After stepping into her orange dress that morning, she zipped herself up, thinking nothing beyond the way it made her feel. How it hugged her waist in a warm textured embrace. How her sleeveless straps tugged at her shoulder blades on account of the tension from her ample bosom.
 

She'd worn this outfit before, just a week ago to a dinner and symphony with a perfect gentlemen, a man she'd met on the train coming into downtown Chicago. Someone who'd apparently observed her for quite some time before approaching her for a date.
 

She’d felt that night in her element. She knew from experience men would drool over her in that dress (and most any other she chose to drape upon herself). As their evening came to a close, he'd walked behind her up the few steps to her front door outside a row of brownstone apartments.
 

He'd leaned in for a kiss just then, and caught a whiff of perfume which waited for him atop her light golden brown hair. He paused, but she kissed him on the cheek, instead, and thanked him for a lovely evening.
 

Tonight, standing beside her coworker (who relaxed on a crimson red pillow convertible chaise lounge) in the break room (where they’d stayed late after work to get in some extra hours after everyone else had gone home for the day), again in her orange dress, felt.. .she thought...different somehow.
 

As she approached the reclined sofa to see how her co-worker was doing, an outstretched arm from below landed on her arm, holding her in place. Her arm hung casually at her side, uncertain how to respond. The underside of her co-worker's arm lay pressed against hers, unmoving, as if to say:
 

"Stop for a moment. Hear my outstretched palm on your bicep. Feel the coolness and warmth of flesh on flesh. Put away your longing for more than business as usual. Look into my eyes. See the real me. Let your life's boredom flee. Turn to me and come, my dear friend, that I may show you a taste of something you never knew; yet something I’ve seen to have been always there-- inside you."
 

It only took one touch.
 

And all was new.