I took over as manager of a small branch of an electrical retailer when my predecessor died of a heart attack. I'm pretty satisfied in my own mind that he worked himself to death, because although I was titled 'assistant manager' and supposed to be his deputy, he would never let me have any part in running the branch. I was kept completely in the dark, never allowed to order stock, check the till, or even open up in the morning and lock up at night. I reckoned he was frightened that I would show him up for the incompetent fool that he was and I mourned his passing for all of two seconds.
Now finally, at age twenty-six, I had the chance to prove myself, but with the handicap of never having been shown how. I wasn't going to let on about that though, because the powers that be might just have decided that I wasn't ready yet and put another idiot in over me. I just had to think on my feet and basically make it up as I went along.
That worked all right in the shop, but when it came to completing the week's returns for head office I was lost and eventually I had to ring for help. Fortunately, as it turned out, the area manager was out when I first rang and I ended up talking to his helpful and very understanding secretary. She and I between us managed to come up with a reasonably accurate and comprehensive picture of the previous week. I was relieved and grateful and I told her so. No problem, she told me, just ring me next week and we'll see if you've got it right before you get put through to the boss.
I did as I was asked and we went through my returns together, corrected a few mistakes and pronounced ourselves satisfied. The area manager said so too, congratulating me on both the shop's performance and on a clear set of figures. I was indebted to his secretary once again, but she didn't seem to mind and I enjoyed talking to her anyway.
We did the same thing for the next few weeks, even when it was clear to both of us that I knew how to do the paperwork by myself now, and we established quite a friendly rapport, engaging in chit-chat that had nothing at all to do with work. It got eventually to the stage where either I or Amy (apparently her name was actually Amelia, but she hated it in full and preferred to use a shortened version) would ring each other during slack times just for a chat.
The subjects ranged far and wide but, as you might expect, we often ended up talking about sex, and these discussions sometimes got quite deep because she had a fairly open attitude to the subject and didn't seem fazed by any topic. I must admit that I enjoyed them, and so did Amy, judging by the rich, deep throated chuckle that often greeted a particularly risquΓ© comment.
One particular day I happened to tell her about a friend who had attended a party and then found his way to a bedroom where, groping around in the dark, he had encountered a girl lying on the bed, either asleep or passed out. His touch woke her up and they ended up having sex there and then, after which he fell asleep himself and she wandered off to rejoin the party. The point of the tale was that he never had discovered which girl it was he had fucked as everything happened with the lights off, and afterwards he often looked around his friends and acquaintances wondering who it was.
Her answer surprised me, for she commented wryly that the only way she was likely to get laid after next week was in the dark. I had to ask why.
"Because on Tuesday of next week I'm having my head shaved for charity." She told me.
"And is that likely to put your husband off?" I asked innocently, knowing that she was styled as 'Mrs'.
I was treated to that same rich chuckle. "No, we parted company a couple of months ago. Right now I'm single and reluctantly celibate."
The phrase 'reluctantly celibate' caught my attention, but then I realised just how little I knew about her. I had no idea if she was even the sort of woman I might fancy. I didn't even know her age, if she was fat or thin, blonde or brunette, or even straight or gay. So I asked!
"I'm within five years of thirty, and I'm not saying from which side, I'm straight, I'm average height, build and so on, and I'm a brunette, and that's all you're getting." She said it with such finality that I didn't push it, but it was enough to put her in the 'interesting' category.
The next day we were talking again and she mentioned my party-going friend again, eventually admitting that she suspected it actually might be me.
"No, I'm afraid not. I don't get that sort of luck." I told her.
"So would you like the idea of screwing the arse off of someone and then never know what they looked like?"
She'd seized on my offhand comment, and so I answered more carefully this time. "I think the idea is bizarrely interesting, but how could I be sure it wasn't someone like a friend's wife, or anything like that."
"Yeah, me too." She said thoughtfully. "I was thinking about it last night and I got turned on by the whole idea. But I have the same reservations. I'd hate to think I might have just fucked my brother."
She changed the subject.
"But, more importantly, are you going to sponsor me for my head shave?"
"Yes, why not! What charity is it for?"
"It's for a local hospice for children with leukaemia. I figured that they all end up bald from their treatment, so why shouldn't I? That's got to be worth a few quid, hasn't it?"
It was definitely a good cause, so I promised fifty pounds if she went through with it, as I knew she would, and the conversation ended not long after.
It was a few days later when the subject of sex with an unseen partner was brought up again, and not by me I hasten to add.
"You know something?" She asked rhetorically. "I've been thinking about your friend again."
I knew instantly which friend she meant, and exactly what she was thinking about. It seemed that the idea was beginning to take root.
"I've figured out how to have sex with someone in comfort and still not see them or have them see me."
"Oh yes?" I asked, waiting for her to enlighten me.
"I think that if I blacked out my bedroom window and then got into bed and left the front door unlocked, my invisible partner could come in and, as long as he switched the stairs lights out before opening my bedroom door, he could get in and service me without us ever seeing each other. What do you think?"
"Are you talking hypothetically, or are you serious?"
There was quite a pause; so long in fact that I knew what the answer would be before it eventually came.
"I'm being serious."
I couldn't help but wonder why she had suddenly developed this urge to make love to an unseen partner. I wondered fleetingly if she were in fact blind, but then I remembered her speaking of her computer screen, then I wondered if she might be scarred, but that didn't make sense if she didn't want to see them either. In fact it didn't seem to make a lot of sense at all, and the whole thing sounded a little bit risky to me.
"And where will you find someone you've never met, but who you can trust enough to let them into your home and into your bed and not worry about it?"
"I've already thought about that, and I know just the person."
"Oh yes. Who?"
There was another long pause and this time the answer had just come to me when she spoke again.
"You!"
Now the long pause was from my side of the conversation.
"You want me to creep into your bedroom and make love to you, and then go away again without ever seeing me?"
"Yes."
Another year long pause. I'd spoken to her and knew her as a nice person, but I'd no idea if she was good to look at, although her brief self description was promising. But it was the idea that every stranger I met from then on could be a woman I'd fucked that really appealed. I was tempted, very tempted. Suddenly I understood her curiosity. It wasn't just the sex at the time, but the aftermath, the not knowing if you'd ever meet your lover, or if you might both share a park bench not knowing that you'd also shared a bed.