Rope Lover

You have been a little too demanding today and insisting that I cook dinner was the last straw. OK I will cook dinner but you will be eating it on my terms. The comfortable straight backed chair in the dining room is my starting point, so please take your seat while I prepare dinner. I hope you’re sitting comfortably; maybe a cushion would help for who knows you may be there some time. Of course your ankles get tied one to each chair leg. Nothing too restrictive such as being pulled back off the floor, just feet resting on the floor but with no option to move them. ...

It’s a lovely warm Summer’s day, just past the heat of the mid-day sun but still with hours of sunshine to bask in on this idyllic island retreat. The air seems to hang heavy with no breeze and you can feel the heat rising from any open ground or beach. It’s a fairly long drive to the cove we have found but it is so far off the beaten track that it seems no one ever ventures there, hence guaranteed privacy. No car tracks, no litter and there’s the inviting shade offered by the trees only 50 metres from the shoreline. ...

Maybe it’s the pressure of your work or you have just had a bad day, but all I can say is your mood seems very “snappy”. All you have done since you came home is complain or criticise what I have done or not done today. The evening meal is under way, your favourite, so why don’t you go and get changed into something comfortable and when you come down I will help you relax. ...

Hotels, they all seem so similar. Hyatt, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Hilton, all with the gentle piped music in the public areas and the lifts. The sterile reception areas sitting on glossy marble floors. And there’s the plush bar area. That inevitable place where people mingle in subdued lighting. The bored reps at just another hotel stop over, the conference attendees enjoying loud and inconsequential chatter, the occasional lady of the night looking for business. The couple so closely entwined their relationship must be illicit, but oh what joy they exude. ...