It was the first time I was going to a real conference after finishing my studies, I think I was 24 only. It was the "usual" thing my experienced job mates told me. You go out to a conference hotel in the middle of nowhere to just concentrate on the meetings, they fill you with at least three great meals per day and so on. I forgot to ask them if casual dressing was sufficient, so I packed my suit to be on the safe side.
It was actually as they had said. Great but too much food all the time.
The second and last day, a conference hostess were assisting the conference
leader. Her name was Edith, she was tall, with dark, curly, half-long hair,
she was wearing a nice, almost black dress which was quite low-cut. She had
a long, a bit "hooked" nose with long nostrils. Can't tell why I noticed
such a detail? She had an extremely dark and sort of "sharp" voice. Was
she born that way, I asked myself? Maybe she smokes? If she has smoked
since she was 15, she looked like 50 now, it could make sense. Yes, she
had some small wrinkles on her lip... on her... beautiful lip... Come on,
she's probably 50, you're 24, I thought to myself.
After telling us some practical details for the afternoon exercises, like
which conference rooms we would use and so on, she suddenly put a hand,
made to a fist, for her mouth, inhaled and coughed with two long hacks,
both of them revealing lots of loose mucus in her long chest. A typical
smoker's cough, I guessed, without really knowing much about what such a cough
should sound like. Oh, why I am suddenly paying attention to all these details,
I thought to myself.
I hate group working. I can choose between two roles in a smaller group only; either I so to speak fall asleep and agree with anything, maybe with some smaller objections if the group is going totally in the wrong direction, in my opinion. Or, I try to control the group, often by offering to write down the notes about conclusions etc, if there are any to write of course. This time, a woman was too fast for me, and became the one to write, so I more and more fell into the other, passive role. Until Edith knocked on the door to ask if we needed any assistance, more papers to write on etc. Our eyes met for a second or two and she looked so warm and kind. To my own surprise, I sniffed (though without any sound) to see if she smelled from cigarette smoke but she was too far away and the air went the other way when the door was opened; from the room and out in the corridor. I longed for the coffee break, maybe I could get a sight of her, but I never did. She wasn't with us at the dinner in the evening either, I guessed her working day was over and she had left the place.
The other participants were older than me and seemed to get tired earlier, so after a nice chat after the dinner, they left and went to their rooms. I looked at my watch, it was just half past ten, so I decided to have a drink in the bar and maybe have a look in the newspaper. You can imagine my surprise when I found Edith sitting there on a bar stool. She was alone, she had a glass of a dark red wine and - yes - she was smoking a cigarette. This is one of these moments in my life that I today look back on, still knowing that I did the right thing. I said hello and she looked up, smiled kindly and said hello, and I asked if I might sit down beside her. "Of course", she said and she seemed to appreciate it. I had a glass of beer and we started to chat. I got the feeling she enjoyed having someone to talk to, and the difference between our ages didn't seem to bother at all, but why should it, at least not for her I thought. But, you never know with people...
She finished her cigarette with a long drag followed by an audible and deep
inhale. She first talked a little smoke out, then turned her head and blew
out a cloud. She finished with a smaller nose exhale before putting a fist over
her mouth, inhaling a coughing hardly and deeply.
- "It's just a smoker's cough, nothing contagious", she smiled.
"I usually have another cigarette, but I can wait since you don't
smoke", she continued.
- "Oh, please", I said, "go on. No, I mean it, smoke never annoys me", I said
quickly. "Are you sure", she said. "Yes", I said. Then I said something
I almost regretted immediately after saying it but that I've never had any
reason to regret afterwards.
- "You look fantastic when you smoke, I mean it", I said before almost
blushing when I heard my own words. She looked at me for a second before
smiling kindly and maybe happily, too.
- "Oh, you're such a nice young man", she smiled while taking a new
cigarette from a metal box in her purse. I got the feeling she was looking at me like
a mother being proud of her nice, polite son. However, I was looking at her
like at any woman that I would find attractive. Her higher age made her almost
even more fascinating.
- "Do you always stay over the night during a conference", I asked her.
- "Yes, usually I do. I live far enough from here to have to go up
so early in the morning to be here when it starts in the morning, you know.
It's included in my salary. Well, not the drink of course", she laughed.
She dragged on her cigarette and again made a hearable inhale before talking.
- "I sometimes have a glass of wine here, alone, to calm down."
I wondered if her job really was so tough so she had to 'calm down' as
she put it or if there were other things in the bar that she was looking for,
like me. Or, perhaps, guys older than me. I was so curious to find out, but
before I could dream up a good question to ask, she gave me the answer after
exhaling to her side.
- "This is really a lonesome job, you know. I prepare details for
the conferences but I'm of course never participating. I'm just supposed
to pop in a few times per day to check that everything's all-right, maybe
help with some copying or similar stuff. I started to visit the bar
like tonight to see if I could have at least a quick chat with one or two of
the participants, but it's just on very, very rare occasions. I think they
have their private parties on their rooms maybe, and if they come down here
they're usually a group of people that wants to be on their own."
- "So, I'm a bit unique then", I tried.
- "Yes, in many ways. Never happens that a man in your age..."
She interrupted herself and inhaled deeply with her fist over her mouth
and coughed deeply with two hard, deep hacks as usual.
- "Good boy, who doesn't smoke", she smiled. - "I wish I had the
guts to at least try quitting. You hear how I sound", she laughed a little
with a wheezing laughter. I tried to pretend like I hadn't understood.
- "My cough, I mean", she explained after filling those large,
black, warm nostrils with cigarette smoke on its way out from her lungs.
Again, I said something I at that time never had thought I would ever
say to anyone.
- "Your cough sounds fantastic. I mean, it's... warm and lovely."
She looked at me for a while, like if she was thinking about what I
said, and I felt ridiculous for a while. Before I could find out what
to say, she caressed my hand. Before she did that, I was about to
find out some excuse to say and leave the planet, but her warm, soft
fingers on mine made my heart beat harder. We looked deeply into each
other's eyes before I spoke.
- "Any chance we could ... get deeper into this subject?", I said.
We finished our drinks and left together and went up to her room.
Just as we had left the bar area, she put her fist over her mouth and
inhaled deeply. Again, two hard hacks but they sounded deeper and "wetter"
this time. On our way to the lift, probably just around ten seconds later,
she inhaled again and this time even her inhale sounded wet and rattling.
I couldn't resist putting my hand on her shoulder when she coughed
deeper than ever before. She bent her body forward a little because of the
two deep and intensive hacks. She sounded really bad this time. We got into
the lift and I removed my hand, a bit unsure how she would react, but I
had no reason to be afraid of her reaction. It was the most smoke-tasting
kiss I had ever been into.
Edith locked the door behind us and looked at me like if she was about to weep.
She embraced me hardly and whispered that she had never even dared to
dream about getting together with such a young and nice man. We sat down in
the two chairs in her room and she lit a cigarette.
- "How much do you smoke, by the way", I asked.
- "Around two packs per day, I think. No, maybe just one and a half.
No, it's probably two these days", she smiled. - "It's terrible, I know.
I would probably look better without it, smell better, everything".
She laughed a little but I assured she was perfect as she was and she again
got the warm, soft glance in her dark-brown eyes. She was about to say something
when a sudden coughing fit surprised her. There was no long inhale before,
just a prolonged rattling followed by a sequence of deep, fast hacks which gave her
no time to inhale between. She bent her body forward more and more before she
finally inhaled, put her fist over her mouth and coughed with four heavy hacks,
each of them sounding like her lungs were coming up. I thought it was the end
of it, but she then inhaled even deeper and the two final hacks sounded like she
was turning inside out. She let her hand remain over her mouth and had a serious
glance in her eyes for a while. I felt I couldn't resist anymore, so I got up
and started to massage her chest, first right under her throat, then lower;
inside her clothes. She gasped and closed her eyes and I helper her to undress
before undressing myself. We got down on the bed.
- "Smoke, please smoke", I almost cried.
She lit up. She was over me, and I looked up into her long, large
nostrils waiting for them to pump cigarette smoke over me, but
she mouth exhaled to the side to avoid blowing the smoke over me.
- "No, no, please, you don't have to turn away", I moaned and she
then blew the remaining smoke from her lungs right in my face. She dragged
again, and I quickly pulled her face to me to kiss before she had exhaled.
I don't think she really got the idea, but we kissed at the same time as her
sexy nose pumped the smoke over my face. When she got a rumbling
coughing fit I reached my climax, and soon she did too. I had never
had sex with a woman of that age before and I had NO idea how it was
for them. I had wanted her to reach the goal too but
I was unsure whether a woman of her age would ever reach it or not,
due to my lack of experience. I felt happy when I saw the happiness in her
face. Afterwards, I lay down on the bed while she sat up and got a long
coughing fit. She sat there, naked, with her hand cupped over her mouth,
(no fist style this time) and coughed deeper and deeper. She suddenly seemed
to be embarrassed.
-"Oh, my young man, I feel so ridiculous, an old woman stinking of
cigarettes and with a smoker's cough and everything, what am I doing
with you. I'm sorry, dear." I just stared at her for a while, then I
got up from the bed and put my arms around her and kissed her deeply.
It took a while before she really understood I wasn't kidding when I
insisted on exchanging telephone numbers but finally we did. I went back to my
room and fell asleep, but the first thought that came across my mind
in the morning was
"why didn't I stay over the night with Edith?". I started to dream about
what her smoker's cough would sound like in the morning. Anyway, after
getting up from the bed I noticed the piece of paper where I had her
phone number, so I assumed I would sooner or later find out anyway...
Before the group left the hotel in the afternoon, the conference manager made a short speech, thanking us for these two days. Edith stood beside him and he affirmed that she, as much as him, had appreciated this group in particular and Edith gave me a long, warm glance when he said that part.