Chapter 1

Best Laid Plans

I held the hot coffee cup in my hands. I loved the smell of coffee. There was just something soothing about it.

It was late in the evening, after work. This coffee shop would close soon. But I was here for a very important and special reason.

She sat down across from me, at our small little round table I’d chosen in a quiet corner near the back of the shop.

“Hey Colin, sorry I’m late,” she said. She looked completely exhausted and flustered. Her shoulder-length hair – wavy dark brown with blonde highlights – was a mess. Her eyes looked so tired. They’d been looking that way for a long time, actually. Her baggy and casual clothes seemed like an afterthought – something she threw on this morning in a hurry, not really caring how she looked.

Tara was my wife’s older sister. She was in her mid-40s now, but we first met back when I was in college. I needed help passing one of my classes, and as a new part-time teaching assistant, she tutored me. We hit it off instantly. I always liked her. She was smart, pretty, had a great sense of humor. Unfortunately, she was also engaged – so it was never meant to be between us. But if it wasn’t for her, I never would’ve met her sister Claire, the girl of my dreams, the woman I later married.

And that’s what brought us here today, in this little hole in the wall coffee shop, after work on a Tuesday.

“It’s good to see you,” I told her.

She chuckled it off, knowing full well how worn-down she looked.

“How are the kids?” I asked.

“They don’t warn you how tough it is raising teenage daughters. Oh my God, Colin, I swear – I love them, I really do, but some days…” She trailed off in thought. “It’s just a lot.”

I nodded, not really understanding. Claire and I never had any kids, even though we were both in our mid-30s now. Not that we were against it or anything. We wanted kids, someday. But Claire worked at a non-profit and it took me a while to find a decent job. You’d think with a mechanical engineering degree, I’d have plenty of high-paying options, but entry-level jobs only provided entry-level salaries. It didn’t matter what someone studied in college, nobody made that much money for the first few years in any career.

Claire and I wanted to wait until we were financially ready and could buy a home, before we started a family. Technically, that time was now. We bought a nice starter home in the suburbs. I was making pretty good money now. But… something unexpected happened.

We still loved each other. I’d do anything for her. But over the years, due to no one’s fault, we just stopped being “intimate” that often. We both just got so busy with our careers. We never had time to go on dates. We were too tired to, you know, fool around much. There was still sex on birthdays and holidays and stuff. But honestly, over the years, our sex life had become pretty stale and mechanical. We just found ourselves doing it less and less. It sucked. This wasn’t the future we imagined for ourselves when we first got married. But here we were.

However, next month Claire and I were celebrating our 10th anniversary. I wanted to do something special for her. For us. Not just to celebrate 10 years of being married. But also to bring us back to our origins, back to how the relationship started. Reignite that “spark” between us. Revive our sex life together.

I’d been wracking my brain for months trying to figure out what to do. A big romantic date? Sure, that’d be great, but what exactly? Maybe a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city, like in one of those rom-com movies she loved so much? A trip to Paris to renew our vows in front of the Eiffel Tower? We never made it to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We couldn’t afford it at the time. Maybe we should finally have our dream honeymoon there, just ten years late…?

But what else could I do? All these ideas sounded good, but I wanted to do something great, something special, something unforgettable.

Something that would bring us closer together than ever before and reinspire that passion and romance we once felt for each other back when we were younger.

Fortunately, there was one person who knew Claire even better than me. Her older sister, Tara. And that’s what brought the two of us to this coffee shop this evening. It was the only night Tara had off, where she wasn’t taking one of her kids to a band rehearsal or cheerleading at a school game or something. No homework papers to grade or tests to prepare – Tara was a full-time high school teacher now. No PTA meetings to attend or afterschool detentions to supervise.

And I thought I was busy!

Tara sipped the coffee I’d bought her. “So you want to do something special for Claire?” she asked, always happy to help others, no matter how tired she was personally. “I have a few ideas.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Well, when we were little, she used to be fascinated by everything related to Australia. Even said she wanted to be a ‘kangaroo doctor’ when she grew up.” Tara chuckled playfully at that. “I know they give tours of the Outback. Like a safari, only in Australia. I bet she’d love that.”

Hmm. I thought about it. Maybe. But didn’t seem romantic enough.

“She loves Italian food. You could take her to that hot new restaurant downtown.”

Eh. Too cliché and uninspired.

We sat there in awkward silence for a minute.

Then Tara said, “Not that it’s any of my business, and honestly, I don’t need to know any details, but… is there anything ‘kinky’ she’s been wanting to do, that you haven’t done yet?”

I thought about it. That would spice things up a bit. Claire actually shared with me once, years ago, that she had a secret fantasy of me ‘kidnapping’ her at work, tying her up, and dumping her into the trunk of my car… then driving off to the middle of nowhere where I’d ‘rape’ her. Which totally surprised me when she said that, because she’s not that kind of girl. But I guessed we all have our own secret little taboo dark fantasies. Stuff that we’d never want to have happen in real life – but within play, with a loved one, when you know you’re actually safe the entire time, it could be a lot of fun. Hmm. Should I do something like that with Claire?

“And you think she’d enjoy that, for a ten-year anniversary gift?” I asked Tara.

Tara laughed. “Hell yeah! What, you think only guys have kinky fantasies? Don’t judge whatever turns her on. Just do it. And trust me, she’ll be thinking about and remembering that night for years after.”

I took another swig of my coffee, finishing it off. I thought about Tara’s suggestion some more. I started nodding my head. Putting a small plan together.

Maybe one day I could surprise her at work, pick her up… and as soon as she got to the car, bind her up in some rope, dump her in the trunk like she fantasized, drive away to somewhere remote.

“Okay, yeah. I’ve got an idea.”

I’d have to pick a good spot ahead of time. Maybe even have a blanket, picnic basket, cooler with some wine in it for afterwards. Somewhere private, maybe out in the woods, or something. Yeah, I bet she’d like that.

“Good.” Tara checked the time on her phone. “Not to cut this short, it’s always good seeing you Colin, but… it’s a school night.”

“Right,” I said. It was getting late. “Thanks,” I quickly added, before she got up. I wasn’t sure how to say this next part. “You know how much I love your sister. Things… just haven’t been that, well, as good as they could be lately,” I said. “And I don’t want us to end up like you and Sam. No offense.”

“None taken,” she replied.

“How’s the marriage counseling going?”

“It’s… going. We’re making some progress. But it’s a lot of work.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

“Don’t be. I probably should’ve never married him. I knew he was wrong for me. All my friends said so at the time, too. But he was hot. Had great hair, nice arms, a lot of confidence about himself and life and us. He was sure we were meant to be together, and I just believed him. I didn’t listen to my gut. And of course, the sex was great.”

“But you deserve to be happy,” I said.

She shrugged. “I have responsibilities now. Maybe after my girls are off to college and doing fine on their own. But right now?” She shook her head. “This is just my life.”