14 good good hours.

i "slowly undressed" her tonight.

i was sitting on the floor, next to her chair, for no real reason other than i wanted to be close to her.

her legs were crossed, so one of her shoes were right by my knee.

first i just sort of batted her shoe around.

then i pulled one lace.

slowly.

and when i could feel her look down, i would stop. glance up at her to see her half smiling down at me.

i would grin. she would look away.

rinse and repeat.

soon i had loosened her shoestrings. big loose hoops of shoestring between eyelets, hardly keeping her shoe on her foot.

as i was doing it i said, "yeah. i am slowly undressing you, you realize this, right?"

"oh, of course."

i began working on her other shoe.

she switched the way her legs were crossed.

i moved her foot to my knee, let it rest there, as i, again, slowly pulled her shoelace loose.

relaxed.

one day we won't be at work, one day we will have plenty of time.

and one day i will slowly undress her.

and she will still look down at me, half smiling, to see me return a grin.