"Hello Trisha, this is Doug."
"Doug, well. Hello there. How are you doing?" Trisha was certainly surprised to hear from Amber's old boyfriend.
"I'm okay, I suppose. I'm going to school at Georgia Tech this summer so I'm staying somewhat busy at times."
Trisha wondered why Doug would call her, "So what's up?"
"Well, I was thinking about you the other day and thought it might be nice if we got together and did something fun. I also wanted to talk about Amber and offer an ear if you want to talk about Chuck."
"It's been 8 months, you know. Don't you think I ought to be over it by now?" Trisha was a bit defensive in her reply.
"Maybe, maybe not. Are you over him?" Doug recanted a bit after realizing this was still a touchy subject with her.
Trisha paused and started to tear up a bit, "I guess not."
Doug humbly admitted, "I miss Amber every day. I worry about her, too."
Trisha was not ready to tell Doug about what she found out about Amber in Savannah back in April but she did agree to meet him. "Sure, let's do something."
"Why don't we catch a late matinee tomorrow and go to the Outback Steakhouse up in Kennesaw and split a Bloomin' Onion and some Kookaburra Wings?"
"I see that you remembered my favorite two appetizers. Sure, I'm game. You want me to meet you there?"
"No, that's alright. I'll stop by and get you around 4:30."
The next day happened to be one of the hottest days of the summer. Trisha decided to dress accordingly. She chose to wear a pair of white cotton shorts, a sleeveless blue cotton blouse and a pair of flat-heeled thong sandals with a blue wishbone strap that showcased her pretty pedicured feet and a fresh coat of bright red nail polish.
Doug drove into the Kendrick's driveway and when she saw him, Trisha came outside to keep him from having to get out of the air conditioned car to get her. She slapped down the sidewalk and driveway to Doug's car in her sandals and jumped in the car where she and Doug embraced in a comforting hello hug.
"It's so good to see you Trisha."
"You too Doug, It's been a long time."
Doug thought Trisha looked prettier than he had ever remembered. Of course he always thought she was a very nice-looking and attractive girl. He also liked her choice of sandals that showed off her red toe nail polish and a light tan. In fact, while they chatted en route to the cinema, he took quite a few glances at her legs and pretty feet in those sexy sandals.
Trisha opened up and told Doug about how much it hurt her when Chuck so abruptly left her and went back to Anita, the girl from Waycross. She also told him about Tim whom he did not even know about. Doug told Trisha how hard it was to end things with Amber after dating for 5 years and how he had not dated much since then or thought about going out with anyone else.
Secretly, however, Doug had been thinking about someone else. All the way back in high school, Doug thought highly of Trisha. He thought she was a nice girl and very pretty. At times he felt 'stuck' with Amber knowing that it would be awkward to break up with her and then try to date her best friend who was dating his best friend. And now, for the first time in 5 years, both were in the same town and available and both had been dumped by Amber and Chuck, respectively. After weeks of contemplation, he had gotten up the nerve to call Trisha and get together.
Trisha did not recognize this outing as a date. She also thought highly of Doug but had never thought about dating him - but the idea did not repel her either. Doug was a nice-looking intelligent guy, but in a lot of ways he was more like Jay than either Chuck or Tim - the type of guy that girls feel safe with and want to befriend. Actually if the truth be known, Amber stayed with Doug for five years knowing what she really wanted was something else but she was afraid to take a chance - until recently.
Soon they arrived at the cinema and Doug and Trisha walked in together. They went to see Mission Impossible 2, which turned out to be a disappointment, but they did have a good time spending the time together to get reacquainted.
In the theater, Doug was treated to Trisha's shoeplay, which was pretty fervent with her loose-fitting thong sandals. She crossed her leg in Doug's direction and dangled one sandal off her toes very loosely. At one point, he noticed that her sandal was turned sideways and her toes were sticking out from in between the thong and the base of the strap in the middle of the sole. About halfway into the movie, Doug got the nerve to tease Trisha by bumping the dangling sandal off her foot sending it to the floor. Trisha just giggled slightly and put it back on and went back to watching the movie.
On the way out of the crowded theater, Trisha walked in front of Doug. People were walking slowly and close to one another in the aisle. Doug accidentally stepped on the back of Trisha's sandal while her foot was flexed up about to take another step. When she stepped, she did not come completely out of the sandal but she unknowingly stretched the thong straps a little. Doug apologized and they began to critique the movie as they continued outside and into Doug's car.
Walking to the car, her left shoe felt a little looser than her right. Once inside, Trisha reached down and removed her left shoe and examined the straps.
"I didn't break your shoe did I?"
No, the straps look secured okay; it just felt a little loose."
"Maybe they just stretched a little. It will probably be okay the next time you wear them." Doug replied while enjoying the view of her feet still. He had just about mastered the art of looking at them while still driving safely - even in busy Atlanta traffic.
There was a 30 minute wait for a table at the Outback so Doug and Trisha sat inside where it was cool and waited on their table to come available. Trisha took the opportunity to tell Doug about her trip to Australia back in September to see the Sydney Olympics and to visit her old friend Rochelle. He had remembered meeting Rochelle back in 1996 when she came to Atlanta for their Olympics. Trisha talked about what a good time she and her parents had. Doug decided not to remind her how Chuck's older brother had a crush on Rochelle at the time.
Soon, Trisha and Doug got their table and they ordered their appetizers as promised. Trisha opened up a bit more about Chuck and told Doug how she felt like Chuck had used her as a crutch when things with Anita got shaky. It bothered her that he was so quick to go back to Anita when the opportunity arose. She would have rather he never made an effort to try to date her again than to have him pursue her then suddenly cut things off. Doug lamented that he thought Amber was too quick to suddenly drop him after 5 years. It made him doubt her commitment in the first place.
After finishing their appetizers, Trisha excused herself to the Ladies Room. Meanwhile, Doug paid the bill and thought about what to do next that evening. Was he willing to risk it all and tell her how he felt about her?
Trisha was moderately health-conscious and was taught from a young age to flush with her foot (with a shoe on, of course) in public restrooms. She stepped up with her left foot to flush and to her horror, when she pulled her foot back, her thong sandal slipped off and landed in the water while it was still flushing. "Oh no!" she let out a muffled yell. Trisha hesitated and dreaded having to reach down in the bowl to pull out the shoe and then clean it. But things got even worse for poor Trisha. Apparently the bowl's drain was larger than some, and the force of the flushing water was just enough to pull her narrow thong sandal down the drain and out of sight.
She panicked and looked in the bowl and hoped that her shoe was merely stuck in the drain but it was not visible at all. She stayed in the stall for several minutes trying to decide what to do. Should she tell the staff so they could possibly run a plumber's snake down the drain and find it. Then she considered that a shoe that had been down in the sewer line would be so nasty that she could not think about wearing it.
Finally, she gave up and walked out of the stall in one sandal, fixed her hair and makeup in the mirror and washed her hands really well before returning to the table feeling the stares of fellow diners. As she approached the booth, she remembered her date with Chuck in downtown Atlanta the previous spring - their first date since leaving for college. She had lost a shoe crossing the busy street and was able to get to the table without Chuck realizing she was missing one shoe. In the dark restaurant, she repeated the trickery and was able to sit down without Doug realizing her folly. Being a gentleman, Doug did not ask why it took her so long in the restroom.
Trisha decided to not bring up her missing shoe unless Doug said something. She was curious to see how long it would take him to notice and ask. She had lost the shoe that Doug had accidentally stretched so she figured he'd be wondering what happened. They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Doug asked if she was ready to leave. Trisha said, 'Okay," and she followed Doug out of the restaurant.
Once outside the noisy restaurant, Trisha walked next to Doug and she was making a distinct alternating sound of slap..(pause)..slap..(pause). The unusual sound alerted Doug and he glanced down to see Trisha was missing her left sandal - the one he had stretched. He almost asked her about it right then, but he noticed that the purse she was carrying was large enough to carry her shoe so he assumed the stretched thong was bothering her and had simply removed it and put it in her purse.
Trisha anticipated a question from Doug any moment but it didn't come. He opened the car door and let her in and even then he was still silent. He did have an idea for what to do next. "Trisha, it's only 7:30, would you like to go up to Lake Allatoona and sit on the dock and watch the speedboats try to get in an extra hour of water-skiing? It is a little cooler now."
Recognizing this was an activity where she could go without shoes, she readily agreed. On the drive up to the lake, Doug still did not mention her missing sandal and instead he talked a little about his classes that summer.
They arrived at the parking lot and Trisha decided to go ahead and keep her one thong sandal on and see if Doug would ever mention it. Besides, the parking lot was still hot and it was several warm steps to the dock which itself was not all that cool either. Trisha and Doug walked side by side up the steps of the dock and walked out to a good spot midway out and stopped.
Doug sat down and hung his legs over the edge of the dock. Trisha sat next to him and did the same. She still kept the one sandal on her right foot, which hung a few feet above the surface of the lake. Doug began to get a little bit serious in his conversation tone while Trisha began to swing her legs back and forth and alternating while she dangled her one shoe a bit.
"Trisha, I guess you were surprised to hear from me yesterday, huh?"
"To be honest with you...I suppose I was surprised a bit."
"Well, I wanted to talk with you about something that's been on my mind for a couple of months, now."
"Sure, but, uh, I thought we already talked about Amber.""Trisha, this isn't about Amber. It's about someone else. There's another girl I've known for several years. We've had a lot of good times but not really 'together'. She's bright and funny, beautiful and charming. Before now, there was always an obstacle, really two, in our way."
Trisha began to swing her legs and dangle even more frequently as she started to wonder if Doug was making a play for her.
Continuing, Doug added, "That wonderful young lady I describe is you!" And with the sunset illuminating the western sky and reflecting over the surface of the lake, he turned to Trisha and she turned to him. After staring into each other's eyes a few seconds, their lips met. Trisha abruptly stopped swinging her legs and her lone right thong sandal slipped from her foot and landed on the surface of the lake.
