April_(1)

Rob stood at the door, fidgeting and waiting for April to answer his knock. He could hear her approach, so he
straightened his stance and put a pleasant smile on his face, hoping she wouldn’t notice how nervous he was. After all, he was simply there to have dinner as a friend, right?

Rob and April met each other two years earlier when they were in training for a tech support job at a major insurance company. Rob immediately felt a connection with April, and they struck up a friendship. All during training (which included some 15 other people) they spent lunches together, eating in the cafeteria then walking the expansive parking lot for exercise. April would tell Rob of her problems with boyfriends, and Rob would tell April his problems with family members in general.

Rob hoped at first that something more than friendship would come out of their relationship, but had become convinced that it most likely never would. For one thing, Rob was 14, almost 15, years older than April, who had just turned 30 when the training started. For another thing, Rob simply didn’t think he was good looking or interesting enough to hold her attention as a lover.

By far the biggest hurdle, though, was Rob’s wife of 20-plus years, Ines. Rob had no interest in leaving Ines, whom he loved, and didn’t want to hurt her. He couldn’t offer any girl, even April, anything more than a relationship based on sneaking around and (hopefully) sex. At her age, April was presumably interested in finding a more stable relationship, someone with whom she could go out in public openly without fear of a jealous wife keying her car or coming to beat her up.

So Rob contented himself with her friendship, vowing to not ruin it by pursuing anything else with her. Instead, he introduced April to Ines and suggested they all hang out together. As he thought, Ines and April became friends, which lessened Ines’ suspicious nature. They’d go out to dinner or drinking, either with just April or sometimes her boyfriend Sam, but always having a good time.

April and Rob continued to spend time together at work even after the training was over, until Rob decided to pursue a different job. They kept in contact, and would meet for drinks (always accompanied by Ines) to catch up, but Rob assumed that the friendship would eventually fade over time.

And it did for a while, where they’d go days and weeks at a time without any contact before one or the other would send a quick “how are you doing?” text. But then April started texting more often. During a six month period, April would text Rob about the good and bad things going on in her life. Most of the texts concerned her on-again, off-again
relationship with Sam, who turned out to be an abusive control freak. When she finally broke up with him for good, Rob and Ines took her out for drinks to console her, but secretly Rob was celebrating that she had ditched the loser.

April would text Rob fairly regularly, alternately feeling blue and missing Sam, then feeling happy to have him out of her life. Rob noticed that, over time, she started acting like the confident, self-assured person he’d met in training, and was happy to see her finding herself again. When he told her exactly that, she beamed and thanked him for noticing.
When April told Rob via text that she was going to have to have her dog, which she’d had for over 15 years, put to sleep, Rob consoled her as best he could. April appreciated his kindness, and even told him that it was a marked contrast to how she knew Sam would have reacted.

All in all, Rob thought he was over the crush he’d had on April, and that they truly were nothing more than friends even in his own mind. So when Ines told him she was going on a weekend excursion with one of her girlfriends, Rob was surprised to find himself excited about the idea of seeing if April would want to go to dinner with him. He told himself
that it would just be as friends, and that it would be an opportunity for the two of them to talk uninterrupted by anyone else.

He called April from work on the Wednesday before Ines left, instead of texting. “Hello?” April answered.

“Hey, how are you doing?” Rob asked.

“Hey, buddy!” April exclaimed. “I’m doing good! How are you?”

“You know me; if I was any happier I’d have to sit on my hands to keep from waving!”

“Yea,” April responded, laughing. “What’s up?”

“Well, Ines is leaving for a weekend trip with one of her girlfriends on Friday. I was thinking of going out for dinner, but I don’t want to go alone. Would you care to join me?”

“Oh, Rob, I’d love to, but I don’t know.” April answered, uncertain. “Money is a little tight right now…” she didn’t finish the thought, but the meaning was clear.

“Oh, right, I understand,” Rob assured her, disappointed in her response. Another idea struck him, but he didn’t think it would be received any better. “Well, I could pick us up some Chinese take-out, and bring it over to your place if you like.”

“Chinese take-out?” April asked, showing genuine interest. “Where would you get it from?”

“Wherever you like,” Rob answered, brightening. They agreed on the restaurant, and Rob assured her he would get a good variety of things to sample.

So there he was, on time, bearing beef and broccoli, Hunan pork, and teriyaki chicken, as well as a bottle of moderately expensive wine that he hoped she would like. “Nothing’s gonna happen, we’re just friends!” he told himself over and over, as he heard her approach the door.

April opened the door with a big, bright smile. She was wearing a pair of yellow terry-cloth shorts and a plain t-shirt, but somehow made that look sexy as hell. Standing just at 5′ 4″, she weighed about 115 lbs, with an athletically toned body. Her breasts were not big, maybe a B cup, but from what could be determined in a bra, appeared to be firm and
perky. Rob was dressed in cargo shorts and a polo shirt. At 6′ 1″, his 220 lbs was a little heavy for him, but he carried it well and didn’t look fat.

“Hi, it’s so good to see you!” she gushed, taking some of the bags from him. “You too!” he answered, just as enthusiastically. She led him into the dining room, where, he noticed, the table was already set for the two of them, and they placed all the packages down. When they were both empty handed, she turned to him and held her arms out wide for a friendly hug. Rob was all to happy to comply, and wrapped her in his arms and lifted her off the ground in a good-natured joking manner. She squealed with delight, and he sat her back on the ground.

“Sorry,” he grinned. “I missed you more than I thought!” It crossed his mind that he had never hugged April before, because it seemed too familiar when Ines was around. Tonight, it felt just right.

“I missed you too!” April replied, gripping his forearm warmly. “Is that wine?”

“Yes,” Rob answered, taking the bottle out of the bag. “It’s still cool, and we’ll want to open it and let it breath for about 15 minutes.”

“Okay, I’ll open it now, then we can start dishing out chow.”

“Sounds good to me.”

April got a cork screw out of one of the drawers and started working on the bottle. Rob watched for a few seconds before reaching out and gently taking the bottle and cork screw from her. “Give it to me, sweetie, before you hurt yourself,” he said, only half joking. For all her good attributes, the girl was klutzy! With impressive skill, Rob quickly opened the bottle and poured two glasses so that the wine could aerate.

They opened the food containers and passed them back and forth as they dished out a small amount of each on their plates, chit-chatting. When they were ready, April turned away just a moment, and turned back with a small candelabra with two candles. “I hope you won’t think this is too forward or corny, but I just like eating by candlelight.”

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Rob answered. “I like intimate.” He chuckled, hoping to take a little of the edge off his obvious flirting. April smiled warmly, looking him briefly in the eyes.