She woke slowly from a deep sleep and could tell without opening her eyes that she was in a strange bed. The pillows were soft and fluffy, and the duvet that covered her naked body was so light and smooth against her skin that she felt it had to be a down filled one in a silk cover. She tried to open her eyes and immediately knew that she had been very drunk when she went to bed last night. Her contact lenses were almost glued to her eyeballs as they did not slide smoothly across her corneas. She blinked a few times to try to lubricate them with her tears. Finally she could feel them start to move when she blinked, but her vision was still blurred. Even though she tried to be careful to not let this happen it had happened to her before, and she knew it would take a few more minutes and a lot more blinks before her lenses felt halfway comfortable. An application of artificial tears would help, but she had to get back home to do that. She knew she was alone in the bed and she could hear water running in what she figured had to be the shower in the bathroom. “I wonder what he looks like?” she asked herself. “He must be pretty good looking,” Amber thought. She never went home with a guy on the first date, and for this to have happened he had to be someone special. Finally the bathroom door opened and Amber could get a good look at the guy she had spent the night with. He was extremely good looking. Tall, with a beard and slicked back hair that was not too long. She looked at his thin, muscular body, concentrating heavily on what he had between his legs. “Wow,” she thought “this one is really hung.” “You are welcome to take a shower.” the dark haired god said in a very masculine voice. “Thanks, I will.” Amber said and she attempted to get out of bed. Her head started to pound when she moved. “I must have had a lot to drink last night.” “Yeah, you were pretty wasted.” The guy replied. “Towels are in the closet.” Amber found a nice big fluffy towel. She turned the water on, and it was immediately hot enough to jump in so she did. She scrubbed herself until she felt squeaky clean, keeping her eyes tightly closed so that she would not dislodge one of her contacts. She often showered with her contacts in at home, but she had spare lenses there and she didn’t worry about washing a lens out like had happened a few times before. But here, since Amber didn’t have any replacement lenses, she had to be extra careful. Finally Amber was finished and she stepped out of the shower to briskly towel herself dry. She opened the door to the medicine cabinet and saw a prescription pill bottle. She checked the name on the bottle and it read Cory Barnes. She couldn’t remember if the guy’s name was Cory or not, but she decided to take a chance. “Have you got any contact lens solution around Cory?” Amber called out into the bedroom. “Sorry Amber, I don’t wear contacts.” Cory replied. Amber’s contacts were really bothering her and she knew that things would not go well for her if she didn’t get them out and use the proper solution to lubricate them. Amber was well versed in the wearing of contact lenses as she had gotten her first contacts when she was 10 years old. She was soon going to turn 30, so she had worn contacts for almost 20 years, and she felt they had been a godsend. At the age of 10 her glasses had been so thick that Amber felt that all the other kids at school had made fun of her behind her back, and sometimes they had even called her the blind one and four eyes to her face. She was very happy when her pediatric ophthalmologist had told her parents that Amber really needed to wear contact lenses because her corrected vision with glasses was not nearly as good as it would be if she wore contacts. Amber soon discovered that the world was a much nicer looking place when she wore contacts, and now the only time she ever wore glasses was when she was at home in her apartment. She would not ever attempt to go out in public when she was wearing her awful looking thick double myodiscs with their -36D prescription. Even at home Amber hated wearing her glasses because she could not see nearly as well as she could with her contacts, but she was smart enough to follow her doctor’s advice and she did wear her glasses almost every evening at home. Amber came out of the bathroom with the towel wrapped around her waist and her rather substantial breasts bouncing freely as she walked. She could see her clothing on a chair at the side of the bed, so she walked over to it and started getting dressed. Cory suggested that they could possibly have a repeat performance of the previous evening if Amber wanted to go out to have breakfast with him, but since her eyes were getting quite sore Amber knew she had to get home. Amber offered to give Cory a rain check on the repeat performance, and after getting dressed she headed for the bus stop. Amber had no idea where she was in the city and fortunately there was a transit map on the inside wall of the bus stop. It was going to be a long slow bus ride to the subway and Amber was very anxious about the way her contact lenses felt in her eyes. Taking them out was really not an option, as she would then be unable to see a thing. She was just going to have to put up with the discomfort and hope that she wasn’t doing any damage to her eyes. Amber almost missed the bus she needed to take, because her contacts were not giving her the normally good vision they usually did and she could barely read the route numbers on the different buses. Eventually the correct bus came along, and it took her to the subway terminal where she took the subway to the station where she then transferred to the normal bus to the stop she always got off at. She walked the couple of blocks to the condominium building where she had purchased her one bedroom apartment and took the elevator up to her floor. By the time she got in the door her contact lenses were screaming at her to take them out and the minute the door locked behind her Amber went to the bathroom and took out her contacts. The relief was immediate and she then put some gell that was supposed to relieve severe dry eyes into each eye. The rest of the afternoon Amber just hung around her apartment. She put the gell in once more, and put some eye drops in a couple more times. She was used to having much poorer eyesight when she was wearing her glasses, but today her vision corrected by her glasses seemed to be even worse than usual. That night Amber went to bed earlier than she normally would have and she really loaded up her eyes with the dry eye gell. When Amber woke up Sunday morning her eyes were all crusty so she put her glasses on and staggered to the bathroom where she attempted to wash the crusty stuff off her eyelashes. She was about to attempt to put her contacts in, but at the last minute decided that she had better give her eyes another day to recover. It had not been that long since Amber had opened 2 new bottles of her very expensive contact lenses, but she decided that she likely should open 2 more for Monday morning before she went to work. The rest of Sunday she lubricated her eyes a number of times with her special eye drops and by the time she went to bed she felt that she should be back to normal Monday morning. Monday morning Amber wore her glasses into the bathroom as she normally did. Before she took her glasses off she took the 2 new bottles of contact lenses from the medicine cabinet and she carefully opened the one for her left eye. She rinsed it with solution, and cleaned it off with even more solution. She never worried about wasting solution as she had found that it was better to rinse the lenses with lots of solution rather than have to take them back out and repeat the performance. She put the left contact in and immediately knew she was not going to be wearing contacts today. She removed the lens almost faster than she had put it in. “What am I going to do? I have to go to work today.” Amber muttered to herself. Amber had no other choice. She got ready for work, but abstained from putting any makeup on as she just couldn’t see well enough to even try. She hated her appearance wearing her glasses, but having no other choice she went out and caught the bus that would take her to the closest stop to her office. To her, the world had a completely different appearance when it was viewed through her -36D double myodisc lenses. Everything seemed so much smaller, and the walls of the tall buildings were not straight, but instead seemed to curve outwards in the middle even when she was looking through the center of her lenses. And as she sat on the bus she had the feeling that people were staring at her. Amber didn’t mind being stared at by men when she was all dressed up, but today she felt extremely self-conscious of being stared at because of her really thick glasses. When Amber arrived at her office she was a one hour sensation while her coworkers discussed her glasses. Finally the shock of seeing Amber wearing her thick glasses wore off, and Amber was able to get to the routine tasks of doing her job. Everyone was very nice to Amber that day, but she still felt the stares behind her back. Oh, how she hated having to expose herself to the outside world wearing glasses. Amber called her ophthalmologist to see if he could fit her in that afternoon, and the receptionist, knowing Amber’s predicament, managed to work Amber in late in the afternoon. Amber checked out of work early, and took the bus to her doctor’s office. Again, she felt the stares of the other passengers, but there was nothing she could do other than grin and bear it. She was quite relieved when her doctor told her that he couldn’t see any damage to her cornea’s, but dismayed when he suggested that she should go for at least a couple more days, and maybe even a week before wearing her contact lenses again. Her doctor made an appointment for Amber to return on Thursday afternoon so he could check her eyes again, and told her that even if she felt she could go back to contacts he would still like to see her first. That evening Cory called to ask her for a date the following weekend. Amber didn’t hide the fact that she wore contact lenses from any of her boyfriends. She just wouldn’t go out of her apartment wearing her glasses, so none of the guys she had gone out with recently had ever seen her wearing her glasses. She told Cory that she was having contact lens problems, and was surprised when he apparently already knew about her wearing her glasses to work that day. Amber couldn’t remember who had introduced her to Cory, as she had not been with any of her coworkers at the bar where they met and it was driving her crazy trying to figure out who it could possibly have been. She accepted Cory’s dinner invitation but advised him that if she still was unable to wear her contacts she would have to cancel. She was shocked to hear him say that he didn’t care if she wore glasses, and she couldn’t help but blurt out that her glasses looked awful on her because they were so thick. “That’s not what I heard Amber. I was told that you look a bit vulnerable and cute as can be wearing glasses.” Cory said. “Who told you that?” Amber asked. “A little bird.” Cory replied. Now Amber was really curious. Who could have thought she looked cute wearing glasses? And who, of all the people she knew and had seen around the office that day could have told Cory that she wore glasses? She wracked her brain, trying to figure this out, but to no avail. That evening she repeated her application of the special gel. Her eyes felt much better, but she knew that tomorrow was going to have to be another glasses day. “Oh God, why did I get so drunk.” Amber asked herself. The only good thing that had happened was meeting Cory, and even though he said he wouldn’t mind if she wore her glasses Amber knew what would happen next. Cory would take one look at her wearing glasses, and she would never see him again, just as had happened so many times when she was younger and had to wear her glasses because her doctor wanted her to go a full week without lenses for eye examinations. After appearing at school or university wearing glasses the guy she was going out with at the time would often disappear, never to call her again. Amber felt a little better about leaving her apartment while wearing glasses the following day. The previous day there had been a few people stare at her, but she was such an attractive young lady that there were lots of men that gave her the eyeball. She just didn’t notice, or if she did she didn’t think anything of it. Amber knew that wearing her glasses gave her a bit of an inferiority complex and that is why she felt that people were staring at her glasses, but today, as she rode first the bus, and then the subway to work she just ignored the stares. Not a word was said that day at work about her glasses, and Amber realized that no one treated her any differently now that they had seen her wearing glasses on the second day. Amber really didn’t want to wear her glasses for even one more day, but by now she had sort of adapted to the weird vision she had while wearing such strong glasses and she began to think that she probably should wear her glasses more often during the day so that she could wear contacts when she went out at night and not have to worry about shocking her date to death if she had to take out her contact lenses and switch to glasses. Since the initial shock of seeing her wearing such awful looking glasses was over it likely wouldn’t hurt if she wore glasses for the rest of the week. Amber had to wear her glasses until she saw her eye doctor on Thursday after work. By Thursday her eyes felt a lot better and she thought that she could likely wear contacts the following day. Cory had called her the previous night and he had attempted to pin her down to his dinner invitation Saturday night. Amber felt that she would be wearing her contacts again by then, so she agreed to go out with him. She was surprised when Cory told her that she was not allowed to cancel if she couldn’t wear her contacts, but she was even more surprised when she heard herself telling him that she would wear her glasses if she had to. Amber was very depressed when she left her doctor’s office. Her eye exam didn’t go well as 20 years of soft contact lens wear had brought some blood vessels very close to the surface of her eyes and these vessels were a little enlarged, Her doctor told her that the only lens that would now work for her were special hard lenses that floated on the tears in her eyes. Soft lenses didn’t have the same cushion of tears between the eye and the lenses, and while soft lenses allowed more oxygen to reach the corneas they did create problems in people who had worn them constantly for many years. She told the doctor that she had to try the hard lenses, because her glasses gave her terrible vision. The doctor advised her that there were new, more expensive hi index lenses that she could order in her glasses and when she asked why she needed new glasses he told her that her glasses needed to be a diopter stronger and they would give her a bit better vision. She spent some time selecting a new frame – a difficult task because she couldn’t even see the tip of her nose past the end of her face without correction. But with the help of a knowledgeable assistant and her camera in her phone Amber finally had chosen a new frame. Her new glasses and her new hard lenses were going to set her back a little over two grand, but fortunately Amber had a decent balance in her savings account. She almost phoned Cory back when she got home. But she realized that there was no guarantee that she was even going to be able to wear the new hard contacts that had just been ordered for her. She decided to bite the bullet and greet Cory at the door wearing her glasses. If he never called her back, then that was one more boyfriend that had dropped her because of her glasses. Amber was extremely nervous while she waited for Cory to buzz her apartment. Her buzzer sounded and she asked who it was. It was Cory so she released the door and allowed him in. She waited behind the door, ready to open it when he rang her bell. It sounded, and she opened the door. He looked at her for a minute and Amber was dying inside from embarrassment as she waited for him to say something. “Arlene was right. You do look good, but a little vulnerable wearing your glasses. I rather like the look.” Coty said. “Arlene? You mean Arlene Thomas? How do you know her?” Amber asked. “She is my sister. You told her that you would be at the Legends Bar last Saturday night and she told me I might like to meet you as you seemed to meet my criteria in girls.” Cory said. “What criteria are you talking about?” Amber asked. “Blond, reasonably tall with a good figure and a nice chest size. The glasses are just a pleasant surprise, although I already knew you wore contacts.” Cory replied. “You mean that you like girls who wear glasses?” Amber asked. “Yes, I do. I haven’t gone out with many girls that wore glasses, and I have never met a girl with such strong glasses, but your glasses are no reason for me not to go out with you. You are still a very attractive girl.” Cory said. Amber felt a little better as she locked her door and she and Cory walked to the elevator. As they rode down to ground level she started to think that maybe she could have a relationship with Cory, but she didn’t want to get her hopes built up too high. Cory asked her if she liked Italian food and when she told him she did he hailed a cab and asked the driver to take them to Amechi’s. They chatted as they rode, and when they got to the restaurant Amber casually mentioned to Cory that her depth perception with her glasses was not that great. He took her arm and guided her up over the curb and to the door of the restaurant. Cory had a reservation, and the headwaiter led them to a private booth. Amber felt her heart sink as she noticed how dark it was in the booth. “You might have to help me read the menu Cory. My eyesight is a lot worse in the dark.” He causally tossed that statement off with “Not a problem,” and Amber felt a little better again. Cory was very helpful as they decided what to have for dinner and Amber felt her heart start to pitter patter. She could go for this guy in a big way, but the memories of past glasses wearing dates came into her mind and she warned herself not to let her defenses down. Cory did ask her some questions about her eyesight, and what her long term prognosis was. She told him honestly that her visual acuity with glasses was about 20/50, but with contacts she could see better than 20/40. She explained to him that she was at high risk for retinal detachments, but she had 6 month examinations and so far she had no signs of a problem. She explained that she had been born very shortsighted and had worn glasses from the time she was a year old. She had gotten her first contact lenses when she was 10, and had worn contacts for 20 years, but she could no longer wear soft lenses and had just ordered her first pair of the gas permeable hard lenses. She also told him she had ordered new glasses because her old glasses were a little too weak, and her doctor had advised her that she needed to wear glasses more often than she previously had. None of this seemed to bother Cory. After a leisurely dinner Cory asked Amber if she wanted to come back to his apartment with him and listen to some music. This gave Amber some relief, because she knew if they went back to his apartment they would likely end up in bed again. Amber felt that if he wanted to sleep with her again even though she was wearing her very powerful and ugly glasses this must mean that her glasses really didn’t bother him. She accepted his invitation, and they ended up back at his apartment listening to music and drinking wine. The following morning Amber woke slowly from a deep sleep and could tell without opening her eyes that she not in her own bed. The pillows were soft and fluffy, and the duvet that covered her naked body was so light and smooth against her skin that she felt it had to be a down filled one in a silk cover. She had been reasonably sober when she and Cory had gone to bed the night before, and she remembered how gentle and tender he had been during their lovemaking. She had wanted her glasses off after the lights went out so she had placed them carefully on the bedside table, putting them on again to go to the bathroom after they were finished. Amber reached out for the bedside table and after patting carefully she found her glasses and put them on again. She got out of bed and went to the bathroom and then returned to bed. Cory had heard her stir and he came into the bedroom with a cup of fresh brewed coffee, which she accepted and started to sip on. Cory looked at her with loving eyes, and Amber realized that he really did like her while she had her glasses on. This could be the start of something wonderful thought Amber. Specs4ever March 2018