The week after my race flew by. I took Sunday and Monday off from riding to recover my surprisingly sore muscles. I overdid some of my sprints and was paying for it. I spent those days researching my options for my next contract.

I've been an event planner for just over 10 years. For the first seven I was working for a software company in my hometown. During that time I built up an extensive rolodex of contacts (digital of course). After some cutbacks at work that impacted my staff, I decided I should beat them to the punch and headed out on my own. The past three years have been tough, but I've been able to get enough work so that I can work for a few months and then take at least two months off for my own interests.

The rest of the week I got back into my standard cycling routine. I also began interviews on some potential jobs. The interviews went well, but there wasn't much work out there. It'll be next week before I hear back from any of them.

Every afternoon I'd see Stephanie's card on my desk, but could never think of a reason to give her a call. I knew when we'd be meeting next. Therefore any call I made to her would be awkward, what would I say?

"Hi Stephanie, I'm still planning on joining you," that just sounds stupid and pointless.

"Hi Stephanie, did you say McIver park or MacGyver park," now I just sound stupid and like a dork.

"Hi Stephanie, are you up for a dinner and a movie," that never works.

Anyway, I was able to keep myself busy and was able to prevent any ruinous calls to her.

* * *

Saturday morning dawned dark, dreary and cold. A late summer cold front came in Friday night meaning that it'd be a fairly cool ride. I gathered all my gear together, loaded up the truck and drove to McIver park to meet up with Stephanie's riding group.

I showed up in the parking lot around 6:00 because I wanted to have a chance to get changed and warmed up before we took off. Dressing in the cab of the truck is always tricky, but I hate driving in my cycling shorts. I'm not afraid of anyone coming up while I'm naked, I'm fairly confident in my appearance.

There were several cars there when I arrived and a few more showed up while I was changing. By 6:20 I was doing some quick laps around the parking lot when I saw Stephanie's Lexus pull in. She waived to me and parked her car.

She popped out of the SUV, grabbed the bike out of the back and was pedaling up to me within about three minutes.

"Good morning Blake," she said with no tinge of tiredness.

"Good morning Stephanie. Thanks for inviting me, this will be great, although it is pretty cold this morning."

"Yeah, are you going to be warm enough? Have you ridden in this weather before?"

"Not this cold, but I should be fine."

"Well, let me give you a suggestion, you're going to wish you had full tights. Your knees are going to start aching due to the cold and the wind in about 15 minutes."

"I should be fine," I said with a little bit of concern in my voice.

"I don't think so. I have an extra pair of leg warmers that will keep your knees and shins covered. I'll go grab them."

"I'll be fine, don't worry about it," I said to her back as she hustled back to her SUV.

She returned with some dark pink tubes of spandex. "Sorry they're pink, but you'll be thanking me when we're done. Go slip them on, we're about to take off."

She tossed them to me and I caught them with what must have been a pretty silly look on my face. I could tell that she wasn't going to put up with any protestations. I dismounted from the bike, took off my shoes and slipped into the leg warmers. They definitely stood out with their color, but I wasn't concerned about any giggling coming from the colorful cyclists in the group, both men and women.

After getting myself put back together, Stephanie and I joined the rest of the group who were listening to the group leader describe the day's ride.

As the leader, Johnathon was his name, was talking I semi-conciously began itching my leg.

"Blake, you'll get used to them. They are just catching on your leg hairs," Stephanie said as she noticed my scratching.

I promptly stopped. "Hmm, what? Oh, yeah. I'm not used to them. Thanks though, it feels like it is getting colder." A slightly stronger breeze was picking up.

"Yeah, you'll be thanking me. I think you'll owe me a coffee afterwards."

"Sounds fair to me," I said as the group started moving down the path.

* * *

"So Blake, how'd you like the ride?" asked Stephanie after we pulled back into the parking lot.

"It was great. Everyone was polite and the pacing was perfect. Lots of challenging climbs, some good sprints and some relaxing portions."

"Good. I'm glad you had fun. Are you still up for that coffee? There is a place nearby we could ride too really quick."

"Sounds great."

Stephanie said goodbye to a few of her friends and we dashed off to the coffee house.

After locking up our bikes we picked a table in clear view of them. I went and bought a couple coffees and came back to the table.

Stephanie was giggling.

"What's so funny," I asked.

"Now that we're in the real world, your leg warmers are earning you a few second glances."

I had forgotten all about the pink-ness of my lower legs. "Aw crap... I forgot about them". I reached down to start removing them.

"Don't worry about it Blake. It's no big deal. I didn't think you were so self-conscious."

"You're right, I'm not." I sat back and started drinking my coffee.

"Although ...," Stephanie trailed off.

"What?"

"You might want to think about shaving your legs, the little hairs sticking through do look kind of funny," she started chuckling at that point.

I looked down and noticed the same thing. "Yeah your right, that does look silly. I've read about cyclists shaving, but I've never felt the need nor the desire. As you can see, I'm pretty hairy to begin with."

"Yeah, most guys don't need to shave," Stephanie continued. "Some do because they think it will make them faster. Most, however, do so because road burns and hair are a bad combination."

"I've had a few of those. And now that I'll never be able to keep you from giggling, I guess that gives me another reason."

Stephanie laughed out loud at that.

We both finished our coffees and rode back to our cars, chatting along the way.

"Stephanie," I said as I was packing up, "I'll clean the leg warmers and get them back to you for next week's ride."

"That sounds great, except for one thing."

"What's that?"

"How about you return them Thursday night when we have dinner?"

I was taken back at her confidence but was able to keep a hold of my own. "Absolutely," I returned. "Seven o'clock at DaVinci's."

"Great, I hope to hear about how your shaving went."

That stopped me dead in my tracks. After a too long of a pause I said: "Sure... I'll see you then."