The setting for this
very
short piece is Sydney - Australia, and whilst most readers will not of course have had an opportunity to visit this harbour-side city no doubt everyone will at least have seen photographs of the world-class Opera House. It is set at the end of a point of land that juts out into the edges of Sydney Harbour, and down at the western end of that spit is the area known as Circular Quay - providing jetties and terminals for all the multitude of harbour ferry services - whilst on eastern side are the relatively extensive Botanical Gardens.
Now anyone who says that the following events are just not possible in such a well visited place - and especially not in broad day-light - are, I'm sorry to tell them, just plain wrong!
The lovers have, until very recently, been conducting an increasingly intense 'love-affaire' purely by letters, emails and the occasional phone call. But - now read onβ¦
*
This is the second of our meetings, and this time we have met in a motel not too far from the centre of Sydney and last night - and of course only after we had physically exhausted each other - we began playing a game of 'Truth or Dare'. At some stage you chose not to answer what I had thought a not too intrusive a question - maybe you did so just to see what sort of 'Dare' I might come up with for you! - and this morning you are to carry out what I asked of you.
You are wearing your Italian silk dress, and shoes - nothing else! Neither bra not panties was my stipulation - and you should walk hand-in-hand with me along the route I selected for us.
When you heard the details of what I had dared you to do, you agreed - albeit blushingly - so here we are!
The taxi is to drop us at Circular Quay, from where we will begin our walk; which will take us along and around the Concourse, the harbour-side of the Opera House, then back through the Botanical Gardens to Macquarie Street. Where I have said I will flag down a taxi for us to make the return trip to the motel.
Of course the harbour is notoriously breezy, and that is especially true of the area around Circular Quay itself, and as I have said you are to hold my hand at all times, that will leave you with just the one to deal with any particularly mischievously wayward winds.
As we draw near to the quay I feel your fingers tightening around mine, you glance sideways at me, smiling nervously - probably beginning to regret you have agreed to do this, yet also finding yourself getting strangely excited by the prospect. I lean towards you, kiss you, then whisper - 'Don't forget how very much I love you!' - and reassuringly, tighten my hold of your hand.
We leave the taxi, walk through the railway arch and out on to the ever busy area around the ferry terminals. Here you feel relatively 'safe' because the row of moored ferries and of course the terminals themselves block any stray breezes that might have started your walk in the most embarrassing way.
But once we head out on to the much more open space between the harbour's edge and the cafΓ©s and restaurants that line the other side of it - their tables and chairs always well-filled with travellers and tourists, you begin to feel yourself becoming much more vulnerable and I sense that your free hand is hovering, ready to suppress any sudden uplift in the suddenly far-too flimsy silk skirt that is your modesty's only protection.