Sandra's body language was all vulnerable and uncertain, and though her uniform was pretty unflattering, I had no doubt that under her armored vest was a tough and muscled body. And she was quite pretty. Thinking quickly, I answered, “Alright.” I didn't think it'd be more than drinks. And it looked like she could use a drinking buddy right now. “Tonight? I don't have work until morning.”
She nodded, a bit quickly. “Sure. Um, my room in ten minutes?”
“Ok. Where would that be?” After a quick check on her PipBoy, she showed me on a map of the current floor. Apparently she lived a ways down the hall from me. A real girl-next-door. Though I guess that applies to everyone in the Vault now. With that, we separated. Her to her rooms, me to my bedroom to try to make myself a bit more presentable. Nothing big, comb, teeth, that sort of thing. No sense showing up looking like a brute.
My PipBoy gave me a convenient locator mark to help me find my way, and within ten minutes, I was standing outside a door that looked a lot like every other door in sight. Sighing, I rose a hand and knocked. A few moments later, the door opened. I realized I may have underestimated Sandra's needs of the moment.
She'd shucked the armored vest and undone the vault jumpsuit down to the waist, letting it hang freely like a quasi-skirt. Over her top was a simple undershirt, just a plain white t-shirt. And my estimates were somewhat accurate, she was quite fit and lean. I hadn't guessed that she had been hiding a c-cup chest under her armor, though. I yanked my attention back to her eyes as quickly as I could. “Hey,” I said.
“Hey,” she replied. “Come on in.” I did, and her little abode looked absolutely identical to my own. I took an offered seat in one of the chairs, in front of the lone table. On it was a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. A bit stronger than I had expected, but I could adapt. She poured us a round, and downed hers in one shot. I decided to follow suit, and as she refilled our glasses, she fortunately didn't appear to be in any hurry to down the second round. “So, , you come around here often?”
“Oh, I expect I'll be in town for some time.” I smiled a bit wryly. “There's this big convention, everyone's going to be there.”
“Maybe I'll drop by sometime,” she tossed back.
“I'd like that, Sandra.” We shared weak smiles at the poor jokes. Then there was silence and the sipping of whiskey. I broke the silence first. “It's a little hard to believe...”
“I know,” she muttered. “Sometimes I feel like someone's about to announce that the drill is all over, and we can go home...”
Might not be good to go there just yet. “Or that it was just a misunderstanding, and someone hit the alarm button by mistake,” I offer.
“Perfectly understandable.” She stared into her glass, as if it might have an opinion of it's own. “... We're going to be down here for the rest of our lives, you know.” The harsh reality didn't feel any better with the booze in my system. “Nothing but steel walls, hallways, and fluorescent lights.”
“No greenery at all, huh?” I ask.
Sandra shrugged. “There's a hydroponics bay, but it's not for the public to walk around in. It's for growing food. In any case, I'll miss the sky more than the plants...”
“The sky?”
She nodded. “Big and blue, and puffy clouds here and there. And behind them, the sun, bright and warm.”
“The breeze across your face, the scent of open air,” I said, taking up some slack in the fantasy.
“Mmm.” Sandra closed her eyes to it. My eyes drift back across her body... Momma may have raised me to respect women, but dammit, I'm still a man! And after two shots of whiskey, well, I'm gonna think about it. I managed to get my eyes under control before she noticed, though.
We didn't drink anymore, though we did play around a little with the imagined sky above us. A light shower of rain, a gentle fall of snow in the winter, the color of clouds at sunset... |