Dove and Daniel, both naked, stand across from each other in a roadside motel room in rural Wisconsin. The fading afternoon sun, on what was a cold and blizzardy March day, cuts through the curtains. They each just showered, one after the other, and they are shivering. Daniel pulls the sole sheet from the sole twin bed and drapes it over his former lover's shoulders. The heating unit struggles to heat the room to 60 degrees. God knows how cold it will get this night.
"We got ourselves into a crazy situation," the handsome, fit, 40-something Daniel says.
"It's messed up," says his ex-lover, a petite, tatted, 18-year-old blonde. She drops her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she says.
With the new rules of their relationship, Daniel is not allowed to touch Dove. But he looks compassionately into her still-innocent blue eyes. "It's okay, Princess," he says.
"I love you."
*****
This day started quite differently. Next-door neighbors in suburban Chicago, Daniel and Dove had dived headfirst into a thrilling, torrid, orgasmic affair the previous summer—he the sex-starved family man, she the exciting, nubile, adventure-craving high school grad. So many nights they masturbated to each other in their bedrooms, each benefiting from their windows facing one another, just ten feet apart. Only thrice did they have the chance to make love for real—heavenly experiences that felt so much like a daze that they struggled to remember the details.
Three months in Florida is how the affair dissolved. While Daniel and his family wintered in Tampa, his princess tossed and turned in her bed in Illinois, clutching her pillows, pining for her lover but needing a man. By January she couldn't take it anymore, and she posted her photos and a long profile on Sugardaddy4Me. Her inbox lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July, and she undertook the task of paring her suitors down from 212 to a Sweet 16...then a Great Eight, a Final Four, the Top Two, and then the one: Romeo.
Yes, his name WAS Romeo, or at least that's what he said. Just 28, Romeo lived in a touristy Wisconsin town, where he managed his parents' locally famous restaurant. An Italian stallion type with slicked-back hair, Romeo oozed sexually...and money. The wads of cash he stuck into Dove's Hello Kitty backpack made Daniel's offerings seem meager.
No, Dove did not love Romeo—not like she did her original daddy, Daniel. Nor did her new man treat her with the same kindness and respect. But the sex filled her needs, and she found the money intoxicating. When Romeo made her promise that she wouldn't see other men—that he would be hers exclusively—she nodded and said, "Yes, sir, I promise." In the wise part of her mind, the promise that he forced upon her felt like a threat, but she figured she owed him for all the money she paid him.
Over time, Romeo refined the rules. She could not touch another man, flirt with another man, or even address another man by his first name, nickname, or any name. "You must promise!" he insisted. "I promise, sir!" she replied.
Though devastated by their breakup, Daniel tried to maintain his maturity once he returned home. "I will always love you," he told his former babygirl. "Whenever you need anything, I'll be there for you."