[The first chapter of this is
here
. It describes Charlotte as a twenty-six-year old perennial student at the City College of New York. Her boyfriend, the narrator, is six years younger.
A role play with another girlfriend - Michelle - is mentioned in the story and described
here
.]
*****
In the first days of August 1975, right after I came back from a month-long trip out West, Charlotte and I were hanging out in a coffee shop.
I said, "I've been thinking of my own role-play concept. Everybody else seems to create some, so I got one of my own now."
"That's great. Tell me about it."
"It's a sequel to what we did in June, the pick-up game at the Albion Bar. I, or he, comes back and finds her there again.
"He's he stalking her?" It was interesting how we had figured out that we were talking about the characters we played. Like Venn diagrams those characters only partially overlapped our real selves.
"Not really, he swings past the bar on occasions and at the second time she's there."
"That sounds promising. In fact, I'm really impressed." She wasn't faking her anticipation here.
I said, "I have some ideas about this but I'm not going to tell you about those now. I'll be in the lead and you'll follow. Think you can deal with this?"
"Of course, I can deal with it."
I thought,
maybe you can't.
For the most part she hadn't experienced the more disturbing results of role playing that I had seen.
We worked out a weekday, late afternoon deal just like the time before. The appointed day was even hotter and more humid than the first one. This time I was grateful for the cool air in the Albion. My clothes were different but just as bad as before. I'd have been hard-pressed to find anything better in what I owned.
I strolled over and sat to her right again, but this time I went to the stool next to her.
"Hi Charlotte."
"Hey, look who just walked in." She seemed pleasant enough but I caught an undertone, something like,
look what the cat just dragged in
. She continued, "What have you been up to?"
"I work right over here on 24th Street, part time. I do paste-up for a typesetting company."
"How did you get that?" She seemed to be just filling in conversational space.
"My girlfriend works there; she got me in."
"That's so cute; it must be fun to have her there." There was a contrasting nasty and nice tone in her voice.
I looked her over; I loved noticing the details of women I was sleeping with. I think she had the same straw hat, but now it was on the bar with her sunglasses. She was wearing her regular glasses, which I knew she often avoided if she didn't have a specific task at hand like reading a book. I guessed the task now was to see my face during the game.
I continued the rest of my hot-weather Charlotte inventory. She had one of her trademark hairbands, this one white with red dots. Her blouse was a white pullover, sleeveless; her skirt was light blue denim, short enough to be interesting but not enough to be brazen. I always wondered if women ever used the back pockets on skirts like that.
And finally there were brown sandals instead of white ones. Overall, it was a fine balance between sexy and subtle. My next move after collecting these facts was to compliment her. Was she fetching, delightful? I ordered my drink now to give myself a bit more time to think. It was going to be a Manhattan, a cocktail I had never even seen before.
"Anyway, Charlotte, you look great today."
"Well, thank you!" I thought she might add,
not that I care what you think
.
"We sure had a notable time when we met here back in June."
"Oh that; look, so I had a few laughs at your expense. And you really have nothing to complain about."
"Really? How so?"
She lowered her voice, I assume so no one could overhear her. "That peep show thing I staged for you. Remember?
"I remember. I also remember how you got rid of me."
"Come on, I was grouchy. It had been a long day. You can't be that sensitive."
There's the door; I'm showing it to you.
That had been one the things she had said during that game. Was that such a big deal or not?
My drink arrived and the timing was perfect. I was just about to push the game up a notch and I needed a moment to get ready. My college boy self was surprised that Manhattans came in martini glasses.
I had a question for her, a proposal actually, and I tried to be off-the-cuff about it. "Charlotte, have you ever had a man discipline you?"
"What the hell does that mean?" Her first, mild cussing. Of course the real Charlotte knew what I was talking about. I had firsthand experience with her taste for that kind of activity.
For the game I had to come up with the right word for a part of the female anatomy; I didn't want to overplay it at the start. "What I mean if a woman is, call in misbehaving, a man will get her back in line by spanking or paddling her butt."
She had turned her face to me and I was alert to what her reaction would be. She blinked and I'm sure she swallowed hard. There was a quiver in her legs and she squirmed on her seat; then she opened and closed her thighs a couple of time. It was my familiarity with the real Charlotte No. 1 that gave me clues of what to notice about this role playing Charlotte No. 2.
She said, "That's for little kids."
"It's for grown-ups too. Like me girlfriend; she can be quite a snip at times. If she really pushes it I have to take her over my knee and thwack her." Thwack sounded British and I knew Charlotte had an interest in all things Anglophilic.
"I'm not sure I believe you, but even if it's true your girlfriend sounds weird."