Nicholas thought the only word to describe Serena was<em>adorable.</em>It wasn't just the skirt, although she looked very lovely in it. It was the mix of vulnerability and hopefulness that came from her as she walked toward him.<br/><br/>"I am most definitely<em>not</em>laughing at you," he said, standing. "You look wonderful, like a woman who's aware of her beauty and wants to share a little of it with others as she enjoys it herself. You look like a woman with self-confidence who doesn't mind being admired." He looked at the bench. "Let's sit."<br/><br/>Serena looked tight as she sat, knees close together and tensed.<br/><br/>"Relax and sit back, please," he suggested. "Cross your legs and let's let the world go by for a few minutes. Let's see if the universe has changed."<br/><br/>Within a couple of minutes it almost began to seem as if it had. People turned their heads as they passed and sent friendly smiles Serena's way. A handsome man in a suit stopped several yards away, looked at Serena and adjusted his tie, smiled, and walked on. A young man with his girl -- late high school or college, Nicholas reckoned -- slowed his walk to look at Serena and when his girlfriend caught him she punched him on the arm and steered him away. Nicholas laughed.<br/><br/>"I think that's just about the funniest thing in the world," Nicholas said, beaming at Serena. "That girl was just as you were just a few days ago, jealous and insecure and missing the whole point." He turned to Serena, facing her on the bench and putting his arm on the back rail.<br/><br/>"Everything in the world is about attraction," he said. "The flower opens in the springtime to attract the bee, that will light on its pistil and on its tiny legs will deposit the pollen to create new flowers. The female mammals go into their season and the males compete to be worthy of her. And every morning nearly all of us do our best to look attractive, and it's what we want, but not all of us let ourselves<em>enjoy</em>it."<br/><br/>He looked away for a moment, saw a few more admiring glances come Serena's way.<br/><br/>"The sweet beauty about you draws the eye," he said. "And doesn't it make you feel good that people like to look at you? Do you perhaps have the beginning of a feeling of some power, just a frisson of pleasure at what your body can do to someone just looking at you?" He looked into Serena's eyes.<br/><br/>"I think that somewhere tonight a man and a woman will remember seeing you, and the memory might season their play together. Maybe she'll dress in something short and he'll flirt with her, although they have perhaps been married for years, and they'll smile and be two other people tonight, perhaps one of them channeling you, and their love and excitement will be the greater for it. Or maybe, instead of you being a woman they simply try not to bump into, you will have become to them a woman whose beauty and poise they will remember."<br/><br/>He took a deep breath.<br/><br/>"In our own ways, I think we all want to be admired and remembered," he said. "To let our light shine on people and let them be warmed by it. It is, of course, not simply the skirt that helps you to do this; it's all of you. But let's be honest -- today, dressed as you are, your legs were as compelling to them as the pistil is to the bee; and that gets their first look at you. And then they see not just your beautiful legs, but all of you -- Serena, a woman of power and poise and beauty, inside and out."<br/><br/>He smiled one more time and touched her arm very lightly.<br/><br/>"Tell me that none of this amused you or pleased you at all, that no quiet thrill passed through you even for a second, and I'll send you back into the store to put on your old skirt. But if you'd like to try a little more, I have more for you to try."<br/><br/><br/><br/>