Submitted by Cherry and Writer

First Impressions - Part I

A tall, sandy haired man stepped from the stairs of his apartment complex and shook the sleep from his eyes. He began to walk the short distance to his office when he decided to stop into Ernie's Cafe. He walked within the open glass doors and approached the counter.

"Small coffee and a donut, Erin" He said to the thin woman behind the counter.

"You got it, James," she said.

After a few minutes Erin came back with James's coffee and donut. He grabbed them and searched for a seat.

"Again the cafe is busy," he thought.

Almost every seat was full. James searched, as he had done almost every morning, for a dangler, an attractive woman dangling a sexy high heel, or slide, or whatever.

Sitting beside the large cafe windows, James was surprised to find a beautiful, unfamiliar, woman staring into the window. A seat opened up kitty-corner from her and James sat down.

The woman was five-foot something with red, fiery hair. She wore a small red skirt and white blouse. On her small feet, she wore sexy red low cut flats dangling from her white polished toes. The woman swung her foot back and forth but something bothered her.

Her pout was accentuated by a cranberry stain of lipstick. She was swirling her cup of double java frou frou “coffee” while aimlessly looking out the window. James could tell from the furrow between her brows that she was not entirely pleased with the thought she was mulling over. Just as he was wondering what she could be thinking up and finding so distasteful, he was distracted by the movement of her manicured hand. She slid her fingertips smoothly down her right leg from her knee to her ankle, finally grasping the heel of the shoe taking it off and lifting it to examine it above the table.

Needless to say James was quite caught up in observing her now bare, save for stocking, right foot. He noted the perfect stair step toes descending from the second toe which was just a hair longer than her big one. He also realized the glint of white he noted earlier was actually the tips of a perfectly executed French pedicure. Curiosity, however, soon won out and his eyes rose to figure out what was so interesting about the shoe.

Her pout had turned into a definite frown as she carefully examined the shoe from every angle, turning it around in her hands again and again. When she turned the shoe sole up she paused examining the heel of it. James noticed that the heel seemed a tad more pronounced than that of a normal flat. She took a closer look, set it on the table and rocked it back and forth as if testing for stability. It was then that James realize the flats had not always been flat. He was quite sure he could see the joint where a heel was once attached. “Now that is interesting,” he thought to himself as his eyes wandered back to her right foot. She was flexing the well defined arch and rolling her ankle back and forth. James was lost in the sight, when he heard her sigh and then in one swift motion she set her cup on the table, slipped the shoe back on and stood up to leave.

As she stood she stumbled a bit, balancing on the sawed off lump below her heel. James began to stand but the woman barked for him to sit back down.

"I'm sorry," James apologized.

The woman glared then smiled a little. She apologized then left.

James finished his donut and grabbed his coffee. He walked to the six-story office building he worked in then entered. He passed the large sign stating his name, James Storm, Inc. then found Ron. Ron listened intently to James instruction then left. James took the elevator to the sixth floor and walked into his large office.

After stamping his approval on several work orders, Rita, his secretary stated that a woman was here to see him.

"Must be my interview, scheduled for just about now," James commented while looking at his watch. He advised Rita to let her in then stood in front of his large desk.

James' jaw fell partially as the woman from the Cafe stood in front of him. She shook her head slightly as she recognized him, the words that came out of her mouth were, “Today just keeps getting better and better.” Her gaze met his eyes, she paused, stuck her hand out to shake his and with a smile said, “My name’s Rachel Brisbane; but after the way I snapped at you in the coffee shop I probably shouldn’t waste our time with this interview." James replied, “It is very nice to meet you; and humor me anyway.” With that he invited her in and lead her to a round, glass topped table in the corner of his office.

He noticed the steps Rachel were taking toward the table were very small; and she seemed to be struggling not to slip. When Rachel sat down she crossed her legs at the knee, left over right, almost immediately the heel of her left shoe slipped from her foot exposing her arch and heel, leaving only the tips of her toes concealed. She opened her notebook and took out a crisp sheet of linen paper, her resume, and slid it across the table to him. He pretended to examine the document while watching the small movements of her mostly visible left foot under the table. He also noticed that she had popped her heel out of the right shoe as well, and had slid her toes back to the middle of the shoe. Her arch was flexed, pushing her toes against the bottom of the shoe. After a few moments, without putting the shoe completely back on, Rachel slipped her left ankle down her right leg. The left shoe now sat flat on the floor, the tips of her toes were revealed as she slid them to the middle of the shoe and lifted her heel. Much to his surprise, she lifted her right foot out of its shoe completely and then rested it on the curve where her heel met her ankle on her left foot. This left the sole of her right foot turned up and visible. His eyes were drawn to the little wrinkles in her sole that appeared when she curled her toes. James had been looking at the paper just a little too long, Rachel cleared her throat and his eyes flew up to meet her’s. “Any questions?” she asked.

James responded, “Just one,” and before he could stop himself continued, “What happened to your shoes?” Rachel laughed and blushed, “Oh, you noticed.” James nodded. “Well,” she began, “as you are aware, I’m new to town and today was my first day using the subway. I took the wrong train, and since I didn’t want to be late I decided to get a taxi. As I was walking up the stairs to the street level, the heel of my left shoe broke off!” As she said this, Rachel reached down and picked up her left shoe and showed it to him. James looked at the shoe and then through the table to her stocking clad left foot. She continued, “When I got to the street level I saw some men working on the street. There isn’t a shoe store open at seven o’clock in the morning and I was desperate. I asked them if they had a hammer and a nail to reattach it, but all the nails they had were so long they would have punctured my foot! I think they thought I was nuts for even asking. Then I got this even crazier idea.” She set the left shoe on the table top and reached down to retrieve the right one and also showed it to him. “I asked the men if they had a saw, and they did. So one of them sawed off the heel of the right one to match.” She pointed to the rough edge of where the heel had once been on the shoe. “I felt so silly standing there in one broken shoe, and one stocking foot while the man took a hacksaw to my other shoe; but I didn’t know what else I could do.”

At this point James could hardly believe that this lovely woman was really sitting without either shoe on in his office. He could not pull his eyes away from her feet. Rachel became acutely aware of how quiet he had gotten. She shifted in her seat, picked up the shoes and reached down to slip them back on. “Obviously, I was able to wave down a taxi and got here with time to spare; but when I suggested he cut off the other heel I had no idea how hard it would make it to walk in these. That was what I was brooding about in the coffee shop." Rachel looked at him with those emerald green eyes to gauge his reaction. James swallowed, and said with a weak smile, “It does say on your resume that you are a problem solver.” Rachel smiled and tried to conceal a sigh of relief.

James sat quietly for a few minutes thinking. Rachel waited trying to contemplate what her hopeful new boss was thinking. After what seemed like an hour James finally spoke.

"Can you start in two days?" He asked.

Rachel smiled then stood. James quickly glanced as she uncrossed her legs, wiggled her left heel back into the pump that had dangled from her toes, then stood.

"I will have no problem with that," Rachel began, "I'll even have good heels on."

James stood and shook Rachel's hand then asked a surprising question.

"As my new partner I would like to celebrate with a trip to shoe store then dinner, what do you think?" He said.

"A trip to the shoe store?" Rachel asked.

"Yes, I want to buy you some new shoes," James answered with a cautious smile.

Rachel agreed reluctantly. She still felt a small amount of guilt for snapping at James earlier and anyway she could not refuse a free pair of shoes.

James arranged to pick her up at 5:00 after he left work.....