A Beautiful Day Pt. 02

"All ready then?" The driver leaned against the side of the town car. He was looking at his phone, but raised his head as she approached.

Sara's fingers plucked at her skirt, trying to pull it straight even though she had already checked herself in the elevator. She felt certain the driver would notice something different about her, and would somehow know that she'd been naked for most of the time she'd been gone, only dressing in Mr. Korhika's waiting room a few minutes before taking the elevator down to the garage levels.

The meeting had gone well. Miguel and Leon had presented Sara with an overhead map of the Perchuga Valley orchards, with the Kokaya section clearly marked. Everything matched what she had been told in Chicago. She was impressed at the size of the Perchuga Valley project. With all the buildings, it looked like a small city, all built by the Pariva corporation to support the care and maintenance of the orchards. The trees themselves filled many square kilometers, circling the housing and facilities.

They went over the contracts. Sara explained how she would be evaluating the trees, and nothing she said came as a surprise to them; they were very familiar with the process. She would grade the trees on several attributes, and her results would plug into a formula which would determine the estimated dollar value of the trees. After that, the negotiations would begin.

For the most part, it hadn't bothered her to be naked during the meeting. Neither Leon nor Miguel paid any special attention to her nudity, and she felt so motivated to demonstrate her expertise that amazingly she often forgot her lack of clothing. Her only vulnerable moment came when Miguel's assistant Karita called in and told Miguel she had Bob Taglia on the line. Bob Taglia! He was a senior vice president at TTX Energy Solutions and Vicki's boss. Miguel calmly told Karita to transfer the call in, and then put the call on speaker. Hearing Bob's voice booming from the speaker, Sara couldn't shake the notion that he was right across from her, viewing her. She suddenly felt very exposed, and worried that Miguel or Leon might casually mention during the conversation that she was sitting there completely naked.

Or worse, start a video conference.

But nothing like that happened. Bob and Miguel chatted like old friends, and Bob strongly endorsed Sara's credentials, letting them know how much confidence the company had in her. Sara tried to sound confident right back, and it probably sounded like she and Bob worked together a lot in Chicago, when in reality she rarely spoke to him.

"I'll let you get back to it," Bob finally said. "Oh, Sara, one more thing. Did Vicki let you know that Adam Newcastle and Linda Baldwin are in Meleprija? Vicki should've sent you an e-mail."

"No, I don't think so." The names sounded vaguely familiar to Sara. Finance people, maybe.

"Check your e-mail. Vicki should have sent you something. Anyways, Adam and Linda are going to accompany you to the orchards. We thought we should have some representation from Legal and Finance present. They'll stay out of your way for the most part, but if you have any questions for them, that's what they're there for. Okay?"

"Okay." Sara itched to check her phone right then, to look for something from Vicki. But she decided to wait until later.

At the end of the meeting, Miguel shook her hand, and Leon, who had just had sex with her barely two hours before, gave her a peck on the cheek. They remained in the office to discuss other things while Sara put her clothes back on and took the elevator down to the garage.

"Everything go good?" the driver asked her as he opened the back door to the car.

"I think so," Sara replied. She climbed into the car and let the driver close the door behind her.

"You still have me for two hours. You want to go back to the hotel?" the driver started the car.

Sara considered for a moment. She could return to the hotel and have dinner at one of the restaurants in the lobby. Or room service, maybe.

"Is there any place around here to get take-out?" she asked. "Like, good local food?"

"Sure, sure. I know a place." The driver backed the car out and started driving.

Traffic was horrendous through the downtown area, but after twenty minutes the buildings started to get smaller and the streets loosened up. Sara could see more apartment buildings now. She saw pedestrians walking along the sidewalk, and a lot of them had the golden tan skin and long wavy hair of the Melepria. The majority wore clothes, but she saw quite a few who were naked. At first, they drew her eyes, but very quickly she became accustomed to them, and only glanced at them long enough to register their nakedness before looking away.

The sexual acts were not as common and she couldn't help but stare at them when she noticed them, using the tinted windows to hide her interest. They passed a naked man who was leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette with one hand while masturbating with the other. He almost looked bored, as if he was just stroking his erection to pass the time. A few blocks later, she saw a small group of young men and women, laughing and flirting with each other. They didn't look much different from the bar-crawling singles Sara knew from Chicago, except that they were all naked, and one woman seemed to be flirting with a man by tugging on his penis.

Sara saw a couple having sex on the front stairs of an apartment building, and she felt a flutter inside, knowing she was seeing what she herself had looked like earlier in the day. She watched the couple until they were out of sight. Her face felt hot as she looked away from the window. Had she really put on such a display? How many people had seen her?

"All strangers," she whispered, reassuring herself. "It's like it didn't happen."

The driver pulled up to the curb and stopped. Half a block away, Sara could see a white concrete building with a flat roof. Next to the building, a large seating area comprised of rows and rows of tables sat under a flat metal roof. Sara could see several lines of customers waiting to put in their orders at windows set in the side of the building. The tables were full of customers eating, and a few who had square numbers displayed, apparently waiting for their food to be delivered. Sara noticed a naked woman walking out of the building carrying a tray of paper bowls filled with something steaming. The woman walked over to a table displaying a number, and Sara watched her set down the food and retrieve the number.

"Here you go," the driver said. "Very popular food stand. Authentic Melepria cooking. Hot dogs, hamburgers too."

"I'll be right back..." Sara said. She opened the door to the car and stepped out.

"I'll be here!" the driver called as she walked away.

As Sara approached the food stand, she noticed other women delivering food, and they all seemed to be naked. Melepria women. Some of the customers were also naked. Sara noted that most of them had their pubic hair removed and replaced with the same style of tattoo that Leon had.

She felt like she stood out, in her business clothes, but no one paid much attention to her. She noticed others in line waiting to order who looked like tourists. She looked at the name of the restaurant, Kama Kai, and vowed to look it up later on the internet. Perhaps it was a famous place.

The man standing in front of her must have been a regular, because one of the waitresses came over and started to chat with him. They spoke in Melepria, so Sara wasn't able to follow the conversation, although she could tell the two knew each other well. It was still a novelty to have a naked woman standing so close to her, and Sara kept peeking at the woman's body. Her eyes wandered down, lingering on the woman's vulva and the intricate pattern of lines covering her mons pubis. Was it merely a stylistic pattern, like the petals of a flower? Or did the tattoos have a more significant meaning?

All at once, she realized that the woman was looking at her and smiling in a friendly way. "Very smooth, heh?" the woman said in a Melepria accent, looking down proudly. "My sister. She have a shop, up the block, round the corner. She very good!"

Sara was startled to be caught looking, and it took her a moment to understand what the woman meant. The woman reached down and slid her fingers over the smooth skin where her pubic hair should have been. She looked proudly at Sara.

"So smooth! Feel! Feel!" The woman jutted her hips forward, nodding at Sara in encouragement. Sara hesitantly reached out and touched the woman's tattooed pubic area. The skin was completely smooth.

"My sister will do it for you. She is very good. She have special technique. You want to know where?" The woman nodded eagerly.

Sara felt a moment of culture shock, barely believing that she was touching a stranger in such a private location. But the woman didn't seem bothered by it at all, so Sara traced one of the curved lines of the woman's tattoo. The woman's skin was soft and warm against her fingertips. "Does your sister do these tattoos also?" she asked.

"No, no. She just take away the hair. You want a mapati tattoo?" The woman seemed surprised.

"What do they mean?" Sara asked. "Is there a reason you get them?"

The woman shared an amused glance with the man, as if she was about to explain something that everyone knew. "The mapati tattoo shows what is important," the woman said. "Look! Look here." She leaned over and pointed to a thin line that curved into a spiral just below her belly button. "That means my mother. Is her mark. This one is for my sister. This one is for the malina flower, because that is my name... Malina!" The woman laughed.

"Ah... so each thing means something... I wondered..." Sara wished she could have a look at Leon's tattoo again. Maybe she could learn something about him if she could decipher what he had drawn on him.

An image appeared in her mind, of her face hovering just above Leon's penis, intently studying his tattoos. She smiled to herself.

The woman touched Sara's shoulder. "Tala's. Up the block, around the corner. She make you so smooth, no grow back for weeks. Tell her Malina told you. Okay?"

"Thank you," Sara said. She watched the woman walked away. It didn't take long before she reached the front of the line, and she ordered two items that looked good, a noodle dish and a chicken/vegetable dish. Both had unfamiliar names but looked to be made of familiar ingredients. Exotic but not too exotic. She received a number, and stood at the side, wondering if Malina would be the one delivering her food. It turned out to be a different woman, and the food came in cartons that looked like Chinese take-out.

The driver saw her coming and ran out to open the door for her. "All good?"

"All good." Sara told him the names of the dishes she had purchased.

"Excellent choices." He grinned.

They drove back to the hotel. Instead of thinking about mapati tattoos, Sara found that she couldn't stop fiddling with her skirt, thinking about skirts in Meleprija. Did Melepria women learn to sit with their knees together when they wore skirts? Did they learn to hold their skirts down on windy days? Or did it even matter to them if anyone saw their panties? Sara couldn't imagine that they would care.

The car pulled up to the hotel. "I hope the rest of your trip goes well," the driver said. "Perhaps I will drive you again some day."

"Perhaps you will," Sara said. She waved at him as she walked through the doors into the lobby.

She took the elevator to her room. A red message light was blinking on her phone. She checked the hotel voice mail and found messages from both Adam Newcastle and Linda Baldwin. Both messages said the same thing: they had just arrived at the hotel; they would travel with her to the Perchuga Valley; they looked forward to meeting with her. Adam had a crisp British accent that reminded her of Hugh Grant. Linda's voice was a flat monotone, and she sounded tired.

Sara kicked off her shoes and sprawled on the bed. The television had a handful of English channels and other channels in Spanish and Portuguese. She ate the take-out food in the bed while watching one of the Brazilian channels. It was some kind of prank show, and she was able to follow what was going on despite not understanding the announcer.

The food was delicious. The chicken dish had a hearty flavor, with a spiciness that made her think of cinnamon. The noodles swam in a rich gravy with onions, potatoes and cashews. Despite her appetite, she barely dented either dish. She put the leftovers in the mini refrigerator.

After eating, she filled the bathtub. She soaked in the tub for a while, sometimes reading through her Meleprija guidebook, but mostly just lying there with her eyes closed. The heat of the water started to dissipate; she added some more hot water, then found her razor and worked on her legs, making them smooth. She kept thinking about Malina. "I make you so smooth..." she told herself, sliding the razor over her calf. "No grow back for weeks!" She smiled.

She let the water drain and got out of the tub. She took both bath towels, one to dry off with, the other to drape over the bed so she could lay on it. The room service menu was sitting on the bedside table, and Sara remembered that she was still pretty far from her daily per diem limit. She opened the menu and looked at what was available.

She picked up the phone and dialed.

"Hello, this is room service," a male voice said.

"Hi, I'd like to place an order."

"What would you like?"

Sara scanned the menu. "Can I have the chocolate brownie cheesecake, please? And a cappuccino?"

"Certainly. Does that complete your order?"

"Yes."

"You are in room 414?"

"Yes."

"Perfect. I've placed your order, and it should arrive in about forty-five minutes."

"Oh... that long?"

"Yes, I apologize. We're a bit busy at the moment."

"It's fine. I'll be here." Sara dropped the phone back into the cradle and leaned back on the bed. She considered turning on the television again, or maybe reading some more of her guidebook. Her hand rested on her stomach, and she slid her fingers down until they brushed the top of her pubic hair. Sara lifted her head, gazing at that triangle of black hair. Her fingers plucked at a curly strand, pulling it straight. It was long enough that she could wind it around her finger.

Forty five minutes. That was probably enough time.

Sara rolled out of bed. She found her toiletry bag next to the sink and located a small pair of cuticle scissors. She stepped into the bathtub and sat on the edge with her feet in the bathtub. Pulling the strands of her pubic hair into bunches with her fingers, Sara started cutting with the scissors. Very quickly, the bottom of the bathtub was dotted with small black hairs.

Sara turned on the shower and watched the water sweep the tiny strands of hair into the drain. When the bottom of the tub was clean again, she stepped in and sat down, letting the water drizzle around her while she carefully took off the remaining stubble with her razor. She slid her hand between her legs, feeling for any hairs that she might have missed. Smooth. Not as good a job as Malina's sister could do, but at least for a few days, she could feel like a Melepria woman.

A knock came at the door. "That wasn't forty-five minutes!" Sara muttered. She scrambled out of the tub and went to the door, peeking through the peephole. She could see a Melepria man in a beige hotel uniform waiting outside. Next to the man, a cart with a covered silver tray.

Sara checked in the closet, hoping for a bathrobe, but found nothing but hangers. She started towards her suitcase, intending to quickly throw on a t-shirt and shorts. The room service attendant knocked again. "Room service!" he called.

Sara paused. She was in Meleprija, and the man at the door was clearly Melepria. Did it really matter that she was naked? The man probably wouldn't even register anything was out of the ordinary. Melepria women went naked all the time.

Sara returned to the door and pulled it open, just enough to reveal that she was naked, while she watched the attendant carefully for any reaction. Just as she suspected, he was all business. He didn't even glance down at her body. "Room service," he said. "Can I bring it in?"

"Sure." Sara stepped away from the door. The attendant pushed open the door, then slid something into the door jam to keep the door open. He went around to the back of the cart and pushed the cart inside.

"Where would you like it?" the attendant asked. "I could move the dishes onto the table?" He indicated a glass table with two chairs around it.

"That would be fine." Sara stood next to the bed. It was odd, to be standing naked in front of a strange man, and to have him treat her as if nothing was unusual. But she was pleased that she'd made the correct prediction regarding his reaction, or rather, lack of reaction.

Someone knocked on the open door. Sara looked in that direction and saw a tall, skinny man in a black suit with no tie standing in the doorway. He had an unruly mop of black hair and a neatly groomed beard. "I beg your pardon..." The man straightened as he noticed her lack of clothing, and he quickly shifted his gaze to the wall, unable to refrain from grinning. "Um... I'm looking for Dr. Sara Olson?"

Sara heard his British accent, and knew instantly that this was Adam Newcastle, the man from Finance. "Oh!" she said. "Yes, I'm Sara. Give me just a second." She tried to scamper into the bathroom, to find something to wrap around herself, but remembered as soon as she stepped into the bathroom that she had already taken both towels to the bed. She whirled, hoping to rush to the bed and wrap a towel around herself, or maybe even the whole bed spread, but Adam had stepped into the hotel room and now stood right in her way.

"I apologize," he said, still grinning, with his eyes carefully looking everywhere but at her. "Adam Newcastle. I work for TTX as well, in the Finance department. Did they tell you I was coming?"

"Yes..."

"This is my first time here in Meleprija. I know that the culture here is very casual about clothing. I hope you'll pardon me for now, if I act a bit embarrassed. I know I'll adjust in a few days."

"It's all right," Sara said, very flustered. "I didn't expect you to come by. I'll put something on, just let me find something." She ducked around him, and started for the bed spread, but now the room service attendant was in her way.

"Can you sign here, please?" the attendant asked, holding out a piece of paper attached to a small black board.

"Yes, of course," Sara said. She accepted a pen and tried to focus on the paper. She saw the price of the food, a blank line where she could add a tip, but also a delivery charge... was that the same as the tip? Or did she need to add a tip on top of it? She had trouble concentrating, knowing that Adam was standing just behind her, probably with his eyes on her bare ass.

"I didn't expect anyone," she tried to explain to Adam over her shoulder. She quickly added a few dollars as a tip and signed her name. "I just took a bath, and the room service came... The way things are here, I figured I didn't have to get dressed to answer the door..."

"Right, right," Adam said. "I mean, why would you need to? It can make things more convenient, I suppose. Like if one needed to check the post, but didn't want to fuss with throwing something on... it would be more convenient just to walk out, right? So that's an advantage to the culture here..."

"Thank you, miss. Have a nice evening," the room service attendant said, and headed for the door.

"Thank you!" Sara called to him. She hurried to the bed and took hold of the bed spread, trying to pull it loose. "Oh!" she said suddenly. "My receipt!" She needed to submit a receipt for her expense report. She looked in desperation at the door, but it was already swinging shut. She could hear the squeak of the cart's wheels in the hallway.