Karen at the crossroads: Pt. 01 - Sex Stories

Karen at the crossroads: Pt. 01

Karen closed the door of her apartment, kicked off her shoes and slumped into the nearest comfortable chair and stretched out her legs.

"I stink of sex," she thought to herself.

She exhaled deeply. Bath, bed and rest. It was 9:30 in the morning, she wasn't wearing any underwear or any stockings. She thought hard but still couldn't figure out what had happened to them other than in the heat of frenzied groping they had ended up in some corner of the hotel room she hadn't searched.

Maybe under the bed, she mused, shaking her head in disbelief.

*

And what a night it had been. It had started with a very civilised dinner at a top Italian restaurant in town. Sensational food -- ricotta gnocchi, osso bucco, Italian cheese (not that culture's strongest culinary point, parmesan excepted)-- all washed down with a super Tuscan Sassacaia, a 1998 if she'd read the label properly. Her companion, Allegra, was the sort of client (she now accepted that 'client' was the correct word) she really liked. She read books, liked good music and had a fair amateur knowledge of art. They had hit it off immediately when Karen told her that she had just come back from Paris where she had seen the new Rothko retrospective at Vuitton's temple to art in the Bois de Boulogne.

"I can lose myself just staring into those canvases," Karen had said. "At one level they are meaningless, just horizontal blocks of color or blackness, but at another level, the correct level, I think, they are an ...

... invitation to explore how you to project how you feel upon them and the answer the give is specific to you."

As she was talking Allegra lent forward and took her hand gently. She didn't quite caress it, but she held Karen's hand purposefully, and looked her straight in the eye and said,

"That is exactly how I feel," she smiled. "I think we are going to have a lovely evening, my dear."

Karen returned her look and felt satisfied with how the evening had begun.

"For all the hype, I don't think much of the exhibition space, though. From the outside the Gehry building looks impressive...'

"Really," interjected Allegra, "I think looks a bit like a giant testicle."

Karen laughed.

"Well, I have more than a passing acquaintance with them, but I do see what you mean. I rather liked the shape of the building and the waterfall, but eh, each to her own. What I don't like is the interior. I don't know of an art gallery less suited to displaying pictures than the Foundation Louis Vuitton. The room shapes are weird. And there's no natural circulation through the building. All that queueing and crocodile lines, makes me feel like I'm back at grade school."

"Agreed," said Allegra laughing. "A toast," she said, holding a glass of Salon. Karen raised her glass.

"To the beginning of a new friendship, with lots of benefits."

The two women laughed out loud and took a generous measure of the champagne.

Allegra was younger than Karen who, while nearly 57, could pass for a ...