Kimmy Meets Her Darling at the Diplomatic Club
DISCLAIMER:The following story is a work of fiction. Any similarity between any actual events or any person, living or dead, is strictly coincidental.
* * * * *
String gloves.
Auntie Antonia made these string gloves just for Kimmy to wear to her first face-to-face meeting with a man she had fallen in love with over the Internet. Auntie Antonia was the only one in Kimmy's family who had any idea the beautiful young blonde had been corresponding with a much older man for a year, had become enamored of him simply through private chats and long letters, and hoped that today she would truly meet the love of her life.
Privately, Auntie Antonia thought Kimmy was in for a big upset and worried for her favorite niece, but she was happy to make the string gloves for the petite woman's ensemble. Might as well let her have a chance.
String gloves.
They had been crocheted using the remnants of an old Irish lace fancy-dress collar handed down from Great-Granma Judith. Times, moths, and too many washings finally destroyed the collar, but Auntie tore it apart deftly for the usable leftovers. The material had long ago turned a deep ivory color. Auntie Antonia made them in zip time, sitting at Kimmy's kitchen table and telling scandalous stories of her younger days. Kimmy felt a special bond with her auntie, who was the only adult in her large family who accepted the younger woman's calling as an exuberant, unrestrained, delighted stripper.
String gloves.
Kimmy twists the knots and looped connections of the short, tight, openwork gloves in a nervous response to the frequent sharp pains she feels in her stomach. The Diplomatic Club is not one of her usual destinations. In fact, she has only been here by way of the newspaper photos of beautiful, famous, rich or important people at some event or another. This place is intimidating.
Kimmy is in a private parlor somewhere down a long hall and several side passages further from the huge doorway she used to enter the place. A butler greeted her when she came into the front lobby. He appeared out of a nearly-invisible alcove, silently, spotless in his tuxedo, his polished fingernails and slicked-down hair making Kimmy even more nervous than she had been. At some other place Kimmy might have put the fellow on her level with a mental question about his sexual preferences, but here he stood for authority and a social class Kimmy feared.
Deep yellow-gold walls, accented by lustrous white woodwork and areas of paneling made of a silk fabric perfect accent Kimmy's Summer outfit. She was like a butterfly among the flowers, following the silent butler to the meeting room reserved by her long distance lover, Lange. Her light yellow crepe sundress rustled and waved softly when she walked through the broad, high halls. Kimmy's matching tall-heeled sandals tapped out a drumbeat for their procession. The flowered yellow and white broad-brimmed straw hat with ribbon streamers fluttered a memory of her passing by.
Punctuality is one of Kimmy's many virtues. For this meeting she came nearly a half-hour early, thinking she could have a chance to get used to the daunting ambiance, make the meeting room her place, perhaps move a table of chair just so and frame the way her lover would meet her. Instead she surrendered to an awful case of nerves. A narrow buffet table holds a little display of coffee, tea, soft drinks, a small bottle of champagne, some fruit and cheese and the best canapΓ©s she had ever tasted gave her a distraction too soon ended.
Lange was flying in from the West Coast. He picked this place because he enjoyed guest privileges thanks to a membership in a club where he lived, and it would give them both a private location to meet where no one would know or recognize them. Although their online relationship involved not only warm, intimate friendship but also lots of sex talk and play, to the point where both Lange and Kimmy suffered extreme physical desire for each other, the pair agreed it would be best to start off by simply seeing, hearing, and experiencing the other's actual presence.
Their meeting time was nominally 11 in the morning, although Kimmy knew that flight schedules change, traffic can be unpredictable, and sometimes navigating the baggage claim, car rental desk, and other obstacles of arrival affect timing. She was prepared to wait if necessary, but it is hardly easy. She has to do something.
She explores the modest room. It is larger than her small apartment by the beach, a little, furnished so it feels comfortable but not cramped with the buffet table by one wall under a huge oil painting of some people from a long-ago time, a grouping of delicate padded chairs by a high, round table, and opposite them on the other side of the thick Persian carpet a formal couch, upholstered armchair and coffee table. Everything looks old, well-made and very expensive.
Kimmy's exploring takes her to one corner of the room where a door stands slightly ajar. She hadn't noticed it before she began walking around, since a very bushy indoor tree partly hid it. It swings open into another room, much like hers. Her shoes surprise her by making noise - she has stepped off the carpet onto parquet flooring. The adjoining room, she now notices, is not carpeted at all, but shines with the bright late morning sun pouring through a bank of tall windows onto the brilliantly-waxed wooden floor. This part of the building has a Southern exposure, her mind observes, and she is comforted a little by regaining a sense of orientation.
In different circumstances Kimmy would explore that room, too. Now she is unsure that is acceptable, and besides she wants to be in the best situation when her long-awaited lovers arrives. She goes back to her room, leaving the door as it was, nibbles another canapΓ©, fills a glass with a cola soft drink and sits down in the armchair.