Hello, everyone. Hope you had a good week. I don't know where this last one went. On Saturday, I realized I hadn't posted all week - not that there was anything exciting to post, but still. I know this week is going to be busy, but I've scheduled another post for Wednesday.
Today, this story was written in between trips to the other room to check the football score. I could turn the TV on in here, but I don't think I'd ever finish the story. I'm watching the Carolina Panthers leading against the Seahawks, hope it continues (sorry all you Seahawk fans). The game I'm waiting for is our beloved Broncos hopefully beating the pants off the Steelers. I hope, I hope. With the Broncos, it's like the saying, it's not over until the fat lady sings. Their games are always nail biters, and the outcome is never assured until that last whistle is blown.
The game is calling, I've finally finished the story. Let me know what you think?
What Wanda Wants
Wanda Carmichael was running away from home, well not really. Although she was an adult woman, the idea of running away appealed to her, and she finally decided to do what she wanted. As a successful realtor, a board member of many civic organizations, chairwoman of at least five charitable events, she was stressed to the max. The fact that she brought all the stress upon herself mattered not a whit. Leaving a message on her phone, pinning a note to her door and after canceling the mail and the newspaper and she was off to a new life.
A couple of months back she traded in her sedate four-door practical Volvo for a sleek two-door Mercedes convertible. Thinking back, as she backed the car out of the garage, this was probably the first sign of her rebellion. Maybe rebellion was too strong a word, but from that day forward she became more and more disenchanted with the life she had created.
Raised in a small town with what is referred to as ‘midwestern values’, she escaped to a larger city after college and began her climb to success. Many of those values were abandoned along the way as she became more and more successful. At first, she was heady with success and the glitz and glamor of her ‘new’ world.
Somewhere along the way, she acquired several lovers but they never quite measured up to her ideal man. She left them behind, just like her values, and moved on to the next one. Until Jason.
Jason McDowell was a volunteer at one of the civic organizations in which she participated. As the organizer of one of the events to raise money, she had to work closely with him. He was nothing special, at least, that was her first thought of him. He was like all the men she knew growing up - filled with midwestern values. His looks were quite average, his manner of dress strictly non-descript, he was much too nice and nothing like her idea of her ‘dream man.’
After working with him a while, she realized that the one thing that stood him apart from the rest was his commitment to a project. She started to admire his zeal, the way he stood up for what he believed, his no-nonsense manner in dealing with others. She took notice of how he managed always to get his way, but in a way that was quite different from the usual way. He didn’t bulldoze anyone into his way of thinking – well not so much that they’d notice. He did it with charm and straight-out facts, a smile here, a handshake there and before you knew it, you were on his side.
The first time he asked her to join him for a cup of coffee, she said no. He was persistent because she said no ten more times before she finally gave in. It took him a year to finally convince her to have dinner with him. After their first dinner, she realized she enjoyed his company, so the next time he asked, she readily agreed. Thus began their once a month dinners. At their sixth dinner, he kissed her goodnight. A simple peck on the cheek. She pulled back after that – she didn’t want a romantic relationship with this man. He didn’t meet her criteria; he was much too nice to give her what she craved in a lover. ‘Why couldn’t he leave well enough alone?’ she asked herself.
He called several times, but they reverted to seeing each other at civic get-togethers and the occasional coffee or dinner date. Wanda continued her quest to meet the perfect lover and soulmate.
Weeks turned into months and months into years and still Wanda hadn’t found her perfect partner. She even stopped dating for a while. Her vibrator could fill some of her needs and the rest she managed to tamp down and live vicariously through her dreams. Life was becoming more and more humdrum, and she began to question the meaning of it all. She had everything she wanted, didn’t she? Why was she unhappy?
Then, one day, out of the blue, while she was in one of her daydreams, Jason McDowell’s image flitted into the dream. ‘What the hell is he doing here?” she asked herself and immediately put him out of her mind. For some reason, he kept creeping into her thoughts, not just daydreams but everyday thoughts. She’d give him a call.
Fate was working in her favor, or so she thought because she ran into him on the street.
“Hello, Jason, how are you? For some reason, you’ve been creeping into my thoughts lately, and I was going to give you a call. How about one of our dinner dates? We can catch up.”
“Sounds good. I’m free on Wednesday, how about if I meet you at Vincenzo’s?”
‘Okay, 7:30 okay with you?”
“Mind if we do it about six. I have another engagement later that evening.”
“Sure, I’ll see you there at six.”
They chatted a few minutes longer and went their separate ways. Wanda’s smile carried her through the rest of the days. Even her secretary noticed how much happier she seemed the last couple of days. Wanda could only attribute it to meeting up with Jason and looking forward to their dinner date.
She spent an unusual amount of time primping for their date. When she arrived at Vincenzo’s, heads turned, but she didn’t notice and headed straight to the man who was standing and waving her over to a table in the corner.
“You look lovely,” he told her as he kissed her cheek in greeting. Suddenly, flushed and realizing butterflies were taking up residence in her tummy; she managed to thank him for the compliment.
“You’re welcome,” he told her and guided her into her seat. ‘Such a gentleman,’ she thought to herself. “I’ve taken the liberty of ordering your favorite cocktail. A Lemon Drop Martini is still your favorite cocktail, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” she answered just as the server was setting it down in front of her.
“How did you remember that?”
“I remember many things about you.”
They ordered dinner, and before she knew what happened, he was asking for the check and saying he had to leave so he wouldn’t be late for his other engagement.
“One would think you had another date because it’s pretty late for a business meeting.”
“It is a date, Wanda.” He left it at that.
“You’re seeing someone?”
“Yes.”
“And yet you agreed to have dinner with me.”
“Yes, we’re friends. At least, you made it seem that’s all we were to each other. So why wouldn’t I have dinner with a friend?”
“But you remembered I liked Lemon Drop Martini’s?”
He only smiled, and that’s when she remembered she always had the feeling he wanted more than friendship. He walked her to her car, and she opened the door and stepped in.
“I hope we run into one another again sometime. It was great seeing you and catching up?” He took her hand to his lips and kissed it. She turned on the ignition and pulled out into traffic. In her rearview mirror, she noticed he was still standing there watching.
Jason was uppermost in her mind for days afterward. Although glad he was happy and had found someone he deserved; she realized she wanted it to be her. ‘Was it that now he belonged to someone else and was no longer a puppet on her string?’ She had to find out. Maybe this relationship of his wasn’t what he wanted, and he was settling. She remembered him watching her as she pulled away that night. The wistful look on his face said more than his words.
She conjured up an excuse to call him and asked him to meet her. He agreed. Wanda arranged to pick him up and was surprised when he gave her his address. For some reason, she always thought he lived in midtown in one of those old buildings. Driving up to a gated community and giving his name to the attendant seemed surreal ‘He must be housesitting.’ She said to herself.
Following the instructions of the attendant, she found herself entering a curved driveway lined with trees. The house, although one story, sprawled out across the landscape and she realized it backed up to Lake Pleasanton.
He stepped out as she turned off the ignition and was there to open the door.
“Hello, Wanda. I see you were able to find me.”
“Yes, good ole’ Mandy never lets me down.”
“Well, good. Rather than going out I thought maybe we’d stay here for dinner. Is that okay with you?”
“Sure, as long as you don’t expect me to cook because it’s not one of my best traits. This is a beautiful house,” she said looking around. She didn’t want to come right out and ask if it was his.
“I like it,” he said not offering anything. “Come on out to the kitchen. I’ll fix you a drink, and you can watch me cook.”
“A man of hidden talents,” Wanda said.
“Not so much hidden as uncovered. At least by you.”
“Hmmm,” was her only comment. He fixed her a drink, and they raised their glasses in a toast. “To Friendship,” he said. “To forever friends,” she said.
“So, Wanda, why don’t you tell me why you really called?”
“I told you on the phone,”
“Wanda, do you think I don’t know when you’re not telling it as it is.” She blushed.
“How do you manage to know me so well when I hardly know you at all?”
“I was paying attention,” he answered in his low, calm voice. “Let me tell you what I think. I think that finding out I was seeing someone else bugged you. You are the kind of person that always wants what is out of your grasp, and now that I’m out of your reach, you find you want what you were so willing to throw away years ago.”
“You make it sound so unsavory.”
“It is in a way, isn’t it. Anyway, did I hit the nail on the head?”
“In a way, but let me explain. I liked you, still do. But you are so nice. Too nice for me. I didn’t want romance from you. I like a particular kind of man, and you didn’t fit the bill.”
“What I didn’t have a prestigious enough career or have enough money or any of the other superficial things people think are important.”
“It’s not that at all.” She could feel the color creeping up her neck and into her face. “It’s just that I like a man who takes over, who doesn’t always let me have my way.”
“And you think I do that. How about the time you wanted to change the rules for board elections, or the time you wanted to cancel the summer fair for the Boy’s Club, or the time you wanted to hire an outside consultant for the “Y” fundraising event. Did you get your way?”
She thought back, and he saw the light go on in her brain. “No, I didn’t.”
“And who was it that opposed you on all of those things?”
“You,” she whispered. “Oh, my God. I never realized.”
“You don’t have to be a thug to assert yourself, Wanda. Believe me, I am domineering, I only do it in a different way.”
“Does it carry over to your personal life too?”
“Do you mean in romantic relationships and the bedroom?”
“Yes.” Her blush deepened.
“Show me,” she told him.
And he did, right after her told her he’d broken it off with his lady friend. He told Wanda he realized it wasn't fair to Michelle to continue their relationship. Their dinner had proven to him he was still in love with her.
They never had dinner. Wanda learned just how wrong she was about Jason McDowell. She’d never had a lover as dominant as him. He led her to places she never thought possible, and when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, he brought out his bag of toys.
He flogged her breasts, plugged her anus, clipped her labia, whipped her pussy and belted her ass until she begged for mercy and then he made her kneel to him and suck him dry.
When they were sated to the point of exhaustion, he asked her if she thought that maybe she was wrong about him.
“Oh my God, was I ever?’
After that night, she and Jason were inseparable. She learned that everything she thought she knew about him was wrong. He wasn’t housesitting – the house was his, as well as the company she thought he worked as an employee. He was a self-made man who had struck it rich but determined that he would never lose his ‘midwestern values.’ He knew what was important in life and didn’t need all the outer trappings to make him happy.
Six months later, Jason asked her to marry him. It was a question; she wasn’t prepared to answer right away. In his usual way, he bided his time, and when she didn’t give him an answer when he thought she should, he issued an ultimatum.
“Get your ass over here right now, or I’ll come get you. Then I’m dragging you down to the courthouse to get a marriage license, and if you fight me, I’ll raise your skirts and blister your bottom right there in the courthouse and then we’ll get married. Is that what you want?”
'Apparently so,' she thought as she drove away.
See you later for more Aimless Ramblings.
Old age ain’t no place for sissies…Bette Davis said those words and I totally agree.
