In Chapter one our heroine, Kate, a successful businesswoman turning 60, has asked herself a troubling question. Is she a slut? Thus began a series of chapters in which she describes to her husband Henry (her fourth husband) her life beginning with her late teen years and her sexual activities at each stage. The portion in italics in each story is her recollection of some memorable sexual experience from her past. In this chapter Kate, now in her mid-20s, and her friend Cherie attend an orgy at Kate's aunt's home in San Francisco.
*****
I didn't tell Henry any more about my past love life during our stay in New York. We were only there for a couple of additional days, and we both had things to do besides tell dirty stories and screw (although we somehow squeezed a bit more of the latter into our busy schedule). The main reason I didn't tell him any more was I hadn't decided which of my experiences should be next. I had concluded early on in the process that I was going to have to pick my stories selectively or I would have trouble getting past my college years. So much great sex; so little time to recall it all.
I was fixing breakfast on a dreary foggy day (typical of a San Francisco summer) a week or so later when next I heard from Henry.
"Hello lover," he said when I answered the phone.
Recognizing his voice I said, "Oh, I'm so glad you called. It's all gray and dreary here. You're just what I need to brighten up my day."
"At your service, my dear. It's warm and sunny here. The sun is bright, the waves are sparkling, the temperature is, oh, I would say about 75 on your scale."
"Mmmm. How nice."
"The only thing that could make life better is if you were here. I'm sitting in a café overlooking a beautiful beach, having a late afternoon snack. The Rosé is chilled perfectly, and the cold shrimp plate is succulent. These people don't do dinner until 10:00 o'clock at the earliest. I'll starve if I don't get something to eat before then."
"I wish I were there. I'd help you finish off the Rosé, and then drag you off to bed and . . . Uhh, where are you are by the way? I thought you were staying in London this week. That doesn't sound like London."
"No, it doesn't, does it? I can tell you it has almost nothing in common with the damp, gray London I left on an early flight this morning. I'm in Barcelona actually. Well, in a little town up the Costa Brava from Barcelona really. Got a day's business to do here and then it's back to dreary old London.
"Can I ask what you are doing in a lovely little town on the Costa Brava, besides sipping nicely chilled Rosé and nibbling shrimp?"
"Sorry dear, that's need-to-know only."
"Hmm, well either there's a woman involved, or it's more of your spy work."
"Spy work? You know I'm not a spy darling. I just collect up odd bits of information from time to time, which Her Majesty's government is either most appreciative of, or bored to death with. Spies work for agencies with names like MI6, KGB, or CIA or other such organizations. I wouldn't dream of actually being employed by one of those organizations. I freelance, and when I find something of interest I pass it along, and the masters can sometimes be quite appreciative. Basically, I'm retired, and I like to travel and meet interesting people."
"Oh, and if there was a woman involved," he continued, "I mean
involved
in the way you meant with your question, you know I would tell you all about her."
"Yes, I'm sure you would, unless of course you were collecting your 'tidbits' as pillow talk."
"Oh, you're so suspicious. Tsk, tsk. I'm just down here to meet a man about a dog—so to speak. He is due in from France, which is just a few miles away, in time to meet me for a typical middle of the night Spanish dinner. Apparently he didn't want to meet in France. Curious. Dinner here will be nice, but dinner in Paris would have been oh so very much nicer."
"But I'm talking too much. Enough about me. I want to know more about you. When we were in New York last year you told me that delightfully nasty tale about the woodworking chap you seduced on the way to deliver him to a book signing. Anderson—that was his name, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was Anderson, and he was a marvelous fuck, but pretty much a one night stand, if you recall."
"Yes, yes. I recall that, but here is what I want to know. At some point you said you were going to tell me about the 'Anderson twins,' so what I want to know is about your relationship with Mr. Anderson's twin brother. Did you have a fling with him, too?"
"Ah, the other Mr. Anderson. Would you believe me if I said I didn't screw him?"
"Of course I would, but I would be very surprised you didn't have sex with him, given how handsome his twin was. And, you said he was very important. I have trouble conceiving of an important man in your life that you didn't have sex with, other than perhaps your father."
I laughed. "Oh, the other Anderson
was
important, and no I didn't have sex with him. His name was Kyle Anderson, and he didn't turn up in my life for several years after my afternoon and evening with his brother Lars. When I met Lars, Kyle was a Navy pilot on a carrier someplace in the China Sea, flying F-4s off into places that no one wanted to admit they had sent him."
"Several years later I had progressed up to the point where I was a junior editor, working with new and minor authors, nothing major you understand, just whatever the boss gave me to work on. It was better than making copies and getting coffee, but hardly glamorous. Then one day the receptionist called and told me there was a Mr. Anderson in the lobby to see me. I walked out front and there was Lars, only, of course it wasn't Lars, it was Kyle, but I couldn't tell."
"Once I unwrapped myself from around his neck, and Kyle managed to convince me he wasn't Lars, I learned that he had been discharged from the Navy and had written a book that he wanted me, on his brother's recommendation, to shepherd through the publication process. Now, we had a process for evaluating new books, and although I did some of the reading, someone senior to me usually made the reading assignments and certainly made the decisions about what we would publish. I decided to ignore the process and agreed to read his manuscript. I figured that if Kyle was anything like his brother Lars, I needed to get to know him better, much better."
"Two days later I was convinced I had a hot property. I took it to the West Coast Managing Editor and, after he chewed me out for not following procedure, he agreed to read it. A couple of weeks later he walked into my cubicle and wanted to know how to find the author. He was ready to publish the book and, by the way, he wanted me to edit it. Long story short, Kyle published eight novels through our shop, all of which were best sellers and all of which I edited. He was a huge boost for my career."
"And you didn't sleep with him? I thought you slept with all of your authors, even the women, or at least most of them."
"I tried . . . but he was gay, and there was no converting him, even to bi."
"Ah, your great success on one side of your life was a failure on the other."