Author's Note: Special thanks to NG, who wishes to remain anonymous, for contributing most of the male character's side of the message exchange.
December 2016
The Dennis Inn is a rambling, two-story brick building angled at an awkward slope overlooking a busy highway. My car's tires crackle on gravel as I pull into a parking spot. I turn off the car and take a deep breath that does nothing to slow the pulse pounding in my ears.
Fake it till you make it, Julie.
Resolutely, I sling my small duffel bag over my shoulder and exit the car. I try to project an easy confidence, striding across the parking lot with my chin up and my back straight, my high-heeled leather boots clacking boldly with each step.
A bell dings when I push open the glass door to the hotel office. The clerk, a middle aged black man with glasses, greets me with a friendly smile from behind the desk. Resisting the urge to avoid his eyes, I smile back.
"Welcome to the Dennis Inn. Checking in?"
I nod and give my name. He requests my driver's license and credit card. I dig them out of my purse and slide them toward him with my right hand while my left remains in my coat pocket, thumb rolling back and forth over the smooth ridge of my wedding ring. I wonder if he finds it strange that my home address is only a few miles from our current location. Or more likely he sees that all the time and knows exactly what it means and what I'm doing here. There is no change in his demeanor.
I nod politely while he tells me about continental breakfast and check out time, not really listening because I know I'll be leaving here in a few hours instead of tomorrow morning. Surely he must know that as well and is only giving this speech to preserve appearances. I tell myself I'm being ridiculous thinking this man who's just doing his job gives a shit about me or why I'm at the Inn. And even if he does, so what? Is a stranger's judgment worth anything?
***
July 2016
I don't know exactly what I was looking for when I registered for the "sex and romance" discussion board. It was one of many off-topic sections of an internet forum aimed at parents in and around my city. I'd browsed the boards on and off since having my first child seven years ago, but I'd stuck to the parenting sections. Until one day in July, bored and restless on a slow work day and deciding I'd had enough of the mommy wars, I clicked over to "sex and romance." I discovered a voyeuristic fascination in reading about other people's sex lives, and it wasn't long before I created an account in order to participate myself. I chose
bored_and_old
as my username as a nod to Nirvana lyrics that expressed how I'd been feeling lately - a strange re-awakening of something akin to teenage angst, a constant and unsettling yearning for something I couldn't describe. Existential anguish? A mid-life crisis? I posted in the member introductions thread.
bored_and_old
:
Hi! I'm a married 35-year-old mother of two. Bored. Hoping for interesting conversation with fun, open-minded people.
A few hours later I received a private message in my inbox.
EverybodyWantsSome
:
Would love to help ease your boredom.
I checked the user's posting history. A 42-year-old man who had made an account the previous week and had posted playfully sarcastic comments in a few threads. His sense of humor, not to mention a certain sense of kinship with his rock lyric username, prompted me to respond.
bored_and_old
:
How would you entertain me?
EverybodyWantsSome
:
Well, this is a sex forum...I have a vivid imagination and a very dirty mind. I enjoy exchanging fantasies...
bored_and_old
:
Sounds intriguing...I haven't done that sort of thing before and I don't think I'm particularly kinky. I would love to break out of my shell a bit, however. So in that spirit, my fantasy is being with someone who gets me so hot I lose all inhibitions and self-control. Nothing but passionate, animal lust.
EverybodyWantsSome
: Wanting
to try new things is sexier than
pretending
to be kinky. That losing all inhibitions thing is tricky. I think it has more to do with chemistry than anything else. Raw animal lust is, I think, part pent up desire (or frustration) and part attraction. The former is easy, and many of us suffer from it. The latter is one of those things you either have with another person or not.
I have lots of fantasies, but one I would love to explore is to completely dominate and own a woman sexually. Part of that would be controlling her orgasms so that she is so worked up that, coincidentally, she loses all her inhibitions...
bored_and_old
:
Oh, I
want