The Rose - Joan joins a trend. 23AUG2019(rev. 15JUN2022)
The rain gently pattered against the sidewalk outside of Marie & Mario's coffee house as Joan stood in line to get her afternoon fix. With the drudgery of the day now over, it was her time at last - and she looked forward to it. Someone up ahead of the line is getting a big order so it is taking longer than usual to get served - but she is not concerned. It will be hours before Murray gets home so there is plenty of time for her to relax and take some time for herself.
Getting her favourite coffee and biscotti, she scans the area for a place to sit. Her eyes soon spot an empty space - not ideal but usable. Rolling her backpack off her shoulder, she sits down - politely smiling at the office girls nearby. Digging around in her backpack, she finds her paperback and attempts to revisit the novel's plot - but it is futile. With far too much noise and chatter going on in the place, she puts the book down.
Partaking in a piece of the sweet biscuit, she draws a satisfying drink of the rich brew. Savouring the lingering effect of the hot nectar, it was not long before Joan began to pick up on conversations nearby. Being all the talk was mostly business banter, it was not hard for her to pick out a discussion two ladies were having about their personal lives. She could not help but hear their tales of dissatisfaction with their husbands, their work, and a seemingly endless array of other domestic and workplace horrors. And as she listened, she thought about how her life was not like that and Murray was not like what they were complaining about - and in many respects, he was the opposite. It seemed to Joan that the veracity of their gripes was incredible. It was obvious that these were important things to them - the way they carried on about how much they did NOT have them. She felt for them both - having lived through the debacle of her marriage to Maitland, she well understood that frustration and despair. Slipping back through time, Joan begins to sift through her memories of important milestones on her journey with Murray - and there were a lot. She did not realize it at the time, but all these milestones were in fact clues to her destination. Each experience served to condition her for what is to come - to create turning points on her voyage of discovery. They all had significance in their own way, but saying that any one was, "
the
turning point" is a bit of folly....near impossible in truth.
Joan breaks away from listening to the gripe girls and scans the coffee house patrons. At a table not far from hers, a group of office people were huddled. It was clear there was some sort of, "note comparing" going on - perhaps the aftermath of an important meeting. Joan almost dismissed the group when she caught the quick glint of a shiny gold color - neatly embossed onto some sort of hard cover booklet or diary one of them had. It was the corporate logo of the company they all seemed to work for - Gold Rose Ventures. Joan was struck by the accuracy of the logo to the real rose and had shifted in her seat for a better look. As she moved, the satiny material of her under garment gently caressed her. Now she was keenly aware of the sensations the material was creating - caressing her smoothly shaved labia - rendered hairless the evening before. She instantly recalls Murray expertly shaving her last night - and how much she loves being shaved by him. And even though they had been doing it for years, it was by far still their most favourite pastime. And as the lingering thought of the previous night ebbed, she began to wander back to the time when they had shaved her for the first time - the first time she willingly allowed a man to shave her most private of places. All the nuances of that time begin to march their way into her thoughts - not a flood of memories per se, more like a series of lovely memory in mental pictures.
And with it all... the most delicious of her memories...her memory of...
The rose...
Christmas was to be pretty much like any other - plans made - gifts bought - but a twist was in the works.
"You realize that we have to thoroughly plan this out right?" Murray proclaimed.
Taking a moment to consider the question, "Ya... you're right...any ideas?" Joan inquires perplexed.
During the time they lived in Capital city, Murray had known people with who shared his affinity for certain recreational substances. Murray mostly engaged in smoking weed but through a little twist of fate, he found himself in possession of a particular type of Psilocybin mushroom. The wild plant had been picked, cleaned, and dried. Joan did not care for Marijuana as it turned her, as she liked to say, "Into a slug".
But when Murray suggested a different type of Christmas for them, Joan became intrigued. Neither of them had ever had a "sexy Christmas" before and the suggestion lit up both their imaginations. And paired with the prospect of taking a magic mushroom journey heightened the interest. They both knew that being anywhere near people when high on these mushrooms was out of the question.
"We will have to make up some story to everyone", Murray resolved. "If we are going to do this, we cannot have any interruptions or visitors of any kind".
Joan's knee-jerk reaction was that she was not crazy about the idea of not being truthful with friends and family. But after thinking it over, she knew that what he was saying was true. She knew that to enjoy this time to the fullest, the focus could not be drawn elsewhere. They needed privacy and lots of it - this they knew had to be.
Wondering how they were going to pull it off, Joan implored Murray, "But sweetie...what will we say? Both our families will be expecting us to make an appearance - all our friends too...I don't know...It just would not be right for us to lie to their faces like that would it?"
