“Mate, have you seen her curves? They actually look like the Renaissance paintings, man.” The boys used to say.
Ronda Jenkins was sensuous and she knew it. She was an early bloomer. While most women did not experience their first menstruation until they were twelve or thirteen, Ronda knew all about sanitary napkins, reproduction and intercourse by the time she was nine. Her liberal mother felt Ronda would be better equipped to handle her early menstruation and puberty if she acquainted her daughter with the biology of it all.
“Ronda sweetie, Mamma needs to talk to you about certain things now.”
“What things, Mommy?” Little Ronda had asked, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.
“You are growing up now. You are becoming a woman. There are things you should know about your body, little one.”
Her mother was not wrong. Ronda did not just handle her puberty gracefully she had started exploring her body quite early. The little Junoesque girl grew up to have a healthy sexual appetite. She had, with time, discovered the mythical secrets of the Kamasutram and spent quite some time learning the art of love making. As Ronda grew up and had her first sexual encounter at the age of eighteen, she realized that love making was an art and you were either born with the skill or you acquire it. Ronda made a very conscious decision of acquiring the skills of love making as extensively as possible.
Ronda’s consciousness of her own body and her acknowledgement of her sexuality stood her in a good stead even in her own life. Her physical confidence manifested itself in her daily life. Her satisfaction helped her to concentrate on her daily life more than her peers. She was quite spiritual and her extensive research about the desires of the body had convinced her that a healthy sex life was essential for a healthy development of the mind and the soul.
“Sex can lead you to moksha if done correctly. Otherwise, you just have to depend on a dirty magazine and lots of tissues.” Ronda used to laugh and deliver her little philosophies to her friends.
She had always been at the top of her class all through school. She was also the District Swimming Champion and her opponents quaked in their feet when they faced her in a debate competition. Ronda was the apple of the eye of her teachers. She was perfect and she worked very hard to maintain that perfection. Ronda was disciplined and industrious. While most students in high school shunned her because of her popularity with the boys and the teachers, college was a very different story. Her freshman year was a year of experiments. Ronda Jenkins was the Aphrodite come to earth among the mundane human creatures. She had multiple lovers- men and women. Her peers were ready to be at her service in return for her dazzling smile. She was courteous and lady like. What set Ronda apart was that she was a beauty with brains. She could seduce someone solely by reciting Donne. Her lovers were handpicked and everybody craved to achieve that distinction. Therefore, it was not surprising that a major publishing company had offered her a position as the editor in chief of their newfangled New York City branch, even before she had completed the final semester of her degree course.
Ronda was a revelation as the editor in chief. Before one could say Jack Robinson, she had made a formidable name for herself. She was the modern, unorthodox editor who actually believed in new talents and did everything in her power to promote them. She was naturally gifted when it came to choosing a quality narrative that had immense potential to generate revenues. Her superiors loved her and the writers she worked with respected her, while many of them remained forever grateful to her for assisting them to make a mark in the world of contemporary literature and receiving their much deserved credit. She was in the business for five years only when she won multiple awards recognizing her efforts in the field of publishing. Ronda had reinvented the image of the company that she worked for. When she was hired Esskay Publishers held the tenth rank in the publishing industry in United States, but with Ronda’s revolutionary outlook, they soon climbed the ladders of unexpected success and in a span of five years they had earned a spot in the top five.
Ronda was not just a workaholic.
“Working 24/7 is for idiots who can’t figure out what they are supposed to do”, Ronda used to tell her junior colleagues.
She participated actively in most social gatherings and one could often see her featured in Page 3 of the tabloids and newspapers. Every gossip column wanted to talk about her backless gown or her plunging necklines. The fashion magazines wanted to be constantly updated about her bold fashion statement. Ronda Jenkins did not follow a trend; she set the trend. She was sassy and sensuous; classy and coy; elegant and elusive; seductive and sophisticated, all at the same time. The gossip columns further wondered how a woman, so perfect and so sexy, could be single for so long. They did not take time to pair up Ronda with her dates and weave imaginary stories of their passionate love life and publish them for the readers’ interest. The columns often ran with headlines, “Is Ronda dating Rawdon?” with a blurb following that read “Editor-in-chief rumored to have been cuddling with Senior Producer”