One of the last little pleasures of Luann Avery’s tropical vacation was flying back next to two empty seats on the airplane. She was able to stretch out her beautiful tan legs and sit barefoot for most of the flight without being self conscious in the least. Sitting next to the window, with her legs crossed, she gazed down at the clouds beneath her and absent mindedly played with the luggage tag on her carry-on bag with her perfectly manicured toes. The white polish intensified the deep even tan of her foot. The pilot announced that they were making their final approach.

Being a rule follower, Luanne immediately checked her seat belt, brought her seat to the upright position, and uncrossed her legs. She slid her feet lightly across the floor to search for the closest thing to shoes she wore all week—her Japanese flip-flops. Her right foot immediately found her left flip-flop. Repositioning it deftly with her feet she easily slipped into it. Her right foot was still naked and could not find her other thong sandal. Luanne glanced down, and saw the sandal lying upside down in front of the seat next to her. Vaguely Luanne remembered dangling the shoe and letting fall from her toes. Although no one was seated next to her, Luanne felt slightly embarrassed as she bent down to grab the errant slipper. Dropping it in front of her feet she slipped it on her right foot.

The lingering memories of the tropical beach left Luanne immediately as she step out of the airport to her waiting limo. There was a cold November drizzle. A bitter gust of wind chilled her to the bone. Her shorts and tank top did little to protect her. The short walk to the van seemed amazing long. Getting into her transportation she stepped in a deep dirty ice cold puddle of water completely immersing her foot; this was not the warm crystal clear water of the Carribean.

Luanne was shivering in her seat with freezing cold water dripping from her bare foot. A slovenly corpulent man entered the van. Luanne disdained slovenly people. He commented on how Luanne was not dressed for the weather. That comment irritated immensely but she surprised herself by mustering a polite smile towards the man. The man responded by offering her a clean handkerchief to dry her foot. She thanked the man and took it. They had a surprisingly pleasant conversation and theride back to her condo was not nearly as cold or long.

As they arrived at Luanne’s home, she asked the man if he wanted the handkerchief. The man let her keep it. The walk to her front door seemed much shorter than her walk to the van. The man in the van enjoyed her one shoe walk to her front door. The driver counted his tip. Luanne thought about how her smile improved her short journey home and how the man did seem so slovenly after all.

If Luanne had a character flaw it would be vanity. She was a beautiful woman and she knew it. Much of the money she spent and many of her personal habits were dedicated to enhancing her beauty. She bought designer clothes and designer shoes. She had a rigorous fitness program and she tried to adhere to a healthy balanced diet. She would rise extremely early in the morning to apply her make up and dress perfectly for the day. She felt she was the best looking and most professional woman at the office. This gave her an arrogance which was unbecoming.

After showering, in the morning, Luanne always stood naked in front of a full length mirror to inspect her body. It was a morning ritual that started shortly after college graduation and allowed her to steadily improve her appearance for the last seven years.

This was not a particularly good morning. She had forgotten many of her good habits on vacation. The overeating, social drinking and under sleeping had taken its toll although not many people besides Luanne would notice. She had slight dark circles under her eyes. Her usually flat stomach seemed to have small paunch. It would be gone after a week of sit-ups but that would be a week later. The most disturbing thing to Luanne this morning though was the white ring around her right ankle. She had bought a cheap ankle bracelet on vacation and careless left it on while she sunbathed at the beach. The tan line looked terrible to her. It was not like her to be careless.

It was definitely a pantyhose day. She needed a control top to push in her belly and a dark color to hide her tan line. The only control pair of control top pantyhose had though, were nude. Slipping the hose on anyway, without panties, she saw her belly flatten, her beautiful tan legs and the ugly tan line. Luanne continued dressing deciding that her suede skirt an pumps would really compliment her tan. Fully dressed Luanne, could not stop looking at her ankle; it looked terrible. Kicking her pumps off in disgust she thought of her camel leather ankle boots.

She returned her shoes to the closet and stepped into her ankle boots. Without zipping them up she walked back to her mirror. The colors did not match exactly to her taste. Off came the boots and the skirt. Her tweed slacks were the only thing that would accent her boots, blouse, blazer, and tan. It definitely would keep her warm on this cold November morning too. So with her tweed slacks and her boots zipped Luanne headed to work.

The cold November morning was fast turning into a warm Indian summer day. By mid morning it was approaching 80 degrees. The building’s heating system was pouring heat out as if it were a winter day. Luanne had practically spent her entire vacation shoeless. Tight stockings and hot boots were making Luanne’s feet feel extremely uncomfortable. As the morning staff meeting dragged on in the stuffy conference room Luanne lazily crossed her ankle over her knee and pulled herself closer to the table. Subconsciously, she reached down and unzipped her boot. The rush of cool air around her foot shocked her and she quickly zipped up her boot.

Luanne never took her shoes off at work, it was unprofessional. On rare occasions she might unknowingly slip her foot half out of a shoe but as soon as she realized it, her shoe would be on again. She would also be conscious of her feet the rest of the day. Luanne was conscious of her feet now and she could only think about how uncomfortable they were. She turned her attention to Connie Edisons monotonous presetation.

Connie was a peer of Luanne but Luanne could not respect such a unpolished woman. She wore the same scuffed shoes to work every day, whether they matched her clothes or not. Part of her outfit was always wrinkled and she had know concept of cosmetics. Connie droned on and switched slides in her presentation. She rested her hand on the little table that held her laptop and slid her right foot out of a well worn black pump. She let it hover over her empty shoe a momentarily. Intending to slip her shoe back on she knock over her pump but was not alarmed. As she continued to speak, she let the heel of her dark stocking foot touch the floor and began rubbing the cool metal leg of the table with her big toe. Luanne watched Connie’s foot rub the leg of the table and thought how unprofessional that looked. The reinforced toe of her hose was not even straight. Even though Connie and Luanne were competing for the same promotion, Luanne felt embarrassed for Connie. Suddenly, Connie let out a little yelp and quickly jerked her foot away from the table quickly. She explained that her toe had hit something sharp and sheepishly concluded that’s what she got for slipping out of her shoe. Connie finished her presentation with both shoes securely on her feet and returned to her chair next to Luanne. As she sat down, Connie crossed her legs and push off her pump so she could rub her sore toe. Luanne felt Connie’s pump hit her foot. Feeling for the unprofessional woman sitting next to her, Luanne moved Connie’s shoe close to her so she could reach it without further embarrassing her self. The two women exchanged knowing smiles and Luanne strengthened her resolved to keep her boots zipped.

When the meeting ended, Luanne glanced at her watched and realized she had to get to the other building quickly to track down aproject issues. There was no time to stop at her office. On the way out of the building she passed the copy room and saw her secretary, Beth talking to Joan. Both women were in their stocking feet with no shoes in site. Joan was known as “Shoeless Jo” because she always padded around the office in her stocking feet. Luanne aways thought that was an embarassing nickname. Seeing Beth without shoes disappointed Luanne because she felt her secretary was a reflection of herself. Even though Luanne wanted to kick off her boots, she feltcompelled to pull Beth aside and giver a stern lecture on professionalism.

Finally, in the early afternoon, Luanne got to sit down at her desk. Her feet were hot tired and sore. She had to take off her boots but she resisted. Then she thought of her situation. She was at her desk and had no place to go that afternoon. Nobody could see under her desk unless they walked into her office and walked behind her. There would be nobody who would know if she shed her boots. Besides she would only take off her boots for a few minutes. Quickly Luanne reached under her desk and unzipped her right boot and pushed it off with her left foot. Her foot was instantly invigorated. With new found energy and freedom her foot wildly flexed and rotated as if to break out of it nylon prison. She lifted her left foot toward her hand, unzipped the boot pulled it off her foot. The boot fell with a thud as her toes wriggled and wiggled. Leaning back in her chair and extending her legs above the floor she moved them side to side to let cool air bathe her feet. Pushing her toes forward, they touched the smooth polished wood of the front of her desk. Her moist stocking toes were refreshed. The toes glided effortlessly around in circles always touching the smooth cool wood. The phone rang.

The phone call was a wrong number but it was time to get work. Luanne opened her bottom drawer to put her purse away and noticed the first aid kit she kept for the company softball team. After staring briefly at the kit, she opened it and found what she wanted — a chemical ice pack. She grabbed it broke it and tossed under her desk. Her feet began playing with the ice pack immediatelyit was true bliss. Her whole body woke up immediately and she began to plough the stack of paper on her desk. Soon Luanne found the document she needed.

Luanne ripped the distribution list off of the document, crumpled it up into a wad and tossed in to the trash can under her desk or so she thought. The wad of paper hit the rim of the trash can and settled into her left boot. Being a multitasking type of person Luanne hit the message button on her phone as she skimmed through the document and rubbed her feet over the ice pack. With her attention divided she was quite startled when she heard Beth’s voice.

Beth told Luanne that her boss Art wanted her in the Executive Conference room immediately. He tried to call but just got voice mail. Luanne indicated that she had to put on her boots. Beth could not resist reminding Luanne about the lecture she gave her earlier about being shoeless. Luanne just ignored her. With her right boot on and zipped Luanne began struggling with her left boot. Her foot pushed the wad of paper deep into the toe of her boot and her foot could not squeeze into the boot. She slipped the boot off and tried to remove the paper but she could not reach it. Beth told Luanne to hurry because Art wanted her to meet some one who was leaving to catch a flight. Frustrated, Luanne just curled her toes and forcibly jammed her dainty foot into her boot. The position of her foot in the boot was painful and it prevented her from zipping up the boot. She adjusted her pant leg to hide the fact her boot was unzipped and figured she could grin and bear it for a few minutes.

When Luanne entered the conference room she saw the CEO Katherine Smith. Art stood up to meet Luanne and said he wanted her to meet Katherine but there was no rush now because Katherine changed her plans to watch the presentation demo. He introduced Luanne quickly to Katherine and instructed Luanne to sit down for the demo. They would all talk after the demo.

Katherine’s appearance impressed Luanne greatly. Approaching fifty, Katherine looked 15 years younger but even more impressive to Luanne was she had the look of a no nonsense powerful business woman with grace. She wore pink and still looked totally in control.

The lights darkened in the room and the program began. Luanne realized she had to fix her boot problem before her meeting and the darkness was the perfect cover. She brought her left foot up to her right knee and silently removed her boot. Uncrossing her leg she let her stocking foot enjoy the thickly padded plush carpet while she tried to remove the wad of paper from her boot. Her right hand was completely inside her boot touching the wad of paper but she could not get a firm grip on it. Inching her fingers forward and deeper in to the boot she now had the wad of paper between her index and middle finger. Squeezing her fingers tighter and pulling the wad was beginning to come loose. The toes of her stocking foot curled as she anticipated the wad coming free. Just then a person across the table held out a large stack of presentation material for her to take. Luanne could not handle it with one hand and she could not take it with a boot stuck on her hand either. So she flung her boot down quickly to take the stack of paper.

She freed the troublesome wad of paperand the thick carpeting muffled the thud of her boot. After handing the stack of paper to the next person Luanne busied herself with retrieving her boot. Her stocking foot surreptitiously groped for her boot under the table but only found soft carpeting. At first she was mildly concerned with her predicament but now there was a little panic. She began using her booted foot to assist in the search but it was to no avail. Glancing under the table did not work because of the darkness. The situation got worse, when Luanne noticed that her right hand had a strong odor of foot. Reaching deep into her boot had left its aromatic mark.

Luanne’s mind raced and she felt sick. How could she meet with the CEO without one shoe and shake hands with her smelly hand. Luanne kept shifting in her chair and moving her chair a little bit at a time but still she could not find her boot; it was as good as a mile away. Tears were beginning to well in Luanne’s eyes. She covered her eyes with her hand and fought back her tears. She could not cry in front of the CEO.

The presentation ended and on came the lights. Quickly Luanne looked under the table but she did not see her boot. The moment of truth came sooner than she expected when Art asked her to go to the white board and outline ideas for improvement. He announced to the room that Luanne had great ideas. Luanne took a deep breath and thought for a moment. She contemplated announcing that she had lost her boot under the table and she contemplated limping up to the front of the room wearing only one shoe.

“"I can’t find my shoe," Luanne said almost inaudibly with sadness.

Connie who was sitting close to Luanne and fishing for her own shoes, found Luanne’s boot. She heard the sadness in Luanne’s voice and pushed the boot with her stocking foot against Luanne’s stocking foot. Luanne felt her boot and turned towards Connie. The women exchanged knowing smiles but Luanne’s smile was bigger.

"“Excuse me what did you say?"” inquired Art. Art really did not hear what Luanne said.

“"I just have to put my shoe on,"” Luanne replied happily.

"“That’s my top manager one shoe Lu,"” Art said to Katherine jokingly really only amusing himself.

Katherine who had her stocking feet resting on top of her $300.00 sling backs for all of the presentation looked crossly at Art making him shrink slightly in his chair. With one last wriggle of her toes Katherine ran both her feet over the thick carpet andslipped her feet back into her shoes. She crossed her legs and pulled the sling of her one shoe back onto her heel.

Luanne’s presentation went well and it was very well received by Katherine. The odor of the white board markers over powered the odor of foot on her hand. She felt confident and ready to meet Katherine. When Luanne met Katherine she noticed that one of the heel straps of Katherine’s shoe was not on her heel. This made Luanne feel much better. Katherine had deliberately left her heel strap down in subtle support of Luanne

Luanne returned to her office with two cups of coffee and invited Beth to join her in her office. Beth looked under her desk to find her shoes but Luanne told her she did not need them. She apologized to Beth for lecturing her kicking off her shoes at work. She plopped down in her chair pulled off her boots. Luanne thought quietly for a moment. She thought how stupid it was of her to be embarrassed when she lost her shoe. She thought of how her little smiles brought people were returned ten fold. She thought of the man with the handkerchief. She thought of Connie. She had unfairly judged them both.

Connie came by Luanne’s office to congratulate her on her presentation and saw Beth and her in their in their stocking feet. She entered.

"“You don’t mind if I kick my shoes off do you one she Lu?"” Connie asked kicking off her shoes before she heard answer.

"“Go ahead, Relax, I’m relaxing more now too,"” Luanne replied as she propped stocking feet on the corner of her desk. “"One shoe Lu?"” Beth asked.