much one on one time with you that she would have known if you liked her that way. I never seen someone whose radar was so out of whack." Her friend was as into telling the story as Tanya was.

"Except you of course." Tanya corrected while pointing at me. I pointed to myself with a questioning look. "Yeah, she was flirting with you all night, but apparently you didn't follow up on it. You must be pretty dense." I think Tanya was enjoying pointing out my ineptitude.

"Really?! You think Maria likes me?" I sounded like a schoolboy.

Both Tanya and her friend laughed out loud. Tanya confirmed what their laughs said. "Hell, yes. It was written all over her, but she also kept telling us."

"She kept saying how much she wished that your heart belonged to her. She even said that she cried herself to sleep, wishing that you loved her. Really, I can't understa-."

I cut off Tanya's friend. "She said that?"

They both responded, "Yes."

"She used the 'love' word?" I demanded.

"Yes," again in unison.

"You're sure? You're not pulling my leg?" My words were soft now.

They both nodded. Tanya solemnly affirmed their words. "I swear to you. We're telling the truth. That woman is nuts for you."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." I hugged and kissed them both on the cheek. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." I turned and ran out of the store. In retrospect, my hasty departure was undeniably rude, but my mind was target-locked on one goal.

The department store that Maria worked in was in the same mall I was in. I had to find her now. I didn't know her home phone or address. Plus, I felt I couldn't talk to her on the phone, I had to talk to her in person. It couldn't wait. If break went by, she might have a boyfriend by the time classes started again. Why not? Every man must want her! My head was racing as I hurried to the store she worked in. I slowed from a run so that people wouldn't think I was shoplifting, but I was in the store in a minute.

I went from department to department looking for Maria's incomparable silhouette. After circling the whole store twice and coming up empty, I decided that she might be working in the back somewhere. I went to the first unoccupied sales person I could find. "Is Maria del Carpio working today?" I tried to sound nonchalant.

"You just missed her. She just went home at 7:00. Can I help you with something?" She was quite nice.

"No thanks." I glanced at my watch, ignoring what the saleswoman might think. 7:05. Maybe I could find her in the parking lot. I hurried out the exit to the parking lot. I rapidly surveyed the parking lot as I ran toward my car. I would likely need wheels to catch Maria. Just as I reached my car, my view cleared a hedgerow, and I spotted Maria entering her car on the other side of the lot.

I jumped into my car and threw it into reverse. Checking behind me so that I wouldn't run down a family at Christmastime, I gunned the car, whipping out of the spot. I headed to the outside parking lot road that circled the mall. This was the longer distance route, but I calculated that it would be faster than the inside route due to less traffic and pedestrians. I pushed my car as far as was safe in this lot. I approached the area near where Maria's car had been just in time to see her exiting the parking lot and turning left onto the major road that fronts the mall. Hitting the accelerator around the turn, I followed through the light on yellow.

I could see her little car with the odd greenish hue about five cars ahead. Fortunately, the slightly higher elevation of my SUV allowed me to see over the traffic. I prayed that a minivan or pick-up didn't pull between us. I followed her for several blocks, trying to look for ways to move closer in traffic. I was only able to move up one car position. Eventually, Maria turned left onto a residential road. I had to wait for approaching traffic and lost ground. Damn. I finally made the turn just in time to see Maria making a right turn three blocks down. Fortunately, she was driving at a leisurely pace. My rate of travel was anything but leisurely. When I made the turn, I caught her taillights turning into a driveway a block and half down. I hoped that she didn't have a garage to hide her car from me.

Luck was with me, and I saw Maria walking from her driveway to her front door. By this time, my adrenaline levels were so high that I acted before thinking. Slamming to a stop along the curb, I jumped out of the car and ran through her yard, dodging bushes. In the dark, Maria could only see that a man was running toward her. She screamed, "Stay away. I'm not alone." I saw her fumbling with her keys and raising them in front of her. At the same moment, I entered the glow from her porch light. Recognizing my illuminated face she relaxed but was befuddled. "What... What are you doing here, Carl?"

"I uh... I had to see you." Now that I was here I didn't know quite what to say. The adrenaline high addled my mind and didn't help.

Maria looked a little concerned. "Why? Is there something wrong?"

"No. In fact I just recently figured out what's right." My puzzling answer evidently didn't help her reach understanding. I stepped slowly closer to Maria so that we were two arms' length away from each other. She lowered the mace spray she was holding as I did so. "Classes are over now. I submitted grades two days ago. I'm no longer your professor. I have no power over your career."

I paused to collect my thoughts. Fortunately, Maria was so confused that the only response she had was, "So?"

"So I can be honest with you now." I took a huge breath trying to prepare myself. "Maria, I've been in love with you since the first time you came to my office for help. I forced myself to maintain a professional relationship with you, but it was the hardest thing I've ever done." Another sigh. "Sometimes it was shear torture working so closely with you... not telling you how I felt... not touching you... convinced that you didn't feel the same way for me. But now... Now I have to tell you how much I care for you, otherwise I'll never be able to live with myself."

While I had been speaking, Maria's jaw gradually dropped. The bewildered look on her face became more and more profound with every word I said. Now she stood in front of me in stunned silence. Her expression frozen and inscrutable. I lived multiple lifetimes of misery in those few uncertain moments --agonizing over the uncertainty of this life changing moment.

Then she dropped her keys from one hand, her purse from the other. She stepped forward and reached her arms up around my neck. Then with such sweetness I could have made a mountain of candy she said simply, "Oh, Carl." She pulled me down to her and kissed me fully, warmly on the mouth.

At first, I was so surprised by her actions that my body remained briefly rigid and unresponsive. Then I responded with such a flood of pent up passion that any momentary hesitation was immediately blotted out. I fairly threw my arms around Maria and hugged her tightly. I had never experienced anything like the fire contained in Maria's kiss, and I responded in kind by pouring my whole soul into kissing her. The tender fullness of her lips activated nerves in me that I didn't know existed. Our lips played across each other pulling and frolicking until they seemed to melt into one.

Somehow there was room in my brain to appreciate the rest of her. Embracing Maria seemed like something our two bodies had been designed for. Every inch of her fit into every inch of me and I gloried in the feel of her body pressed to mine. I allowed my hands to run up and down her back, enjoying the narrowing at the small of her back. I let them travel down to caress and enjoy her marvelously rounded, sexy rear end. Maria responded by wiggling somehow even closer to me. Mr. Chubby responded to the feel of her considerable breasts pushing into me and rapidly started to rise.

Without hesitation, I pushed my tongue forward to taste Maria's lips. She responded by darting hers out and using it to pull mine into her mouth. It felt like my tongue had finally found it's home, wrongly residing in my mouth all these years. Our tongues danced a primal dance that somehow was full of grace and sophistication despite its wildness. At this point, every ounce of our beings were focused into that kiss. I simply held her ass firmly, and Maria clutched my neck.

Suddenly Maria's door burst open and I heard a young woman's voice say, "Mom, is everything alright?" We quickly broke our embrace, but not before her daughter accurately apprised the situation. Her demeanor rapidly changed from worried to casually cocky. She quipped, "Go Mom! Things seem better than alright." Maria's face reddened, and I could feel mine do the same.

Embarrassed Maria tried to sound nonchalant. "Hi, Dear." Turning to me she said, "This is my daughter Brianne." Turning back to Brianne, but pointing at me she said, "This is my chemistry professor, Carl."

The grin on Brianne's face doubled in size. "Go, Mom." She said half-mockingly, half-admiringly. Stepping around us she added with slightly less tease, "I was just waiting for you to get home. I'm going to Pat's and I'm late already. We're going to go out; so, I'll be home late." She gave a knowing wink. "Don't worry; I'll call before I come home." By this time she was already half in her car.

Maria and I watched in silence as her daughter pulled out of the driveway. When her car started rolling down the street, we both burst into nervous laughter. She put her head on my shoulder, and we held each other up as we laughed. Finally, Maria stood back and said, "There's a first time for everything. I've caught her on this porch doing the same thing a few times, but there's never been a chance for her to catch me." We continued to chuckle as I picked up her keys with the mace can and she picked up her purse. The door was already open and we stepped in. The room was dimly lit by a single lamp. Maria indicated a spot on the end table for me to put her keys and then pulled me onto the couch beside her.

She settled in close to me as she spoke. "Although that was a little embarrassing, I'm glad that I have the time now to tell you how I feel." The months of doubt and turmoil overrode the facts of the moment and I panicked that the pure joy I had just felt would be ripped away from me. "I've loved you just as long, probably longer. At least I lusted after you before I came to your office." The relief flowed through me and forced all doubts onto the floor, through a crack under the door, and out of my life forever.

"Me, too. I lusted after you from the first moment I saw you." It came out as a natural response to her statement, but I felt a little embarrassed by this admission. Sheepishly, I added, "Sorry, that doesn't sound very good does it? I mean that I was really attracted to you all along."

Maria gently stroked my cheek. "No don't apologize, Carl. I know just how you feel. And I like hearing you say it." Her delicate hand continued to caress my cheek, and we gazed silently into each other's eyes for a few moments. Her fingers lightly traced my lips and she smiled sensually as she said, "The moment may have been interrupted, but the mood wasn't broken for me." The languid look of lust in her gorgeous brown eyes and the erotic way her lips formed the words put me under her complete control. I knew that from that moment forward I would never be able to deny Maria anything.

I responded by caressing her cheek briefly, running my hand behind her head to weave my hands into her lustrous brown hair. Burning her eyes with my intense look, I moved my body toward her slowly, bringing my lips nearer and nearer hers. My movements weren't slowed by hesitance, but by the knowledge of the importance of this moment in our lives. I let our cheeks and lips hover mere millimeters from each other for a long count. Then holding her head firmly, I pushed her mouth onto mine. Almost immediately, Maria had to separate slightly to allow the shuddering sigh that moved through her body exit her mouth. Our passion quickly returned to the fever pitch it had reached on the porch. The overwhelming delight I felt from the connection between our lips and the intertwining of our tongues elicited a moan of pleasure from me. While one hand continued to hold her head, locking us in the throes of kissing, my other hand began to roam up and down her back and along her hips. The curves of her womanhood stoked fires in me that had never been lit in my 50+ years of life. When my hand started to caress her thigh, Maria responded with an approving, "Mmmmm." I moved my hand past the fabric of her skirt to her skin, and lightly stroked the inner surface of her smooth thigh. "MMMMMmm," she replied without lifting her lips from mine.

As we continued to kiss, I moved my hand back up the outside of her thigh, over her hips, into the narrowing at her waist and up to her shoulders. When my hand made the trip back down to her inner thigh, I caressed the silky surface of her skin up past the hem of her skirt dangerously close to her pubis. Maria responded immediately by running her hands inside the front of my shirt and up through the hair on my chest. She broke off our kiss, and I extracted my hand from her hair. "MMmm, Carl. I love a hairy chest." Before I could respond, she used both hands to roughly pull my shirt over my head. I raised my arms, and wiggled out quickly. She briefly ran her fingernails across my hard pectoral muscles. Her nails seemed electrified to me as they sent shocking shivers through my body. She then rapidly wrapped her arms around me and started kissing my neck and chest.

"Ohhh, Maria," I moaned. I looked down to see her long dark hair cascading across my chest. My cock was now so fully engorged it was throbbing against my pants. As Maria continued to kiss and run her hands over my body, I frantically reached a hand to her blouse. Her buttons seemed to open themselves for me, and I had her blouse open in a moment. Maria wasted no time in sitting straight up and seductively removing her blouse. I'm sure my jaw must have dropped at the sight of her bosom restrained by the red satin bra. She was even more well endowed than I had thought, and her bra could barely hold all of her beautiful breasts. I have always been a breast man, and although I was happily, faithfully married for almost 30 years to a woman with B cups, Maria was the kind of woman I had always dreamed about.