Susan had long forgiven me for laughing my ass off at her self-inflicted predicament in Portland and even let me record her account of the events. But now she was wound up like a top and spinning wildly.
"I really do think I'm becoming a lesbian," Susan said. "Or maybe a lesbian of convenience. And it's all your fault. I never felt any attraction to women before you went and awakened this sleeping dog. I mean, I like the feeling of a penis inside my vagina or in my mouth, but it's what's behind that penis that's a problem, and that just makes the whole guy deal a non-starter for me anymore.
"I've never once masturbated in front of a guy in private. I just know what he'll be thinking. There'll be all kinds of alarms going off in his head, and all the alarms will be screaming, 'She wants to fuck you! She wants fuck you!' It would never occur to him that maybe I just get off on being watched. And then if you don't put out, he'll be all, 'You prick-teasing bitch!'
"I'm telling you, guys are their own worst enemies. Can't they understand that they'd get laid a whole lot more than they do if they weren't always poisoning the well. You give them an inch, or, I should say, take a few of theirs, and before the day is out, it's 'Oh, Susan Nichols. Boy, did she give me a great blow job,' or, 'Susan Nichols? I fucked her brains out.' No, she must have fucked your brains out because as soon as she gets wind of this, and she will, you won't even be able to get help from her with a remedial English term paper.
"All but the most sexually desperate women try to avoid getting a reputation as a slut, and it only takes one guy to give you one. So when they're with guys, a lot of women end up keeping their legs together even when they are dying to open them. Who ever heard of a lesbian saying, 'Oh, she's such a slut. She lets other women lick her pussy anytime they want?' Men are idiots. A guy gets lucky, maybe for the first time in his life, and then proceeds to do the one thing guaranteed to reduce his chances of ever getting laid againβtrash the woman who gave him the pussy he was begging for. Don't get me started."
"I think you just finished. That was an industrial-grade rant, though, and 100% true. But, to be fair, I think we've earned a reputation as sluts on our own. We didn't need any help from guys. You have to admit that masturbating naked in the street ranks near the far end of the slutty behavior spectrum. Right next to being gang-banged at midfield during the Super Bowl. By both teams.
"Even so, you may have just made the best case ever for voluntary lesbianism. It makes me wonder how many women have chosen to live as lesbians out of sheer frustration with men instead of being born with that orientation."
Susan said, "Someone should do a study on that. You've heard that old saying about guys: 'You can lay bricks your whole life and no one ever calls you a mason, but suck just one little dick, and they'll call you a cocksucker for the rest of your life.' There's no lick-one-little-pussy rule for women."
"Susan, I don't think you've suddenly started to become a lesbian. Like me, you've always been turned on by female exhibitionism, in yourself and in other women. That's sure to ferret out some same-sex attraction. Somebody once maintained that all women are bisexual. That's certainly not strictly true, but as Jake Barnes said, 'Isn't it pretty to think so?'
"Anyway, before you went into Dennis-Miller-when-he-was-still-funny mode, I was going to tell you about what's going on at Behemoth. You know I had to sign a two-year contract with them as a condition of the sale, for which they bumped the offering by several million dollars. They'd already offered us enough so that we'd never have to work again even if I hadn't signed on with them. We could live like kings on the interest alone. And although I didn't want to go to work again for anyone, I had to be a good girl and help smooth the transition. But I made a mistake. My contract should have been task-oriented rather than time-oriented. After three months there, I've brought all of our clients over to Behemoth, attracted some new clients, fully briefed their ad agency, meshed our software with their systems and redesigned their website. My work there is done.
"But the CEO, one Sean Mulvaney, won't let me go, and he won't let me work on any other area of the business. I mostly sit in my office, read books and see how many times I can masturbate in eight hours. I've found I can squeeze in a couple of extra orgasms when I eat lunch at my desk. He's holding me to my contact for no reason. His attitude seems to be that he paid for me so he'll squeeze every last day out of me whether there is any work or not. I think he's afraid of being accused by the shareholders of having gotten fleeced if he allows me to leave now after spending all that money. And I can't quit unless I want to forfeit the bulk of the money and get us sued. I've tried everything I can think of to get myself fired. I even called the CEO an incompetent asshole in front of the board of directors. But if I'm fired, they still have to honor the contract. Don't get me wrong, though. I really like the people at Behemoth except for this pompous, narcissistic, psychopath of a CEO."
"Liz, has this this guy ever hit on you?"
"Yeah, he has and on several other women, too. I've been wondering about that. He was really offended when I ignored his clumsy advances, so that could be a part of why he's jerking me around. I mean, this guy is repugnant, Susan. I wouldn't fuck him with your vag."
"Thanks a lot. Look, I know a way you could get fired," Susan said. "If he fires you, Behemoth can't sue, right?"
"No, they can't, but I don't think there's any way for me to pull that off. I could shoot someone, and he'd make me telecommute from prison."
"But if you didn't actually have any work to do, how bad could that be?"
"Well, for starters, Susan, I'd be in prison."
"Okay, scratch that. Work naked."
"What?"
"Think about it. It's way safer than masturbating in the street. And you say you like these people. I'm sure they like you, too, and probably hate that CEO as much as you do. They'll be totally supportive. Plus, it's not like you've had a sudden attack of modesty. Even if you have, I'm sure it's not terminal."
"Susan, did I tell you that I started seeing a psychoanalyst about my exhibitionism? Not because it was making me unhappy or because I wanted to stop. Quite the opposite, actually. I was just curious to know if there was something that maybe happened in my childhood that made me this way."
"There was. You met me."
"Right!" I laughed. "That's gotta be it. Case closed. After a couple of sessions, the analyst said, 'Liz, I deal with unhappy people all the time, and you are one of the happiest, most well-adjusted people I've ever met. Why are you here?'"
"I said, 'Well, I was hoping you could suggest some new exhibitionist scenarios.'
"She laughed but said, 'I actually could, given some of my clients. You'd be surprised.'"
"So," Susan said, "this sounds like it's going really well."
"It was going great until the last session.You know how shrinks are famously non-nonjudgmental. If you tell one you've been cross-dressing, they're highly unlikely to leap up and start shouting, 'You filthy, disgusting pervert.' That's also bad for repeat business. Except, I guess, from masochists. So her only real comment on my exhibitionism, other than the requisite, 'And how do you feel about that?' was, 'Don't get caught by the cops.'
"I was enjoying our sessions, and I found her to be well-read, practical, self-deprecating and funny. It was time well spent. Then at the last session she asked if she could go down on me, which struck me as a little on the unprofessional side."
"Yeah," Susan said, "that's no good. Imagine some guy going into the hospital for a back operation, and just as he starts to undergo anesthesia, the surgeon says, 'Mind if I fuck you in the ass while you're under?' Kinda like the CEO of Behemoth is trying to fuck you in the ass now."
"Susan?"