Temporary Romance

Earlier that day, Nicky had spoken of her fascination with "American Idol," although she hadn't complained about missing its annual premiere on the previous night. They chatted for the few minutes they had to wait before the show started and, by the time it did, Nicky was pressed against Jim's side, and he had his arm snugly around her back. Neither of them thought about their seating arrangement very much and, to the degree it even entered anybody's mind, their choices seemed totally natural.

They chuckled at the inept and off-key contestants who were foolish enough to think they had a chance, cheered for those who got through the auditions to go to the next round, and sympathized with those who weren't quite good enough to advance. By the time the two hour show was over, their feelings for each other had gone from friendly and affectionate to a level neither of them could have anticipated. Once again, they walked to the building's exit but, this time, they had their arms around one another until they reached the door.

By that time, Jim was sure how he felt about Nicky, but too shy to make those feelings known. They were like none he had ever had toward any other girl or woman, even the one-night stands from his Army days. Especially them because, even then, James Harper knew that he and those women were as ships that passed in the night. Although sure of himself, he was unsure of her, and he was too shy and cautious to make any overt move that could result in what he wanted or might end what he already had going.

Nicky thought she knew how she felt about Jim. She wasn't certain, although she had an inkling, of his feelings for her, and fervently hoped she was right. After spending ten years, from her middle teen years on, being monopolized by one man, she didn't know just how she ought to feel about other guys, but she knew what she wanted. They stopped by the front door, turned to face each other, and moved into a warm embrace. For a minute, they stood like that, feeling their warmth for each other mounting, but neither saying anything about it.

"Okay, Nicky. See you tomorrow, same time, same place." Although he had said "goodnight," Jim still didn't want to leave, even though he knew he would have to eventually.

"Good night, Jimmy. See you tomorrow." She backed away and turned her face, lips puckered and eyes closed, up toward him.

Jim knew what to do about that. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on those lips and pulled her toward him. Although they had been together for almost three hours that night, the kiss was their first and last. They both enjoyed it, but they felt somehow that they had already progressed beyond the emotional place where a lot of smooching was necessary, fun though it would be. Jim broke off the kiss, turned and walked out the door to his car.

As she walked back to her apartment, Nicky wondered whether or not Jimmy was really as interested as he sometimes acted. She had been giving out signals to him all night, actually acting in a way that her mother and her other older relatives might have described as "slutty" but he wasn't reacting the way she would have expected. She had thought of herself as being in love with her ex-husband, but was starting to realize that it had been more of an infatuation, maybe even just a habit.

"Could it be?" she asked herself. "Could these warm thoughts I have about Jimmy be real, true love?" She hoped to find out, but didn't know how to do that.

As he walked back to his car, Jim was cursing his shyness. He was almost certain that Nicky had the same sentiments toward him that he admitted, to himself only, that he had for her. A small, nagging doubt remained. If not for that uncertainty, he would have tried to advance their very pleasant relationship toward what he thought of as a different and better level. "Love" was what he called those sentiments, and he wondered if it was true or just her physical attractiveness. There was no doubt in his mind that Nicky had plenty of that.

The next day was the same as the previous two had been except that, after finishing the takeout spaghetti dinners, they sat on the sofa and chatted. Both of them felt relaxed and comfortable with each other, and told many more details about themselves. They talked of things they had never shared with anybody else, including Jim telling her of his extreme shyness and inability to speak to women the way he wanted.

His admission started Nicky thinking about something she might do, if she ever wanted their promising relationship to progress. She could understand shyness, and it was yet another way in which the man who was sharing her sofa and had shared her dinner was the direct opposite of her perfidious ex-husband. By the time they said goodnight, with another warm embrace and kiss, she had decided on a course of action.

"TGIF," said Jim as he greeted his friendly passenger on the steps of her apartment building.

She smiled and agreed. Once again, they hugged and kissed, before entering his car and driving in the car pool lane to work. The task they were performing continued to be boring and routine, so much so that they could concentrate on each other. Jim could feel his love growing for the lovely young blonde, and Nicky could feel her affection, which she was still reluctant to name, for the plain but sweet man at the next work station. They spent their coffee and lunch breaks seated close together at the long tables available for them and their temporary coworkers. Once again, Nicky was dismayed at the nature of the lunch that Jimmy had brought in his worn brown paper bag. He seemed to have an endless supply of bologna, processed cheese and white bread.

On the way to her apartment, Nicky made a suggestion: "Jimmy, instead of getting takeout, suppose I cook us something? We can pick up some steaks and French fries and salad at the store we drive past."

"That does sound good, if you're sure it isn't too much trouble."

"I'm sure."

They both relished the meal, much more than they had liked the junk food, relatively speaking, they had been eating all week. After dinner, Nicky stacked the dishes in the sink. She would wash them later, but she had more important things on her mind. Once again, they cuddled on the end of the sofa, as she leaned against him, enjoying the masculine feel of his arm around her. It was a good quality piece of furniture, although Doug and Nicole had bought it second hand, and was still in good condition. It was also over six feet long, which was an important part of the scheme Nicky had finished devising the previous night.

They were both enjoying the closeness of the moment, even though Nicky wished Jimmy would say what she wanted to hear, and he wished he had nerve enough to say it. She leaned back and smiled up at his plain but gentle and good-natured face, and put her plan into motion.

"Jimmy. I want to make you an offer. A business offer." She emphasized "business" and was encouraged to continue by his smile and the nod of his head.

"We seem to get along pretty well. I think we can both save ourselves some money if you move in here with me."

She waited a few seconds for a response, but her last five words had started such glorious trains of thought running in his mind that he couldn't seem to verbalize anything, so Nicky continued. "I mean, we can both save money if we only have to pay rent for this place instead of it and your room. I'm not paying any rent right now, but I'll have to start again, here or somewhere else, in a few months. If you sleep on this sofa, you can pay a part of it. We can buy our food and other stuff together cheaper too. And I can fix you decent lunches. Besides that, it's a shorter drive to work. What do you think of the idea?"

The thought of sleeping on the sofa instead of sharing a bed with the woman who had been dominating all his hopes and dreams caused his reverie to crash to Earth, but Jim still thought it would be a good idea. He would be closer to her and, besides loving her, he also really liked Nicky. Saving a few bucks was a plus too, but the big thing was being close to her all the time, and something better might evolve. There was also the "friends with benefits" possibility.

"I think it's a good idea."

"Besides that, there will be a parking space for your car, and you won't need to park it in the street, like you do now."

Suddenly realizing she had already made the sale, Nicole stopped pitching her idea. Still sitting close together on what was expected to be Jim's future bed, they discussed details. Nicky located the front door and apartment keys which had been Doug's and handed them to her new room mate. It was also decided that Jim would move in a load of his stuff in the morning, letting himself in, as would be his right in the future, and they would go back to his room together for another load. Since the next day would be a busy one, with the moving and the other details working people usually attended to on Saturdays, Jim did not stay as late as he and Nicky would have preferred.

Once again, they walked to the front door with their arms around each other, and once again they stood embracing at the door, before sharing the longest and warmest kiss to date. They both hoped the "business" arrangement would become a much more romantic one but, not being able to read minds, neither knew what the other was thinking. Jim hoped that, in the new situation, he would be able to work up the courage to tell Nicky how he really felt. She had set her plan in motion and, if his feelings for her were what she thought, he would have the confidence to tell her within the next 24 hours.

Early the next morning, Nicole went to a specialty store located in a nearby mini-mall and made a purchase that was central to her scheme. Ten minutes after she returned to the apartment, there was a knock on the door, but it was opened before she had a chance to respond. It was Jimmy, with the first load of clothing and other belongings, and he had more in his car. She had made a pot of coffee and, after bringing up the rest of his stuff, Nicky and Jimmy shared some in their kitchen, both of them hoping the future would be bright for the two of them together.

Only one more trip back to Jim's former residence was needed, because it was a furnished room, and he owned little there except his personal things. Those had already been boxed or otherwise packed, and it was a quick matter of carrying them out to his car and driving away, with him hoping the departure from the rather squalid place was permanent. After arriving back at their apartment, the new roommates put things away and ate lunch together. They had forgotten that there was only one closet in the apartment, but that was no problem. It and the other places or furniture designed for clothing storage were fairly spacious, and they decided they could easily share them.

There were mundane chores to attend to, such as a trip to a coin-operated laundry and house cleaning and shopping for the next week's groceries. They did these things together, enjoying each small intimacy and feeling the connections between them growing stronger. After dinner, which consisted of some of the food they had just bought, they snuggled up on the sofa together to watch television for an hour.

It's been a busy day, Jimmy, but a fun one with you. But I think I'll just take my shower and go to bed."

"Me too. I'll wait for you to get done in the bathroom."

Nicole closed her bedroom door after herself, took off all her clothing and wrapped a terrycloth robe around her nude body. There was only one bathroom in the apartment, and the user had to enter it from the living room where Jim was still sitting and watching television. Nicky smiled as she walked past him and closed the bathroom door after entering.

A long shower washed away all the grime of the day's cleaning and other sweaty activities, and Nicky was especially careful to wash her pubic area. If everything went as planned, she wanted that part of her body to be as enticing as possible in every way. She considered applying fresh makeup, but decided against it. Even without it, her face was quite pretty, and the object of her plan, Jimmy, had expressed his appreciation of the "natural look" which was what she preferred anyhow. As part of that look, she brushed her hair until it glowed and framed her freshly washed face.

"All yours," Nicky informed her new roommate, gesturing to the bathroom, and she went back to her room and closed the door. She noted that he had a suit of pajamas resting on the arm of the sofa and, from the creases, they looked as if they had just been removed from their package.

Nicky made her bed with sheets and pillowcases fresh from the laundry and turned down both sides and set two pillows at the head. While she was doing that, the shower began, bringing a smile to her face. She knew there was enough time for what she wanted to do, as long as none of it was wasted. With the bed ready, Nicky resumed the most important part of her plan, preparing herself. The next thing to do was to remove her purchase of the morning from its packaging.

The sleeveless nightie was light blue and lacy and, essentially transparent. The color would set off Nicky's blue eyes, and looked especially good against her fair skin and newly-brushed blonde hair. It came with panties, but Nicky left them off, figuring she wanted more shock value than there would be if she was wearing them. So it would burst on Jimmy all at once, she wore her robe over the new nightie, but not the sash that usually tied it. Instead, she held it closed in front with her hands when she walked back into the living room. Nicky had considered wearing nothing at all under the robe and shocking her target with her completely nude and available body, but she wasn't quite daring enough to do that. Besides, if the skimpy nightie wasn't good enough to let him know what she had in mind, being naked wouldn't be much better.

Jimmy was preparing the sofa for his first night's sleep in the apartment they would be sharing. He was wearing green pajamas, which were new, because he had always slept in his underwear, and had bought them that morning, thinking it would be nicer to be a little more civilized. Jim felt some embarrassment when Nicky stepped out of her room covered by a bathrobe and saw him wearing just pajamas. The slight unease passed quickly, because he believed it would very likely be a commonplace thing in the future, and nothing to worry about.

With her robe held closed by both her hands, Nicky approached him with her most friendly and guileless smile on her face. Briefly letting go of the robe with one of her hands, she bent down and pushed her fingers into one of the sofa cushions. Still smiling, she straightened up and faced Jimmy, with both hands once again tightly closing the fabric that concealed her body.

"You know, Jimmy, this old sofa isn't really all that comfortable. Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Yeah, I've slept on worse." He was referring to army bunks and even the narrow bed and thin mattress in the room he had vacated that day.

"Maybe so, but don't you think you would sleep better in the bed? Especially because this is what would be in there with you?" As she asked the last part of the question, Nicky's smile turned to a lascivious grin, and she spread her arms, opening her robe and showing Jimmy her sexy body in the transparent blue covering that didn't conceal anything.

For a few seconds, he just looked, not knowing what to say or think. Ever since meeting Nicky, he had tried to picture in his mind what her body looked like, but the reality was vastly better than what his fantasizing had produced. Her perfectly-formed breasts, unrestrained by a bra, were bigger and even more luscious than he had imagined, ivory white and jutting and topped by large, pink nipples. Even as she stood there, her body was slowly moving, and the gorgeous twins swayed from side to side, inviting his hands and his mouth to fondle and caress them.

Nobody would have ever mistaken Nicky for Ali McBeal, and Jim gazed at her sexily plump belly, with the shadowed concavity of her navel and her hips flaring out from the sides of her waist. Nicky's Mount of Venus, looking soft and inviting, swelled out and curved down to her pussy, where Jim could see a trimmed thatch of blonde hair. When he realized what a truly beautiful woman he was looking at, and how she was presenting herself to him, he stopped looking. Knowing his advances would not be rebuffed, his shyness ceased being a hindrance, and he slid his arms under the open robe to encircle her waist.

Jim was well aware how curvaceous Nicky's ass was and, when they were hugging before, he had resisted the temptation to touch her there, but he could see no need to restrain himself that evening. While his and her open mouths were plastered together, their tongues making each other's acquaintance, his hands roved down her back, followed the curve out and back in to cup Nicky's succulent buttocks. Fondling those sumptuous curves was infinitely better than looking at them. Exciting as it was, however, Jim knew that Nicky's bare skin would provide an even better surface to stroke, so he raised her short nightie and caressed the naked ass that became available to him.

Her hands were also busy, with one of them pressing against the small of his back and the other investigating his cock, and feeling it getting stiffer by the second. They were both doing things they had been wanting to do, and reveling in the new experience.

Nicky had an idea on how to improve on things and, after their kiss finally ended, her grin was even more lascivious. "I really like what we're doing to each other," she said. "But wouldn't it be a lot more fun if we were lying in bed to do it?"

It was a rhetorical question, and needed no answer. They turned to face the doorway to their bedroom, which had been left open, and Nicky shucked off her bathrobe and tossed it across the back of he sofa. With Jim's hand caressing her ass and her hand fondling his fully erect cock, they walked through the door and, they hoped, into the rest of their lives.

*

Thank you for reading this story. I hope you had as much fun as Jim and Nicky are having and will be having for the rest of the night and, hopefully, forever after. I like writing stories on Literotica, but I like it a lot more when I know that people are reading and enjoying them, and I appreciate it when readers take the time to express their opinions by voting. Like most authors on Literotica, I practically live for feedback from readers, either public comments or email to me. Such feedback, whether praise or criticism, helps me to write more and better stories, and I respond to it whenever I can.