It started when Zipora said that no one ever wants to touch older people. Lehav answered he was happy to touch her. Zipora traded her starched blouse for a T-shirt and sat down.
During Lehav's first visit she had explained the chronic condition mentioned by his mother. Zipora summed up that on unlucky days her senses became overly acute, and that even lucky days often brought various levels of discomfort.
"Guide me," Lehav said.
His light touch encouraged Zipora to let her shoulders drop and her back muscles relax. She whispered ooooh when his touch reached the bare skin on her neck. His fingers applied the slightest pressure to her biceps and returned to the light touch on her bare arms.
Later, Lehev told her he embraced the intimacy--the surprising intimacy--of the moment. Far back in his mind, he admitted, he logged he was caressing of all people Mrs. Shaira, a woman who pushed him on swings and flung him over one shoulder as he screamed to stay in a sandbox.
Lehav attended to the area around her collarbones. Zipora's head turned slightly.
"Can you reach the pectoral muscles?" she asked.
"Yes, but it'll be easier if I sit in front of you."
As he moved his chair Zipora asked if he minded pouring her half of glass of red wine. And however much he wanted for himself, she added. Lehav applied the old salesman's trick of matching the client's actions and returned with a half glass for himself.
Zipora handed him back a glass with a purple disk in the bottom. She sat with the perfect posture he remembered. The wine carried warmth into her body while quelling a hint of anxiety. She knew Lehav could feel little flesh or muscle through her shirt. Would a perception of her frailness cause him to decline her next request? The Zipora of today was no doubt a sharp contrast to his memories of her endless energy and the ball-of-fire enterprise that let her retire early.
"Once more with the wine," Zipora said. She smiled at his surprised expression. "The secret is to never get out of practice." Her lively eyes looked into his face. "Lee, I wish to make a request. An indulgence. Feel free to refuse." She motioned at the wine glasses. "First, I needed what my father called Dutch courage. I want to feel a sensation I miss, and I trust you." Zipora looked down at his hands and said, "Will you fondle my breasts?"
Lehav suppressed the surprise on his face as she raised her head.
"You're shocked to hear that from Mrs. Shaira," Zipora said. "At odds with your memories?"
"I try not to think too much about either side of the present." Another moment of the pensive expression and Lehav said, "Under your shirt?"
"Let's try."
Zipora let out a shaky breath when his fingertips reached the slight curves. In time, Lehav placed each bullet-hard nipple between a thumb and forefinger. Though he went as light as possible, she asked him to stop.
"Wonderful," she sighed. "Your fingers, but also the stirring of actual passion in my chest. I wondered if the condition took away that part of me."
"Do you want to be held, Zipora?"
"So much."
She pulled back minutes later.
"We can go as long as you want," Lehav said.
"No, no. You have to get back to your mother. This kind of loss she's suffered--she needs you around. The house must feel terribly empty."
Zipora sat in her most comfortable chair with a crocheted blanket around her shoulders. That unpremeditated, extraordinary request! One hand rested on her still-skipping heart. Sexual excitement remained inside her. Her buzzing body made her feel more like herself.
Prior to last week, Zipora last thought of Lehav months or years earlier. Her mind been elsewhere when he stopped at a curb and turned to look for traffic. In a moment amazement gave way to happiness. They embraced. Zipora congratulated herself for choosing to dress up. A yellow scarf tumbled out of a lambskin coat festooned with pockets. Her ankle boots left an inch or two of leg.
They ducked into a café. Zipora first passed along her sympathies for his father. At her request, Lehav sketched out his life as it stood. Zipora invited him to see her condo, they agreed on a day, and one afternoon talked until she pleaded fatigue. But she asked him back. Lehav had visited a total of four times before tonight.
Zipora let the unearthed sexual pressure stew without relief. Her evening text to him read: In all the excitement I forgot to invite you back. How about a change of venue? A friend recently opened a new restaurant. She'll treat us well.
Zipora arrived early to find Lehav idling with a handful of the people on the wait list. "Put together as always," he said after a chaste hug. "Those gray suede boots are dynamite."
The host led them to a curtained recess in a back corner. A server stood outside looking like a palace guard, except for the fact she smiled. The private table sat on a low platform. Lehav helped Zipora up the single step. The server waited for them to take their chairs and lit the candle in the center of the table. Lehav watched the swinging hips under her black skirt until the curtain closed.
The same server poured the wine and pulled the curtain closed behind her.
"You must be a very good friend," Lehav said.
"She's very kind," Zipora said. "Our moment together the last time made me think of a related experience. Would you like to hear about it?"
"Please."
They bent over the table corner toward each other.
"The owners upstairs from me," she said, "rent the space as a homestay during the summer. One of these exclusive online marketplaces to keep out the riffraff, they explained to the rest of us. The condo association objected, you see. Last summer, a very pleasant, ordinary couple stayed for a long weekend. Quiet the first night. The morning of the next day, we hear a loud, very human noise. I say 'we' because, as you'll see, the sound reached all the houses within earshot. I said to myself, women only make that noise for one reason. This girl enjoyed the reason. Their sounds echoed off the houses across the alley. Faces appeared at every window and back door. The slap of their bodies, the spanking, the orgasm meant to be muffled by a pillow. The lovemaking went on for an enviably long time--the fellow extraordinary in one important way. Shared gratification creates its own little universe for lovers, certainly, or that's a best-case scenario. But I found it difficult to believe the couple had no idea they were broadcasting to the neighbors."
"Exhibitionists do exist," Lehav said.
Zipora raised her glass. "To enthusiastic lovers."
"How does that experience relate to the other day?" he asked over the ting of the glasses.
"Perhaps I discovered a streak of voyeurism because listening to them, ah, well, it turned me on. After a long dormant period, I would add. Not just a period without sex but of not wanting it in the least. By the way, later I called a dependable male friend and suggested he take me to this restaurant. The way I felt in the morning after he said goodbye--reawakened is a good description--matched how I felt thinking about when I last saw you."
"Did you call a dependable male friend?" he said with a wag of the eyebrows.
"Well, I texted you."
