The Waiting Game

The lock-down had been hard on Sam. He personally didn't really care so much about whether he got some disease, but he did care about the little things he enjoyed about his daily routine. The sun was starting to go down, and it felt like another day gone with nothing done. He had to do something. He looked out of his semi-open front door, and saw his neighbor, Leslie. Leslie was tall and in pretty good shape. Long hair, long legs, pretty firm, and pretty young looking. Leslie wouldn't have necessarily been Sam's "type," but lock-down long enough, and you might be surprised. Sam had been staring too long at this point not to say anything.

"Hey neighbor, like what you've done with the place." Leslie looked at Sam for a minute, appearing unsure at who this neighbor was speaking to. "Are you talking to me?" Leslie asked without acceptance or dismissal.

"Yes I'm talking to you." Sam's cabin fever had given him some surprise confidence. "Who else has their place done up as sweet as you? I seriously like how all that looks. Brightens up the neighborhood."

"Well thank you." Leslie said this with a little more comfort than usual towards a neighbor, but the lock-down was getting to Leslie just as much as Sam, and a little confidence and conversation was appreciated. "I guess during this lock-down situation anything that brightens up anything looks pretty good." It sure does, Sam thought.

"So when exactly did you move in here? I didn't see when you came, but I know you haven't been here that long." It was true, Leslie had not been around long before this "epidemic lock-down" situation started. "Oh I guess a couple months. Time is moving weird right now so it's hard to tell. I'm Leslie, and what's your name if you don't mind?" Leslie proceeded cautiously. "I'm Sam Hammond. People call me Sam Ham, or Sam I am, or stupid asshole." Leslie laughed hard at this. It was interesting how small things became hilarious during lock-down situations with not much else to laugh at.

Leslie might not have generally been Sam's type, but Sam was Leslie's type. Sam was shorter than average with curly blondish hair. He looked tough, but in a younger man kind of way. Leslie didn't want the cards on the table yet, and still wasn't sure how this little game between neighbors would play out. Leslie liked Sam's short, but strong looking legs.

Sam looking back smiling just a little couldn't believe what he was thinking. He really had been under "lock-down" and "quarantine" too long. He started thinking about Leslie in ways he just didn't generally think when he looked at his neighbors. He wanted to know what Leslie's ass looked like under those loose fitting jogger pants. He kind of wanted Leslie to come over right now and give him a....

"So Sam I am, how do you like it around here?" Same was almost jarred out of his budding fantasy by the interruption. "Is this neighborhood all its cracked up to be? I really haven't been able to get around with all this epidemic crap." Leslie's residence was facing Sam's, and Leslie was aware that other neighbors might hear the two talking loosely, and Leslie was starting to wonder if it was a good idea to talk to strangers like this for all to hear, even cute ones.

Sam had been around the neighborhood for a few years, and was done worrying about what the neighbors thought. "Yeah it's OK. I've lived in worse places, and I guess I've lived in better. I keep my place locked up, but overall it's not too bad. You'll be fine. I'll keep an eye out on your place for you, now that I realize that it brightens up my day the way you decorated it."

"Thanks Sam." The way Leslie said those two words carried more content than everything else spoken up to that point between the two. They wanted to meet. They wanted to break the bonds of this lock-down and get each other off. They stared into each others smirks. Sam liked Leslie and Leslie's place, and Leslie wanted Sam to come inside.

Sam wanted to keep things going, being that the moment of contact was going to have to wait. There could be no perfect moment to engage in physical contact this evening; the government just wouldn't allow that. "Leslie, you couldn't be more welcome. Maybe we can eat together and talk like normal people when this is all over, instead of yelling from place to place like uncivilized folks. I'll show you around the town." Sam now spoke with the confidence of somebody who had it in the bag, and Leslie was a sucker for that.

"Sure Sam, we can do that. I'm glad we met. I'm going to go inside and read a book a little bit. Maybe we can talk tomorrow?" Leslie was playing it cagey as possible, because there had to be a balance for Sam's "in the bag" confidence. Sam wanted to keep talking pretty bad. He hadn't wanted to talk to anybody so bad in quite a good-long while. Leslie's long hair, undertone feminine demeanor, and younger features, along with the way the decorating had brightened up his day, all had given Sam a reinvigorated focus on some things. On himself.

"Yeah we can talk tomorrow Leslie. I heard this lock-down is supposed to end in a couple weeks. I think maybe I have something to look forward to now." Sam glanced over and saw a nosey neighbor a few doors down giving a "So what the **** do we have going on here?" look at Sam and Leslie. Sam briefly thought about changing his tone, but again, the cabin fever came with a burst of unusual confidence that was hard to put a finger on. "We're good" Sam said to the older neighbor; the neighbor mumbled something Sam knew was stupid and not as important as this conversation, and they turned away.

Leslie had a squished smile that was a little more than a smirk. "A couple weeks? That's a long time cowboy. I guess it's always a waiting game though, isn't it?" Sam could not agree more.

"It is. It definitely is. Alright. Read your book and goodnight." Sam said this and turned away first, which satisfied him.

Sam thought about Leslie in bed.

Leslie thought about Sam in bed.

The lock-down was almost over, and they knew what would happen when it was.

11 o'clock hit, and the sound of some metal doors clanging echoed, but nowhere near as many as usual. The lights flickered and then shut off. A loud forced burly voice yelled, "Lights out ladies!"

Lock-down was almost over. It was just a waiting game. Sam was wide awake 15 minutes after lights-out when he heard an obviously playful, just loud-enough whisper from across the hall, "Goodnight stupid asshole."