First Undressing Blog Hop

So a few months ago there was that video that circled around about two strangers sharing a first kiss in front of a camera…and then following that up, there was another video showing strangers undressing each other with such care and awkwardness. Smarter writers than I decided this was a great launch pad for some flash fiction. The rules were the stories had to be under 1500 words and the people undressing had to be strangers and there had to be a camera.

Occasionally in spring in Toronto we get hit with these giant clouds of Aphids. It’s very biblical. And if you happen to be out when they invade you run for cover. The first time I experienced this I ran for cover into a bank foyer with four other people, no one got naked, but that was the inspiration. I hope you enjoy and go check out more of the flash fiction. Or do some yourself!!  Here is the schedule: http://audranorth.com/2014/07/first-u...

Here goes:

“Oh my God, close the door, close the door!”

Charlotte, yanked the door closed behind her, but it was one of those slow-moving bank doors and it took too long and some of the tiny green bugs got in behind them.

“Jesus, what are those things?” She asked, staring out the window at the dark twilight.

“Aphids.” The man who’d run in here with her said. He’d been standing with her at the corner, checking his watch, bouncing on his toes like when the stoplight turned green he was going to race the cars on the street beside him. She’d been entertained by that – because racing anything anywhere just never occurred to her – and mildly intrigued, because he was built like a guy who had won his fair share of races. He was pretty damn beautiful in that suit, too.

But then the weird cloud of bugs came out of nowhere and he’d pulled her away from the corner, down a side street and swiped his bank card into the reader and brought her in here with him.

“They came out of nowhere,” she said. They were in a bank foyer way off Bloor so it was empty and the bank was closed. The lights were not on in the foyer, so it was all dark.

“Every spring,” he muttered. “Christ, they’re everywhere.”

She glanced back just in time to see him pull his shirt up and over his head. His coat was spread out over the shelf of the ATM.

Holy crap, speed racer in a suit was undressing! She glanced up at the cameras in the corners of the foyer, wondering if anyone was watching.

He ran a hand through his hair, which was short and blond. And she had the sudden sensation of bugs under her clothes and in her hair and she pulled the gauzy dress she wore over her leggings up and over her head, not caring that she didn’t look like she won any races, unless it was to the couch.

There were no bugs on her that she could see, but she pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair and gave it all a good shake. Black curls flopping around in her line of vision.

When she felt satisfied that there were no bugs, she flipped her hair back and caught him staring at her. He blushed bright red and glanced away, guilty-seeming like a boy caught looking.

The coils of interest that she’d worried had been burnt away by Tom, got hot in an instant. So fast, was her desire that she very nearly gasped.

Oh, thank god, she thought, relief giving her goosebumps. He didn’t ruin me, she thought. I’m still here. I’m still me.

“Am I…?” she asked, relief and desire making her bold. Well, she’d always been bold, but that element of herself had been so long in hibernation she’d thought it was gone. “Okay?” she asked, holding her arms out, looking down at her breasts rising up out of her black lace bra, her tummy, her hips. The edge of her pink underwear caught at the waist band of her leggings.

Tom had despaired over her body, pushing her away in the last few months with something close to disgust on his face.

But she’d always liked her curves, the roundness. She felt womanly. Was womanly. And Tom just never got that.

“O…okay?” he asked, nearly chocking on the words. That blush, honest to God, she wanted to corrupt him.

“Bugs?” She asked, spinning around, feeling her long black curls against her skin. And then she felt his hand grazing the edge of her leggings, the top of her hip. She smiled behind her hair because it felt good. As if she were a pool of water and his touch was a rock thrown right into the middle. Ripples. Nothing but ripples.

“No…” he murmured and then cleared his throat. “No bugs.”

“Let me look at you,” she said. She pulled her hair back into her ponytail and faced him head on. He wore a men’s white tank top, untucked from his dress pants, the neck pulled loose as if he’d been in a fight with it.

He spun around slowly, his arms wide at his sides. She saw the darker blond tufts of hair under his armpits and wanted, so badly, to touch him.

“You should take the undershirt off,” she said. “Just to be sure.”

He was facing her again and when she smiled, he smiled too and the pretense was dropped. There were no bugs. Outside this dark foyer there was nothing. It was just them. And now.

“There are cameras,” he said, pointing over her head.

Right. And cameras.

Truthfully, she kind of liked the cameras. And after a while, his hands creeping to the bottom of his shirt, she guessed he liked the cameras too. The shirt was up and over his head, revealing a beautiful chest and a small trail of hair down his stomach into his pants.

“No bugs,” she said after a moment.

“Maybe you need to lose the leggings,” he said. “Just to be sure.”

Oh, well, he was going to one-up her. Fine.

She turned sideways because even men who didn’t like bigger women, had a thing for her ass. She hooked her thumbs over the edge of her leggings and slowly eased the elastic down over her butt. Slow….ly. And he watched like he was learning something.

Had she known she would be getting naked in a dark bank foyer she might have picked different underwear but life was funny sometimes. She kicked out of her shoes, and took the rest of the leggings off. Just as she was straightening up he was there, his warmth, his solid chest, that hair on his tummy. She reached up and slid one finger through that hair, to the soft skin beneath.

He picked her up by the waist and spun, walking back deeper into the dark corners of the foyer. He set her up on the small ledge in front of the ATM. He stood in front of her body and she could see the camera- it’s small red light – over his shoulder.

“You’re gorgeous,” he said. And she’d known that – once upon a time – had walked around with a kind of bone deep confidence that no man could take away from her. Except Tom, bit by bit, day by day, he managed to rob her of that. Or maybe she gave it away, she couldn’t tell.

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Can I touch you?”

“You already are,” she said, wrapping her legs around his waist, the tender skin of her inner thighs loving the feel of his pants, the leather of his belt, the soft skin at the base of spine. He had there too, just a little.

His finger traced the edge of her bra. “Take it off,” she said.

“You’re some kind of exhibitionist, aren’t you?” he said with a chuckle, his fingers going around to the hooks of her bra.

“Tonight I am.”

“Was it the aphids?” he asked, joking.

She laughed and then sighed as her bra came apart. Carefully he pulled the cups from her breasts, the straps from her shoulders.

He took a deep breath and then stepped back and undid the belt at his pants, lowered the zipper and dropped his pants. He kicked out of the loafers and then the pants. Standing there in his boxers.

“Now what are we going to do?” she asked.

“I live upstairs.”

“That is remarkably convenient,” she laughed. “Why didn’t you just take me there first?”

He stared at her slack-jawed. “I couldn’t just pull a woman I didn’t know into my apartment.”

Right. Prudent.

“Will you come with me?” He asked.

“Do we have to get dressed?”

“You want to go outside naked?”

“I do.”

He took a deep breath and then smiled. “Why not?”

They gathered up their clothes. She held hers to her chest and he had his slung over his shoulder so he didn’t get anything wrinkled. And then he opened the door to the dark foyer, letting in the city night.

Over her shoulder she smiled and waved at the cameras and then raced with him.