Right in Front of You

It took her a second to make sure he was teasing before she elbowed him in the ribs.

"Jerk," she said.

"Scaredy cat," he said back.

A few more seconds passed before Melanie said, "Wouldn't you be embarrassed?"

"Of?" he asked again.

"Gregg. Be serious. Of me, of course."

"Why in the world would I ever be embarrassed of you?"

"Duh! I'm not very smart. At least not book smart. I couldn't keep up a fancy cocktail party with all the college-educated wives. I probably wouldn't even know what they're talkin' about most of the time. And...I'm not...sophisticated. I like beer better than champagne or wine. And I'm not gettin' any younger."

"That's okay because I'm gettin' older," he said, dropping the 'g' on a word just to try and connect with her.

"But anytime your dentist friends and their college-graduate wives were at a party, you know you'd always be wondering, 'When is she gonna say somethin' stupid—again'. You know you would because it's true. I can say some pretty dumb things when I get drunked up."

"Before I can worry about what you might say or do in the future, there has to be a future. A future for us."

"I know. And as much as I think I want that happy, simple life, the old ways aren't gonna just roll over and die, you know? They're gonna go kickin' and screamin' the whole way."

"I'm up for a fight," he told her then quickly said, "Or in my case, I'm down during a fight, but you know what I mean."

When Melanie laughed she told him, "I've laughed more with you than I have in the last five years. Maybe even ten. And I mean real, genuine laughin', not the phony kind you do when you're half lit."

Before Gregg could reply she said, "I'm gonna be late, and bein' late ain't...isn't conducive to keepin' a job."

Gregg knew why she'd corrected herself and found it endearing, but he didn't say anything. He just stood up and offered her a hand. Melanie smiled and took it then stood up next to him.

"I've got a lot to think about, don't I?" she said with a smile.

"Not really. It's actually a pretty simple decision to decide to change. Now as to whether or not I'm the right guy for you, well, we'd need to spend some time together to find out."

She turned to face him then said, "Are you askin' me out, Doctor Wilkens?"

"I wasn't, but your question has emboldened me, so now I am. Asking you out."

"Go on, then. Ask," she said as she smiled at him.

"Melanie? Would you like to go out with me sometime?"

"Well, yes, I would, Doctor Wilkens," she said. "I...think. And as long as it doesn't involve bars or drinkin'. You know, the things I have to avoid if I ever hope to really change."

She loved that Gregg laughed at that rather than acting hurt or getting angry like most of her exes would for not sounding completely enthusiastic. The truth was, she wasn't enthusiastic, but she knew she had to change, and she also knew the old saw about the longest journey starting with the first step. So she was finally taking that first step even though it was small and very tentative, at best.

"It won't be exciting, but I have something in mind that would let you get to know the real me," he told as she walked out. The door's lock snapped shut with a quick turn of the key, and she smiled but didn't say anything.

"Then I accept," she said without asking what or when.

"Is tomorrow morning okay?"

"Oh, I don't do mornings so well," Melanie told him.

"Okay, how about noon and we'll have lunch first?" Gregg suggested.

"You have yourself a date," she said with a polite smile.

"Okay. Then I'll see you right here tomorrow at noon."

"Yes you will," Melanie said as she hurried down the hall. "Oh, and thank you again so much for the new carpet, Gregg! I really do love it!"

He didn't answer as she'd already disappeared into the stairwell, but he did smile as he turned around to go back to his mom's place.

The door was open when Gregg went over to knock the following day just before twelve.

"Hello?" he called out quietly.

"Hey, Gregg. Come on in," he heard Melanie say. "I'm almost ready."

Gregg was early for everything, and it was obvious Melanie was not.

"Take your time," he called back.

He'd only seen her in something other than her uniform a few times, and when she walked in, he stood back up, and tried not to stare.

"Is this okay?" she asked as she turned sideways both ways.

"Um...yeah," he said not sure what to make of her outfit.

The first thought he had was that Melanie did not have the body of a typical 35-year old woman. The second was she had a very different idea of 'tasteful' or appropriate than he did. The third was that he liked her taste a whole lot better than his—appropriate or not.

She was a wearing a white, short-cropped sweater with three-quarter length sleeves that exposed a good two inches of midriff. Under it was a tight, black, spandex skirt devoid of panty lines which caused no small 'stirring' somewhere south of Gregg's belt; the belt that was holding up his off-white Docker pants with the black button-down shirt.

Lastly, Melanie was wearing black pumps, and although it was the last thing he'd expected to see, he couldn't stop staring.

"Yes? No?" she asked as she twirled once.

"Oh. Yes. Definitely...yes," he told her, unaware his eyes were open wide and his eyebrows up a bit.

Melanie took his reaction as positive then said, "Okay. Whenever you're ready, doc."

Gregg was still staring although he wasn't sure what he'd been staring at. Melanie was wearing makeup and her hair and face looked incredible. Her body was tight and fit, and her very nice, C-cup boobs were on full display in the clingy top. Then there was the very toned, very tight waist with the long, shapely legs that went all the way...well, up to her very tight ass. And those heels...

"Sure. Yeah. Why don't we go ahead and get going?"

Gregg drove an older model Toyota Corolla which Melanie either didn't notice or didn't care much about as he opened her door for her.

When he got inside she thanked him and sat down then carefully buckled her seat belt.

"Very few guys I date open doors for me," she told him.

Gregg started the car, smiled then said, "Then you've been dating the wrong..."

He stopped and started to apologize when Melanie said, "No. It's okay. And it's true."

"I just didn't want to sound like a...a pompous ass."

Melanie laughed and said, "You are neither pompous nor an ass."

She smiled then said, "You're just a really nice..."

Now she stopped having remembered his 'nice guys finish last' comment.

"Great guy."

"Thank you for not saying I'm a 'nice guy'," he told her with a smile of his own as he backed out.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

"No. I'm starvin'," she said with a smile.

"Is IHOP okay?"

"I'm more of a Waffle House kinda girl, but yeah, I love IHOP."

She smiled sweetly at him then said, "IHOP is a little fancy to me."

Gregg smiled back and laughed.

"Then you choose," he said.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Why? Is that bad? Letting you choose, that is."

"No. Not at all. I just can't remember a man ever askin' me for my opinion before."

He gave her that look and she knew what he wanted to say.

"Okay. Okay. I get it already," she said pretending to be annoyed. "Let's shoot for the moon. Let's go big. Let's do IHOP!"

"IHOP it is then."

Gregg was astonished at how much she ate.

"How do you stay so...gorgeous...and eat like that?" he asked as she polished off a third strip of bacon after eating two large pancakes and three scrambled eggs plus toast.

"Um, well, I probably won't eat another bite until tomorrow," she told him. "I know that's not healthy, but I kinda have this reputation for, you know, makin' poor choices."

She laughed but Gregg didn't.

"I know your being self-deprecating, but I wish you'd start believing in yourself, Melanie."

"Self what?" she asked. "Never mind. It don't...it doesn't matter."

She looked upset and Gregg apologized.

"No. Don't apologize. You're absolutely right. I don't much believe in myself. But because I know myself all too well, I'm fully justified in not believin' in myself."

"I believe in you," Gregg said quietly in a way that touched Melanie deeply.

She looked at Gregg who then said, "I really do, Melanie. And I'm going to show you that you can and should believe in yourself."

"Good luck with that," she said quietly as she picked up her coffee cup.

"Just give me some time, okay?" he said as he tilted his head waiting for her to look at him.

She was taking a sip when she finally looked at him.

He was crossing his eyes, and the moment she saw him she nearly spewed her coffee. She got it down before she started laughing then sat there and just smiled at him.

"What?" Gregg asked.

"I don't know. I guess maybe I was just thinkin' that you might be able to pull it off. The makin' me believe in myself thing."

"I'm counting on it," he told her in a warm tone of voice.

From there Gregg took her to a building in Plano she'd never seen. It was an upscale kind of place with several different businesses inside, and Melanie had no idea what they were doing there.

"Because this is where I'm going to be working," he told her.

"Wait. Here? In this building?" she asked.

"Uh-huh. There's a dentist office inside and one of the three dentists who currently works there is retiring. I've talked with the other two twice now, and as of two days ago, they agreed to let me practice here. I just need to come up with the cash to buy out his equity."

"Gregg, that's...that's so amazing!" she said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I wasn't sure you'd be all that interested," he replied in a way that wasn't judgmental. He was just stating a fact.

"Well, I am!" Melanie told him. "Go we can inside and look?"

"If you'd like," Gregg told her.

"Yes. I'd love to!" Melanie said, a happy, bright smile on her face.

Gregg went around and opened her door and helped Melanie stand up. She smiled and thanked him, and after he closed her door, he offered her his arm and she put hers through it and let him lead her inside.

"Doctor Wilkens!" the receptionist said. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Hi, Alicia," Gregg said. "We just stopped in to take a look around."

"We?" she said, smiling at him before glancing at Melanie.

"Sorry. This is Melanie, my..."

"Friend. And neighbor," Melanie said as she returned the smile.

"Oh, okay. I guess I just assumed the two of you were, you know..."

"Dating?" Melanie said.

"Well, okay," Alicia said. "I mean, Doctor Wilkens is such a handsome man and all, it just seemed logical."

The receptionist was around Gregg's age, and she was most definitely 'in his league', and Melanie knew immediately she was interested in the new dentist. It was a woman thing, so there was no need to ask.

"No, Melanie's definitely not..."

"Not gonna let this guy get away," she said causing Gregg to kind of shake his head in surprise and the young receptionist to say, "Oh, okay," with a nervous little laugh.

"Did you wanna go say 'hey' to Doctor Allen and Doctor McClure?" she asked.

"We don't want to bother them. I just wanted to show Melanie where I'll be working."

"Ah, okay," the girl said. "So I guess we'll be seein' you next week then, right?"

"That's the plan," Gregg told her.

"Great! We're really lookin' forward to you gettin' started," she said.

Gregg thanked her, wished her a good day, and told her he'd see her next Wednesday, barring anything unforeseen.

"It was nice meetin' you," Melanie said as she made a show of taking Gregg's are again.

The girl forced an uneasy smile and said, "You, too. Y'all take care."

As they walked out, Melanie said, "My, my. Someone has a crush on the new dentist."

"Alicia?" Gregg said with a snort. "No way."

"Uh-huh. Yes, way," she said. "That girl's got it bad for you, doc."

"If you say so," Gregg told her.

"Yep. Looks like I've got competition," Melanie said as they walked up to his car.

"Competition?" he asked with a quizzical look.

Melanie smiled as he opened her door and coyly said, "Maybe."

"Uh-huh. Fat chance of that happening," Gregg said.

"Oh, my. Look who's not believin' in himself now," she teased.

"I'm...a realist," he said as he helped her get in.

When he came around and sat down, Melanie said, "No, you're bein' a pessimist."

Gregg started the car then looked over and said, "Am not."

"Are, too," she said.

"Am not."

"Oh, you so are!" she told him with a happy smile.

Enjoying the playground antics, Gregg said, "Yeah, well, you're...you're..."

"Go on ahead and say it. Don't be a chicken, too, Mr. Pessimist. Just go on and tell me," she playfully taunted.

Gregg put the car in reverse so he could look away then said, "Beautiful."

"What?" Melanie asked quietly.

"You. You're...beautiful," Gregg told her. "And amazing."

For the first time, Melanie felt the kind of low-level high Gregg told her a guy like him could induce. It was nothing like 'bad-boy heroin' hitting her brain. It was just very...nice. It was also very pleasant, and Melanie wondered if it could ever be enough to replace the rush of what she'd always sought.

As they rode along no one spoke, and Melanie suddenly felt self-conscious.

"Gregg? May I ask you something?"

"Sure. Anything."

"Do I embarrass you?" she asked.

"What? What are you even talking about?" he replied.

"I saw the way that girl, Alicia, was starin' at me, and I know that look. It's the one that says, 'You ain't nothin' but white trash', and the way she kept lookin' at my...bare skin...well, I can't help but wonder if maybe I embarrassed you."

"Melanie?" he replied as he glanced over at her.

She didn't say anything. She just sat there waiting for him to speak.

"You know I like you, right?"

Before she could reply, he held up a hand and said, "That was rhetorical. It's obvious I do."

"Okay," she said quietly.

"When you like someone, when a man likes a woman, the last thing he wants to do is try and control her. I want you to dress the way you want to dress. I want you to wear your hair the way you like to wear it. I want you to be yourself, because that's the woman I...I'm crazy about."

He looked over at her and said, "I'm honored to be with you. Honored. So, no, I am most definitely not embarrassed."

As she said 'okay' again, she got her second 'hit' of this low-level drug, and this time, she liked it even more. The feeling was so pleasant, and his words were so sincere, she felt like she was on the verge of tearing up again.

Gregg smiled and said, "I believe in you, remember?"

This third shot of her new drug of choice hit her even harder, and when he held out his hand, she didn't even think about giving hers to him, and she even smiled back him in a way she hadn't done before. A way that, were it capable of speaking, would have said, "I think I might just be able to change."

It was too new a feeling to be sure, but Melanie thought she just might possibly be able to give up the higher highs...and the lowest of the lows...the part she wouldn't miss at all.

"So do you like movies?" Gregg asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Of course," she said. "Why?"

"I haven't been to a movie—in a theater—in...wow. It's been a very long time."

"You know what? I haven't, either. Maybe since...high school."

"So how about we go see a movie?" he asked.

"Any idea what's playin'?" she asked happily.

"Do you like romantic comedies?"

She did, but it had been years since she'd watched one. The kind of guys she dated had no interest in that kind of thing, and she'd lost interest in them herself. Or at least that part of her had. Suddenly, the idea of watching one sounded very nice.

"You know what? I do," she told him.

"They remade the Goldie Hawn movie Overboard, and I hear it's pretty good."

"Oh, wow. I remember that movie from when I was a little girl," Melanie said. "Kurt Russell was one of my first bad-boy crushes."

Almost immediately she said, "Sorry. That just kinda slipped out."

"I'm not the jealous type, Melanie. Especially not of movie stars," he told her with a smile.

She sat there trying to remember ever being with any guy who wasn't insanely jealous and couldn't come up with even one name. And that realization caused her fourth 'hit' of whatever this newfangled thing she was experiencing was called.

"Okay. Let's go see that," she said with a very sweet smile.

Gregg found himself experiencing all kinds of emotions during the movie. The first was typically male. He was literally aching to be with the beautiful woman sitting next to him. He'd been hard for so long it actually hurt, and he laughed to himself when he thought about how he'd worn a jock strap under his briefs just in case, grateful that he had.

The second was just watching Melanie's reactions during the movie. She was so beautiful when she laughed, and this was the first time he'd really seen her let go and have fun. During the romantic parts, he saw her serious side as he watched her rooting for the girl, hoping they'd fall in love while tearing up again a time or two.

The third was the time she noticed him watching her. When she did, she smiled at him then reached over for his hand, and Gregg nearly lost it. He'd had virtually no free time during dental school, and that made dating very difficult. And not dating much meant having sex was a very rare occurrence, and he was sitting there feeling like he really was 'seeing white' after going so long without having made love to a woman. And the thought of doing so with one as attractive as Melanie Carver was nearly enough to cause a serious, spontaneous eruption.

When the movie ended, Melanie didn't get up. The credits were rolling, and Gregg asked if everything was okay.

"Yes," she answered quietly as people slid by. "For the first time in...maybe forever...everything is very okay."

When she looked at him, he could tell.

"I'm growing on you, aren't I?" he teased.

"Maybe. A little," she teased back.

"A little is a whole lot better than not at all, right?"

"Yes. Yes, it is," she said as she smiled at him again.

As the fifth 'hit' hit her, Melanie was shocked when her body told her she wouldn't mind at all if Gregg kissed her.

"You ready yet?" he asked a few seconds later.

"Almost," she said very sweetly before leaning over and kissing him.

It was little more than a peck, but Melanie couldn't help herself. And Gregg was so shocked he wasn't really sure it had happened.

"What...what was...what was that?" he asked.

"It's called a kiss, dummy," she teased. "I thought you were a college graduate and all."

"They...they didn't teach that in college," he told her as his brain went into overdrive to try and understand what just happened.

"I think I'm ready to leave now," she said in response. "I just didn't want this to end, you know?"

Gregg let go of her hand and stood up.

"I didn't say I didn't want to hold hands anymore, though," she told him as she stood up and took his back.

They didn't say much on the way back, and when they got to her place, Melanie asked if he'd like to come in.

"Um...yeah. Definitely. Let me just go check on my mom first, okay?"

"Oh, sure," she said.

Then before he could turn to leave she said, "Could I...maybe go with you?"

Her smile was killing him, and when he said, 'sure', she took his hand again, and Gregg thought to himself he didn't know how much more he could take.

Beverly was so glad to see Melanie she basically dismissed her son when he asked her how she was doing.

"Fine. I'm fine," she said to him before telling Melanie how pretty she looked.

"You don't think it's too much?" she asked the one woman she felt she could trust.