It is forever two steps forward, one step back with my boyfriend.
Our first date had seemed so promising. He was charming and kind and was able to give me total control in the bedroom once we'd overcome his objections to wearing lingerie. The crumbling of his resistance to me pegging him was as beautiful as any act of love I have ever known.
Love crystallised for me then, and I know that one day he will be overwhelmed by it too. He needed a lot of help on our second date, though. It was only when I turned up at his office with the suggestion that I show his colleagues my photograph of him in silk that he let me be intimate with him again.
That was at lunchtime today, when I ended our tryst in the ladies' lavatories with high hopes for the future. I took the keys to his flat and did a little shopping while he stayed at work. I left him sitting meekly in his knickers, waiting to sneak back to his desk without being seen.
He had always been at his most devoted when wearing feminine clothing so when I let myself into his flat my first task would be to refresh his wardrobe. Some replacement underwear and a fancy dress costume would be a good start, I thought.
In the event, I did not have the chance. Not long after I arrived there was a rattling at the front door and voices as he and a woman came in, presumably with the aid of a spare set of keys.
I had been going to welcome him home, but the woman's presence put me on edge. I waited in his bedroom. There was a large gap between his bed and the floor and I shuffled myself into it as they began a search of his flat.
"There's no one here," the woman said, the bottom of her legs visible to me from my hiding place. They were good legs, from ankle to shin. She wore black fishnet tights and patent heels with ankle straps. I wondered if he liked that.
He entered the room and thanked her for helping him with his stalker. It took a moment for me to realise he was referring to me. Stalker? I almost snorted with irritation. What game was he playing?
She asked how he knew me. "Did you go on a date? Did you sleep with her?"
He was interestingly evasive. We had been on a date, he admitted.
She had forthright tone when she spoke. He would have to change his locks, she said, as he had been stupid enough to let me have his keys. She helped him to ring around for a locksmith but the best they could get was an appointment the next morning.
He asked her to stay the night, and it was here that I picked up something useful. There was a pause. "You'll have to sleep on the sofa," she said. "I'm serious. We can't keep doing this. We agreed to move on."
The room went quiet. I looked at their legs brushing against one another. Were they kissing?
"That's enough," she said finally, emphatically. "You're on the sofa."
So that was why he was denying our love. He still had feelings for this woman.
I had a lot of time to ruminate on my next move as I lay under that bed. It wasn't until she slipped beneath the duvet and I heard her breathing deepen that I dared to emerge. I looked at her and recognised her instantly from his Facebook photos as Marie, a pretty barista I had suspected of being a past girlfriend. As I slipped out of the flat with the clothes I'd failed to distribute I resolved to get to know her better. I'm sure we could be the best of friends.
***
It took almost no effort to find the coffee shop where she worked and I was there two days later, striking up conversation. It turned out that we had a lot of shared interests, which had been easy enough to learn about from her social media profile. She was especially keen on the idea of salsa dancing, although she was an absolute beginner, she said.
"Oh, me too," I said. "Although I've never been brave enough to go to a class on my own."
I returned to the shop the next day armed with a pair of reservations for a class. They cost a little bit of money but I told her airily that I had seen an advertisement for a free taster session. Would she like to come?
We went. It was a blast. We had drinks afterwards and I steered the conversation to ex-boyfriends.
She was reticent at first but after a round of pisco sours (listed as a favourite on her online profile) she listened intently as I recalled an ex who was ever hopeful of taking me back to bed. She told me that she had the same problem and was hoping it would just fizzle out. "Well, if it doesn't, come and ask me what I did," I said.
I declined to elaborate. I needed to plant a seed and hope to intrigue her.
When we parted she asked: "Same time next week?"
***
My longing for my boyfriend only increased as time passed, but my patience was just about still intact a few weeks later when I invited Marie round to my place for dinner. She brought a bottle of wine and so did I. The digestifs were probably the key to it, though. She'd had another encounter with him, she confided, and he had given her his puppyish look as he suggested that they go back to his place. "He's great company," she said. "But I can't spend time with him without him wanting to go to bed together. What did you do, when your guy kept asking?"