I was sat having gin and a glass of red with a couple of small plates of expensive but delicious food at the bar of a restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel. I’m staying there on my post-retirement poker break in Vegas.
She was doing the same thing across the corner of the bar from me. I’m terrible with ages but I’m going to guess at somewhere around my age. She was elegantly but simply dressed and her slim, brown shoulders were bare. We caught each other’s eyes across the bar more than once. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, that would have been that. I’d have gone to bed with a little smile at the momentary connection between two souls in what can be the most crowded lonely place on earth.
Instead, as much to my surprise as hers, I walked over and asked if she’d like to join me for a drink. Here’s the thing: I’m not sure if I’ve ever done that before. People I’ve connected with, since right back in my student days, were always part of a pre-existing group, people I already knew. I’ve always been too unsure of myself, too afraid of rejection, to approach someone cold at a bar and say hi.
We talked for ages, drank a bit too much, and somehow ended up talking about sex, relationships and kink. I told a stranger I’d just met about my blog and about my sessions with Elita and Lilly. She talked about her attitude to sex and what she liked and didn’t like. We met again last night in the same place and talked until they they were setting the tables round us for the following day.
We’re going to meet on Monday after I’ve had a session with the fearsome, Chinese Dominatrix I’ve seen occasionally on my trips here. This isn’t going to turn into anything other than food, chat and wine, but I’m cool with that.
Vegas can be daunting alone, and to find this unexpected connection has already added something surprising and special to my trip.
And, who knows what the future might hold, now I’ve popped my “chatting up a stranger in a bar” cherry?
Octopus and chick peas. Yum
Mr Bibulous
I am a shy lurker and admirer of your writing.
You capture the essence of your encounters so well I have to confess that I can experience them with all of my senses
Kz xx
Long time reader, first time caller, etc.
Our lives are different, but we share enough life circumstances that I always appreciate your writing here. And I’m like you — I have no issues dining alone, but I’m not one to approach someone either. If you would care to share, I would love to hear more about how kink managed to come up, and in what sounds like such detail, on this first conversation. I can’t imagine going there so early, which is why I am interested.
Hi. thanks for dropping in. I’l be honest I had had a gin, a couple of biggish Rioja’s ad a brandy, and my memory of how that first conversation went is aaaahhh lets say Inexact.
OMG! This is quite a remarkable example of the synchronicity & connection that has been showing up in my life quite regularly lately. I have been a reader & fan of your writing since the inception of “Pain as Pleasure”. Your journey and experiences have mirrored my own (in spades!). Until today, I haven’t looked at your blog for several years but I have been doing a lot of journaling for my own therapy and I went back to some earlier writing that included some of your blog entries. I feel very grateful to have discovered (& now re-discovered) the honest & eloquent expression of a fellow traveler on this amazing journey we call life.
Blessings and kindest regards to you,
rmk
What a lovely thing to read. I love thee way this blog, the nature of which has changed over the years, has connected me with different people. I glad you found something useful here. Thanks.