It was the night of the senior prom that I first had any inkling that Maria had any interest in me other than as a friend. While slow dancing she had pulled me close and started to run her hands up and down my back.

Being a socially incompetent teenager I went into shock and tried to deny that a hand caressing it’s way toward my butt had any sexual connotations. Fortunately for my overloaded nerves the song ended and what could have been a potentially embarrassing situation, namely the growing bulge in my pants, was averted by a fast pop piece that didn’t really allow for slow dancing. By the end of the night I was beginning to think that Maria’s caresses had only been my imagination as there had been no repeat performances. As the DJ was about to play the last song, my date announced she was going to the bathroom thereby leaving alone with Maria and another slow song. I grinned at her nervously and she smiled back with a gleam in her eye that looked something like “I’m going to eat you up!”

I never thought a woman could sweep me off my feet (I play football, lineman to be exact, so I’m not very small) but somehow Maria crossed the ten feet in between us in two steps and molded herself to me, thereby sweeping me towards the ceiling. Much to my chagrin I felt my previous problem start to grow again, but it was at the beginning of the song this time. I felt her hot breath on my neck and my ears and every little bit of male hormone in my body cried out for release right there on the dance floor no matter whether the whole school was watching or not. She whispered something in my ear and started to pull me off the dance floor, but by this time my date was walking back in from the bathroom and I saw a chance to save myself from impending doom. As Maria pulled me towards the door, I tried to beg off, saying that I had to be with my date.

When I pulled away from Maria she looked at me strangely, it was then I realized what she had whispered in my ear, “One of my seams is coming undone and I need you to help me hold my dress up.” For the first time in my life my body actually reacted properly and in a timely fashion and I managed to take her back into my arms before she was completely exposed to half the school. We walked out of the main room, my date staring at us furiously, but I had just saved Maria from incredible embarrassment. As I walked Maria towards the women’s room I knew I would have a lot of explaining to do. I also realized as Maria entered the bathroom how desperate her situation really was when I saw the curve of the underside of her breast as she pushed the door out of the way.

The rest of the prom was relatively tame... I talked to some of my friends before hopping into my car and driving my date home. There was no love lost between us and she got over the incident with Maria after I explained to her what happened. Actually, my date had no reason to complain, we both went to the prom understanding that I wanted a pretty face as an escort and she wanted a chance to dance with a few upperclassman that she liked.

By the time I got home I had pretty much put all that had happened that evening in the back of my mind, except for the image of Maria’s breast, which would probably haunt my dreams, wet and otherwise, for a while.

I guess I should explain a little bit more about my relationship with Maria. We were in three classes together, and had been palling around together for a while.

She was considered by many to be one of “those” girls and consequently many of my friends disapproved of my friendship with her. The really funny thing is I never really had any sexual feelings towards Maria, in fact I considered her to be just one of my regular friends, one of the “guys” in fact. As with all my friends, I would do practically anything for her, and in fact, I had helped her get through her last year of high school by tutoring her almost constantly in Physics. We would occasionally hug, but it was always just a friendly thing in my mind. I had heard rumours about her but I was never one to accept anything at face value, so I treated her just like anyone else. I never really realized what people thought about our relationship until one of the other guys on the football team asked me straight out if I had “fucked her yet.” I made special efforts from then on to make the extent of my relationship with Maria very clear to her and my friends, and I thought that I had everything straightened out. I stopped hugging Maria as often, and she looked a little hurt, but as I was (and still am) completely clueless when it comes to other peoples emotions I thought it had something to with her family or something...

Anyway, the next few days after the prom were a blur and I didn’t end up seeing Maria again until the next Wednesday. We happened to run into each other outside of the library where we were taking care of “senior obligations.” With a perfectly innocent smile Maria asked me to go out to lunch with her at the new Chinese restaurant which had just opened the previous month. Not being one to refuse a friend lunch, especially when it was Chinese food, I agreed and we decided to meet at 11:30 so that lunch wouldn’t take up the whole afternoon. I visited some of my teachers as well as my guidance counsellor and wasted a few more hours talking with some of my underclassmen friends. At 11:30 I met Maria at my car and this time her smile looked a little more meaningful, but again, my cluelessness got the better of me and we continued on our merry way. Maria kept on throwing sidelong glances at me so I figured that I had once again committed the ultimate male crime when dealing with woman; she had either gotten a new hair cut or new clothes and I had not noticed.

Surprisingly enough after a short inspection I realized that I hadn’t missed anything, Maria looked just like she normally did, except for an impish gleam in her eye.

When we finally arrived at the restaurant I was really psyched for some good Chinese food, as well as some time spent with a friend, and my thoughts were on a steaming hot plate of General Tau’s chicken and the upcoming graduation ceremony. In fact, that afternoon the whole senior class was supposed to meet to practice the graduation march. We had been told that if we missed practice we wouldn’t be allowed to march in the real graduation ceremony, so I was definitely planning on making it on time. Lunch was even better than I thought it would be. The food was magnificent and the ambience was really terrific. The building was decorated in early twentieth century imperial Chinese. In other words, large blocks of green marble and beautiful flowing curtains, not overly gaudy, but flamboyant in an understated sort of way.

Maria and I had the restaurant practically to ourselves and the waiter was always available in his perfectly pressed tuxedo. He was not at all pushy, and it almost seemed as if we were being waited on by a ghost. I had my General Tau’s and Maria had Buddha’s delight, both of which were perfect in both of our minds. Throughout the meal Maria kept on looking at me expectantly and I wondered once again if I had missed something, but there was nothing that I could see and I assumed I must be getting paranoid or something.

As we were sitting after completely filling ourselves I couldn’t help but ask Maria if she would like to go on a short hike with me owing to the beautiful weather, and the few extra minutes we had. She smiled back sunnily and told me she would love to go. We asked the waiter for the check and he returned a few seconds later with the check and some fortune cookies. Although I couldn’t have stuffed anything else down, I decided to break open a fortune cookie nonetheless, as did Maria. Mine said, “Take a friend on your next journey,” which I thought was appropriate since Maria was going to go hiking with me. Maria’s was just as appropriate, it said, “You will be touched by Nature.” I slipped the little slips of paper into my wallet as I got my money out and didn’t even think about what they said until later.

We left the waiter a nice tip and drove up to the local Boy Scout reservation so that we could walk to my favourite scenic point. It was about a 15 minute walk to the highest point from the parking lot, nothing intense, just a nice relaxing hike with a slight grade.

As we were still doing well on time we decided to take a slightly longer route through a deeper part of the forest by a bubbling brook that ran down into a pond. It was the kind of secluded place that you’d expect to find Bambi and Thumper playing around, sort of an idyllic little garden.

It was at this point that I first noticed something about Maria; she really was a beautiful woman. Not just pretty or cute, she was alluring, the kind of woman that you might imagine in one of those soft-porn novels that your mom loves to read. She seemed to exude self-confidence, perhaps even sexuality, as if to say, “I am Nature, I am beauty.” It reminded me of the previous Halloween when she had dressed as a goddess, it was probably the first time I had really thought of her as a woman. For the first time in my life I actually took a chance with a woman.

She had walked a little further down the path and I quickly caught up to her. When she heard me approach she stopped to wait for me, and when I saw that smile I absolutely melted. She put out her hand to me and it just seemed so natural to take it into mine. We continued walking along the pond, now hand in hand, a warm feeling spreading throughout my body.

This was really weird, I felt as if I had a fever, yet I knew I was perfectly healthy. Then again, General Tau’s chicken tends to be spicy, maybe that was the problem... God was I confused. My poor body was going into sensory overload just from the feeling of Maria’s soft skin against mine and I had no idea what to do next, so being the shy person I am, I just continued walking.

Eventually we reached the scenic overlook, and we both held our breath as our eyes swept the view that spread out before us. We were standing on some larger boulders, and everything that was our life was encompassed by our gaze, and it made me think about how little my life was compared to anything. I was going away to school next year to discover a new way of doing things, and I would once again be low man on the totem pole.

I would have to make new friends, learn new things, and essentially start life over again. It wasn’t really that comfortable of a feeling, but I took it into my heart and knew that it was what I needed in order to grow. This summer would be a turning point in my life, yet I have to tell you, my thoughts had little to do with the future, rather they had everything to do with this beautiful woman standing beside me. I wondered if she felt that fire burning through her fingers that I felt burning mine. I wondered what she would do or say if I turned towards her now and kissed her passionately. The moment had passed and Maria and I were both sweaty from the climb, myself especially so for other reasons, and we decided to sit and rest for a while.

As was my intention was to go for a hike and suntan, albeit by myself, I laid out the blanket I had brought and took off my t-shirt and shoes to reduce the tan lines they would create. Normally I would climb up here and strip down to my underwear to really decrease the tan lines, occasionally even going nude, but I didn’t really think either would be too appropriate considering Maria’s presence. I was no longer holding her hand, which was probably better anyway since my palms had gone sweaty. Something I’m sure Maria wouldn’t have appreciated.

When I went to lay back I discovered much to my chagrin that Maria had lain down and taken up the whole blanket. I gazed at her thoughtfully, and my thoughts were anywhere but on the fact she had stolen my blanket. I stared blatantly at her chest which stood up even though she was lying on her back, and a flashback of the under slope of her breast at the prom tore through my mind. I quickly became aware that the problem I had experienced while slow dancing with Maria was quickly becoming a problem again and there was nothing that was going to help it. I was hoping that Maria would not notice my problem, and from what I could tell she didn’t.

I was still staring at her a minute later when her eyes fluttered open and she said, “Hey silly, you’re blocking my sun!” I moved out of the way, but her eyes followed me.

With a jealous tone of voice she said, “That’s no fair, you can take off your top and get a tan!”

Once again I surprised myself and said nonchalantly, “No one is stopping you from taking yours off.”

She grinned at me slyly and did the last thing I suspected she would, sitting up, Maria beamed at me as she slowly removed her t-shirt.

My eyes must have bugged out of my head and I was distinctly aware of my “problem,” as was Maria by this time.

I followed the edges of her bra, my eyes attracted by the broad swatches of frilly lace that seemed to draw me towards her nipples, which were distinctly evident through the lace.

I traced the swelling of her breasts upwards and made the mistake of looking into her liquid brown eyes. I knew at that point that there was no doubt in her mind that something was going to happen this afternoon. I’ve never seen such hunger in my life before. We’ve all heard the expression, “She’s got stars in her eyes,” well Maria had more than stars in her eyes, and whatever that expression was on her face, I knew that it could only spell trouble for me of the best kind. My mind started spinning and I had a vision of having mad passionate sex right there on the rocks. In the split second that I was sitting there I had this really weird image of myself trying to sit down and finding that my ass was sunburned...