Waltz Through the Corridors of Time

She shook her head.

"You going around shirtless is inappropriate."

I crashed and burned on her stubbornness. I saw no reason to push my point any further.

I nodded and said no more. The meal passed as we talked about starting the pool back up. After we cleared the table, Vani washed dishes while I dried. When everything was done, I excused myself, walked out of the house, climbed into my truck and drove off. There was a trendy bar nearby. It wasn't dark enough inside to suit my tastes, the beer cost too much, the music was too loud, and it was more of a meat market where college students hooked up. I hated being the lone drunk staring into his beer while sitting at the bar. On the upside, it was near the house and it was the kind of place where my crazy ex would never think to look for me.

At the bar, I sipped my beer and enjoyed the coolness of the air across my sunburned skin. It was beginning to itch.

Vani was nothing like the woman I had imagined that I would be attracted to or date. She was opinionated, sure she was right, and not at all inclined to compromise where she deemed herself to be right. No wonder the women of Beta Beta Beta had rejected her bid to join their ranks. Inside of a year, she would have either been running the whole works or been the only one living in the house. She would have never fit into sorority group think. She would have rewritten it and forced everyone to live by the new standards. Truth be told, she scared me a little. So why was I so attracted to her?

I signaled the busty barmaid, they always were in places like this, to pull me another draft as two women in tight revealing dresses bracketed me at the bar. They ordered margaritas and waited as the barmaid fulfilled their orders.

"Are you a life guard?" the brunette on the right asked, "I can't think of another way someone could get as sunburned as you are."

She had a lush body, a little curvier than it needed to be, but not sloppy. She would never be a fashion model, but who wants a fashion model? I never saw skinny women who modeled as pretty, nor did I know many men who did. She had an Earth mother vibe to her; fertile and looking for someone to explore life's mysteries with. The lucky guy who tagged along would have a glorious time.

"Not a lifeguard, I spent the day putting a roof on a house," I replied smiling at her.

"Is that what you do for a living?" the blond on the other side asked.

She had a nice body, but there was a peevish twist to her mouth that signaled a dissatisfied outlook on life. Her narrow face and close set eyes stood out, but not in a good way. I have a friend who avoids women with close set eyes, he claims that they are mean. First indication was that she fit the bill.

"No, I'm a student. I was roofing today to help out a friend."

A smile softened her face a bit, but I wanted nothing to do with her. She radiated that she was a mess in a dress. It was her doll eyes, technically pretty, but they showed a creepy lack of emotion.

She, of course, was the one that found me fascinating.

"Do you know how to dance?" she asked pulling at my hand.

I returned at 11:00 pm, and gave Vani a smile as I came in the door.

"I smell alcohol," Vani frowned, "you said you didn't drink much."

"I don't, but since it was so hot in the house, I went to an air conditioned bar. They throw you out if you don't drink," I shrugged, "so I drank and made friends with some pleasant people."

"Who were they?"

"Some guys and gals from the university who get together in the evening. A couple of the women said they were Beta Beta Betas. You probably know them; they gave me their phone numbers."

I walked to my bedroom, shut the door and fell asleep fifteen seconds after I crawled in bed.

My view stopped me in the doorway to the kitchen the next morning. The camo pants and blue work shirt I wore was not consistent with the tone Vani had chosen for breakfast.

"A bit under-dressed this morning?" I asked grinning.

I sat at the table as she slid a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast in front of me.

"What? You mean this old thing?" she curtsied, "I decided last night that you were right. We need to dress lighter in hot weather."

She glanced down at the cotton bikini briefs and the crop top she had made from an old t-shirt. She had selected them to wear by way of apology exposing a pleasant amount of lean midriff to my view. The top just covered her bra-less chest. Her perky breasts didn't sag despite the lack of support. All I could do was gape at her. Her smile told me that she didn't mind.

I stood and stripped off my shirt and pants while she ogled me.

"Ahh, that is so much better. I don't mind sweltering while I'm working, but I hate it when I'm not."

I settled in across the rickety table from Vani.

"What made you change your mind?" I asked while buttering my toast.

"I was looking forward to spending the evening with a nice guy, but I drove him off with an unreasonable demand," she sipped her coffee and shrugged, "I wanted to be mad at you for leaving, but you were right. If you couldn't get comfortable here, then you needed to go where you could. So for now until the heat breaks, or until we get air conditioning installed, let's get by with as little clothing as we can without being lewd."

I stared at the vision of loveliness before me. I tried to not be a creep about it, but how could I not appreciate her beauty? She ignored my lust as she picked up a fork and began eating her scrambled eggs. The slight smile tipped me off that she enjoyed being admired.

"Vani, you're a very nice person. Why do you work so hard at acting like you hate people?"

"I don't hate people, but I don't want them taking advantage of me either," she said in a defensive tone.

"Has someone taken advantage of you?"

She shook her head.

"I don't let them, but I am excluded from time to time, and remember we have a business relationship so we should be formal."

"Is that how you approached joining the sorority?"

"Well, yeah. If anyone should understand business formality, it should be a business sorority. While we're on the subject, you're not easy to live with either, mister I-know-everything-and-you-know-nothing."

I had to smile.

"There's only the right way to do some of the stuff I'm doing. You must replace rotten wood when you find it on a roof, for instance. So yes, I do insist that things be done right, but I don't see a problem. I know what must be done and you don't. If I was starting a business, you better believe I would listen to every word you had to say. As a matter of fact, in a few weeks when you begin decorating the house, I will do as you say because you have exquisite taste, and I don't."

She glared at me; she was close telling me to mind my own business. I changed the subject.

"As much as I like the idea of you showing off those long lovely legs, I should point out that a couple of window air conditioners in the bedrooms will make the house more livable until central air is installed."

A sphinx-like smile passed across her face. I was going to have to compliment her more. She responded well.

"We could go shopping for them today," she replied picking her cup of coffee, "spending time with a hunky man in air conditioning sounds good."

I shook my head. She had launched a compliment right back at me. Was she telling me that she understood what I was doing? Was she playing a game with me? She didn't seem to be the game playing type. I chose to take the compliment at face value.

"I have to work on the roof until it's finished. You don't strip a roof and walk away from it, a bad thunderstorm can lead to disaster," I chewed a forkful of egg, "you know, you could go to the big box hardware store in town and buy a couple. They run about a hundred bucks apiece. They'll load them into your car for you and I'll install them the second you get back. We only need small ones. Neither bedroom is that big."

"Why don't I buy a big one for the living room as well? We should get as much of the house air conditioned as we can."

"I'm not sure the house's ancient wiring can handle that much draw. Let's not burn the place down," I scratched my chin, "I suppose we can get one big one for the living room and skip the ones in the bedroom. It does mean on hot nights that we end up sleeping in there together," I leered at her, "I'm okay with it if you are."

That Sphinx-like smile appeared again. I was going to have to learn what that smile meant. She didn't act like sleeping in the same room was a repugnant idea.

When we finished breakfast I picked up my pants and stepped into them.

"Watching you pull on your clothes was almost as fun as watching you strip them off," Vani offered with a chuckle, "are you going to be taking off your shirt again today?"

"Probably, if there's any breeze at all, it's cooler that way."

"Then let me put sunscreen on you. You're burned from yesterday. You don't need sun poisoning."

She walked into her room, grabbed the SPF50 off her dresser and returned.

"Turn around. Let me get your back."

She squirted a mound of goop into her hands, spread it across my shoulders, and down my back. Her soft hands caressed my tender skin. She did my arms next, and finished around front doing my pecs and stomach. I wasn't complaining as she stepped back and admired her work.

I stood transfixed admiring her.

"Oop. I forgot your neck and face."

She squirted more sunscreen in her hand and stepped closer to cover my neck. When she reached up raising her shoulders to spread the sunscreen across my cheeks her crop top rose along with it and her naked breasts grazed against my naked chest. Rather than panic, she continued to spread the sunscreen. When she was done, she leaned in and pecked me on the lips, then stepped back pulling her crop top down.

"There, all set."

"That was nice," I murmured in reply.

"Maybe I'm not as stern and standoffish as you think I am," she said with a Mona Lisa smile.

I gave her a quick hug and my hand slid up under her crop top in back then I walked outside and got to work.

Things were heating up between us. She was into me as much as I was into her. I didn't want to scare her off my moving too fast. I could play the long game.

Before she left to buy the air conditioners, she made a pitcher of ice tea and set it in the shade of the garage for me. When she returned two hours later, I was gone to pick up lumber to replace the rotten wood under the old shingles.

"Did you get the air conditioners?" I asked when I pulled into the driveway with a truck bed full of lumber.

"Sort of."

I stopped and set down the end of the boards I was unloading onto the ground.

"What happened?"

"They were all out of the bedroom sized units, so I got a one big one for the living room," she grinned at me, "that's good, right? The salesman said they'd be gone by the end of the day so I figured I'd better get something."

The words gushed out of her. Why was my approval so important to her?

"We can work with what we have," I said standing by her Toyota while she opened the trunk, "I'll install it right now so we can rest in cool air this evening."

The unit went in easily and soon a cool breeze wafted across the sparse living room.

Vani stood in front of the unit and luxuriated in the cool flow.

"That feels so good," she said as she went around the room shutting windows and doors, "when we get done today, this cool room will be waiting for us."

I walked outside and climbed the ladder. Vani followed and looked up at me on the roof shading her eyes.

"Put me to work. What can I do from the ground? I don't like heights."

I pointed at the roll off dumpster in the driveway.

"You could start throwing the old shingles into the roll off dumpster. There's a pair of leather gloves in my tool box. Be careful about stepping on nails. Take your time, the shingles are heavier than they look and it's hot out here."

She spent the afternoon filling the dumpster. Her outfit wouldn't be OSHA approved, but she did look nice in her crop top and short shorts.

"That work was harder than I thought it would be," she shouted up to me after she had cleared both front and back yards of old shingles, "it's getting late, I'm going in to start dinner."

Later as the shadows grew long, she walked out of the house and shaded her eyes looking up on the roof.

"Think you'll be done by six?"

"What time is it now?" I stopped hammering and shouted down.

"A little after five."

"Yeah. I've got a little more tar paper to lay down and trim. I'll be done by six."

"We're having pan fried burgers tonight."

"You don't have to feed me, you know."

Vani squinted up at me.

"I know, but it's ridiculous to have you working this hard and not feed you. I've got to cook for myself, it's no more trouble to cook for two. If you're feeling guilty, split the food shopping bill with me, and take me out to dinner once a week."

"You're back to wearing panties and a crop top? I thought you'd be more dressed now that the house was cooler."

She grinned at my teasing.

"It's still hot in the kitchen," she pouted, "I could get more dressed if my outfit disgusts you."

I let out a low chuckle.

"I like those amazing legs bare. Has anyone told you that you have great legs? In fact, why don't you spend more time outside like that? There are no houses for a couple hundred yards in both directions."

She walked back into the house with a little more hip action than usual. She liked me flirting with her.

I appeared at six resplendent in clean underwear after my shower.

"We're eating in the living room, Alan. I've spread a blanket on the floor in front of the air conditioner."

She handed me a serving platter of condiments and motioned for me to follow her. She set the plate of burgers in the center of a blanket on the floor and motioned for me to sit in front of a place setting resting on the blanket.

"You bought beer!"

I kissed her on the cheek as she settled on the blanket next to me.

"Thank you."

"I was going to buy wine, but I talked to the man behind the counter. I told him what you were doing, and he suggested that I buy beer instead. I told him I knew nothing about beer, so he recommended this..." she paused to pull the words from her memory, "summer shandy?"

I popped the cap off the long neck with the bottle opener she had brought from the kitchen and handed it to her.

"Give it a try. You'll like it."

She took a swig.

"That's very good. It tastes lemonady."

I got up and walked into the kitchen, and returned with another beer bottle in my hand.

"You keep that one and I'll drink this."

The beer went down easy for Vani as it does for most people who have worked in the hot sun all day, and she followed it with another. I knew she drank very little and when she did it was never beer, so I worried a little. People tend to drink it like pop when they don't know better.

"Whatever gave you the idea to buy your own house?" I asked to keep the conversation going.

"I wanted to convince my father that I was as good a business person as any of my brothers."

She took a sip of beer and continued.

"So I developed a business plan and presented it to him. He loaned me two hundred fifty thousand dollars. I bought this place for one forty and have a hundred ten thousand to restore and upgrade it. The money seems to fly out of my check book. I worry that I might not have enough."

"How much is left? I'm asking because we may have to prioritize what I work on."

"Ninety-five grand."

"We can do it."

I watched her relax and smile.

"My dad gets this tight little smile on his face when he's going to teach me a lesson. He was wearing it when he handed me the check, so I'm worried."

I knew, at last, what that sphinx-like smile was about. It was when she wanted to teach me a lesson.

"Ninety-five grand is more than enough to turn this place around."

"Do you really think so? The one thing I would hate to do is have to crawl back to my dad asking for more money," she took another sip of beer, "he's expecting me to fail and I don't want to.

After we did dinner dishes in the warm, stuffy kitchen we returned to the living room sitting at opposite ends of the reddish brown couch, the only real furniture in the drab green painted room. A third beer followed the other two leaving her a little bloated and for once happy enough that she didn't comment on the ugly green color of the living room walls.

"What do you want to do tonight?"

The beer had made her a little randy. She hoisted a bare foot up on the couch and tapped my bare thigh with it.

I stroked her foot, and she moaned.

"Would you like a foot massage?" I asked.

"I would love one. Toting all those shingles to the dumpster was hard work. They're heavy."

I worked my thumbs into the ball of her foot.

"Oh, that feels good," an involuntary moan escaped her, "where did you learn to do that?"

"My grandmother spent her days on her feet working in a department store. If I wanted to get on her good side, I massaged her feet."

I continued the massage across the arch toward her heel, and then started on her other foot.

"She was a fearless woman who walked through the fires of Hell a couple of times to drag my miserable butt out of trouble," I continued, "I miss her now that she's gone. There was a ferocity to her love. Those she loved, she loved totally. I don't see that commitment in people anymore."

I looked up at Vani who was too blissed out to realize her crop top had crept up enough to expose the bottom third of her breasts.

"Did you have anyone like that in your life while growing up, Vani?"

"My grandmother is like that. She once told me that there wasn't a thing I could do that would stop her from loving me. She may not like me for a while, but she would never stop loving me. I was a teenager going through an ugly duckling phase at the time, and it meant a lot to me. It still does."

She pulled her top down and it made me sad.

I patted her ankles then brought her foot up and kissed her big toe.

"All done."

Vani sighed. "All I want to do is loll on this couch, but fair is fair. What's needs rubbing on you?"

I threw my head back and laughed out loud.

Vani reviewed her words and kicked me lightly with her heel. "Pervert!"

"My back and shoulders are pretty tight," I said stifling a smile, "I'd appreciate a back rub if you're so inclined."

Vani scanned the room and frowned.

"You're too long for the couch and I don't want to kneel on the wood floor. Why don't we do it on my bed?"

I laughed again. When she reviewed her words she sat up and slapped my arm which made me laugh even more.

I followed her into her bedroom, removed my tee shirt and lay kitty corner across her bed. Vani straddled me sitting on my butt, spread lotion across my back and began kneading my muscles.

"Wow, are you tight," she observed as she dug into the tired muscles of my shoulders.

"Roofing work is tough on the body. That's why you only see young men doing it."

I moaned when she kneaded the knotted muscles where my shoulders met my neck.

"You're good," I whispered from the depths of pleasure her nimble fingers had given me.

"My mother who's a D.O. taught me how to do it, and I had a lot of brothers to practice on growing up. I was the only girl with four brothers. I figured out at a young age that all I had to do to get my way was to give a back rub."

She ran her hand down my spine stopping between my shoulder blades.

"Does this hurt?"

She pushed a finger into a muscle.

I damn near jumped off the bed.

"That hurt like Hell. What did you do?"

"I want you to relax and exhale slowly. Stay relaxed as you empty your lungs, but don't inhale."