Careful What You Fantasize For

Suzie and Jim are sitting out on his deck as they often do, each sipping on their beers. She is widowed, he is divorced. She had been married to a much older man who had died a few years ago. Jim's wife had divorced him and left town with a much younger man. He was embarrassed by the whole thing, but at least he got to keep the house.

Suzie lives across the street in a nice condo, one of three that make up a little faux row house look.

They have settled into a nice "neighbor friendship." That is they don't date they don't go out to dinner or movies. They just share a drink in each others homes from time to time and every now and then they will watch a TV show together. They are both in their mid 40's.

Suzie is a little pudgy, but has a sweet face and is one of those people that is friends with everybody. Jim is not a bad looking man, but he keeps to himself and if he thought much about it, would admit that he is a bit lonely.

They have gotten in the habit of getting together on Tuesday nights to watch some police procedural they both liked. This particular night the detectives are tracking down a murderer who frequents different fetish clubs. The show goes deep, which is a little awkward for the two friends, so they drink more than usual to hide their discomfort.

After the show ends, Suzie can't bear the silence and says "which club would we find you in?"

"Whaaat," says Jim?

Suzie doesn't answer. She just smiles.

"Well, honestly, you wouldn't catch me in any of those places."

"Oh you're a boy scout, huh?"

He laughs, "no, I just meant none of those particular fetishes speak to me."

"Ooh," she says, so what is it then?"

"Oh no, you first."

"Well Suzie says, "I guess if you were going to find me in any one of those clubs, it would have been the one with all that spanking."

"Really," says Jim. "You would be okay with some stranger spanking your bare bottom?"

"God no, are you kidding me?! I would be the one doing the spanking. I'm not a big fan of pain. I can dish it out, but I can't take it. Besides, nobody gets to see all this for free." And with that she makes a sweeping gesture over her body with her hands.

Jim laughs, "So you are a Dom?"

"A what?" Suzie asks, "you mean like a Dominatrix, with whips and stuff!?

Jim laughs again. "No, I just mean like Dominant as opposed to Submissive.

"Oh," she sighs, "honestly, I'm not really anything. I have never been to a fetish club or done anything like that."

She looks kind of sad and Jim feels bad for her. He surprises himself and says "they didn't go to a CFNM club or party."

"What, who, didn't go where?" Suzie asks.

"On the show, Jim says. Then he takes a long sip of his drink.

"What is CFNM?"

"Oh God," Jim thinks, here we go. "It stands for Clothed Female, Naked man. Although it is usually more than one female." I guess if I had a fetish, that would be it, to be naked and at the mercy of a group of clothed women. Like you, it has never happened. I too am way to Vanilla.

Suzie didn't like being referred to as Vanilla, although it was deadly accurate.

Then she brightens and teases him, "I should invite you to my Wine Club sometime, it's all women."

"Don't think I haven't thought of that he says," surprising them both.

"Really!" Suzie laughs. "Well I just hosted last month, so let's see, Barb, Sarah, Connie, Diane and then me again. So September! Can you wait that long!?

"Yeah right," says Jim, rolling his eyes.

Trying to change the subject a little, Jim asked a few questions about the practicalities of the Wine Club.

"Well," Suzie answered, it started as a book club, but nobody ever got around to reading the books, except maybe Barb. We tried Bridge, but that was worse. The one constant was wine. We all liked drinking wine. So we decided just to make it a Wine Club. At first, the host would pick a wine, tell the group all about it and then we'd drink. Pretty soon that was too much too, so now we just get together once a month and drink. Sometimes the host will invite a guest, like a relative or neighbor, just to mix things up a bit. I have invited Meghan, my next door neighbor, but she can never seem to make it.

She teased again, "should I put you on the list?"

Jim ignored the question and asked about driving arrangements. He'd noticed cabs and Ubers and wondered what that was all about.

"Well, we do drink a lot, so we often pair up and take a cab so we don't have to limit ourselves where the wine is concerned. Except Barb of course, she never drinks enough to worry about it.

"Oh good," said Jim, "I thought maybe you were running a prostitution ring out of your condo."

"Ha, if I was, I'd be in a much nicer condo!"

A few weeks later, Suzie broached the subject again. "We had our Wine tasting at Barb's last night and I tried to picture your fantasy. It just seemed weird, like a bad porno! Hey big boy why don't you take off your clothes for us and show us your hot bod! Do you really think woman think or act this way?"

"No, of course not" said Jim, a little uncomfortable and a little irritated with Suzie for bringing it up again.

"It wouldn't just be me standing up and taking my clothes off, something would have to instigate it. It would happen organically."

"So how would it happen exactly?" Suzie asks.

"I don't know," Jim says acting like he hadn't played this out in his mind a few hundred times.

"Of course you do", said Suzie, calling him out on this, "you told me you fantasize about it. What happens in your fantasies?"

Jim sighs, embarrassed that this is being drawn out. "Sometimes its strip poker."

Suzie makes a buzzer sound, "eeehht, that's a non starter." Women in their 40's are not going to say "gee, we should play strip poker, no matter how drunk they are."

"Okay," he says, taking a deep breath. "Okay, so maybe it's an accident."

Suzie laughs, "what, you trip and fall out of your clothes!?"

"No, okay, so, okay, so what if I was at your wine club and you accidentally spilled wine on me. I mean a lot, like a full glass getting my shirt wet, my pants, everything, just soaked.

You are flustered and upset. You are worried that my clothes are expensive and will be ruined if I don't get out of them immediately. I protest, say I'll just go home and change, but you insist that time is of the essence and steer me towards the bathroom where I am told to strip, wrap a towel around my waist and hand you the clothes so that you can get them in the wash ASAP. So I do.

It is only then that it dawns on everyone that now I can't leave cause I just have a towel on.

Things are awkward, so everyone drinks more than usual, especially me and at some point the towel falls off in front of everyone.

"Huh," Suzie says. "That is actually plausible and not so pervy. And then what."

"Everyone laughs at me and I am humiliated." He shrugs his shoulders, that's about it.

They talked about it some more, tweaking things here and there.

After the next get together at Connies, Suzie comes over just to tell Jim how Sarah spilled some wine on her pants and cursed like a sailor. "It was like an omen, like this was meant to be."

Jim protested. "Suzie, this is just a fantasy, I could never really do it."

"Hmm, we'll see," said Suzie, laughing as she walked away, thinking how cute Jim looked when he blushed.

***************

And then, the next month, Sarah hosted. Suzie came over to Jim's and gave a breathless report.

"Oh my God, Jim, Sarah's husband sat down with us for an hour or so and after he excused himself and went upstairs, all the other ladies commented on how nice it was to have a man with us. Diane said her husband wouldn't be around when we met next month, so I piped up and said I had a neighbor I might be able to talk into joining us! How about that?" she said slapping him in the chest with the back of her hand.

Poor Jim was panicked, but he couldn't quite bring himself to say "absolutely not."

He figured two months, that was a long way off, Suzie would certainly cool on this before then. He told Suzie he would drop by if he could, but really, she needed to put this fantasy fulfillment idea out of her mind.

She said of course, she was only teasing him but hoped he would put it on his schedule.

For Suzie, Jim's fantasy had become hers and she couldn't really explain why. She had become obsessed. When she was sitting in her living room, she would mime tripping and having a glass of wine spill into Jim's lap. She would act out her shock and guide him to the downstairs bathroom. She realized that it was only a half bath, and didn't have a full sized towel, just a small hand towel. She giggled at the thought of Jim trying to cover himself with a hand towel, but no, no one would ever leave the bathroom in that predicament.

So she got one of those plastic hooks set up and hung up a full sized towel on it.

"Good God," she thought, "what the hell am I doing?" She knew she could never actually go through with this, but it was fun to pretend. But are you pretending if you actually put a new hook up in your bathroom?

Next came towels. She usually put on a bathrobe after she showered, but now she was wrapping a towel around her waist to see how it felt to have that be the only thing between you and total nudity. Sometimes they fell off rather quickly and other times they seemed to stay on as well as any skirt. The difference seemed to be how much attention you paid to securing the towel in the first place.

"Well that's no good, she thought, if someone, say, chickened out of their fantasy halfway through, they could walk around in a towel for hours and it would never fall off.

"Of course, I could just yank it off, but then I'd look like a jerk and it wouldn't be an 'accident' anymore."

No, it had to fall off naturally if possible, but how was that possible?

At one point while pacing in her bedroom in a towel, she just avoided stepping on a binder clip that had been holding together some work papers on her bedside table. She scooped it up and as she did so, the towel dropped to the floor (it never failed to give her a little rush when this happened).

"That could have hurt she thought" as she repositioned her towel and on a whim, clipped the binder to the towel and discovered that this really secured the towel in place.

"Well that's not helpful," she thought, and then she smiled and said out loud, "or is it?"

She also noticed that towel thickness made a difference. Thinner, cheaper towels stayed on much better. Plush, more expensive towels were just a little harder to secure. And so, Suzie bought a very expensive towel and hung it in the downstairs bathroom.

"I mean c'mon, shouldn't I have a nice towel for my guests?"

Suzie couldn't shake her new obsession. Sometimes she had to remind herself that this was just a fantasy, and wouldn't have to be implemented in just four weeks and four days. She would actually exhale and relax when she realized she was just playing at something that didn't need to happen.

But four weeks later, Suzie was at Jim's front door in a panic.

As soon as Jim opened the door, she began talking. "Diane had a family emergency and had to leave town. She didn't want to ruin Wine Club for the others, so she asked me to switch with her. That meant, Wine Club was in three days! And Diane had said that she was especially disappointed to miss meeting my neighbor, you! She said the others had mentioned again how they were looking forward to having a man there."

Confused by her panic, Jim asked, "and is three days just not enough time to get everything ready?"

Suzie realized that of course, he wasn't thinking about his fantasy, because even though it was his fantasy, he wasn't obsessed with it and had let it go long ago.

"Um," she said, feeling like an idiot, "I just needed to make sure that you would be there."

"It would be my pleasure," he said.

"Thank You," she said and gave him a hug.

As she walked back across the street, she thought about how nice Jim was and she was chastising herself for even fantasizing about humiliating him even if, and this was her go to rationalization, it was what he really wanted.

"Penny for your thoughts."

Suzie looked up, it was Meghan, her neighbor.

"Oh Hi Meghan. I was just thinking about my Wine Club. It got moved up a month to this Thursday and I was just inviting Jim to join us."

"Oh hey, if it is this Thursday, I can actually make it. Tommy is going to be out of town and I don't have to work that night. What time should I come over?"

"Um, 8:00 o'clock I guess"

"Great," said Meghan, see you then.

Suzie walked into her condo shaking her head. "You'd have to be that pretty and that young to basically invite yourself to someone else's party!" Granted, she had more or less given Meghan an open invitation in the past, but in her mind, Jim had sort of taken her place. "Guess not," she thought. And then she thought, oh Jim would die if he, middle aged man, had to parade around in just a towel in front of this 25 year old hottie!

*****************

The night of the gathering Jim put on a pair of khakis and a pale blue linen shirt. It would only occur to him weeks later that if he had worn bluejeans it would have made any dousing of wine a "no biggie." No nice clothes to worry about. He could have simply strolled home and put on another pair of jeans. But then he wasn't sure that he could dress down that much. Yeah right!

When Suzie welcomed him, she too couldn't help registering that Jim had on a nice outfit that would be ruined if someone spilled wine on it.

"God, he isn't thinking I'm planning to do anything is he!?"

Jim is finally introduced to everyone that he has heard so much about over the last few months. Prim Barb in her sweater vest, is so exactly how he pictured her, that he has to stifle a laugh.

When he is introduced to Connie on the other hand, he has to stifle a gasp. Suzie had said she was very pretty, but women sometime just mean a nice smile or a generous spirit when they say "pretty." Connie is a stunner. She is wearing one of those dresses that most women can't pull off because it shows every curve, good or bad. There are no bad curves here. And go figure, she has a lovely smile!

When he is introduced to Sarah, they realize that they know each other. A few years ago they had both worked on a committee that their respective jobs had encouraged them to serve on.

She was and still is an attractive woman. No Connie, but attractive.

And Meghan of course he knows. He has only ever seen her dressed very casually and is impressed at how nice she looks tonight in a pretty white blouse and black slacks.

Jim takes a few seconds to revisit his fantasy and thinks "oh this would never have worked. Not the right group at all. Barb in her sweater vest and sullen demeanor does not scream sexy. And Connie, my God, too much sexy! And it turns out he knows Sarah and Meghan, another neighbor, well that would just be way too embarrassing.

And while the other women are around his age, Meghan is like 25. He would be way too embarrassed for her to see his middle aged body.

He is quite relieved to think that Suzie isn't up to the task.

And yet, that was a weird look she gave him when she greeted him at the door.

He suddenly needs to triple check with her that nothing is going to happen.

But for now they are all seated around a coffee table in Suzie's living room. Suzie is sitting in a wooden chair brought in from the kitchen, while Connie and Barb are in two wing backed chairs facing the couch, where Jim is sitting, between Sarah and Meghan.

Suzie brings everybody a glass of wine and they fall in to a stilted conversation.

Jim thinks that he and Meghan might be throwing off the groups normal give and take.

At one point he notices that the couch is white as is the rug under the coffee table and he takes comfort in the fact that Suzie would never purposely spill wine on him now, because it would also ruin her couch and her rug.

Suzie is trying to be her usual perky self, but everything is irritating her, from Barb's snide little comments to Connie's amazing good looks that Jim has obviously noticed. She is surprised to find herself a little jealous and fantasizes about dumping a glass of wine over Jim's head! But no, she knows that she is really upset with herself. Of course, she could never have gone through with it, but it would have been nice to think she could have if she wanted to or if Jim, who looks so calm and relaxed, could have even for one second worried that she might do it. She gets up and walks into the kitchen to refill her wine glass that still has plenty of wine in it.

Jim can tell she is a little upset. He follows her into the kitchen and they do that dance men and women often do.

You okay?

I'm fine.

You sure?

Yes I'm sure.

Okay then.

He thanks her again for inviting him. Then looks behind him to make sure no one is around and thanks her again for backing down on that little thing that they had been talking about.

"Oh sure," she says, moving a strand of hair out of her face, but thinking, that's right, good old reliable, safe, vanilla Suzie.

"Besides," he says, "you wouldn't have dared ruin your couch and rug in the process."

She just throws him a tight lipped smile and is about to head back into the living room when

Meghan comes into the kitchen to get a paper towel. She tells them that a drop of wine fell on her blouse and she wants to dab at it before it sets. Suzie tears off a paper towel hands it to Meghan and takes a step closer to Jim so that Meghan can get to the sink.

Then, while Meghan's back is to her, she slides back to where she was standing. Jim finds this odd since Meghan will no doubt bump int Suzie when she turns around.

His eyes widen in panic as he realizes what is about to happen, but before he can react, Meghan does turnaround abruptly, slamming into Suzie who pitches forward and spills her wine all over the front of Jim's shirt and trousers.

Meghan screams out, "Oh God I'm so sorry, I didn't realize you were so close."

Connie and Sarah come rushing in to see what has happened. Barb remains seated and just calls out, "what happened, what happened."

Sarah calls back to her, "um it looks like Suzie spilled her wine all over Jim. They are all looking at Jim's front and Meghan, yes Meghan says, "Oh God you have got to get out of those clothes and soak them before the stain sets in."

"Right," says Suzie grabbing Jim's arm and guiding him out of the kitchen. The bathroom is right over there, go gets those off and wrap a towel around yourself and then hand those wet things to me. Underwear too, I'm sure their soaked as well. She's not sure why she mentioned underwear, but she is glad that she did as it can only add to Jim's discomfort. In for a penny!

In a panic, Jim says "no, I'll just run home and change." No says Meghan, the sooner the better!

"Nonsense" says Barb, "a few extra minutes won't matter, let him go home."

"No," says Sarah grabbing Jim's arm, "Meghan is right, every second counts. With that she practically throws Jim into the Bathroom and shuts the door.. With that she turns and winks at Connie, who puts her hand up to her mouth to keep from laughing.

Connie thinks, "well this evening just got a little more interesting. Suzie and Meghan seem to be focused on the whole stain and laundry situation, but Sarah and I have leapt ahead to almost naked man in our midst. With that thought in mind, she winks back at Sarah, who stifles her own nervous laugh.

Jim can't breathe and then he is almost hyperventilating. This is too much. In his fantasy, he is in control, he is so very very not in control right now. He curses, "this isn't a porn film or a fantasy realized. It won't go any further, it will just be a guy sitting around in a towel with a bunch of middle aged women, except for one, not to mention one of them is wearing a sweater vest!