Veronica was 32 years old, broke, alone, unhappy, frustrated, and very pissed off! She had just finalized her divorce from her high school and college sweetheart and husband of 11 years, Gary. Actually getting rid of Gary could be considered the only good thing that had happened to her in a long time! She and Gary both came from Italian American families in New Jersey. Their friends used to kid them about being like the psychiatrist's family in the Sopranos. All four of their parents were professionals with PhD degrees, and both families lived in an affluent area. They met in high school and were a perfect match, at least in their parent's eyes, and soon in theirs too. They both wanted to become college professors, and they had great grades and SAT scores, too. Veronica went to Vassar for undergraduate school, while Gary went to Brown, and when they both got into Princeton for graduate school, life was perfect and they were married.
Their sex life consisted of some very quick foreplay followed by an even quicker bout of missionary position sex under the covers once a week. Gary would cheerfully say "night" and fall asleep instantly. Veronica had never been with anyone else, so she thought that was pretty normal. Both their families were overjoyed when they got PhD's in the same graduation ceremony; Gary in anthropology, and Veronica in English.
They had the perfect career strategy too. They would get associate professorships at large but less prestigious land grant universities in the south, where their incredible pedigrees and CV's would soon vault them ahead of the local yokels. They would each make full professor in record time, and then have multiple offers to move up to the 'real universities' in the east!
They were overjoyed when they were both offered positions at Land Grant University, a well funded enclave of academic liberalism in an otherwise conservative state, which they had previously considered 'flyover country'. They could execute their perfect strategy and live together too! Gary immediately found a senior anthropology professor with a prestigious chair who looked like a good mentor, and was soon working on research that should get him co-authorship on several groundbreaking papers that would be widely cited. Veronica lucked into a promising offshoot of the English department: Women's Studies.
Soon she was attending every feminist academic conference that mattered and soaking up the culture of using 'womyn' instead of women, and writing long articles for obscure journals about institutionalized paternalism, institutionalized rape, and dead white guys. Gary was supportive, because it was actually something new that related to cultural anthropology and it was very trendy in the academic political circles he wanted to travel in. They even attended some "intense reprogramming weekend" seminars intended to desensitize them to anti-feminist language by substituting the word 'cunt" for every use of any other word referring to females or female characteristics.
Veronica looked a bit like the psychiatrist on 'Necessary Roughness' on TV but with an even fuller figure. She was a runner and her legs were in very good shape. She adopted the nickname 'Ronnie" to try sound a little more butch, and was hit on regularly by the horde of lesbians drawn to her lipstick good looks, big boobs, and obvious brainpower. But she was not really tempted by those propositions, even though Gary paid her less and less attention. He had never been too aggressive or sexually inventive, and his new social climbing strategy to get tenure took lots of time away from home. But soon they were being seen as a couple at Burning Man and Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head. They just knew they were on their way to bigger and better things.
One side effect of Ronnie's feminist studies was that she became widely read on popular sexual practices, masturbation, toys, orgasms, and sex in general. Her bright mind rapidly formed the conclusion that she was not getting her propers from Gary and never had. She created an extensive mental inventory and bucket list of all the things she wanted to try in bed, with men, but likely not with Gary.
The tenure track proved far trickier than they thought. Lots of other smart folks from other states and countries were at LGU to execute the same strategy, and some of the local yokels were not only good researchers and writers, but they had a leg up on university politics through family ties. To make a long and sad story short, Gary's promising mentor turned out to have fabricated some of his early research data and was quietly cashiered. Gary was odd man out and was soon told that he was not going to get tenure, and not even a contract renewal. In his typical fashion, he blamed Ronnie for not being in a 'real science' department like anthropology and thus failing to help lend him credibility, and took to the bottle.
Ronnie was offered a slightly better position if she would spend her nights with a chain smoking bull dyke that already had tenure, and apparently some good blackmail material on the dean or maybe even a regent, but after declining that offer she soon got the same message as Gary. The University lost its enthusiasm for women's studies when it didn't bring in the research money like petroleum engineering did, and then Ronnie was downsized completely.
They had a messy breakup wherein Gary said he no longer found her attractive and was sure she was actually a lesbian. Gary also had maxed out their credit cards drinking and when all the documents were filed and final, Ronnie got their small house with very little equity and payments every month for 24 more years, and Gary got the car and left for a teaching job at a junior college.
Her former friends at LGU shunned her as no longer a tenure tracker, except for one faithful couple. Jay was a gregarious hippy part time lecturer in English who did not want tenure, and made as much money from freelance photography and selling cameras on commission at the biggest local camera store than most full professors. His wife Jennie was a senior staff member to a state senator who had been in office for 20 years and would probably be reelected for at least 20 more. They were Ronnie's only emotional support in a time of great need.
Jennie found Ronnie a job as an entry level legislative assistant in another senator's office at the state capitol that paid just enough to make her house payments and have macaroni and cheese for supper. Jennie also encouraged Ronnie to begin dating again. At least one night a week she would ride home with Jennie for supper, where a parade of eligible bachelors joined them to meet Ronnie. All of the academic types reminded her too much of Gary, and most of the others lacked the IQ to even begin an interesting conversation, much less carry on with one. They were just too boring!
Then Jennie called her to invite her to come with them to a noon to midnight party on Saturday thrown by the owner of the camera store where Jay worked. She said there might be some interesting men there, and insisted that she join them. The party house was in an affluent suburb, on a hill with great views overlooking the university. It was a restored art deco home built in the 1930's, surrounded by huge oak trees, a swimming pool, and a tennis court. The Spanish tile kitchen was filled with pot luck brunch dishes plus bagels, and a two huge professional margarita machines swirled at the ready to dispense traditional and bright red strawberry margaritas that were tasty and very potent. Since it was fall and the LGU football team was playing, one room had a projection TV devoted to showing football games. The huge master bedroom had a bed that looked twice king sized, three big couches, and wall mounted screen and projector showing 'classic' porn films. There was even a schedule posted, starting with 'Debbie Does Dallas' presumably in keeping with the football theme, followed by 'Insatiable', 'Sex World', and finally 'Behind the Green Door' just before midnight.
Ronnie smiled thoughtfully. She had once written a Women's Studies Journal review of other scholarly articles about pornography and its effects on women. "Behind the Green Door' was a topic of much academic discussion, and she had of course commented authoritatively on the subject. But she had never actually seen the film.
Jennie then found her and took her out to the tennis court and pointed out a tall, brown haired young man playing tennis aggressively against Flash, the owner of the house and the camera store. Ronnie had played tennis all her life. The younger guy was playing well, actively moving with smart court positioning, good balance, and was hitting the ball well and looking damn good doing it. He was dressed in completely white traditional tennis togs, with shorts that revealed very muscular legs and a tight white knit shirt that clung to his muscular chest. Ronnie was impressed. "I didn't know he was in town!" Jennie said breathlessly, "or I would have had him to dinner."
"Who Is that?" Ronnie asked. Jennie was encouraged that Ronnie seemed actually interested, so she dished "His name is Walker, but his nickname is, believe it or not, Ranger." Bonnie did not get the reference, she had never watched TV in her life, and her parents were proud of that. Jennie continued "He worked in the camera store with Jay for four years when he was getting his undergraduate engineering degree at LGU, then went to Harvard for an MBA. I am not sure why he is back now. But he sure looks good, doesn't he?" Ronnie made a humming noise.
On the court, Ranger was down 2 games at their water break, Flash was trying to make a bet. "If you win I have to watch 'Behind the Green Door' later tonight in my underwear with everyone watching me, and if you lose, you have to." Jennie and Jay walked onto the court, with Ronnie following along. Jay wanted to razz Flash and Jennie wanted to introduce Ronnie to Ranger.
