InstructionbySeduction Read online

  “Oh shit,” she said. “Did I miss it again?”

  “You missed nothing,” came the reply. “Welcome to forgetting the comfort zone.”

  * * * * *

  Leah arrived for her speech class the next morning still glowing. After Hale disappeared again she spent the entire evening replaying the epic orgasm she’d had. It was so unlike anything she’d ever experienced.

  While her previous encounters had all been plain-old missionary position—where he came and she was left with cleanup duty—with Hale everything was different. It was all about Leah. Even when she was eating him up, somehow it was still all about her. Even knowing that, she felt bad about not feeling bad that it was all focused on her and her pleasure. And her fucking the comfort zone.

  Leah giggled to herself. A few people turned and stared but she didn’t care. Let them think she was crazy. She knew none of them had experienced a night like she had.

  The class went as usual. There were no rude comments this time. Leah smiled to herself. Let them say whatever they want, she thought. I am good at many things and the list keeps growing.

  When Mrs. Larson announced “time for thinking on your feet”, the class groaned as usual but Leah raised her hand. The instructor paused, staring at her for a moment before saying, “Yes, Leah?”

  “I’d like to try again if you don’t mind.” Her conscious mind screamed, what the fuck?

  “Well, knowing you’re going to speak beforehand isn’t really the purpose of this exercise but…what are rules for if not to be broken from time to time?”

  You have no idea, Leah thought.

  “I’d like to hear about a time when you overcame an obstacle,” Mrs. Larson said. “Brad?”

  Leah deflated in her seat. What was that shit about breaking the rules? The other student stood and talked about a sporting event where he fought through a sore muscle to win the game. Leah wondered about the truthfulness of his story but all the while was thinking about exactly what obstacles she’d overcome in recent days.

  When the boy finally shut up, Mrs. Larson said, “Now tell me, what is something that you’re good at of which you are particularly proud? Leah?”

  Leah couldn’t even stand for a moment. Was Hale in cahoots with her public speaking teacher? The teacher said her name again and Leah stood automatically.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Larson,” she said. “There are a number of things that I am good at and it’s funny you ask that question because someone else recently asked me the same thing. At first I couldn’t think of a single thing so I asked someone else. Their answer told me something about myself that I always knew was true but was afraid to really acknowledge or even view as a talent. She told me that I provide great customer service. I’ve received the monthly customer service award where I work seven times in the last two years. There’s something about helping people and leaving them with a smile that seems to come easily to me. I enjoy it so much, so maybe that’s why I’m good at it.”

  Leah could hardly believe it was her, speaking without hesitation and without even a single er or um. She didn’t sound like an ass. In fact she sounded pretty damn good.

  “I’d like to be serviced,” came the comment from across the room. “You any good at that?”

  Leah turned—not just her head but her whole body—and looked at the kid.

  “You have no idea,” she said with a smirk just before the bell rang.

  Who was that? Leah asked herself as she launched herself from her chair. Who just gave a thinking-on-your-feet speech like a pro, then returned a dumbass remark with a smartass remark?

  Leah felt weightless as she returned home. She flew though her homework like Einstein, read the first chapter in Reaching Your Peak, then decided she had way too much energy to sit around and watch TV like she usually did before work. So she donned some sweats and ran out of her apartment.

  Leah ran through the parking lot and across the street to the park. She didn’t stop for nearly twenty minutes, barely feeling her feet touch the trail as she sprinted, then jogged, then sprinted again. It had been ten years since she ran track but that day it felt like it had been no more than ten minutes.

  The cold, unforgiving late-January wind didn’t even slow her down. As she ran she thought about the book’s advice that to have happiness you often need to create your own joy out of nothing at all.

  Returning to her apartment flushed but still full of energy, Leah laughed out loud at nothing. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt so alive. And what had happened? So she got laid. Everyone did eventually. She opened her mouth and didn’t say something stupid. What was the big deal?

  Inside her bedroom as she shed her sweats, Leah looked up at the box. It sat on her dresser, unassuming, taking up such a small amount of space.

  The box opens you.

  * * * * *

  “You’re in an awfully good mood.” Kelly eyed Leah suspiciously. Leah just smiled. Kelly’s face suddenly went expressionless then turned to shock. She stared at Leah, her mouth open and eyes wide for a full five seconds before fiercely whispering, “Oh my God! You got laid!”

  “Jesus!” Leah whispered back, looking around frantically to see if anyone had heard.

  “You did!” Kelly announced, as though Leah’s embarrassment were proof enough. “Who was it? Anyone I know?”

  Leah felt her face heat to a level that she only thought existed in the center of the Earth. She covered her face with her hand.

  “Tell me,” Kelly demanded. “And I want to hear all about it.”

  “You know I’m not like that.” Leah lowered her hand and looked away.

  “Not like what? Human?”

  “No. I don’t kiss and tell.”

  “That’s for gentlemen and unless you’ve been hiding a package under your FoodSmart smock for the past two years I don’t think you fall into that category. Now spill.”

  “Well I don’t—”

  “Don’t play with me.”

  “It’s just that…I guess I don’t really know him, I mean—”

  “Ho-leee shit,” Kelly breathed. “Did you have a one-night stand?”

  “Can you have more than one of those with the same person?”

  “You’ve had sex twice with a strange man?”

  The look on Kelly’s face made Leah think her friend was going to lose control of her bodily functions. It was almost enough to make her start laughing or crying, she wasn’t sure which. Am I really that boring? Leah thought.

  “Is that okay?” Leah asked.

  “Okay? Okay? How is it that you’ve been doing this and I knew nothing?”

  “Well it just happened…”

  “Just happened when?”

  “The last two nights.”

  Kelly threw her arms up and spun in a circle.

  “Thank God!” she yelled too loudly. A few of the other employees glanced over at them. “Honestly Leah, I thought you were never going to lose your virginity.”

  “Kelly, please. I’m not that boring. Am I?”

  “So you’re saying this wasn’t your first time?”

  Leah felt her cheeks burn. Kelly was serious.

  “Wow,” Leah said. “I guess I need to show a little more enthusiasm for life if you really thought I was a twenty-seven-year-old virgin.”

  “Have you ever used a vibrator?” Kelly asked, unfortunately choosing a moment when a customer had approached the register. Leah looked away uncomfortably. It just had to be a man hearing that question.

  “I’d pick another register but you’re the only one open,” the man said. “Sorry.”

  Leah giggled and Kelly pretended nothing had happened.

  “Did you find everything you were looking for?” Kelly asked.

  “All that and more.”

  * * * * *

  The FoodSmart had closed for the night and Leah was busy helping with the final cleanup. She was anxious to get home and have another “lesson” from Hale. Just thinking about it made her warm an
d wet. Not so much him, even though he was amazing and perfect in every way—but the way she felt after he touched her and talked to her, like she was more of her own person. More whole. More Leah.

  “Hey, Leah!”

  Kelly interrupted Leah’s train of thought and she looked up from her mop.

  “Hey, Kelly!”

  “Rusty’s invited some people over to his place after work. I wasn’t going to go but if you want to go I’ll go. I guess he just got a big new TV and wants to show it off. You know how guys are. Don’t you?”

  Kelly smirked and Leah felt herself blush. She shook her head.

  “I don’t know…”

  “You have plans with Mr. Mystery? You know you owe me a big-ass story.”

  “I know it,” Leah said. Kelly would never believe her.

  “So you’re coming then, right? Good. I’ll tell them you’re riding with me.”

  Leah opened her mouth in protest but Kelly just grinned at her, then turned and walked away. Rusty’s place. Leah would never have gone over there…or maybe the old Leah wouldn’t and the new Leah would. Hale would wait for her, right?

  Kelly’s sister called her while she was in the car, sparing Leah a few minutes of grilling. She wasn’t sure she was ready to tell Kelly about Hale or even what the hell she would tell her anyway. He’s a man who seems to know all about me, including incredible ways to launch me into orbit. He showed up on my doorstep after a Chinese magic box opened on its own.

  Kelly would think she’d actually spent the last two nights trading off between smoking weed and tripping on acid.

  Rusty was not someone Leah would have considered hanging out with. He’d been working at one FoodSmart or another for ten years, spent all his money on boy toys and gadgets and none of it on his low-rent trailer. It wasn’t even a nice trailer. As she and Kelly walked in Leah could smell the residual odor of pot in the air. To Rusty’s credit, the place was mostly clean.

  Seven employees from the FoodSmart crowded into Rusty’s living room to admire his new giant plasma TV. Leah hoped none of the attendees were cat burglars—they’d have a heyday in Rusty’s place. In addition to the new TV there were stacks of video consoles and games, DVDs and CDs. Electronic gizmos that Leah didn’t even recognize were littered around the room.

  “My girlfriend’s out of town,” Rusty said. “This is going to be her big surprise when she gets back.”

  “I’ll bet she’ll be surprised,” Kelly commented. “She probably wanted a new kitchen.”

  Laughter filled the room while Rusty invited everyone to sit down while he stuck a movie into the DVD player. Leah sat down on the floor, resting her back against the sofa. One of the stock guys came and sat down next to her. Leah tried to remember his name.

  “Hey, Leah,” he said. Damn, he knows my name. What is his? I wish he were wearing his name tag.

  “Hey, how’s it going?” Leah said. It’ll come to me.

  “Not bad. Hey, I’m glad you came tonight. We never get to talk.”

  That’s because we don’t know each other.

  “If we talk during the movie we’ll get yelled at,” Leah said.

  The guy chuckled and set his hand on Leah’s thigh. She froze, looking straight ahead. Comfort zone, she thought. Fuck the comfort zone.

  Rusty had the movie running and had gone for beer from the kitchen. He returned, passing out bottles of cheap domestic to everyone in the room. Apparently his taste for expensive things ran out when it came to beverages. Leah took one and took a long chug, hoping it would help her with her comfort-zone issues.

  “Thirsty?” the guy said with a laugh.

  “Very.”

  The room quieted down as the movie got going. It was a high-action testosterone fest but had some good one-liners that Leah would have enjoyed if the guy’s hand hadn’t continued to rub up and down her thigh, slowly working its way inside and dangerously close to her crotch.

  Leah took another long drink. Events she wished she could forget from days gone by flitted through her mind. Guys would come on to her and whether she liked them or not she just let them roll her over and do whatever they wanted. Standing up for what she really wanted was an unknown concept.

  Leah thought of what she would have done if Hale hadn’t come into her life two days earlier.

  I would let this loser put his hands wherever he wanted and not say one damn word to stop him.

  Leah excused herself to the restroom, leaving Mr. Hands to himself. She walked through the trailer to the other end, through the kitchen and into the bathroom. She splashed water on her face and looked in the mirror.

  “This isn’t what Hale meant,” she told herself out loud. “The comfort zone challenge is about challenging yourself to improve, not to betray yourself.”

  Leah raised a towel to dry her face and could smell the dankness of it four inches away. She gagged and set the towel down. She had decided she was going to use her shirt when a knock came at the door.

  “Just a minute,” she called.

  The handle turned and the door pushed open.

  “Shit!” Leah shouted. “I said just a minute!”

  Mr. Hands let himself into the bathroom anyway, then closed the door behind him. Leah’s danger sensors sprang into action, causing her heart to beat uncontrollably and her hands to shake.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, feeling her voice trembling.

  “You’re all wet. Got you all hot, huh? Had to come in here and cool down?”

  Leah wanted to gag. He wasn’t attractive, he wasn’t her type and the way he touched her made her feel like scratching. The bathroom was small and he was close to her already but he took another step toward her, pushing her against the sink. Leah turned her head away as he leaned into her. Taking that as an invitation, he pushed his body against her and kissed her neck.

  “Please,” Leah said. “We should really get back.”

  “Why? It’s so much quieter in here.”

  Mr. Hands touched Leah’s chin and turned her face toward him. When his lips touched hers something bad moved though her, like something dark had passed from him to her. He thrust his tongue into her mouth.

  Floormat. Doormat. You let everyone run over you. Use you, hurt you. Why not?

  The accusations running through Leah’s head deflated her. She recalled one of her earlier sexual experiences, a drunken encounter at a party. She had been intoxicated. He had been more so. She didn’t want him but she was too afraid to say no.

  So she let him push her into a back room and take her clothes off in the darkness of the corner. There wasn’t even a bed, just the hard floor.

  Mr. Hands reached down and unzipped his pants.

  Fuck the comfort zone.

  “Zip yourself back up,” Leah said. “You’re not getting anywhere tonight.”

  “Huh?”

  “I said zip yourself back up. And take your hands off me.”

  “Come on. I heard you’ve been…you know…opening up to life.”

  Anger burned through Leah like nothing she’d ever felt before. Either Kelly had said something or she’d talked so loud someone had overheard her. Now this jerk thinks he can capitalize on that?

  “You’re not anything I want to open up,” Leah said. “Now get your fucking hands off me.”

  The guy raised his hands and took a step back.

  “Sorry. I thought you were down with it when you didn’t stop me in the living room.”

  “My mistake.”

  There was a zipping sound as Mr. Hands returned his zipper to its upright and locked position. He turned and walked out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

  Leah wasn’t sure which emotion was stronger—the hurt at Kelly for either purposely or inadvertently betraying her or the victory of fucking the comfort zone and telling that jackass exactly where to go.

  Leah calmed herself then burst out of the bathroom and headed directly for the door. She said nothing as she pushed through it and stomped down th
e front steps. She barely knew where she was, it was too late for the bus and she had no money for a cab. But by God she was justified.

  “Leah! Where are you going?”

  Leah hunkered down against the wind and didn’t look back. Kelly ran to catch up with her.

  “What are you doing? If you’re ready to go that’s cool. Just let me know. What’s going on?”

  “So does everyone know about my new sexual liberation or did you only tell a few people?”

  “What are you talking about? Did Mike… Oh shit. He must have heard me when we were talking over by the register. What happened?”

  “He thought I was passing it out. I told him I wasn’t.”

  “Shit Leah, I’m sorry. Come on, don’t walk out in the cold. I’ll take you home.”

  Leah wanted to continue to be defiant but she knew Kelly hadn’t purposely hurt her and it was about ten degrees out. Leah shivered then turned and let Kelly walk her back to the car.

  When Kelly pulled up to Leah’s apartment building after a mostly silent ride, she turned to her and said, “Let’s have a girls’ night soon. Just you and me. Watch stupid movies and do each other’s toes. How long has it been since you did something like that?”

  “Too long,” Leah said. It did sound fun. A little frivolity never hurt anyone. She smiled and looked up at Kelly. “Let’s do it.”

  “Let’s check our schedules for next week and set a date.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Leah made her way up to her apartment, the sounds of Friday-night parties going on around her. She still had to work the next day so the day of the week didn’t mean much to her other than her apartment would be noisy. She passed by a group of drunk college students and wondered if Hale arrived that night if they’d see how he showed up and decide they’d seen a ghost or a UFO. Hell, maybe they’d be right.

  Once inside Leah walked into the bedroom and took the box off the dresser. Suddenly she wanted to be alone. She rubbed the designs on the box and it comforted her. She didn’t need Hale all the time, did she? She was dying to tell him about how she fucked the comfort zone but he would be there tomorrow…she hoped.

  Leah put on some comfy pajamas and crawled into bed. She listened to the sounds of the partiers around her and for once was not annoyed. They were just people having fun, doing whatever it was they wanted to do. Just like her.