"What are you doing?" The question rings out loud but only I can hear it. Above the rush of blood in my ears, I realize the query is just inside my head. It's me questioning myself. I was far away, drifting in a waking dream. My mind had temporarily sought refuge from this surreal and strange reality, wanting to distract itself from what is happening. But now I'm jerked back into the present moment. I can't believe I going through with this. I'm nervous as hell.
"Six hundred nine Ocean Spray Drive." The car pulls up abruptly, as my Uber driver announces my stop.
"Thank you, have a good evening" I stammer, as I close the door and the car pulls away. I turn around and face the house. From the sidewalk where I'm standing a stone walkway cuts a neatly recessed path right through the middle of the emerald lawn and up to the front door. Solar lights flood the grass and enhance it's hue. It feels like the warm spring night beckons me to that door. But I hesitate for a moment.
Days earlier I would have never imagined what was due to transpire. I'm a loner. I've been alone a long time now. I generally stay away from people, and enjoy the pursuits of an introvert's life. The hurt and the pain are long gone now, and all the years of inner reflection and absorption of outer information are fully synthesized and integrated. At least I tell myself that. What I know is that I can survive and I am ok. The only thing that lingers from that earlier time, when I would come home and cry, and then masturbate in a hot bath, is these damn fantasies. I do wish that someday I could resolve them, perhaps fulfil at least one of them in my lifetime. But after all this time they've become merely that - just latent fantasies. So I was really surprised that morning, a few days earlier in the Starbucks.
"Hi!" I glanced up, irritated. My caramel macchiato is my only friend these days, and we enjoy our quiet solitude together.
"Um, hello?" I respond, hoping my icy retort will soon dispatch this unwelcome interruption. Above me stands a professionally dressed young man, fully more than a decade my junior. He's smiling and friendly, which just bugs me even more.
"What's he selling?" I snap back to my internal self. I know sales, I learnt all the tricks, so I'm ready for the pitch!
"I've seen you here a bit, but you're always on your own." I'm taken aback. This guy is disarming, but I'm still suspicious. Occasionally I'll meet people, but I never initiate it. People sometimes just seem to gravitate to me after awhile. They want to know what the mystery is. But there's no mystery. It's just a life lived from forced extremes. All these lessons that seep in, and for some reason people want to know. If they ask, then I'll inevitably have a huge conversation with them - and they'll come away impressed. Perhaps that's all this guy wants.
"Do you mind if I sit down?"
"Free country" I shoot back sharply. I always start out tart. Defensive is the best strategy. But even though I permit him to sit at my table, I still just want to be alone. He talks for awhile about himself, but then as usual the topic turns to my epic journey. I find myself, typically, giving more away than I should. Now he knows about my marriage, and all that pain and loss, and how I've been on my own for some time now.
"Never got with another girl?" he asks.
"Nope, don't need 'em!" I say.
"You don't get frustrated?" I find myself, surprisingly, opening up to this friendly younger man. He has a way of putting people at ease, that I just can't put my finger on. I tell him, in the rough and couched language of another generation how that, of course I masturbate. And then I relate the couple times I went to a nudist club, and how great that was. But it was just all friends. Well, at least until I met that girl that one time in the pool! His eyes widen. And then, relaxed, I let my guard down and throw in something spicy just for the heck of it.
"Yer, I've basically always been like that - since I was a kid. I've always wanted to get naked in the wild, and I even fucked a couple of my women like that. Even hoped that I'd get caught and someone would see." I'm enjoying the delight on his face, as I relate my exploits.
"So you're an exhibitionist?" he asks.
"Yes, I suppose. Closet one, I guess" I say.
"Ever done anything else?" he asks.
"Like what?"
"Anything wild?" he suggests, his eyes wicked. I halt for a second, reading his expression.
"Oh no, no, no!" I reply emphatically.
"Not even thought about it?"
"Well I have had fantasies." Oh my god. I can not believe I am telling a complete stranger this!
"You never like got naked with a guy and tried to jerk each other off?" I feign shock at his question, but my mind races with how to respond. This is a public situation, and he is a stranger, and I have to protect myself.
Yet strangely, in the back of my mind I find this stranger intriguing ... if not somewhat appealing. Wow, did I just think that!