bare breasts

ok, story time.
i had my yearly physical today. i went, peed in the obligatory cup, and then, clad in my purple robe, toddled down the hall to the radiology unit. after handing my forms to the lady at the front desk, the attendant (fernando, according to his nametag) ushered me into the x-ray room and arrayed me in protective gear. as i stood there, waiting, with the lead apron tied around my midriff and my chest pressed against the machine, as instructed, fernando asked, as he had obviousloy been instructed, "have you removed your bra?"
"oh...no," i replied. i've had x-rays before. i should've remembered, but i didn't.
so, fernando exits the room and says to just open the door when i'm ready, and i take off the bra and look for a place to put it. but there is no place to put it except face-up (face up? cups up? cups upright?) on the table directly in front of the door. i gaze at my bit of black cloth with underwire and have a sensation not unlike the girl who goes bra shopping with her mother for the first time. i don't know. these things don't embarrass me, or so i thought.
i lay the bra across the table, open the door and fernando comes in, perfectly nonchalant. but i do a 180 and run straight to the x-ray machine and press my now-bra-less breasts on the panel, as before. but perhaps it was with a certain fervor, because there was a silence before i heard a shuffle behind me, and then the very polite hands of fernando putting the lead apron around my waist again. "oh..." i mutter.
"don't be embarrassed. it's all ok."
nervous laugh from yours truly, "hey, man...i mean, it's just getting kinda scandalous around here...what with bras and all."
cue fernando laughing (at me/with me/nervously...why does this girl talk so damn much-ly?)
and cue taking several x-rays of joy, now perfectly silent.

but oh, this was just the beginning. i had one more stop before checking out. i put my bra back on, and toddled up the stairs and around the corner to the EKG department. this time, now seasoned and much wiser than before, i volunteered my information to the EKG attendant.
"i have my bra on," i said before she attached the electrodes to my chest, "do you need me to remove it?"
"yes," she said," i do."
so i did. and then the attendant just opened up my robe.
so, there i was--lying bare-breasted and face-up on the examining table while she stuck those gummy electrode things to my chest and stomach. "heh," i said, "they're sticky."
she didn't look at me, "yeah, they are."
i started humming, because i did feel just a little exposed. i mean, in your peripheral vision you can see your own nipples, the tips of them just rising above your line of sight, in other words.
so, yeah. i was really glad to put my clothes back on after that. (shrug) maybe i only like nudity when no one's looking? or maybe only in the company of friends.