All through elementary school and most of high school we had off and on crushes with each other that seldom seemed to align at the same time. It wasn't all sunshine though, because there were also stretches of time that neither of us could stand the other. No matter how I felt about Sheri though, what always stuck with me about her was the way she smelled. I don’t know if it was the conditioning of my earliest childhood attraction or not, but to me Sheri always smelled so sweet.
When we finally did move in together there was nothing romantic about the arrangement. She lived in a big apartment with a couple other roommates and they had one small empty room. I had spent the summer in Key West with a girl I been seeing and now that I was back in town, I needed a place to stay. Since they had that empty room I made the suggestion to Sheri about moving in and splitting the rent one more way. Sheri was actually pretty reticent about letting me move in since she thought I'd be too much of a slob. Still, Sheri and her roommates put it to a vote to decide if I should move in and the economics of student life won out. I was in, but if I recall correctly, I don’t think I carried Sheri’s vote.
Apart from my small room, the apartment was really quite large. Sheri was the lone female in the house and had been living in the apartment for a few years. She had just finished university the year before and had started working while Rob, Jean and I were still in school. We all got along well and for the most part there was no discord on the upkeep of our apartment. I was still seeing Chelsea, the girl that I went to Key West with and she was also a common fixture around the apartment.
While there was nothing going on with Sheri and me, Chelsea was starting to build up a bit of jealously towards her. It wasn't anything extreme; I suppose reasonably enough Chelsea complained that we never seemed to do anything without Sheri coming along. If it were one of my male roommates who was always with us quite likely Chelsea might have had the same complaint. She did have a point, but apart from not wanting to uninvite Sheri, I found myself increasingly liking her company. Aggravating the problem, Sheri and I had known each other for so long that conversations could often stray into topics particular to our shared history, tending to leave Chelsea out.
Aside from the jealousy, Chelsea and I were having other problems too. I once read somewhere that if you want to see how compatible you are with someone, try traveling with them. It compresses things, so problems that would otherwise initially go unrecognized are more rapidly brought to the fore. Chelsea and I had been going out for about five months and spent two of those on a working vacation in Key West. In travel time or dog years, I figure we were approaching the seven year itch.
That was the basic situation when one morning Sheri came to the living room and used the phone in there to call in sick. Instead of walking back down the hall to her room, she just stepped into my room and flopped down beside me on the bed. She crawled under the blanket and snuggled up beside me.
For some this might seem like an overture, but considering the sort of relationship we had I didn't read anything into it. However, Chelsea had just spent the night and had left early that morning and I was still naked under the sheets. Having Sheri suddenly beside me while I was naked had my mind touring less innocent territory than the situation would normally lead me to visit.
Other than throw my arm and leg over her, which I was just as likely to do while sharing the couch watching TV, I didn't do anything to push things beyond a platonic embrace. The way I felt though, if Sheri had started something, I don’t think I would have stopped her. Nothing actually happened, but suddenly I was thinking of Sheri in ways that I hadn't for years.
In the days that followed, things were pretty normal between Sheri and me. Sheri and I started making plans to go out on Friday night and while I invited Chelsea, I kind of did a bit of a soft sell of the plans. It wasn't a thought out plan to exclude Chelsea, but I found that I was creating an easy path for her to take a pass on a night out. Whether I admitted it to myself or not I really just wanted to have a night out with Sheri on our own. This was opposite to the direction that Chelsea had been proposing, but even without the recent snuggle I had with Sheri, I think I was ready for just a friends’ night out.
By the time Friday rolled around I’d put off finalizing any plans with my increasingly annoyed girlfriend until it was really too late. In fact, neither Sheri nor I had made much of an effort to invite anyone else. In the end, Sheri and I went out on our own.
We went to a bar that we were regulars at and found a table in a quieter part of the bar at the back. Even though we hadn't really spoken about her sick day sleep in with me, there was a different feeling to our night out than normal. It didn't exactly feel like a date, but it did feel more intimate than usual. Having known Sheri for so long, I can recognize her behavioral cues. Not because I’m especially intuitive, more so because Sheri’s just not the least bit subtle. When Sheri is favoring someone, she really focuses on them. It’s almost an exclusionary focus and being the subject of her attention can really make the recipient feel good, at least that’s the way it works for me. That night at the bar I knew that I had Sheri’s undivided attention. We were in a crowded bar, but it could have been just the two of us sitting in a quite café.
We talked about our morning cuddling in bed too. Sheri said how weird it made here feel when she realized I didn't have any clothes on. I didn't think she’d realized that I was naked under the blankets, but I guess it’s not really the sort of thing that can go unnoticed.
