Making a new friend

Tamala got me rang up and bagged up. Luckily she didn't check the name on my card or she might have questioned who Jon was. I had just spent more on that one purchase than I had possibly ever spent on clothes in my entire life. But Susan wouldn't care. She seemed to like this new change in me.

A few minutes later I was standing outside the store holding a half dozen bags of clothing and trying to decide if I could actually make it outside, l let alone call for a ride home.

"Need some help?" a voice asked. I looked up to see Tamala smiling at me. "I'm going on break and you've got your hands full."

"Sure," I said without hesitation.

To be honest, I had already been missing her. I have no doubt that in my old life I would have gone home and jerked off a few times while thinking about her, but it was not that. I genuinely enjoyed our time shopping together. It was maybe the first time in my life I had spent time with a woman and hadn't felt either nervous or distracted by sexual tension.

Tamala took half of my load and continued to smile.

"You like Starbucks?" she asked. "I was going to get a Frappuccino."

"That sounds nice," I said.

Instead of calling an Uber, we headed to Starbucks where we ordered and found a quiet table in the back. We spent a half hour just casually chatting, which really shocked me. As Jon, I would have struggled to find words to say to such a hot young stranger, but with Tamala they seemed to flow freely.

She was 18 and had only recently relocated to Florida from an unknown Midwestern state with a much colder winter. She had little to no contact with her family back home, and other than her roommate (who she'd met just two months earlier on Twitter), her coworkers were the only people she knew here.

I was as open as I could be, without revealing too much about myself. I was married and on vacation with my spouse, who had decided to spend the week 'playing the field.'

"When he or she has such a beautiful woman at home?" she asked, shaking her head. "Well, I hope you have at least done a little playing of your own?"

"A little."

"Good for you!" Tamala said, then looked at her smartwatch and sighed. "Its time for me to get back to work."

She grabbed an ink pen from her pocket and scribbled a phone number on a napkin.

"I've really enjoyed hanging out with you," she said. "Call me if you want to chat or hangout again while you're still in town. Its a shame you're done shopping, I would love to help you some more!"