"When you were a kid, did you ever play dare games?" She asked. We were having dinner. It was our first real date. We'd known each other for months but she had turned down my invitations to go out until a few days before. We had been together almost an hour and I thought things were going really well until she asked that question. Suddenly I wasn't sure where this was going.
"We played." I said. "Sometimes I liked them and sometimes I thought they were dumb or mean. Why?"
"I want you to do something, and the only way I can think of asking is by daring you."
"Just tell me what you want me to do. Don't dare me."
"A man and his date just came into the restaurant. The man was my husband. Operative word, was. Our divorce was final last week. The woman he's with is his boss. One of the last things he said to me as we were leaving the courthouse was his belief that I would never find a man to love me the way I wanted. He hoped I spent a long and lonely life."
"And your request?"
"Be my fiancé for tonight. Let him see us being affectionate."
"Not even a hard request. Being affectionate will be my pleasure. Wait. If I'm your fiancé, shouldn't you have a ring on?"
She dove into her purse. A few seconds later she came out with a ring box. "It was my Mom's. I hope it fits." I pulled the ring from the box. It was a beautiful ring. I looked up and a couple were walking towards us.
"Is he wearing gray slacks and a blue shirt?"
"Yes. His boss is in a green sheath dress."
"Then get ready to earn an Academy Award." I dropped to one knee in the aisle where they were walking. I took my date's hand and said, "Please, make me the happiest man on the planet. Marry me!"
She came out of her chair and landed on me. She said "Yes!" Loudly and smothered me in kisses. Patrons all around us clapped and cheered. We got up and thanked them. My date turned and looked her Ex in the face and acted shocked.
"You! What are you doing here?"
"We were going to have dinner, but I've lost my appetite." He started to turn and my date stuck out her hand to his date. "Hi. Pardon Jack's manners. I'm Sue, his ex-wife."
"Congratulations! Sorry we barged in on your special occasion." They shook hands. Jack stepped in and got them apart.
He started to hustle his lady away when I said, "This is a great night! Join us for a drink, at least. A toast to love!"
His date turned back again and said, "That would be grand! Waiter, a bottle of champagne! Please!" She sat with us.
The waiter was quick. Jack didn't want to sit and he didn't like being the only one standing so he sat. He turned to me and asked, "How long has this been going on?"
"For me? A long time. But, she wouldn't even go out with me until the divorce. Now that she is free, I needed to make my move or lose her to the competition."
Jack's date asked, "So, when was your first date?"
"One week after she went to court." I'm pretty good with math so I calculated six months and a week back. "March the twenty-third."
"No." Sue said, "Remember. I went to court on the eighteenth. We went out on the twenty-fifth. We came here for dinner."
"Right! I did remember the place better than the date. I'm not that good with dates. It's why I have a Blackberry."
Jack's date was doing math in her head too. She looked in her purse and pulled out a hundred dollar bill and handed it to me. I accepted it and said, "What is this?"
"It's for the champagne. He told me the divorce was final in January! He can find his own way home, wherever that may be." She looked at Jack and spit on him. "You are finished! Make arrangements with my lawyer to get your things from my house. Do not come to my house!" She walked out. Her hips swayed with purpose and her heels clacked loudly as she went. Even the wait staff stayed quiet while she made her exit.
Jack didn't move until she was out the doors. When they closed behind her he looked at my date and said, "You did that to fuck my life!"
"I got engaged to mess up your life! Pete had already proposed when I saw you. How could it have been a set up? How would I have known you lied to her, too?"
"You knew! You always knew." He got up and walked from the restaurant. I waited for someone to call out, "Dead man, walking" as he passed by them. He looked that sad.
She said, "We were married three years. He grew to hate my family, well, my sister. Said we were too close, too involved. He wanted to say he was married but wanted to act like he wasn't, if you know what I mean. When a woman came to me pregnant and asked me to divorce him so he could be her husband and help raise their kid, I gave him the divorce. A week after I filed she miscarried. I guess he moved in on Monica right after that."
"Feel better?"
"I thought I would. I don't. Somewhere, inside I guess I still care for him. I don't want his life to be shit, I just don't want to watch him having fun."
I reached across the table and put my hand on hers. Her eyes flared and she started to pull back. "Stop!" I said. She did. "You asked me to be your fiancé for tonight. It's still early. I agreed because one night as your fiancé could be the best night of the last few years of my life. You can decide later if you want to break off our engagement, but for now I'm staying in my role."
She took a sip of the champagne and smiled at me. "That may be a line, but line or not, it's good. Ok. Until I'm home, we're engaged. What do you have planned for after dinner?"
"There are possibilities. As we get to know each other better, one will take first in line and we'll do that one." Our dinners arrived. We ate and talked. Between us we finished the champagne. The list of possibilities was down to a walk by the marina and going dancing at a club I'd been to once. As we left the restaurant she held my arm and pressed her breast against it. Once outside I could turn us right and go for the walk or turn left and head for my car so we could go dancing.
My feet stopped and I gently pulled her into my arms. She wrapped hers around me and we kissed, really for the first time. The others were acting. This one was her and me, on purpose. I hate to hurry when I kiss. I became aware that people walked past us while we kissed. When we ended the kiss our lips lingered close to each other and we touched them together ever so gently many times.
"Is this what rose to number one on your list of possibilities?"
"I stopped to decide if we turn right and go for a walk or left and drive to a club and go dancing. Kissing you has been on my list for months."
"Let's walk. If we went dancing we wouldn't get to know each other very well. It would be noisy and crowded."
I guided us down the walk toward the path alongside the marina. After about a hundred yards we came to a deck where walkers could stop and sit to watch the boats go by. We stopped and kissed a few more times.
We walked farther out towards the opening from the marina to Santa Monica bay. She asked about my family. I told her about growing up on a farm, having two younger sisters and where they were now. I asked her about her family.
"Our parents are gone. A car wreck six years ago. I have a sister, Sasha who is two years older than me and she lives nearby."
"She's the one your ex didn't like?"
"We are very close. Talk almost every day, see each other often, hang out, share clothes and just about everything else."
"He didn't like that?"
"Nope. He thought my life should be focused on him, just him. In the beginning he liked Sasha but it didn't take long before he was saying things and doing what he could to get between us."
"I have two sisters and all our lives the three of us have been close. Closer than most of the siblings I've known. I'm anxious to meet your sister."
We stopped again and held each other. A sail boat slid by with three couples on deck. Two of the couples were kissing and the other couple was running the boat.
"You haven't used my name once tonight. Why?"
"Every man you've dated or married has called you Sue. I become… we become more of the same if I'm Pete and you're Sue. I'd like to start something new. We can pick new names and from right here we'll be those people. Brand new, fresh."
"That's a novel idea. Change names. Then every time you use my new name it will remind me to be new, fresh, different. Can we walk while we think of our new names?"
"Can we stop and kiss while we walk?" She nodded and we walked. It was still eighty degrees outside even though it was just after nine in the evening and a soft breeze came in off the ocean. We watched boats coming into the marina, birds finding resting spots for the night and other couples strolling the path. We stopped often and kissed. Many of them were gentle, soft, barely touching kisses that left me wanting to become insistent, pushy and forceful. I resisted. I wanted her to give herself to me, not be taken by me. This time.
At the end of the path we stopped again and she put her lips against mine before she spoke. "When I was a little girl I read a book that belonged to my Mom. The lead character was a woman named Silver. I fell in love with that name. I wanted to have a daughter named Silver. I still do. Now you offer me the chance to change from being ordinary Sue and the only name I want is Silver."
I pressed forward half an inch and we kissed. This time her lips parted a little and she teased me with her tongue. I touched her tongue with mine and made it a caress. When the kiss ended I said, "I am thrilled to be the first man to kiss you, Silver. I love your name. It evokes thoughts and images in my mind that are sensual. The lights shimmering on the water are like liquid silver, shining up at us."
"Whenever I thought of the man… the man I might share my life with, his name was Roger. Every fantasy I've had about a life partner included him being named Roger. I've never known a man named Roger. I see him as strong, with slow hands and kisses, most of the time. Roger can take care of me, and wants to."
"Can Roger be forceful and demanding as well as strong and caring?" My arms tightened around her.
"Oh, yes!" Her words came out in a rush of breath.
"And might he occasionally take kisses?" She nodded. I crushed my mouth to hers and my tongue pushed between her lips and she surrendered to me.
"Does Roger love holding your breasts?"
"Yes!"
My face pulled back a few inches and I asked, "Who am I?"
She smiled a mischievous smile and whispered, "Roger! Please, take me!"
I spun her around so I was pressed against her butt and my arms still were around her. I kissed her neck and cupped her breasts through her thin dress. Silver moaned and whatever resistance was left melted away.
She tilted her head to open her neck to me. I accepted her gift and slipped my hands inside her dress to cup her warm flesh, skin to skin. The touch of her nipples to my finger tips proved them to be ready for me, wanting my touch and the muffled moan told me I was doing what she needed or wanted.
The sound of approaching people prompted me to pull my hands from her breasts and out of her dress. Her hands covered mine and put them back on top of her breasts. As the people passed us she turned and faced me. She whispered, "I am here for you. Whatever you want, Roger, is yours."
"Give me your panties, please."
"Now?"
I nodded. She backed up a step, bent at her waist and reached up under the hem of her dress. A Silver thong came back hanging from her fingers. She looked around to see who might have seen.
