[Miranda arrives in Mexico with her husband and step-daughters, ready to enjoy -- and be enjoyed]
*
The suite at the Playa del Mar in Cancun is spectacular! Three large bedrooms, all of them overlooking the pool two stories below; an enormous living room and kitchen; a private bath for each of us. We arrive after dark and the sliding glass doors were open onto the balcony, the warm, humid tropical breeze making the sheer white drapes billow in the glow of the pool below. The girls are ecstatic - they're downstairs swimming while Brent and I unpack. I can hear their laughter and splashing echo up to us; it's been a while since any of us sounded so happy.
Brent and I are in the master room stowing our things. We are silent. Things have become increasingly strained over the last year. Issues, issues. And the heat we felt when we married has all but vanished. I am loading the dresser drawers: boxers, socks, shorts, and tee shirts in his; camisoles, bras, thongs, and a pair of stockings in mine. The silk rustles between my fingers and gives me a tingle. I realize with a sudden shock that I need a shower after my adventure at the airport.
Brent's voice floats from the bathroom, where he is unpacking our toiletries. "Miranda?" His tone is flat, expressionless. This more than anything else puts me on guard.
"Yes?"
"Miranda, you didn't pack your pills."
I sigh. He isn't talking about antidepressants or laxatives or anything so simple. He's talking about my birth control pills. I really had just simply forgotten about them; it really was an innocent mistake. But, given the particular friction that has been building between us for months, there is no way this oversight could look anything less than devious. He steps out of the bathroom, his hands spread to emphasize their emptiness. "What the hell, Miranda?"
With nothing to say except the truth, I hold my peace and simply return his gaze. Brent is a tall, dark, and handsome man of 50. There are slashes of gray at his temples, but his hair, like the rest of him, is thick and vigorous. He tans easily, moves gracefully, and still exudes the same power that first drew me to him five years before when we first met.
I had just landed a paralegal job - my first - at his firm, a very proper, well-established office in the heart of downtown. I had just turned 30 and, having realized that my clock was definitely ticking, decided to advertise not only my analytical skills to my new employers, but also my availability. I wore snug, tailored skirts tapered to the knee to emphasize the roundness of my ass and the length of my shapely legs; silk blouses that clung seductively to my breasts below plunging necklines; sheer stockings in eye-catching floral or geometric patterns; heels never less that four inches in length. I swept my hair into new and exciting coifs, found jewelry that was both tasteful and exotic, and dabbed a variety of harem scents behind my ears and in my cleavage every morning. I was decidedly on the make, and the men in their $2000 suits and predatory power jobs responded in kind. I had any number of offers, from the respectful and sincere to the bluntly carnal.
But I held out, playing the field, biding my time. I knew what I wanted: a leader, a confident older man who would dominate me and cherish me in a grown-up parallel to my old camp director, the older man who had broken me in so gently and firmly and taught me so much. Most of the men who circled me in that office, pressing against me in the hallways and copping feels in the elevator, were too young, too insecure, and too untested. I wanted a mature alpha male and, in that office, Brent soon emerged as the obvious choice.
For months I lay siege, smiling, chatting with him, standing straight and tall so he would notice the swell of my breasts against my blouse, turning so he could enjoy the swing of my hips in my close-fitting skirts. I knew he noticed me, even found small excuses to be in my company, but he was never warm or any more than the remote senior partner he was. I had just about given him up for lost until the annual office New Year's party.