Roxanna could scarcely believe it when she received a letter in the mail on that balmy May evening. It was from the dating service. No man had asked her out on a date since she split up with Jack nearly two months earlier.

Roxanna eagerly tore open the envelope and read it. She couldn't believe it! Dan—the very same Dan whose own written profile had so intrigued her—the man she seemed to keep running into without getting to know each other—had read her profile! He wanted to ask her out. Was it okay for the dating service to give Dan her phone number?

Was it okay? Oh hell yes, it was more than okay!

Now Roxanna again succumbed to one of her biggest problems: she thinks too much! She began to think about how she was enrolled in a ballroom dance class that would be starting soon, and she was still looking for a dance partner. She recalled that Dan's profile, which she had read so often that she had practically memorized it, said that he liked ballroom dancing. Dan didn't know it, but he had actually danced with Roxanna once before. So Roxanna now convinced herself that Dan was merely responding to her ad for a dance partner, in the dating service's newsletter. She was certain now that he didn’t, he couldn’t, want to date her!

Roxanna couldn’t allow herself to believe that a man she found to be interesting, might actually be interested in her, too. That was almost too much for Roxanna to hope for. So it was safer for Roxanna’s fragile heart, to let herself believe that Dan was simply responding to her ad for a dance partner. There was less chance of her getting hurt if Roxanna didn’t allow herself to get her hopes up. Just in case Dan’s apparent interest in her wasn’t genuine.

Roxanna wanted more from Dan than just being his dance partner. But now the pendulum of her mind swung back the other way again: maybe dancing with him again would be the first step toward her goal of a relationship with him.

So, was it okay to give Dan her phone number? Are they kidding? She couldn't call the dating service quickly enough, to tell them to tell Dan yes. A definite, resounding YES!

Roxanna even wrote a short note for the dating service to give to Dan. And she personally dropped off that note at the dating service the very next morning, before going to work. She asked her dating counselor to mail the note to Dan, along with her acceptance of the offer to date her.

***

Dan waited a week for a response from Roxanna. Would this amazing woman, who seemed to be his ideal match in every way, actually agree to date him? It seemed like the longest week in Dan's life.

But then a letter came in the mail. It was from the dating service. It contained a hand-written note that said simply "call me." It was signed Roxanna, and had a phone number.

Her note was so simple, and so direct. Dan liked when a woman was simple and direct. When she says what she means. A rare woman indeed, who doesn’t beat around the bush or try to play mind games.

So Dan called her.

Roxanna wasn't home. So Dan left a message on her answering machine. He left his home phone number, and asked her to call him back.

By that time, Roxanna had already found another partner for her dance class. Yet she had made it clear to this partner that it would be dancing only. That she wasn’t interested in a relationship with her dance partner.

Maybe somewhere deep in the back of her mind, Roxanna had told her new dance partner to keep it strictly platonic, just so she would be free to start a relationship with Dan. The man whose written profile she just kept reading and re-reading.

But now that she had a dance partner, Roxanna’s mind was at a loss for a new pretext for daring Dan. So she called Dan back. And of course, she got his answering machine.

Having worked her mind into total confusion about what she wanted to do, Roxanna left Dan a very curt, almost hostile message: "I’ve already found a partner for my dance class. But thanks for thinking of me."

The next evening, when she returned home from work, Roxanna found another message on her answering machine. It was from Dan again.

"I didn't call you to be your partner in a dance class. I’m already enrolled a ballroom dance class, and I’m not looking to join another one. I found and read your profile, and I’m very interested in you. I want to ask you out on a date."

Roxanna thought about it. She had found a lot about Dan to like. And they had kept crossing paths without actually introducing themselves to each other. But Roxanna worried about that damned antique car of his. Would he, could he, be more interested in her than in his classic car?

Oh, why did her damned mind have to think so much, and talk her out of what she was feeling? First she had convinced herself that he was he was only interested in a dance partner. Now his car was her excuse. She was just about to give up on Dan before she even started with him.

Still, Roxanna thought, Dan couldn't be any worse than her last few dates. And if it didn't work out, so what? If Dan doesn’t turn out to be Mister Right after all, Roxanna wasn't really looking for a long-term relationship right now anyway. Or so she tried to convince herself.

The next day, Roxanna called Dan again. They finally got to talk to each other in person. Not just one answering machine to another.

"I couldn't believe you asked me out," Roxanna began. "I've read your profile about a hundred times. I've always found it fascinating. You seem to be so much like me. My kindred soul. But I was afraid to contact you."

“For heaven’s sake,” Dan laughed, bewildered. “Why should you be afraid to contact me?”

"Every time I've made the first move and asked a guy out," Roxanna explained, "it has never worked out. So all I could do was wait and hope that you would one day read my profile, and you would ask me out. And now you have!" Roxanna was so genuinely happy now.

"So does that mean you'll go out with me?"

Roxanna replied with the most enthusiastic yes that Dan had ever heard in her life.

They spent about three hours on the phone that night, talking about absolutely everything.

They discussed how they share an interest in history, and in ballroom dancing. How they’re both single parents to adopted children. They talked extensively about his adopted daughter, Caroline. And about her adopted son, Bobby. About the challenges of raising an adopted child as a single parent.

After three hours on the phone, what more was there to talk about? But the next night, Dan called Roxanna, and they talked for another 3 or 4 hours.

"I enjoyed the light humor you put into your profile," Dan told her. "I loved your pun on kissing frogs to find a prince. What was it you wrote?”

“I appreciate the toad in every prince.”

“That's cute. And funny!"

"Thank you, Dan. So tell me, are you more toad or more prince?"

"You'll have to go out with me to find that out, Roxanna!" Dan laughed.

"I'm amazed at how many interests we seem to have in common," Dan continued. "We both enjoy jazz and classical music, for example."

"We even have almost the same birthday," Roxanna replied. “I read your profile. And your birthday is..."

“Yes, I know," Dan interrupted. "Just a week after yours. I noticed that coincidence, Roxanna."

"I'd like to get to know you...and your son," Dan continued.

In the course of their conversation, Roxanna casually mentioned a discipline problem she was having with her 8-year-old son Bobby. Dan surprised her by telling her that he once had that exact same problem with his 14-year-old adopted daughter Caroline, when she was about that same age that Bobby is now. Dan told Roxanna how he had handled it.

“It’s a phase that they outgrow,” Dan reassured her.

For the first time, Roxanna relaxed and really felt comfortable talking to Dan. Soon, Roxanna was telling Dan about her own childhood, and he was telling her about his. Then they drifted into all sorts of other subjects. Soon, they had been on the phone for another two hours.

The next night, Dan called Roxanna again. He told her about a problem he was having at work. Roxanna told him about a problem she was having at her own job.

Roxanna joked about being a woman with a career, not a career woman.

Dan's comments showed Roxanna that he was really listening to her, without being a jerk by offering an over-simplified solution to her problems. As so many men seem to do. Again, their conversation wandered into a wide array of topics. And again they talked for more than two hours.

Dan and Roxanna spoke on the phone all night every night, about each other's philosophies, raising children, her childhood, his childhood, past relationships, their jobs, anything and everything.

These long phone calls to each other now became a nightly ritual. Roxanna couldn't wait to get home from work and talk to Dan.

Hearing Dan’s deep, masculine voice always made Roxanna’s heart race a little, while at the same time paradoxically making her feel calm and relaxed. His mellow voice put her into a contented swoon, washing away all her cares of work and single motherhood. Yet the sound of his voice was so sexy, so exciting.

The things Dan told her convinced Roxanna that she had at last found a true gentleman, a real rarity in today's world.

Dan found Roxanna to be smart, charming, funny, and a very compatible personality to his own. She seemed to be a very open and giving personality. Yet she told him that when someone crossed her, she would and did "chew them up and spit them out".

This sounded terrific to Dan: Roxanna was warm, loving, and giving when it was reciprocal. Yet she was able to stand up for herself and not get pushed around by life, or by the jerks one so often encounters in life.

They kept up these nightly phone calls for two months.

Dan liked that Roxanna took a genuine interest in what he had to say. And he enjoyed listening to every detail of what she told him about herself and her life.

Dan found himself racing home from work every evening. Because he could hardly wait to get home and start one of their all-night conversations. Talking with Roxanna was the highlight of Dan's day, each and every day. He had never felt this strongly about a woman before. And as far as he knew, they had yet to meet in person!

"My parents have the most amazing, loving relationship," Dan told Roxanna one night. "Even after 48 years together. Always holding hands. Giving each other loving, sweet little pats so full of deep, hidden, secretive meaning, while she washes dishes and he dries them, every night after dinner.

"My parents even still buy each other gifts for no reason," Dan continued. "They tell each other these gifts are 'just because I love you.' When I was growing up, my parents went out for dinner and dancing every Saturday night, leaving my brothers and me with baby-sitters. They still have their Saturday-night dates, even now! For as long as I can remember, I've longed to find that kind of relationship for myself."

"I'd like a relationship like that, too," Roxanna whispered. "I joined the dating service looking for something just like what you describe. But,” she sighed, “I have yet to find anything even remotely like the relationship you say your parents have, Dan."

Roxanna wondered to herself whether the apple might not fall far from the tree. Whether Dan would be the kind of loving and considerate man that he described his father to be.

"For most of my life," Dan continued, "women hardly ever noticed me. And I seem to always be nervous and shy around women."

"You don't seem to be having any trouble talking to me," Roxanna pointed out.

Dan realized she was right. Roxanna was one of the first women he'd ever known who didn't make him all tongue-tied. "Do you know the song You Can't Hurry Love?" Dan asked her. Then he began to sing it to her over the phone, in his deeply sexy baritone voice.

"Yes, I know that song," Roxanna sighed. "Unfortunately, I know it all too well! What about it?"

"Well," Dan replied, "that song could be the story of my life."

"Mine, too," Roxanna agreed, sighing. “I’ve often wondered how long I must wait.” A long pause. “Why is love so hard to find, Dan?”

"I’m not sure. But I think my problem with girls started very young," Dan explained. "I went through the usual boyhood strangeness of thinking girls were yucky, they had cooties, and so on. I don’t know why young boys think like that."

"Boys don't have an exclusive on that!" Roxanna laughed. "As a little girl, I thought boys were as slimy as worms."

"Most boys are!" Dan laughed. "Anyway, I guess I was unusual. Because somewhere in the back of my mind, I also always had enormous respect for women, and for their intelligence. Probably because my mother had a Bachelor’s degree in radio broadcasting. And my maternal grandmother had a Ph.D. in pharmacology. Grandma even used to own her own neighborhood pharmacy store. Mom and grandma were both very smart, and I looked up to them enormously!"

"So you really prefer smart women?" Roxanna asked.

"I guess so," Dan replied. "One girl I grew up with from kindergarten through fourth grade was very smart, and I admired that about her. But she seemed to have a somewhat superior attitude. She never really seemed to accept my offered friendship I've always been shy, and it wasn’t easy for me to offer my friendship to anyone. Least of all to a 'yucky girl!' So I took her rejection of my friendship fairly hard."

"So," Roxanna asked. "When did you first start dating girls?"

"Well, I don't think you could call it dating," Dan pondered. "But it was the first time I started really noticing girls. I celebrated my birthday aboard a cruise ship. As my family and I were boarding the ship, I met and had an instant rapport with this cute brunette girl who was a year old than me. I was the son of a factory worker, and traveling second class. She was the daughter of a doctor, and traveling first class. So we were from different worlds. But there was an instant chemistry. We went everywhere on the ship during our five days together. "

"A real ship-board romance, eh?" Roxanna laughed.

"She snuck me into first class," Dan continued, "where I technically wasn't supposed to be. But it wasn't like I had a big sign on me saying Second Class. So who was going to know? We found a secluded stairwell to talk. She told me her father was a doctor. Then she asked me, all giggly, if I had ever played doctor. Having lived a fairly-sheltered middle-class life, I didn't even know what that meant."

"So did she explain what that meant?"

"She didn't exactly tell me!" Dan stammered, feeling himself blush at the memory. "More like she showed me. Right there in the stairwell, she undressed herself. Completely! And she showed me things I'd never seen before.

“Then she helped me take my clothes off. She seemed fascinated to see what a boy looks like. And I have to admit, it fascinated me to see how different a girl was 'down there' than I was. But I was still too inexperienced with girls, and with life in general, to really understand anything about that. It was just mostly a curiosity. There was no touching or anything. Just looking. The whole encounter lasted maybe five minutes, if that. We spent a lot of time together through the whole five-day cruise. But we never saw each other again after the cruise ended." Dan paused. "I really shouldn't have told you that story."

"Why not?" Roxanna asked.

"I just don't want you to think I'm a sex fiend or anything."

"Are you a sex fiend?" Roxanna laughed.

"No," Dan admitted. "Technically, I'm still a virgin."

"Technically?" Roxanna wondered.

"Well, I've never taken it further than oral sex."

".I don't understand. You've had oral sex but you're still a virgin at 40? How did that happen?"

"I was in college," Dan explained. "I was 19, and just like the girl on the cruise ship, my college girlfriend was a year older than me. She and I had kissed. A lot! But we had never done anything more than that…not yet. I often told her I respected her way too much to ever do anything that might make her feel uncomfortable around me.

"Then one day," Dan continued, "We both had the day off from school. I went over to her parent’s place. At 20, she still lived with her folks…and I still lived with my parents, too. But it was daytime, so her parents were both at work. They wouldn’t be home for hours.”

“Uh-oh!” Roxanna laughed. “Sounds like the perfect setup for getting naughty!”

“I guess it was. Because we sat on the edge of her bed and watched the noon news together on TV. We kissed again, as we so often had.”

“All alone in a girl’s bedroom, Dan? And all you did was kiss her?”

“At first. But then she asked me quite sweetly if I wanted to take it further.

“And you said no?” Roxanna asked skeptically, remembering that Dan claimed to still be a ‘technical’ virgin at 40.

“I told her quite honestly that I really wanted to save that for the girl I would marry.”

“Wasn’t she mad that you rejected her advances, Dan? I think I would have felt insulted!”

“No. Not really. Actually, she smiled and told me, 'No problem. There are other things we can do.' I was only 19 and I really didn't know what she meant. She was 20, and she was more sophisticated about such things than I was.

"That's when my girlfriend lifted her skirt and pulled down her panties," Dan continued. "She instructed me to put my face between her thighs, and she gently guided me about what to do.

“That was when I first discovered,” Dan confessed, “That I genuinely enjoy the sight, the smell, and the taste of pussy. The feeling of a woman gushing onto my face.”

“You’re making that up!” Roxanna laughed.

“What do you mean?” Dan was slightly hurt that Roxanna doubted his honesty.

“There’s no such thing as a female orgasm!” Roxanna replied adamantly.

“I’ve been with a dozen guys over the years. I’ve used my fingers, and even a vibrator! And I’m telling you. There’s no such thing as a female orgasm! I've never had one, and neither has any woman I know.”

“And I’m telling you, I saw a female orgasm. I saw it happen. Literally right in front of my face. And I tasted it. And I loved it. I loved the sound of her excited moaning, the texture and the flavor of her sexual juices pouring out of her., as I touched just the right places in just the right way with my tongue. I honestly enjoyed everything about eating her pussy! And my enjoyment showed in my enthusiasm.”

“I’m not sure I believe that either, Dan,” Roxanna smiled hesitantly. “I don’t think men actually enjoy eating pussy. Because no man has ever even tried to do that with me! You guys all love to get your cocks sucked. And I don’t mind that, Dan. Because I love to suck on a nice hard cock! But none of you ever think to ask a girl if she might like you to go down on her!”

“No wonder you think there’s no such thing as a female orgasm!” Dan laughed. “You've been completely derived of the pleasure, and you have no idea what you’re missing. But I’m not like that, Roxanna! I don’t think sex should just be for me.”

“So you’re telling me you both enjoyed having your face in her pussy?”

“Oh, yeah!” Dan laughed with enthusiasm and gusto. “So much so, that I went down on her several more times over the next few months. She was a great teacher, and I was a very enthusiastic student. Oral sex drew us even closer together. We even started to talk marriage. And I seriously considered making love with her. Although I really didn't know, at that age, what to do or how to do it."

"So what happened?" Roxanna asked. "I mean, if you enjoyed eating her pussy, and she enjoyed having you go down on her, and you two were even talking marriage. Why aren't you two still together?"

"Well," Dan continued, "a favorite relative of hers died. To deal with the emotion of the loss, she started drinking. And I mean drinking heavily. The more she drank, the more abusive her comments to me became. Until I finally told her our relationship just wasn't working for me any more. Then I was glad we had never gone all the way! Since she obviously wasn't the one for me after all. And ever since then, I won’t date a woman who drinks."

"And 20 years later, you're still looking for the right woman?"

Roxanna secretly hoped that she could be that right woman to Dan. But it was still too soon in their relationship to tell Dan how she felt. After all, they hadn't even met face to face yet. Well actually, Roxanna realized, they had met. Three times, in fact! But Dan didn't know that yet.

"Still," Dan replied somewhat wistfully, "I did enjoy all the times I got to go down on her, before she became an abusive drunk. And I appreciate what she taught me. It gave me an advantage over the many guys my age who don't know the first thing about how to pleasure a woman. Or guys who care only about their own pleasure. I get genuine pleasure from a woman's reaction to my focusing on her pleasure. And I guess that makes me a somewhat rare find, to those few women brave enough to get close to a nerdy guy like me."

Why was Dan telling her this? Was he bragging? Trying to impress her? Testing her, to see if his professed sexual skills might be of more interest to her than his not being classically handsome?

If Dan was trying to intrigue Roxanna now with his claim that he thoroughly enjoyed eating pussy, it was working! Because Roxanna did find herself wondering now, whether Dan really was skilled in the tongue department. And wondering whether she would ever get a chance to find out first hand.

"I can't believe we're talking this openly and honestly about sex, Dan," Roxanna continued. "So early in our relationship."

"Neither can I. But it's so easy to talk to you, Roxanna. To open up to you like this. I feel we can tell each other anything now."

"Me too, Dan. So, your first sexual encounter was at 19?" she asked. "That's still younger than my first encounter!"

"Oh, really?" Dan asked. "Tell me more."

Roxanna had secretly hoped Dan would ask her that. Now that Dan had been so open and honest about his own sexual past, Roxanna wanted to relay every detail about her past to Dan, too. She wanted Dan to learn everything about her.

"My father was a very strict Catholic," Roxanna began. "I wasn't allowed to date until I was 21. Living in dire poverty in a one-bedroom house with my parents, four sisters, and a brother, there was no place to sneak off with a boyfriend, anyway. Weekends I spent at my aunt's farm. The only boys there were rough and crude farm hands, who were way too busy to notice me anyway."

"So, no traveling salesman and farmer's daughter life for you?" Dan joked.

"Not hardly!" Roxanna replied. "I moved out of my parents’ house at age 21. I got a job as a maid at a motel. Making beds, vacuuming carpeted floors, scrubbing toilets. Not a glamorous life. But at least I was finally free to do whatever I wanted.

"I also started dating at age 21. But I didn't meet any guy I wanted to get really romantic with. So unlike you, Dan, I stayed a virgin until my third boyfriend, when I was 23."

"But I already told you," Dan protested, "I'm still a virgin at 40."

"Oh, that's right," Roxanna laughed. "A 'technical' virgin at age 40! Oral sex at 19, but you’ve never yet fucked a woman at 40."

"But you're not a virgin?"

"Don't forget, Dan, I was married before."

"But you weren't a virgin on your wedding night?"

"No. The guy I dated when I was 23 kept pressuring me for sex. I have to admit, I'd been more than a little curious about sex myself for many years. So one day when my boyfriend brought up the idea of sex for the umpteenth time, while we were dining in a nice restaurant, I smiled at him mysteriously. I decided right then and there that tonight would be the night."

"You women always get to decide when the sex will happen, don't you?" Dan laughed.

"I suppose so," Roxanna replied, giggling. "Anyway, I was the one who decided on that night. When he dropped me at my apartment, at the end of our date, we kissed on my front door-stoop, as we always did. I unlocked my door. Only this time, instead of telling him good night, I grabbed his hand and pulled him into my apartment behind me. I kicked the door closed, threw my arms around him, and kissed him hard.”

“So, how did you seduce him into your bed?” Dan chuckled.

“I simply backed away from our kiss, and slipped my dress off. I reached behind me and unfastened my bra. Then I skimmed off my panties, too. I stood before him completely naked, hoping he would like what he saw."

"I'll bet if you stood naked in front of me, I'd like what I saw," Dan remarked suggestively.

"I'd probably like the sight of you naked too, Dan," Roxanna whispered seductively.

There was a long pause, during which the only sounds were Dan’s heavy breathing, and Roxanna’s excited panting, into the phone.

"Before he could say a word about it," Roxanna finally continued her story, "I threw my arms around him again and kissed him very hungrily.

"Now it was time!" Roxanna told Dan. "I tugged his T-shirt off over his head. I hurriedly unbuckled his belt. With one swift tug, I pulled his pants down to his ankles. I'd never seen a cock before. Not even a photo of one! I had to admit it looked really nice to me."

"You like how cocks look?" Dan kidded.

"Only if the cock is on the right guy!" Roxanna laughed.

"Could I be that right guy?"

"Only time will tell, Dan. But do you want to hear my story or not?"

"Sorry."

"Then please stop interrupting, Dan" Roxanna gently scolded, with a lilting little laugh to show she wasn't genuinely upset. "This first cock I'd ever seen pointed about five inches straight out in front of him, and it was hard and muscular-looking. I thought it looked nice.”

“Is she kidding?” Dan wondered to himself. “Five inches?” Dan wondered what Roxanna would think if and when she ever got a look at his own 7 inches.

“It had a thick vein bulging up along its left side,” Roxanna continued. “It wasn't pretty in the sense that a woman is pretty. But it was attractive in the way a muscular man is attractive. It looked so, well, masculine. And I really liked that."

"You liked the effect that seeing you naked was having on him?"

"Yes. I felt proud that I could stiffen him like that, making him pulse and throb. I was a little surprised, too. Because my breasts were somewhat small in those days. They were 32B. So I didn’t think the sight of them could turn a guy on."

"In those days?" Dan wondered. "How big are your breasts now?"

"I've yo-yoed up and down on weight over the years, Dan. Every time I end a bad relationship, I console myself by overeating. I'll gain 20 pounds. Then I’ll lose the weight so I look good enough for dating again. But when the next relationship ends, I’ll just gain it all back again.”

“So, are you in your skinny of fat phase right now?”

“Skinny. Because I’m dating again.”

Dan liked that. He bet that Roxanna looked as good as her voice sounded.

“Oddly enough,” Roxanna continued, “every time I've gained weight, my breasts grew bigger, too. And then when I'd lose the weight, my breasts wouldn't decrease. In fact, the next weight gain would increase my bust even more! Over the years I’ve gone from 32B to 34B to 36-C. Until now I've grown out to a 38-C!"

Dan let out a loud wolf-whistle.

"You like big boobs?"

"Very much!"

"Well, I guess my first lover liked them smaller. Or maybe he just liked that they're round, firm, and perky.”

“I think he probably just liked that they were boobs! And that they were exposed! We men can be such pigs like that, Roxanna!” Dan laughed.

“I think he liked more than just my boobs, Dan. I've always had a classic hourglass figure...I still do...and smooth shapely thighs. His hardness told me he liked everything he saw."

"I can understand why!" Dan enthused. "I'm sure I would have that same reaction to seeing you naked!"

"You say the sweetest things, Dan!" Roxanna laughed. "And the dirtiest!"

"So anyway, that's when you first made love with a guy?"

"Yes. I grasped his hand again, and led him to my bed."

"I've never been with a woman in that way," Dan said. "Was it fun for you?"

"No! He jumped on top of me, and forcefully shoved his cock in me. It really hurt! He thrust three or four times. And then as he groaned, I felt warm liquid oozing out of him and into me. He kissed me and rolled over face up next to me."

"Did you tell him he had hurt you?"

"I just screamed at him. 'That's it? That's this great wonderful thing called sex?’ I was so disappointed."

"So you dumped him, right?"

"Not right away. I figured that since I’d been a virgin, maybe I hadn't done it right or something. So I decided to give him another chance. We went on another date after that. But the sex with wasn’t any better the second time.

“When he arrived at my door for our third date,” Roxanna continued, “he didn't even want to take me out for dinner or a movie first. He simply pushed his way into my apartment, and just tried to lead me off to bed. As if he thought of me as just an easy lay. So I screamed at him to leave my apartment, and I told him we were through."

"Tell me you've had better sex than that in the 22 years since then!" Dan asked.

"Not really," Roxanna replied. "No."

"Not even in your marriage?"

"Especially not in my marriage!" Roxanna laughed, and then cried.

"Care to tell me about it?"

"Not really."

"How about if I tell you one of my other experiences first," Dan offered. "Then you can tell me. I think we should both be completely open and honest with each other if we're going to have a relationship.”

Roxanna stopped crying and started sniffling. "Do you want a relationship with me, Dan?"

"I think so. Yes, I definitely think I'd like that."

"Then OK, Dan. Tell me your other story. And then maybe I'll tell you about my late husband."

"Well, this was in high school," Dan began. "Before my college girlfriend taught me how to go down on a woman. I was 18, and a high-school senior. This beautiful stunning blonde girl asked me to a 1950s greaser dance in our school gym. At first, I wasn't really interested. I figured she wasn't really interested in this nerdy kid with glasses who was always studying.

"I wish I'd known you back then, Dan," Roxanna interrupted. "I happened to like nerdy kids with glasses back then. Maybe because I was one!"

"Well," Dan continued, "she talked me into meeting her at the dance. And she convinced me that she was sincere. She asked me to dress 1950s style and meet her at the school, as her date for the dance. I rolled up my T-shirt sleeves, greased back my hair, and borrowed a black leather jacket. I was Jimmy Dean. I was Hell’s Angels. I was dangerous. I went to a lot of trouble to get this look for her."

"Did she appreciate your efforts?" Roxanna asked.

"No," Dan sighed. "She showed up at the dance with another guy on her arm. Then she laughed at me for thinking she could ever seriously want to date me. Like she was too good for the likes of me or something."

"Why do girls waste a good man that way?" Roxanna sympathized.

"I didn't know why, back then. But now I realize she was very insecure. That's why she needed to be popular by wearing tight, revealing clothes, being a cheerleader, dating the cutest guys. And going out of her way to hurt nerdy guys like me and make herself feel superior."

"How awful for you!" Roxanna sighed. "I could never treat anyone that way."

"Which is why I'm talking on the phone to you tonight," Dan laughed. "And not to a girl like that blonde from so long ago."

"Didn't you want to leave the dance? To just crawl in a hole somewhere and die?" Roxanna sympathized.

"I felt that way at first. But then a brunette in a poodle skirt saw what that blonde girl had done to me. And this brunette asked me to dance with her. She was much more my type than the blonde anyway: long dark hair, nearly black. Deep brown eyes that sparkled to match her charming smile."

"You could be describing me right now, Dan. I also have nearly black hair and dark eyes."

"I like that type, Roxanna. I've always liked that type. I guess that's why I enjoy my phone calls with you so much."

"I enjoy our conversations, too, Dan," Roxanna whispered seductively. "Most nights I can't wait to get home and call you."

"Me too."

"And it's nice to know now that I'm also your physical type."

"I guess the physical attraction is partly why this brunette and I wound up dancing together all evening. We had a great time. Then, with only about an hour left before this school dance would end, she led me by the hand into a back room of the gym, where they store the wrestling mats."

"Uh-oh!" Roxanna laughed. "I thought you said you're still a virgin, Dan!"

"I am. We never went quite that far! But we did pull down a wrestling mat, laid down on it, and made out. I remember thinking how soft her lips were and how sweet her kisses were. She asked me to unbutton her blouse, and this was the first time I ever got to touch bare breasts."

"That's as far as it went?" Roxanna asked in disbelief.

"Well," Dan hesitated. "She did unbutton my shirt, too. And she genuinely seemed to enjoy slowly rubbing her hand on my bare chest."

"I'll bet your chest feels nice to touch," Roxanna replied dreamily.

"I couldn't tell you that. Because I don’t make a habit of stroking my own chest!” Dan laughed. “But I do know that her breasts felt great. They were soft, but firm enough to keep their shape, not saggy. Quite beautiful, spectacular even."

"And that was it?"

"She wanted me to go further. I think she was as genuinely turned on, just as I was. But I was raised that you save that for someone who’s very special to you...which she wasn't, since we had only just met."

"That was all that stopped you, Dan?" Roxanna was digging to learn more about this man she might start dating. “The idea of saving yourself for marriage?”

"Well, there was also the fact that I was still somewhat naive. I honestly didn't know at 18 that girls are actually capable of enjoying sex every bit as much as men do."

"You didn't know that?"

"Not then. How would I know, since no girl had ever shown me real interest in that way? But more than my ignorance about sex, I didn't go all the way with her that night because I worried about, what if someone walked in and caught us? Or if the band took a break and others in the gym overheard us? As long as the band was playing, it would drown out anything we might do. But if they took a break we would be caught for sure.”

“Brock-brock-brock!” Roxanna made teasing clucking-chicken noises.

"OK,” Dan continued. "So I was chicken! But I don't regret passing-up this sweet brunette's offer of what in retrospect would have been a meaningless sympathy-fuck for what the blonde girl had put me through."

"Most guys I've dated would think a meaningless sympathy fuck was just great, Dan."

"I don't doubt most guys think that way. But for me, sex really has to have more meaning behind it than that."

Roxanna was amazed. She’d heard that there are guys who actually think with their brains, instead of with their dicks. But she had never before found such a man.

"So, how come no woman has snatched you up yet, Dan?" Roxanna cooed.

"I ask myself that every day, Roxanna. But now I've told you another story of my love life. So you promised you'd tell me about your husband."

"Do I have to?" Roxanna groaned.

"Be fair!" Dan pretended to scold. Then he laughed.