When Elaine Met Amanda

Author's notes: I've been trying to finish up some pending works. This is a prequel I have always wanted to tell.
Chronologically, this is the first Elaine story. If you have never read any others, great. It's a good place to start. If you have read the others, great. It's some nice background.
1-Meeting
Elaine Galway climbed down from her bunkbed, stepped on a used condom, slipped, and fell on her bottom on top of another used condom. Spooge was squeezed out of that soiled prophylactic and squirted on her pajama pants. In retrospection, this would be one of the most fortuitous events of her life. At the moment, she did not see it that way. At the moment, she had made the mistake of turning and finding herself face to hairy ass with whatever piece of shit her roommate had brought back from the Maswik bar the night before.
Trying not to vomit, Elaine grabbed her shower stuff and went down the hall to the dorm bathroom.
This was the limit. She could not take anymore. She enjoyed her job and certainly loved where she lived, but her slut trash of a roommate was making her life miserable. In the three weeks since Teresa had moved in, she had brought home at least four different guys. They all leered at Elaine, too, and that just creeped her out. And today was Wednesday! She'd picked up some rando at a bar on a Tuesday night. Elaine was twenty-eight years old, she should not be putting up with this kind of crap.
Elaine worked in human resources for the company that ran the hotels at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. She would be the first to admit that she was drifting in life at that point. Her degree and background were in graphic design, she could still do that freelance while working there. Or she could if she could get out of the dorm and into some place that at least had space for a desk.
The adventurous young woman had lived in New York after college, and her last job had been in Los Angeles doing some work for movie marketing. That had been fun, her curiosity was always looking for something new and different. She also wanted a break from city life and living at the Grand Canyon was about as different as she could get.
Elaine had grown up far away from northern Arizona. She was born in New York City, lived there for the first two years of her life, then moved to New England, where she lived through high school.
Her father had always been big on summer family roadtrips. They had loaded up the family minivan and explored the country. Despite, or maybe because of, growing up in New York City, her father had sought out the open spaces of the West. Elaine had wheedled him into to taking her to art galleries and museums, but his heart was in National Parks and Forests. She appreciated him for taking her to the places she wanted to go, and for introducing her to the natural world. The Grand Canyon had been a regular stop on these month-long odysseys.
Elaine would not say that she was happy with her current life. She was not unhappy, or at least not overly unhappy. Her parents had died when she was in college. It was a car wreck, out of the blue. Her brother made his last appearance in the US at the funeral, and she had really been on her own since then. She had an inheritance that provided her with security, so she was free to take some risks based on what she wanted to do rather than having to pay the bills.
Her first big city adventure had been in New York. Her family had roots there, so it was familiar. She rented her own tiny overpriced apartment and did graphic design work for a small ad agency. She had her first love affair with Darren. He wined her, dined her, and totally failed to do anything for her in bed. She had been bored when she lost her virginity to him and it never got any better. They lasted six months before she finally just stopped returning his calls. He did not seem to mind.
That set up the trend for her romantic life for the next few years until she just gave up on it. Elaine and her boyfriends wanted different things out of the relationships and the sex. She was horrible at telling them what she wanted, and when they inevitably did not deliver what they had no idea she wanted, she would withdraw and see if they came after her. None did, and she had not been heartbroken by any of them.
What did break her heart and make her pull back deeper inside herself was the failure to find that magical man who knew what she wanted (even when she did not) and what he wanted and made it happen. No more too nice guy or earnest but unskilled. She knew she was looking for a unicorn, but she still hoped that he was out there and would find her someday.
In the meantime, the already shy woman withdrew farther into herself and away from people. She was friendly enough, but did not seem to know how to instinctively act around other people. She had to work at it and worried that she would come across as phony as she felt. It was a lot of work to put on that kind of act and there was only so much socializing she could really do.
The bahis siteleri background noise of sexual frustration and the feeling of incompleteness was soon a regular part of her life. Generally, she ignored it, or tried to. Elaine would be the first to admit that it made her a little grouchy and made her want to spend more time by herself, away from people who did not fill her needs.
Elaine was a beautiful woman, she suspected that, but her inability to find that perfect situation made her doubt it at times. She was a little under 5'2" with dark blonde hair that fell to her shoulders. Big blue eyes drew in the gaze on her pretty, round face. She thought her calves were a little skinny, but was okay with her smooth thighs. She wished she had a little more in the breast department, but at least hers were firm and perky. Very sensitive, too. If only someone wanted to take advantage of that fact. All of her boyfriends told her she had a nice butt (two of them invariably added "for a skinny girl" to the complement), so she was at least comfortable with that.
Men flirted with her. She was a beautiful woman in a place filled with fit young men. She was a little oblivious, which was probably all for the best. But she had still not seen anyone who fit her narrow window of expectations.
With the thought of men banished from her mind, Elaine concentrated on making herself happy and finding adventure where she could. The big city life had been wonderful, but she wanted beauty and physical challenges. The Grand Canyon offered both in abundance.
Elaine had been there for six months now and, aside from living with Teresa, had enjoyed it immensely. She loved hiking the trails, exploring this amazing piece of geography. She did some freelance graphic design work on the side, to stay in practice and in touch with people. Her surroundings gave her ample inspiration. Mostly, she hiked and explored and looked at this as a sort of working vacation.
It would be a much more pleasant vacation if she could so something about her living arrangements. Housing was determined by the company, and Elaine was on a waiting list for an efficiency or apartment or anything other than sharing a dorm room with Teresa. The adventurous young woman was not about to let that trash drive her away from here. There was her parents' money, so she could leave, but preferred to pay her own way and this was a way to live cheap and do some great hiking.
In the shower, she scrubbed her feet and butt and threw both her socks and pajamas away. She liked those pajamas, too. It wasn't that she had anything against sex. She had had sex before, not good sex, but she had had sex; and she looked forward to maybe having sex again someday. Teresa was just icky and the men she brought home did nothing but disgust Elaine.
She quickly dressed in the bathroom, put on a little makeup and headed out into a beautiful morning to go to work.
Was she too uptight about sex? She took a deep breath and went on her way. She wanted sex, she laughed and caught herself using the word sex over and over, as it to make it more abstract. What she wanted was a good, hard fucking. She wanted a big, strong man to desire her and use her body for his pleasure. Romance? Maybe. As long as it came with great sex.
The pisser was, she knew, rationally, that she would be a whole lot happier if she could just lower her expectations and take the best option out there. But, she had tried that, several times, and chose a life alone and sexless, fuckingless, over settling.
Elaine pushed those thoughts aside. She had enough to deal with with Teresa, she did not need to dredge up her romantic and sexual frustrations, too. She walked down across the railroad tracks and past the mule barn to get to the nondescript brown building that was her work life these past few months. She was the benefits clerk and handled getting all the employees set up with their insurance. It was an easy job even though she dreaded the public speaking that came with her presentation at new hire orientation. They had a high turnover up here, so those were frequent.
The shy beauty opened the door, walked past her office and straight into Tom's. Tom was the housing manager, an older guy with thinning white hair and laughing blue eyes. Since Elaine's father had died while she was in college, Tom had easily slipped into a father figure roll. She closed the door and sat down across from him.
"I can't take it anymore, Tom," Elaine said with as much calm as she could muster. "I need to get out."
"Teresa?" Tom asked. He could see in her big, blue eyes that she was at her limit.
"And her skank men," Elaine said then thought for a second. "Can men be skank?"
"If not, I know what you mean anyway," Tom said. "Tell me about it."
Elaine sat down and proceeded to vent about what an unpleasant experience living with Teresa was. From the many men, to her general uncleanliness and indifference to locking the door and on and on. Tom listened patiently, letting her get canlı bahis siteleri it all out.
"I may have something for you," Tom said when she finished. "There is a front desk shift leader who just got a one bedroom and needs a roommate. If you're interested, and I assume you are, I'll give her a call."
"Yes!" Elaine said. One-bedrooms were living the highlife in Grand Canyon Village. She knew that Tom was probably bending a few rules for her.
"Why don't you get to work, and I'll get in touch with her," Tom said and rose.
"Who is she?" Elaine asked. It might be nice to know something about the woman she would, hopefully, be living with.
"Amanda," Tom answered. "If you met her, you'd remember her."
"Is that a good thing or bad thing?"
"Good. She's fine, but you will understand when you see her."
Elaine got another cup of coffee, added her creamer and microwaved it to get it back to just under scalding, then began her pile of paperwork. She already felt better, at least she was doing something about her problem instead of just enduring it.
It was an hour later when her life irrevocably changed.
"You Elaine?" a voice asked.
Elaine looked up from her paperwork and saw red. She instantly understood what Tom had meant. Standing in front of her was a big head of red curls that exploded out from an attractive woman looking at her patiently. The hair was the first thing that Elaine noticed. Curls of red shot in every direction, adding another few inches to her height and wrapping her face in a fiery halo. Amid the beige walls of the offices, she stood out like a bright flower. Once she got beyond the hair, sculpted was the word that first came to mind when Elaine looked at Amanda. Pale skin with a light tan (Elaine wished she could pull that off), fine facial features and pale blue eyes that sparkled welcome and mischief as they looked at Elaine. Amanda was in a shoulderless white blouse, short khaki shorts and flipflops. Her shoulders were muscular, like she did a lot of climbing, her legs tight but still nicely curvy. A pair of hard nipples poked out in the air-conditioned room and Amanda seemed totally unconcerned about it.
"Yes," Elaine stood and offered her hand. "And you must be Amanda."
Their hands touched, there was something electric when they did. Elaine was feeling a little flushed, out of her element. It was not until later that she identified these confusing sensations as the beginnings of her attraction to Amanda. At the time, she just tried to cover it up, hurry on, and figure it out later. This was a strategy that served her well in life.
"I hear you need out to get out of your room," Amanda said and dropped into the extra chair in Elaine's office.
"And I hear you need a roommate," Elaine said, regaining enough of her composure to at least make a conversation.
"You got your chocolate in my peanut butter?"
"You got your peanut butter on my chocolate?"
They both laughed.
"Let's talk and see if it works," Elaine said, afraid that it would not. She could tell that her life was going to be very different living with Amanda. But, as always, there was that fear of disappointment that held her back from wanting it too much.
Elaine found that Amanda did the bulk of the talking, but at the end of the conversation she did not know all that much more about the redhead as a person than she did when they started. She certainly knew much of Amanda's adventures, but was not sure where her potential roommate grew up or even how old she was. Amanda did make Elaine feel at ease and she quickly took a liking to the effervescent redhead. At various times Amanda had worked as a river guide, hotel clerk, waitress, hiking guide and probably more.
"So, what do you think?" Amanda asked. "Should we shack up?"
"Let's do it!" Elaine said with as much bravado as she could muster. She was naturally very reticent and making any kind of loud or emotional display was not in her nature. This was either going to be a really good idea, or a really bad one.
"Tom?" Amanda said loudly.
"Yeah?" came the answer from across the hall.
"We're gonna do it!"
"Great! I'll start the paperwork."
"Okay," Amanda said and rose. "Let's go."
"Go where?" Elaine asked.
"To get you moved," Amanda said and had the look in her eyes that leaving work right in the middle of her shift was a natural thing to do.
"Now?"
"Now."
"Go!" Tom boomed from his office.
"Okay," Elaine said and quickly stacked up her paperwork. At this point all she really had to do was data entry and she had no problem putting that off for an hour or two.
"I'm parked out front," Amanda said and led the way out. Elaine found her eyes lingering on the redhead's muscular legs.
There was an older red Toyota 4-runner parked in front of a hydrant and Amanda headed straight for it. She waved to the ranger who was pulling up to cite her.
"Hey, Jim!" Amanda called to the ranger.
"C'mon, Amanda," canlı bahis Jim said. "One of these days you are actually going to wind up with a ticket."
"But not today," she said and gave him a wink. "This is my new roommate, Elaine. We're going to go get her moved."
"Hi," Elaine said nervously.
Elaine was barely in her seat when Amanda had the Toyota in gear and lurching out onto the road.
"I should tell you that I'm not seeing anyone at the moment," Amanda said. "Tom gave the basics of your problem. But at some point, I might. If I do, and I'd kind of like to take a break from men for a while, I promise to be respectful."
"Thank you," Elaine said.
"And if you ever bring someone home, I expect you to do the same," Amanda added. They zipped around the circle and up towards the women's dorm on the Rim.
"I wouldn't worry about that," Elaine said with a hint of bitterness. "I'm taking a break from men, too."
They pulled up to the front door and Amanda parked in the fire lane with her hazards on. Fortunately, Teresa wasn't there, and they were able to get all of Elaine's stuff quickly loaded. The used condom from the morning was still on the floor, so Amanda, using Teresa's bra that was conveniently next to it, picked it up and left it on her pillow.
"Nice pack," Amanda complimented Elaine as she loaded her hiking gear. "We should definitely go hiking together."
"That'd be fun," Elaine agreed.
Amanda kept up a one-woman conversation as they made the quick drive to the apartment. Elaine found herself entranced by the energy and animation of the redhead. It seemed that by virtue of them being roommates, she had also made herself Amanda's new best friend.
Elaine liked her. It had been too long since she had had someone her own age to hang out with. She was naturally shy and quiet, so the long gaps in conversation could make some people uncomfortable. It seemed like Amanda was perfectly capable of filling in any silences.
"Here it is," Amanda said as they brought the first load in. "It's not much, but it's ours."
Compared to the dorm room she had been in, it was heaven. It had a kitchen, small living room, bedroom, its own bathroom (no more showering down the hall!) and even a patio that looked out onto the forest. They were at the end of the complex, so they had as much privacy as you could get here.
"I've only been here a week," Amanda explained as Elaine looked at the various piles of bags and boxes that were scattered about the apartment, "and haven't got around to unpacking. Put your stuff wherever and we'll figure it out later."
Elaine was looking around at the apartment, imagining the decoration possibilities.
"If you're good at decorating," Amanda said, "knock yourself out. I tend to live out of my car most of the time."
"I'm good at decorating," Elaine said, surprised at her own confidence on the matter. "I'll need to get some stuff from Flagstaff...."
"Great!" Amanda said. "We'll go this weekend. Make a day of it."
"We?" Elaine thought, but realized that it would be more fun with a friend.
"Okay," Amanda interjected again, off and running on another line of thought. "Let me drop you back off at the office, then I'm going to go running. Do you run?" She looked Elaine up and down. "Yeah, you run. We'll go running, too."
Elaine had a smile on her face the rest of the day. Certainly, a lot of it was the relief of not only getting out of being Teresa's roommate, but also trading sharing a single dorm room to sharing a four room apartment (she counted in her head: bedroom, living room, bathroom, kitchen; yeah, four). And there was the matter of her new roommate. Mesmerizing was the best way Elaine could describe the effect Amanda had on her. Amanda was beautiful and vibrant and seemed to already include Elaine in her world.
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Elaine hurried to the apartment after work, eager to unpack and make it home. She would also need to make a list of stuff to get in town. She was eager to spend some of her parents' money to stock and decorate her new home.
"Working until midnight!!!!" A note that Amanda left read. "Help yourself to the wine!!!!!"
The exclamation points seemed appropriate for Amanda.
Elaine poured a glass and began surveying the apartment.
Amanda did not have much kitchen stuff. Elaine wrote down a quick list of pots, pans, utensils and so on that they would need. Curtains for the bedroom window, some pictures, maybe a couple of plants. Some chairs for the patio....
After a few glasses of wine and lots of energetic planning and designing, Elaine turned in. Her twin bed was on one side of the bedroom, Amanda's on the other. She made her bed, turned out the light and climbed in. She looked out the window and saw a couple of mule deer grazing in the forest outside her window. She was going to like this.
2-Shopping
Elaine had always enjoyed Flagstaff. It was the closest town to the Canyon and when she needed a little bit of culture and shopping, she would make the 90-minute drive. Amanda made the drive in a little over an hour. There had been more than a few moments of sheer terror when the redhead made a turn too fast or passed on a double yellow.