Please enjoy a relaxing day today. Ben Larsen will meet you in the lobby tomorrow at 10:00. Dress tourist casual! By the way, Ben is excellent. I’m sure he will guide you to a conclusion that was as successful as ours.
With warmest regards,
Jason
Tessa held the note as if it were a precious gem, though she had to smile at Jason calling her a lady even after their session in the hotel room last night. Now she understood why Athena’s Ground limited each field therapist to only one set of sessions per client. It would have been easy to be swept away by strong but gentle Jason, and she assumed the others could pose a similar threat.
Tessa showered, not surprised that her lips and vaginal opening were tender. She hadn’t had sex in a very long time and even when Mark was alive, sex had been mostly tepid and predictable. Because she wasn’t terribly comfortable with it, Mark learned to get in and get out. He serviced himself quickly, because Tessa appeared to want it that way. The thought of what could have been, if she had only asked, made Tessa want to weep again.
But she didn’t.
Instead, Tessa Donovan decided to up her game. If Jason could teach her that her body wasn’t heinous (though she still struggled to believe him on that one) and that it could produce unbelievable pleasure, then Ben surely had some wonderful experiences in store.
Tessa booted up her laptop. When constructing Tessa’s field therapy package, Carmen had recommended some ‘extras,’ and Tessa had declined. But that was pre-Jason, and pre-orgasm. Carmen, Tessa wrote, I changed my mind about the extras. Is it too late to get them here before tomorrow? Tessa sent the email and browsed the visitors’ brochures on the desk where she kept her laptop.
One of the brochures caught her attention, because how could anyone go all the way to Australia and not see a kangaroo? Tessa threw on some walking shoes, grabbed her purse and headed for the Taronga Zoo. It was a short and beautiful ferry ride away, and while she enjoyed all the animals, she fell in love with the koalas. Tired, but happy, she made her way back to the Westberg. A couple blocks from her hotel, she stopped for some Chinese take-out and a bottle of cold beer. On the way out, she passed a tourist shop with a display of colorful Aussie tee shirts. A big-eyed koala on a black tee made her think of David. Impulsively, she bought it, knowing that she wanted him to have it before she left Australia. It might cost an arm and a leg, but she would make it happen.
The concierge at the hotel was happy to help.
“Here’s the name and address,” Tessa said, as she scribbled David’s information on a hotel note pad. “I want this sent as fast as possible unless it’s so expensive I’d have to take out a second mortgage.” She smiled and the concierge nodded.
“It’ll be expensive, but I doubt you’ll need a second mortgage.”
Tessa borrowed the hotel note pad again and wrote a message to accompany the koala tee shirt:
David. The zoo in Sydney is wonderful, and the most wonderful creature there was this guy. I know. I know. I went all the way to Australia and all you got was this crummy tee shirt : ) Well, there’s nothing crummy about the sentiment behind it…my favorite Aussie for my favorite Chicagoan. Tessa.
The concierge laid the note on top of the carefully folded tee shirt. “No problem. I’ll pack it in a padded envelope.” He looked at his watch. “I can just make the last pick up. Are you sure you want this sent express? It’ll be pricey.”
Tessa felt a powerful need to give David something now, even if it was a silly tee shirt. She thought it had something to do with guilt. She wasn’t in a ‘relationship’ with David, yet, and she knew, rationally, that she did not owe David her chastity until she was. But in some stupid way, it felt like she was doing to David what Mark had done to her, and it felt really bad.