Ever find your self in a cab, heading for an unknown destination and not really knowing why? Sitting there, watching people's faces pass the windows and trying to find that one point in time that made you say yes to the faceless name on the screen. Made you listen to that tightening in your stomach. Made you obey that nervousness and push onward.
It was like that for me. Stifling a feeling of dread for the erotic sense of anticipation. I couldn't figure out when the actual moment of realization was, but I was able to remember the first time I ever acted on it. It was the previous year, November. A wedding in Los Angeles, held at a small church with the reception at the pool of a crystal white hotel hanging off the Hollywood Hills. The wedding itself was notable, only in that it was fast and quick and painless. Getting everyone to the reception that they desperately wanted to be a part of anyway.
It couldn't have been better. Cool enough for a jacket, but not so cool as required more. A smooth clear night that left the pool un-rippled and gave the guests incentive to drink a bit more. A bit more to leave shirts unbuttoned and let eyes linger a bit longer than possible. Eyes that caught the attention of others and made introductions that would never have been made under normal circumstances.
And that is how I met them. They were at the bar, a youngish couple in their late thirties. Just enough tan to show they got out, but not so much to say they lived at the beach. In shape and attractive β a pair that may not have caught my eye if they were in another place. But they did, and that is how it started. And somewhere in there, between the drinks and the party and the cake a nerve was struck that made us all laugh our way into their room for a nightcap after the party wound down.