She immediately captivated me.

At first, I wasn’t sure why. Nice enough looking girl, but not a refined beauty. She seemed to have a decent figure, but it was hard to tell – she didn’t dress to show herself off. Perhaps it was her height. I’m a tall guy and she was about five-eleven. After I thought about it, I decided that she projected confidence and grace; when she walked, it was like watching a dancer.

I was watching her across the room at a professional society meeting. Carrying on a conversation with a peer (who happened to work for the competition), it was easy to take an occasional glance at her. She seemed similarly engaged with a man who did a presentation at last month’s meeting. About then the networking ended as we were called for dinner.

I hadn’t found my place card yet so I kind of circled around the outside of the tables, finding my place about halfway around . (They always do the seating randomly so we can meet new people.) The mystery woman came around the other side and I soon found it was my lucky day, she was seated next to me. I introduced myself; she told me her name was Sharon … and worked for a non-profit watchdog group. Hmm, that would require some self-confidence; perhaps that part was more than just an appearance.

Our discussion became focused and we quickly drilled down to a fairly deep level. We found ourselves summarizing our professional history. The short story is that she ran into a no-win situation once and almost quit the field altogether, but the NGA opportunity came up. It was a match made in heaven. She’d been there over ten years and was a senior project manager.

At close range, I could now tell that she did have a nice shape under the conservative clothes. I could see the outline of her breasts, nicely filling out her blouse. She was not a thin woman, had a substantial frame but I could also see the narrow of her waist. Between that and the depth of conversation, I was getting truly fascinated. All during the meal and after the presentation, the topics ranged from work-related to hobbies to our housing to … well you name it. As time went on, we found ourselves smiling more and more. At one point, I complimented her taste in music, and she almost blushed, we both knew the same indie rock bands – and who sang the leads in the early production of Cats.

After the presentation the meeting ended. I had to go but asked if I could call. She smiled and gave me her card.

——————

We met the next night for dinner and a drink. Her demeanor had changed, she was more intense and I found her staring into my eyes. I think I was doing the same. There was some serious chemistry brewing. After a bit, she paused and touched my arm, then presented a question.

“Would it be forward of me to ask you if you’re socially conservative?”

“Not forward, and the answer is no, but in what way exactly were you wondering?”

She said, “I’m dying of curiosity about something. ” A pause, then, “What part of a physical relationship do you like best?”

Zing. Didn’t expect that. I collected my thoughts and replied, “As I get older , franky I enjoy touching a lot more than I used to.” She smiled and said, “Somehow I would have guess that.