Only outside the house did there have to be any sort of separation between us, and that was damn small.
It didn't matter to Janet, who I was waiting on. I was unexpectedly apprehensive as I sat at the curb, looking at her house. It was on the north side of town, not in the worst neighborhood, but not the best either. Janet shared the house with three other girls, and while I'd been invited in before, I was too nervous that night for dealing with the other three.
Seeing Janet come out of the house in her cute little black dress, I didn't care. Turning on a heel, her skirt flared just a little bit, and I got a nice look of her thigh, a little surge going down to my pants. Janet didn't understand how she affected me, and I hadn't worked up the guts to tell her in plain language yet. I was kind of hoping things would just develop organically, or at least as organically as anything ever did in my family. There are certain things that don't get talked about with people without serious consideration.
I got out of my car and came up the short concrete walk, taking her hand. "You look gorgeous."
She blushed, accepting my compliment. "Thanks. I had to borrow it from Penny, but she was happy about it when she found out why."
I pulled Janet in for a hug, relishing the feeling of her curves under my hands. She never acknowledged it, but Janet was one of the cutest girls I'd ever seen. Not only did she have curves in all the right places, but a smile that could light up a room. The only shame of it all was that she hid it so often underneath a thick layer of shyness.
On the other hand, it may have been that shyness that attracted me to her. I'd cultivated a well-deserved reputation as a playboy, having wined and dined my way through most of the A-list girls in the city, and then again at Harvard. I wasn't a bad-boy per se, but more of a serial dater.
It wasn't that I intended to be a player, I just never was able to find a woman who interested me past the first date, or at worst, the first time we went to bed together. So many of them were self-absorbed, thinking they were goddesses when the only difference between them and every other girl in the world was usually a few surface changes and the size of their bank accounts. If any of the girls that I dated wanted to meet a goddess, I'd happily introduce them to my mother or my sister.
But Janet was different. If anything, she underestimated her looks and ability, refreshingly so. She didn't kiss my ass either, and I appreciated that. Instead, she just said thank you meaningfully when she thought I did something nice for her, and listened when I spoke. She really listened too, and didn't just wait for her turn to talk. I tried my hardest to reciprocate. My mother hadn't raised a disrespectful fool, after all.
"Regardless of whose it is, you make it look beautiful," I said, kissing her on the cheek. I wanted to take her to bed so much, but at the same time I didn't want to rush things. I was looking for the time when she was ready, and not try to push things like I always had before. "Seriously, my sister is going to be jealous."
"I doubt that. I've seen her, remember? But thank you for the compliment anyway. Come on, lets get going before I lose my nerve."
I chuckled and held the door open for Janet, who took the passenger seat and buckled in while I went around to the driver's seat. I punched in my destination and the car pulled away, gliding with traffic. I waited to make sure things were going well before pushing back from the steering wheel. "You know, you don't have to be nervous. You've already met Mom, after all."
"For all of about thirty seconds the night I met you," Janet said with a little smile. "Although I do owe her a thank you for introducing us. But there's a difference between talking for thirty seconds with the lady of the house and sitting down for dinner with the most powerful family in the city. I mean, Tabby McCaffery is like the woman I wanted to be when I