Won't You Smile Awhile For Me

"But then," Mel added, "Some people are kinda creeped out by physical contact, y'know, just touching someone else's skin. I can't relate to that, though; I actually prefer it. I guess that's why I became a masseuse."

"You're a masseuse?" Sara asked, this being new information to her.

Mel nodded. Sara's first instinct hearing this, as would be many's, was to ask her, obviously, for a massage, but she refrained. For several reasons. For one thing, they were only in stage one of their first, possibly multi-part date, so asking for something like that right off the bat seemed, well, a little forward, to say the least. For another, she thought Mel must hear that request all the time when she tells someone what she does, and third, being a professional, she probably didn't just give away massages for free.

And fourth, Melleny was now asking her another question. "So what do you do?"

"Oh, I'm..." Sara gave the revelation of her profession a dismissive toss of the hand. "I have a really boring job. I'm a data analyst."

"Well, that doesn't necessarily sound boring," said Mel. "What exactly does a data analyst do?"

Doesn't necessarily sound boring? Boy, are you nice. "It's really kind of a cliché," Sara related, the description of her occupation sounding more like a confession. "I work for a big corporation, I get up five weekdays, I go in a big office in a big building with about fifty other people, I sit at a computer, I go through about a zillion documents a day, proofing stuff, translating, reconciling, adjusting, importing, validating..." She blinked a few times. "Oh, geez, just talking about it's making me a little light-headed."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Mel said. "Didn't mean to make you...y'know—"

"Ah, forget about it," Sara smiled. "Lucky for me, I've gotten really good at unwinding. If I really need to let loose, I just get in the car with my iPod, start playing Velette's stuff, turn up the volume and belt out the songs along with her till my throat's sore."

"That'll do it all right!" Mel looked around the room, and around the corners to the parts of other rooms she could see. "Well, it sure seems to pay the bills and put the grub on the table; you've got a lovely place."

"Oh, thanks! You want a tour?"

So they stood together, still not breaking hand contact, and Sara gave Melleny a modest but thorough show-around of her pad, hiding only the one item of a very personal nature in her bedroom. Mel thought she knew what it was, but thoughtfully didn't ask. If it was what she thought it was, Sara needn't be embarrassed by it; Melleny had one of her own.

"Oh, God, I love big beds," Melleny commented.

"Makes two of us," said Sara, bouncing on the edge. "It's a king." She patted the mattress beside her, and Mel sat down with her.

"This is a king?? You lucky duckling!" said Melleny. "Now I'm really jealous. Mine's a queen."

Sara shrugged. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, it's more of a necessity than a big garish luxury. I need a bed this size, 'cause I can't lie still when I'm sleeping. I roll all over the place...well, that is, unless I've just had an or—"

She suddenly stopped, turned a little pink and placed a hand over her unfiltered mouth. "Oop-sie..."

Melleny didn't seem to mind. She just smoothed her palm over the warm, heavy comforter. The bed was made beautifully. Under normal circumstances, Sara'd've just kicked the covers off herself, left them alone and pulled them back over herself sixteen hours later. But, this being the first time in she didn't know how long she had a cute girl coming over, she really wanted to impress her.

The cute girl was impressed. "Wow, this makes me feel like I could have a nap right now," Melleny said, literally dreamily.

"I know! Isn't it super-comfy?" She took Mel's hand again and hopped back up. "All right, well, that's about it!" she announced. "Back into the living room?"

Melleny now didn't particularly want to get up from the bed, but she did. Sara escorted her back into the living room. "So, that's my humble abode!" Sara shrugged. "It may not be much, but I like to call it home," she chuckled, amusing herself at her trite expression. "Did you like the tour, M—"

She heard a sound she didn't expect. She turned to see Mel with her free hand over her nose and mouth, taking a deep yawn.

Not exactly the reaction she was hoping for, Sara dropped the smile and her hand. "...I...hope I'm not boring you," she said.

Melleny realized she was in the middle of her yawn. "Oh, man," she said, "Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry. No, no, of course not—you're not boring me, it's my fault; I didn't get as much sleep as I should've last night."

"Oh, that's too bad," said Sara. "How much did you get?"

"Uh...about three and a half hours."

"Three and a half hours??" Sara exclaimed. "Oh, Melleny, well, goodness' sakes! Why didn't you say so? I wouldn't have made you come over if I knew you underslept so much last night!"

Melleny concluded her yawn. "I know...I just didn't wanna cancel the date. I was excited and nervous, and that kept me awake."

Really? the never-girlfriend'd Sara thought. I made YOU nervous? I thought I was the only one who got nervous! She didn't know why, but this news made her feel...kind of good about herself. Perhaps Melleny wanted to impress her too.

Mel finished with, "Besides, I'm fine now. Really, I am. I just needed that little yawn."

"Well...okay," said Sara, "But as someone who basically likes you so far, Melleny, I don't want you to drive anywhere you don't have to on that little sleep. If you got hurt, it would...well, it would make me really sad."

Mel gave her a warm smile. "Aw...you care about me?"

"Well...so far. I mean, I'm a really caring person; I care about everybody at first, at least to a certain degree. Uh, not that I want you to feel like you're not special, just...um...but not that I'm trying to say that..."

Mel was now looking at her with tender eyes and a flirty smirk, amused at watching Sara backpedal over her words. She gave Sara a little stroke from her shoulder down her arm. "You're cute when you're jittery," she commented.

Just like the way she was holding her hand earlier, Sara really enjoyed the way Melleny caressed her arm. She found herself wanting to hug her again, just to feel their...bodies...delightfully smushed up together against each other...especially with Mel wearing her fuzzy sweater. A good...hug...always felt really nice with someone in a soft fuzzy sweater...

Okay, Kelton, we're kinda getting a little carried away here, Sara told herself. Cool down, babe, it's still only date one. And we don't know what's going on in Melleny's mind. But I really really really hope she likes us, at least a little...I think we like her.

But Sara kept her confidence up by reminding herself it was Mel who'd approached and initiated contact with her at the concert.

Sara took Mel's hands again. "Well, Melleny...I was gonna ask if you wanted to go out and do something with me," said Sara, "Y'know, dinner or a movie or something, but, um..." She smiled, coyly glancing down at the floor, "It just occurred to me that wherever we go, it's just gonna be totally nuts with everyone Christmas shopping and everything. Being in the midst of that mess wears me out pretty quick, and it'll just be torture for you on only three hours' sleep."

"I've gotta admit..." Melleny confessed, "Since I brought it up, I am feeling a little low on energy."

"Okay," Sara gladly agreed. "Well, tell ya what, then..." She led Mel to her sofa and let her sit. "Why don't we just take it easy, stay in...I'll order us a pizza for dinner...have my quiet house to ourselves...light up a nice candle here..." She picked up the Bic on the coffee table, did just that, then pranced over to her dining room table with the flowers and candy. "...Maybe have a little chocolate?"

"Oh, but I bought that for you," said Melleny.

"Oh, mon chérie, don't be sill-y!" Sara smiled, accentuating the second syllable to emphasize the rhyme, which sounded romantic in her head, but out loud just sounded...well, sill-y. She went on before Melleny could realize how goofy it was. "I-I don't want to eat it all myself; I'll get a tummyache!" She trotted back over and plopped down next to her datemate. "Besides, if we share it...we can..."

She opened it, removed the wax paper, chose one at random, looked back up at Melleny, smiled lovingly and brought it slowly to Mel's lips, finishing her thought with a wordless, provocative arch of her eyebrows. Melleny was charmed at Sara's romantic flirtation. The corners of her mouth rose as well, and she proceeded to close her eyes and open up.

"Which one do you think it is?" Sara asked as Mel cracked it in the middle in her mouth and let the inside ooze over her taste buds.

"Mmmm..." said Mel, keeping her eyes closed for the moment. "Uh...hmmm..."

She opened her eyes and leaned over to look down in the empty space where the piece was, to see its label printed in the box.

"Ah—hey!" Sara giggled, putting her hand over it. "No fair looking!"

"I just wanna see if I was right," said Mel playfully, flirting with her back.

"Well, tell me, and I'll tell you if you were r—"

Sara stopped as a brilliant inspiration struck her. "Ooooh..." she cooed excitedly. "I know..." She put the box on the coffee table and stood up. "Don't you go anywhere!" she told Mel, more or less just as a requisite. "I'll be right back!"

Sara jaunted off to her bedroom. Mel picked up the box to check. Yep, she was right: raspberry.

Sara opened one of her drawers, where certain toys and other items of play were found. Shortly after Mel had arrived at her house, it'd started lightly raining outside. When 5:00 rolled around, the outside temperature dipped to 32° and the precipitation crystallized into snow flurries. Of course it remained a nice and warm constant 72° inside Sara's house. In fact, Melleny was starting to feel warm enough that she took off her sweater and placed it on the back of the couch with the folded up afghans.

When Sara returned a minute later, she had two items with her. One was a homemade writeable compact disc, which she popped into her DVD player and turned on the living room big screen TV to play. An early '90s pop ballad began to fill the speakers.

"What's that?" she heard Melleny ask behind her.

"A CD I made myself," she told her proudly. "Just some nice fluffy mood music. It's kind of one of my 'specialties.' I have tons and tons of music to choose from, and at the risk of sounding a little immodest, I'm also really techno-savvy, so doing something like making my own compilations is a snap. So, these are some of my favorite love songs."

Mel smiled at her. "Hm...you do know how to make a girl feel charmed, don't you?"

Sara reddened, glad Mel couldn't see her face. "Well..." said Sara as she adjusted the TV volume, "I'm just going with what feels right to me here. Trying to be a good hostess, and a good date, and..."

She turned to see that Melleny had taken off her sweater. A tiny ping of sadness struck her, as she was hoping to embrace her in a hug and feel that sweater on her, pressing her...self against Melleny's...self. Oh well, she thought, she might still get a chance later on.

She sat back down on the couch with Melleny. "All right, now, I know this wins me the Miss Pitifully Trite Award," Sara explained, "But I still thought it'd be really really fun." She showed Mel the other object she'd brought with her, a silk scarf. She tied it over her own eyes. "See? Okay, now you feed me, and I'll guess what it is, you tell me if I'm right, and then it's your turn."

"Oh, I get it," she heard her say. "Well, I don't think that's trite, and I certainly don't think it's pitiful; I think that's really kinda sweet, Sara. And romantic. So, we'd just go back and forth with 'em?"

"Right! Right. Besides, if we can't see, or if we have one sense cut off, that heightens all the other senses to balance it out. So this'll also make it taste better. Okay, go ahead." Sara opened her mouth. Mel picked up the box, selected one and slipped it in. Sara slowly cracked the delectable chocolate shell, savoring the flavor as it burst open, and her tongue signaled to her brain—

"That's a cherry!" she declared.

"Yay!" Mel confirmed, giving her a small round of applause.

Sara pushed the scarf up and off her face. "Okay, okay, your turn!"

Mel slipped it over her eyes. "Oh, I see what you mean," she said after a moment, inhaling deeply. "Well, I don't literally see what you mean...but, I can already smell that candle better now."

"It's a layered one," she heard Sara say. "It's called Sweet Nectar, Flirty Fruit and Berry Bliss."

"Wow...well, how appropriate.

"So what does the winner get?" Melleny asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, y'know, I mean, whoever guesses the most right would be the winner, right?"

"Oh...well, uh, I guess I didn't think of it as like a 'winner' thing...I guess a 'winner' thing to me's more like...dunno...a tickle fight?"

The scarf over Melleny's eyes, Sara gave her a dozen or so rapid pokes in the belly and ribs, as she finished this thought.

"He-ey!" Mel giggled. "No fair tickling! I can't see!"

"Exactly." Her playfully impish side coming out, Sara rapidly lifted up Melleny's shirt and recklessly raspberried her exposed tummy. Melleny laughed like crazy, reflexively squirming away and putting her foot up on Sara's thigh trying to get her to stop. So Sara was naturally about to tickle her foot until Melleny giggled, "Okay, please stop it, I'm gonna pe-e-e-ee!"

Sara immediately stopped.

"All right, well, uh," Sara pondered, "I hadn't thought of a prize for the winner, but, um...you have any ideas?"

"Hm..." Melleny smiled. She lifted the blindfold just enough to see Sara's right socked foot on the floor, then lowered the blindfold, dropped her bare foot back on the floor and brushed it over Sara's. "Maybe a...foot rub?"

Sara became more excited. The feel of Melleny's warm foot on top of hers gave her a tiny tingle. Even though her feet were incredibly sensitive out of the socks, she decided to hold off on unveiling that information for the moment.

"I like the way you think, massage girl," smiled Sara at her. She let her own foot mingle with Mel's. "And I do have some moisturizing lotion that makes your skin feel as soft as a teddy bear..."

Melleny smirked at her, lightly shaking her head, enjoying their first round of footsie. "Wow...Sara...when I asked you if you maybe wanted to go on a date, I had no idea you'd have thought of everything to make this evening so..." She shrugged. "...enchanting."

Sara couldn't help but balloon up with joy at this remark. It was true, once again, she hadn't been on even a dozen dates in her entire life, and she couldn't believe how terrifically this was turning out so far. She figured she must be doing something right, but she didn't think about it too hard. She found her brain having to repeatedly tell her heart, Take it easy, take it slow. It's still only your first date, don't move too fast, don't get carried away...but her heart wasn't listening as closely anymore.

Still, she forced herself to stay cool and under control. "Oh...I think we just happen to be hitting a lot of the right notes together," she mused, plucking another chocolate from the box. "Now open wide..."

***

December 11th, 6:14 p.m.

Six chocolates later...

"Oh, dear, I think maybe we should make this the last one," Melleny said, rubbing her stomach. "Before this stuff really does start wreaking havoc on our bellies. Y'know, quit while we're ahead."

"Okay," agreed Sara, setting the box and the scarf down. "So...who won?"

"You weren't keeping track?"

"Not really..." Sara elusively fibbed. The truth was, she remembered Melleny had corrected identified three of the chocolates Sara fed her, and she had only got two, but while she thought she knew what the other two were as well, she'd half-intentionally guessed them wrong, to "let" Melleny win. She hadn't been totally "throwing" the game, as it were, but when Melleny'd suggested the foot rub and started playing footsie with her, she got excited at the idea of massaging Mel's tootsies, and the reaction(s) she could evoke.

And then there was the other reason she wanted to rub Melleny's feet, and not vice versa.

"...But y'know, I think you got more right than I did," she said. "So, uh..." she coyly added, prolonging the footsie game, "Looks like I owe you a nice little foot rub, huh?" She started to get up. "Guess I'll go grab that lotion!"

When she returned with the lotion and a small towel, Melleny thought she might switch things up a little, suggesting, "You know, being that I am the professional and all, if you want, you could take off your socks and give me your feet, and we'll call it a tie and do each other's."

Uh-oh...gulp. "Well, yeah, that sounds like fun, but, um..." Well, she'd just have to tell her the truth now, sheepish as she felt about it. "I, uh...I know I should have said this earlier, but...IIIII...can't have my feet touched. By someone else. Not the bottoms, anyway. It's not that I think they're nasty or anything, but they're—I swear, even if you're just rubbing them, it doesn't even matter—my feet are SO ticklish, if you touch them at all, even by accident, I'll kick you right in the nose." She looked down with an embarrassed chuckle. "Obviously, I won't mean to; it just happens."

"Oh-ho-ho-ho!" Mel now poked her, in the belly and ribs. "I get it...so you can dish it out, but ya can't take it, huh?"

Sara giggled. "Well, up here's not as ticklish as down there...um, or, as my feet, I should say...but yeah, you're right; I suppose I shouldn't shell it out unless I'm willing to get a little of it back."

"Yeah, I get that pretty often, being a masseuse. You'd be surprised how sensitive people are, in the funniest spots on their bodies."

Sara draped the towel over her lap and patted it, urging Melleny to give her her feet. "Well, I'm no professional myself," she admitted, "But I'll do my best." She rolled up Mel's jeans' legs for her, pushed them further up to her calves, pumped out some lotion on her hands, let the bottle rest against her thigh and started rubbing.

"Mmm..." moaned Melleny a few moments into the massage, closing her eyes, as the lotion began warming up. "That's nice..."

Coming from an expert on the craft, this was another majorly significant compliment to Sara. It was relatively easy to flatter her, and her ego was riding a pretty nice high right about now. On top of which, as she expected, giving this attractive guest of hers such a soothing sensation via her size 8 peds was starting to really turn her on. Mel was about as tall as Sara, 5'6" or so, and their feet were roughly the same size as well. As Sara studied their size, they almost looked just like her own feet. She thought about taking off her socks and pressing her feet against Mel's to see just how similar they were. But after taking another look at the tranquil expression on Melleny's face having her tootsies lotioned up and rubbed tenderly the way she was, Sara decided to stick with the massage.

She didn't stop rubbing, but spent a few moments taking stock and reassessing the situation. It seemed almost surreal that this was the second time she'd seen the girl—the first being very briefly, besides—and here she was on her couch, working out the tender spots in her bare feet, and slicking them down with warm moisturizing skin lotion, at least doing her best, getting herself worked up in the process. Melleny did this for people she'd only just met all the time, she thought, but again, that was also a professional relationship. She was actually almost astonished Mel was letting her do this. Hell, she had suggested it, no less. How many first dates—between people in their late 20s—involved foot massages? Or any kind of massages?