An Indecent Proposal

I stood up. My knees almost buckled. My legs turned to jelly. I wasn’t thinking when I climbed over. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing. But now I found I couldn’t get myself to climb back. He threw both arms around my shoulders, lifted me off the ground, hauled me over the guardrail, and planted me on the concrete sidewalk. I sank to the floor. He let go of me and turned around. I thought he was leaving. But he came back three seconds later with my heels. He looked impressively tall from my vantage point. All I could see was his long legs as they moved towards me in quick, powerful strides. He must be at least 1.85, 1.87m. Standing in my four-inch heels, I barely reached his shoulders. And he was in good shape. ‘I can help you,’ he said. ‘What?’ I didn’t understand. ‘Ever heard of the Make A Wish Foundation?’ ‘No.’ ‘It helps to make the wishes of terminally ill patients come true. Kind of like a real-life fairy godmother.’ I stared at him blankly. Why was he talking to me about a charity? ‘I can be your fairy godmother. Well, godfather, to be exact.’ ‘I’m not terminally ill.’ And I didn’t have a wish. Wait, I did. I wished Dad could come back to life, but I doubted the stranger could make that happen. ‘But you were prepared to die, right? Just like a terminally ill patient. And it’s because your husband can’t have sex with you. So…’ He smirked. ‘I can help you with that.’ His eyes were hidden under the bill of the black cap, but I bet there was a wicked gleam in them. This time, I understood. I marvelled at the stranger’s ability to make such an indecent proposal with such a straight face. I crossed my arms and raised my chin. ‘Are you offering to have sex with me?’ ‘You can take it that way.’ I was at a loss for words. This was such a surreal encounter. Part of me still thought I must be dreaming. Yet another part of me was…grateful. Whoever this stranger was, whatever his intentions were, at least he could see that I was upset and offered to help. His suggestion, as tongue-in-cheek as it sounded, was better than anything Landon had offered me. A sexless marriage was more difficult than I’d imagined. My mother-in-law didn’t bother hiding her disappointment every time she saw me. My flat stomach, an envy to many a woman, had only ever won me looks of disapproval from her. Her pointed questions and her repeated offers to book me an appointment at a fertility clinic made me want to crawl into a hole and die. She made me feel inferior, like I wasn’t worth much as a human being if I couldn’t give birth to a child. At this point, Landon would get up, make an excuse and leave the room. I broached the subject with him. Maybe we could both go to a clinic. He grew defensive and said his body was fine. He made allusions to a mental health issue but refused to go into detail. He would never go to a clinic, fertility or otherwise. In the two years of marriage, he’d never once offered to help me out, not with his mother, not with our time in the bedroom. Looking back, I saw so many signs I’d missed, but a woman in love was blind. I sniffled. The night air was getting chilly. The stranger was standing there with his hands stuck in his pants pockets, waiting patiently. He’d offered to take me to bed. I eyed him up and down. He had a strong, athletic build. He smelled pleasant enough. And I liked his voice. I shrugged and decided, why the hell not? It was not like I was saving myself for someone special. ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Where shall we go?’ ‘My place.’ He didn’t sound surprised at all that I’d agreed to his proposal. He saw me rubbing my bare arms, took off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders. ‘Come on.’ He threw one arm around my shoulders and guided me to a black Audi R8 parked nearby. Fifteen minutes into the ride, I started to fret. The logical part of my brain finally came online. I got into a car with a stranger in the middle of the night. I had no idea where we were going. We’d left the bridge a long time ago. The Audi was the only car zooming down a four-lane boulevard. Wild thoughts swirled around in my head. The window on my side was rolled down. I watched the lamps and trees recede in a blur and wondered where the hell I was. ‘Are you scared?’ the stranger asked. ‘Yeah.’ ‘Of what?’ Wasn’t the answer obvious? I turned back to look at his face. He was still wearing that darn cap. Black cap, black shirt, black pants, black shoes. The only things missing from his getup were a balaclava and a submachine gun, and he’d make a perfect addition to a crew of bank robbers. ‘You’re not a bad guy, are you?’ ‘Well, what do you think?’ He smiled. His canine teeth glinted under the white dome light, giving him a vampirish look. ‘I think you might be a serial killer out on a night prowl. You’re going to take me to a secret dungeon in the suburbs, rape me, then kill me, or eat me, à la Hannibal Lecter. Or you’re going to imprison me and use me as a sex slave.’ He burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that his shoulders shook. I watched his hands on the steering wheel and hoped we wouldn’t crash. It was a full-on belly laugh. He didn’t stop till we’d turned off the boulevard onto a two-lane. He caught his breath, stretched out his right hand and tousled my windswept hair. ‘You watch too much TV. Besides, you were ready to jump into the river half an hour ago. Why are you scared to die now?’ ‘Who said I was going to jump?’ I pushed his hand away. ‘I was just resting my legs and enjoying the view.’ ‘Sure, whatever you say.’ The bizarre conversation ended in silence, but my unease didn’t let up. The car pulled up outside a house.