It was just another boring cocktail party until she walked in. I saw her look around with a "Why in the hell am I here" look on her face and then our eyes met. I'll swear to my dying day that a spark jumped between us.

She made her way toward the makeshift bar and I excused myself from the group I'd been talking with and headed for her. I moved next to her at the bar and before she had a chance to order herself a drink I said:

"You don't want to be here any more than I do. May I suggest that we leave and go some place where we can get to know each other?"

I saw the smile behind the cool, appraising glance she gave me and then she said, "Do you have any place in particular in mind?"

"Well, it is too soon in our relationship to ask your place or mine, so I was thinking about some place close by. Maybe Mario's? They make a killer martini there and it's just around the corner."

Over martinis I learned that her name was Fiona, that she was twenty-seven years old and that she made her living as a painter of portraits, still lifes and landscapes. When I asked her if there were any men in her life she looked me right in the eye and said, "Not until now."

"Does this mean that it's time for the your place or mine question?"

"How close are we to your place?"

"Fifteen minutes."

She reached for her purse, "Mine's only five - lets go."

Following her to her place I wondered what was happening to me. I've chased a lot of ladies in my time and I've been successful with quite a few, but it was never like this. Never had I looked at one and knew - just knew - that she was the one that was meant for me. And never, not ever, had things moved so quickly. From opening conversation to leaving Mario's it was less than forty-five minutes. I wondered if she too had felt the spark or whether she was just easy.

It did not take me long to find out that she was perfect for me. She unlocked the door of her apartment and was taking off her clothes before I was even inside. She pulled me toward the bedroom.

"Hurry, come on, hurry."

There was no foreplay - we hit the bed and went after each other like two people possessed and it was perfect. I instinctively knew what she wanted, where and how to touch, and she knew the same about me. The only way to describe it would be to say we fit - we were made for each other. After the first frenzied fuck she brought me back to life with the best head I'd ever gotten. Our second coupling, while not as frenzied as the first, was still intense and when it was over I surprised her by going down on her cum filled pussy. She told me later that no man had ever done that to her before. We went twice more before falling asleep wrapped up in each other's arms.

I woke to find her leaning on an elbow and looking down at me. When she saw that I was awake she said, "Will I see you again or was I wrong in thinking that something special happened between us last night?"

"I felt it, but I didn't know if you did."

"Oh I felt it all right."

We did not leave her bed until six that evening and only then because we needed something to eat besides each other. After eating we went to my apartment so I could get a change of clothes, but we were no sooner in the door than she asked me where the bedroom was. I pointed and she headed for it stripping as she walked. I had more sex that weekend than I'd had in the previous two months and I was pretty much exhausted when I dropped her off at her apartment on Sunday night. As she got out of the car she said, "Are you sure you won't come up?"

"If I come up I'm liable to miss work tomorrow."

She laughed, "Yeah, you probably would."

"I get off work at five."

"I'm sorry baby, but I'm busy tomorrow night. How about Tuesday?"

I told her that I would see her then and I headed on home.

For the next three months Fiona and I saw each other every night but Monday and Thursday. When I asked why I couldn't see her on those days she told me that those were the two nights when people sat for portraits. I told her that I'd love to watch her work, but she said no. "You would be too much of a distraction for me baby, and I couldn't afford to be throwing down my brushes to rip off a quick piece." It was something that I could understand so I didn't press her on it.

At the end of three months I proposed. Given the way we felt about each other I expected the proposal to be a slam-dunk so I was stunned when Fiona said no.

"But why not? We are perfect for each other."

"I won't marry you because I don't want to give up my independence. What we have is working and I don't see any need to change things."

I worked on her for another two weeks, but she wouldn't budge on the matter. I finally decided to drop the matter before I ended up screwing up what we already had.

Another three months went by and one day I was having a business lunch with a client and I saw Fiona walk into the restaurant on the arm of a man I didn't know. Frank saw where I was looking and he smiled and said, "She really is a looker, isn't she? I wish I had the price."

"What do you mean?"

"She's a very high priced call girl. She gets five hundred for a four-hour afternoon visit and a thousand bucks for an all-nighter. Unfortunately that's way, way out of my league."

"You're joking, right?"

"No. I met her once through a mutual friend who was one of her clients."

I didn't believe him. How could I? He was talking about the woman I wanted to marry - the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Fiona and her escort sat on the opposite side of the restaurant from us and Fiona was sitting with her back to me and even though she couldn't see me, I never took my eyes off of her until it was time for me to leave.

I knew Frank was wrong, but even though I knew it, it was still in my mind and eventually human nature took over - I had to know for sure. I couldn't take time off from work during the day and I knew where she was every night but Monday and Thursday so I decided to play detective on those two nights. The next Monday found me camped out in a dark corner of her apartment parking lot. At seven I saw a man climb the stairs and knock on the door to her apartment and Fiona greeted him with a kiss and the two of them disappeared into the room. I was crushed. I doubted that kissing the customer was part of sitting for a portrait. I sat out there in my car watching the windows of Fiona's apartment for over four hours and when the lights went off and the man still hadn't come out I knew that Frank knew what he was talking about.

The next night Fiona could tell that something was wrong and she kept after me to tell her what it was. Finally I told her about my lunch with Frank, what he had said and about my night in her parking lot. I looked at her hoping that she would get mad and tell me how wrong Frank was and that she would have a perfectly good excuse for Monday night. Instead she looked away from me and said, "I hoped that you would never find out."