It is my experience that good things happen when they are least expected. I don't know if that's true for most people but it is for me. But before I get into that, let me tell you a little about myself. By day, I'm a mild-mannered (but talented) reliability consultant – I like to bill myself as an "international" consultant, but that simply means I consult occasionally to Canada! By night, I'm an equally mild-mannered (but talented) college professor. And just like Superman, I have an alter ego that isn't necessarily mild-mannered. I write steamy erotic stories, just like the one I'm about to relate.
Serendipity played a big part in my getting into the erotic story business (well, it's really more of a hobby). Although I had been using computers my whole professional life, I only ventured into cyber society a few years ago, one day deciding to dip my toe into a chat room to see what all the hub-bub was about. The first person I met there was a woman named Kat. What makes this so amazing is that if I were to go into a chat room right now, there would be lots of women there but many of them robotic. But here I was in my very first foray into cyber space and I found a real woman!
Now, I have a weakness for smart and funny women, and Kat is both of those. We seemed to connect. I'm not without a certain charm, I'm reasonably intelligent and often funny, and can turn a phrase or two. Kat like me and, in return, she taught me the ropes in cyber space (which came in handy since I was totally clueless.) To make a long story short (since this has little to do with the story I'm actually intending to tell), it came out in our conversations that I like to write, and Kat asked if I had ever written sexy stories.
Well, no, I told her. I had mostly written humorous pieces. With a little cajoling, she talked me into writing my first erotic story, and the rest, so they say, is history. I started posting some of my stories. Tt was fun to get the feedback, some of it good, and I started doing some requests. This was fun because writing about things I'm not personally into helped me stretch as a writer. Many of my stories are imaginary, but some are based on real (albeit enhanced) events. All of my stories, however, do involve real people.
Okay, okay, I'll get to the point of this narrative. There I was, minding my own business, when one day I get this e-mail:
"Hi there!
I read a few of your stories ... I would like to publish them! Let me know if you are interested.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Carol"
Little did I know that this would be the beginning of an adventure, and a very sexy one at that.
Now, I'm not a trusting sort of person, so I wrote back, thanking her for her interest, voicing my skepticism, and asking her for more details.
What followed was a quick exchange of five or six e-mails in which she explained what began to sound like a legitimate publishing business (which was located in Montreal), and I became interested. During this correspondence, I discovered that Carol was a charming, smart, and funny woman. In other words, I was smitten again! I really began to look forward to her notes, she trying to get me to agree to give her "just one more story" to publish, me hoping to keep her interested in continuing the correspondence.
As I said, I'm a push-over for a smart and witty woman.
Once I had given her some stories, I thought that maybe that was it. But we did stay in touch. Stories seemed to be the focus of our relationship, but there was enough flirting and playfulness that a friendship did emerge. Pictures were exchanged. I believe that sexiness is between the ears, but Carol is sexy all over --- she is gorgeous!
Over the next several months we exchanged e-mails. I guess since she sat around reading sexy stories and I sat around writing them, it was natural that our correspondence became rather intimate. No, it wasn't like having cyber sex, but I began to learn what she liked and didn't like, what we had in common, and what we didn't. Our relationship wasn't really like that between two lovers, but more like one between two kindred spirits.
As I said before, I'm a reliability consultant by day, and most of the time my client companies are in Southeast Michigan where I live. However, occasionally I need to go outside that area, sometimes even to Canada (remember, I'm an "international" consultant!).
This past week, I had the occasion to visit a supplier to one of my client companies, and, yes, you guessed it, the supplier was located just outside of Montreal!
Thinking that it would be nice to finally meet Carol, I wrote her a note, asking if she would like to meet for dinner. I had had my stories bound and told her I was going to give them to her as a gift in thanks for all of her support. Hoping to make it easier for her to accept my invitation, I told her she could bring someone along to chaperone if she liked. She laughed, and said that would be wonderful. We picked a date and time and I told her I'd let her know where.
Now, don't get me wrong, I had nothing but gentlemanly intentions for a friend, but I did want to impress Carol so I booked at table at Le Castillon, a fancy French restaurant located at the top of the Place Bonaventure, just north of Old Montreal.
Flying into Trudeau International from Detroit, I got my rental car and made my way into the city. I had a reservation at the Midtown Holiday Inn, getting a room on the 15
th
floor which gave me a splendid view of the city. The plan was to settle in, get ready for my "date", and make my way over the Place Bonaventure. My business commitment wasn't until the next day.
Le Castillon is part of the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure hotel that occupies the top two floors of the Place Bonaventure. The Hilton is way too expensive for me, but from a previous trip I knew that it was the ideal spot to try to impress someone!
After arriving at the Place Bonaventure (yes, I was early, so anxious was I), I took the elevator up to Le Castillon. The restaurant is one of the best (and most expensive, I might add) in Montreal. The atmosphere there is unrivaled. It has large floor-to-ceiling bay windows that overlook a large park that occupies the top of the building. Yes, you heard me. Trees, winding brooks with ducks, pathways, all on top of a 17-story building! Do I know how to impress a woman or what?
Wearing a jacket (but no tie – yuck!), I looked pretty good (well, at least as good as I can look). I managed to get a table with a great view of the gardens.
Then I waited. It was ten minutes after time we set. Yikes! I panicked. She was going to stand me up! Placing my chin on my hand, I looked forlornly out onto the gardens.
"Hello."
I turned at the sound to see Carol. She was wearing a very smart blue dress, rather low cut, the skirt part falling just above the knee. Very classy. And she was lovelier than any picture she had sent me. I stood up and looked around for her friend.
"Are you alone?"
"Yes, I didn't want to share you."
That flabbergasted me, and I'm sure my heart skipped a beat. Fumbling for her chair, I pulled it out and offered her a seat.
I knew that Carol was tall (about 5'10") but I was unprepared for the statuesque woman standing before me. She was athletic and her long blonde hair cascaded down to her shoulders.
I'm sure our dinner was wonderful, but to be honest I don't remember eating any of it. All I remember is talking and laughing with the most engaging woman I had ever known. Her eyes sparkled as she talked, accentuating her points with her hands, even touching my arm for emphasis from time to time. We talked about our work, sports, movies, books, you name it. It was pretty clear, that we were, indeed, kindred spirits.
After dinner, we strolled through the gardens and began to talk about stories.
