A Game of Inches Ch. 02

"Alright, what've I got to lose?" I said firmly. "I will accept your gift, Paul."

"Excellent." His face lit up with genuine delight. "No matter how it all turns out, these next four days will be the most exciting of your life, I promise you that." He set his coffee aside, sat up a little straighter, and rubbed his hands together. "Now, place the coin in your palm like this, put your other hand like so."

I was holding the coin between the palms of my hands as if I were praying sideways. He placed his hands above and below mine and pressed tight. The noise of the coffee shop faded and went quiet. My focus narrowed. It was just the two of us and the coin.

"Close your eyes and say these words just as I do." He began speaking in a strange language...perhaps it was Greek. I repeated after him, trying not to worry that this might be the culmination of some kind of elaborate scam that he was running on me. After three recitations of his strange words, the sounds of the coffee shop resumed. I opened my eyes.

Sitting across from me pressing my hands between his was a young man. He was fairly average-looking, his nose maybe a little too big, his teeth a little crooked. It wasn't until I looked into his dancing eyes that I realized it was Paul...a 50-year-younger version of Paul. I felt suddenly dizzy.

Paul pulled his hands away and felt his face. He quickly touched his chest, then tousled the thick hair atop his head. The Paul I had been speaking to had been all but bald moments earlier. His smile widened as he stood.

"Good luck, my friend." He held out a hand.

I shook it in a daze, still unable to rationalize what I was experiencing.

"We'll speak again soon."

Before I could ask any of the million questions overloading my mind, he was jauntily walking out the door. I was about to chase after him when I felt a hand fall lightly on my shoulder.

I looked up and saw the tall woman with light-brown hair and green eyes that I'd been eye-fucking for the past three months. I'd never been that close to her before. The scent of her was beyond intoxicating. Another dizzy spell threatened.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I see you here every morning and I finally decided that I needed to say hello."

"Oh...okay. Um, hello."

"Mmm, your voice sounds even sexier than I imagined," she said as she pulled a chair up close to mine and sat down. "My name is Gloria, by the way. I apologize for being so forward, I'm not usually like this, but for some reason when I saw you today I said to myself it was time to stop fantasizing and waiting for you to make a move."

"You were waiting for me to make a move?"

"I've noticed you looking." She pointed to the glass display case next to the register. "I can sometimes see your reflection in the glass. And what I see is you checking me out. It's why I've been wearing tighter pants and shorter skirts lately." We both looked down at the almost scandalous amount of thigh showing from beneath her silky dress. "I've also been buying a lot of new lingerie lately." She hiked her skirt up far enough for me to see a generous amount of the pink satin hugging her prominent mound.

"Wow," was my involuntary reaction. "I'm...I'm, uh, married," I stammered pathetically. This was the last thing I intended to say.

She held up her left hand, displaying a very conspicuous wedding ring that I somehow managed to never notice before. "I won't tell if you don't."

The words "no-strings-attached" rang in my head. This couldn't be happening. I needed more time to process things. Paul didn't say the magic, if that's what this was, would kick in so fast. I'd fucked this woman countless times in my mind, but could I do it for real?

Gloria patted my leg suggestively. "I'll tell you what. I'm going to go to the ladies' room." She leaned in until her lips were nearly touching my ear and continued in a spine-tingling whisper, "And when I get in there, I'm going pull down my panties, pull up my skirt, lean over the sink, and wait to see if you want me as much as I want you." She tugged on my earlobe with her teeth, then stood up. "Don't keep me waiting too long."

This scenario was beyond any of my paltry fantasies. I left my newspaper on my seat, picked up my briefcase, and looked from the exit to the door to the ladies' room and back at the door to the exit.

I consulted my coin. It sparkled in my palm like it was freshly struck from pure silver only moments ago. The front was the profile of a beautiful woman, the back was a very explicit image of a man and woman in the 69-position rendered in exquisitely graphic detail.

I made up my mind, slipped the coin back into my pocket, and headed for the door.

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