Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Girl with Two Lovers

By Riccardo Berra (c) 2011, Love on the Edge, all rights reserved
With thanks and love to Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard

A girl takes a shower, alone in her apartment. As she sits naked in the dark to dry herself, a familiar ache grows inside her. Lit only by the glow of her computer screen, she touches herself and as she does, she composes two emails, one for each of her two lovers. She asks them to meet her the next day, one at 1l o'clock, the other at 5 o'clock.   

The first lover is a day laborer, a brooding hulk of a man, to whom she writes:

You are strong and powerful. I am putty in your hands. When I arrive, I want you to tear my clothes off, slap my face, curse at me, push me, treat me like the little whore I am. You know what I deserve. I want to feel you smothering me, pounding me until I can't breathe and I dissolve in a puddle of cream. When you finish abusing my pussy, just flip me over and force my asshole until I scream and beg for mercy, though I expect none.

The second man is a poet, an intellectual, to whom she writes:

When I arrive at five, I will be Baudelaire to your Rimbaud. I will undress slowly and you, as you always do, will recite the sonnet you've written, just today, just for me. I love that my restless spirit is your muse, your poetry our foreplay and that my body is your consummation. I ache to feel you slip inside me, softly, slowly, until my passion overwhelms me. When I feel your breathe arrest and the flood of your seed inside me, I will know our love is sacred.


Aroused by what she has written and the confusing duality of her nature, she puts her feet up on the writing desk and legs straddling the laptop, brings herself to a powerful climax with one hand. With the other hand she clicks "send" twice, but as soon as she clicks the second time, lightning strikes and the power goes out. 

The girl sits shivering in the pitch dark. A gnawing suspicion grows inside her, a suspicion that soon becomes certainty that she has transposed the addresses and sent the wrong email to each man. When the power does not come back on again, she passes a fitful night, tossing and turning, getting no sleep.  In the morning she dresses quickly, desperately, in her sexiest panties, bra, skirt and blouse. A quick stroke of ruby lipstick and she's off to her first lover.

They fuck passionately, exactly as she described the night before. While lying together, smoking cigarettes, she reveals that she sent him an email. But the first man has not read his email yet. She is so relieved and tells him that he should delete it without reading.

He demands an explanation. She demurs. His calloused hands pin her soft wrists to the bed. He growls menacingly and demands again, "Tell me everything my sexy little whore" so she does, she tells him the whole story and begs his forgiveness. He breaks up with her on the spot, accusing her of thinking him stupid and herself above him.

Heartbroken, she spends most of the day wandering the streets, but by 4:00 o'clock she reconciles herself that though she has lost one love, she can keep the other. She dries her eyes, freshens her makeup and rushes crosstown—only to find her second lover already in front of his computer.

She is filled with dread, but he doesn't seem at all angry. He rises and kisses her on the lips and neck. He does not recite poetry. Instead, he slowly, tenderly removes her somewhat battered blouse, skirt, bra and panties for her, draping them gently over his laptop. Naked, he throws her on the bed and makes love to her with unaccustomed physicality. While her body still ripples with her orgasm, he flips her over and using the lubrication of their first exchange, he pushes easily into her anus, hooks two fingers into her vagina and pumps away until they both explode a second time.

Spent, the girl nestles in the arms of her lover, eyes wide and glowing with satisfaction. As she strokes the hair on his belly, she whispers you are so sweet and I am so relieved that you have forgiven me.  He acts surprised and insists that she explain herself. She thinks he wants to humiliate her a bit before putting her duplicity behind them. As an intellectual, she assumes, this is how the game is played, so she goes along and holds nothing back. When her story has ended, the man rises from the bed, gathers up the girl's tattered clothes and throws them at her.

He tells her to get dressed and get the fuck out—that he never wants to see her again. Though she weeps and begs, he'll say nothing more. She has no choice but to comply.  Walking aimlessly through the streets until dark, she finally returns to her sad, empty apartment. The power is on and tearfully, she pulls up the two emails, each sent, correctly addressed, to her former lovers.

Ricc Berra, a New York-area screenwriter, is drawn to complex, troubled lovers and their complicated relationships. This story is inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's 1961 "A Woman is a Woman" and its luminous lead, the lovely Anna Karina. This story is the newest member of Ricc's anthology, "Love on the Edge" which can't always promise a happy ending, but does promise a lot of heat and maybe some light getting there. Read this story also on The Erotic Readers and Writers Association Erotic Fiction Gallery.


1 comment:

  1. Hello Riccardo, I have been searching online for erotic writers' blogs in English and came across yours and to my amazement I found this story! I am one of the men, now of a very 'certain age' who partly inspired J-L's film. The little temptress in question has remained in my heart after so many decades although at the time I could not support her having to share me with another man. In retrospect I should have as I would have done anything now to still be in touch with her. I pine for those days.
    Please keep writing. I write unpublished erotica in French. It comforts me now that I am so infirm and bed-ridden.
    Respectfully yours,
    E D L

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