Chapter 1: Crystal

The brunette on top of me was rising and dropping on my cock in a high-speed frenzy. Her eyes were jammed shut as she ramped up to another orgasm.

Crystal was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever met, and I’d only seriously met her about ten hours earlier when I got on a flight from Atlanta to Sarasota. She was the lead flight attendant. The flight wasn’t very crowded, and I obviously wasn’t the only person on the flight that recognized her beauty. I watched how others sized her up as they came in the door to the plane, especially the men close to her age, like me.

I’d had dreams for years about falling in love with someone as beautiful as Crystal, marrying her, and doing all the normal things that people do to grow old together and be happy. But, there were a few impediments to doing that in my life. For one, I was a nerd and somewhat shy. The likelihood of even dating a girl like Crystal was foreign. For another, I had no hope of ever meeting somebody like Crystal; at least I didn’t think so. I was nearer to thirty than twenty, and had had zero romantic interludes in my life. I worked mostly alone in an isolated office and most of my work conversations were by phone or online. I didn’t hang out in bars or at beaches. That was probably where the talent like Crystal was.

I was also undecided about the type of girl I wanted in my life. Did I want the ‘little lady’ or the ‘sexy slut’ wife ready to do anything, or something in the middle? What kind of life would either of those deliver and would I like it? I fantasized about both. Of course, my reading emphasized the sexy wife, so I leaned in that direction.

My impersonal initial meeting with Crystal at the door of the plane shouldn’t count. She said, ‘Welcome,” and gestured towards my right to the passenger compartment – not rocket science, since I wasn’t going to fly the plane. What did count was that I had a seat in the first row of the plane. As it turned out, we chatted as she worked and prepped the beverage service, and then as she collected things and put them away. She was outgoing and friendly, making up for my shyness. She had a knack for getting me to speak and be friendly. I was sure she was the perfect woman.

Crystal was totally professional, yet she was gorgeous – a total homerun in terms of looks. She was about five-foot-five without her low heels, light brunette verging on blonde, long hair in a ponytail, high cheek bones, a smile that lit up the morning, and a very sunny disposition. I doubt little truly upset her; she was too happy to allow that to happen. I assumed that lots of stuff happened in her job that required many skills on her part. Some airlines were talking about brawls in the passenger cabin.

With no expectations and in my usual blunt manner, I told her my impressions of her, adding in some humor to lighten the moment. She laughed and told me that flattery would get me ‘everywhere’. I suggested with a smirk that ‘everywhere’ should start with me buying her lunch at the airport. I assumed that might be a safe environment for her, especially since she didn’t know me from Adam. I’d already told her I was Dave Toller plus I forgot she had the passenger manifest that indicated who sat in what seat.

The Sarasota airport turned out to be the end of the line for each of us. We both lived in the city. After she asked a few questions, we agreed to flee the airport in our own cars and to meet at a breakfast-lunch place that specialized in omelets after she’d been able to get out of her flight attendant’s ‘uniform’, as she called it.

I half expected to be stood up when I got there at the appointed time. I’d never asked such a beautiful woman out in my life. I could count other women I’d asked out on two hands and have fingers left over. I wondered why I’d done what I did. I was not an ugly Quasimodo, but I’d had a couple of traumas in my life, and I had a nerdy kind of job as a computer geek. At least, I had learned to dress smartly, especially for client work that I was coming home from; and my geeky personality had smoothed out as I picked up some social graces and developed a few friends.

Crystal showed up, as promised, with her winning smile. She certainly made my day brighter. I’m sure I glowed for her. She’d changed into tennis shoes, Bermuda shorts, and a pretty short-sleeve top.

Our lunch at an outdoor table lasted three hours. Unless I misread the situation, we were enthralled with each other. We had CHEMISTRY, in large capital letters. She made my heart beat faster. We were on the same wavelength, talked the same language, and our hearts were often beating as one. We couldn’t get enough of each other, I was certain. My brain started to assemble sappy love letters to her, but I kept a lid on it lest I scare her away. A first ‘date’, if we could even call it that, was not the place for such frivolities.

We were both single. She’d been a flight attendant for five years, and given the turnover of new employees in that industry, she was becoming an old timer. She told me that over half of new hires wash out during training, and that half of those remaining don’t stay past the one-year mark.

She had a degree in communication and media, but wanted to travel and see the world before settling down and maybe getting what she called a ‘real job’. So far, she’d traveled to every continent, and was filling in the blank spaces on each with other travel. Europe was her favorite holiday destination.

Crystal was also learning to fly. “The routine of the job is kind of boring. We see the same cities over and over, and I don’t have a guy in every port, nor do I party until I drop at nearby night clubs. Instead, I started to apply my time to studying aviation and flying. When I’m home here, or when I have a longer layover, I take a flight lesson.”

Crystal’s family was from North Carolina. She told me that she wanted some distance from them so that they weren’t checking up on her all the time, so after graduation from UNC she moved south as she took the airline job. She’d been fortunate enough to score flights from her home airport, but she occasionally filled in on flights from the Tampa airport, especially when she could get booked on an overseas flight with a few days of layover in some great destination city.

I explained my work as a computer security specialist, and tried to avoid making my canned speech sound like a self-serving snow job. I don’t think she took it that way. I’d been with a client in Atlanta, but I’d grown up and lived in Sarasota. I had family there.

I explained how I’d gone for a computer science degree, and how, as a young teen, I’d lived with my bereaved father in Sarasota after my mom had died. She passed way too early in her life from a sudden auto-immune disease that was fast-acting and all but untreatable. We were shocked. I was devastated, but my dad coached me through the trauma but he wasn’t much better off than I was.

Crystal and I compared notes on lots of areas in our life, including sports, favorite hobbies, and so on. We even did politics and religion and spirituality. We said little about our families otherwise.

I finally had to end our long lunch. I still had a few client calls to make before the work week ended at five p.m. We traded phone numbers. I asked about a dinner date, but she was busy – of course. She promised to counter with another day and time after she had her flight schedule for the next month in hand. I didn’t push the issue by offering up more dates and times. We loosely said we’d talk the next day, if not even try to get together over the weekend. Given my background and her style and looks, I was pessimistic that I’d ever see her again.

We parted with a polite hug and she gave me an affectionate kiss on my cheek that burned for two hours and left me on a huge high. I felt proud of myself for not coming onto her in a stronger way as well as for not being overly shy and avoiding her altogether. If there had ever been a woman that I wanted to get to know better and have in my life, I hadn’t found her until Crystal.

One of the calls I’d promised to make was to my father. He lived in a nice neighborhood near the city called Bird Key. The entry way to the gatehouse had a fountain, a guard house, and the streets were all named after various types of indigenous birds.

My father was an investment broker; still in his forties. He’d married young and mom got pregnant on their wedding night, at least that was the story I got. After her death, he’d remained a lone and lonely bachelor for the past nine years, and hadn’t seemed particularly eager to hook-up with anybody.

After I graduated high school, I worked on him to get him to date and find companionship with somebody he loved and that loved him. He’d wave his hand in the air dismissively, and say things like, ‘Not gonna happen.’

Dad poured himself into work, established himself as a top-performer in a tough industry, and kept his nose clean. Somehow, he consistently kept his clients from avoiding the bust cycles in various industries that often sank other investment managers. As good as he was at work, he had no social life outside of work. Nada. Zilch. Nothing. He just didn’t go out, unless it was in a professional capacity.

Thus, I was surprised when I’d listened to my messages the day before when I finally paid attention to my cellphone instead of my client. Dad had called and invited me to dinner that Friday evening; not an unusual event. What was unusual was that he had a ‘woman’ that he wanted me to meet, and it was obviously not in a business sense. He was thinking that ‘she could be somebody special in his life.’ Those words surprised me given his history of anti-social behavior.

I called my father. Ross picked up on the first ring. “Thanks for calling back.”

“You have a girlfriend?” I bluntly asked, without any preliminaries. He would know I was teasing.

“No,” he assured me with a chuckle. “At least not yet. I just met Alice a week or so ago, and I invited her to dinner tonight – I’m barbecuing. She called yesterday to return my call to her about dinner, and as the time gets closer, I’m starting to get cold feet. Yes, I invited her ... and her sister who she didn’t want to leave alone, but I need you to be here to balance things out. I need help, too. I’m beyond nervous – that long-tailed cat in a room of rocking chairs, you know.”

“What? You’re afraid to be alone with her? You need a wingman?” I teased. We often had more of a relationship like brothers rather than parent-child.

“David, ALL my male friends are married except you. I have not dated since your mother died nine years ago, and I pretty much dated her exclusively in college. Ergo, I haven’t really dated anybody in twenty-six-plus years and I didn’t do much back then either. I won’t know what to say, how to carry a conversation, and certainly not how to flirt or let on that I like her. I’ve been losing sleep all week just thinking about this.”

I sighed and did an eye roll he obviously couldn’t see over the phone. “When? Where?”

“My house, tonight, six-thirty, bathing suit and t-shirt. Very casual. She liked that I have a pool and asked whether the two of them could swim. Of course, I said they could before and-or after dinner. They’re not due until closer to seven. You need to help me to be charming and appealing.”

“Daaaaad! You’re charming without doing anything special. How’d you meet this femme fatale?”

“Starbucks, of course. The place was busy and I had empty seats at my table. She asked to sit with me. We struck up a conversation. She got me talking. I think we liked each other right away. She talked about her sister, too – Trish. After over an hour, she apologized that she had to go; she said she had a trip to make.

“On the spur of the moment, I asked her to dinner tonight before she left; she thought about it, studied me, probably decided I wasn’t too bad of a pervert, and accepted. The invitation was the first thing that popped into my head; I didn’t want to leave without some way to be in touch with her again. She gave me her number and asked me to call and leave a message with some details; I did that two days ago when I had some confidence. So, I’ve kind of known her for an hour and a brief telephone call.”

“That’s it? And you think she could be ‘somebody special’, you said?” I was laughing. This woman must have left an indelible impression.

“Wait until you meet her. You’ll see. She’s a breath of fresh air, and she’s gorgeous. And, of course, she’s a lot younger than I am. That’s part of what scares me about tonight. My confidence has sunk to zero. I’m embarrassed for you to see me this way, but ... I need your help with the two of them.”

“Just be yourself. If you pretend to be something you’re not, eventually she’ll figure out the true you, and be pissed that you pretended to be somebody else.”

His words about the mystery woman triggered my own memory of Crystal. I did need to see her again and try to build something.

I drove up to my father’s home right at six-thirty. Once inside, I found him pacing back and forth. He had the backyard grill already heating, burgers and chicken ready to barbecue, and several side dishes ready to serve including a large house salad. My dad could be quite domestic when he was in the mood. The house looked highly polished, and there wasn’t a speck of dust or an out-of-place item to be seen anywhere. He’d done a massive cleaning and straightening.

I glanced around, “Good first impression. The whole house is impressive as you know. She’ll love your bank account. Be sure to get a prenup before you get married.” I loved teasing him.

“WHAT?” he reacted as the words sunk in. He cooled instantly and fixed me in his stare. “Yes, she’s desirable, but I’m not sure I’m ready to get married just yet. She seems a lot younger, even about your age.”

“How old is her sister?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know – older, I think. Didn’t get that piece of information; only her name – Trish, but she did call her a ‘big sister’.” He started pacing again and wringing his hands.

I glanced around, “Do you have wine or beer to offer them? What about margaritas?”

“Oh, shit. Yes, no.” He scurried over to the kitchen refrigerator and showed me three bottles of wine and some beer being cooled. He then got out the blender and started to set up to make margaritas. He had the right ingredients, and I let him work as I sat and watched. The activity seemed to calm his nerves.

Just as he turned on the blender to mix some ingredients, the door chime rang. I stood, “I’ll get it.” My dad looked relieved that I’d have first contact with the enemy.

I went to the front door and opened the door wide in a grandiose gesture. I certainly had a smile ... that suddenly turned to a huge question mark.

“Crystal?”

“Dave?”

There was a long silence as Crystal and I stared at each other. We’d parted company about three hours earlier.

I chuckled. I made the leap to what had most likely happened. “Welcome to my father’s home. Are you who he met at Starbucks? Are you Alice or Crystal?”

“Yes. I gave him my first name that I don’t use too often these days – Alice. It’s my first name, but I go by ... Errr, this is awkward. This dinner was why I couldn’t accept your invitation this evening. I really do want to go out with you. A girl can’t be too careful. That’s why I wanted my sister along.”

The slightly older woman behind her smiled up at me. My heart melted. She was obviously Crystal’s sister and had also inherited the good looks and welcoming personality that her sister had also received. I could barely take my eyes from the sister. They were obviously from the same beautiful gene pool.