This story provides a brief but key interlude in the progression of Sarah's plan, and explores some interesting paradoxes of sexual experience and power relationships. We're putting it in the reluctance category, as there are light elements of that in here. Regardless of category, we hope all of our readers enjoy it and would love to hear your feedback, positive or negative. Stay tuned for the exciting finale!
As before, if you don't like to even contemplate the idea of a married women having a sexual relationship with another person, you probably won't like this story.
______
Sarah walked to the bank of elevators and pressed the up button, acutely conscious of the proximity of the two men beside her -- one whom she had known intimately for many years, the other a total stranger. She looked up and scanned the floor readouts, looking for the next arrival. Her exterior demeanor was calm, and the three could be taken for a group of out of town colleagues returning to their respective rooms after a busy day. But her cool public shell stood in stark relief to her private experience: The almost clammy wetness she felt from the material between her legs, the weakness she felt in her knees, the tingling she felt in her belly and below, and the field of barely restrained sexual energy she felt emanating from the two men.
As the three of them stood waiting for the elevators, staring at the doors, she thought about how the elevator embodies an essential paradox of modern society. Elevators enshrine our longing for anonymity and privacy within a culture that demands constant social interaction: In an elevator, even people on close terms keep a careful measured distance from one another. But elevators also reveal our fear of intimacy by exposing us to our inescapable vulnerability to others: Within the sudden, complete but fleeting privacy, a space is created where anything can happen. Isn't it remarkable, she reflected, how resilient elevator culture is in the context of broader social changes?