she walked out of the building and he was there, smiling and holding the door, just like he always was. she stepped into the sun and turned to talk with him as she often did when she had a minute. “merry christmas” she told him gravely without taking her gaze from his eyes.
“merry christmas” he said, equally gravely and with a similar dedication of gaze. “how was work today?”
“just lovely, it’s always a treat to work on christmas” he laughed at her a little then and she laughed with him “yeah, i guess that is a little weird, but they’re always so grateful that it’s like getting presents from them just for showing up… it just makes them so happy.”
“who am i to talk right?” he laughed along with her.
they did this often, discussing food and the people walking by and the trivia of the day and of her life. they didn’t seem to care much what it was that they were discussing, they just enjoyed creating sparks in the eyes of the other.
she thought sometimes about the things she wanted to do to him. about tracing the blade of his nose with a finger and then following it’s crest to the corner of his lips, tracing them with that same finger and then down his throat to his collarbone.
she thought of the way he might sound if he shivered then. and about the noise he would make when her tongue touched the hollow of his throat for the first time. she felt in her mind the tremors he would make as she nibbled at the nape of his neck.
she wondered if he did this same thing to her. if his eyes followed her ass when she walked away and ached to grasp it with his palms. whether or not he treasured the days she wore more revealing shirts, aching just from a glimpse of her cleavage or even her collarbone.
he might imagine his tongue tracing the contours of her back and following her spine to it’s base. finding the place she had always meant to place a tattoo and leaving sense memories there instead. possibly even how her back would feel as it undulated under his hands.
sometimes, late at night she really let her imagination soar and in it she called his name and he answered above her as their eyes locked and their slick bodies moved as one and there was reverence in their gazes.
she imagined how his face would look when he was old and tried not to notice how impossibly young he was. he made her laugh and he made her smile when he wasn’t even there. he paid attention to the things she said and made reference to them later. she was just so tired of wanting the ones she couldn’t have and so she tried not to hear when he casually worked a question about her dating status into the conversation.
she ignored it when he made comments that she would one day have considered flirting with purpose. she knew better now because she had been wrong on so many previous occasions. she just enjoyed his company for what it was, a nice young man flirting with the mature lady at work.
so the occasional conversations about chocolate were keeping her awake at nights, she wasn’t going after a man so much younger than she was and she was sure when his fancy turned and he started flirting with someone else that she would be glad she hadn’t allowed herself to grow infatuated with him.
“are you doing anything special tonight?” he asked her as she made noises about leaving.
“only dinner with relatives and then probably home to watch a dvd” …’and do naughty things to you in my imagination’ she added silently to herself.
“me too” he said and stepped down to the step she was on.
“well” she sighed “i’d better go, i still have some last minute wrapping to do”
“take care of yourself, and blessing of the universe to you this christmas”
she smiled, “and you as well” and he touched her arms and leaned in to bestow the traditional kiss on each cheek. she caught her breath as his scent wafted through her nostrils, he smelled spicy and clean without perfume other than his own and she felt her eyes flutter closed for a second.
she caught her breath again and forced herself to sway back from him a little.
he smiled suddenly and dropped his head to within an inch of hers, watching her eyes the whole way, satisfied by what he saw there he traced his hands to the nape of her neck and held her head gently as his lips dropped to hers.
she rose on tiptoe and placed her hands on his shoulders and they stood like that, lips just touching, for an endless moment before they began to kiss each other gently, lips touching and parting and touching again.
“oh” she said as she caught her breath “oh my”
“oh yes” he said before catching her lips with his own once more. this she could never have imagined.
