He was a doctor, and we had quite a few interests in
common. He wanted to meet for martinis
at a trendy bar downtown and then go to see a new movie called “Eyes Wide
Shut.” The topics of conversation during
drinks and the theme of the movie should have tipped me off that it was not
going to be a normal date, but I was blinded by the MD and my desire to get
over another failed love.com relationship that I
had recently obliterated by using a lethal combination of Doritos and drinking.
“So,” he said as we sipped vanilla bean martinis, “are
you seeing other men off of love.com?”
I considered, “Well, yes occasionally.”
“That’s good,” he said.
I noticed that his grey eyes had flecks of brown in them. He was handsome in a taller Tom Cruise kind
of way. “I like to know that I’m not the
only one. It makes me feel less…
threatened if relationships are open that way.”
“Hunh,” I said.
“Most men like it better the opposite way.”
“Well I like an alternative lifestyle,” Randy
quipped. I was later to find out that
this entailed an entire alternate universe. Oh how sheltered I had been.
“Hunh,” I said again.
He took my hand.
“Well we’d better go or we’re going to be late for the movie.”
If you’ve never seen the movie, there is no way I can do
it justice so I won’t really try except to say that it was overtly sexual in a
way I had never seen before. It was a
ritualistic orgy, it was a ceremony, it was a forbidden fantasy. And it scared the hell out of me. I was only a few months out of the
evangelical church, and this was an awfully big leap for me. I was shaking when we left the theatre.
“Oh crap,” Randy said as he looked at his beeper and then
at me.
“What?” I asked as I tried to look nonchalant and put
together.
“I need to go by my house—it’s right near here. My son needs me to bring him his hockey stick
for a game tomorrow and he’s at my ex-wife’s on the east side. Do you mind?”
Randy’s pace had increased as we walked back to his BMW.
“I….I guess not,” I stammered. I still was having a hard time thinking
straight and how bad could it be, right?
I mean, he was a doctor and couldn’t possibly be dangerous.
His house was, indeed, very close to the theatre. It was a nice, colonial style house, and he
asked if I’d like to come in for just a minute while he grabbed the stick. The foyer was polished marble and the
furniture was beautiful. I looked
around.
“I’d love to show you the place,” he said. He was so
eager I couldn’t refuse.
The house, by any standards, was incredible. The kitchen had a huge island in the middle
big enough for cooking King Solomon’s Feast.
The Master Bedroom had an enormous carved, four-poster bed with lions on
each end. There were two sunken bathtubs
in the decadent bathrooms.
“Now I’ll show you my favorite room,” he said as we went
down a short flight of stairs just beyond the kitchen. He found a key off of his key ring and used
it to unlock a padlock that was securing the door of a room at the bottom of
the stairs.
Inside was a large room with stone floors. At first, I just noticed the huge candles
burning in the room, and I couldn’t help but wonder who would leave candles
burning in their house when they weren’t there?
Then I took in the fact that the five candles were at each of five
corners of a pentagram that was inscribed in the stone floor. In the center was what appeared to be a stone
altar. Suspended from the ceiling in
various places, were strange looking contraptions and ropes and what looked
like climbing harnesses. Hanging from
hooks on the wall were whips and paddles.
I took in the whole scene and realized I was in way over my head. At precisely that moment, Randy handed me a
black hooded robe and blindfold.
“Why don’t you slip into these?” he said.
copyright © 2009 Tiia Jones
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