CHAPTER 4 (Meet Charley)     

      As a child Charley was extremely timid.  If one of the bigger boys challenged him on any matter he would cower away.   For that matter if a boy of his own age tried to pick a fight he would apologize and run off somewhere.  Charley liked girls just as any other healthy teenage boy but never did more than fantasize for fear of rejection.  He never realized that he was in fact a handsome kid.  He had wavy brown hair, blue eyes and could have won the heart, as a matter of fact had won the hearts of many of the girls in his high school. In his daydreams he would sweep a girl's feet right out from under her.  If only he had known he didn't have to daydream.  He insisted to himself that there was nothing about him to intrigue a girl.  He was constantly reminding himself that he had never even learned to dance.  This was a major portion of Charleys problem.  He was to quick to single out what he thought a girl

would not like about him without giving himself credit for those things that many girls, including Judy, a girl in his English  class really thought of him.   Things that she believed actually made him an extremely handsome fellow.  Even his shyness was captivating to her.  She could fall in love with Charley easily.  In fact she was in love with him.

      Judy had fantasies in which Charley, shy as always until he was alone with her.  They he would sweep her into his arms and kiss her with a tenderness which made her head reel.  His hands would tenderly caress her body in places where she had never allowed

any of the boys she had gone out with go.  In her dreams, she would lay helplessly as he unbuttoned her blouse and kiss her neck as his fingers tenderly caressed her everywhere.  That is why she would blush when she saw him at school.  Each time she found herself hoping this young man would ask her out.

      Charley had a crush on her but never said more than a shy hello so he never really got to know her or of her feelings for him.  He didn't go to the Junior-Senior Prom, even though there were many girls who wished he had asked them.  Judy almost ask him but was to shy herself. 

      Charley spent most of his time studying.  He was indeed an honor roll student.  He lived through his twenty's pretty much the same as he did his teenage years until he was twenty-nine years old.  His life had been a lonely one. 

      That was when Linda walked into his life.  Charley had several degrees in computer programming worked for a large firm which created programs for home computers. 

      One day he was at the local library looking for information to use with a new computer game he was putting together.  Across the room sat an extremely beautiful woman who looked like she was about his age.  She had long sandy brown hair tied in a bun. Charley couldn't take his eyes off her.  She looked up suddenly and saw him watching her.  Usually this was when he  turned his head and pretended he had not been caught but this girls smile was so warm and her beautiful eyes were so inviting that, strangely, Charley didn't feel so intimidated by her.

      Actually he did but that couldn't stop him from hoping this time.  Her expression told him she liked the way he looked at her.  The two sat across the room glancing at each other many times over the next half hour.  Finally Charley took a deep breath, got to his feet and walked to her.

            "Hello." he said as he reached the table where she sat.