I woke up in a blissful fog that Saturday morning. Had it all really happened?
After 25 years of self doubt and loneliness had I really just bedded the most spectacular woman I would likely ever meet?
Even decades later it still seems like a perfect moment frozen in time. Terri was the ideal woman to lose my virginity with. Patient, caring, spectacular in virtually every way.
And married. Mustn't forget that, I thought. That was tough to deal with. Still, I thought, nobody's perfect. How could we help that the Universe had brought us together, two connecting pieces of a cosmic puzzle? I was more certain than ever I was made to be her one true love, her sexual soulmate.
Besides, her husband didn't take care of her needs. She'd been forced to live without true love and passion for over five years. It seemed cruelly unfair that this amazing, gorgeous creature would be sentenced to a lifetime of denied pleasure. What crime could it possibly be to marry someone who misrepresented what they had to offer as a spouse? To me, "cruel and unusual" couldn't begin to describe it, although in later years I've learned that, in sad truth, it's not all that unusual.
Terri had left around one in the morning. We had basked for almost two hours in the afterglow of our explosive first night together. Whispered promises of many more days and nights together, and plans for wonderful outings with one another passed between us. The future, at least for me, was truly bright for the first time in my life.
When she left, the quiet, hesitant Terri I had brought inside my sparse dwelling had transformed into an eager partner, a co-conspirator in what we both anticipated would be a supportive, caring, long-term relationship. In hindsight, perhaps neither of us had a real clue what it takes to be successful in such an effort. But fresh love has optimism as a super power, and just maybe that would be enough for us.
What we did already have is a list of musts. Mutual admiration and respect. Intense romantic passion. Financial security. Comfortable living arrangement. We both felt confident that we had the first two locked down. I had some ideas on how to work out the others, but I needed to be careful to stay within Terri's comfort zone. The one time I had mentioned the possibility she could divorce she seemed to think of it as impossible.
We lived in California. She could easily have gotten considerable assets and alimony. Her husband was a radiologist, a very high paid position in an area that inflated salaries still further. She seemed to think that all of the property in the marriage was in his name only, so she would have no claim.
I thought that eventually I would be able to help her understand that because he was making payments for loans and insurance using his salary, that none of her fears were well grounded. Under the law, his salary was community property, so everything it touches would be community property. The house, cars, investments, all of it.
I put those thoughts aside, because I soon realized this would take time and patience. And what good would that do if she becomes bored with me in the meantime? I knew instinctively that now was the time to start seriously romancing her.
I called her to ask how she slept, and to pick up our conversation where we left off. She sounded so cool and confident on the phone, whereas I was almost shaking with nerves. I wondered if I would ever feel like I truly deserved to be with this demi-goddess. I was so distracted by the pounding in my chest that I had a hard time sounding like a grown man.
From the sound of her voice on the phone, I could tell she was grinning from ear to ear. Her voice had a slight nasal inflection to it when she would crack a joke. That inflection came through loud and clear across our phone connection when she asked me if I had recovered yet. I felt a little sheepish, having failed in my quest to outlast her and drive her to an orgasm before I exploded inside her sweet, tight pussy. I told her I wanted a rematch, that she had yet to see me at my best.
That brought a bright chuckle from her. "Oh Randy, if that wasn't your best, I'm worried you just might kill me with that thing!" We both laughed, and it felt like beams of light were ready to burst out of my heart. She knew just how to make me feel like I was on top of the world. And I never wanted to leave that pinnacle.
She suggested that we should take time to relax together sometime soon, maybe cook a meal together. I had told her that I had some fresh caught abalone in the refrigerator that I would need to prepare or freeze in the next few days. She had never tasted abalone before and was intrigued, being a big seafood fan herself.
"Did you know that seafood is very beneficial for sex hormone production in both men and women?" She asked with a smile in her voice. I told her I had seen the usual Hollywood portrayals, like James Bond ordering oysters, which I didn't particularly care for. I then added, "However, abalone is so delicious, you may have an orgasm just taking your first bite." My turn to grin with my voice. We both burst out laughing.
The rest of the conversation centered around plans to sneak away for an overnight stay, somewhere out of town. I knew what an oenophile she was, so I suggested the Silverado Resort in the wine country. We could drive up and down the valley tasting wines and spend the night in one of their very private rooms. I had gone on a guys golf outing there two years previously and I had noted what a great romantic place it would be were I ever fortunate enough to find the right woman. She immediately agreed, joking that I was just going to try to get her drunk and take advantage of her. Well really, who could blame me?
She suggested that we book his and hers massages. I told her that I loved the sound of that, but I also wanted to have a go at giving her a massage. She would be my first client! She loved that idea, then cracked that maybe I should go first so the professionals could follow up and fix anything I might accidentally push out of place. I pretended to be crestfallen, with an "aw shucks" tone of voice, but we both just ended up giggling.
I was finally starting to feel more at ease with her. She genuinely seemed to enjoy my sense of humor, which made me regret not trying it out more with women previously. A twinge of sadness passed over my heart, all those years alone in an abyss of failure, threatening to distract me and keep me from being present in this shining moment. I resolved that the past was the reason I was able to be so intense with my dream woman, and so I refocused on being her ideal partner. Maybe good can come from bad, despite all the negative influences in my youth, I thought.
We finished our phone call with words of unyielding caring, and affection, and hope. I had just turned to getting my place put back in order, when the phone rang again. Immediately my mind thought the worst. I was sure she was going to cancel, maybe her husband had found us out, maybe she was going to end it all. Instead it turned out to be Hal, one of the engineers from my job.
"Randy! Who was that beautiful woman you were in the parking lot with yesterday?"
"Oh, hi Hal. Uhh, oh, that was a friend I met at the Disneyland seminar." I figured I would need to be careful, since Terri was a friend of Chris, the consultant I was working with. I was dead certain that Terri would kill me if Chris found out about us, which might spread word through the whole gaggle of her girlfriends and beyond. The last thing I needed was for a whole bunch of people to start talking about her at work.
I had read many spy novels, and the advice on lying always seemed to be to stay as close to the truth as possible, without revealing any useful details. But how would I conceal who she really was?
"She looks almost exactly like Belinda Carlisle from The GoGo's!" he cracked. There, that's the opening!
"Yeah I could see that, sort of, now that you mention it. She just stopped by to give me some materials she had borrowed at the seminar."
"What's her name?" Hal honed in. Uh oh. Then the scheming comedian in me took over.
"Belinda," I deadpanned.
"What? No, really, what's her name"
"You heard me. Belinda." No inflection, complete sound of indifference. As in no, Hal, you're never gonna get anything out of me.