Both of their faces turned a slightly darker shade as a small emotional bond seemed to be growing between them.
“Based upon what I’m seeing I think this project is going to take some time, more time than one evening after your last class. Why don’t I do this on Saturday? What time is your last class?”
“My last class on Saturday ends at three.”
“Great. Where are you going to want these set up? I can move them into position now; that will save a little time on Saturday.”
“I want eight of them spaced out evenly across the long wall opposite the long-mirrored wall. The ninth one will be mine; that will go on the opposite wall. This way I can demonstrate each move and watch my students as they do their work.”
“That’s good,” he said, picking up the first box. “Geeze, these are heavier than they look.”
As he carried the first box across the room, he felt, more than heard, footsteps behind him. Glancing sideways, he spotted Sasha following him with the second box.
“I think we should place them against the wall for now, we wouldn’t want any of your students tripping over them.”
It took three trips to place six of the heavy boxes into position, the last two Rick moved the short distance to their proper places, while Sasha cradled the opened box in her arms and walked to the front of the room.
With that task complete, Rick followed Sasha outside, just as several women were crossing the parking lot heading towards them.
“Rick, thank you for doing this for me, how much do you think it will cost?”
“Don’t you worry about the cost, I normally get paid by the hour, but I work a very long hour. See you on Saturday at three.”
With that, he grabbed his coffee cup, climbed into his truck, and drove off with a friendly toot of his horn.
“Sasha, who was that, a boyfriend perhaps?” “He’s yummy.”
“No, he’s the maintenance man for the shopping center.”
“Well, if he’s not already taken, maybe you could introduce me to him some time.”
“You never mind about him, just get your butts in there, we have work to do.”
Rick almost forgot to do the rest of his morning work. All he could think about was Sasha. It had been a long time since he had seen her up close. She was even more beautiful than he had remembered. Her blonde hair was cut short, had just a hint of a curl, revealing a long, sensuous neck. She was taller than he expected, probably an inch shorter than his six-foot frame. When she walked, she seemed to almost glide effortlessly across the room, her back straight as an arrow and her head held high. In short, she was long, lean, and lovely.
What surprised him the most was her apparent strength. Those boxes each must have weighed at least seventy pounds, yet, she seemed to lift them almost effortlessly. The image of her bending over to pick up one of the boxes dressed in her sleek stretch pants, which clung to her like a second layer of skin and accented her sculpted legs and firm butt was burned into his mind forever. That, combined with her ever so slight Russian accent and her hypnotic blue eyes, the color of the Arizona sky on a clear crisp winter day. He knew he was already falling under her spell. He would have to be very careful.
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For the next four days he could never quite get her off his mind. Finally Saturday came. In the morning, after he took a shower and dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a company golf shirt, he planned out how he wanted to handle this. He would get to her studio about ten minutes after three o’clock; that would assure that she would be alone. He didn’t want to arrive too early: he didn’t want to appear overanxious to see her.
He would also bring an extra set of the tools he would need, just in case she wanted to help him. Hopefully, the whole job would only take two or three hours to complete. At that point, he would invite her to have dinner with him. If she agreed, they would have a pleasant casual dinner, and he would allow her to pay the bill; if not, he would charge her about forty dollars for his labor, either way he thought she was getting a fair price.