Mandy and the Dog Walker

My name is Mandy - actually Amanda, but I hated that and my family had always called me Mandy, so I preferred to just go by that. I am 27 and 5'6" and 125 pounds, with a nice shape, or so I've been told, and a cute face. I have light brown hair in a short layered bob. I have b-cup breasts and a firm body, well earned from at least three hours a week in the gym.

I'm a computer contract worker, often working remotely, and sometimes on site with the client. That isn't bad when the client is local, but more of a problem when the client is in another city. I have a little dog, Max who absolutely dotes on me. When I work remotely from home, he loves it, when I'm at a local client site, he copes, but it's hard on him when I have to travel and work out of town.

I've used kennels to take care of him, and he really hates that. I've tried to find a good dog sitter to take care of him in my home, but it is hard to find someone truly reliable. So one afternoon, I'm walking Max and ahead of us I see a young women who has three dogs on leashes. The smallest is twice the size of Max and the biggest easily three times his size.

She is stopped and seems to be trying to untangle leashes. In all likelihood the dogs moved back and forth and got the leashes tangled between them. She is about my height but quite slender and seems to be essentially female nerd, but cute. She has brown hair in kind of a tangled curly mess, wears glasses and is in jeans and a tee shirt.

She doesn't have a large chest, perhaps a or b cup and a small bottom. She has a cute face and when she sees me she has a sweet smile. I had kind of hung back, because you can never tell how dogs will react when they meet other dogs or strange people. Some are good, but others can be defensive or even aggressive. I didn't want to get in the middle of a dog fight.

"What a cute little dog you have."

"You look like you have your hands full with three of them."

"They're a little rambunctious, but I didn't want to walk each one separately."

"You must love dogs to have three of them."

"They aren't mine. I do dog walking and dog sitting professionally."

"You do? I've been looking for a good person to look after Max, when I'm away."

"Are you out of town often?"

"I have to spend about one week a month on the road, and it's hard on Max."

"Let's talk and see what we can work out. My name's Lori."

Lori gave me her phone number and I put it in my phone along with her name. She said she had some cards, but had her hands full with the three dogs. I texted her my address and she said she would come by later to meet Max and talk about what she could do and what her rates were. She was a college student, 22 years old and took care of dogs to help pay for college.

We said our goodbyes and I walked Max and went back home. About thirty minutes later my doorbell rang and it was Lori coming by to talk. She was a finance major in her last year of college. She said she would love to get her Master's but wasn't sure if she could afford it. She had a partial scholarship and used dog walking and sitting to help cover her other expenses.

We sat on the sofa and talked and before long Max was sitting in her lap and she was scratching his tummy. I'd never seen Max take to a person as he seemed to be taking to Lori. They say dogs are an excellent judge of people. I don't know of that is really true, but in this case, I decided to follow Max's judgment and hire Lori.

She gave me her rates, which were quite reasonable. I was scheduled to spend the next week working at a customer site locally, but I could use Lori to come by during the day to walk Max. That would ensure that there were no accidents and would mean he wouldn't have been alone for ten hours or more with no one around.

I was scheduled to be out of town at a customer site in a couple of weeks, so it gave me a chance to test Lori out before that happened. I gave Lori a key to my house along with a special code for the alarm system. I could disable that code if necessary and could track the times she used that code to make sure she was showing up when and only when she should, along with knowing how long she was there.

I didn't have much worth stealing in my house, but still didn't want to simply trust someone I'd only briefly met, even if Max did seem to like her. Truth be told, I was beginning to like her. Look, I do like men, but I mostly like women, and for some reason I found I was attracted to Lori. I tend to be more attracted to decidedly femme women, which Lori was not.

At any rate, what I really needed was a reliable dog sitter, and not a lover. So whether or not I was attracted to Lori was pretty irrelevant, apart from the fact that I had no idea whether she was into women. Did I want to make moves on this woman and upset her and lose my dog sitter? Absolutely not. So while I might think she was cute, I tempered that interest.

I had my home security system set up to ping me when it was turned off or on, and about the time I expected Lori, it let me know. I wondered how long she would visit with him, since I wouldn't be back until that evening. She seemed to stay for about half an hour, which was easily enough time to walk him and make him feel that he wasn't all alone.

I wondered what the house would be like when I returned home, but everything was fine. I'd told her that she was welcome to something to drink and it looked like she'd gotten a soda from the fridge. Now I had a two story place and had the system set up to let me know if she went upstairs, but she didn't. All that week everything seemed to be fine and I asked her to continue the following week, even though I was working from home.

Sure, I could have taken a break from my work to walk Max, but I decided to keep having Lori come by to do that. She came by around midday and I waited until she arrived to take a lunch break and offered her some lunch, as well. At first she was a little hesitant, but she admitted to not having had lunch so she accepted my offer.

I had some deli meats and made us each sandwiches, saving a few bites of meat for Max as a little reward. He is a terrible beggar and I knew if we had sandwiches, he'd want some as well. Beyond what I gave him, Lori gave him a few nibbles as well. If Max seemed to like her before, then he really liked her when she gave him nibbles of lunch meat.

For the next two weeks I worked from home, Lori and I had lunch together every day. I made soup one day, got pizza another day, and Chinese still another. I learned more about Lori and her life, though she never seemed to talk about relationships. I wondered about that and dropped little hints that could lead into a discussion of relationships, but she never bit.

At that point, I didn't know if she liked women, men, both, or neither. On the other hand, I heard all about her classes and how they were going. I found that she was from a small town about 150 miles away. She had an older sister, who had graduated college and was working on the west coast, and a younger brother who was a high school senior.

To be fair, I didn't talk about any of my relationships, not that there had been much to talk about for a while. If I talked about relationships with women, that might scare her off if she was decidedly straight. But if I talked about relationships with men that might discourage her is she had any interest in women. While I was attracted to her, I really wasn't ready to make any moves at all.

After two weeks of working from home, I was going to be out of town, and Max was quite unused to being by himself overnight. I asked Lori to spend the night at my place for Max's sake and told her I'd leave food which she could enjoy in my absence. I had a guest bedroom which she was welcome to, and between her coming by during the day and spending the night that should keep Max happy.

"I know you have roommates where you currently live."

"I'm sharing a place with two other women."

"I know a big house can seem lonely all by yourself, so if you want to have a person stay with you, I don't mind."

"My two roommates are a bit of a challenge. Being by myself for a few days might be a nice break."

"I'd ask that you not throw any parties at my house while I'm gone."

"I'm not much of a party girl, so I can't imagine I'd even consider that."

"I'll have food and drink, including sodas and wine. You're welcome to help yourself."

"I have the occasional glass of wine, but don't drink all that much."

"Still, you can treat this as your home for the week I'm gone, within reason."

"I'm fairly clean and neat, and won't abuse your hospitality."

So, Lori was clean, neat, sweet, nerdy, and smart, besides the fact that Max really liked her and she seemed to like him. What could possibly be better? Well, the only thing better would be if she liked women and was partial to me, but I didn't really want to delve into that at all. In some ways, perhaps I was a little afraid, which was a puzzle in itself.

It had been a while since I was in any relationship, but I'd always had a sense of self-confidence in dealing with romantic interests. For some reason I was less confident with Lori, and I wasn't quite sure why. I had been with a few truly beautiful women, along with a few gorgeous men. Some of those were very smart and successful, yet I felt less confident dealing with this college student.

Nothing made sense, but I was going to be gone for a week anyhow, so I wasn't sure it would matter. I told Lori that I had a woman who came in and cleaned once a week. Maria would take care of the heavy stuff, if Lori would just keep things from being too messy. She assured me that she would keep things neat.

I spent the next week focused on the client whose site I was at. I checked in with Lori regularly and she said everything was going well. The client asked if I could stay an additional week, so I called Lori who said she could take care of Max for an additional week. I wire transferred money to her both for the extra week and to cover food and such.

......................................................

At the end of two weeks, the client was pleased with what we'd accomplished and I flew back home quite happy with myself. Normally, after being gone for so long, Max would be almost beside himself when I returned. I've had him really give me hell over being gone. He was actually quite calm when I came back which was quite a shock.

That evening Lori came by. She'd been living there for the last two weeks and given the way things go there was no guarantee that I'd actually be back that night. She seemed a little subdued when she came by, which was out of the norm for her. I wasn't sure what was wrong. Perhaps asking her to stay an additional week had caused a problem? That wasn't it though.

"I was here when your cleaning woman came by."

"You met Maria? I hope she wasn't rude to you or anything."

"Because I was staying here, she assumed I was your girlfriend."

"I haven't had anyone stay with me for quite a while - either male or female."

"She told me how lucky I was to have you for my girlfriend."

"I'm sorry. That must have been very embarrassing."

"I didn't even realize that you liked women."

"I like both women and men, but I haven't been involved with anyone for a while."

"And I wondered what was wrong with me that you weren't interested in me."

"Lori, there's nothing wrong with you. You're cute and sweet, I just - "

"You just aren't interested in me. I get it."

"That's not it at all. I was afraid of running you off."

"Don't mess with the hired help. I understand."

"You're not just the hired help. You've become a friend."

"Just not someone you have a romantic interest in."

"I was afraid to let myself be romantically attracted to you."

"It's late. I think I should go."

"Please stay - for a few minutes anyhow."

Lori walked over to the chair that sits at the end of the sofa, and sat down. I sat down on the sofa nearest her. Max walked over and jumped up on Lori's lap. My mind was blown. Max had been my dog since we adopted each other five years ago. He had been devoted to me and virtually despondent when I had to go away, and now he had transferred his affection to Lori. True, I had been gone for two weeks while she was here, but I still had trouble believing it.

"Mandy, I'm not interested in being some casual fling or one night stand for you, and I don't want to be a mercy fuck."

"I don't want you to be any of those things."

"Then what do you want?"

"Since I never even knew whether you had an interest in women, much less me, I've been afraid to want anything."

"You never struck me as someone motivated by fear."

"Moved? No, but paralyzed yes, perhaps."

"Well, now you know, so what do you want?"

"I'd gladly have you stay the night tonight."

"I think that's moving too fast."

"Then how about we start with dinner tomorrow night and see how things go from there."

"Are you sure you really want that?"

"Let's say I trust Max's judgment on that."

With that, Max lifted his head from Lori's lap and looked at me. Lori petted Max's head and he had a very satisfied grunt and laid his head back down. I looked at Lori and where she had been somewhat unhappy before, she now seemed to have a subtle smile. I smiled at her and tilted my head slightly as to ask what she thought. She had kind of a quiet laugh and more of a smile.

"Well, Mandy, you've been traveling most of the day and I'm tired. I should go home and you should get some rest."

"You're welcome to stay, and you can stay in the guest room since we're not at the point of doing more."

"I should go home, but thank you."

She gently put Max down on the floor and stood up. I got up and Lori, Max, and I all walked to the front door. When she had arrived, Lori had seemed noticeably unhappy. Now she seemed better, though perhaps still somewhat cool. She paused at the door and bit her lower lip. I so wanted to lean forward and kiss her, but wasn't sure.

"You really couldn't tell that I was flirting with you?"

"I guess I was just oblivious, Lori."

"I thought you had better gaydar than that."

"Even that isn't perfect."

"I guess I was mostly just embarrassed to have Maria think I was your girlfriend when I wasn't anywhere close."

"We could get closer if I kissed you goodnight."

"I suppose if I'm going out with you tomorrow night, a brief kiss might be okay."

I leaned forward and touched my lips to Lori's. Now I'd kissed some women before, and a few men too. There was something about kissing Lori that felt different. Her lips were soft, warm, and welcoming, but other women had been too. We kissed for maybe thirty seconds before she broke it off, but there was a kind of spark that I'd never felt before.

I looked at Lori and instead of the cute nerdy girl, I saw a goddess hidden underneath. I was shocked and shook my head, and saw Lori again, but there was a change in her. She was still as sweet as ever, but there was a fire there that was setting off flames in me. I don't know why I never saw any of that in her before but I did now.

Lori looked at Max, who was looking expectantly at her. "Okay Max, you stay here with your Mommie and be a good boy."

Max whined plaintively and Lori looked at me. "I'll see you here tomorrow night. What time?"

"Let's say seven."

"And how should I dress?"

"I plan to take you to a nice restaurant, not a dive or even a chain restaurant."

"I'll dress accordingly."

I gave her another kiss, which she broke off pretty quickly - far too quickly for my thinking. She smiled at me and shook her finger. I suppose I should have been chastened, but was more pleased. Lori quickly left, with Max and I still standing by the door. She locked it quickly from outside and we walked back and I sat on the sofa.

Now Max jumped up on the sofa and laid his head on my lap. I scratched his head and petted him for a while before going to bed. It was the same bed I had been sleeping alone in for many months, but somehow tonight it felt emptier. I fell asleep and had dreams of Lori, which I hadn't had before. We'd soon see what would be.

..................................................

God knows, I'd been on dates before, with both men and women. For some reason, I was more nervous about going out with Lori than I remember being with any other date. On my very first date in high school I was euphoric not nervous. Yet I spent much of my day wondering what I should wear, and all manner of things that I just took for granted in so many other dates.

Max seemed to pick up on my nervousness and followed me around much of the day. If I sat down for more than a minute or two, he was on my lap. Normally, he was content to have me somewhere close by but did not feel he or I needed that extra closeness. I think he was doing it all mostly for me. I suppose I needed it though that made no sense.

I was a bundle of nervous energy all day, but finally dressed and put on makeup to be ready by seven o'clock. I don't normally wear all that much makeup, but felt I needed to look my absolute best for my date with Lori. She and I had spent more than a few hours together already. Lori knew very well what I looked like, yet I still concerned myself with makeup.

I don't often get really dressy, but can do it when I choose. I put on a shimmery silvery gray dress that showed my shape nicely, paired with silvery heels. I used a silvery eye shadow and lipstick and painted my fingernails and toenails with a silvery polish. Most of the time, I don't care about any of that mess but wanted to do that today. I felt and looked like elegance personified.

At precisely seven, the doorbell rang. Since Lori has a key, that kind of puzzled me, particularly since she had effectively lived here for the last two weeks. Max seemed excited and ran to the door. He often barks when visitors arrive and knock or ring the doorbell, but he simply ran to the door and whined. Clearly he had a better idea of what was going on than I did.

I opened the door to see a Lori that I'd never seen before. No more jeans, tee shirt, messy hair, and glasses. Lori wore a sexy red dress that came to just above her knees. Her hair was in waves that came down to her shoulders, beautifully styled. She no longer wore glasses, but had makeup easily as detailed and elaborate as my own. I stood with my mouth hanging open.

"Were you going to invite me in?"

"Yes, please come in."

She bent over to greet Max, who seemed excited to see her. As much as anything else, I was astounded to see this incarnation of Lori. Had you told me that sweet nerdy little Lori would morph into a stunning beauty, I'd have scoffed at you. Still, that is exactly what seemed to have happened. We stood there just inside the door for a minute, with Lori greeting Max, while I stood befuddled. She stood back up and smiled at me.

"I was worried about being over dressed, but if I am, we'll be over dressed together."

"You look amazing."

"And you look very chic."

"No glasses?"

"Glasses are better when I'm reading books or looking at computer screens, but I have contacts also."

"You're almost like a different person."

"Is that good or bad?"

"I like the other version, but this one is stunning."

"Thank you."

"Would you like something to drink before we leave?"

"I assumed you'd ply me with alcohol at the restaurant."

"Only if you want me to. I prefer my dates mostly sober."

Lori smiled at me with a bit of a twinkle in her eye. I took her hand and led her to the garage where we got in my car. I opened the car door for her and she gave me a little amused acknowledgement. I drove us to a very nice restaurant in town. It was kind of gourmet American food with no fixed menu. The chef changed the menu every week and was considered one of the best chefs in America.