The Devil's Bargain Ch. 07

I'd forgotten how good it was to hold Holly in my arms. She could be hot and passionate, or slow and sensual. She had many qualities that I respected, including her intelligence and her heart. Sex with Holly was fantastic, because it was her.

She stirred, and her eyes opened. She tilted her head back, and looked into my eyes.

- "Hey." she whispered.

- "Hey back."

- "I missed that. I missed you."

- "Me too."

- "You must be hungry."

- "No. They fed us on the plane."

- "That's not food." Holly scrambled to her feet, and held out her hand. "Come on. Quick shower, and something to eat. Then you can tell me what you've been up to."

She cleaned me up, fed me, and then conducted a skillful interrogation. Holly had never met Aarti, but she saw her as the inheritor of the throne that Holly had vacated: the girlfriend's chair. If Holly had not taken the promotion and moved, she felt that she could have been my exclusive partner. I didn't try to dissuade her of that opinion, because she was 100% correct.

Now I began to feel tired. It was still early, but Holly could see me flagging.

- "Bed." she announced. I didn't raise any objections.

We made love, spoon fashion - it was slow, gentle, and very satisfying.

Holly let me sleep in. She also made me breakfast. I don't think that she had planned our next activity: we ended up on her couch again, in a protracted session of 69.

It was after noon before we got out of Holly's apartment. There's a good zoo in Calgary, but April is obviously not the best time to visit. The city is very spread out, with suburbs that go on forever. There are apparently a couple of decent museums, but Holly wasn't the museum type.

She took me for a drive along the Bow river, and then to a brew pub. Then we had an early dinner before we headed off to the Saddle Dome for the hockey game. It was a close game, but the Flames won, 3-2.

Holly asked my opinion: "Do you want to go out for a drink, or ...?"

- "Or." I said. "Does 'or' include the chance to go down on you again?"

- "Yes. I think it does." said Holly.

We were still in her car, driving home, when Holly asked me a very perceptive question.

"Why am I so attracted to you, Dan? Why do I think of you all the time? You're a good-looking man, but I would've bet money that you weren't my type, you know? No offence."

- "None taken. You do know that the attraction is mutual, though?"

- "Do your knees get weak at the thought of what we'll do when we get home? Would you believe that I'm already wet? I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this."

I'm not normally direct, and I don't think that I've ever been deliberately crude. But I took Holly's right hand, and gently moved it between my legs.

"Oh, God." she said. "You're hard. You're hard for me, and I didn't even touch you."

We made it back to her apartment with most of our clothes on. By unspoken agreement we somehow jointly concluded that the couch was closer than her bedroom. Holly straddled my lap, facing me, and impaled herself on my member. It wasn't a great position for slamming or pounding, but she was able to aggressively grind on me. I enjoyed the fact that we were face to face, and that both of my hands were free.

It was a long, intense fuck, and I managed to bring her off twice with my dick and my fingers (and maybe my lips and teeth and tongue on her neck and her nipples.

On Sunday morning, we were both a little slow to get up, and a little down. It was my last day with Holly, since I would be flying back on Monday morning. We still had some serious talking to do.

- "I dated a few times." she told me over breakfast. "But I'm just not that interested. Part of it is the same old thing - I'm married to the job again. I know that. But I hope that it's just a temporary thing. Can't keep doing this forever."

- "No. They don't pay you enough, and they don't give you enough recognition. But it should be about what you want, Holly, and what makes you happy."

- "One of these day, Dan ... one of these days I'll have climbed high enough. Then I can start thinking about what I want."

I shook my head. "You need more balance."

- "I don't know." she said. "If I was to move back, I'm pretty sure I know what would happen. I'd want to spend every minute of every day with you, and forget all about my career."

On one level, that was nice to hear. But I also worried that Holly's life had become too one-dimensional, too focused on advancement.

- "I just want you to be happy." I said.

- "I know. And one day soon, I might be happiest just opting out of the rat race. For now, though, I still feel like I have some running to do."

- "Just don't turn into a rat."

- "No. Right now, I feel more like a rabbit." Holly was wearing only a robe, with absolutely nothing underneath. She straddled me on my chair at the kitchen table.

We didn't go out all day. The weather wasn't great, but we were too busy making love, showering, making love again, and showering again. But we did continue our conversation.

I believe that Holly did love me - right after her career. Those two things just weren't compatible at the moment. She was calculating the possibilities, and she knew that if she stepped off the corporate ladder, she would never advance any higher. It was the same decision I'd faced when I was married to Connie. I chose my wife, and my responsibilities.

Holly was choosing her career, and hoping that I might still be available at some unknown time in the near future. Two years? Three? She wanted pie and ice cream.

- "The ice cream will melt, if I don't take it now." she said. "I'm just hoping that there will be a piece of pie left when I'm ready."

- "I understand." I couldn't blame her for her choice - I'd made the opposite one, and look how that worked out for me.

We made love again in the late afternoon. Then she ordered in far too much food for our dinner. We watched a movie about World War Two code breakers with Benedict Cumberbatch.

Holly got amorous after the movie, and I had my first experience of non-cooperation from my nether regions. I hadn't taken a little pill, and I was just worn out. There's no pretending that you're 19 when you're actually 44.

I was happy to go down on her, and Holly dutifully came. But there was no escaping the fact that our weekend together was ending with a whimper rather than a bang.

She drove me to the airport Monday morning, on her (roundabout) way to work. Holly kissed me quite passionately.

- "Don't forget about me, Dan." she said.

- "There's no chance of that."

Holly went to work, and I flew home. I really couldn't blame her for her choices. Would I have been happier if I'd chosen my job over Connie's family? If I could do over significant portions of my life, what would I change?

I thought about Holly for two hours.

***

For her second date, I took Lisa to an upscale pool hall, which was also a bar and restaurant.

- "Very nice." she said.

- "Glad you approve. Shall we play a game or two before we eat?"

- "Sounds good."

- "Have you played before?"

- "That depends." she said, with a grin. "Are we playing for money?"

I'm a beginner. Lisa had some skills. She took three games straight. Only one was close.

- "Whew!" I said. "That could have been expensive."

We got a table, ordered more drinks, and then some food.

- "That was fun." she said.

- "Good. If you're a little nervous about a date, or you're not sure what to talk about, it can help to build it around an activity. You may not know if your date likes cards, or certain types of games, but just about everybody likes pool, or mini-putt. Stuff like that."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Top ten things to do on a first date?"

- "No." I said. "Top twenty."

She laughed at that. "Actually," I continued, "I thought that some of the suggestions were bad. Just ... wrong. Cooking together? I'm not much of a cook." There were other awful choices, like walking dogs - that wouldn't have gone over well with Aarti. I also wondered how Monica would have liked it if I'd taken her to a museum.

- "Well, this was a good choice. Thank you for doing the research."

Our drinks arrived.

- "I also finished 'Stranger in a Strange Land'."

- "You did? What did you think?"

I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but I told her the truth. "I had mixed feelings. I don't think that it's very well written. But I'm glad that I read it, because of the ideas that he put forward. Does that make sense?"

- "I think so."

- "I mean, it must have been pretty shocking for people in 1961 to read what he had to say about religion, and sex. Or monogamy, at least."

- "And money. And death." said Lisa.

- "Right. I was a bit shocked, really, because the guy who wrote 'Starship Troopers' struck me as pretty far to the right, in some ways. This seemed a lot more ... tolerant."

- "Unless he was an early libertarian." said Lisa.

- "Ah - that might be it."

- "I read a little about Heinlein. Apparently the views in 'Stranger' weren't all his own. But he was definitely trying to get people to re-think their assumptions."

- "I'm not sure that we've come very far since then."

- "Would you read something else by Heinlein?" she asked. That was a good question.

- "I don't know. Maybe?"

Our food arrived, and we tucked in.

- "You know,"" she said, "for someone who claims to have very little dating experience, you're actually quite good at it."

- "Claims? No - it's the truth. I haven't been on many dates. And I'm doing this one all wrong, too. I should be the one asking you questions."

- "You really don't have to do that, Dan. It's much more interesting to find out about you. Or to talk about books and ideas."

- "Or to kick my butt at pool."

- "That too."

***

They say that flowers bloom in May. That includes dandelions, and that's when you'll find me out on my lawn (and Mom's), digging them up by the roots.

I have one neighbour who doesn't bother, and the wind seems to always blow them on to my yard. So I was out there on my knees, fighting the good fight, when I heard a familiar voice.

- "You're a trooper, Dan." said George. "Not sure you can win this one, though."

- "Gotta keep trying."

- "I hear you. Otherwise, your lawn would look like ..." he glanced over at my deadbeat neighbour's house.

- "How are you doing, George?"

- "All good. All good. You?"

- "Can't complain."

- "Really? I don't mean to pry, but ..."

I almost had to laugh. George was the absolute nosiest of my neighbours. We sometimes joked that there hadn't been a burglary on our street because he was on watch all day and all of the night.

- "But ...?"

- "I dunno." he said. "Your car is in the driveway most every night. Used to be it wasn't. Either that, or there were two cars in the drive, if you get my drift."

He really was far too observant.

- "We broke up." I said.

- "Sorry to hear that." he said.

- "Me too. Well, it was going to happen eventually. She had ... trust issues."

- "That's too bad." said George. "Well, I'm sure you'll find someone else."

He was more confident than I was. I'd recently tried to fill out a profile for a dating site. I'd finished one, but never submitted it. Even if I did get a match, how could I know if the woman was telling the truth? What if she was married? Or as neurotic as Aarti?

I could use the magic words, and guarantee the woman I chose some fabulous sex. But for how long? In hindsight, it was beginning to look like Monica had been the best choice I'd made - and I'd ended that relationship for the sake of exclusivity with Aarti.

Think, Dan. Look before you leap.

The website 'Twenty Ways to Get a Girlfriend' wasn't particularly helpful. Step One: Stop trying to get a girlfriend.

***

I don't get a lot of visitors on Saturday mornings, other than Jehovah's Witnesses or real estate agents. Sometimes it used to be a kid from the local school, selling chocolates or magazine subscriptions. But I still answer the door. Force of habit?

It was Lisa.

- "Could I speak to you for a minute?" she asked.

Freya was already there (she was always curious about anyone who came to the door). The moment she saw Lisa, she was all over her.

- "Of course. Come on in." I said. "Freya! Come on!" I couldn't blame the dog for liking Lisa more than me, at this stage. "Coffee?"

- "No, thank you." I was glad she'd said that, because she'd have spilled anything I gave her. Freya was all over her.

"Umm ... maybe we should walk Freya, and I could talk to you at the same time."

That sounded reasonable. "Let me get my shoes." I said.

A few minutes later, we were out on the street, heading for the park. Freya was walking between us, looking from Lisa to me, evidently pleased to be accompanied by both of her walkers.

- "I'm sorry to disturb you." said Lisa.

- "You're not. What's on your mind?"

Lisa didn't look at me. "My Dad was talking the other day. He said that ... you had broken up with your girlfriend."

Nosy and a blabbermouth. I had to stop telling George anything.

- "Well, yes."

- "Did it have anything to do with our practice date?" said Lisa. "It's just that - Dad said it happened a few months ago, and that ... your girlfriend had trust issues. He was talking to Mom, but I overheard, and ... I hope ..."

- "It wasn't because of you, Lisa." I lied. "She did have problems with trust. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before it became an issue for us."

- "I'm sorry."

- "Don't be. It was going to happen sooner or later."

We walked in silence the rest of the way to the park. Freya decided to do her business next to a picnic table. Lisa and I both reached for plastic bags at the same time.

"You have a plastic bag in your pocket?" I laughed.

- "More than one. Don't you?"

We let Freya sniff her way around the park, and then headed for home.

- "It was nice of you to come over." I said, as we got close to home. "But you don't have to worry. The breakup was nothing to do with you. And I'm not broken-hearted over it."

- "That's good. But I did have something else I wanted to ask you." This time, Lisa did look at me.

"Would you go out with me again? For real, this time?"

*****