If it hadn’t been for you guys on Vision and Specs, who have taught me to approach my own poor eyesight with self-esteem and appreciate my strong glasses, perhaps I would still be single today. Only because I knew that some guys fancy a girl in thick glasses and get turned on by a strong prescription, and that there is nothing wrong with that, I was able to react well during a very recent surprise encounter and wasn’t caught completely off guard. And because I am grateful for what you guys have made me realize but also because I know that some of you will find the story of how I met Nick - and what this has to do with my glasses - worth reading, I’m going to tell you all about it. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it and I didn’t miss too many juicy details!
It doesn’t happen very often that I have to travel further afield. Particularly during the time of the Covid-related lock-downs there were months where I didn’t leave my area. However, last Saturday I had organized a trip down south to Southampton to see my aunt who celebrated her 55th birthday, and who had been all by herself for many months while travel had been restricted. It was overdue that someone from the family went to see her and give her some company. I happily volunteered to do this.
I was still single. After a very disturbing experience during a blind date more than a year and a half ago (I wrote about it on here at the time) it took me a long time to even start thinking about dating again. During that blind date, where I made a complete fool of myself by denying the obvious fact that I was in need of significantly stronger glasses, I was dumped right on the spot by a handsome but not very sensitive guy.
Soon after that humiliating experience, I upgraded my glasses. I had my eyes tested and, as expected, received a significantly stronger prescription: -18.25 on the left and -18.75 on the right side. One of my eyes had some astigmatism as well, however I don’t remember which one. With my new prescription I chose a nice oval dark plastic frame and followed the advice of the specialist to go for a smaller size frame and thinned lenses. She wanted me to buy what she called high index lenses, which would have been super thin in spite of my hefty prescription apparently, however far too expensive for my cash starved wallet. In the end I bought something in the middle and when I was able to pick up my new glasses, I was quite happy with the fact that they were a bit thinner than my previous pair although they were more than -2 stronger. For those of you who take an interest in these details, my right lens is 11mm thick at its widest place, roughly three times the size of the frame.
I had received my new pair of glasses in late October 2019. Back then I was truly excited about how much better my vision was with my new lenses. I was able to see pretty much everything, certainly everything which I needed to be able to see. Even better, I didn’t need to squint to reduce any blur. My eyesight, with the help of my new glasses, was simply great. Of course, everything was reduced in size when looking through my strong lenses, but that wasn’t new to me and not really an issue. With my new glasses I was able to see bus numbers again, everything on the menu boards at coffee bars or fast-food restaurants, I even went to the movies a few times.
At that time, I even tried to lose some weight to improve my prospects in the dating scene. I managed to get rid of almost 10 lbs but my ambitions stalled when I tried to get below 175 lbs. Anyway, I had just restarted my efforts to find myself a nice guy when the pandemic hit and the UK went into lockdown.
Unfortunately, my eyesight hasn’t stabilized yet. I can’t tell you how soon after getting my current pair of glasses I started squinting again. Squinting is so much part of my life that I simply don’t notice it anymore: it had become an automatic habit a long time ago. What I do remember exactly however is, when and where I started to push my glasses against my face again: it was when ordering for my last meal before the first lock down. It was in a pub in my neighbourhood, they had written their menu on a chalk board behind the counter and it wasn’t very well illuminated. When I pushed up my glasses, the board came into focus though and I could read everything.
The good thing about wearing a very strong pair of glasses is the fact that even pushing them a little closer to one’s eyes increases the lens power significantly. The bad thing about wearing a very strong pair is however that it is adjusted to sit very close to the forehead and therefore the distance it can be pushed closer to the eyes is quite limited. Because my face is quite flat, this is particularly true for my glasses. Unfortunately, I was reminded of this limitation very much a bit over a year later, last Saturday, at Waterloo station.
As I entered the station building, I started to look for the big information board to find the platform of my train. Unfortunately, these big boards hang from the ceiling quite far above the ground and use pretty small letters. They have certainly not been designed with myopic people in mind. While I would have been able to read everything a year earlier without any doubt, by now my eyesight has worsened so much that even with a hefty squint I couldn’t read anything on those boards. I passed all the people standing underneath the board who were looking for some information as well to get as close to the board as possible. Unfortunately, this worked only so much, as although I did get quite a bit closer, the angle got worse so that I couldn’t really see much more.
Of course, I continued by pushing the temple closer to my forehead. When this still didn’t help enough, I continued by lifting my glasses a little, so that I could look through the bottom, thicker part of the lenses, which in the past has helped on occasion, however this time it didn’t provide the desired result. As last resort, I pushed the bottom of my glasses against my cheeks and by doing so achieved two things: the lenses got even closer to my eyeballs and the glasses got a tilt in front of my eyes. Due to an optical effect of some sort this makes the glasses a little stronger and often just helped enough over all those years for me to see what I needed to see.
I could feel how the blur became less. I squeezed a bit more and squinted as much as possible but it all didn’t seem to make it work. However, I did manage to read the platform numbers which were displayed in a slightly larger size but the name of the stations and the departure times were still too small and too blurry. I decided that I needed to guess based on the length of the words and just try to figure out the times. I made another half step forward, as if this might improve the situation. I squeezed the lens on the right side, the slightly better one, just a bit more, letting loose somewhat on the left side. I felt how I was really close now to be able to read it all with my right eye. But I just wasn’t quite there yet.
I was getting frustrated. This was the first time since I had received this pair where all tricks didn’t work anymore. I could see myself going back to the optometrist to get another increase in my prescription and I hated the thought. While I fiddled with my glasses and just hoped for that one tiny little move with my lens to suddenly take away the blur – or a little miracle – out of nowhere I had this thought. I should always carry a spare lens with me, so that I could hold it over my glasses to give my prescription a boost when needed. I was convinced that another -1.5 or so would have been enough. Another -2 would probably have been comfortable even. I decided for myself that I was going to get such an extra lens the day after.
While I stood under the Board, squinting and squeezing my glasses against my cheeks, looking for my train, I suddenly heard someone next to me say: “Can I help you miss?” Caught by surprise, I immediately let go of my glasses, turned my head to my right and looked into the blue eyes of a rather short, a little bulky guy who was probably about my age. It took me a few seconds to answer. On one side I was just surprised that someone would start talking to me, on the other side I had to go through my options. Should I say no and pretend that I didn’t need any help? Should I say yes and therefore admit that I struggled massively to see much of anything? The latter allowing the start of a conversation which might turn out to be rather pleasant?
After some very quick deliberation I chose to be honest: “Uhm, thank you, to be honest my eyesight isn’t the best and perhaps you can help me…” I said or rather stuttered, insecure but curious what would come next. “No problem! I could see that you were trying to squeeze more power out of you glasses and thought you might be struggling to read the board. These are nice glasses by the way! Too bad they aren’t strong enough anymore. So, what do you want to know?” The stranger next to me spoke like a machine gun, non-stop, without pausing to breathe, and a little on the loud side, quite the opposite of myself.
“Uhm, I am trying to see which platform the 9:35 train to Southampton will depart from…” I replied while pretending to continue looking for the right place on the board. As I was no longer pushing my glasses nor squinting, everything was a total blur and I had not the slightest chance to find what I was looking for. “Platform 11 in 9 minutes. Would you mind if I walked you there?” the guy asked very politely, “by the way I’m Nick, nice to meet you!” I nodded: “Sure! That’s nice of you. I’m Nathalie, nice to meet you, too.” After a short pause I continued: “and thank you for your compliments on my glasses, no guy has ever complimented me on them before!”
Nick very gently took me by my right arm and started moving in the direction of what must have been platform 11. Although it felt a little exaggerated to be physically guided, I wasn’t blind after all, I quite enjoyed being held by a guy. I smiled at him and I could spot a nice smile back. “Thank you, Nick, you are so helpful!” “Pleasure!”, he replied, “can you see the platform number up there? Platform 11? Or shall we get a little closer?” Truth was that I couldn’t see any number anywhere. I didn’t know what he was speaking of and I told him so. He had stopped. “Would you be able to see it from here if you squinted and tilted your glasses like you did before?” I replied that I didn’t know and checked with a quick squint if I could see anything. It was hopeless. I started to wonder if there were any numbers at all. During my dreadful date which I mentioned before, my date invented drinks at a coffee shop to check out if I could see the board and I naively fell in the trap. Therefore, this time I stuck to the truth: “Frankly, I can’t even see what you are speaking of… Thank you for being so helpful and guiding me to my platform!” He wasn’t ready yet to go on and suggested I tried to tilt my glasses as well. Just before I did so, I suddenly discovered the platform number. It had been just in front of me and was fairly easily recognizable. I could almost read it without even squinting.
With a sigh of relief, I told Nick that I had found the number and that I could actually see it. Strangely I wasn’t quite sure if he was pleased to hear that or disappointed. I decided to ask him while we continued slowly down the platform: “Would you have preferred me not to be able to read the platform number?” He reacted a bit evasive as if he had been caught out. Before he could properly reply I went a step further: “you like the thickness of the lenses of my glasses, don’t you?” He coughed and looked over to me, clearly blushing, and asked back: “would you mind if I had a thing for nearsighted girls?” I chuckled: “thought you did! No, that’s quite ok. Not many men do, so I better appreciate the fact that you like my ugly pieces of plastic in front of my eyes!” Then Nick surprised me again: “Can I join you on the train to Southampton?”. “OK, why not”, I replied, trying to pretend it wasn’t important to me if he joined me or not, but secretly quite liking the thought of a date on a train, a date with someone who seemed to take a genuine interest my poor eyesight, and not reject me for it.
Once we had found a nice place to sit opposite each other on the train, Nick actually made sure that we sat by ourselves and no one was close enough to be able to listen to our chat, I wanted to know more about him. I asked him lots of questions and learned that he was a junior accountant at a large American company which goes by the name of “Big Four”. He told me that he had never had any long-term relationship, watched tennis and Formula 1-races on TV, was interested in modern history, particularly the World Wars and considered himself to be a good cook, a claim supported by his slightly chubby figure.
I really started to like the guy. Sure, he wasn’t a stunner, but he was very sweet to me, seemed to be genuinely interested in me and caring for my wellbeing. And let’s face it: I am not a stunner either. I’m definitely overweight, although reasonably in shape and very curvy. However, my face is pretty bland and dominated by my super strong glasses. If I had been blessed with some more smarts, I could have been classified as a chubby nerd, not the description which attracts the most handsome guys. So, I couldn’t complain that Nick wasn’t the eye-catcher I had dreamt of meeting one day, instead he was quickly growing on me.
There was nothing amazing about him but, more importantly, there were no dealbreakers either. In addition, he came across as a very kind, even gentle, and certainly very smart person. I quickly warmed a lot to his open, friendly character and reacted very firmly to his claim that his only defect was his love for girls with poor eyesight. I told him that I was quite excited about his preference and that he shouldn’t consider this a defect at all. He was very grateful for my view and asked me if his very direct questions and comments about my glasses didn’t bother me at all.
I laughed, leaned forward pushed up my glasses and looked deep into his eyes: “You can ask anything you want about my eyes, glasses and vision and I’ll try to answer to the best of my abilities! At least as long as you will promise to never complain that my glasses were too thick or my eyesight too poor!” Of course, I wasn’t worried the slightest bit but thought this caveat would make me appear even more attractive and sure enough he replied that he had never in his life seen a girl with too strong glasses or too poor vision for his liking: “Even if you’ll wear -30 glasses one day, I’ll like you as much as I do now!” “But what if I’ll end up at -40 one day?” I asked back. “Even hotter!” was his brief reply and the way he said it clearly showed that Nick meant it. The banter had started!
When I didn’t reply immediately to his reassurance he added: “Sorry for being so blunt! Maybe you believe me now when I call it a defect of mine?” I smiled even more and tried to remove his worries: “if you’ll adore my squint through -30s in ten years as much as my squint through my weak -18s today, there is nothing to worry about!” I even decided to exaggerate a bit to seal my deal: “To be honest I find your interest I my glasses quite sexy! I have always hoped to find a guy who was into glasses to be able to talk about them, play with them and who would love to clean them or do some private eye tests for me.” As much as I liked the fact that my glasses allowed me to see, at least when they were new, I had never had the slightest interest in them from a sexual point of view. But Nick didn’t need to know that, and I was quite prepared to learn how this whole quirk could become a joyful affair for both of us.
Nick literally jumped on my offers: “Oh I would love to clean your glasses, may I?” I took them off and passed them in his direction. I could feel, how he gently took them out of my hands and could hear how he breathed on them and started cleaning them. I had no chance to see what he cleaned them with or how he did it and asked if it gave him pleasure: “Can you feel how strong they are? Have you ever cleaned anybody’s glasses as strong as mine?” “No, I haven’t they are amazing, Nathalie!” I thought I could hear in his voice, or at least I firmly assumed, that he was getting aroused while feeling the curvature of the lenses between his thumb and index. And to be totally honest, the thought of Nick being turned on by my glasses in his hands turned me on a little as well.
Once he had finished cleaning, he handed me back my glasses and I was relieved when I could see things again, of course with the limitations I was used to. However, the glasses seemed to be ultra clean and I thanked Nick for his thorough work. He hadn’t forgotten my other ideas though: “Did you say you would be ok if I tested your eyesight?” I nodded: “Of course, why not?” He was even more excited: “I have been an optometrist I my dreams and it would be so much fun if we could do some roleplay! You wouldn’t believe this, Nathalie, however I have a full set of equipment at home: Several Charts and even a large set of trial lenses! I could test your vision almost like a professional does it, however for free!” Now, I was a little unsure about this idea. I wouldn’t let an accountant check my eyes instead of a professional optometrist. However, if he liked the role play, why not play my part as well?
“This would be awesome! We could do a monthly test and you could keep a record of my deteriorating eyesight and how much stronger my glasses would need to be every month!” Of course, I hated the thought of my vision worsening every month, however I knew it was probably the truth. And if it helped me to get a boyfriend, why not mention it? Nick was excited as he realized: “Nathalie, this would mean that you will have to visit me at least once every month for the rest of your life!” I played to be shocked: “Do you only want to see me once a month?” Nick quickly reacted: “No, of course I would love to see you every day, however just in case that was too much for you, I thought I could take you up on your offer for a monthly visit…” I genuinely meant what I replied: “If you want to see me every day, Nick, then we are in agreement!” He smiled a huge smile and whispered: “Thank you!” I answered by blowing a kiss into the air.
Soon thereafter, the train slowed down. Nick commented that we must be about to arrive at a station: “Can you tell me which station we are about to arrive at?” “Aren’t you the one with the good eyesight?” I replied and smiled at him. “Sure, but I want to see how easily you can read the station name”, he smiled back and I couldn’t refuse his desire: “your wish is my command!” I replied starting to look out of the window. “Can you tell me, Nick, why does it turn you on to watch a woman struggling to see? Or do you just like to see a girl struggle in any situation?” “No,” he replied shaking his head, “I just adore the look of squinting eyes, thick glasses and that index pushing the lens up close to your eye. Others love blond hair or big boobs…” he paused for a moment, noticing a split second too late that this might not be the best comparison in my presence, “I mean each to their own and my preference is strong myopia!” “Strong what?” I replied starting to look out for that station sign. Although we must still have been quite a bit away, I practically squeezed my glasses against my eyes and squinted as hard as I could. Too much so to see anything but probably just the right amount to turn on Nick. “Strong myopia… nearsightedness… the condition you have in your eyes when you can see well close up but everything far away is a blur.” “Ah ok, I understand!” I replied, “for me anything past two inches is blurry without my glasses and anything past two feet is blurry with my glasses!” I chuckled a bit and could see the station arrive.
“That’s the moment where I would love to have a little spare lens to hold in front of my glasses…” I remembered my thought from earlier in the day, “would you like it if I had to hold an additional lens in front of my thick glasses to see better? Maybe one of your trial lenses?” I asked him as innocuously as possible. “Of course, I would like it if you could see better!” he replied. “No that’s not what I mean, Nick. What I mean is would you like the look of me holding an additional lens in front of my eyes?” I emphasized the words ‘you’ and ‘additional’ and nodded slightly, as if I felt I had to encourage him to say yes.
Nick who at the station came across as a very determined person who knew what he wanted suddenly became somewhat hesitant: “what answer would you prefer, Nathalie?” I launched my final attack: “Listen Nick, you are attracted to my poor eyesight, my glasses and everything that has to do with it. In spite of what you may be afraid of, I am actually excited that you are! I am not a super model, I have never been able to get a boyfriend, so if you like me for my glasses, that’s great! And if my struggles to see things turn you on, even better! Have I answered your question?” It was obvious that my words, delivered with what I considered my sexiest voice possible and quite a bit of squinting – not primarily to please him even more, but mainly to be able to see his reaction – didn’t miss the effect which I had hoped for.
“Well, you know that I find your glasses hot. Now while I certainly love thick glasses on a pretty girl like yourself, the thing which really turns me on is when it is noticeable that even those strong lenses aren’t strong enough. Nothing, nothing, nothing is sexier than a girl squinting or pushing up her glasses to see better or…” he paused, “to ask for an additional lens to cope with the blur.” I smiled. I was sure, I had him in the bag. And I had my first boyfriend ever.
A little later we arrived in Southampton. After we got off the train, I was determined to offer Nick a bit of a tease. It wasn’t hard as the station was fairly dark and the platform which we had arrived at and now stood on had lots of signs and all but the nearest ones were too blurry for me to read. “Wait a second, Nick, let me try to see where the exit is!” I squinted hard and pushed my right lens closer to my eye. I’m sure I must have looked odd to anyone except Nick. But I was excited to see him stand next to me and admire my incredibly nearsighted looks.
Of course, it was obvious where the exit was. Even I could see that all other passengers walked in the same direction. But it didn’t matter that most likely even Nick realized how fake my question was. I gave him the looks he admired and he was so grateful for it. “Don’t tell me! I’ll try to find out myself!” I added and he couldn’t resist anymore: “you are so gorgeous, Nathalie! You can’t imagine how pretty you look when you do this!” “I’m glad you enjoy it when I’m struggling to see, Nick!” I replied, making sure he knew that I meant it in the friendliest way possible by smiling at him before looking in the opposite direction, pretending I was still looking for the exit. I even walked a couple of steps in the wrong direction, allowing him a glimpse of my curvy behind.
I immediately returned to him and put on my puppy-eyed look: “sorry Nick, but it is all too blurry for me. I can’t find the exit. I think I need your help.” I expected Nick to hold my hand and guide us towards the exit, however it appeared that I had ignited his appetite for some more playing and to be honest, I didn’t have the slightest intention to stop him. I thoroughly enjoyed his attention and his flirt with my poor eyesight and strong glasses because he was flirting with me! I was so excited, and so was Nick: “Oh Nathalie you are awesome! You are stunningly beautiful, super kind and wear glasses which look better than anything I could have hoped for! And the best is: You don’t mind that I get turned on by them, you even let me play with them! I’m in heaven!”
I smiled at him, squinted and replied: “You forgot the best, my dear!” He looked at me a little surprised. “Come on, Nick, how can you forget? I thought you liked the fact that I needed a significant increase in my prescription… These glasses, as thick as they may be, are far too weak for me… I can’t see much with them anymore, at least if I don’t squint… I need your eyes to see… I need your help to find my train at the station or even just to order a burger at McDonalds… I need to tilt my glasses to find the exit of this station… I’m even considering wearing another pair of glasses over these ones, just to see a little better… I need much thicker lenses, Nick…” While I was speaking, I slowly moved closer to him and enjoyed to watch how he got aroused more and more. I imagined how his heartbeat must have got stronger and stronger. I was proud of my speech and felt so vulnerable on one side, but yet so much in control of the sexy situation. When I was finished, my face was only a couple of hand withs away from his mouth. I was so ready for a big kiss and Nick didn’t disappoint me. We kissed for at least a minute and he squeezed me against his body. I was in heaven as we finally slowly walked towards the main exit of the station.
Nick needed to take the first available train back to London as he couldn’t join me on my visit of course but rather had commitments back in London later in the day. I intensely kissed him good bye, but not before we had agreed to meet for dinner the following day. I slowly walked away towards the door of the station. Every few steps I turned around to wave at him, making sure he could see my hefty squint. Suddenly Nick came running towards me: “Wait, Nathalie! I can’t leave you alone like this! How are you going to find your way on your own in your blur! Let’s go get your extra lens right now!” I was speechless for a moment, but excited about the thought. Not only did my new boyfriend show a lot of affection towards me but equally he just was about to solve an important issue for me. He put his arm around my back and almost rushed me onto the street: “Let’s find a glasses shop and maybe we are lucky and they can help us!” Did he really say “help us?” I asked myself, “us?”
Within minutes we had found a Vision Express. Nick came straight to the point with the young and probably slightly inexperienced shop assistant: “My girlfriend’s glasses broke this morning and she is wearing her old pair now but unfortunately she can’t see very well with them! Of course, we will come back to order a new pair very soon but we don’t have the time just now. Would it be possible to let us have a -2 lens which she can hold in front of her old glasses if she needs to see something in the distance until we’ll come back and buy her a new pair? Otherwise, she might struggle to catch the right train or bus, can you understand, what we need?”
Now this seemed like an audacious plan, however it worked! Without any further questions asked, the assistant went to the back room, spoke briefly to what seemed to be her boss and soon came back with a little envelope containing a slightly oversized completely round lens. She asked me to try it out. I took it out of the envelope and holding it between my thumb and index, held it right I front of my glasses’ right lens. I immediately fell in love with the additional lens. It was overwhelming how much I could see with it. My guess of -2 seemed to work perfectly well. I noticed that I could have done with a slightly more powerful lens for my left eye but for my right eye it was a perfect match. I was absolutely excited and told so to both of them, Nick and the helpful assistant.
When I wanted to pay for the lens, Nick insisted that it was his present for me. Once again, I was so impressed by his manners and gave him a very tight hug to say thank you as soon as we had left the shop. I was so excited that I wanted him to feel my entire body squeezed against his. I could certainly feel his as well and it was very excited, too!