Julie and I had been living together for almost two years. In that time, I had gotten to know many things about her. One thing I had learned would play right into my hands for this adventure.

Julie was a very complicated and eclectic lover. She liked a lot of variety in our sex life. Sometime she was all sweetness and light, looking for candlelight and roses trailed across her breasts, Champagne and strawberries. Other times she wanted it hard and fast, heavy metal music screaming in the background and her nails buried in my back. Then there was her streak of daring, when she wanted to play games in the park or give head on the freeway ... on those occasions she was often the aggressor, pushing my boundaries and unwilling to take no for an answer.

None of those facets of my love were the one I was waiting for, the one that was an absolute necessity for my plan, outweighing any other factor. Everything else was optional ... this wasn't. I needed one particular mood from her to make this work.

Finally came an appropriate day when I started receiving the right signals. It was a bright spring Wednesday. We were both off work, although we did have class. Since Julie's last period was going to be her midday dance class, it was almost perfect. The physical exertion and driving beats never failed to make her mind run in certain directions.

As we started our day, I started recognizing the hints that would make things workable. Julie was awake before I was, as usual, but she seemed unusually passive as we had to perform our normal morning struggle around the single sink in our bathroom. As I lathered up with shaving gel and grabbed a new blade for my razor, I bumped her. It wasn't deliberate, just the kind of thing that happens in tight spaces.

Instead of bumping back, Julie moved quietly to her right despite being smack in the middle of her make-up routine. Most days she would have at least given me a good-natured tease about hogging the space. Today she just slid aside. When I made eye contact with her in the mirror, she gave a little blush and a hesitant smile. Emboldened I ran my tongue across my upper lip and smiled smugly as she demurely looked down and hid her eyes. That was what I had been watching for these last few weeks.

The day couldn't go fast enough for me after that. I hurried over to meet her outside her dance class after getting out of Art History, deliberately avoiding conversations I would normally seek out.

I arrived at her dance class as they were still doing their cool down. I watched as the music slowed. She had the flush of exertion, but I could tell from looking at her and some of the other advanced dancers that they had barely cracked a sweat. That wasn't unusual this early in a quarter. It always took a couple of weeks before teachers got comfortable pushing the pace.

As the music stopped I moved away from the door and stood back on the grass, across the sidewalk. I wanted one more confirmation that today was the right day for my plans.

Julie emerged from class, the sun catching highlights in her blond hair and sparkling in her blue eyes. The light sweat that clung to her gave her skin a glow. She saw me and crossed over, stopping by my side and looking up--waiting for me to speak. All the confirmation I needed. My pulse began to race.

"You ready to go home, Julie?"