Beginnings are strange concepts. That you can somehow point to one event and say 'There! That's when it all started.' But life is rarely that neat. Or easy.
This isn't the beginning of my story. I dare say I will go back and try to find it at some point, but that will be further down the line. This is a beginning though.
At this stage in my life I was doing what I could to make ends meet. I didn't have a whole lot of money saved, but I didn't have any debts hanging over my head either. I was working in a monotonous retail job managing a liquor store. I was twenty-five and lived with some housemates; a couple and their baby daughter. I had met the woman, Alexis, through work and we got on quite well. Her husband, Ben, seemed okay enough but I didn't really know him all that well. They were a few years older than me but not enough for it to matter. Alexis was twenty-eight, and Ben was pushing thirty.
It wasn't my ideal living arrangement as I've found it's never a good idea to live with a couple - you're automatically in a 2v1 situation whenever a dispute comes up; particularly a couple with a kid! But it had all lined up perfectly; I had needed a new place to live, and they had been thinking of sub-letting their spare room to get a bit of extra money. The room was on the opposite end of the house from theirs and the baby's bedrooms, so I would have my privacy. And, as I said, I got along with Alexis well enough.
I should probably tell you a bit about myself. I was a loner, a condition that was entirely self imposed. I didn't have any close friends, just acquaintances.
This was because there was something strange about me.
Something outside of my explanation.
If I was interested in a woman, even something as small as a fleeting daydream, she would throw herself at me, and be damned to the consequences.
Now, you are probably thinking that that sounds pretty awesome. And I suppose it does in theory. However this started not long after I hit puberty. Can you imagine what this was like for a young kid full of hormones? A kid with barely any grasp of what it was like to actually be with a woman?
Also this ability didn't include any sort of long lasting affect. A girl would throw herself at me, still being aware of right and wrong, whether or not she had a boyfriend or husband, and whether or not it made sense for her to be trying to have sex with a complete stranger ... but she would do it anyway. And afterwards that drive, that urge, was gone; just the memory of the deed remaining. If I was lucky she would be embarrassed and avoid me afterwards. But I'd been accused of rape, drugging women somehow, and blackmail. All before I had left high school.
I never got around to having a girlfriend, because as soon as I was interested in someone it would happen again. If the best outcome of a sexual encounter is that the girl you have just been with wants to avoid you at all costs, you can probably see how that would effect your formative years.
Eventually I learnt to control it to a certain extent, but only by suppressing my emotions, to constantly be on guard. I let friendships lapse, and die. It was just too hard to control every stray emotion when hanging out in a social setting. I learnt the hard way that you cant stay friends with someone when their girlfriend shows up at your door in lingerie.
By the time I moved in with Alexis and her husband I felt as though I had a handle on my ability. I'd trained myself to not let my mind wander, and could objectively look at a woman and decide whether or not attraction was going to be a problem. Brief and casual interaction was something I could handle, but I avoided anything more than that.
I was getting lonely though. Which is part of the reason why I agreed to move in.
I thought it was safe. I had got to know Alexis when she was nearing the end of her pregnancy. Some women look good while pregnant, and some don't. Alexis fell into the latter camp. Which was not to say she was ugly or anything. She wasn't conventionally beautiful, but her face lit up with she laughed or smiled. She had a wicked sense of humor and was a lot of fun to talk to. She was tall for a woman, about 5'9. When I moved in she was still carrying a fair bit of baby weight so her body's shape wasn't readily apparent. But she had a long graceful neck, long legs and slender arms, with high, pert breasts. She had auburn hair that cascaded down to her lower back, but she usually had it tied up in a tight pony tail.
I felt safe moving in, not seeing anything in her that would be a problem for me in the future. She worked at a different store to me, and work hours meant that I'd mostly only see her in the evenings at home. We didn't all eat dinner together that often, but it turned into a nice share house with a good atmosphere. I felt as though we were all becoming friends, something I had avoided for years.
Alexis' husband Ben worked as a customer relations manager for an automotive company. He had a home office in the city where he worked most of the time, but he spent one week out of the month traveling around the country to visit the more remote dealerships. His parents lived in north part of the country, so he usually arranged at least a few nights near them so he could visit.
Alexis had gone back to work on a casual basis as soon as she could. I guess she was afraid of being stuck as a stay at home housewife. I didn't blame her! Their kid was cute enough I guess, but I wouldn't have wanted to be stuck at home all day every day either.
It didn't make it easy for the two of them, trying to arrange a schedule with both of the working. Ben basically had a 9-5 job when he wasn't traveling. Alexis worked weekends and a few evenings during the week when she could arrange a babysitter.
It strained their relationship a bit, seeing each other so infrequently. I was witness to a few fights, but they were mostly pretty solid. I became a bit of a go-between, hanging out with a beer or two with Ben when Alexis was working. Chatting and keeping Alexis company when Ben was traveling. I discovered she quite liked gaming as long as it wasn't anything too intense. We spent quite a few hours playing the Nintendo Wii with the motion sensor controls to pass the time. This was perfect for me as I couldn't trust that I wouldn't trigger my ability if I went out on the town.
It was a nice dynamic, but it was all about to change.
"Are you busy next Friday?" Alexis asked as soon as I walked in the door. She sounded excited.
"I get off at four on Friday. I don't have any plans." I replied, cautiously. She wasn't usually so interested in when I had time off.
"Great! I have a bottle of wine and I need a drinking buddy." Her eyes sparkled a bit as she spoke.
"Sounds good to me!" I laughed back. "What's the occasion? Although we might need more than one bottle between the three of us."
"Just us two actually! But you're right, we might need more."
"Where's Ben -" I started to ask but then I remembered that it was the week he was going to be traveling. I looked at Alexis curiously. Things had been ... not strained, but a little tense between the two of them this month. Something to do with Alexis not wanting to travel to Bens parents for Christmas this year. We'd had some drinks, just the two of us, when her husband had been gone before, but it had always been spontaneous. It was a little out of character for her to plan to have drinks with me.
"It's okay." Alexis interpreted the look on my face. "Bens taking the baby with him on his trip. He's going to let his parents look after her while he's visiting dealerships and then spend some time with them himself. They've been bugging us to bring her for a visit, but who has the time right?"
