She had a wide eyed look of surprise on her face when she greeted me at the door, I was there unannounced and holding a box that was beautifully wrapped in silver foil and a large gold metallic ribbon and bow.
Her name was Kathleen and we had been on our second "date" a few days earlier.
The first date had been a blind date arranged by a mutual female friend at the office. I really liked her from the moment we met that first evening. She wasn't the "Barbie" bimbo type which made her "OK" in my book long before we had even started our "dinner and a movie" date.
She'd met me at her door that first evening and never invited me in; we just went straight from her front porch to my car. As we walked to my car I could tell she was more than a little nervous and very tense. When I instinctively touched her arm to guide her to a place clear of the car door she had flinched as if she'd been stabbed with a sharp tack. Once we were in the car and underway, she apologized for her reaction and assured me it was nothing I had done. The rest of the evening I did my best to be the perfect gentleman, just to help put her at ease but as the evening progressed it didn't seem like I was having much success.
After a great dinner of mesquite grilled seafood I suggested we walk over to the nearby pier where we could enjoy the spectacle of the surf breaking on the beach. It was a short walk and surprisingly light crowds for a Friday evening. We'd walked in silence for a few minute before we found a bench where we sat in silence and enjoyed a stunning view of the setting sun as it disappeared beyond the end of the pier.
As the sun sank below the horizon the boardwalk lights came on and she finally started to talk.
Like me she was divorced. I'd been "free" for 3 years by then, she had finalized hers about 6 month earlier. Our conversation, once started, went on for hours before she finally began to visibly relax. At some point I looked at my watch and realized we'd been talking so long that we'd missed the start time for the last showing of the movie we had planned to see. When I told her, she wasn't disappointed. When I asked her if she wanted to talk some more or wanted me to take her home. She said she was enjoying the company as well as the sound of the ocean and wanted to stay a little longer. By the time the conversation had ended that night I knew very few details about Kathleen or her life. At one point she had let slip that she'd "suffered" through what she described as four "failed" marriages.
I didn't ask for details. If her four had been anything like the one marriage I'd been in neither one of us needed to re-live that "crap" and spoil the evening. This was supposed to be a quiet and relaxing time.
That first evening ended at her door much as it had started. She didn't invite me in, but she did tell that she had really enjoyed our time. I asked her if she would like to try it again sometime in the next week or two and she told me that she'd let me know in a couple of days. I wasn't sure what that meant so I didn't try to kiss her goodnight but took her hand in mine and brought it to my lips for a gentle, friendly kiss. That was just my way of remaining the gentleman and letting her know I enjoyed our time too.
The next day our mutual friend at the office "captured" me in the hallway and asked me how my evening with Kathleen had gone. I told her I had thoroughly enjoyed myself but wasn't sure about Kathleen. She told me to meet her for lunch around 11:30 so we could "talk" some more.
Over lunch she proceeded to fill me in on a few of the missing details about her very close friend Kathleen. They had known each other since high school and college. Kathleen had been raised in a very strict religious family and after college had married into a family that was close friends of her parents. Her first husband wasn't really all that bad; he just held some "different" views about marriage. His "religious" belief was that he was the "head" of the household and that his wife was there to do his bidding. There was very little show of affection in private and absolutely none in public. Sex was strictly for the enjoyment of the man of the house. Evidently he had no idea that a woman could even experience pleasure from the "dirty" act of sex.
The second husband was a drunk and would slap Kathleen into submission when he wanted sex. I guess that was his idea of "foreplay".
The third husband was a cold bastard that insisted sex was done only with all the lights off. He didn't have a clue that a woman could enjoy sex, either. So every six months or so he would crawl on top with little fanfare and pump for 4 or 5 minute before he'd climax and roll over and fall asleep.
The fourth was a worthless asshole that married Kathleen so he wouldn't have to work. He didn't really initiate sex with Kathleen the entire time they had been married. In fact he never even touched her intimately during the time that they'd been together. It ended when Kathleen discovered he'd had an "old girlfriend" on the side that was satisfying all of his needs.
She concluded her tale with; "So Kathleen, at age 46, has never experienced intimate caresses or loving kisses. And if you ever tell her that I told you all of this and what I'm about to tell you, your ass will be dead meat." She paused for seconds to take a deep breath and concluded with "And at 46 she has never even come close to having an orgasm."
With that she was done and sat staring into my eyes without uttering another word.
I sensed she was waiting for a reply (duh) and the next move was mine. My response was a simple; "Why me?"
Her answer really shocked me.
"I overhear a lot of 'male' conversations around the office. Those guys brag about their latest and greatest conquests and how they had 'pounded' their poor partner for a good 10 or 15 minutes before 'rewarding' the poor girl with copious amount of their potent semen." She paused for a moment before continuing. Her next words brought a brief blush to my cheeks. "You, on the other hand, I've only heard one or two times and you only spoke about how incredible it had been to watch your partner as she climaxed for the third or fourth time in the fifty or sixty minutes you had been 'making love'."
Later at my desk I received a call from Kathleen. She invited me to her place for a home cooked meal Friday after work. I told her I was looking forward to our second "date" she closed by telling me she was too and I should be there around 6:00.
The dinner was great and as we sat on the sofa afterwards with a glass of wine we talked. It was a delightful conversation and it was obvious that Kathleen was relaxed as we chatted. I really liked this lady but as we talked the lunch with our mutual friend was replaying in the back of my mind. The conversation was very light but eventually came around to the subject of intimacy. Kathleen grew tense with the change of topics. I wanted her to know without being too graphic that intimacy was a BIG part of my life and VERY important to me.
Her words didn't surprise me; "I know it is important for men, but I don't really have much need for that sort of thing."
My question, although I knew the answer, was; "Don't you enjoy intimacy? Don't you enjoy the touching, caressing, feeling your partner's warm body pressed against yours and the sharing of pleasure?"
"Like I said its all for the man, women don't feel those things!" was her reply.
I took a deep breath before starting. "I like you a lot Kathleen. I have enjoyed our time together and you are smart, witty and intelligent. You are VERY attractive too." Then I put on my scientific face and proceeded; "Did you know that the intimate touch between a mother and her newborn baby produces hormones in both the mother and child that are more addictive than the most addictive drugs?" I paused a second before I continued; "Those same hormones are produced with real intimacy between a man and a woman."
I let that sink in for a moment before I started again.
"Unfortunately a large portion of our adult population has no idea that that is the case. I'm ashamed to admit that many of my 'fellow males' don't know anything about any of this. I'm even more ashamed that many of those same men have no idea what it is like to experience their partner actually having pleasure from their joined act of intimacy. Most have never even seen their partners have a REAL orgasm."
"So if they don't know any better, how are we supposed to expect them to even know what they need to do to make it pleasurable for the woman?"
"And a woman, how is she supposed to know unless she has been told such things? They don't tell you about that in High School do they?"
