Nights of Thunder

June 27, 2010

If only he knew, Walter Boudin thought to himself.

It was 4:00am, just a few hours after he had finished making love to Emma Madden. He loved hearing her breathe as she slept, the smell of her lily-white skin, the look of her reddish-gold ringlets. He even loved the sight of the used Trojan Magnum condom lying on the floor. In a weird way, he thought, it represented an accomplishment.

He met Emma in February on a frozen train in New York; he offered her his winter coat to stop her shivering. He couldn't pin down her accent and asked her where she was from; she said she was from Nowra, Australia, and came to New York for her modeling career. He told her he was from Boston, and moved to New York to study at Columbia; after graduating from law school, he was now at Kennedy and Ladner LLP, working on trusts and estates.

He offered to walk her home that night; she said yes. She thanked him for keeping her warm with his coat. A few days later, she pulled up his phone number from the Kennedy and Lander website and called him up, just for a chat over coffee.

Soon, in between his meetings and her modeling gigs, they were dating. Walter and Emma seemed to feed off each other's energy. They couldn't imagine being with anyone else.

One night in late-April, Emma asked Walter over pizza who his first big celebrity crush was.

"I didn't have any when I was a little boy," Walter said, "but when I was twelve, Nicole Kidman."

"Really? Which movie?"

"'Days of Thunder,'" he replied. "My parents took me to see it at the old Cheri Theater in Boston. The first moment I saw her on the screen-wow. Breathtaking. Absolutely breathtaking."

Emma laughed. "Us Aussie girls are like that."

"I fell for her so hard...you wouldn't believe it. As soon as the movie was over, I begged my parents to take me to the next showing. They said no. I actually started crying in the theater!"

"No way!"

"Yeah. Then, that night, I..."

He paused.

"What did you do?"

"Uh, I'll tell you later."

"Oh."

"I tried to see every Nicole movie I could after that...obviously, I had to wait a few years to see the R-rated ones. I still remember the summer of '99, when I saw her in 'Eyes Wide Shut'-goddamn! I think that was the first time I saw her nude in a movie."

"You must have really liked it then."

"I didn't think it was the best movie in the world, but she was awesome in it."

Emma giggled.

"That was actually a big summer for the Aussie actresses, between Nicole in that movie and Toni Collette in 'The Sixth Sense'-I loved her in that movie, too."

"Yeah, she's also amazing."

"So who was your first celebrity crush?"

"I didn't have too many when I was a little girl either, but it's funny-I was twelve too when it happened. It was Denzel Washington."

"Huh. What movie?"

"My brother had gotten a DVD of 'Training Day,' and would watch it all the time-he was just obsessed with that movie. I saw Denzel in it and I thought he was so hot-just all man. So sexy, and such a badass. Made me a fan for life!"

"I can imagine."

"His best performance ever was 'Devil in a Blue Dress.' That movie proved he's the sexiest man on the planet."

"You're not the only woman I've heard say that!"

"I don't know if I should tell you this...but I used to think about, you know..."

"I don't know."

"What it would be like to go to bed with him."

"Well, you can always ask his wife."

"I know-she's so lucky, I think. Then again, you probably thought the same thing about Tom Cruise and Keith Urban."

"Yeah, those are some lucky bastards."

Emma laughed. "Has anyone ever told you you kinda look like Denzel, a little bit?"

"I don't think I look anything like Denzel."

"Well, a younger Denzel."

"You think?"

"Yeah," Emma replied, playfully kicking Walter under the table.

"Well, has anyone ever told you you look like a young Nicole?"

"I've gotten that once or twice-it's even helped me get a few gigs!"

"You could play her if they ever made a biopic."

"I think they'd get someone who could act better than I can!"

"Well, don't sell yourself short..."

Just two months later, the heat of the summer aroused their passion as never before, and they made love for the very first time. So intense was their mutual desire that they didn't even make it to the bedroom; they whipped off each other's clothing in the living room, marvelling at the beauty of each other's nude bodies. The sight of Emma's pale finger tracing his six-pack made Walter's penis surge with erotic energy; the vision of Walter's black hands caressing her hourglass figure made Emma so very wet. Walter took Emma's hand and led her to his couch, where they fucked enthusiastically.

Walter still hadn't told Emma his secret: that this was the same couch were, twenty years before, he fondled himself until he came for the very first time, just hours after seeing Nicole Kidman's lovely face onscreen. As his semen filled the condom, Walter thought about the horny little kid he once was, the one who wanted to love Nicole, the one who had grown up to be a man now loving someone who looked just as good as Nicole looked back then. If only he knew, Walter thought to himself. If only that kid knew what would be in his future...