And Then We Went to the Casino

Posted on by

That would be the Casino de Monte Carlo.

First, I studied the rules for all the games that we’d find at the Casino.  I did it at the private beach after I shooed away the annoying British tourists (read Toying).  I’d picked up a beautifully illustrated brochure, designed for novices like us, from the concierge at the Hotel de Paris.

Alan, my ex-husband, announced that he wanted to play roulette.  The game spoke to his desire to appear worldly and debonair.  Like a dutiful wife, I read the section on roulette carefully, concentrating on which bets were most lucrative, and studied the illustrations.  I told Alan the points he most needed to know about the game, especially the etiquette of interactions with the other players and the croupier.

He nodded his head from behind his newspaper.  “This can’t be too difficult, Georgia,” he finally said.  “I’ll just watch a while and figure it out.”

Huh!

Continue reading →

I’m Not in My Twenties Anymore

Posted on by

You’d think that fact would be obvious.  You’d think the countless reminders with which I’m presented daily would permanently implant the message in my thick skull that I’m not in my twenties anymore.

Still, I forget.  Still, I sometimes engage in the behavior of a young woman.

Take the evening I met Brenda and Alexandra at a busy bar on a busy Friday night right after work.  This was when both my job and my separation from Alan were new and I was exhausted.

This made it much like the Friday nights straight out of college when, fatigued from my new world of 9 to 5 career building, I’d  head straight from the office to home to collapse in a heap.  The alternative, and this was a 50/50 equation, was that I’d go out drinking pitchers of cheap beer with my colleagues and then head home drunk as a skunk to collapse  in a heap.

Continue reading →

Sweet, Sexy and Chaste

Posted on by

That’s what she is.  No better words to describe her.  She’s all sweetness and sexiness.  When we walk together along the river all eyes go right to her.  They take in her tight rear twitching from side to side, the jaunty angle of her head, her amiable expression, her elegant carriage, her carefully brushed raven hair gleaming softly in the sun.

No one can resist her.  Old ladies, young girls, they all look at her.  But, above all, she’s a guy magnet.  Marlys warned me of this the first time she sent us off for a walk together.

Continue reading →

Kisses in the Kitchen

Posted on by

You’ve read about how I met my husband in Some Enchanted Evening.  I invite you to share the inevitable next step of our courtship.

How about a little fun?  How about a story about a first kiss, that led to a second kiss, that led to years and years of kisses.

This is where Alan kissed me the first time, in my kitchen, with his body pressing mine into the edge of the counter.

A midsummer’s eve, with us racing up the back stairs to my apartment so I could grab something and we could rush out the front door to his car and the next place we had to be, the next party of friends who were waiting for us.

 

Continue reading →

April in Paris

Posted on by

Here’s another essay I wrote while living in Paris in the 1980’s.  The Men of Paris was the first.

April is the cruelest month
Breeding lilacs out of the dead land
Mixing memory and desire
Stirring dull roots with spring rain

So begins The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot.   My theory is that he was inspired by an April spent alone in Paris.

For one beautiful, radiant week in an otherwise dreary April I walked the boulevards and strolled through the parks of a city superbly designed for love.  I was alone.

Alan and I drifted off to sleep Sunday night in a city caught in the final throes of winter, with a cold rain pounding against the bricks of our courtyard and a northern wind rattling the wooden shutters closed tight over our windows.  Early the next morning as I waved from the balcony as the taxi took him to the airport I saw that, voila, the amazing yearly miracle had happened over night.

Continue reading →

Too Sophisticated

Posted on by

I’m lying on a chaise lounge on the terrace of the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo.  Surrounding me are chic European men and women, gauche American insurance salesmen and their ill-at-ease wives.  I’m 36 years old, reading today’s issue of the French newspaper Le Figaro, basking in almost perfect bliss. (You encountered me in this same spot, on the same day, in Toying.)

Except.

Except that I’m thirsty.

Continue reading →

Express Delivery

Posted on by

My front doorbell rang late in the afternoon.  An uncommon occurrence when unexpected, as this was.  I almost didn’t answer.  No one drops by unannounced these days, especially on Saturday afternoon.  I figured, probably some kid selling candy bars for the school trip or members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints hoping to save my vixen soul.

But I did go to the door, to find  Liz, my dependable representative from the United States Postal Service, package in one hand, pen in the other.

“Hi, Georgia.  Got a package you need to sign for,” she said.

“Wonder what it is,” I said as I signed.

Continue reading →

Toying

Posted on by

He smiles at me, shrugs his shoulders and says, “Ah, even when we were in college she was buttoned down.  My best buddy said, ‘Your girlfriend makes my old grannie look wild.’  That’s what she was then, and that’s sure what my wife is now.’”

That’s what makes me do it, makes me break my rule.  Never be provocative, never flirt, never cross that boundary.  He’s married, I’m not.  My rule is to absolutely ignore the chemistry between us.

But he’s laid down a challenge.  I can’t help myself.  His wife is conventional, unadventurous.  I’m anything but.  He just doesn’t know it.  Yet.

Continue reading →

Solace for a Grieving Heart

Posted on by

I met my friend Ryan for coffee two weeks ago.   (You first met Ryan in Solace for a Grieving Heart #2.)  He was in town for a little R&R after all the upheavals in his life; he’d lost a job, moved across country for a new one, gotten a divorce, all within six months.

I said to him, “Next year has got to be better for you than this year.”

His reply was a laugh, followed by, “Losing that job got me into a new town that I like and a job that has my creative juices flowing again.  My marriage was stifling me.  Without all of this, I never would have known how much I love to dance.”

I thought, “I’ve got to stick around this guy.  Let his attitude rub off on me.  He’s approaching Buddha-hood here.”

Continue reading →