Chapter 2

When I went to see Bridget yesterday I was actually worried she might know what I was thinking by the expression on my face. I was still high on the fantasy sex I had with her the night before, as well as the orgasm she gave me, without her knowledge, of course. I thought she might take one look at me and know about my lusty play, of which she was the star attraction.

Thankfully, if she did sense anything like that in my demeanor, she didn't seem to mind. She greeted me more joyfully than she ever has.

"Hi!" she called out from her register as soon as she saw me.

I was flattered that, at least for a moment, she was ignoring the customer she was serving. I couldn't help assessing the way she acted with the woman who was checking out. She appeared to be a businesswoman, similar to my age, pretty enough, not nearly as fit as me, I noted.

"That woman had better not be checking out my Bridget!" I thought to myself with a chuckle.

Silly thoughts, I know. Mostly in fun. But I needn't have worried. I could see that Bridget was half-interested in her customer at best, though she was attentive enough. On the other hand, when the woman left with her purchases, I got the royal welcome.

"Ohh, I'm so glad you came in!"

"Hi, Bridget!" I offered, adding my own genuine enthusiasm to the mix.

I stood by her checkout lane as we talked. I had pretty much decided that I was going to ask her to have coffee with me for real. And nothing that I read in her behavior made me think that wasn't a good idea. I invited her to go with me when she was off work. She seemed slightly hesitant, but I pushed through it and uncovered the issue.

"Don't feel like you have to, Bridget," I said. "It was just a suggestion."

"Oh, Lauren!" she replied. "Don't get the wrong idea. I'd love to go. It's just that I'm more of a coffee person in the morning. I don't usually do coffee after work."

"Oh, no problem, Bridget. Ummm..."

I thought maybe that was the end of it, which I could have certainly dealt with. I could find another fantasy girl with the possibility of...

"Can we do something else?" Bridget said, interrupting my thought process. "How about ice cream?"

My, oh my. Take this precious young thing for ice cream? Hmmm ... let me think about... yes!

"Sure, Bridget," I said nonchalantly. "Ice cream is great. I might still have to get coffee, but..."

"No problem! Oh, Lauren, I'd love to! I get off at 5:30. Is that O.K.?"

"It's perfect, Bridget. How about I pick you up in front of the store right around 5:30, or a little after?"

"Awesome! I'm soooo excited!"

That's the kind of enthusiasm I like to generate in my girls! Hee-hee ... I left the store pretty darned excited too, knowing that I had a date with the cutest thing south of 5 feet two inches that I had ever seen. I did my best to think a bit about work for the rest of the day. I drove up to Bridget's store at 5:30 on the nose, and within 90 seconds she was bounding through the self-opening door, looking in my windows to make sure it was me in the car, then pouncing herself onto the passenger seat. Yahoo!

"Hiya," I said with a big smile. "Did you have a good day?"

"It was fine," Bridget replied. "It was a lot better knowing we were gonna do this after work! This is so much fun, Lauren. Thank you for asking me."

"My pleasure, Hon. I've been thinking about asking you to do something like this for a few weeks."

"Really? That's so nice! I'm so glad!"

"So, where do you like to get ice cream, Bridget?"

"Let's see ... there's the natural dairy place. That's really good."

"Yeah, that's good. Hey, how about the new place, where they put the ice cream on the cold marble slab and mix in anything you want?"

"Oh, cool!" Bridget exclaimed. "I've never been there but I heard it's the best!"

I couldn't deny that I felt like a mom, loving to show her daughter new things, and seeing her all excited. Wow. What would it be like if I took Bridget with me to Orlando for the conference I'm attending in a couple of weeks? My mind started racing so much that I had to put that idea on the shelf for the time being. It was too much too fast, wasn't it? Of course it was. Sheesh! Anyway, I was out to just enjoy my time with Bridget for the next hour or two, and then to go from there.

We got to the place I had talked about and found that during dinner time it wasn't too crowded. I watched with delight as Bridget ogled the ice cream in the display case first, then the dozens of things that could be mixed-into it. We both made our choices and I paid. I of course got coffee with mine, as I had said I would. Then we found a table in the back where we could relax and talk.

I guess my instincts about Bridget overall were not too far off, because the conversation was surprisingly similar to the one I had imagined when I was fantasizing about meeting with her. We talked about her and school, her job and how much she wants to do something that matters more than selling office supplies and so on. Things took an interesting turn for me when Bridget asked about my family. I was surprised at how forthcoming I was with her.

"So, tell me about your kids," Bridget said. "And your husband. What does he do?"

"Well, my daughter Megan is a Junior at Brooks High. My son Jason graduated from there last year and he's just finishing his first year at UM. He actually comes home for spring break this weekend."

"How old are they?"

"Megan is almost 17 and Jason is 20."

"He's almost my age."

"That's right."

"Do you miss him when he's away at school?"

That was a question that could have been loaded, although Bridget knew nothing about my family, so I knew there was no implication behind it. Things had been at a weird place with Jason for a while and I wasn't sure what spring break would bring. But I was no where near ready to go into that much detail with Bridget for a while, if ever.

"Oh, sure," I replied. "But he's got his own life now, you know? Especially since he's been living at school. I've hardly seen him since he left."

"How about your daughter? Are you two close?"

Another kettle of fish that would not be explored for the time being.

"You know, mothers and daughters," I said. "We have our moments, some good, some bad."

As for my husband, well ... we've been married over 20 years. Most of them have been decent.

"It's O.K. if you don't want to talk about it, Lauren. I'll understand."

I was glad to see that Bridget was perceptive. At the same time, I still wasn't ready to share too much.

"Did it sound like that, Bridget?" I asked. "No, it's not ... Listen, you're a young woman. You don't need to hear about my marriage of all things."

"I just want to hear about you, Lauren. But it's no problem. Any time you want to talk, about anything, it's fine with me. O.K.?"

I was impressed with her. She could read me better than I would have expected, and she had the maturity to look me right in the eye and tell me that she was there for me if I needed to talk. If I needed to talk? Damn. Bridget has more depth and maturity than I had given her credit for.