TENS to the Nines
Just offshore a man hunched over a longboard. From the position of the sun, we could just make out his form, but his back was twisted in such a manner as to maintain his balance. We both watched as he connected with a wave, rose into its grasp and came to direct his stick down its steep ever varying slope. As he approached the beach, I saw that he had long unruly blonde hair randomly arranged by the sultry breeze. It was then that I realized; like us, the surfer was completely naked.
"Do you know him?"
"Not by name, but I've watched him hang eleven here many times," said Quinn as she raised her mirrored sunglasses up her nose to again cover her eyes. "Just another reason I love this beach. It has the best scenery."
The nameless Adonis rider had a respectable unit and the kind of hard muscular body I've always found sexy. I rolled over onto my belly and asked, "Would you fuck him?"
"Sure, I'd even give him a discount." She waited three beats to see my reaction. "Oh, you mean for fun? Yeah, sure, if he bought me a nice dinner and worked hard to seduce me with his clever words, but that's just a bigger discount, isn't it?"
I looked up at her face. I couldn't tell if she was joking, since her eyes were obscured behind the shades. "So, you're saying all seduction is just another form of prostitution?"
"Suppose you weren't married and liked this guy. He takes you out to a really nice dinner, dancing and spends the night telling you how you are the most beautiful woman he's ever laid eyes on and doesn't make it sound like bullshit. At the end of the night, might you be willing to go down on his futon?"
"I always had certain rules."
She stopped me in mid-twaddle. "We all have rules and broken them when it seems convenient. Would you fuck him that night?"
"OK. I might have sex with him. But that's not selling myself. I'd be having the sex because I wanted to."
"Alright, we've established that. Now suppose, he just walks up to you on this beach, introduced himself and has a really good line of conversation. Would you then?"
"No, I highly doubt it."
"Think about it. The only difference is that he bought you dinner - as if the sex was prepaid. It's just society's way of getting around the thin veneer of what prostitution is."
"So, if I fuck him after dinner, I'm a whore, but if he screws me after he talks to me on the beach, I merely a slut. Those are the only choices I have?"
"Well, you don't have to have sex with him at all, but that's no fun either. I'm just saying most sex is transactional."
Quinn mentioned that she'd once studied as a Psychology major. I thought I saw holes in her argument. "I disagree. How about between husband and wife?"
She laughed out loud. "Marriage; the ultimate game of prostitution. You have sex with Dave all the time, right?"
"Yeah, but we're married. It's a mutual act of love between us."
"And suppose he came home one night and said he was done supporting you. You had to move out of the house, earn money elsewhere and leave all the stuff he'd given you. Would you still continue to have sex with him?"
"No, but it's because our marriage would be over."
"Why? Don't you enjoy the sex with him? Just because you enjoy the transaction, doesn't mean that it isn't still a form of sexual commerce."
We debated the difference between prostitution and conventional sex for another hour. In the end I wasn't entirely convinced I had been performing acts of prostitution for years, but by the time we left the beach, I had a different perspective of things. Maybe Quinn wasn't all that different, or maybe I wasn't all that much different from her.
~ ~ ~
All during the week, Dave had pestered me to detail what happened at the online chat place after he logged off. I told him in my Stella mode, I had no idea what he was talking about; I was at a friend's house on Saturday night. "You aren't chatting online with some slut are you? Do you know how much that would piss me off," I said convincingly. He was simply going to have to wait and get the information from Penny.
In truth, Gina the manager of the online porn house, wanted me to come back as soon as possible. She loved my work ethic. I told her, I'd consider it and let her know. While I had no conscious intention of returning, I don't know why I felt the need to keep my options open.
By Friday, Penny got a text from her favorite money-trick. "Can't wait to see you. 8 PM?"
I texted back, "Sure, Baby. Lot to tell you. B Ready 4 special evening. Lots to make up to U."
A 6:30 I said I was going out to see a movie. Dave didn't bother asking what feature I had in mind. I headed to the motel and started to get ready.