This is a long one.
Mary and I were an unusual pair. Me, a kinda chubby, brainy nerd, eventual honors grad who yet somehow managed to be popular and well-liked, and her, an outgoing natural leader, athletic dance squad captain, member of the student body leadership who also was a theater geek. She had an incredibly lithe body, legs for days that led to Aphrodite’s ass.
But this isn’t a story about her admittedly mesmerizing backside. Oh no, this story is about the pleasure I still remember from that smile, decades later.
I’d say we had chemistry, but that would be too literal: We literally were lab partners in Chemistry class. That was the first time I noticed her smile. Stretching the width of her pupils, her perfect pearly whites were framed by full, soft lips that made the most fabulous curves when she spoke. The soft yet firm voice that came from them nevertheless commanded attention and respect.
Which is why I was caught off guard when one day, across the Bunsen burner, she asked, “Will you be my date to Homecoming?”