It was a couple of days before Julie and I ran into each other on campus at a time when we both had a few minutes to talk. She surprised me by bringing up the subject of nudism right away without any prompting on my part.

She said, "Jeff and I have talked about the nude thing a lot and now that I’ve tried it, I feel like I have a lot better understanding of where he’s coming from when he talks about it."

"That seems like a good thing," I replied.

"It is," she said. "And…I’m thinking…maybe…I’d like to do it again. You know, just sort of another test drive."

"OK. That seems like a good thing, too," I said. "Are you thinking you and me or you and Jeff or what?"

"Oh! Definitely you," she said. "Jeff and I? Huh-uh. Not yet. Definitely not ready. But we have talked about it."

"How did that go?" I asked.

"It was good. We talked through it and thought out loud about what it might be like. The funny thing is, I think I’m more confident about being together than he is. Isn’t that scary?"

I said, "Well, he’s probably just really concerned about your feelings and doesn’t want to rush you into anything."

"Yeah, maybe," she said.

Then we went on to talk about a time to get together for our next outing and made our plans – tentative on the weather. There were now far more cold days than warm ones.

The next day, I ran into Jeff on campus and we stopped to talk for a few minutes. The discussion centered around Julie and he said, "Sunny listen, I really want to thank you for taking Julie out there the other day and for being so patient with her."

"Hey, no problem," I said. "We – or at least I – had fun. And besides, she’s my best friend so naturally I wanted to do all I could to make it the best possible experience for her. And it was her idea to give it a try."

"I know," he replied. "That was so surprising that she wanted to do that – and so soon, too – given all the misunderstandings we had when she first found out about it."

I said, "I know! But, she told me that the reason she wanted to try it first hand was because nudism seemed so important to you and so she figured there must be something to it. Anyway, she did it. She was maybe a little nervous at first, but she just went right ahead and did it. I’m proud of her for that."

"Yeah, me too," he agreed.

"The big surprise to me is that she wants to do it again," I continued. "She seemed to have such a take-it-or-leave-it attitude while we were out there, but now, she seems…almost eager to try it again. Did she tell you that after we got dressed she said that her clothes felt confining to her?"

"Yes, she did," he answered. "She also said that the reason she wasn’t very nervous was because of you. She said that both times – at your apartment and outdoors – that you seemed so totally natural and normal and casual about being nude. She said that you were so confident and just your normal self that some of that must have rubbed off on her. She said that after a while, she felt confident too, just being around you."

"That’s nice to know," I said. "But like she said, I was just being my regular old self – it’s all I know how to do."

"Well, I told her that I felt exactly the same way when you helped me get started," he said.

"Thanks," I replied. "Julie mentioned that the two of you had discussed trying nudism together?"

"Yeah, but I don’t think we’re near ready for that," he said. "I mean, I think I could handle it OK – once we got past the awkwardness starting out - but I don’t know about her. I just don’t want to rush it."

"I see," was all I said, but I was thinking to myself that it seemed like each of them thought the other was the one who couldn’t handle it. It looked like a stale mate to me. I wondered if I should offer to do anything to help, but then decided no, they’re talking and trying to be considerate of one another. Let them work it out in their own way in their own time. I promptly put the thought out of my mind.

Over the next week, our plans to get out again to the pasture fell through several times due to the weather. It seemed like it was always cold or raining or both. I was with Julie a number of times during this period and she always mentioned how disappointed she was that we weren’t able to get out again. It seemed like that the longer we had to put it off, the more eager she was. Perhaps this was good.

I talked to Jeff a couple of times, also. He was anxious for Julie and I to go again, too. He said that it seemed like the more they talked about it, the more her views were shifting toward the positive. He really wanted us to get out there again and to see if her opinion was changing. He also mentioned that whenever they decide to try it together, they both want it to be outdoors rather than indoors. He said they both felt that outdoors would be more natural and less stressful than the confines of being indoors. I told him that it made sense to me, but they were fast running out of time if they hoped to accomplish that this year. He said he knew that and that they would probably have to wait until spring, but that would be OK. It would give them more time to get themselves ready. I thought to myself, how much more time do you really need after all this talk, but I didn’t say anything.

Finally a nice day came along. It was identical to the day that Julie and I had gone out the first time. Unfortunately, it was not one of the days that we had planned to go, but I called Julie to see if there was any way that we could make today work out for us. She didn’t answer so I left a message. She called me back just as she was headed to her last class for the day. She agreed that today was our best chance. We both juggled our schedules a little and agreed on a plan to meet that afternoon as soon as her class was over. She was originally scheduled to work, but knew that she could change that. I was planning to study at home the rest of the afternoon until I had to go to work in the evening, so I was flexible.

At the agreed upon time, Julie showed up at my apartment door. She said, "I’m so glad we decided to go ahead and do this today. It’s so nice out."

I replied, "I know. I was afraid we weren’t going to get another chance."

She said, "Yeah, it sure seems like it’s now or never."

As we were getting ready to leave, Julie mentioned that because we had made our plans on such short notice she hadn’t bothered to call Jeff to tell him what we were doing because he was still in class and would be for a while longer. He would still be under the assumption that Julie was working this afternoon.

Just as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Julie decided to use the bathroom before we left. Up until now, I hadn’t thought much about anything that she and I had been saying, but as I stood there leaning on the counter waiting, her words, "…seems like it’s now or never..." popped into my mind and stuck there for an instant. That made me remember what Jeff had said about them probably not being able to get together until spring and I thought, ‘what a shame’. And then suddenly it hit me! My mind went into warp speed. What if I could get them together today? Should I? Could I? How? But wait - I told myself I wouldn’t interfere. But wait - this is the perfect time! And they both seem like they want to, but are just afraid of somehow rushing the other one. Someone needs to break the stalemate. Should it be me? Should I try it or not? All these thoughts raced through my mind in the course of about two seconds. I decided to act!

I grabbed the phone and called Jeff’s number and left a message (he was still in class like Julie said). So that Julie wouldn’t hear me, I said softly, "Jeff. It’s Sunny. Hey, this is such a perfect day, I’m going out for a run and to the pasture. Why don’t you come out as soon as you get out of class? We need to talk anyway. Later."

I quietly hung up the phone. Because it was such a nice day and because he and Julie had talked about him and I hiking nude together, I felt almost certain that he would come out when he picked up my message. Then I opened Julie’s back pack, found her cell phone, and turned it off so that there was no way he could call her in case he got out of class early or something.

Now the stage was set. Julie didn’t know Jeff would be there. Jeff didn’t know Julie would be there. With a certain amount of luck, Julie and I would be hiking our way back across the pasture as Jeff was on his way across the pasture out to the usual turn around point. Somewhere in there we would all three meet up – hopefully with complete surprise so that nobody had time to panic (including me!). For the next few seconds I was thinking how clever I was, but then suddenly I was struck with terror as I realized what a precarious plan I had devised and set into motion. There were so many things that could go wrong. What have I done! What was I thinking! I was having second thoughts about it big time when Julie came out and was ready to go.

As we started out the door and down the stairs, she asked, "Who were you talking to?"

"Uhhh…nobody," I said fumbling for an answer. Technically, that was true since I was talking to Jeff’s answering machine.

"Oh. I thought I heard you talking to someone," she said.

"Uhhh…I was probably just talking to myself," I replied grasping desperately for any flimsy explanation I could find.

"You’re losing it, Sunny," was all she said.

‘Whew!’ I thought. ‘Why do I get myself into these things!’

Julie suggested that we take her car again since it was right out front. As we were heading out of town, it suddenly occurred to me that if we left the car where we did last time, Jeff would see it for sure when (if) he came out and then he’d know something was going on. What to do? Think fast.

Then I said, "Hey Julie, it’s such a nice day, let’s not drive out so far. Let’s park the car now and walk a little farther today. That way we can get more exercise out of this."

"OK," she said. Julie was trying to start exercising regularly, so that’s why this idea appealed to her.

"Turn here at this side street," I said. "Park up there in front of that other car."

The car was now far enough away from the main road that it wasn’t likely Jeff would notice it when (if) he ran by.

As we were getting out of the car, Julie opened her backpack, pulled out her phone, looked at it and said, "Hmm, I was going to turn off my phone, but it’s already off. I don’t remember doing that. Oh well."

‘Whew!’ I thought to myself again. She put the phone back and this time she left the backpack in the car.

We walked on out to the pasture, climbed the gate, and headed over to the trees where we were out of sight of the road.

"Why not get undressed here where we got dressed last time?" Julie suggested much to my surprise.

"Good idea," I said. "That’s what I usually always do anyway. We’ll need to carry our clothes to the same hiding place though, just so they’ll be more centrally located."

We peeled everything off and began hiking single file through the trees. I guess I was preoccupied with worry about the plans I had set into motion and was walking too fast to suit Julie.

"Hey, slow down, Ms. Hard Body," she commanded.

"Oh, sorry," I replied.

"Are you OK? You seem sort of preoccupied or something."

"I’m fine. Guess I got a little carried away. You know me."

"We’re out here on this perfectly beautiful day and you’re still thinking about school, aren’t you?"

"Uhhh – yeah, I guess so."

"Too bad I don’t have my phone – you could call one or two of your professors and have them join us," she said jokingly.

I thought to myself, if she only knew who I had invited, she’d probably rather welcome all of my professors and hers, too!

When we reached the place where we hid our clothes last time, I had Julie put her things under the bush and then I inconspicuously put my things in front and on top of hers so that if Jeff hid his things here he wouldn’t see Julie’s stuff. (This was one more little detail that hadn’t occurred to me until just then!)

We worked our way back up the creek bank and went on our way for a hike in the pasture. Now that Julie knew the routine and the area, she was a lot more confident and relaxed. I just followed her lead and we did whatever she wanted to do and went wherever she wanted to go. She wanted to explore along the creek for awhile today, so that’s what we did, crossing back and forth several times just for the fun of it. The trees were covered in beautiful fall foliage and leaves were falling all around us whenever the wind blew. One place along the creek had some large flat rocks that we used for crossing. Another place had a couple of fallen trees that we walked across while balancing carefully and threatening to push each other off. Both ways of crossing kept us from having to get into the cold water and mud.

I had no idea when or where we might actually meet up with Jeff. I didn’t know for sure when he would pick up my message or even if he would get it in time. There was of course the possibility that he already had other plans for the afternoon. But, as I stated before, I just had a feeling that if he got my message as soon as he was out of class, he would come.

As I thought about what the actual meeting might be like, I hoped that we would just run into each other without any kind of warning. That way there would be surprise, but no time for fear or anxiety. I could imagine a number of places along the way that would be ideal for that to happen, but I doubted that I would be lucky enough for it to work out that way. But one could always hope. I caught myself getting stressed and preoccupied with these thoughts again, so I forced myself to put them out of my mind and just concentrate on the moment. That wasn’t too hard to do since Julie was talking up a storm and constantly cracking her one-liners.

We came up from the creek and headed out across the wide-open grassy part of the pasture with both of us remarking about how good it felt to be nude outdoors – feeling the sun on our skin and the wind blowing over our bodies and through our hair. It was a great day and we were having a great time.

I couldn’t believe how much Julie’s attitude had changed since the last time we had done this. At one point, I reached over and touched her forehead with the back of my hand like I was taking her temperature and asked, "Are you all right? Are you delirious? Is this the same Julie that not long ago said she could never do this?"

She laughed and said, "Yeah, it surprises me, too. But ever since that day, the more that I think about it and the more Jeff and I talk about it, it just seems so natural and normal - like this is the way it should be. (pause) Did I say that?"

We both laughed.

"Speaking of Jeff," I said. "Have you thought any more about the two of you doing this together?" I was really flirting with danger now.

"Oh, I don’t know," she answered. "I mean, I have thought about it. And we’ve talked some more about it. But I don’t know if we’re ready. I mean, I think I could handle it if he wanted to, but so far he hasn’t actually suggested it and neither have I."

"OK, so what if when we get up there to those trees at the edge of the pasture, he just happened to step out from behind one of them and say hi. What would you do?"

"I’d sa-a-a-ay, ‘Well hi there, Jeffie boy! Check out my new outfit. It’s the latest design from Julie’s in Paris. The perfect fit for today’s active woman. Can be worn with anything or with nothing like our model. Often imitated – never duplicated. Like it?’" And then she added with a flirty little pout, "I knew you would!" All the while she was saying this, she was pretending to be a model walking down the runway in a designer fashion show.

We both cracked up at her antics. I had to wonder what she would say when he really showed up.

When we reached the turnaround point in the pasture, we explored in that area for a little while before heading back. I looked back across the pasture to see if I could see Jeff. No sign of him yet.

I was really starting to get antsy now, knowing that we could run into him at any moment. And when we did, I had no idea how either one of them would react nor did I know what I would do in response to them. Why did I get myself into this in the first place!

We took our time walking back down the hill. When we came back to the pond, we walked part way around the edge of it for no real reason other than to look at the cattails blowing in the breeze. Then we back tracked along the edge and walked down around behind the pond dam. Here there were more cattails and a lot of willow trees growing in a thick cluster along where the overflow from the pond provided the moisture that these trees needed. There was a narrow opening through these trees that we had walked through on our way out here and would eventually walk through on our way back. But for now we were busy just looking at the trees and cattails and wondering why the frogs that we were seeing hadn’t hibernated yet. A red-winged black bird was chirping and we were just aimlessly enjoying the afternoon and talking about anything and everything.

I was closest to the opening in the trees and Julie was several feet farther back from me nearer the pond dam. I must have caught some movement out of the corner of my eye that caused me to look toward the opening. I could see through the yellow fluttering leaves of the willow trees just barely, but it was enough to figure out what it was. It was Jeff! And he was walking fast right in our direction! The moment of truth was just about here. Quick! Think! What to do now? Without panicking and without alerting Julie, I stepped a few steps back toward the pond dam so that I couldn’t be seen through the opening in the trees.

Then I said to Julie just loud enough that only she could hear me, "Why don’t we go over to the other side of the trees now."

"OK," she said completely oblivious to what was about to happen.

At the exact instant that she turned toward the opening, Jeff stepped through it! They were about fifteen feet apart and saw each other at the same time. I was about the same distance from both of them and saw it all unfold. First, their jaws dropped and the look of total surprise on both their faces was priceless. Then for a second or two, they just stayed frozen where they were and stared at each other like they were seeing ghosts. Neither of them tried to cover or hide themselves in any way – they just stood there. As I observed their reactions, I was very worried about not only how they would react to suddenly being together like this, but also about how they would react to me once they had figured out that I was the instigator. I didn’t know if one or the other or both of them would be mad at me (again) or what.

Jeff was the first one to recover enough to speak. "Julie. I…uhhh…What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were going to be here, too."

"Uhhh…Sunny and I were just having our second outing – you know, like we talked about," Julie replied slowly and still in disbelief. "I wasn’t expecting you either."

Suddenly it dawned on her that Jeff knew something that she didn’t. "Hey, wait a minute. What do you mean – ‘too’?" she asked and slowly crossed her arms to cover herself.

Jeff looked over at me with a quizzical look on his face. Julie’s gaze immediately followed. Uh-oh. It hadn’t taken them long to figure out that this wasn’t just a chance encounter. I was now on the spot for an explanation.

I took a few steps toward them and stuttered and stammered as I said, "Guys – look – OK, I set all this up – without either of you knowing – it’s all my doing. But…it just seemed like – like you both wanted it to happen – but…you were both afraid of being too pushy to the other one– you know? I’m sorry – if I did the wrong thing, I’m sorry. I just wanted to help. Somehow?"

They were both just staring at me during my weak attempt at an explanation. I couldn’t tell what they were thinking. Then they looked back at each other. They still hadn’t moved at all. They were looking straight ahead at each other’s face. Then they both kind of smiled and then laughed nervously and then casually did a quick scan of each other down and up. They glanced quickly at me again and then back at each other. The ice had been broken. I now had a glimmer of hope that this might turn out all right.

Then Jeff said to Julie as he came on in to the clearing and stepped toward her, "Hey, I guess this is what we were talking about doing anyway."

"I know," she replied laughing. "Looks like all that worrying we did was for nothing."

"I’m glad it worked out this way," he said.

As he came up to her, he held out his hands to receive hers and asked, "So…are you OK with this?"

"Yeah," she said taking his hands and then asking, "You?"

"Yeah," he said smiling at her.

"And I’m relieved!" I couldn’t help but blurt out, interrupting the moment.

"You shouldn’t be," Julie said matter-of-factly. "We’re going to get you back for this."

"That’s right," Jeff said. "You’re going to get it big time – everything you deserve."

Julie said, "Yeah. When you least expect it – expect it!"

"Hey now. I was just trying to help. You’re such babies. You couldn’t seem to help yourselves," I jabbed back at them.

We stood around together there for a few minutes just laughing and joking and talking. I truly was relieved that they weren’t mad at me for what I had done. The whole thing could have gone so wrong, but fortunately it looked like it was going to go so right. I figured the best thing for me to do now was leave them alone out here to get used to being together like this.

I said, "Listen guys, three is a crowd. I’m heading back."

They argued for me to stay, but I knew it would be better for me to go and leave them alone out here. This was the perfect setting on the perfect day for them.

"Nope. I’m outta here," I said. I made sure that Jeff understood where Julie’s things were in case she had trouble finding them, but as it turned out he had put his in the same place like I thought he would, but hadn’t noticed hers.

"OK, see ya," I said and turned around and started for the opening in the trees.

"Bye, Sunny."

"Bye, Sunny."

"Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do," I said jokingly over my shoulder as I was walking away through the willows.

I heard them laugh and then Julie called after me, "I don’t think that’s possible!"

That made me laugh. I took my time making my way back in order to enjoy the day for as long as possible. I didn’t run into Julie and Jeff again that day. I didn’t really expect to nor did I want to. I was hoping they were having a great time together and getting used to each other in this new way. I wanted them to have the best experience possible and I knew I would hear all about it from Julie later.

I now had plenty of time to think and reflect out here alone in the openness and quietness of the pasture. I thought back on all that had happened with Julie, Jeff, and me. I thought about the iffy start that Jeff and I had way back when I introduced him to nudism out here a number of months ago. I remembered that things hadn’t gone well at first, but then after we had communicated openly and honestly, everything had worked out so well.

Then I thought about the rocky beginnings Jeff and I had just had with Julie in telling her about our nudist activities. We hadn’t communicated with her at first, but then after we had talked about everything openly and honestly, she first began to understand and had now reached the point where she was out here hiking with us. I was still finding it hard to believe that she had come completely around in liking to be nude outdoors given that she hadn’t seemed to care much for it at first. I would have been happy if she had simply accepted the fact that Jeff and I were nudists and that it was OK for us. But to see her actually embracing it herself was nothing short of amazing. And now, to see them both actually together out here as a couple enjoying nudism was way beyond anything I could have ever hoped for. I was so happy for them. I thought about how great it was that she and Jeff could communicate so openly. I wondered what effect nudism would have on their relationship. I resolved to observe how this situation played out for them and to file that information away to use someday when I become involved in a serious relationship like theirs.

Eventually I decided to go on back to town so I picked up my things and walked back to near the road before getting dressed. I ran back to town and then extended my run in order to get in a good work out on this nice day. As I was running, I kept thinking that the common thread leading to success in introducing both of these friends to nudism had been open, honest, in-depth communication. I had seen how lack of communication created all kinds of problems. I saw how good communication had not only resolved the problems, but then had laid the foundation for success and I vowed to myself that from now on I would practice this approach in all aspects of my relationships with people.

END - Part 3 of 3