Chapter 3: Cleanup on Aisle Five

Tom sat in his car for a few minutes, even more puzzled and confused than he had been before. Spontaneous sex with two women, and it wasn't even nine o'clock yet. He grinned, and made a mental note to buy some lottery tickets before the day was over. His first thought was to go home and go back to bed for awhile, but he still needed some groceries. He normally hated to go to the grocery on Saturday morning, but he didn't want to come out later. Reluctantly, he drove to his usual supermarket.

When he parked, Tom noticed with a pang of suspicion that this lot was almost deserted also. That was unheard of for a Saturday morning. He sighed and racked it up as just another unexplainable piece of good luck in what was turning out to be a day full of it. He grabbed a cart and quickly headed down the familiar aisles. He knew what he needed and knew right where to go. He expected to be in and out in less than ten minutes. His most pressing need was coffee, so he headed for aisle five.

Walking with his head down, preoccupied with the sweet memories of his two recent encounters, he almost ran headlong into a woman standing in front of the gourmet coffees. Actually she wasn't just standing; she was bent over, and her short tennis dress gave Tom a clear view of her legs, almost all the way to the hem of her panties. Just what I don't need today, Tom chuckled to himself, but he took a quick look anyway. Why would anyone wear something like that to go shopping if they weren't somewhat of an exhibitionist, he figured, so taking a peek was no big deal.

Tom admired the ample but firm thighs on display in front of him for a few seconds, before doing the gentlemanly thing and looking away. But he wasn't quick enough. Miss Tennis Dress had turned around and caught him.

"Hey, TJ. Finally checking out my ass, huh?"

Tom was surprised to see that the short skirt was worn by Dee. They had been coworkers for a few years, before she had moved on to a better job. That had been about a year ago, and Tom hadn't seen or talked to her since. He felt bad about that, because they had been friends, and he missed her company. Dee could hold her liquor as well as most of the guys Tom knew, and she had become part of Tom's circle of drinking buddies. Even though she was the only female, Dee fit in with the group easily. Because she wasn't very feminine, she didn't cause any of the tensions that an attractive unattached woman might normally cause in a group of hard-drinking guys. She wore her hair very short, had no breasts to speak of, and everyone assumed that she was a lesbian.

But Tom had found out from some conversations between the two of them that she wasn't gay at all. She had been sexually assaulted as a teenager, and that experience had left her with a fear of intimate contact with men. For most of her life she made herself as unattractive as she could to avoid having to face that kind of situation again. And it had worked. Even though they had gotten pretty drunk together a lot, Tom had never had enough booze to make Dee look desirable to him. They had remained 'just friends'.

But Tom realized that something had changed with Dee. She had let her hair grow out long enough to put in a ponytail, and it looked like she was actually wearing a little makeup. Combine that with the short dress, and it looked like Dee was trying to make herself attractive to men again. It looked like she was finally putting her past behind her.

"Hi, Dee. Yeah, you caught me. But you gotta admit, that skirt, and that position, kind of draws attention to your... ," Tom almost blushed. He wasn't sure why, but calling Dee's rear end an ass, even though it was the word she had used, seemed wrong.