Ch. 01: Aleda and the Swan
Note: Words in brackets are from "Leda and the Swan" by William Butler Yeats.
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"Hello. This is DreamWeavers. 'Tell us your dream; we'll make someone cream!' Darrin speaking."
"Uh, yes, I'd like to place an order," a firm, older woman's voice says, "you know, for a...sex story."
"Sure, ma'am. I'll need to ask a few questions." I go through my standard checklist. The client wants a "wedding night" story for her daughter who's getting married next month. "Something that, you know, will help her understand what I want her to," she says.
"Romantic? Rough? How many times do you want her to cum? Her husband? Will the bride be wearing leather?" I try to get as many details as I can. "Do you have pictures of the participants that you can fax me?" I ask.
We settle on most of the details. "The pre-story is free. Each cum scene costs two hundred dollars. Afterglow scenes of more than one sentence cost four hundred dollars--they are such an incredible pain-in-the-ass to write. I should be able to do this for about four-fifty. I'll have it in a couple days." She says that will be fine and I get her credit card number and pound away at the keys.
Aleda and the Swan
It has been the week from hell. Last minute fittings for dresses, tuxes picked up, flowers delivered, a fucking cold sore nursed with Carmex and lots of cover-up. Still, on Saturday morning, Aleda looks as she had always hoped she would on her wedding day. Plus, she had managed to lose those last 10 pounds during the previous month!
"Dear," her mother says, "you are radiant! Simply aglow!" Aleda's jade eyes gleam against her rosy skin. Her pink lips are moist in their smile. Each blonde hair is sprayed into the right place. The gown clings to her sexy figure perfectly. She is now the perfect gift for her Josh. "My little Aleda," her father says, kissing her cheek, "you could not possibly be more heavenly!"
"Oh, Daddy! Thank you! Hold me--I'm scared too!" She could not tell them how Josh had seemed to have changed since their engagement. Before, he had courted her, written her poems, sang with her in the car. Since, they stopped going to movies and dinner and concerts, the poems stopped, they didn't listen to music together. Like he just wanted to get the wedding over with.
She does not remember most of the ceremony, actually. She remembers quivering as her father walked with her down the aisle. She and Josh had written their own vows and had practiced them to the point she had been saying them in her sleep. "Respect for each other as a human being...." was part of them. She remembers Josh placing his deceased mother's wedding ring on her left hand. The picture-taking afterward seemed endless and her eyes were numb from strobe lights ceaselessly flashing. "Now, one with you and the best man. Now, you with the ring bearer. Now, you with...."
As they ride in the limo to the country club, Josh keeps trying to feel her up. "Don't, Josh!" she says. "You're my wife now, honey!" he replies. "Yes! Wife!" she counters. "Not your dog's fucking squeeze-toy!"
They dance, visit tables, and pay homage to Ann, the dowager aunt of Josh's family. It is de rigeur. Josh's father, Cordell, dances with Aleda several times, each one a little closer, a bit more intimate. Though she has spoken with him but a few times and always superficially, Aleda does not mind--Cordell is simply an older version of Josh physically, but with polish and panache. His white hair sparkles against his tux and tanned skin. Though he is now retired, Aleda feels her hand disappear into his still-rough masculine hand. It feels secure, comfortable. At the end of one dance, she lightly bumps her hips against him. Cordell kisses her hand. While she is not sure he is in fact flirting with her, she is pleased with the idea. Maybe I am flirting with him!? At least one of the Yates men is treating her as special on this day. Josh, meanwhile, is taking full advantage of the open bar and playing touch football with his work buddies, using a bridesmaid's bouquet. He is, in everyone's eyes, becoming a lout. Even Cordell cannot convince his son to act something like a grown-up. After every few songs, Josh goes up to the band and asks them to play "Louie, Louie."
At ten-thirty, Josh and Aleda quietly exit to go to their room. This is only possible because Josh is about to pass out. He complains that he wants to throw one more TD, though the bouquet had disintegrated into two red carnations and a gold ribbon. His friends are either passed out in chairs in one corner or puking their chateaubriand with sauce bernaise into toilets, urinals, and vases that once held fresh flowers. Josh leans on Aleda for support and collapses in a chair as soon as they enter the room. He starts to snore. Aleda sits on the edge of the bed and cries. "I married a shithead!" she sniffles to herself.
It is a warm September evening. Instead of taking a shower or bath, Aleda decides on a late evening swim. She carefully removes her gown and hangs it up, changes into her bikini--they were to fly to Aruba in the morning--grabs a towel and a light robe and her key, and slips out the door. She needn't have been so hushed.