The electronic key card gave a green light meaning entry to the room. A college frat boy like Billy symbolically loved that green light, as if the whole night was going to be one long green light, for him and his frat brothers. All weekend they argued about their big Sunday night plans, convinced that they were the lucky ones.
Cheesy, cause he couldn't resist putting cheese on everything, described his plans to a tee, showing up at his girlfriend's place on Sunday night, roses and chocolate in-hand, buttering her up with both. After cooking her dinner, with no cheese he claimed, he'd feed her the chocolate, and run that rose all over her body, especially the lines on her face and stretch marks from 3 kids (his new-found love for older women), whispering to her how she was a real woman, experienced, authoritative, irresistible, how all those sorority girls had nothing on her. He'd pamper her all night, and was bound to hit the jackpot.
Barker, proud ladies man and admitted horn-dog, would have the same approach for his lady in the beginning, chocolate and roses. Difference with his lady would be how they would read passages from books together. We laughed pretty hard at that before we heard what he'd be reading, passages from her feminist books she wrote as a former professor (they joked about it being another cradle-robber situation), and her cheesy romance novels. He was proud of the last one since she said he had the look of the beefcakes on those covers. His buttering her up was speaking about the 'inequities of the alpha male, and the understated benefits of female superiority' and the world she wanted to envision for her daughters; he sure as hell convinced us he believed in the stuff. And after rubbing her feet and doing a bunch of beta stuff, which he convinced us he was good at playing that too, he would score.
Billy, grinning about the night to come as he entered the vacant hotel room didn't have to say much about how lucky he was, since they all already met his date a few times. The first time was that stage hypnotist presentation that came to their college. Her stage name was Miss Mentalist or something, but her real name was Tovah; tanned, charming, looking like a student's wet dream even in a navy suit. Him and his brothers ended up on stage, and all she did was talk to them at first. Cheesy and Barker, started to look really out of it after the first few minutes, and Tovah noticed Billy was still pretty awake. She looked at him curiously, like she'd found a challenge; he gave that look back. She winked at him, and made a point of talking about how they were hypnotized but he wasn't, in that same tone of voice. Her words blurred somehow as they stated what Billy already knew, that he wasn't hypnotized, how he could just listen and be what he was, how he felt. He kind of nodded the whole time as they nodded off, enjoying what sounded like phone sex without the sex to them.
The next thing Billy to notice of was Tovah counting with her keen eye how many people on stage and how many people in the audience she saw had been hypnotized by her talking, with her finger, she playfully counted sixteen people. Switching to the phone sex voice, she pointed at people and counted backwards. It seemed like everyone she pointed at went under pretty easily, including audience members that weren't under before.
"16...15...14...13...12...11...10..."
Billy knew she was inching towards him.
"9...8...7...6...5...4..."
He watched Tovah address his friends.
"3...2...1..."
And after an unexpected pause pointed to him, his eyes fixed on her white french tips, feeling the thrill of wondering if he was under, if she finally got to him, if what he felt then was being under.
He looked up from her fingernail, to see her wink again, and proceed to count up normally and wake up everyone.
Bill laughed in that hotel room, remembering that show, thinking of how little he'd have to brag about his night's escapades. All the work they would have to do, how little he had to do as she genuinely showed interest in him; they saw it that night, and the next day when she ran into them, showing off her phone sex voice for a while after they mentioned how much they liked it. She used it for the rest of the conversation as they talked about their plans like it was Valentine's Day weekend. She loved what she heard, which turned into the frat boys loving what they heard, the only sad part was when she had to go.
Bill picked up one of her business cards left on the table, "Wildcat Consulting," assuming the cat under it was a mountain cougar like he'd seen from a distance on hikes.
From behind, he saw Tovah entering the room, dressed in the same dark navy suit from the show, on the phone with someone, sounded like a young girl laughing with Tovah. She strolled his way as Bill mouthed, 'hey sexy.' She pressed that finger against his mouth to silence him, and smirked when he took that finger in his mouth to suck it gently. He swore his ears picked up a 'love you Mom' from the phone. "Love you too, sweetie," she sounded matronly and loving, before ending the call and dropping her voice a few octaves.
"Hey baby," she whispered.
"Mmmm, phone sex voice," his mind commented.
"Sorry I'm a little late. A friend of a friend of mine needed a little suggestion or two. Are those for me?"