One Unforgettable Evening (3 page)

Fantasy was one thing. The fact that
he could so boldly put it into words was another thing.

Leon snorted.

“
There’s more. Tell him,
Thomas.”

“
What? There’s more?”
Leon’s chin dropped and his face clouded.

“
Please don’t be offended,
my good friend. Leon. I doubt if I am the first man who has ever
contemplated Adelia…and…” There was more, a lot more, but he left
it unsaid. “…in such a way…”

“
No! I suppose not.” Leon
bit back further remarks.

One guy, he suddenly recalled, got a
black eye from this sort of impertinence. Leon had been young then,
perhaps a little too impetuous, looking way back when. His wife was
squeezing his hand, the message fairly clear. She remembered it
too…

Be polite,
dear.

Don’t hit him,
dear.

Please don’t embarrass me,
dear.

“
Just for the record.
Leon. Your wife made no reply. She said that I should take it up
with you, sir.” Which was just what he was doing, the calm and
urbane look implied.

Adelia sat in the middle, face flaming
red, listening to the unspoken nuances of this
conversation.

Leon eyed Adelia.

He kept his eyes on his
wife.

“
You said there was
more.”

“
Well, yes. Absolutely…”
Thomas clammed up.

He waited, and she waited.

Leon waited, and then Adelia’s warm
blue eyes slid around and Leon stared at the expressionless look on
her face. She seemed very intent on something.

“
I’m prepared to offer
twenty thousand dollars in exchange, Mister de Marco.”

Leon’s expression never changed, his
eyes flicking to the impassive face of Mister Thomas Darban, who
spoke again.

“
Twenty thousand
dollars.”

His wife’s eyes never left his
face.

She squeezed his hand, but this time
it was completely ambiguous.

“
Where are you from,
Mister Darban? Thomas.”

“
Pardon? Where am I
from?”

“
Yeah—”

“
I am from Lichtenstein,
Mister de Marco. Leon.” He smiled in genuine humour, at the
absurdity of such a question coming at such a time.

“
I see.”

Adelia kept her face on Leon and
waited.

“
So; what do you think,
Honey?”

She just stared, deep into Leon’s
eyes.

His mouth opened but no sound came
out…

Leon bit his lip, never taking his
eyes off of her for a second now.

“
Perhaps you would like
some time to think it over. Georges. Take us downtown,
please.”

“
I bet you got a fridge or
a mini-bar somewhere in this thing.” Leon looked away for a
moment.

His hand came up and he rubbed his
chin.

He was a little surprised that Adelia
hadn’t just slapped the guy, and frankly, bolted on hearing his
little proposition.

You learned something new every
day.

Leon’s observations turned out to be
correct, particularly the first one.

There was indeed a bar in the
back.

The long black car rolled through the
night while they all thought it over for a bit.

Scene Three

Neither one wanted to be the one
making the decision on behalf of the other person and neither one
wanted to be the first one to come out and say it. Somehow, it
wasn’t a clear no, either. Somehow they both knew it, in a kind of
marital intuition.

It wasn’t so much whether
he wanted it. It was a question of whether
she
wanted to do it, and how to
acknowledge that
safely,
and possibly, somehow overcome the dangers, and
somehow miraculously reconcile it with their feelings.

At least that was one
interpretation.

Adelia was huddled over in Leon’s
corner. They were face-to-face, inches away, as they conversed in
shrugs, whispers and a lot of eye-brow waggling. They took quick
little looks at Thomas as they struggled with it.

She was so beautiful when she looked
over there. In a way, it was what she was meant for. It was what
she was built to do, in some unexplainable fashion. Leon’s heart
pounded just thinking about it. Darban had turned up the volume and
appeared to be firmly engaged in studying the scenery and the
brightly lit skyline of the city, which had grown much over the
last twenty years.

No doubt his ears were wagging, and
Georges’ too.

“
Well, I don’t know,
Honey.” Adelia’s eyes were downcast, demure.

They whispered back and
forth.

“
This is just nuts. He
seems like a gentleman and everything, but I don’t know. You don’t
have to do anything you don’t want to, Honey.” Leon sort of waited,
and wondered.

He had an inspired thought.

“
This is not about the
money, Adelia…it’s about you.” He cuddled with her, and gave her a
series of kisses on the neck, the face, the bridge of her
nose.

He held her downcast face in his hands
and looked earnestly into her eyes.

“
If you think you might
enjoy it, then I want you to have it. Nothing’s too good for my
little Adelia. Okay, baby?”

It might not be so bad, right? Twenty
grand was a lot of money—but there were details. How would they go
about it? What was the man really proposing? He couldn’t really
take the responsibility, and yet someone would have to make a
decision.

If only she would tell him what she
wanted. He could shut this down in a heartbeat if it came to that.
She was obviously turned on.

It was a question of
communication.

She was being very shy, very coy now,
another thing he had always liked about her. She was such an
innocent in so many ways.

His wife had always been kind of
vulnerable.

Leon was a bit of a risk-taker. It’s
how he made his living, that and a few other skills.

Maybe that’s what it was
about. She wanted something,
needed
something.

Something risky.

“
It’s not like we don’t
love each other, and it’s not like we don’t trust one
another…”

She huddled in his arms, not looking
up, but plucking at his coat buttons while she listened.

He lifted his head up over his wife’s
form. Her face was now on his shoulder. She was warm and heavy
against him. She clung to him fiercely, and yet there was so much
more there too—he could only marvel.

How little he really knew of what went
on inside her head.

“
Mister
Darban?”

“
Yes, Leon?”

“
This isn’t some gag TV
show, is it?” A loaded question. “The kind with a hidden
camera?”

The kind where they
practically torture people, you know, and pit them against each
other, run ‘em through hell and back, all just to trick them into
revealing their own true natures…?

And then you get a
prize.

“
Ah, no, Mister de Marco.
No, this
is me. Really, it’s just me. I am, a fortunate man. I am fairly
well off and I can afford to indulge such whims. The real question
is not for me—it’s for you and Adelia.”

“
Yeah, I can see that. We
know that now, don’t we Honey?”

And how.

It was all so clear
now.

She quivered in Leon’s arms, not
looking up.

He settled back. Taking his wife’s
face in both hands, he lifted her up. He searched her eyes and saw
the total vulnerability. She nodded, chewing on her lip, with
moisture welling up in the corners of her eyes, a pleading look on
her face, and her mouth quivering in some emotional
torment.

Please forgive me,
Leon…

It was written all over
her.

His heart thudded, for he had no idea
of what it all meant. Not really. And yet the answer was
obvious.

He took a quick breath to steady his
voice.

“
All right.” She sagged in
his arms. “My wife will do it, Thomas. We, will do it.”

A great sob escaped her, and she flung
her face down into his neck and bawled her eyes out. She was
squeezing the breath out of him. He found he liked that a lot. His
own penis was rock hard for some reason.

Thomas stared at Leon, looking from
her paroxysms up to his face and back again.

“
Are you…completely
certain…Leon? And you, Adelia?”

“
Yes. Absolutely. We are.
Right, honey?”

And to her own surprise,
but oddly enough not to Leon’s, her head came up, all shiny and wet
with the tears, and she turned and then squirmed out of Leon’s
grasp. She sat in the middle again. It’s not like they really
needed the money…
but.

She nodded.

“
Yes—yes.”

She pulled out tissues and dried her
eyes, and then blew her nose. Husband and wife exchanged a long
look. She tore herself away. She looked at Thomas, fearful
now.

“
Sorry.”

“
That’s quite all right,
Adelia.”

A gallant Thomas Darban reached for
the crumpled, sodden tissue. He reverently placed it in his left
jacket pocket, drawing a grin from Leon and a small but humorous
gasp from Adelia herself.

“
There’s only one proviso,
Mister Darban.”

Thomas’ eyes lit up.

“
But of course—anything
you want, Leon.”

Adelia sat with demure posture and
downcast eyes, breast heaving with emotions, as they haggled over
her fate—and her price.

“
It doesn’t affect the
money, of course.”

She wrung her hands. Her purse was
going to be ruined. She jammed it between her and Leon, unable to
look at either one of them. She was unconscious of Leon picking it
up and rummaging around inside.

He pulled out a long, single-row
stainless steel comb with a long, pointy handle, her only real
weapon. He held it in his left hand, out of the way.

“
I’m listening, Mister
de Marco.”

Adelia reached and took up Thomas’
hand, and he shifted on the seat to take them in a little more
comfortably. She took up Leon’s right one and they held
hands.

“
I want to watch. I want
to be there.” Her hand compulsively clasped, and Leon had a
sneaking suspicion she was doing the same thing to Thomas as
well.

Leon spooned up close against his
wife’s back as they were both sort of on their left hip
now.

“
Yeah, of course she’ll do
it.”

Holding her close, he could feel her
heart beating like mad inside of her ribcage.

His mouth was right up beside her ear
when he spoke.

“
But I want to be there,
in fact I insist. Otherwise the deal is off, see? I want to make a
porn video. You know. While you fuck her, Thomas Darban. All night
long. I want you to make her do things. Everything. And I want you
to make sure that Adelia here has a really good time, you
know?”

She was panting already, licking her
lips and clutching Thomas’ hand convulsively, and Leon winked. He
shook loose her strong clutching grip. Leon took up her hair from
underneath, and she looked around to see the comb, eyes wide with
anticipation.

“
I want you to fuck the
ass off my wife, Thomas.” He began combing. “She has my
blessing.”

Leon began teasing it out, lifting it
up, and bringing it to perfection.

“
Everything’s going to be
all right, Honey. Don’t you worry about a thing, and most
especially not me. This is all about you. This is your night,
Baby.”

She was radiant. The sniffles only
made it better.

He was done with the comb.

Thomas made some small pretense of
considering it, but the deal was already done.

Pulling his hand away for a second, he
reached inside of the left breast of his elegant jacket and drew
out a long white legal envelope. Adelia gasped and sobbed when she
saw it, licking her lips and watching his face.

Leon’s hand stole down to Adelia’s
crotch and she gasped again, but he had a firm grip on her right
breast with his left hand now, arm wrapped around her, and Adelia
wasn’t going anywhere.

“
Oh! Ah.”

Leon kissed her ear, squeezed her
nipple, and fondled her as best he could through what were no doubt
the usual sensible white cotton panties. He shoved them forcibly
aside and entered her.

“
Oh, my.”

“
What?” Thomas looked on
inquiringly.

“
Sexy girl.” He nibbled
some more and her eyes closed and she just breathed.