My wife and I separated a while back. It's another story, but we'd been married for over 20 years and it took a bit of getting used to. I guess that the constant moving that I have with the job is the major reason. Ever since I went to Vietnam I've never lived in any one place for more than a couple of years. I did my 20 in the Marines, worked some construction after I got out, then started in doing instrumentation installation. There's good money in it, but its a lot of travel and a lot of grungy third world nations if you really want to make the big bucks. Divorce is the next step, but for various reasons neither of us is pushing for the issue. I can't say that I'm sorry for the split, but I can say that I really miss the companionship and, to a lessor extent, the sex.

No, that doesn't mean that I don't like sex, just that it's easier to come by than I would have though possible a couple of years ago. The Internet is a big help there, since it saves a lot of time in meeting women. I guess at this point I should say that this is a story about one of several women that I have met through the Internet.

I was goofing off, reading the personal ads on my favorite site a couple of months ago when I came across an ad that sounded good to me. I was playing it completely straight as I really thought that this woman sounded great. 'Course, I knew that she'd be telling the good and forgetting the bad, but, hey, in the real world it's called merchandising and people get paid big bucks to sell things. By those standards she seemed to be a real amateur.

Damned if I didn't get a reply back, and it sounded as if we might be really a match. The only real problem that we had was that of distance. She didn't live too far away, but it'd take a couple of hours to get over to see her should things get that far.

We wrote back and forth for a couple of weeks, then traded phone numbers. I called her up, talked for a while, thought that she had a lovely voice and told her so. I think it surprised her. Anyway, the calls went on for another couple of weeks, then I had a chance to stop by and visit her if I made a detour on the way to somewhere else. (It was a pretty good detour, but she really sounded good and I was getting quite nterested... and some of the conversations had indicated that she was pretty interested in more than my 'pretty brown eyes.')

I called Allie, told her that I was coming through town, and wanted to see her in person. She was a bit surprised, but eager to give me directions. Allie's not dumb, the town she lives in is way off the beaten track to anywhere, so my visiting her told her quite a bit about my interest level. The fact that I suggested we meet at a restaurant didn't hurt. Even though she felt that she knew something about me, she felt good about the fact that I was suggesting a way for her to feel a bit better about meeting me for the first time.

Just to surprise her I stopped off on the way and bought a some flowers and a cheap vase at one of the big supermarkets. Hell, for ten bucks I got a collection of flowers that would have cost me five times as much at a florist shop. Besides, it didn't take much time to run in and out of the store. If I'd stopped at a florist shop I'd have wasted at least half an hour.

I got into town a bit early, found the restaurant, and brought the flowers in with me. I asked the waitress to bring them to the table after Allie had arrived and we had ordered. By the time the waitress had gotten through talking about how sweet I was I got the impression that if things didn't work out with Allie that I might stand a chance with her. As soon as that was settled I headed for the pay phone in the corner and called Allie to let her know that I was waiting for her.

About two cups of coffee later Allie showed up at the restaurant. I was right about one thing... she'd known something about marketing. She was a fair bit heftier than advertised, something that didn't disturb me in the least since I'm about six foot five and run about three sixtyfive in 'fighting' trim. I'd put her at about five foot four inches, maybe a hundred and eightyfive pounds. Allie had told me that she was 46, but she looked a couple of years younger. She had hair the color of an Irish Setter, that lovely shade of red that just makes me want to reach out and touch. Along with the red hair, she had the pale skin that comes from generations growing up in the Irish mists... and the freckles to go along with both.

We enjoyed our late breakfast, then decided that it'd be a good idea to take her car back to the house. We still hadn't figured out what we were going to do after that. Sure, I had hopes, but no real expectations. After all, I still figured that the only place where you meet someone and get them in bed less than an hour afterwards is in some of the on line sex stories.

When we arrived I helped her move some of the things that she had in the car into the house. SHE moved the vase with the flowers.

I dumped my armload on the table in the kitchen. Once that was done I went into the living room to sit down. There were two places to sit, a recliner and a love seat. I thought for all of two seconds, then plopped my rear end on the loveseat. I figured that if Allie sat in the recliner she was safe... and I'd be on the road. If she sat on the love seat... well, I'd figured things so that I could spend some extra time there if there was good and sufficient reason.

Allie came in with the flowers, put them up where she wanted them, then sat down on the love seat. 'Bout thirty seconds later I was certain of two things; she was interested and she knew how to kiss. Thirty seconds after that I was certain that, while she was wearing a bra, it was not a padded one. Those 42D's of hers (yes, dammit, I checked the bra size later) were all real.

We swapped spit for about five minutes, then I spent another five minutes or so getting to the beauties under that bra. Four and a half of those minutes were spent in trying to remember how to open a tight bra one handed. Left handed at that. Between fondling her breasts, extended kissing, and much teasing of every erogenous zone within reach we were both getting into the mood.