Not sure if you've ever noticed from our pictures, but my feet are always well looked after. I get a pedicure every three weeks - heels scrubbed, legs massaged and nails trimmed and polished - sometimes plainly, but more often decorated by hand with sweeping designs or flowers and sometimes even little jewels. Even as a young mom when I didn't have the time or disposable income to worry about pedicures, I still looked after them regularly and kept them looking good.
By comparison, I think most men don't give a fig about what their feet look like. Their idea of trimming their toenails is having them lopped off when they stub them on a piece of furniture. Okay, I'm exaggerating...L, for one, isn't really that bad, but while he certainly does trim his toenails, it is not perhaps as regular an event as it should be. A few years ago nearing L's birthday, I wanted to treat him to a pedicure as part of his birthday gift. I learned a long time ago that L really enjoys being pampered sometimes and I suspected that once he got by the stigma of it being a "woman thing" that he'd actually really enjoy it. I confided in my esthetician about him.
She is really great and as a result I have directed a fair amount of business her way, including several of my close family members. I wanted to take L there for a pedicure, but I wanted to be sure first that she was comfortable with that situation. I knew she'd keep my secret when I told her, but it's one thing to not repeat my story to others and quite another to be complicit by meeting and interacting with him. She was fine with it though, and I was able to take L there and I sat and kept them company while he had his feet done. Although he did enjoy it and said he'd go again, I did kind of sense that he felt that a lot of the steps were unnecessary for him. He just really wanted someone to cut his nails.
Recently, L asked me how much I pay to have a pedicure done. After answering, I asked if he was interested in going again. He seemed a bit undecided, so I asked if he'd like me to cut his nails for him. He thought that it would be impractical, given the limitations of our relationship, but I thought we could easily do this in the park and it would work out just fine. I explained what I had in mind and he agreed it sounded doable, so we made a date to have a lunch and pedicure session.
The day came and I packed up the items I thought I'd need - a basin, a flask of boiling water, a jug of warm water, a towel and some implements like clippers, cuticle pusher, file, etc. It had been raining overnight, so after hiking to our secret spot - a small clearing that's a pretty out of the way - I spread a tarp on the ground and then our blanket on top of it. L sat in a lawn chair and I prepared the water, mixing the warm and the hot until it was comfortable for him. Then I handed him a bottle of wine to open while I organized some (very yummy!) sandwiches I had prepared. We sat - he in the chair and me on the ground at his feet - and chatted, ate and sipped at our wine while he soaked.
When I finished eating, I cleared up and sat the towel on my lap and took one foot out of the water. I clipped his toenails, pushed back and trimmed his cuticles, filed his nails and in no time, his foot was looking exponentially better than when we started. Before starting on the next foot, I got some lotion and massaged from his calves down to his toes. Doing the same for the other foot, I had just finished clipping his nails when we heard voices. We've been to this spot many times, fucked there, given blow jobs there and never once had we run across anyone before. We looked at each other in surprise, then tried to arrange things so it didn't look so strange. We were talking quietly as a young couple and a little dog rounded the corner into our clearing.
We stopped, smiled and said hello as they passed through and into the path on the opposite side. We declined to pick up where we left off right away as we knew they'd be back. We'd scoped out this area pretty thoroughly, so we knew the path was too overgrown to go anywhere after you passed through to the other side. The way they came in was the only way back out. Not too long after, they came through again we smiled knowingly as they explained that they couldn't get through. Once their voices had faded into the distance, I finished up with L's feet. He put his shoes and socks back on and disposed of the soaking water while I packed up my implements. I wanted to give him a blow job to tide him over until we were together again, but we both felt a little leary, wondering who would next be coming down the path.
A couple weeks later, we had a single day of fantastic weather in between many, many wet and dreary ones so we decided to take advantage of that glorious day and have another picnic - probably our last for the year. Being my usual needy self, I was dying to get laid and L thought we might be able to squeeze one in while we were there. We arrived at the same park to a bit of a surprise. The main gates which had closed at Thanksgiving in early October and wouldn't reopen until spring were wide open and the park was a hive of activity. Cars, school buses, kids and adults packed the park.
We drove into the park, right down to the end of the long winding road and everywhere was full of cars and people. It appeared there was a cross country running meet going on with multiple schools. We decided to go back to the entrance and park there and hike in past the gates as originally planned. As we approached our spot, we could see the grass had been trampled down considerably. Between that clue and a few red flags planted in the ground we realized that the path for the runners passed uncomfortably close to our clearing. With no leaves on the trees by this time, we certainly couldn't count on not being seen.
L had bought veal sandwiches and I brought some wine. We put down a tarp and then our blanket, shed our light jackets in the warmth of the sun and sat together and ate our sandwiches and drank our wine. Once we cleared away the food, L lay on his side propped on his elbow and I lay beside him on my stomach, with my arms folded in front of me to pillow my head and we chatted as he stroked and caressed my back. Normally, our spot is very quiet and we enjoy the sounds of the forest - the calls of the birds, small animals scurrying through the undergrowth, etc., however this day, the sounds of school buses and cars drowned out the forest sounds. At one point, an ambulance and fire truck even went down into the park and we wondered aloud what might have happened to require emergency services.
Alas, with so much activity (and children!) in the park, we were once again forced to behave. Although sometimes things don't work out the way we planned, we still seem to be able to make the best of our time and enjoy each others' company. So, although physical needs were not met those days, mental needs certainly were and both times, as I drove home after dropping L back to work, I reflected on how fortunate I was to have share yet another lovely picnic with him.
