LOVING MS. KANDI

A MEETING OVER ICE CREAM

She was being bad, almost officially bad! She'd worked today, the regular stuff at school--and it should be said that she loved teaching and was extremely good at it, being one of those rarities that loved the jr high school age in kids--she'd had a work out and a sensible dinner and here she was at the local Friendly's Ice Cream Parlor for some ice cream--officially bad!

She ate slowly; she didn't get a huge amount but was enjoying a butterscotch creation that was her very favorite.

The voice rang out and stopped her in the middle of her treat:

"Ms Kandi!"

She looked at the happy, grinning face of Melanie Sweeten. Melanie, lovely at the age of 13, going on about 35, one of her students, was standing by her table, and holding the hand of a tall and rather distinguished looking man. She was grins from ear to ear.

"Ms Kandi, look whom I have here!" Melanie said.

Kandi stood up and said: "You of course are Melanie's Dad!"

"Yes," the man said, "Jason Sweeton."

"Kandi, Kandace Gates," Kandi said.

"She's my favorite teacher!" Melanie said next and Jason smiled along with his daughter, as he took in the unbridled enthusiasm with which his daughter greeted her teacher.

(It should be said at this point that Kandi Gates made it a point with her students to be on really good terms. She was a 'people person', one, in fact, who had given so much of herself to her teaching that it was her whole horizon.

Kandi was 36 yrs old and very pretty, with auburn hair, cut short with curls around her ears. She was, had been since grade school, an athlete and still did her workouts religiously. She had allowed herself to slip out tonight wearing a pair of her black, capri style running pants, clingy and impressive.

Melanie Sweeten was one of those students who were simply in love with Ms Kandi, who taught history and related subjects. In Melanie's case, Kandi gladly reciprocated the feelings.)

She reached her hand out and offered her hand to Jason Sweeten.

"We're disturbing you, sorry!" Jason said softly.

"Oh, Poppa," Melanie said, "Can we have our treat and sit with Ms Kandi?"

"I don't think that would be appropriate, angel," Jason said but Kandi interjected:

"It would be fine with me!"

Jason smiled and nodded. Melanie plumped herself down next to Kandi Gates with a huge grin on her face.

"Before treats, young miss," Jason said softly, "Wash your hands. I just washed mine."

"Yes, Poppa," Melanie said and excused herself to go to wash.

Once she'd gone, Jason spoke up:

"This is an invasion, sorry!"

"No at all," Kandi assured him. "Melanie is such a love!"

"Well, she certainly has a crush on you!" Jason said smiling.

"It's mutual with us!" Kandi said, then she giggled.

"Yes?" Jason asked, his eyebrows raised.

"It's that..." here Kandi laughed, "It's that she always refers to you as her 'Super Industrialist Poppa'!" Kandi finished, and the two of them laughed.

"Hmmm," he said, "I guess it's appropriate enough. I have made a huge effort lately to be home more. She lives with her aunt, when I'm gone. But she's at such a great age, and I want to be around for it all."

"How wonderful!" Kandi said, "And you're right about her age and how magic it is but Melanie is such a simply smashing girl!"

"Thank you," Jason said and then Melanie was back at the table.

She sat and Jason went to get their ice cream treats, asking Kandi first if she'd have anything.

"No, thank you," she answered, "This is more than I should have; I'll be fat in no time..."

"I doubt that!" Jason said, and Kandi blushed.

"Oops," he said, "Sorry!"

"Thank you," she said and he went to get ice cream for him and for Melanie.

"Isn't he handsome?" Melanie said dreamily.

"Sure is!" Kandi answered.

"He's available, Ms Kandi!" Melanie said next with a sly smile on her face.

Kandi started laughing and the two of them were laughing about it just as Jason returned with the ice creams.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

"Melanie was just telling me that you are handsome and available!" Kandi said with a laugh.

Melanie simply got a huge grin on her face, when he gave her a glance.

"Well, you are! Both!" Melanie said.

"Yes, angel," Jason answered, "But the topic is closed."

"Yes, Poppa!" Melanie said but winked then at Kandi, who laughed again.

"Grounded for the next five years!" Jason said next, but joining the laughter of the two of them nevertheless.

They sat and talked pleasantly until they were, all three, finished with their treats and then they got up to go. It was only then that Kandi remembered how she was dressed, not having expected to meet anyone there that she knew.

"Sorry for the casual look!" she said softly to Jason.

"Spectacular!" Melanie joined in with, "Especially for a teacher!"

"Melanie," Jason said, "Manners!"

"Yes, Poppa!" she said and turned to apologize to Kandi.

But Kandi's response was to open her arm for a hug for Melanie, who flowed into the hug with both love and gratitude.

"Yes, and I'll take one of those also!" Jason said.

Kandi didn't hesitate but opened her arms to hug him, liking the solid feel of him, when the hug was joined.

"Come on, angel," Jason said then, "Let's walk Ms Gates to her car."

"Kandi, please!" she said.

They walked to her car with Melanie between them, holding her Poppa's hand on one side and her favorite teacher's hand on the other.

Kandi leaned over and kissed Melanie on the cheek, as she got into the car.

"Thank you for seeing me to my car," Kandi said, as she got in.

"You're welcome," he said, "Thank you for letting us join you and share your evening."

There were immediately for Kandi a few conflicting kinds of reactions to the whole scene. She was certainly chagrined by the fact that she'd been spied by, and visited by friends, when she was looking like, as she termed it, the work out wreck. She thought that the workout pants might make her butt look too big. It was an issue that she'd never really resolved for herself but she didn't mind wearing them, when she knew she'd be out and alone. But this had been different.

And then there were the feelings. The feelings that swept over Kandi, as she pulled away from her parking spot were not unknown, just unacknowledged, for the most part. She certainly had a romantic soul but had never really given in to it. There was, of course, the fiancé in college who turned out to be an ape, when she refused to 'go all the way', as the phrase was bruited about in those days. But this tingle was, even for the closely self regulated Kandi Gates unmistakeable. Jason was gorgeous and the thoughts about, feelings about and remembrance of the hug sat in her mind and brought a smile to her face, time after time, when she thought about it.

"Kandi Gates, you stop this! You're not going to go down that road," was her rather severe statement made to herself. She went home and suppressed it all, for the most part.

In the other car, when they were alone together, Melanie said to Jason:

"Poppa, isn't she great?"

"Yes, angel, she certainly is!" he answered.

"And didn't she look fab?" Melanie asked next.

"Yep, fab!" he answered.

(As a matter of fact, Jason Sweeten thought that 'fab' was a rather paltry word for the way that Kandi Gates had looked in her skin tight running pants. He also knew himself for a 'bottom man', as the phrase went and thought that Kandi Gates, in that category alone, was spectacular!)

Jason Sweeten, normally, since the untimely death of his beautiful wife, was perpetually wrapped up in two things and only two things: his lovely Melanie and the industrial complex that he'd built and ran. This sudden intrusion into his well ordered and controlled world--as controlled as the vagaries of business would allow at least--was an intrusion that he just wasn't sure about.

"You should call her!" Melanie ventured next.

He looked at her and she said: "Sorry, Poppa, I know, not my business!"

He laughed and she joined him.

The end result that very night was interesting in the three people involved. Melanie went to bed pleased. She was pleased that she'd, they'd seen and sat with Kandi Gates, her very favorite, and pleased by what she thought was her Poppa's reaction to Kandi.

For Kandi and Jason it turned out to be similar. It was an initially sleepless night. He, in his pj bottoms and she in her panties for bed didn't, drift off, as they normally would have. They both were lying in bed with thoughts about the encounter, different thoughts but powerful ones.

Kandi walked through the conversation, and the meeting a number of times. Jason did the same and both of them reflected on the loveliness of the other. Kandi thought him handsome, and Jason just kept having that vision of Kandi walking in front of them for a few feet, with his eyes glued to the wiggle of her butt in those tight pants.

It was an interesting night for all concerned.

PARTNER

As things developed in the days that followed, Kandi Gates and Melanie Sweeten continued at school their close relationship, which Melanie never allowed to be in- appropriate, for which Kandi was always grateful.

The next small movement in these relationship came as a surprise. Kandi went to the small gym, where she did her workouts. It was her regular day. She got out onto the track, grateful that it wasn't too crowded, seeing only one other figure already on the track and running. Kandi smiled at that point because it was someone that she was familiar with, Janie Roberts. She knew Janie from meeting her any number of times at the track.

As Janie got around the track to where Kandi was doing her stretches and warm ups, she said:

"Hey, sport! Ready to show the world your great form?"

Kandi snorted: "My form might have been great five to ten years ago but now I lumber!"

"I know that tune!" Janie aid, "So come and lumber with me."

Kandi joined her, and the two of them went into their stride, settling into a kind of rhythm with each other in their run around the track. They didn't go so fast that they couldn't talk. They had right along found it a pleasure to chat with each other as they proceeded with their work out.

But today Kandi was in for a surprise.

"Well," Janie began, when they had already settled into the run and had run at least one lap, "I hear that you met my brother."

"Your brother?" Kandi asked mystified.

"Yes, Jason," Janie said with as mile, "Jason Sweeten."

"Ohhhhhhhhh!" Kandi said both surprised and almost unable to believe the coincidence of it. "He's your brother?"

"Yep!" Janie said, again with a smile.

"Then you're the Aunt who takes care..." she began, but her surprise almost kept her from going on.

"Of lovely Melanie!" Janie finished the sentence for her.

Kandi was nonplussed by the whole thing. But Janie only smiled at her and said softly:

"Isn't she great? Says the prejudiced Auntie!"

"Yes, great!" Kandi said with enthusiasm now, having regained some of her composure.

But Janie hadn't missed a thing: "I see from your reaction that you also think that my brother is pretty cool."

Kandi simply smiled at Janie and said: "Oh, I do! Please don't rat on me!"

"A girls' secret!" Janie said in return.

They spent some of the rest of their time discussing the encounter of the previous evening, and Kandi, who really liked Janie Roberts, found herself admitting to those tingly feelings about Jason.

"I know that the big guy had a similar reaction, similar feelings to you," Janie said. She laughed then and said: "But what man wouldn't, with a butt like yours in those lovely tight pants."

Kandi blushed right down to her toes.

"Oh, no!" she wailed, "I'm much too big in the butt; I'm so sorry that I was wearing my running outfit."

"Nonsense!" Janie said, as they were doing their last lap at a walk. "Looks like 'man bait' to me."

She was laughing by the time that she finished the sentence, and by then Kandi joined her in the laugh.

"Well, if it's really 'man bait'," Kandi said with a grin, "Then there's a lot of it!"

Janie laughed then and said: "Maybe I should call you 'fat ass'! She ended the statement with a raft of giggles.

"Don't you dare!" Kandi reacted, giggling also.

But Janie just launched into a hug, which was fervently returned and said, during the hug: "Kandi, I'm just kidding here; you are gorgeousness itself. And my brother realizes that."

Kandi sighed then and Janie finished by saying: "Well, come on, F A, we need to clean up!"

Kandi began an uncontrollable giggle at that point. "I'll find a name like that for you!"

"You may call me 'the perceptive Auntie'," Janie said with a laugh, walking along now with her arm around Kandi's waist.

When they were dressing, after their showers, Janie, now serious, said:

"I think he does want to see you, meet you again."

"Oh, Janie, what do I do?" Kandi wailed. "I'm so out of practice with this kind of thing."

"Okay," Janie said, "What'll it be, a drink? An ice cream? Chocolate cake?"

They settled for going out for coffee.

They sat over cups of coffee and talked about it. For Kandi it was like talking to an old friend and getting serious issues discussed.

"It's so hard," Kandi began, "In college there was one guy but it all went wrong, when I decided that he wasn't going to be the one that I sacrificed my virginity to. He turned out to be abusive and shallow. It was horrible. And to think I was engaged to him. Kind of put me off of men, his reaction, I mean and I just went my way and kept to myself. For years both teaching and athletics, later my workouts have been my passion. It seemed for a long time to be enough. Oh, there have been semi torrid affairs now and then but nothing that meant anything at all, and I simply discovered that such casual sex wasn't my way at all."

"Men can be such trolls!" Janie said, and Kandi shook her head 'yes' in agreement.

"I've been so tuned into what I love doing," Kandi went on, "It seems like the years have slipped away. I spent so many years fending off the offers from the smarmy ones that, after a while it was difficult to tell the good ones from the bad ones."

She sighed, once she said this.

"Well, my unbiased opinion," Janie said with a grin, drinking from her coffee cup, "Is that Jason is one of the good ones, and you already know that Melanie is."

"Yes," Kandi admitted, with a smile, "Melanie is a gem. It's so strange; I mean the way that she has taken to me. I don't think that I showed her any particular favor in our classes, she has just always been so nice, polite and interested. She's almost become more of a friend than a student of mine."

Kandi pointed at Janie then and said: "And don't you tell her that!"

"Yes, F A," Janie said, her grin widening as she said it.

Kandi hooted, putting her hand over her mouth to suppress the sound.

Kandi got a thoughtful look on her face then and asked: "Can you tell me a bit about Jason?"

"Hmmm," Janie said, "I guess that it won't hurt, if I ratted on him a bit. There was a time, when it seemed as though the life went out of him. His wife, Wendy died and the baby that she was having died also. Jason simply lost his light, his way. It was that way for a while. Melanie was a child at the time. But he is so resilient. He announced to me not long after that that there were two things that he was going to take his time with: Melanie and making his first million. I know it's a tale out of school but he's done so well with Melanie and he has succeeded with the other probably many, many times over."

"Ohhh," Kandi said.

"Now don't you let on!" Janie said.

"I won't, I promise," Kandi said, holding her hand up.

'Thanks, F A!" Janie said with a grin.

Both of them laughed.

"I guess I'm stuck with that!" Kandi said.

"Only because we both know that you have one of the loveliest butts around!" Janie explained and Kandi leaned in to kiss her cheek.

"No getting fresh," Janie said, "Save it for the hero!"

"What am I going to do about him?" Kandi wailed then, thinking about it.

"Let him make a move and act appropriately," Janie said, "If I know my brother, he'll not wait too long to get something going. You'll see."

"Okay, F A will take your advice!" Kandi said, and left both of them giggling.

"Well, what do you think," Janie asked, "Shall we take these bodies beautiful out of here and head home?"

"Probably!" Kandi said.

They left then, both of them having enjoyed their companionable get together.

ENCOUNTER

It was a few days later that it happened, as Janie had predicted. Kandi had stayed a bit later that day to do some routine planning and correct some papers. She finally looked at her watch and decided on a shower at home and maybe a dinner out for herself. That day she was wearing a plain skirt and a white blouse with ruffles in the front.

She grabbed her brief case and took the things that she thought that she needed and headed for the parking lot with her car. It was a vintage Buick, which she'd promised herself to get rid of soon. She just never seemed to get around to shopping for the new one.

She was surprised to find Jason leaning against the fender of her car in the parking lot. She was grinning from ear to ear, as she approached her car.

"You're stalking me!" she said, as she neared him.

"Nope," he said, "Stalkers do their nefarious work in secret and silence. There's nothing secret or silent about me being here waiting for you."

"I guess not!" she said.

She waited for him to go on.

"I was wondering about maybe dinner? Dinner out?" he said.

"Oh what a nice idea," she responded. "Melanie?"

"Yes, of course, we'll include her," he explained. "She'd be inconsolate, if she were left out, and I'd be in trouble, if she found us out."

"Good!" Kandi said, smiling. "Do I have time to go home quickly for a shower and change? I'd like that."

"Oh, are you inviting me to shower with you?" he asked pleasantly.

She giggled and grinned at him again and said: "No, I'm not really."

"Are you maybe inviting me to watch you shower?" he asked next, in the same pleasant tone of voice.

"No, I'm not really," she said, as she unlocked the door of her car.

But then a thought raced across her mind. She remembered what Janie had said about Jason making a move and her need to react to it. She turned, as he was still standing there and smiling and launched herself at him. She had her arms around his neck and was kissing him almost before he knew what was happening.

It felt, for her, so good, so perfect; they seemed to fit and the kiss was a wonder.

He reacted rather quickly and had his arms around her, responding to her kiss.

"My, my!" he said, when the kiss was broken.

"Keep those thoughts in mind," she said.

"Oh, I will," he said, kissing her lightly once more. "I won't forget the possibilities."

"I don't want you to give up your stalking!" she said.

"Not stalking!" he said with a laugh. "Maybe sniffing around?"

She laughed too. "Well, it's been a long age since anyone 'sniffed around', let alone actually stalked."

"I can stalk, if you prefer!" he said conversationally. "Leave your curtains open, as you undress for your shower and I'll manage to stalk rather well!"

"My but you're a handful!" she laughed.

"Well, you don't know that yet, do you!" he said, and ended laughing as hard as she was at the comment itself.

"Okay," he said holding both hands up in the air, "No stalking, no sniffing around; you go and get ready and we'll pick you up."

"Sniffing around is good, I think!" she said, grabbing him for another kiss.

"Fine, object accomplished!" he said.

"Yes, sniffing around," she murmured after the next kiss. "You get one, remember one pat or squeeze of my butt! Only one!"

"Sniffing around is about to be successful!" he said with joy in his voice, as his hands went down and took possession of her butt cheeks.

"That was two!" she complained.

"No, no, not at all," he explained. "You never said if I could use two hands or just one!"

"Silly me!" she said.

"And, let me tell you," he was saying to her softly, lips to lips, "F A doesn't suit you at all!"

"She squealed!" Kandi said with mock outrage.

"No, actually I tortured her, beat it out of her!" he said with a winning smile.

"You are a handful!" was her next comment.

"So I'm told in the business world," was his comment.

She looked up at him then and said softly: "Jason, I'm going to get lost in you; I sense it, and don't know if I should be afraid or only joyful!"

"I'll treat you always with such care," he answered, "That it won't be a problem."

"Oh, right answer," she said, "You just came dangerously close to being invited to watch me shower!"

"Progress," he said.

"Progress!" she echoed. "Now if the beast will start, then we'll begin our adventure."

DINNER OUT WITH MELANIE

The Buick's motor cranked a bit but then stirred to life. She smiled at him, and he said, through the window, his hand caressing her face:

"I'll follow you home to make sure your 'beast' makes it."

"Thank you," she said, "And there are no trees outside my bedroom window."

"Drat!" he said, "Have a ladder that I can borrow?"

She was laughing, as she pulled away and he strolled to his own car to follow her.

Melanie was overjoyed when Jason told her that they were going to pick up Ms Kandi and take her to dinner with them. They were headed for a favorite hamburger place in the mall.

When they picked up Kandi, who was now dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, Melanie bounded out of the car and claimed a hug from her favorite teacher. She climbed into the back seat and, when she got in, Kandi reached over and gave Jason a kiss on the cheek.

"Oh," Melanie wailed from the back. "Smacky-dackies!"

"What?" Jason said.

"Nothing," Melanie answered with a barely suppressed laugh.

They were walking into the burger palace, and Melanie was on the phone with a friend. She'd asked permission and promised that she'd be on the phone only a few minutes and not in the restaurant, which her father didn't like.

Jason walked closer to Kandi, who was at his side, and said softly, while Melanie was busy on her phone:

"Since I was so nice and polite, no ladder up to the window, no sitting in the tree looking into the room through the parted curtains..."

"There is no tree and the curtains were closed," Kandi interrupted.

"Please let me finish!" he said.

"As you wish, sir!" she said, and he laughed.

"Well, as I was saying, since I was so nice, would you care to tell me what color your panties are? That would be a treat!"

Kandi started to cough right away, as though she were choking.

"You alright?" he asked.

She nodded her head and said: "You're terrible!," as she reached down to hold his hand, while they were walking.

"But I'm trying to be charming!" he said with a smile.

"Try harder!" she said.

Just then Melanie hung up her phone call.

"I had to tell Carol that you two were out on a date tonight!" she said.

"What?" Kandi exclaimed but then she laughed. "And Carol said?

"Jees Louise!" Melanie exclaimed and they all laughed.

They got in line to order their food from the counter and then Melanie went off to claim a table for them.

As they were standing waiting for their food to be ready, Kandi leaned over to Jason and said softly:

"Light green with lace!"

He stared at her and said: "Wow! You're trying to get me riled up!"

"You asked," she said.

"So I did!" was his grinning response.

"How do I know that you're telling the truth?" he asked.

"How do you know that I'm even wearing any?" she countered and he laughed again.

"Got me there!" he concluded.

They sat companionably and ate their burgers. Melanie was chatting away and happy to be in the company of her Poppa and favorite teacher.

"Homework done?" Jason asked her.

"Yes, Poppa," Melanie said. "And don't ask me about it with Ms Kandi here."

He grinned at Melanie and said: "Tell me only a bit about it."

"Poppa!" Melanie complained, but he persisted.

She mentioned that they had to read about the Civil War battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas.

"Who was the winning general?" Jason asked.

"General Samuel Curtis," Melanie answered and Jason was satisfied at that.

"I'm going to get some more ketchup," Melanie said, sliding off her chair and walking to the condiment stand.

"She'll kill me for that," he said.

Then he simply fell silent. He'd turned to Kandi to make the former comment and, after he'd made it, he looked down and saw that Kandi had pushed the waist band of her jeans down a bit and was showing him a patch of light green nylon fabric with a band of whitish lace above it.

"Ohhhhhhhh!" he said almost inarticulately.

She was simply grinning at him, as she put her jeans back in place.

"Closer," was what he said.

"Yes," she agreed, "Closer."

Melanie still had not returned and he leaned toward her. She looked at him, knowing that something else was coming now.

"Since we're such good friends here," he began and she laughed. "How about some information for me?"

"Seems to me that you've already had your share of information," she countered.

"Maybe not!" he said.

"Yes," she asked, "What do you wish to know?"

"Are you shaved?" he asked in his usual pleasant tone of voice.

Kandi had a great deal of trouble not spitting her iced tea across the table.

"You're incorrigible!" she said.

"Yes, I know," he answered with a grin.

Just then Melanie was approaching the table.

"Bushy!" Kandi said softly and he grinned at her.

"Good!"

"Good what?" Melanie asked.

"Good that Ms Kandi is going to make you tell us more about this General Curtis and the battle of Corn Ridge."

"Pea Ridge, Poppa!" Melanie corrected and gave Kandi a look that proclaimed him to be hopeless.

"And you don't have to tell us more about General Curtis and Pea Ridge," Kandi corrected.

"Thank you," Melanie said.

"Surrounded by scheming women!" he said and Kadi held up her palm to get a 'high five' from a very happy, and grinning Melanie.

"Angel," Jason asked, as they had about finished their meal. "What do you think about tattoos for women?"

"Gross!" Melanie said without hesitation.

"So what do you think, does Ms Kandi have any tattoos?"

"Poppa!" Melanie said in exasperation.

He simply smiled and Kandi gave him an 'I'll get you' kind of look. He only smiled at her even more.

They were walking out of the restaurant and Melanie had been given permission to make one more call. It was Carol again to tell her that the 'dinner date' had been a great success.

"She's telling on us!" Kandi said to Jason.

"I know," he said.

But then Kandi said, in a softer voice, "the Chinese character for love on the left cheek and the Chinese Character for devotion on the right cheek."

He gasped slightly and said: "Why you strumpet!"

"Strumpet!" she echoed. "Does anyone use that word any more?"

"I do!" he said.

"And I'm not!" she countered.

"Oh, I was hoping that you were!" he said.

"Well, you've gotten all the information tonight that you're about to get!" she said then.

"Yes, I know, and you've been very cooperative, F A!"

She gasped but he leaned over and kissed her. "Playing with you is great fun!"

She said, now earnestly: "I agree."

"No more tonight?" he asked.

"No," she said, "I need time to think and feel; this is fairly new for me."

"I want to hear about that," he said.

"Yes," was her simple answer.

"But no more fun tonight," he persisted.

She turned to him and said: "No."

But before she turned away she said softly: "Soon!"

"Oh, yes, soon!" he said after her, "Was it 'love' on the left and 'devotion' on the right?"

"Yes," she said with a wide grin.

"Why?" he asked.

"Whim!" she said.

"So, you're whimsical?" he asked then.

"Yep," she said, "Almost loaned you that ladder earlier!"

He hooted and they got a glance from Melanie who was just wrapping up her call.

"Are you two behaving?"Melanie asked with suspicion.

"Well, I am at least," Kandi said.

"Poppa!" Melanie said in an exasperated tone of voice.