"Gail, so good to see you again," Chet Armstrong said politely but without much sincerity. Then he sat erect in the saddle and with a bow of his handsome head introduced himself to Barbara, leaving off "the Fourth." "And who are you, m'lady?'" he asked with mocking gallantry.
Gail introduced them. "A new friend. We were just starting to take a ride."
It was obvious to Barbara, and probably to Chet Armstrong, that she was not inviting him to join them.
He smiled mischievously. "Thank you. I'd love to ride along."
Gail shrugged her shoulders and urged her horse on. Barbara then found herself riding beside the young intruder. She was taken by his good looks and intrigued by him, but wished he had not come along. She wanted to enjoy her first horseback ride with just Gail. Now the experience was diffused by sharing it with the handsome but, she thought, very self-centered and spoiled rich young man. Doubtlessly from one of the North Shore's finest and richest families, she thought.
Gail kept the lead, choosing a path that she hoped would be narrow enough so Chet could not ride next to Barbara, to flirt as he always did with any new young woman he met, especially one as beautiful as her friend.
But he flirted anyway, admiring Barbara's firm, round rear end in bluejeans as she cantered her horse ahead of his, "I like your... gait," he said, then chuckled at his own joke.
"You ride very well yourself," Barbara countered, knowing he had not referred to her riding ability. "But maybe you'd better keep your eyes on the trail."
Chet liked her spirit. Most girls melted at the sight of him, and did not risk joking with him but took his attentions very seriously. This beauty was independent enough to verbally put him down, after just meeting him. He liked challenges, especially the few girls he'd met who were hard to get. He wondered, Is she just playing hard to get, or was she really?
"How do you know Gail? Why is it I've never seen you before, at any of the parties?"
Barbara did not hesitate a moment. "I wait on tables at her sorority house," she replied over her shoulder with a slight smile. "I suppose that's why you haven't seen me before."
He loved it. A girl who put him down twice in less than five minutes. And she didn't care if he knew she wasn't rich. She was his kind of girl. No, she certainly was not, he reflected on second thought. She was not like any other girl he had ever met. He already knew that. And she was perhaps the most beautiful.