SWEETNESS TRUMPS BEAUTY

SWEETNESS TRUMPS BEAUTY

     Allen Larson had just gone through a divorce and was not handling it well. He worked as a reporter for the LA Times where he met his wife. Sandra who was a gossip columnist’s assistant. She was tall, just over five feet ten inches, had long flowing blond hair, ample breasts and very shapely. She was also great in bed. 

     Although they both worked at the Times, they actually met at the local watering hole where many of the Times staff would gather after work. Allen had just graduated from the Marquette University School of Journalism and landed an entry position as a cub reporter at the news desk. Some of the other reporters invited him to join them for a couple drinks after work. He wanted to fit in, so he agreed to go with them. As they entered the bar, he noticed the hot blonde seated at the far end of the bar. She appeared to be disinterested in the conversation between her boss and one of the other patrons. She looked up and smiled at Allen then looked away pretending to pay attention to the conversation between the two people seated next to her. 

     His new work pals led Allen to a table with two other Times employees. He sat facing the blonde and would occasionally look up to see her looking his way. The others at his table were asking Allen numerous questions about his hometown, where he went to school and his marital status. About a half hour into their conversation, the waitress brought him a beer which happened to be the brand that he was drinking.  “Its on Sandra Wilks.” She said pointing to the blonde at the bar. It was hard to tell who was more shocked, Allen or the other men at the table. 

     When he looked up, she was looking at him sweetly and he raised the bottle in her direction and mouthed “Thank you.” She returned a smile and tilted her head toward an open table not far from where she was sitting. The others at the table couldn’t help but notice the exchange and one of them spoke up. “You better take advantage of that invitation, Buddy, you may never get another chance.” 

     Sandra and Allen had several drinks when she invited him to her apartment. Sandra called to have a pizza delivered as Allen had the taxi driver stop at a liquor store to pick up a bottle of chianti. Two months later they were married by a Justice of the Peace. 

     Allen thought that he was the luckiest man in the world. He moved up to be a full-fledged reporter, he was married to a beautiful woman and the sex was fantastic. That was until he found out the Sandra was having an affair with reporter from a local TV station. He tried to forgive Sandra, but it was not enough to save the marriage and it ended two years, three months, and five days from the day they tied the knot. Allen was heartbroken, so much so that it was affecting his work. At one point his editor asked him if he would like to take a leave of absence to get his head screwed on. Allen agreed and called a college roommate and best friend who lived in Milwaukee and asked if he could visit for a few days. Jerry had a two-bedroom apartment in a large complex in Brown Deer, a Milwaukee suburb. He also knew about Allen’s divorce and told Allen that he could come and stay with him as long as he wanted. 

     Jerry met Allen at the airport and immediately told him that he was having a party the following Saturday so Allen could help him get the apartment in shape. Allen knew what he meant because Allen was the one who kept their dorm room and later their shared room at the fraternity house clean and orderly. Allen was surprised to find that Jerry’s apartment was not in bad condition. They were able to get the apartment cleaned by noon on Friday, then went shopping for food and beverages for the party. They stayed in Friday night and just talked. Jerry didn’t say much all evening letting Allen unload about his failed marriage and how he could never trust another woman again. Jerry didn’t really disagree with him but would just nod and say things like “Well, we’ll see.”, and “You never know.”

     On Saturday night, some of the guests started arriving around 8:30 but by 9:30 the place was packed with people. Allen began to notice that there were about two women for every man in the crowd. Jerry was hanging out near the entrance of the apartment while Allen stayed behind a makeshift bar serving drinks and introducing himself to the guests. 

     He had just opened a beer for one of the guests when another stepped up to the bar. She made his heart skip a beat. She was tall, blonde and had a smile that would melt a glacier. Allen was so stunned by how much she resembled Sandra, she had to ask him twice for a glass of white wine. 

     “OH MY GOD.”, he thought, “I need to meet this creature.” He also wondered to himself if it was because of her resemblance to Sandra?

     He poured the wine and handing it to her was about to introduce himself when he felt a presence next to him behind the bar. “My name is Wendy. You must be Allen.” She said as she reached for his hand. He took hers and said, “Yes I am, nice to meet you, Wendy.”, but his mind was on the tall blonde. He turned to introduce himself to her, but she had stepped away from the bar, engaged in conversation with one of the few men in the crowd. 

     “Jerry has told me a lot about you Allen. It must be exciting to be a reporter and the LA Times.”, came the voice from alongside of him. Annoyed that he had missed the opportunity to meet the woman that looked like Sandra, he was about to say something a bit terse to Wendy. He turned to look directly at her, but before he could say anything, he noticed her pretty face and nice smile. How could he be rude? 

     Wendy was very petit and hid her figure by wearing an untucked blouse and blue jeans. She wore very little make-up and her eyes sparkled with a certain excitement when she tried to talk to Allen above the loud music and other people yelling at each other in order to be heard. It was obvious that Allen was having a hard time hearing when she yelled into his ear that she lived in the apartment across the hall. “Why don’t we go over there so we can hear each other.” 

      “Wow!” he thought to himself, “She doesn’t waste any time. Forgetting about the blonde, Allen agreed to follow her to her apartment. Closing the door behind them, she turned to Allen and said, “I hope you don’t think that I asked you here to have sex. That is out of the question. I just want to get to know you.” He wasn’t really disappointed though. Allen wasn’t sure he was ready for that just yet. He did like the way Wendy was so frank with him and the way she said it with those sparkling eyes and warm smile.

      So, they talked. That is, Allen did most of the talking. Wendy mostly listened periodically inserting an “Oh.” or a “Gee” or when really being talkative, an “I see.” The evening passed quickly and before they knew it, they could hear the party goers begin to leave. Allen realized that during all that time he didn’t learn anything about Wendy, other than she doesn’t believe in sex the first time meeting a man.  Allen found himself wanting to know her better, so he asked her to have lunch with him sometime. Her reply was nearly instantaneous. “How about tomorrow? I know a nice little place in Germantown that I think you will enjoy.” When she told him the name of the restaurant, he remember hearing about it while at Marquette, but had never been there. 

      He returned to Jerry’s apartment to find that most of the guests had left, except for some guy past out on the sofa and someone with Jerry in his bedroom not being very quiet about what they were up to. The guest bedroom was on the far side of the apartment so he could shut out the sounds they were making. He could not fall asleep immediately thinking how much he enjoyed Wendy’s company. He hadn’t felt that way since the divorce. He finally drifted off thinking how nice it would be to spend some time with Wendy.

     The restaurant served a champaign brunch every Sunday that ran from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Wendy and Allen got there about 12:30, just in time before the buffet was going to be taken down. Allen made it a point not to talk about himself only asking questions of Wendy and listening intently to her answers.  

We can assume that a love affair ensued, then marriage, then happily ever after. But as Jerry put it, “Well we’ll see.” and “You never know.”