Fantasy The Continuing Education of Susan by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Ok, the next step was finding a pretext to go over and start a conversation. Just another lifetime of conditioning for me to overcome, no problem there. Well, it WAS a really cute belt; that could work. I looked over at her and waited for her to notice. Not staring, just admiring. When she saw me and gave a little smile herself, I picked up my coffee and went over to her table.

"Sorry," I said with a smile. "Hope I wasn't staring, just, that's a really cute belt. Where'd you get it?"

She looked up from the laptop again and smiled. "Nordstrom," she replied.

"Downtown or Northgate?" I took a seat.

"Northgate," was her response. "It was a couple months ago but they had more left."

"Thanks. I live close to SeaTac Mall, so don't go that far north often, but will try to make it up there. Oh, hi. My name's Susan. Guess I should've started with that."

"Rachel, that's ok," she responded, and the little smile returned. "Honestly, I just thought it looked cute."

"Oh, it does, Rachel. I've got something at home that I know it'd go great with. Little blue dress a lot like that one."

"I can see blue working on you," Rachel replied, checking out my outfit. "Are you on your way to the gym or coming back?" It was then that I remembered how I was dressed.

"Oh, neither. Well, you might say coming back. I work at a yoga studio," I explained, handing her a flyer. She slid her laptop to the side and read it.

"Inner Claire-ity," she read out loud. "Cute name. I'm guessing the owner's name is Claire?"

"Yeah. I'm just her secretary, but Claire thinks everyone dressing like we're going to work out projects the kind of image she wants, you know?"

"Honestly, it doesn't hurt that you're hot either," she replied with a sip of her coffee. That threw me back a little. I'm not used to compliments. From Troy and Julie and our friends, sure; and getting hit on by drunks and late-night sleazeballs at the diner, but not from another woman I've just met in casual conversation. Of course, I never went out in anything that showed off my figure before. I don't talk about my appearance much because it sounds to me, at best vain; and at worst, like one of those letters in dirty magazines that always begin with "I always thought you guys made these letters up," but if someone, say, had the ability to make me answer questions about my looks truthfully, I'd have to say "All right, yeah, I guess I'm fairly hot. My boobs are big and pretty nice, anyway; proud of those."

"Thanks," I said, feeling a blush come on. "Dammit, Susan," Sue told me. "You're supposed to be the one in control here. Remember what you've learned."

"Honestly, you don't look like you need to work out much." Ok, she'd said "honestly" three times now. There was my "in-road," as Troy called it. One of the keys they'd told me was to find something that the person says often or seems to be an important thing with them and start using it back to build rapport. Julie had told me that with Claire, she used the word "nice," and with me, Troy called me Susan a lot, even though I went by Sue in those days, because I'd introduced myself as Susan before correcting myself to Sue; and he'd sensed which I really wanted to be. God, I love him.

"Well, Rachel," I replied, trying to regain control. "Honestly, you're pretty hot yourself. But workouts aren't what we're about. Not yet, anyway. Claire's business advisor has suggested that maybe expanding to include some gym equipment might bring more people in, but that probably won't be for a long time. Our focus for now is working with individuals or small groups; getting in touch with them, helping them to get in touch with themselves. Helping you find the real you, honestly. You know what I'm talking about?" Rachel was nodding her head in agreement as I spoke. I started doing the same. I wasn't completely mirroring her movements, just trying to bring her to a positive, agreeable state.