I just had to sit down and write this, I am in a resort hotel room on the Oregon coast. It is nearly 4 in the morning, I doubt I will finish it before I get back home but I wanted to get started, the thought is in my head.
I spent the evening earlier in the lounge downstairs, it was full of men. Nearly all of them were dressed in business suits, by themselves, there is some kind of major project going on that has people from all over the Nation in town.
I am a 40 something female Doctor, now a widow. I currently manage a number of clinic operations out in the valley a hundred miles or so away.
What in the world am I doing here? I must admit I am not completely sure. I called it a vacation, but I have to admit to myself that I was looking for something.
The truth in that is that I really have no idea at all what it is I am looking for. Not exactly.
Living alone does not suit me, but for the majority of my life it has been exactly that. The early portion of my life was spent as a wallflower, you all know what I mean by that. I was Sally, the girl, then the woman that was just there. Always welcome, seldom really noticed.
A number of things, accidents of life combined to make me a fairly wealthy woman. I cannot say I earned that, friendships and tragedy combined into an inheritance that I really had no rights to.
Lee, the one friend I had in my life that was so close I really cannot explain it had a husband named Ted. That was one hell of a man, big, strong, yet tormented by demons that I never fully ever learned about.
One day he was blindly pushing buttons on a slot machine, something happened. The checks that came in each year were huge. But money does not help with life, stricken with illness he passed.
Lee and I became as close to one person as two very different women can be. The relationship was brief however, one stop for ice cream on impulse, an accident, she was gone.
For some reason she named me as her heir.
Real life is strange, no way could I make up what happened to me. Real life blends moments, one step one way or one step a different way and the future changes. The loss of my own husband changed everything once again, culminating in me sitting here in this room, typing a story.
The story is for this website, one that but for Lee I would never have known existed. I had no inclination to write at all, certainly not for a site that suggests the thrust is erotic, sexuality.
The very idea would have caused me to be mortified back in my youth, yet now? It is almost like some kind of therapy.
Almost.
I am Sally, a middle aged widow, life for me is one step, one day at a time. Deep inside me is a desire, that desire is a simple thing.
I need desperately to belong to someone, be with someone. I was waiting, not completely sure what for. I finally realized that I could perhaps spend a lifetime doing that.
I have stopped waiting.
So a short trip, a vacation, there I was perched on a bar stool surrounded by men. I was nicely dressed, well made up. Men drinking and relaxing, looking my way and thinking...perhaps?
One man got up quickly and offered me his seat, I smiled and thanked him. I ordered a glass of Papaya juice, the man smiled at me in what I took to be appreciation.
He held out his hand, introduced himself. At that point he had a foothold, inside my own mind was the very same thoughts. I was looking and thinking...maybe?
When I mentioned that I was not here for the project, his next comment?
"Oh. Working girl?"
Needless to say, the wrong choice of words when speaking to a 40 something female Doctor in any situation.
He understood my tone when I told him I was a Doctor on vacation, and left.
I barely got one sip of my drink before another man slid in between the stools.
"Hey, babe! How's things?" He asked, his words slightly slurred. Instantly uncomfortable, I didn't respond. The man on my right turned to me with a silly looking grin.
"So what's a girl like you doing in a nice place like this?" He asked.
I am not a girl, I don't think that really fits and he made it sound like I didn't quite belong?
That one gave up when I pointedly ignored him also. There was what seemed to be a never ending string of attempts after that.
One man actually became rather insistant until a whisper from the bartender caused him to drift away. The bartender was a very large man, muscular and appeared to be completely in control.
I thanked him, he just nodded.
Later, a very good looking man came over and asked if he could buy me a drink. He was easily a dozen years younger than me, I accepted with a thank you.
From that moment on he took on a manner that I can best describe as having made a purchase. When he leaned in and put his hand on my bare knee before I even got a sip of the drink I had had enough. We never really got to any conversation.
"Bitch!" He muttered under his breath as he wandered away. He was replaced in seconds by another man, I glanced at his hand noting the white strip of flesh on his ring finger.