We're the sort of people that treat the property surrounding our house as an extension of the rooms to our house. We've created gardens that fill every corner to create outdoor rooms and paths. In time, as things grow larger, we will have our own little oasis in the midst of civilization. Living in town, it is the only real way to get some privacy outdoors.
Normally, our gardening tapers off during the heat of the Summer. Typically each year there is a slow buildup after the holidays as we can see the end of Winter coming and we start our planning. Time is spent looking through seed and nursery catalogs, making lists and plans for annuals and any new perennials or larger plants. Then we start checking to see what will be available locally and what will have to be ordered. Orders are placed, plans are refined, and we begin to start our seeds in the basement under the gro-lamps. Then as the cold weather recedes, we are in a flurry of activity through the Spring as we clean up our planting beds and gardens, put down mulch, and plant our new additions. Usually by June we are winding down on things as we head into the heat of the Summer. Hopefully everything is established as the weather gets drier. At that point it is more a matter to tending to things, some weeding, and watering during the driest periods. Then in the Fall we get back into things, cleaning up things for Winter and doing some Fall planting as well.
The Summer had turned out wetter than normal and we had a couple areas that we wanted to do some things with that we had not gotten around to in the Spring. A couple evening conversations led us to plan another trip to the garden center with some ideas and some items to look for. Although it was unspoken, it was on both our minds that this would be the first time that we would be back to the garden center since Katie got the chance to wander around the greenhouses topless.
I had little doubt that they would remember us, but I wasn't exactly sure how they would react to seeing us again. Not that I expected them to complain if Katie came by to disrobe in front of them once again. Just that the first time we had the element of surprise. I wasn't sure if now that they knew what to expect whether it would make them bold and lead to any potential problems.
I could tell that Katie did not share my concern and was actually eager to put herself on display again. It was a little amazing to think that there was a time that she would never have even considered doing such a thing. Actually, there was a time that she was uncomfortable being naked around me if I paid too much attention to her. And then to go through the stages and watch as she would do it but only to humor me and then as it progressed to the point that she actually took pleasure in it for herself. She had definitely come a long way!
The way she saw it was that they had treated her politely the last time and she figured that they were smart enough that they would most likely continue to mind their manners because they would realize that any problems would quickly put an end to the show as well as any future shows. That made sense, but there was also the chance that someone would get greedy and want more. I decided I'd go along with Katie's instincts on the matter while keeping alert for any signs of trouble.
It did not take Katie long to prepare for our trip, basically because there was not a whole lot that she had to put on. Forgoing any undergarments whatsoever, she put on a one piece sleeveless denim dress that reached mid-thigh and zipped up the front and then slipped on her white sneakers. The dress was modest, your typical soccer mom type fare. But the zipper all the way down the front made it quite simple to get daring.
Our trip to the garden center was made without incident. Katie did take the opportunity to tease me a bit by unzipping herself to give me a view of her breast and pert little nipple. She went so far as to tug on it and tweak it to bring it to full arousal. When we got to our destination, she made sure to swing her legs wide so that I got a good glimpse up her dress to her cutely trimmed pussy as I held the door of the truck open for her, just in case I had forgotten that she was not wearing panties. I had a feeling that some people were in for quite a show this afternoon!
We entered the garden center and began browsing without incident. Despite having this conducive weather, the place was pretty deserted. I guess that people were just not thinking about gardening out of force of habit more than anything. That worked to our benefit, though. Less chance of "civilians" seeing our show and complaining to anyone or otherwise interfering.
We were probably there for ten or fifteen minutes before one of "our" guys happened to walk by and see us. He got a smile on his face that pretty much said that his day had just gotten a whole lot better and I watched as he sized up Katie's outfit before coming over to say hello and ask if he could help us.
Katie gave him one of her best sweet smiles and launched into a discussion of paperbark maples, river birches, wintergreen, and assorted perennials to complement the specimen plantings. To his credit, he seemed to shake off his thoughts of Katie's outfit and what may hide beneath it and concentrate on what items Katie was listing and where the plants were located. He suggested that we look at some of the larger items first and then work back towards the smaller fill-in items which would give us more variety to work with and pointed the way to start out.
As I said in the last story about this place, it is not your nice, orderly, sterile suburban garden center but rather a sprawling complex of greenhouses, sheds, barns, and open areas in between. Most of their business is from commercial landscapers and the more serious amateur gardeners, so you don't exactly have all the nice displays and careful signs to let you know where items are and what exactly they are when you find them. Sort of like exploring an old country general store where you never quite know what you'll find tucked in some corner or up on some shelf.
I trailed along as he led Katie towards the back to the trees. She was talking about how she liked the bark texture of the two trees and how the evergreen of the wintergreen would complement the stark bare trunks in winter. But she was undecided on which one of the two trees would work best in the location she had in mind. He asked about the siting for the trees and she described the low hill backing up along a rocky area along the driveway where we planned to plant things. He asked the usual questions about how much sun the area received, soil types, and such. Her description of good soil, but on the dry side led him to suggest a river birch as the paperbark maples required moister conditions.
As they talked, he led us out through the greenhouses to the open areas where they had the trees and larger bushes heeled in until someone bought them. We passed a couple of the other guys that we recognized from our last visit. You could see them perk up when they recognized Katie and I also noticed a few nods from the guy with us to his coworkers. Probably to let them know that he'd do his best to let them know if anything was happening this time or possibly just to acknowledge that he was "the man" for spotting us first.
He led us to the trees and showed us a few samples of the river birch and then we walked further on to see some of the paperbark maples. For those of you unfamiliar with them, these trees have bark that flakes off as it grows. It isn't much of an issue during the summer, but during the winter it makes for an interesting spectacle.
Katie had examined several examples of both types of tree as we stopped at each, genuinely interested in them but also giving the guy a chance to look her over as she was looking the trees over. The denim was too thick to see the shape of nipples or anything through it and it wasn't tight enough to really show off her curves, but that did not stop him from taking the opportunity to check out her ass when she bent over or to try to look down the front when she was facing him.
Katie straightened up from looking at one paperbark maple and caught him doing his best to look down the top of her dress. It wasn't like she didn't know he would be trying. Heck, it wasn't like she wasn't giving him ample opportunity to look either!
She had started to ask him a question about the tree but then paused and asked him his name, explaining that it was sort of awkward to carry on a conversation when she could only refer to the other person as "you" all the time.
He introduced himself as Andy and Katie introduced herself and me. With the formalities aside, she continued with her question. As she did so, she reached up and "absentmindedly" slowly drew the zipper to her dress down a few inches. It had been zipped the whole way up, completely to the base of her neck. She did not even lower it the whole way to the tops of her breasts, but Andy's eyes were drawn like a magnet to her actions.
As he continued to stare, Katie just trailed off on what she was saying and paused with her hand still on her zipper to see what he was going to do. After a moment of total silence, Andy finally managed to tear his eyes off of the small sliver of exposed flesh below her neck and meet her eyes. When their eyes met, he stammered out an apology while her eyes sparkled and a smile started to form on her lips.
Katie's smile grew as she asked him if she was distracting him. He started to try to deny that there was any problem, but even then his eyes drifted back to her hand at the zipper a couple times and only managed to stammer a bit more. Finally he just gave up. Katie let out a little giggle at that.
"I'm sorry," she told him. "I'm not making fun of you but it's kinda funny how easily guys are distracted. I really don't mind you looking, but it can be a little unnerving to be stared at so intently. I was just getting a bit warm out in the sun here and wanted to get a little air."
As if to illustrate her point, she fanned her face a bit with her other hand. Her right hand still had not strayed from the zipper, though, and I have to admit that it was keeping my attention as well.
What came next wasn't all that surprising to me considering that nobody else was around and Katie had come here fully planning to show off.
"Tell you what," she said. "Since it seems to me that the problem is that you're afraid of what you might miss seeing if you look away at the wrong moment, perhaps I should just give you a little look and then it would be over with and we could get on with our business. Does that sound good to you?"
She said this all very sweetly, like it was the most sensible thing to suggest she do given the circumstances. Not at all condescendingly or with any attitude towards him. All Andy could do was nod silently as his eyes once again went back to her zipper.
Katie drew the zipper down, not so slowly as to be a tease but also not so quickly that it was like she just wanted to whip them out. I guess "purposefully" would be a good description. She drew the zipper down far enough below her breasts to gain access and then took each side of the dress in her hands. With a little movement to shrug the dress off her shoulders a bit, she opened it up to show off her breasts. Despite her calm demeanor, I could tell the level of her excitement by how her nipples stood out and how her aureolas were all crinkled up.
She let us both take a good long look before pulling her dress back together and pulling the zipper back up. I noticed that she left the zipper pretty low, just above the mid-point of her breasts and I had a feeling that her display was not going to completely solve Andy's attention issues because her dress was sure to gape open when she bent over now.
"There you go, Andy. Is that better?" she asked him.
Andy seemed a bit at a loss as to how to react to all this, but stammered out a thank you and apologized for his earlier staring.
Katie replied that he should not let it concern him too much, that she took it as a complement that he was interested in looking at her and that as long as he was polite, courteous, and respectful she had no problems in letting him look.
"If you said that you liked my dress, I'd take that as a complement. I don't see why I shouldn't take it as a complement if you say that you like, ummm, 'other things'..." she said with a smile.
Andy seemed to get his voice back and assured her that he most certainly did like her "other things" and that he very much appreciated her giving him the opportunity to see them. He also told her that he thought that she was pretty cool for the way that she viewed the situation. As an afterthought he turned to me and thanked me for being understanding and allowing it to happen. He sort of stammered a bit trying to think of what to thank me for, but I guess that "understanding" was as good as anything.
At this rate, we were never going to get the plantings that we needed. Thankfully, Katie turned things back to her questions about the tree. Andy seemed to get over his distraction and did a good job of answering our questions. Based on what he had told us about the river birch doing better in dry conditions, Katie said that sounded like the best deal for us so we headed back over to those trees to find one or two that suited us.
We looked their stock over but the selection available was not that great. Andy suggested that we select what we liked here and then we could also go back and see if they had any others available in the stuff that had just come in. So we selected two containers that Katie felt she could be satisfied with and Andy pulled some flagging tape from his pocket and tied it around a branch on each one to show that they had been sold.
Just about that time, two more of the guys came strolling our way. They were guys that I recognized from the last time, so I wasn't too surprised to see them come by to see if anything was going on. Truthfully, I was a little surprised that it had taken this long for anyone else to check in on us. Considering our adventures the last time, I half expected everyone who worked there to be following us around as soon as we walked in the place. I took it as a good sign that they were being casual about things.
They acted like they were just passing through and did not expect to happen across us. In truth, I'm sure that they had been all over the place looking for us. But once they saw us they came on over to say hello, rather than pretend that they did not know us or something.
They stood off a little bit from us and from the way that they were glancing at Katie and then at Andy, it was obvious that their unspoken question was whether anything was going on or had happened yet. Andy took the initiative, telling them that we were looking at the river birches and then introduced everyone to one another. The two newcomers were introduced as Steve and Aaron.
They seemed to take the introductions somewhat awkwardly. I wasn't exactly sure if they thought we were taking names and they were going to get into some sort of trouble or if they found it uncomfortable to actually know us after they had seen Katie's boobs. If either situation was the case, I cannot say that I understood it.
As far as getting into trouble, Katie was the one that had taken her top off so I don't see how it would make sense that they would be the ones getting in trouble.
If they felt awkward knowing us after seeing Katie's boobs, that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me either.
Although, a coworker had once related to me a story about how his whole evening at a strip club had been ruined for him when it turned out that he had gone to high school with one of the strippers and she recognized him.
I was never quite clear on whether it was just the fact that someone had "caught" him at the club or if it was the fact that he had to face the idea that the stripper was an actual person that had bothered him. More likely it had something to do along the lines of the latter issue considering that it was fairly common knowledge that he frequented the club regularly.
I guess that it is part of that whole idea of "objectifying" women that is confusing to me. I guess that I see a woman as a whole person whether she has clothes on or not. Further, I see the fact that she would allow me to see her naked as something special that she is willing to share with me, not something dirty that would cause me to not want to know her personally.
As it turned out, I'm pretty sure that it was along the lines of the latter point. Somehow that it was easier to gawk at a stranger, but once she is someone's spouse, sister, or ******** it is harder to objectify her. Which could actually be a good thing if it meant that it would make them more considerate of boundaries.
Andy was explaining to them what we were looking for and said that we would probably require some help when it came time to load everything up. As they were talking, Katie was checking out a few of the other trees to make sure that she had picked the ones that she definitely wanted. Steve and Aaron must not have been too embarrassed about checking out women that they knew because when Katie bent over to look at the one tree they were definitely taking the opportunity to check her out. I was pretty sure that Katie was doing her "checking" for their benefit. Andy noticed his friends' glances and proved that he was a quick study.
"Hey, guys, show some respect," he said. "If you like what you see, complement the lady and perhaps you'll get a closer look rather than having to sneak glances down her top."
As I had said, Katie had been doing her best to act like she was checking on the trees and that she was ******* of both the view that she was giving as well as the fact that anyone was paying attention. Andy's comment drew her back into the conversation though.
"I'm not exactly sure why you'd be trying to look down my top," she said. "There's very little to see there down there, literally!"
As if to emphasize her point, she pulled her top away from her body and looked down at herself. Nobody else could see anything, but I knew that she was completely bare underneath while Andy knew that she was at least bare to the waist and the other two could pretty much infer from her body language that she was looking at skin instead of a bra.
"It's not the quantity, but the quality that counts," Andy chimed in.
I was going to have to watch that kid, he had already learned a few lessons about being a smooth talker!
Katie gave him a smile and told him that he was sweet, but asked (somewhat rhetorically) if they really were that interested in seeing her body. She pointed out that they had all seen her before (not mentioning how recently Andy had seen her) and reiterated that there wasn't all that much to see. I think that they all should have realized from the last time that Katie was perfectly willing to get out of her clothes with a little encouragement.
The guys were finally overcoming their awkwardness and embarrassment because they began to offer complements and encouragement to her. They promised to keep an eye out for anyone coming our way, that they definitely appreciated seeing her body, and that she should just make herself comfortable.
The last was said quite earnestly, like their foremost concern was for her comfort and well-being. I'm sure that they had no idea of the extent to which Katie of all people did not really need to be convinced that she would be more comfortable out of her clothes. However, it seemed to work best to let them think that they had talked her into it.
Katie gave them all another of her warm, sunny smiles and thanked them for making her feel at ease. She admitted that it was a bit warm, but regretted that she could not repeat her previous actions since her outfit was a one piece today. I was a little surprised that none of the guys took the hint and suggested that she just take the complete outfit off. Even though they did not know that she had nothing on underneath, surely the thought of her running around in her underwear should have crossed their minds. I know that it certainly crossed mine! Even though I knew she didn't have any panties on, I could picture her running around the greenhouses in just a pair of white panties.
So she agreed to open the top of her dress up some more, saying that it would be more comfortable for her and would also allow them to "appreciate the view" as she put it. Everyone's eyes followed her hand as it went once again to the zipper and purposefully drew it downward.
The zipper had just reached about the mid-point of her breasts when her eyes flicked past us. Her hand continued downward, but she had released the zipper and acted as though she was just brushing something off the front of her dress. I took a quick glance and saw that another couple had entered the area. They did not look to be much older than us, but you could tell from their appearance that they would object to our little games. The way they were a little too clean cut and overweight just spoke volumes towards the idea that they let the right wing form their opinions for them.
The guys took a moment to realize what was going on, but quickly understood the situation. Steve and Aaron hurriedly said their goodbyes and moved along. Too many people standing around would just look suspicious and whatever trouble we could get in for our games, we did not want to get the guys in trouble with their bosses if customers started complaining. Aaron headed off while Steve wandered over to the other couple to see if they needed any help.
I did take note that Katie made no move to pull the zipper back up. She wasn't indecent as she stood, but I could see that it would gape away from her body if she bent over.
Andy collected his thoughts and suggested that we head off to look at other plants. Katie had mentioned wintergreen as an evergreen ground-cover below the trees, but said that she was open to suggestions. She liked the idea of the color of the leaves and berries in the winter as well as the idea of the wintergreen flavor.
Andy led us through buildings and open spaces, passing only a few people on the way. I'd be able to find our way back out of the place but as is often the case when following someone I was getting a little lost in all the twists and turns.
Andy finally brought us to a halt in an outside area nestled into the corner between two buildings. There was a little waterfall feature backed into the corner with a display of various plantings around it and then pots of plants situated on "bleacher" shelves to either side of that.
Andy pointed out the pots of wintergreen and also went over some other options, pointing out mediterranean heathers, and a dwarf holly or two that he thought might work well for us.
Katie and I were looking at the various shrubs while Andy was pointing things out. Katie turned and caught my attention without alerting him. Unobtrusively she had lowered the zipper well below her breasts. It was not the whole way to her navel, but about to the bottom of her rib cage. She was just standing upright when she first caught my attention. The dress was pulled apart a bit at the top and then the strip of exposed flesh vee-ed down to the zipper. You really could not see the curve of her breasts in the narrow gap. As I was watching her, she first turned slightly to the side and bent over to let the dress fall way from her body to give me a view inside her dress to her breast. Then she turned back towards me, still bent over, and arched her back slightly. It gave just enough of a view down the front that I could see a bit of her pubic hair and tell that she wasn't wearing panties. With her point proven, she straightened back up with a smile on her face and Andy none the wiser for the moment.
Andy finished his spiel and stepped back again to let us look at things and see if we had any questions. Katie moved forward and began examining the various plants. At first she was turned away from Andy and me as she bent over, so other than an excellent view of her ass there was not too much to see. But then as she asked a question she swiveled a bit sideways to look back at us and we were presented with an excellent view of her one breast as her dress hung away from her body. She paid us no mind as we stared and Andy was able to continue to answer her questions as he took in the view.
She continued to toy with us as she examined the plants and asked Andy questions. She made sure to bend over often and in such a way that her dress would hang open and we would get a view of one or the other of her breasts.
We were all having fun with our little game. The rules were unspoken, but it was fairly apparent that everyone understood them. Katie was showing off as much as she possibly could without admitting that she was aware that she was exposing herself or that we were watching while Andy and I were doing our best to pretend we weren't seeing anything out of the ordinary while taking it all in.
We were all doing pretty well with our roles until Katie upped the ante a little bit. She had been bending over while facing to one side or the other from us such that we could look into her dress from the side. She had also managed to ease her zipper down a bit more without calling attention to the fact that she was doing so and we could see her breast and down along her belly quite a ways. So it was a little ludicrous to really believe that she didn't know she was exposing anything or that we were seeing anything. But she had wandered around topless before and then exposed her breasts to Andy and literally let him know that it was ok for him to look at them, so it sort of made sense in our little game that there wasn't anything amiss with what was going on. But up until now it had only been her breasts. And although I am sure that Andy thought about seeing more, he was probably pretty pleased just that he was seeing this much.
So when Katie finally turned toward us, I knew what was coming and turned my attention to Andy to see what his reaction was going to be while keeping Katie in the corner of my eye to judge when to expect his reaction and to know what he was seeing.
Katie took her time, doing everything in her unhurried manner. When she finally bent over again to look at one of the plants I don't think that Andy expected to see much when he glanced at her because it was obvious that her breasts would not be exposed to a frontal view. When she continued to bend lower, I could see his eyes begin to drift down. Probably thinking he'd get a chance to see what color panties she was wearing. He gave a visible start when her little patch of pubic hair came into view. Looking down from the top, it was impossible to see much of anything of her actual pussy, but it let him know that except for her dress and shoes she was completely naked. With the course that her zipper had already taken from being fully zippered down to its present location near her navel, it didn't take too much imagination to see it dropping the rest of the way.
Still bent over, Katie asked Andy a question about the plant that she was looking at and then looked up at him. Again, he seemed unable to take his eyes off of her so they remained locked in their staring contest for several moments. Her looking up at him and him looking down at her, although his focus was not on her eyes but rather down past them, down through the valley between her breasts, down past her belly, to that tuft of hair that was visible between her legs.
Finally Katie cleared her throat and Andy was able to drag his focus back to her face.
"Am I distracting you again?" she asked sweetly. "Is there something else you would like to have a better look at?"
Andy mumbled and stuttered a few times before he managed to croak out that he did not realize that Katie did not have panties on.
"Dear boy," she said with just a trace of good-natured sarcasm. "The whole point of a dress is that it is less constricting. Now you already know that I don't really need any support upstairs anyway, but there definitely isn't anything to support downstairs. So it's just more comfortable not to wear them, I rarely do."
I wondered if that last bit would sink in for future reference - that she rarely had any underwear on.
She slowly straightened up and his eyes strayed back to catch a last look at her tuft of pubic hair before it disappeared.
Katie repeated her question. "Is there something that you would like a better look at?" she asked Andy.
Andy finally seemed to get himself together again and said that he would love to see whatever she felt comfortable showing. She smiled at him and said that having only about the last foot of zipper done up didn't really do much to cover her and it did seem a bit pointless to not just undo her dress completely. This time, when her hand reached her zipper, she drew it down more quickly than the past two times as though clearly stating that it was no big deal. Almost as though she was wondering why it was still fastened in
Normally, our gardening tapers off during the heat of the Summer. Typically each year there is a slow buildup after the holidays as we can see the end of Winter coming and we start our planning. Time is spent looking through seed and nursery catalogs, making lists and plans for annuals and any new perennials or larger plants. Then we start checking to see what will be available locally and what will have to be ordered. Orders are placed, plans are refined, and we begin to start our seeds in the basement under the gro-lamps. Then as the cold weather recedes, we are in a flurry of activity through the Spring as we clean up our planting beds and gardens, put down mulch, and plant our new additions. Usually by June we are winding down on things as we head into the heat of the Summer. Hopefully everything is established as the weather gets drier. At that point it is more a matter to tending to things, some weeding, and watering during the driest periods. Then in the Fall we get back into things, cleaning up things for Winter and doing some Fall planting as well.
The Summer had turned out wetter than normal and we had a couple areas that we wanted to do some things with that we had not gotten around to in the Spring. A couple evening conversations led us to plan another trip to the garden center with some ideas and some items to look for. Although it was unspoken, it was on both our minds that this would be the first time that we would be back to the garden center since Katie got the chance to wander around the greenhouses topless.
I had little doubt that they would remember us, but I wasn't exactly sure how they would react to seeing us again. Not that I expected them to complain if Katie came by to disrobe in front of them once again. Just that the first time we had the element of surprise. I wasn't sure if now that they knew what to expect whether it would make them bold and lead to any potential problems.
I could tell that Katie did not share my concern and was actually eager to put herself on display again. It was a little amazing to think that there was a time that she would never have even considered doing such a thing. Actually, there was a time that she was uncomfortable being naked around me if I paid too much attention to her. And then to go through the stages and watch as she would do it but only to humor me and then as it progressed to the point that she actually took pleasure in it for herself. She had definitely come a long way!
The way she saw it was that they had treated her politely the last time and she figured that they were smart enough that they would most likely continue to mind their manners because they would realize that any problems would quickly put an end to the show as well as any future shows. That made sense, but there was also the chance that someone would get greedy and want more. I decided I'd go along with Katie's instincts on the matter while keeping alert for any signs of trouble.
It did not take Katie long to prepare for our trip, basically because there was not a whole lot that she had to put on. Forgoing any undergarments whatsoever, she put on a one piece sleeveless denim dress that reached mid-thigh and zipped up the front and then slipped on her white sneakers. The dress was modest, your typical soccer mom type fare. But the zipper all the way down the front made it quite simple to get daring.
Our trip to the garden center was made without incident. Katie did take the opportunity to tease me a bit by unzipping herself to give me a view of her breast and pert little nipple. She went so far as to tug on it and tweak it to bring it to full arousal. When we got to our destination, she made sure to swing her legs wide so that I got a good glimpse up her dress to her cutely trimmed pussy as I held the door of the truck open for her, just in case I had forgotten that she was not wearing panties. I had a feeling that some people were in for quite a show this afternoon!
We entered the garden center and began browsing without incident. Despite having this conducive weather, the place was pretty deserted. I guess that people were just not thinking about gardening out of force of habit more than anything. That worked to our benefit, though. Less chance of "civilians" seeing our show and complaining to anyone or otherwise interfering.
We were probably there for ten or fifteen minutes before one of "our" guys happened to walk by and see us. He got a smile on his face that pretty much said that his day had just gotten a whole lot better and I watched as he sized up Katie's outfit before coming over to say hello and ask if he could help us.
Katie gave him one of her best sweet smiles and launched into a discussion of paperbark maples, river birches, wintergreen, and assorted perennials to complement the specimen plantings. To his credit, he seemed to shake off his thoughts of Katie's outfit and what may hide beneath it and concentrate on what items Katie was listing and where the plants were located. He suggested that we look at some of the larger items first and then work back towards the smaller fill-in items which would give us more variety to work with and pointed the way to start out.
As I said in the last story about this place, it is not your nice, orderly, sterile suburban garden center but rather a sprawling complex of greenhouses, sheds, barns, and open areas in between. Most of their business is from commercial landscapers and the more serious amateur gardeners, so you don't exactly have all the nice displays and careful signs to let you know where items are and what exactly they are when you find them. Sort of like exploring an old country general store where you never quite know what you'll find tucked in some corner or up on some shelf.
I trailed along as he led Katie towards the back to the trees. She was talking about how she liked the bark texture of the two trees and how the evergreen of the wintergreen would complement the stark bare trunks in winter. But she was undecided on which one of the two trees would work best in the location she had in mind. He asked about the siting for the trees and she described the low hill backing up along a rocky area along the driveway where we planned to plant things. He asked the usual questions about how much sun the area received, soil types, and such. Her description of good soil, but on the dry side led him to suggest a river birch as the paperbark maples required moister conditions.
As they talked, he led us out through the greenhouses to the open areas where they had the trees and larger bushes heeled in until someone bought them. We passed a couple of the other guys that we recognized from our last visit. You could see them perk up when they recognized Katie and I also noticed a few nods from the guy with us to his coworkers. Probably to let them know that he'd do his best to let them know if anything was happening this time or possibly just to acknowledge that he was "the man" for spotting us first.
He led us to the trees and showed us a few samples of the river birch and then we walked further on to see some of the paperbark maples. For those of you unfamiliar with them, these trees have bark that flakes off as it grows. It isn't much of an issue during the summer, but during the winter it makes for an interesting spectacle.
Katie had examined several examples of both types of tree as we stopped at each, genuinely interested in them but also giving the guy a chance to look her over as she was looking the trees over. The denim was too thick to see the shape of nipples or anything through it and it wasn't tight enough to really show off her curves, but that did not stop him from taking the opportunity to check out her ass when she bent over or to try to look down the front when she was facing him.
Katie straightened up from looking at one paperbark maple and caught him doing his best to look down the top of her dress. It wasn't like she didn't know he would be trying. Heck, it wasn't like she wasn't giving him ample opportunity to look either!
She had started to ask him a question about the tree but then paused and asked him his name, explaining that it was sort of awkward to carry on a conversation when she could only refer to the other person as "you" all the time.
He introduced himself as Andy and Katie introduced herself and me. With the formalities aside, she continued with her question. As she did so, she reached up and "absentmindedly" slowly drew the zipper to her dress down a few inches. It had been zipped the whole way up, completely to the base of her neck. She did not even lower it the whole way to the tops of her breasts, but Andy's eyes were drawn like a magnet to her actions.
As he continued to stare, Katie just trailed off on what she was saying and paused with her hand still on her zipper to see what he was going to do. After a moment of total silence, Andy finally managed to tear his eyes off of the small sliver of exposed flesh below her neck and meet her eyes. When their eyes met, he stammered out an apology while her eyes sparkled and a smile started to form on her lips.
Katie's smile grew as she asked him if she was distracting him. He started to try to deny that there was any problem, but even then his eyes drifted back to her hand at the zipper a couple times and only managed to stammer a bit more. Finally he just gave up. Katie let out a little giggle at that.
"I'm sorry," she told him. "I'm not making fun of you but it's kinda funny how easily guys are distracted. I really don't mind you looking, but it can be a little unnerving to be stared at so intently. I was just getting a bit warm out in the sun here and wanted to get a little air."
As if to illustrate her point, she fanned her face a bit with her other hand. Her right hand still had not strayed from the zipper, though, and I have to admit that it was keeping my attention as well.
What came next wasn't all that surprising to me considering that nobody else was around and Katie had come here fully planning to show off.
"Tell you what," she said. "Since it seems to me that the problem is that you're afraid of what you might miss seeing if you look away at the wrong moment, perhaps I should just give you a little look and then it would be over with and we could get on with our business. Does that sound good to you?"
She said this all very sweetly, like it was the most sensible thing to suggest she do given the circumstances. Not at all condescendingly or with any attitude towards him. All Andy could do was nod silently as his eyes once again went back to her zipper.
Katie drew the zipper down, not so slowly as to be a tease but also not so quickly that it was like she just wanted to whip them out. I guess "purposefully" would be a good description. She drew the zipper down far enough below her breasts to gain access and then took each side of the dress in her hands. With a little movement to shrug the dress off her shoulders a bit, she opened it up to show off her breasts. Despite her calm demeanor, I could tell the level of her excitement by how her nipples stood out and how her aureolas were all crinkled up.
She let us both take a good long look before pulling her dress back together and pulling the zipper back up. I noticed that she left the zipper pretty low, just above the mid-point of her breasts and I had a feeling that her display was not going to completely solve Andy's attention issues because her dress was sure to gape open when she bent over now.
"There you go, Andy. Is that better?" she asked him.
Andy seemed a bit at a loss as to how to react to all this, but stammered out a thank you and apologized for his earlier staring.
Katie replied that he should not let it concern him too much, that she took it as a complement that he was interested in looking at her and that as long as he was polite, courteous, and respectful she had no problems in letting him look.
"If you said that you liked my dress, I'd take that as a complement. I don't see why I shouldn't take it as a complement if you say that you like, ummm, 'other things'..." she said with a smile.
Andy seemed to get his voice back and assured her that he most certainly did like her "other things" and that he very much appreciated her giving him the opportunity to see them. He also told her that he thought that she was pretty cool for the way that she viewed the situation. As an afterthought he turned to me and thanked me for being understanding and allowing it to happen. He sort of stammered a bit trying to think of what to thank me for, but I guess that "understanding" was as good as anything.
At this rate, we were never going to get the plantings that we needed. Thankfully, Katie turned things back to her questions about the tree. Andy seemed to get over his distraction and did a good job of answering our questions. Based on what he had told us about the river birch doing better in dry conditions, Katie said that sounded like the best deal for us so we headed back over to those trees to find one or two that suited us.
We looked their stock over but the selection available was not that great. Andy suggested that we select what we liked here and then we could also go back and see if they had any others available in the stuff that had just come in. So we selected two containers that Katie felt she could be satisfied with and Andy pulled some flagging tape from his pocket and tied it around a branch on each one to show that they had been sold.
Just about that time, two more of the guys came strolling our way. They were guys that I recognized from the last time, so I wasn't too surprised to see them come by to see if anything was going on. Truthfully, I was a little surprised that it had taken this long for anyone else to check in on us. Considering our adventures the last time, I half expected everyone who worked there to be following us around as soon as we walked in the place. I took it as a good sign that they were being casual about things.
They acted like they were just passing through and did not expect to happen across us. In truth, I'm sure that they had been all over the place looking for us. But once they saw us they came on over to say hello, rather than pretend that they did not know us or something.
They stood off a little bit from us and from the way that they were glancing at Katie and then at Andy, it was obvious that their unspoken question was whether anything was going on or had happened yet. Andy took the initiative, telling them that we were looking at the river birches and then introduced everyone to one another. The two newcomers were introduced as Steve and Aaron.
They seemed to take the introductions somewhat awkwardly. I wasn't exactly sure if they thought we were taking names and they were going to get into some sort of trouble or if they found it uncomfortable to actually know us after they had seen Katie's boobs. If either situation was the case, I cannot say that I understood it.
As far as getting into trouble, Katie was the one that had taken her top off so I don't see how it would make sense that they would be the ones getting in trouble.
If they felt awkward knowing us after seeing Katie's boobs, that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me either.
Although, a coworker had once related to me a story about how his whole evening at a strip club had been ruined for him when it turned out that he had gone to high school with one of the strippers and she recognized him.
I was never quite clear on whether it was just the fact that someone had "caught" him at the club or if it was the fact that he had to face the idea that the stripper was an actual person that had bothered him. More likely it had something to do along the lines of the latter issue considering that it was fairly common knowledge that he frequented the club regularly.
I guess that it is part of that whole idea of "objectifying" women that is confusing to me. I guess that I see a woman as a whole person whether she has clothes on or not. Further, I see the fact that she would allow me to see her naked as something special that she is willing to share with me, not something dirty that would cause me to not want to know her personally.
As it turned out, I'm pretty sure that it was along the lines of the latter point. Somehow that it was easier to gawk at a stranger, but once she is someone's spouse, sister, or ******** it is harder to objectify her. Which could actually be a good thing if it meant that it would make them more considerate of boundaries.
Andy was explaining to them what we were looking for and said that we would probably require some help when it came time to load everything up. As they were talking, Katie was checking out a few of the other trees to make sure that she had picked the ones that she definitely wanted. Steve and Aaron must not have been too embarrassed about checking out women that they knew because when Katie bent over to look at the one tree they were definitely taking the opportunity to check her out. I was pretty sure that Katie was doing her "checking" for their benefit. Andy noticed his friends' glances and proved that he was a quick study.
"Hey, guys, show some respect," he said. "If you like what you see, complement the lady and perhaps you'll get a closer look rather than having to sneak glances down her top."
As I had said, Katie had been doing her best to act like she was checking on the trees and that she was ******* of both the view that she was giving as well as the fact that anyone was paying attention. Andy's comment drew her back into the conversation though.
"I'm not exactly sure why you'd be trying to look down my top," she said. "There's very little to see there down there, literally!"
As if to emphasize her point, she pulled her top away from her body and looked down at herself. Nobody else could see anything, but I knew that she was completely bare underneath while Andy knew that she was at least bare to the waist and the other two could pretty much infer from her body language that she was looking at skin instead of a bra.
"It's not the quantity, but the quality that counts," Andy chimed in.
I was going to have to watch that kid, he had already learned a few lessons about being a smooth talker!
Katie gave him a smile and told him that he was sweet, but asked (somewhat rhetorically) if they really were that interested in seeing her body. She pointed out that they had all seen her before (not mentioning how recently Andy had seen her) and reiterated that there wasn't all that much to see. I think that they all should have realized from the last time that Katie was perfectly willing to get out of her clothes with a little encouragement.
The guys were finally overcoming their awkwardness and embarrassment because they began to offer complements and encouragement to her. They promised to keep an eye out for anyone coming our way, that they definitely appreciated seeing her body, and that she should just make herself comfortable.
The last was said quite earnestly, like their foremost concern was for her comfort and well-being. I'm sure that they had no idea of the extent to which Katie of all people did not really need to be convinced that she would be more comfortable out of her clothes. However, it seemed to work best to let them think that they had talked her into it.
Katie gave them all another of her warm, sunny smiles and thanked them for making her feel at ease. She admitted that it was a bit warm, but regretted that she could not repeat her previous actions since her outfit was a one piece today. I was a little surprised that none of the guys took the hint and suggested that she just take the complete outfit off. Even though they did not know that she had nothing on underneath, surely the thought of her running around in her underwear should have crossed their minds. I know that it certainly crossed mine! Even though I knew she didn't have any panties on, I could picture her running around the greenhouses in just a pair of white panties.
So she agreed to open the top of her dress up some more, saying that it would be more comfortable for her and would also allow them to "appreciate the view" as she put it. Everyone's eyes followed her hand as it went once again to the zipper and purposefully drew it downward.
The zipper had just reached about the mid-point of her breasts when her eyes flicked past us. Her hand continued downward, but she had released the zipper and acted as though she was just brushing something off the front of her dress. I took a quick glance and saw that another couple had entered the area. They did not look to be much older than us, but you could tell from their appearance that they would object to our little games. The way they were a little too clean cut and overweight just spoke volumes towards the idea that they let the right wing form their opinions for them.
The guys took a moment to realize what was going on, but quickly understood the situation. Steve and Aaron hurriedly said their goodbyes and moved along. Too many people standing around would just look suspicious and whatever trouble we could get in for our games, we did not want to get the guys in trouble with their bosses if customers started complaining. Aaron headed off while Steve wandered over to the other couple to see if they needed any help.
I did take note that Katie made no move to pull the zipper back up. She wasn't indecent as she stood, but I could see that it would gape away from her body if she bent over.
Andy collected his thoughts and suggested that we head off to look at other plants. Katie had mentioned wintergreen as an evergreen ground-cover below the trees, but said that she was open to suggestions. She liked the idea of the color of the leaves and berries in the winter as well as the idea of the wintergreen flavor.
Andy led us through buildings and open spaces, passing only a few people on the way. I'd be able to find our way back out of the place but as is often the case when following someone I was getting a little lost in all the twists and turns.
Andy finally brought us to a halt in an outside area nestled into the corner between two buildings. There was a little waterfall feature backed into the corner with a display of various plantings around it and then pots of plants situated on "bleacher" shelves to either side of that.
Andy pointed out the pots of wintergreen and also went over some other options, pointing out mediterranean heathers, and a dwarf holly or two that he thought might work well for us.
Katie and I were looking at the various shrubs while Andy was pointing things out. Katie turned and caught my attention without alerting him. Unobtrusively she had lowered the zipper well below her breasts. It was not the whole way to her navel, but about to the bottom of her rib cage. She was just standing upright when she first caught my attention. The dress was pulled apart a bit at the top and then the strip of exposed flesh vee-ed down to the zipper. You really could not see the curve of her breasts in the narrow gap. As I was watching her, she first turned slightly to the side and bent over to let the dress fall way from her body to give me a view inside her dress to her breast. Then she turned back towards me, still bent over, and arched her back slightly. It gave just enough of a view down the front that I could see a bit of her pubic hair and tell that she wasn't wearing panties. With her point proven, she straightened back up with a smile on her face and Andy none the wiser for the moment.
Andy finished his spiel and stepped back again to let us look at things and see if we had any questions. Katie moved forward and began examining the various plants. At first she was turned away from Andy and me as she bent over, so other than an excellent view of her ass there was not too much to see. But then as she asked a question she swiveled a bit sideways to look back at us and we were presented with an excellent view of her one breast as her dress hung away from her body. She paid us no mind as we stared and Andy was able to continue to answer her questions as he took in the view.
She continued to toy with us as she examined the plants and asked Andy questions. She made sure to bend over often and in such a way that her dress would hang open and we would get a view of one or the other of her breasts.
We were all having fun with our little game. The rules were unspoken, but it was fairly apparent that everyone understood them. Katie was showing off as much as she possibly could without admitting that she was aware that she was exposing herself or that we were watching while Andy and I were doing our best to pretend we weren't seeing anything out of the ordinary while taking it all in.
We were all doing pretty well with our roles until Katie upped the ante a little bit. She had been bending over while facing to one side or the other from us such that we could look into her dress from the side. She had also managed to ease her zipper down a bit more without calling attention to the fact that she was doing so and we could see her breast and down along her belly quite a ways. So it was a little ludicrous to really believe that she didn't know she was exposing anything or that we were seeing anything. But she had wandered around topless before and then exposed her breasts to Andy and literally let him know that it was ok for him to look at them, so it sort of made sense in our little game that there wasn't anything amiss with what was going on. But up until now it had only been her breasts. And although I am sure that Andy thought about seeing more, he was probably pretty pleased just that he was seeing this much.
So when Katie finally turned toward us, I knew what was coming and turned my attention to Andy to see what his reaction was going to be while keeping Katie in the corner of my eye to judge when to expect his reaction and to know what he was seeing.
Katie took her time, doing everything in her unhurried manner. When she finally bent over again to look at one of the plants I don't think that Andy expected to see much when he glanced at her because it was obvious that her breasts would not be exposed to a frontal view. When she continued to bend lower, I could see his eyes begin to drift down. Probably thinking he'd get a chance to see what color panties she was wearing. He gave a visible start when her little patch of pubic hair came into view. Looking down from the top, it was impossible to see much of anything of her actual pussy, but it let him know that except for her dress and shoes she was completely naked. With the course that her zipper had already taken from being fully zippered down to its present location near her navel, it didn't take too much imagination to see it dropping the rest of the way.
Still bent over, Katie asked Andy a question about the plant that she was looking at and then looked up at him. Again, he seemed unable to take his eyes off of her so they remained locked in their staring contest for several moments. Her looking up at him and him looking down at her, although his focus was not on her eyes but rather down past them, down through the valley between her breasts, down past her belly, to that tuft of hair that was visible between her legs.
Finally Katie cleared her throat and Andy was able to drag his focus back to her face.
"Am I distracting you again?" she asked sweetly. "Is there something else you would like to have a better look at?"
Andy mumbled and stuttered a few times before he managed to croak out that he did not realize that Katie did not have panties on.
"Dear boy," she said with just a trace of good-natured sarcasm. "The whole point of a dress is that it is less constricting. Now you already know that I don't really need any support upstairs anyway, but there definitely isn't anything to support downstairs. So it's just more comfortable not to wear them, I rarely do."
I wondered if that last bit would sink in for future reference - that she rarely had any underwear on.
She slowly straightened up and his eyes strayed back to catch a last look at her tuft of pubic hair before it disappeared.
Katie repeated her question. "Is there something that you would like a better look at?" she asked Andy.
Andy finally seemed to get himself together again and said that he would love to see whatever she felt comfortable showing. She smiled at him and said that having only about the last foot of zipper done up didn't really do much to cover her and it did seem a bit pointless to not just undo her dress completely. This time, when her hand reached her zipper, she drew it down more quickly than the past two times as though clearly stating that it was no big deal. Almost as though she was wondering why it was still fastened in
