Unbroken Pleasures (3 page)

Sylvia sighed
and turned off her kindle. She practically rolled her eyes when she looked at
me, letting her blond hair fall across her face as she leaned forward to sip
her coke.

“I’m sorry,
okay? I was having trouble sleeping again last night and next thing I knew, you
were calling me. It’s not like I went out of my way to mess up our plans.”

“There is
something different about you,” she said wrinkling her nose. It was almost as
if she could smell it on me no matter how thoroughly I’d washed or how much I’d
tried to cover the evidence with perfume. Sylvia always knew. She was like a
bloodhound for sex. I watched in horror as she studied me with piercing blue
eyes and wondered how deeply she could reach into the corners of my mind to
unearth the secrets that lie there. I held my breath waiting for her assessment.
She leaned back and folded her arms across her chest but she didn’t say
anything. I felt perspiration along my forehead. It was almost unheard of that Sylvia
would have nothing to say. Dare I ask?

The waitress
interrupted by asking me what I would like. I ordered an iced tea without lemon
and then as an after thought added a double cheeseburger with a side of fries
to my order, hold the mayo. The waitress jotted it down and disappeared. Sylvia
was staring at me with wide eyes.

“What?” I asked
feeling suddenly self conscious, “It’s after one and I haven’t eaten a thing.
I’m starving.”

Sylvia still
didn’t speak and it was making me nervous. The waitress returned and set the
iced tea in front of me and I started tearing open packets of Splenda and dumping
it into my tea while I waited for any sort of response. She couldn’t still be
so angry at me for being late that she wasn’t going to say anything at all? I
stirred my tea and finally put down the spoon and tried a different tactic with
Sylvia.

“Okay,” I said
letting out my breath and sliding my hand along the glass to clear away the
condensation collecting there, “there was a man.”

There, I’d said
it. I’d put it right out there in the open and she could take it any way that
she liked. She could use the information against me or applaud the fact that I
finally took the steps to consider anyone other than Ed. She turned her head
and looked out the window but she still didn’t say anything. I suddenly felt
like I might vomit if this silent treatment went on much longer. What did she
want me to say?

I sipped my iced
tea and thought about telling her the details of my encounter with the stranger
but there didn’t seem to be much point in saying anything until she finally
decided to talk to me. One-sided conversations weren’t really much fun. Finally
my burger came and I dived into eating as if I hadn’t eaten in days. Erotic
oblivion apparently worked up quite an appetite in me. I looked at Sylvia
feeling a little embarrassed but much to my surprise, she smiled.

“You don’t have
to pretend,” she said.

“Pretend what?”

“That you were
with a man last night. I forgive you. I know you’ve been going through a tough
time and haven’t been sleeping well and it’s not like you were that late
really. But seriously, Alex, you don’t have to go making up stories.”

“I’m serious, Sylvia.”
I looked at her in astonishment. I had confessed only because I thought she
would sense the truth the moment she looked in my eyes anyway and after all the
squirming I’d done, she didn’t even believe me. I should have just kept my
mouth shut.

“Alright, so who
is he then?”

I looked down at
my food and sighed. I didn’t know. It wasn’t going to help my case much.

“That’s what I
thought,” she said with a satisfied nod.

“He didn’t tell
me.”

Her eyes grew to
the size of saucers and she nearly spit out Coke laughing at me.

“Okay, what? You
expect me to believe that not only did you have a man in your bed last night
but that it was a one night stand with some stranger? You two were what? Just
so caught up in passion that you couldn’t be bothered to swap names over spit?
Seriously, Alex? I’ve known you since we were kids. You have never done
anything so crazy and let’s face it, you never will.”

“What makes you
say that? I might.”

“Yeah, and I’ll
join the convent,” Sylvia joked. We both knew that with Sylvia’s taste for men,
she wouldn’t be able to remain celibate even if she wanted to. She changed her
boyfriend like I changed my socks and didn’t believe that any man warranted
settling down and getting married. The fact that she worked as a divorce
attorney and witnessed one too many marriages gone bad didn’t help matters
either. In my case, I figured the whole marriage idea was still open for debate
but my dating history suggested that it wouldn’t be one I’d have to solve
anytime soon.

“I can’t stop
thinking about him,” I sighed taking another large mouthful of my burger. Sylvia
frowned at my comment, obviously trying to decide whether or not to entertain
my idea of a joke. I decided to brush aside my infatuation for a man I didn’t
have a hope of seeing again and get to the heart of the real problem, a.k.a.
something that Sylvia could actually relate to. “I need to find a boyfriend.”

Her face
brightened instantly. I suspect she’d been waiting to hear those words come from
my lips for a very long time. Knowing Sylvia, she’d leave no stone unturned in
helping me find just the right one for me, like trying on a dozen pair of shoes
until I find the ones that I can actually walk in. I offered her a French fry
in a hopeful truce. Sylvia took it and popped it into her mouth but she didn’t
really taste the fry. Her mind was already on how she could hook me up. I
shrugged my shoulders accepting that I’d just resigned myself to matchmaking
hell.

“What sort of
man are you looking for?” she asked still lost in thought.

“Oh, I don’t
know. The male kind, I suppose.”

“Come on, Alex,
help me out here. Everyone has a type. What’s your type?”

“Ed was my type,
I guess.”

“No, no, no, not
another Ed. We are not going down that road again.”

“What was wrong
with Ed? He was a nice guy.”

“That was
problem number one. He was too nice.”

“There’s no such
thing as too nice, Sylvia. I like nice. A boyfriend should definitely be nice.”

“You want
someone a little mysterious and definitely sexy,” she said ignoring me.

“A guy like that
isn’t going to be interested in a girl like me,” I protested, “or want the same
things I want in life for that matter.” I started to have my doubts that
putting my love life in Sylvia’s hands was such a wise move. She waved away my
comments and continued to sketch out her idea of the perfect man for me. By the
end of it, I’d polished off my plate and I sat staring at her in bloated
silence. This wasn’t going to work.

“I waited a long
time for you to get over Ed,” she told me leaning forward in almost a
conspiring whisper, “You owe me this.”

“I owe you?”

“There is
definitely something different about you.”

“I told you what
happened. Well, sort of.”

“How did you
meet this unnamed stranger?” she said rolling her eyes and apparently deciding
she was in a happy enough frame of mind to entertain my little game for the
time being.

“I couldn’t
sleep. I went for a walk.”

“It was raining
last night.”

“I know.”

“So how did you
meet him?” Now she was confused and I could tell a part of her was starting to
hope that I was just making it up. It made her uncomfortable.

“He was walking
too.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“And so you just
looked at each other in passing and said hey, we’re both bored and we can’t
sleep so what do you say we go back to my place and shag senseless?” Sylvia
sounded aggravated now. It was either because I insisted on my story being true
or it was the fact that I was hopelessly stupid if it was.

“No, we didn’t
say much of anything.” I shrugged. It did sound pretty stupid. I wished I
hadn’t told her.

“Alex, please
tell me you are joking.”

“It wasn’t a big
deal, Sylvia.”

“You used
protection, right?”

“We didn’t
actually have sex so it wasn’t an issue.” I cringed again at the way I’d nearly
thrown myself at him, protection or not, “Besides, I’m on the pill anyway.”

“The pill is
only going to save you from babies. God damn Alex, why didn’t you tell me that
you were so horny? I can get you laid. This isn’t a problem. This is something
we’re going to take care of right now. Tonight.”

“What? No… wait,
Sylvia. I never said …”

It was too late.
Sylvia fished out her cell phone and searched for someone’s number before I
could make it clear enough that I had no interest in such a thing. I tried to
grab the phone out of her hands as she started speaking to the mystery person
on the other end but she dodged my attempts, slid out of the booth, and went
outside to finish her call. I sat in petrified silence as the waitress came
over to clear the table and leave the check. Whatever Sylvia arranged, I would
have to break it. That’s just all there was to it.  I got up to pay the bill
and stole a glance outside to see Sylvia laughing as she talked with the person
on the other end. I hoped they weren’t laughing at my expense. My evening
escapades weren’t the sort of thing I needed people to know about.

I went back to
the table just as she came back from outside. She was absolutely beaming.

“You are in
luck!” she announced.

“I don’t want to
hear it. Whatever you arranged, I am not interested.”

“You remember
that guy Ben I was dating a while back? Dark hair, brown eyes, hot body?”

“Yes, sort of…”

“Well, his
cousin Nick is in town for a couple of weeks and it just so happens that he
recently broke up with his girlfriend and is in need of a good cheering up.”

“Oh god.” I
slammed my head into the table in defeat. Just what I needed.

“And you expect
me to do what with him exactly?” I said into the table.

“Oh baby, that’s
for you to decide. From what I gather from Ben, he’s pretty easy going when it
comes to that sort of thing. I bet you two will figure it out.”

“I don’t do one
night stands,” I said returning to an upright position and steadying my shaking
nerves.

“Oh really?” She
looked at me with raised eyebrows. “That’s not what you told me twenty minutes
ago.”

“That was
different.”

“Yes, that was
with a complete stranger who could have freaking killed you, Alex. What the
hell is wrong with you? Don’t you ever watch the news? That is the way terrible
things happen to perfectly nice girls like us. Don’t ever do something so
stupid again. This guy, Nick, is clean and we know he’s not going to kill you.
Best of all, he’s only looking for a no strings attached romp in the hay. It’s
exactly what you need and I demand that you take full advantage of it.”

“No, absolutely
not.”

“Oh come on,
Alex. I’ve already got it all lined up. You and me are meeting Ben and Nick for
dinner and dancing tonight at seven. We’ll get you sufficiently liquored up and
then off you go. Nick will get you naked and take care of the rest.”

I sighed. I
hated the idea but wasn’t it exactly what I’d asked for? Well, maybe not
exactly. After all, I expected the guy to actually hang around a night or two
but I figured Sylvia had a point. This guy might get my mind off the stranger
long enough to get my thoughts back on track before I tackled the task of
finding a real boyfriend. I’d play along with it for now.

Chapter 3

After lunch with
Sylvia, I decided that the best way that I could prepare for whatever awaited
me this evening would be to try to catch up on my sleep. I was fortunate enough
to have the entire day free and sleeping was the best way to spend it. I fell
into a deep sleep almost the instant that my head hit the pillow but my sleep
was filled with dreams that all centered around him… the nameless stranger.

We were together
at a restaurant but our hunger didn’t have anything to do with the food on our
plates. Our desire for each other was the only thing on our minds.

I felt a hand on
my knee, warm and strong. He applied a gentle pressure as he circled my knee
and crept along my inner thigh. I uncrossed my legs instinctively. I was
wearing my favorite short red skirt and nothing more than a pair of black thong
panties underneath it. I stared into his eyes as I unfastened another button on
my silk blouse, exposing a hint of the black lace bra underneath it. Judging by
his roaming eyes, he liked what he saw. His hand massaged higher on my thigh,
dangerously close to the panties that were now wet with my own anticipation.

Our waitress
interrupted the moment by asking if we’d like any dessert.

“I’ll have a
scoop of vanilla ice cream with plenty of whipped cream,” he told the woman.

“I’ll have the
same,” I agreed.

She smiled and
bent low in front of my companion exposing impressive cleavage for such a small
frame. He inspected her closely as she cleared our dinner plates away. A surge
of jealousy coursed through me. I wanted him all to myself. I placed a
possessive hand against his crotch only to discover that he was rock hard. He
was still staring at the young waitress as she disappeared with our plates.

“I have plans
for all that whipped cream,” he whispered in my ear. His hand was back on my
thigh except this time it moved straight to my panties as he tested my state of
arousal. He wasn’t disappointed.

I know I must
have been tossing and turning in my bed by this point of the dream. It may have
all been an illusion of the mind but my arousal was very real. I needed him
with me now.