The Palo Alto Method
- 3 years ago
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I am not sure when I first heard of biorhythms. Certainly I was a teenager then, maybe as young as 12. You read about a lot of things at that age and don’t know whether to believe them or not. I’m still not sure about biorhythms.
The idea is that everyone has a physical cycle that is 23 days long, an emotional one that lasts 28 days, and a mental one that goes for 33 days, all starting on the day you are born. This was less complicated and easier to accept than, say, astrology. It might be wrong, but you almost have to believe that there are cycles in people’s lives. As a woman, I can tell you there damn well is one in mine, though it’s not tied to the day I was born. But the idea appealed to me, and I did a lot of arithmetic to see where I was, and when the high and low days were. Then I’d usually forget about it. But sometime later I would start thinking about it again, and drag out my figures or do them over. I must have done that a half-dozen times.
As I got older, I started collecting the birthdays of boys I dated (and, later, men). Somebody 33 days older or younger than you has the same mental cycle, as does someone 66, 99, and so forth days away from you. And of course the same goes for the emotional and physical cycles. The closer the better, in theory. A perfect match, though, has to be the same date of birth or 55 years away, so you don’t expect perfection. You probably couldn’t stand it anyway.
I hung up charts with the long triple curves at the times when the interest came back, and planned trips around them to some extent, and was careful on certain days. That last part didn’t hurt, anyway.
People knew me for talking about the rhythms, and asking a man for his birthdate serves as well for a conversation starter as asking what sign he is. Maybe better, since he won’t fudge by a year or two if he understands that there might be an advantage in not doing so.
I met Ken Riley at a wedding. I worked with the bride, and he was a friend of the groom. We talked to each other some, but nothing happened. The married couple gave a party a couple of months later, and this time Ken and I made a date, and that led to another one.
I had been living on my own for two years then. In that time I had a long affair with a man which ended badly, and two more that didn’t work out but weren’t really unhappy (though one was pretty stupid.) In all three cases the patterns were way off, but I had never taken the biorhythms seriously enough, steadily enough, to look before it didn’t matter. Though I had the information. It might not have mattered, my friends had already been telling me that the one man was really wrong for me.
By the fifth time I went out with Ken, I wasn’t really starting to think about getting physical with him, but I was thinking about thinking about it — if that makes sense. We were proving to be a good match in a lot of ways, and I wondered… But I wasn’t going to do anything about it, al least for a while.
We were in a liquor store at the end of an evening because he wanted to buy some wine for a party we were going to that weekend. The owner asked for ID for proof of age, and Ken showed his driver’s license. Ken went back with the man to see about the size and brand, and left the wallet on the counter. I moved up to it and put my hand out to keep anyone from grabbing it. I looked down and noticed Ken’s birthdate.
Years before, when I was feeling very horny one day, I figured out that the physical and the emotional cycles would both match every 644 days. (23 times 28.) That’s 86 days short of two years. I was born on October 9th, so somebody born on January 3rd of the year before was a perfect physical and emotional match for me.
That date had stuck in my mind. That’s when Ken was born.
When Ken came back, I looked at him carefully and with almost some apprehension. Ironically, I had never asked him what I had asked a lot of other men.
He noticed that I seemed a little nervous, and as we left the store he asked me why. I wasn’t willing to say, since he might think I was crazy. Also, he might decide if he put a move on me, I would be more likely to say yes. And he might be right, I wasn’t sure of myself.
I had only half-believed in the rhythms, but if there was anything to it at all, I was playing with fire. I remembered that I was at a physical peak today — which meant that he was too — but I couldn’t remember where the emotional cycle was. But knowing that my body was supposed to be at its most sensitive made me more, uh, inclined than before. But no less chicken.
Before I had to quit stalling and answer Ken, the sky opened up. It was a fast summer rain, and we were both soaked before we could get a block to where his car was parked.
His apartment was only a few minutes away from there, and he invited me in to put on a bathrobe and to let my skirt and silk blouse go into his dryer.
As we went into his building, I noticed that my peach bra was completely visible through the wet blouse, and in this light it looked flesh-colored. Ken might think that I had nothing on underneath unless he looked for my nipples, and I hoped he would be too much of a gentleman for that. I blushed as we went up in the elevator.
I went straight for his bathroom, and a minute later he knocked on the door and passed through the bathrobe. When I came out, he had put on another pair of slacks and a shirt, which he left open to dry his skin out. He had a big cup of coffee waiting for me, and he was sipping on another one while he stood there barefoot.
Here he was half-naked, and I was half-naked, and I really would have felt that we were moving too fast if there was any way he could have planned it. As it was, he was acting comfortable and casual, as if we were long married.
He took the blouse and skirt from me and put them in his dryer, with I think all the clothing he had worn. I had kept my bra and panties on, though the bra wasn’t fastened, it seemed too much trouble to hook it back up after I dried off with a towel.
We talked and warmed ourselves for a while. The bathrobe did not stay closed all the way up, so he could easily see that I had a bra on now. And probably he could see a bit more than that. After we had both finished the coffee he took my hand as we kept talking, then he kissed me.
The kiss got longer and I opened my mouth. Ken took the opportunity and things turned serious. His tongue entered me and circled around, touching and sliding along mine until I was gasping from excitement and for breath. Then he withdrew, so that my awakened hunger made me pursue him and send my own tongue after his. He held me to him, and the heat of his chest spread all through all of my body that touched him as we stood there, and it radiated from there to the rest. Especially one area down below that began to ache for him.
He pulled on the belt of the bathrobe and it fell open, and for an instant all of my body was against his. His hands swept up and his fingertips touched the skin at the tops of my breasts. His hands were even hotter there than his chest had been.
I jerked away from him. I pulled the bathrobe closed as I ran across the room, and I stopped. Ken stood there, watching me, and I looked back at him.
The two of us stood for a minute in complete silence, then I pulled the cord on the bathrobe. I opened it wide and dropped it to the floor. I had decided.
While Ken walked toward me, I pulled on the bra and tossed it beside the robe, then I slid down my panties.
When he stood before me, before he touched me, he shrugged off his shirt and dropped it on his bathrobe.
Now I stood naked in his arms while he held me. He kissed me deep in my mouth, and even deeper in my emotions. It seemed as if every motion of his tongue could be felt in a place where with every passing second I more wanted another part of him to probe and thrust. He pressed his hairy chest to my br
easts and I could feel every hair of it against my rigid nipples. He caressed me all over my back, beginning at the shoulders and slowly settling to my hips, which his hands eased forward, opening my legs slightly to let one finger touch my moist warm cave from behind. I felt a warm bulge pressing down below that felt like it would leave a permanent ridge in my stomach. After I began to tremble I said in a hoarse whisper: ‘Get a condom!’
He turned away and I collapsed to the floor, lying on the robe with my arms open, my knees raised, and my legs apart and waiting. I sniffed his shirt, which already had a faint odor of him on it. I was ready for him to take me right there, or in any other way that he wanted.
When he came back, he was wearing a condom and nothing else at all. That white tube stood out against his body and made it look even larger than my desire for him had already made it seem.
He did not sink down onto the floor and into me as I wanted at first, instead he raised me to my feet again and pressed that hard cylinder into my belly while he slid a hand down between my thighs, reaching behind me to do it. It was only a matter of seconds before I gave a convulsive shudder.
‘God, you’re so hot in there, so hot…’ he said to me.
I shut my eyes tight and tried to do the same with the place that he was fondling. I raised my hips to relieve the intensity of the sensation, which was almost more than I could bear. ‘Please,’ I gasped, ‘Don’t keep doing that. Please, I can’t bear it. Make love to me…properly… I don’t want to…to…’
He stopped immediately. He squatted and he drew me down on him. My legs went quite naturally around his hips, as if they had always belonged there, and he held me in the air while he positioned me until I felt his erection just beginning to part the lips at my entrance. Then he relaxed his arms and I was impaled on his spike. I cried out as I went all the way down on his hook of thick meat. That sudden full entry was exactly what I needed from him at that moment.
His hands cupped my buttocks, taking most of my weight while I pumped up and down, in and out. Later I held on to his shoulders and let his powerful hips push up into me while I lay back in the air, until we were almost at the ultimate height.
Then he rolled me back onto the bathrobe without breaking contact and I felt his semen fill the latex envelope as he drove in and my own climax came.
Later I lay in his bed and did some arithmetic on a pad. It made sense that I had some trouble recalling where the emotional cycle was… That day was a mental lowpoint for me, and an emotionally critical day for both of us!
As I said, I don’t know if I really believe in biorhythms. They seemed to work that day. And I’ll certainly tell you that the physical peaks with Ken have been much more often than one in 28 days.
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© 2011 All rights reserved * A week later, Ryan was pleased to be in a soft cast. Her ankle hurt far less and she was off her crutches, but she couldn’t wait to be done with the whole damn thing. At least, she thought as she came in from work, she wasn’t thinking about how it had happened every time she walked more than a block. Just a few more days, she reminded herself as she stared at the contents of the fridge. She frowned, pickings were slim. She wondered if there was any mac’n’cheese....
Author’s note: First, thanks to my beta readers for reading and estragon for copy edits. Thanks also to MugsyB and LettersfromTatyana for letting me borrow some characters. The next morning, Ryan stretched and rolled over in her bed, but Brody wasn’t there. She blinked awake and frowned, wondering how late it was and why he would have left. So far as she knew, he had nothing going on today. She took a deep breath, smelled food cooking, and smiled. She rolled out of bed and pulled on a pair of...
Author’s Note: Well, here it is, the final installment. Thanks once again to MugsyB and Annanova for encouragement, my beta reader J, and to estragon for copyediting. Any errors are mine, but hopefully there aren’t many. Thanks to all who have read, voted and commented — it means so much. Lara looked at Ryan over the top of her latté. ‘You guys fought over a tour again?’ ‘Well, we didn’t exactly fight,’ Ryan said with a rueful smile. ‘I got out before it became a fight. But there was...
(c) 2011 All Rights Reserved A week later, Ryan was on the UMD campus. She walked over to the statue of the diamondback terrapin, symbol of the school’s teams, and rubbed its head. The week had been hectic, including a tense dinner with her parents, and it felt like it was the first time in days she’d even been able to take a deep breath. ‘So, let’s see.’ She patted the terrapin’s head again. ‘In the last week, I’ve filed a record number of reports at work, argued both on the phone and in...
Author’s note: Sorry for the delay, and there will likely be one with the next chapter. I caught up to myself. Thanks to estragon for help with copy editing. ================================== © 2011 All Rights Reserved The night after meeting Ryan’s parents, Brody was playing pool with Drew, Bax, and Tolya at an Arlington sports bar. He took his shot, missed, and stepped back for Drew, and told them about the dinner. ‘Her dad asks me if I ever played football, because obviously he thinks...
Brody debated what they might do now that the gig was over. It was fall, so a lot of places closed early. On the other hand, the weather was still decent, so he suggested they go to Old Town Alexandria. Ryan agreed, and he waited while she changed, musing over what Mark, Hilary and even Bax had been saying for the last few days. True, he wouldn’t mind being more than friends with Ryan. However, she’d been up front about not wanting more, and he wasn’t one to push once a line was drawn. Then...
Ryan gave herself a mental shake as she got her guitar out. It was Saturday, and in seven days, they’d be headlining at the 9:30 Club. She thought she must be excited, she kept telling herself the butterflies in her stomach meant she was excited. She chatted with Lara and Mitch as they got ready. Nate came in a few minutes later, and Ryan was surprised not to see Jason with him. Mitch and Nate started talking, and Ryan turned to Lara. ‘Where’s Jason?’ she asked. ‘He and Nate usually come...
Author’s Note: Yes, here’s a hockey romance. I know it’s been a long (long long long) time since I posted something other than a stand alone. Writing time has been hard to come by this year, unfortunately. I do hope you enjoy this. Votes and feedback always appreciated. Thanks to MugsyB, annanova, and LettersfromTatyana for beta reading and encouragement, as well as my chief beta reader J. Also thanks to Estragon for the copy editing. Hope you enjoy! =============================== ‘I gotta...
Brody hung by the blue line, waiting for his defensemen to get to the puck out of the corner. Time slowed as players jabbed at the puck, trying to free it from under skates and sticks. After what seemed like forever, the puck dribbled free and Bax snagged it and started up the ice. Brody followed him and saw Tolya joining the rush. They crossed the red line and Bax dumped the puck down the ice. Brody put on a burst of speed and went after it, colliding with a Devil player along the boards. He...
Author’s note: thanks again to my beta readers and to estragon for copy edits. Votes and feedback always welcome. © 2011 All Rights Reserved Brody drummed his fingers on his knee and bounced his leg as he sat on the team bus. They’d be on their way to Philly soon and few things got the Capitals pumped like a game against the Flyers, even though it was the teams’ first meeting of the season, in mid-November. Baxter dropped into the seat beside him. ‘Jesus, do you never sit still?’ ‘Just a...
Author’s Note: Many thanks to MugsyB and Annanova for their feedback on drafts, and to estragon for copy editing. Any remaining errors are mine — sorry in advance. After watching Brody suffer his concussion, Ryan couldn’t sleep. She laid in bed and dozed fitfully at best, giving up around seven a.m. She dressed quietly to avoid waking Lara and went for a walk. After close to an hour, she still wasn’t ready to return to the hotel. She found a diner a block away and went in and ordered some...
© 2011 All Rights Reserved Author’s Note: Thanks again to my beta readers and to estragon for copy editing. Ryan gave herself a mental shake as she got her guitar out. It was Saturday, and in seven days, they’d be headlining at the 9:30 Club. She thought she must be excited, she kept telling herself the butterflies in her stomach meant she was excited. She chatted with Lara and Mitch as they got ready. Nate came in a few minutes later, and Ryan was surprised not to see Jason with him. Mitch...
Author’s note: My apologies for the delay in posting this. What can I say? Life got in the way and foiled the best laid plans of mice and writers. Please enjoy, and feedback is welcome as always. * Ryan had just saved her work log when her phone rang. She answered, hoping it wasn’t a last-minute request for anything. She was anxious to finish up and get out, Brody was going to pick her up and they were going to get one last, quiet celebration in before the tour and the playoffs started up. ...
(c) 2011 All Rights Reserved Author’s note: Happy New Year, everybody! Sorry for the delay, here’s ch 7. ======================================= Four weeks later, on a Friday in the middle of January, Ryan was at work but all of her attention was on Lara. ‘We got it?’ Ryan kept her voice down as she gripped the phone. ‘Are you sure? Are you serious?’ ‘I know! I know!’ Lara all but squeaked. ‘I’m sure, I’m so sure! I just talked to him and they mean it. Once we calm down, we need to find a...
Ryan laughed to herself as she hung up the phone. She did feel a little guilty about conning Brody into bringing her food, but she reminded herself that they had had plans, and he likely would have made dinner anyway. This was a simple matter of timing and location. She sat for a minute with her eyes closed until she heard a knock on the door. With a groan, she dragged herself off the couch and opened the door. She had to bite back a smile at the exasperated expression on Brody’s face. ‘You...
A week later, Ryan was on the UMD campus. She walked over to the statue of the diamondback terrapin, symbol of the school’s teams, and rubbed its head. The week had been hectic, including a tense dinner with her parents, and it felt like it was the first time in days she’d even been able to take a deep breath. ‘So, let’s see.’ She patted the terrapin’s head again. ‘In the last week, I’ve filed a record number of reports at work, argued both on the phone and in person with my parents, argued...
The night after meeting Ryan’s parents, Brody was playing pool with Drew, Bax, and Tolya at an Arlington sports bar. He took his shot, missed, and stepped back for Drew, and told them about the dinner. ‘Her dad asks me if I ever played football, because obviously he thinks that’s the only sport worth playing.’ Brody shook his head. ‘Jesus. So there I am, trying to find a nice to way to say, no, I didn’t want to play the sport that he’s obsessed with.’ ‘Did he ask you about your intentions...
The incessant buzz of his alarm clock usually had Brody up right away, but this time it took him a good ten seconds of flailing before he found the button to shut it off. The team had played the night before, eking out an overtime win against Nashville, and he’d almost fallen asleep in his clothes when he’d gotten home. He lay in bed a while longer before opening his eyes. His day had so far consisted of going to sleep, waking up and trying to get oriented, then sleeping again. He dragged...
At the sound check, Ryan found herself more relaxed than she’d ever been preparing for a gig. It almost made her laugh. Jason’s absence was liberating, and added weight to the others’ argument that perhaps they shouldn’t replace him. She still wasn’t sure, but had to admit the idea was appealing, especially if it meant reduced stress levels like this. She looked up and saw Trout, who was nodding as he adjusted levels on the sound board. Brody was up there, too, standing back so as not to get...
Ryan’s phone beeped as she and Brody walked to the club. She checked the screen and touched the icon to see Evan’s text message. I had to promise to come to dinner with Mom and Dad next week. You owe me. ‘Smart ass.’ Ryan shook her head with a smile and put her phone back in her pocket. ‘Who is?’ Brody asked. ‘Evan. Oh, hey, I guess we’re officially official, since you’ll be meeting a family member.’ He opened the door for her. ‘Yeah, but it’s only your brother. You’re starting me off easy.’...
‘Jason was a piece of work, wasn’t he?’ Lara shook her head as she drove them home. ‘He was.’ Ryan paused, trying to get a sense of Lara’s mood. ‘No worse than usual, I guess, but he does get under my skin. I think he does it on purpose.’ ‘Yeah. God.’ Lara smacked the steering wheel. ”Too bad you didn’t get an earlier date?’ Next time he can plan the damn gigs. I don’t see him offering to help. He won’t even put up any flyers!’ She shook her head. ‘Nate did I don’t know how many blocks last...
© 2011 All rights reserved ‘I gotta go, man,’ said Mark. ‘I told Hilary I’d meet her.’ ‘Right.’ Brody grinned. ‘You’re just mad because I was kicking your ass at Madden.’ Mark rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, that’s it. I’m so pissed about losing that I’m using my girlfriend as an excuse. Jesus, Brody.’ Brody snickered. ‘You have been whipped since she moved in with you.’ ‘Just get out.’ Mark glared at him. ‘Man, I never thought I’d see the day. . . .’ Brody dodged Mark’s half-hearted swing at his...
Brody waited for Mark and Hilary near the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro station. He was looking forward to the show and seeing Ryan perform. When he thought about growing up, he always remembered music in the background. Classical, rock, blues, even some punk—his parents had played a little bit of everything, and he and his siblings had all added their contributions as they’d grown up. He’d tried to learn an instrument, but it had been plain from the first squeak on the clarinet that music was not his...
Lara looked at Ryan over the top of her latté. ‘You guys fought over a tour again?’ ‘Well, we didn’t exactly fight,’ Ryan said with a rueful smile. ‘I got out before it became a fight. But there was definitely a difference of opinion.’ ‘What happened?’ ‘I already told you. Brody got upset when he realized I would be gone the rest of the summer. Then I got upset and left. I just knew if I stayed and we kept talking, it would get ugly.’ Ryan stopped and took a drink of her coffee. She’d gone to...
© 2011 All Rights Reserved A week later, Ryan was pleased to be in a soft cast. Her ankle hurt far less and she was off her crutches, but she couldn’t wait to be done with the whole damn thing. At least, she thought as she came in from work, she wasn’t thinking about how it had happened every time she walked more than a block. Just a few more days, she reminded herself as she stared at the contents of the fridge. She frowned, pickings were slim. She wondered if there was any mac’n’cheese. A...
Game five back in Washington was even more tightly-contested than game four in Montréal. Brody saw the puck sliding to the corner and charged after it. He caught a flash of white out of the corner of his eye, knew he had a step on the defenseman, and sped up as he focused on the puck. A few feet out from the boards he felt something slam into his back and then he crashed into the boards. He dropped face down to the ice. ‘Brody, you okay?’ He could hear an accented voice above him. ‘Don’t...
Ryan had just saved her work log when her phone rang. She answered, hoping it wasn’t a last-minute request for anything. She was anxious to finish up and get out, Brody was going to pick her up and they were going to get one last, quiet celebration in before the tour and the playoffs started up. It was her supervisor, but luck was with her—the work was already done. Relieved, she sent the files and copied them to the shared drive on the network. She looked at the clock and groaned, the end of...
Saturday morning Brody woke up and groaned as his leg throbbed. He’d gone down to block a shot in the game against Philly, caught the puck above his knee, and it still hurt. Given that, he’d talked with the coach and trainer and decided to skip the day’s optional skate. He stayed in bed a little longer, but sleep wouldn’t return, and so he got up, making his way to the shower with a grimace. Once out, he was rubbing his hair with a towel when the phone rang. ‘Hello?’ ‘Hi, Brody. It’s Ryan.’...