Author's Note: Well, Gentle Reader, once again the characters I created have surprised me. It never really occurred to me, as I started writing what I thought was a gentle love story, how David and Ashley's strange but beautiful and loving relationship would evolve. This IS a love story, make no mistake. But it has taken a strange and bizarre twist. So be warned, my friend. If body functions, waste products, and the mutual enjoyment of each of them troubles you, offends you, disgusts you, or sickens you, then do NOT read this. It is replete with such things. I was surprised, I say again, at the strange road their love story has followed, but now I am too interested to not follow it to its end. So join me if you care to, as we watch from our Olympian vantage point, but remember, you have been warned.
I suppose, on some level, I knew it was coming.
Dinner was one of David's Five-Star specials, something he called a taste of Florence.
The first course was
Torta Barozzi
. Think of an Italian brownie, very thick with cocoa and with a strong aftertaste of rum and coffee. Of course, David's version was infused with a gentle but powerful laxative.
The salad was tossed, with savory bits of bacon and swimming in a creamy Italian dressing.
His garlic bread was crusted with a thick layer of Parmesan cheese on top, baked to a perfect golden brown.
The Chicken Florentine main course was served with a white sauce that had spinach and tiny onions floating in it.
Between every third or fourth bite, he would hold the wineglass to my lips, it was very good wine.
Finally, stated, I leaned back and belched. Not a ladylike burp either. This was a long, sonorous belch, the kind that made room for something else in my stomach and made him smile.
I watched as he poured a healthy dose of the emetic into my wine glass and then, I was no longer surprised when he poured some into his. He was serious when he said "everything."
We finished our wine as I regaled him with a story of the latest book I was reading, laughing at the exploits of the heroine in my latest bodice-ripping romance novel.
Finally, he stood and helped me to my feet.
Since it was Monday we visited the torture room and I stepped on the scales.
"504," he announced, "down another three pounds and when we see a '4' in the first digit I'm taking you dining and dancing."
I was smiling too. Maybe I
would
get down to 250 someday.
"Now come along," he said, taking my hand.
When I started to turn into the bathroom he stopped me.
"No, Ashley," he said, "let's go to bed."
I felt my eyes go big.
"David," I said, holding his eyes.
"Everything," he said, pulling on my hand.
"Oh, God," I moaned but, of course, I had long since given up saying "no" to him about anything.
He undressed me, slowly, and I liked that he took the time to kiss the skin he revealed. This was almost like we were newlyweds again. And come on now, what woman doesn't like having her man on his knees, taking her feet into his lap to get her shoes off? I suppose there are some, but I ain't one of them.
He kissed his way up the rolls of my belly until we were standing face to face.
"God, you are so beautiful," he said, and in that moment I believed him.
He helped me into bed and then I watched as he stripped for me. God, I love watching him undress even if he has put on a little weight lately.