The air was sharp and cold and a gust blew up my long skirt as I stepped onto the city street. My hands were cold as I dropped quarters into the parking meter.
"Now where was that shop?" I said aloud to no one in particular. At the word 'shop' I felt a tingling, remembering the night.
At the shop we had spent a night so erotic we had spent hours recounting memories, while we made love. Each time we remembered, it heightened the heat. So here I was in the cold light of day, looking for the shop, for a surprise night for my beautiful husband lover at the place whose enchantment made him hard and me moist and soft. I stopped at the place I remembered and rung the bell. The door was opened by a beautiful woman about my age with soft red curls and hazel eyes that had glints of green and yellow sparkles.
"She said to let you in and tell you that she was expecting you." She said. "I'm Anna."
I relaxed a little and told her my name. "Oh!" She exclaimed with a lilt in her voice. "I know your husband, we worked together for a time. He is so nice and intelligent."
This was not at all what I expected. I had hoped to slip in unobtrusively and plan a wonderful hot night for my husband. Just as I was thinking of slipping out the other woman walked into the room.
"Ahh," she said. "You are right on time. We can begin." She was the woman of the shop, beautifully dressed, her long hair wound around and around in a braid that circled her head. Beautiful exotic earrings hung from her ears with symbols that looked ancient.
"My darlings. I have been expecting you. I am making plans for both of you." She pushed the tea toward us. Plans? What kind of plans. I did not want the tea now.
"Do not worry. This is another kind of tea, this is a planning meeting. You have both requested the same thing for your husbands and you both arrived at the same time without planning. Just as I dreamed." She announced.
"You both love your husbands most deeply and wish to make a beautiful night of love. So. We will. I will not charge you, but I will make you dream for me. You will dream, write down your dreams for me, and I will use them for an extraordinary erotic evening of love for you and your beloveds, and for others as well. And." She said as she leaned towards us, "This tea will have a youthful effect upon you. You will live a long time and as you make beautiful love to your husbands, they will remain young as well."
She gave us the packets of tea and offered us the opportunity to meet back in one month, the same day of the week and time of day. "And remember," she warned us sternly. "If you do not both do this, you will not have the erotic gifts you have chosen. Everything comes with a price. Be brave, believe in your beauty."
"And, this is most important. She said looking at both of us directly, with deep forcefulness "Eroticism is a gift of the soul."
We stepped out of the shop staring at each other.
I looked at her and said, "Let's meet in four days. If either of us has a dream we will write it down, and next Friday we will share them."
"Done!" She said and we hugged each other, neither of us realizing that a strong wind had blown by us, circling January snow around. As I turned to go, I saw the curtain move and the old woman stood at the door smiling and nodding to me. She waved and disappeared.
That night, I sipped my tea before bed.