I held my breath and tried to smother my terrible nerves. Darien, a girl I had befriended from my first period English class, had called my phone and asked me to come over to her place. From the tone of her voice I could tell she had been crying. I had told my parents I was going to her house to work on homework, and the excuse was bought without a second thought.
Standing in the dark hallway, I finally gathered my courage, even though butterflies were still fluttering inside my stomach. After letting go of a long breath, I gave a few short raps on the door. I waited, but there was no response.
"Come in," said Darien. Her beautiful voice was still tinged with sadness. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I opened the door and entered the bedroom. I walked slowly across the soft pink carpet and reached her bedside.
All she had for light was a solitary lamp on her nightstand, but even in the half-light I marveled at her appearance. Darien was never particularly beautiful; when she was younger, I actually thought she was a little ugly. However, she'd become much prettier as she grew older, and now such bad thoughts about her appearance never crossed my mind.
Darien had thick legs and fleshy white skin. She wasn't fat, although she did pack one or two extra pounds on her belly. Her straight brown hair came only to the very top of her shoulders. She wore a very short pair of blue jean shorts, a slightly too-tight shirt, and her feet were bare.
"Thank you for coming," she said, beckoning me to sit beside her on the bed. "I'm in such a terrible mood."
"What happened?" I asked her.
Darien was quite for a moment, as if trying to figure out how to say her answer. She finally
gave up and just blurted it out. "Ryan and I broke up." She started to cry at the mention of her former boyfriend's name.
I couldn't believe it. Darien and Ryan had dated for two years; I never dreamed in a million years that they would ever separate. "Why, Darien?" I asked.
Darien pounded her fist into the mattress. "That's the stupidest part about it!" she said. "He said that he didn't like 'planning my life' around me, so we broke up. Apparently, he thought I was too 'demanding.'"
I caught my breath at this statement. If there was one thing that actually attracted me to Darien, that was it....
See, Darien, in my terms, is a Dominant Woman. After all the time I knew her, one thing was crystal clear: she expects her men to obey her orders and submit themselves to her. As I sat there, I remembered my interactions with Darien and Ryan when they were still a couple. Whenever they were standing together talking, it was Darien who would grab Ryan's hand and start walking—not the other way around. It was Darien who told Ryan when to come over to her place, and it was Darien who would sometimes even chew Ryan out in front of people if he disobeyed her.
I loved this part of Darien. I found the idea of a dominant woman two inches taller ordering me around and telling me what to do as, well, extremely sexy. The problem was, I have this thing about women...you see, I'm not exactly outgoing when it comes to the female species. I always thought, "Oh well, Darien's dating Ryan, and I know they're even having sex together. There's nothing I can do about it." However, I never thought the tables would ever turn.
At this point, my mind was still a ways away from Darien's sexual attributes. I tried to consolidate the poor girl. "Gosh, I never would dream of that. You're not very demanding at all, are you?"
Darien sniffed. "I just expect man to know his place and love his woman, that's all." She stared at the floor between her legs; I wished those darn shorts were a few inches thinner.
After a brief silence, I said "That's the problem. Not many men know their place." I was hoping Darien would pick up on the hint, but instead the conversation took a direction I hadn't intended.
