CHAPTER FOUR: "FALLING"
I
By the time you are forty, you kind of hope to have some basics going in your life. Luke pulled over to the side of the countryside road, just outside Amersham, on his way back. He was less than 10 minutes' drive from his place in Chesham Bois, practically part of the town of Amersham, but he was feeling rather numb after what had happened in the morning and felt he deserved a breather.
He turned off the engine and waited for its whirr to die down. Beatrice's refusal was not something he had seen coming. He leaned forward, burying his face in the steering wheel, biting into it absent-mindedly. He did think she'd say yes and they'd be searching now for engagement rings!
He regretted shouting the angry "Why?!" to her when she had refused. An outburst of surprise, to be honest, but she had not ever given him any indication she wasn't interested. Months of flirting, for fuck's sake, or at least he thought that's what it was! Was there someone else already, perhaps? Why else would she have sworn at him - "Fuck NO!!" - like that?? She
was
pretty, so it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility! Being that suspicious of her, though, on the day he proposed could be a matter of bad taste, his conscience reminded him. He calmly batted these qualms away by reminding himself she did refuse. He was certainly not going to grovel and call or even text her to ask what the reason was, even though she stubbornly wouldn't give him any.
Sighing resignedly and shaking himself for his own benefit, he turned the key in the ignition, intent on spending the rest of the day in calm. Perhaps some Netflix movie with a pizza delivery. He didn't feel like cooking at all and, marriage or not marriage, he still needed to be back to work the next day!
His place was nothing fancy, just a simple detached two-bedroom, but it had a nice garden at the back and he did love Chesham Bois for its peace and quiet after his busy London working days. He crashed onto his sofa lazily pretty much straight through the door. So, he was free after all.
An odd, unexpected thought. In the morning, he was committed to sacrifice his freedom for the woman he thought loved him! Now, dejected, still feeling humiliated by the rejection, it nonetheless struck him that he was free to do whatever the hell he wanted with his life.
To have any woman he wanted.
Before this morning, the mere thought would've been ridiculous. There was no reason to even think of anyone else but his beautiful Beatrice. But she was not so beautiful anymore; in fact, the way she rejected his proposal vexed him. Almost as though she had fucking led him on for months and then enjoyed the victory of abasing him! Had she been polite and respectful, this would've been one thing, but she simply treated him like shit there. Luke needed to find a way to vent this ire and it seemed to him already that this unexpected, newfound freedom presented some opportunities.
Their sex life had been fine, but Beatrice would not do anything outside the basics and he always knew he shouldn't ask. He always felt rather let down by that, but didn't allow these feelings to surface, keeping them in his own subconscious. He used to be in love after all. Now, though, when she'd so drastically and harshly cured him of his romantic notions, he sensed he could pursue women for fun again.
What was it that Jake, from finance, told him the other day on their lunchbreak over coffee? Some place in Maida Vale that apparently caters to all tastes?
Well. Luke thought he'd just watch some porn that night out of sheer retribution, against Beatrice and thanks to his regained male autonomy. But before that he was going to see if he could find a website for that place that Jake spoke of.
II
Stuart sat down on the sofa in the largest room
Dreams
had for customers' purposes. Away from the main street, on the ground floor, its large windowpanes came out on a small garden that was sometimes used by the staff for birthday dos and certain parties between spring and early autumn. Presently, the bright sunlight illuminated the interior, giving it a pleasant sepia-style glow. The room was rectangular, extending for at least 30 feet. In winter, its aquamarine floor tiles increased the impression of cold, but now, on this hot summer day, they appeared oddly warm and inviting. The room was furnished in a very modern way: a number of dark-blue chairs, seaters and footstools on metallic legs and a low white sofa. And whoever had got that weird plant, which Stuart thought looked like a man-sized overgrown bonsai tree, must have been out of their mind. Frankly, it was probably Hollie, but nobody would dare cross her on such matters!
It was not often that he and Jill would see clients together; they didn't particularly mind. He was quite looking forward to this one. He unfolded the piece of paper in his hand, re-reading the printout of this application.
Name: Luke Whitey
Sex: Male
Age: 40 years old
Interested in: Fucking a young girl hard with another man (MMF). The girl should be quite young (preferably blonde) and the man ideally be my age, but not over 50. The girl should be open to anything and this should include anal. I expect her to be ready for anything. Knee-high leather boots on her, please.
This suited himself and Jill perfectly: she was certainly very young and himself was in the age bracket specified. They were just waiting for Mr Whitey, having decided he should come into the room first before Jill does. It would be less than a minute before the man arrived - Stuart knew he'd already gone through the reception. He wondered what the man looked like - there was something about his message on the website that suggested he was angry somehow; the sentences were short, like barking out commands. This was likely going to be one where Jill would need to be purely whorish and she herself was expecting to be pushed around and slapped around. Stuart had never figured out how she could be as romantic as he still remembered from their first encounter and yet capable of being a complete slut open to anything. Perhaps he should ask her, but he was somewhat afraid of the answer.
His musings were interrupted by a knock on the door. He shouted, "Come on in, Luke!" just loud enough to be heard on the other side.
Luke stepped inside. He definitely looked younger than 40 without it being implausible that he was so. Tall and fit, he looked quite confident, but there was clearly some danger lurking beneath his eyes; he wasn't just confident, he was both cross and confident. His voice was polite, though, without any hint of frustration. "Hello." He extended his hand out to Stuart, who shook it.
"She'll only be a minute," Stuart informed him as though somebody was late to a department meeting in an office. Luke nodded. He was wearing a black sleeveless T-shirt and black trousers. Rather amusing, that, Stuart thought, as he was wearing precisely the same clearly entirely by coincidence. He pointed Luke to the sofa to sit down.
For a moment, awkward silence fell. Neither of them knew what to say. Stuart had never mastered the art of making conversation at these kinds of times at
Dreams