I'm not particularly a rabid sports fan, but I'm obsessed with the annual NCAA basketball tournament known as "March Madness." My friend Pierce and I are especially excited about this year's edition because each of our favorite teams received high seeds and have a great shot at making the Final Four. Little did I know how special this year's tournament would actually become.
My wife of 14 years, Barbara, doesn't understand why anyone would want to watch a sporting event in which none of their relatives or friends is participating. She can't fathom why someone would watch golf on TV for hours instead of actually playing golf. She gets it that there are some special events like the Super Bowl or the Olympics -- times when there is real drama or a social phenomenon. She is happy to tailgate with friends at a football game, but never wants to enter the stadium. Fortunately, I get a pass for March Madness with only a modicum of grumbling as I spend hours glued to the high quality images projected on the big screen in my theatre room (don't call it a man cave in front of Barbara).
Barbara's quirkiness about sports is not a big deal to me because she is a nearly perfect mate in every other respect. We are in our late thirties, childless by choice, and both of us have high-powered careers. We met in our mid-twenties - Barbara was already a rising star in client management at the largest ad agency in the region, and I was moving through the ranks of a national CPA firm. Barbara is now a VP and partner in her agency, while I eventually left the national firm to become a partner at a large regional accounting firm where I expect to soon become managing partner. We first met at a charity cocktail party hosted by a mutual acquaintance. She was not immediately impressed with me, but when I offered to help her with a tax issue, she was mine.
Neither of us would win any beauty contests, but we are both fit, intelligent, dress well and expensively and like-minded in many ways. Neither of us like it when someone tries to call us by anything other than our full first names (mine is Kendrick), and we shared an ambivalence over starting a family. We don't have any outstanding features, with the possible exception of my blue eyes and her legs, but we both have a "put together" look that is classy, stylish and garners respect from our peers. No one falls over themselves to stare at us, but I like to think that observers would admit that we are an attractive couple.
Eventually, our future as a couple was sealed when we discovered that we were wildly compatible and mutually adventuresome in the sack, and that hasn't changed throughout our married life. Early on, we began collecting expensive lingerie, and Barbara always dresses for bed, often parading around ahead of time in high heels to tease me. Sometimes, I act uninterested just to see how far she will go - exposing herself for my benefit really ignites her juices. Several years ago, I bought our first "outfit" to role play with. It was a sexy maid's uniform with fishnet stockings and ridiculously high heels. Barbara tried it on, played the role to the fullest, and we both were enormously turned on, leading to a night of hot rocking sex (not lovemaking). As with the lingerie, our collection of role playing clothes -- outfits, garter belts, wigs, stockings, shoes, boots - grew exponentially. Eventually, we turned a room off our bedroom (the one that would have been the nursery for the children we decided not to have) into a huge closet devoted to our fetish. At least twice a month, we spend an entire night devoted to our games.
As the role playing expanded, "Barbie" (remember, I mentioned that Barbara disliked any diminutive of her name?) emerged in our role plays. She surprised me by referring to herself as Barbie, and I quickly discovered that this was her way of taking the role play to a level that allowed her to be different, a person who would have to do what I told her and be taken however I pleased. This was the normal pattern, but, sometimes, Barbie also demanded, and got, what she wanted from me. Whatever the intent, it's always special when Barbie comes out to play.