My Legendary Girlfriend

I pointed at her. 'Katrina?'

She nodded enthusiastically. 'Well, you got there in the end. How long has it been? Nine years?'

'Ten,' I corrected her.

'Christ, ten years. That's a long time.'

'A very long time. You look good. The image change suits you; the black hair and the glasses.'

Katrina removed the glasses. 'They're just plain glass. I don't have a problem with my eyesight. The years have been kind to you as well.'

'Not that kind,' I grumbled in reply.

'Let me buy you a drink,' she offered. Without waiting for an answer she approached the receptionist and rearranged her meeting. 'It wasn't that important anyway,' she added for my benefit.

There was some themed pub around the corner from the solicitor's office and was quite full with a lunchtime rush when we entered. We managed to locate a table near the rear of the bar and sat down while she went to order some drinks, once she asked me what it was I drank those days.

'Thanks,' I smiled at her when she returned with a tray. There were a couple of pints and then separate shots of vodka.

She handed them out. 'For old times' sake.'

We clinked the glasses together and downed the cool vodka and set the glasses down with an audible thump.

'Damn it, Karl, I've missed you,' she said, reaching out and taking my hand. 'I didn't realise how much until I saw you in the solicitors.'

'I've missed you too.'

'I'm sorry we drifted apart.'

I shook my head. 'So am I. I loved your letters. They satiated a great need that I had at the time.'

'Is that all it took?' she laughed with good nature. 'A few letters? Having said that, yours had me squirming with lust. You have a way with words, Karl.'

'Have you been in Singapore all these years?'

'No,' she shook her head. 'I spent a couple of years in the Philippines as well, at a strict convent school. That's why my letters began to slow down. The nuns weren't above opening the mail and reading it before it went out or they handed it out to the recipients. I had a lot of Hail Mary's to atone for my sins of the flesh.'

'Sounds like fun.'

'Only if you liked that sort of thing,' she replied. 'They didn't really like me to begin with, because of who I was.'

'A foreigner?'

'That as well,' she agreed. 'Mostly it was to do with my sexuality that I was quite fond of expressing as you are aware.'

'That must have shocked them.'

'Like you couldn't imagine.'

'So,' I said, raising my pint, 'is this a fleeting visit or are you staying around for a while?'

'I'm thinking of staying. More so now that I've run into you again.'

'Good.'

'So, you married or what?'

I looked at the ring on my finger. Slowly I took it off and laid it on the table between us. 'The divorce papers are signed. I guess I won't be needing that anymore.'

'Is that why you were there?' she asked. 'Karl, I'm sorry.'

I made a dismissive gesture. 'I've accepted it now. That part of my life is now closed. No need to be sorry. What were you doing there?'

'Looking for a job.'

'And you walked away to be with me?' I said, looking at her. 'Katrina, why did you not say?'

'Wasn't that interested in it anyway,' she replied. 'I'm more qualified than what they were looking for. I have some more interviews lined up so one lost one is not a worry.'

'If you're certain? I think I've come to know him quite well by now. If you change your mind I can always give him a call.'

'No. It's not important.'

'So, you're a law graduate?'

'That's right. I get to lie for a living,' she chuckled. 'What do you do?'

'I used to be a police officer,' I replied. 'Now, I run my own little security firm. There's more money in it, less hassle. I really grew tired of the racist taunts.'

'People can be hurtful,' she agreed. 'I know.'

'It was my colleagues,' I admitted.

Her face brightened into a smile. 'Hey, let's go out tonight. I think we could both do with some cheering up.'

'What's bothering you?' I asked her.

She shrugged. 'I need a good night out, that's all. I haven't been on the best of form since I split with my boyfriend.'

'You difficult to live with?' I asked.

'Sorry?' she replied, confusion on her face.

'Well, it has to be something,' I replied. 'I mean, what man would not feel pride to have such a beautiful woman as their girlfriend. I did when we were dating all those years ago.'

'Thank you,' she smiled. 'I'm actually very easy to live with.'

'So, why did you split up?'

'It really doesn't matter. There was just a part of me that he couldn't accept. I'm no longer angry about it. Still, I miss waking up next to a man, kissing him good morning.'

'His loss,' I commented.

'Are we going out, then?'

'Yes,' I nodded. 'You haven't changed at all. When you want something, you go for it. I always thought that made you even more attractive.'

'Are you coming on to me?' she asked playfully.

'I can't help wondering where we would have been now had you not left all those years ago.'

'Really?'

I nodded and took another drink from my glass. 'It's funny. For so long I thought about you every day, wondering how you were, what you were doing and whom you were with. The last part always got me insanely jealous even though, I knew, we were no longer going out. Then, I didn't think about you so much. Now, all those feelings I had for you are right back with me, as strong as they ever were.'

'I used to wonder what it would have been like as well,' she replied. 'All those years ago, I was the kind of person who went out for a lot of fun. I never really knew where I would be next or how long I would be in one place. But, Karl, you got through to me. You're the only guy I knew, back then, that I wrote to.'

'I loved you,' I told her, blurting it out without thinking about it.

Katrina put her glass down and fixed her eyes on me. For several, long moments she didn't speak and I started to think that I should have thought more on what I was saying before I actually said it. That was one of my failings.

'You never said,' she replied, her voice quieter. 'All those months we wrote, you never told me how you felt.'

'I didn't think it would have done any good.'

'I suppose not,' she conceded.

'I'd better go,' I said then, getting to my feet.

'You think I'm upset by this?' she asked, looking up at me. She shook her head, strands of hair falling across her eyes, which she brushed away. 'Sit down and finish your drink. I'm not upset.'

'No?'

Another shake of her head. 'No.'

I resumed my seat. 'I shouldn't have just came out with that.'

'After all we shared together?' she asked. 'Back then, that was the one thing I really wanted you to say to me. I knew it would have been difficult, being separated by such a huge distance. All those letters, many of them turning me on like you could not imagine, all those revelations and confidences. If you had told me that you loved me, it would have been the best words you could have written.'

'I wanted to.'

'Then you should have.'

'I didn't know how you'd react.'

Katrina pulled her chair closer to mine. She placed her hand over mine as she kissed me on the cheek. 'Now, you do.'

'I do.'

'Right,' she said, letting her hand drop to rest on my leg. 'Where are you taking me this evening?'

'Can we have a rain check?'

'No,' she replied defiantly, 'we cannot. You need this. We both do.' She took her hand away long enough to remove a card from her bag and give it to me. Then her hand returned to my leg, only higher along my thigh. 'This is where I'm staying at the moment. I'll be ready at eight o'clock.'

'No choice?'

'None at all.' Her hand squeezed my thigh.

It seemed surreal. All the way home I could barely believe that I had met Katrina again after all these years. I had met her, spent time with her in a bar, told her that I had loved her, agreed to meet her later.

And not one part of it seemed real.

Her hand on my leg, squeezing my thigh. Was that all in my imagination? Had that kiss been imagined also? I reached up and touched my cheek. There was a slight residue from her lipstick.

Running into her in the very office where I had finalised my divorce was bizarre. She was the last person I had expected to see there. All those years ago, when she had meant so much to me, affected me so deeply; I had wanted to tell her how much I loved her. I never could. Now, that she was back in my life, all the feelings I had managed to suppress in order to get over her, resurfaced as I drove home. I was feeling everything I felt back then, increased by the years of separation.

I realised, then, that I had never really gotten over her.

How else to explain the strength of how I felt for her?

By the time I came to a stop outside my apartment building, I realised I had left my wedding ring behind. I shrugged. Like I had told Katrina, there was no point in wearing it anymore. It's strange how things that meant so much can be so easily put aside. In the same fashion old feelings could resurface and grip you as strongly as they once did.

Inside the apartment, I went through to the bedroom I had once shared with my wife. Now, there was barely a reminder that she had been there. I opened the closet and knelt down in front of a small safe. I keyed in the combination, turned the handle and opened the door. Lying underneath some valuables was a file. I removed it, left the safe door open and went over to the bed and lay down, propping myself up on the pillows. Opening the file, I removed the stack of papers inside.

Katrina's letters.

I took one out at random and started to read.

'Dearest Karl,

'How are you? I just got you letter the other day and was pleased to hear from you again. I miss your words when you don't write. I miss you. Terribly. Not a day goes by when I don't think about you and it warms my heart to know you feel the same way about me as I do you.

'I haven't been doing much. Being here means I am studying by way of a correspondence course. So, I get to stay at home all day. It doesn't mean I am studying the entire day. My willpower isn't that defined!! I study in the morning and then take a few hours off to enjoy myself. Dad works most of the day so what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

'The other day I was thinking about you. More than usual. That was because I had a dream about you the night before. In my dream we were back in my bedroom in Ireland and you were caressing my breasts like you did that night, remember? And I was stroking your penis to erection. Earlier in the day I had been reading your letters and was longing to have you touch me. I suppose that's where the dream came from, my mind replaying that evening. I wish I were able to touch you now, feel your hard cock in my hand as I wank you.

'Remember that I said we had a maid? She was downstairs cleaning and I was in my room daydreaming about you. I could hear her as I unbuttoned my blouse and started to caress my breasts, squeezing them and playing with my nipples. Do you still remember the way they get hard so easily? I closed my eyes and imagined you were there, your hands on me, touching me softly, then harder, before you started to suck on my nipples.

'I get so easily aroused when I think of you, Karl. I don't know if you realise how much of an effect you have on me. You do. The day I see you again cannot come soon enough for me. The day you touch me, kiss me. The day we make love rather than my imagined scribblings will never come too soon.'

I paused and reread the last passage again. The signs were there. Had I missed them all those years ago? Or was I blinded by lust? She felt as strongly for me as I had for her. I failed in seeing it. Telling her then that I loved her…what would that have done to our relationship, such as it was? Her feelings were a mirror for my own, the clarity was amazing.

Or, maybe I had simply forgotten.

'Touching my breasts, thinking of you, is nice. I need more than that. I always need more than that. I opened my dress and started to stroke myself through my panties. They were, that day, black lace, tight around me. Lace feels so nice against my skin – not as nice as silk, though. Feeling myself so aroused I had to pull them aside and start touching myself, just the way I like to be touched. I wish, looking back now, I had allowed you to touch me as I sucked your cock. As memorable as that was, to have you touching me so intimately would have been too wonderful to describe. There is something about you that makes you different from everyone else I have met. I feel a stronger connection to you, does that make sense?

'I'm there at my desk, dreaming of you, my hands running over my body, my hand taking me to the verge of an orgasm, wishing I had worn stockings that day. My eyes were closed, my legs resting atop the desk. Hand on breasts, hand down below, the pleasure just searing through me. I can feel your hands on me, you on your knees and sucking my sex, eating me with the same hunger I have for you. My orgasm was intense, my body shaking and loud groans coming from my opened mouth.

'I opened my eyes and saw the maid standing in the doorway, shocked by what she had seen! I guess she wasn't expecting to see that! I didn't even try to rearrange my clothes – the damage was done. She had seen me in all my glory. And I was too turned on by thoughts of you to care.

'I even continued to touch myself while she stood there, still turned on to absolute distraction. That's what you do to me. Every letter intensifies those feelings, every word. I'm glad to have met you, to know you and feel for you the way that I do. I know this letter isn't as sexual as usual, I wanted to open up a bit more to you.'

I stopped again, returned to the start of the letter and read the date she had put on it. I remembered getting the letter a couple of weeks after she had wrote it. The only thing was, it was hard recalling if her words had affected me. It was like I was reading it for the first time. There was more to it than I had thought. What had I been thinking off, all those years past? Was I wiser now to realise that she was trying to tell me she was in love with me?

There was something else that stuck out. I reread a couple of passages and then set it aside. I chose another letter at random and read quickly through it and then did the same with three other letters. The manner in which she referred to her sex was never as explicit as the way she talked about mine. The last letter I had gotten from her was pretty much in the same vein.

I don't think she was being coy when she made references to herself. Knowing her like I did, that was far from the truth.

I think there was something different about her.

But I couldn't think on what it could be.

I was late in getting to her rented apartment because of the traffic through the city centre.

'I was starting to think you had decided not to come,' she said, wrapping me in her arms and holding me tight. She wore a delicate, fragrant perfume that suited her.

'Traffic,' I told her.

'I'll just put my boots on,' she said, taking me by the hand and leading me through to the lounge, 'and then we'll go.' As she pulled each one on and then zipped up the sides, I could see her stocking tops and the white panties she wore.

'You look beautiful,' I told her.

'I'd better,' she replied. 'I've spent ages getting ready. Where are we going?'

'I thought we'd have dinner first and then go onto a club.'

'Sounds good,' she smiled, standing. Taking her coat, she walked back up to me and kissed me. Not on the cheek, though. Her soft lips pressed against mine, her tongue probing me gently.

I found myself kissing her back with a similar passion, reaching round and holding her waist, keeping her close to me, enjoying the feel of the swell of her breasts on my chest. It catapulted me back all those years when we had been kneeling on her bed.

'Nice car,' she said as we approached my BMW a few minutes later. 'The security business obviously does well.'

I opened the door for her and closed once she had gotten inside, smiling at her remark about chivalry. Her dress was cut low. I could see her breasts when she leant forward. Like I said, all my old feelings had returned.

'I was thinking about you earlier,' I told her as I drove back to the city centre. 'I was reading your letters.'

'I still have yours, too,' she revealed.

I told her which ones.

'That was still in Singapore. I had almost forgotten about that maid; I can't even remember her name now. The look on her face was priceless!'

'I can imagine.'

'She never came back after that day,' she recalled. 'Dad had to get a new maid. He was even less pleased when we started dating.'

'You dated?'

'I had needs,' she replied. 'Serena was the first person who really understood me. I didn't care that she worked for my dad. We got on, enjoyed each others company and fell in love.'

'That must have been hard for him to accept?' I enquired.

Katrina shook her head. 'Not really. He's known for a long time how different I am. For a parent, he's very understanding.'

'Lucky you.'

'Yes,' she beamed, 'I am lucky.'

'And you still have your modesty,' I joked.

'Every single sliver of it,' she laughed with me.

I continued to drive through the city centre, along the Quays, heading away from the city. It was only when we were driving past the entrance to Phoenix Park did she look over at me and ask where we were going. 'I seem to be in the city a lot – thought it would be nice to go elsewhere.'

'Where are we going exactly?'

'You'll see,' I promised her.

'You've developed a mysterious air,' she said.

'That could well be right.'

The remainder of the journey took another half-hour before I turned up a slip road, went around the roundabout and headed into the town of Maynooth. There was a restaurant in a hotel there that I had heard good reports about and wanted to try it out. The hotel also had a nightclub. And, overcome with desire, I had booked a room as well. Hopefully, it would not prove to be too presumptuous.

Katrina looked out her window as I drove into the car park and found a space near the entrance. 'Looks an ok place.'

'You should hear what guidebooks say about the town – not much to see as you pass through. That's about the gist of it.' I parked, turned off the engine, opened the door and stepped out into the cool air of the night. When she stood next to me, her arm snaking around my waist, I pressed the button to engage the cars' security before we made our way to the door.

'Evening, boss,' one of the doormen said as we passed him.

'Should we check your i.d?' his companion said.

'Do you know them?' she asked as we entered the reception area, passing by the desk and towards the stairs. The restaurant was on the first floor.

'I provide security here when the nightclub is on,' I admitted.

'Just remember,' she said. 'You're here with me and not because of your employees. Remember that.'

'I think you'll do that for the both of us,' I grinned.

'Damn right.'

In the restaurant, we were shown to our table, a booth as I had requested when I had reserved the table. We sat down opposite each other after our coats had been taken and opened the menus.

'This is nice,' Katrina said, looking around her. 'I love Asian food.'

'I was thinking Chinese before,' I said. 'This gives more choice. I hope it's all right for you.'

'It is.'

'Good. I have to use the bathroom,' I told her and stood up. Instead, I left the restaurant and returned downstairs and checked into the room I had reserved. Having been told where the room was located, I took the key from the tall, attractive, black-haired receptionist and returned to Katrina.