of coffee and then I addressed the scotches. I looked at Rick and asked.
“Neat?”
“Ice,” he answered without the use of proper etiquette.
I ignored his bad manners and put a couple of ice cubes in one of the glasses and then poured a couple fingers of scotch in each glass. That day I took mine neat.
When he came back to the table, he took the receiver off the phone and made a call. I couldn’t hear the entire conversation but I got the idea that he was ordering lunch.
Handing him his drink, I asked, “What shall we toast?”
“How about your career,” Rick suggested.
“That seems silly since I don’t have a career. I’m thinking of retiring from the County and just staying home and gardening.”
“What about your musical career?” He was baiting me but I knew it so it had no affect on me.
“That’s pretty much over. I wasn’t as good as I thought I was. It’s ok, though, it was kind of a fluke anyway.”
“Oh, I know.”
I decided and raised my glass in his direction. He didn’t raise his glass but I continued the toast anyway.
“To successful experiments and a lovely afternoon, cheer thanks a lot, eh?”
Then I clinked our glasses. We both took a sip.
Rick sat at the table in the chair opposite me watching me. I got up and walked around the room with my scotch. There was soft music playing in the kitchen and I listened hard to hear the song and finally frustrated I went into the kitchen and turned up the radio. It was Mel Tormé singing ‘Beginning to See the Light’.
I sat down at the table and sang that song from beginning to end with Mr. Tormé. My voice never sounded better. The entire time I sang I looked at Rick, sang to Rick and finished with a smile.
“You said at one time that you didn’t get a chance to isolate my voice from the other singer and hear me sing. So that’s what I sound like by myself, obviously not that great.”
“You sounded ok to me,” Rick said.
“Thanks,” I said as I took another drink of the scotch.
I picked up the pen and steno pad and wrote the date on the top of the pad. Writing ‘Experiments with Rick’ at the top of the page just under the date, I was ready.
My stomach growled like it’s prone to do when I’m hungry. Rick heard and said that he had ordered lunch and that it would arrive shortly. Not used to having someone else order for me, I asked.
“What’d you order for me?”
“Actually I ordered a small buffet so you’ll have a choice for lunch.”
That was the first time that there wasn’t a venomous sound to his voice when he spoke to me.
I picked up the steno pad again and indicated the number 1, marking the first of the experiments that I planned. Next to the number I wrote ‘a soft kiss with Rick’. Then I added a number 2 and wrote next to the number ‘another soft kiss with Rick’. I noted the location and time.
The food service staff set the lunch up on the small kitchen table. Rick was still curt with the staff but he wasn’t as rude as he was to his secretary.
I could see that there would be a lot of wasted food. There was no way I could eat all of the food he’d ordered – maybe he had a rather large appetite.
From the lunch fixins I built a sandwich and gathered some of the greens for a salad. I’d need to report to the buddies in the garden what other produce was like.
As it turned out, Rick did have a fairly large appetite and ate a great deal. I kind of enjoyed watching him eat.
When lunch was through and the dishes were taken away. Rick moved over to the sofa in the small living room. With my steno pad tucked under my arm, I followed bringing the rest of my scotch and a fresh cup of coffee with me.
On the steno pad I wrote next to the first entry comfort, location, setting, time, and enjoyment level.
I explained to Rick that I was making a chart and when it was finished we could begin our experiments. Showing him the chart to see if he had anything to add to it, he was non-committal and just shrugged his shoulders. I took that as a ‘go ahead’ and put the tablet on the coffee table and scooted closer to him.
“Communication is important during this process so please feel free to talk to me. We will talk each kiss out before we begin again. Agree?” I started.
“Ok,” he said.
He didn’t make a move so I thought the work was up to me. I picked up the steno and filled in the location, the setting, the time, and for my comfort, I put ‘just eaten’. The last thing to fill in was the enjoyment level which I couldn’t say until after the kiss, so I dove in.
“Ok Rick, I’m going to position your head like so,” and I aligned his head for an easy kiss and then I moved in and placed my lips on his for a soft and sweet smooch. Rick didn’t participate.
My face only inches from his I said.
“I think we’ll both enjoy this more if you join me in the kiss.”
‘Ok,” he said.
“That was your turn. Now I get my turn. And he lifted my chin for his strategic need. Before he kissed me, I asked.
“Can I join your kiss or would you like me to be a stone like you were?”
“Whatever you want,” he said.
Rick’s kiss was quiet and soft. After the kiss we both wrote on our steno pads. He looked at me to take my turn.
“Please join me in the kiss. A kiss is, after all, something that should be done with two people.”
The kiss was soft and warm but otherwise not much of anything. After the kiss we both consulted our steno pads and recorded what we knew from the kiss.
Rick’s turn was interesting as he held my chin a bit too tight for comfort. He smashed his lips into me in an awkward manner that surprised me. When he released me I wrote on the steno pad that it was not one bit enjoyable that the grip was too intense and the softness was gone.
My turn and I was true to the experiment and was totally unbiased. I felt him start to get involved but the response from him was still lacking. I was thinking that we might have to be at it all day.
Rick took his turn and there was more of the lip mashing thing that was not one bit enjoyable again. I tried to make it work but a bad kiss is just that, a bad kiss. Back to the steno pad and I added more of my observations.
We went back and forth like that for another 5 or 6 kisses and I was sick of it.
“Please stand up over here if you would Rick.”
I
