Chapter 1

I remember the first time I saw her at work. I was walking through towards my department and saw her chatting with some of the younger girls in front about going out dancing. She was dressed in a western outfit, complete with straw hat, but her tight jeans made me take a second look. Yes, she was much younger than me, but I've always been entranced by shapely legs and butts on a pretty girl. Anna was simply gorgeous. I just shook my head at my lecherous thoughts and with a private smile went on about my day.

Over time, my opinion of her changed. It's true that my first impression of her was a semi-ditzy girl, charming and easy on the eyes but probably high maintenance. Oh, and definitely out of my league. After all, I don't see a particularly handsome man when I look in the mirror. I would say I'm average at best, with a bit of a gut. I get along well enough with most people, but I'm introverted and charismatic, two traits that don't exactly complement eachother. Plus, I tend to look down on people that can't keep up in conversations. Overall, I guess most people would consider me gruff and unapproachable.

Knowing that, you can imagine how surprised I was when she chose to work with me whenever she could, after transferring to my department. This must have been close to a year after that first time I saw her in that silly straw Stetson. Anna was still amazingly good looking, though the smocks we had to wear in my department tended to hide her curves. My particular job as cheese monger required a lot of work and there were never enough hours to accomplish everything that needed to be done. Any help was welcome, but I had to train any helpers I got; if something was wrong with any of the cheese it fell straight on me. We had the largest selection of cheese in the county at over three hundred varieties, and seemingly every one of them had to be treated differently or had some special detail that had to be attended to.