Chapter 46: The One That Got Away

At my request, we spent the afternoon playing golf – at least, four of us did. Bud was still in a major hungover mode and stayed behind for some TLC from the oh-so-attentive staff. Doc, being a doctor, had much more course time than the rest of us, but I was the one who lived next to a golf course. So a match teaming Darren and I against Doc and hacker deluxe Chuck made for a good day in the sun for all of us.

The course, on the island of Puerto Rico, was next to a fabulous restaurant with the great name of Meat Market Miami (keeping with my increasingly difficult no-seafood mandate). Puerto Rico beef is something worth flying cross-country for all by itself, but I had a small steak and a chicken salad to help build my stamina for the night to come.

On the hour-long flight back to the island, I tried quizzing my best man for clues.

“Okay, I get what’s happening here,” I said to a keenly interested Doc (Darren and Chuck were equally curious). “I had barely started college when I started dating around like a male slut. Either you parade them in like a procession, or we’re not going to follow the timeline like we did last night.”

“What are you talking about?” Doc laughed. “Just because you’ve put forth that fiction all these years doesn’t mean we buy it for a minute. ‘Male slut?’ You were as much that as a mail slot. You should have gone to a convent and beat off to all the nuns you could not have.”

“Wait. You’re saying my big brother wasn’t sowing his oats the whole time he was at school?” Darren laughed, incredulous. “All those bragging phone calls – hell, all those photos – were just a lie?”

“Not entirely,” I said, knowing how lame that sounded. “I had sex in college.”

But Doc had turned away and was looking out the window, and both Chuck and Darren had a good laugh at the look of pain I’m sure came over my face. But the pain was real.

I was lost in thought as the seaplane circled the cay for an approach into the sea breeze, and we had not even begun to enter our approach when I saw the head of fiery red hair on the small dock. My heart skipped a beat.

“Jesus, Doc,” I said, staring out the portal. “You found Holly.”

Wearing a teal skirt that stood out starkly against her short red hair, Holly Danvers was here in the flesh. In the somewhat interesting relationships that dotted my life, Holly was easily the One Who Got Away. As the seaplane taxied up to the pier, Holly stood up and her dress flapped spectacularly in the wind. A flash of white panties completed the fantasy image of a woman I was sure I’d never see again.

“Hello, Lawrence,” she said as I approached. Her voice, no doubt.

“Holly, my God. It’s good to see you,” I said, hugging her tightly and feeling her relax in my grasp. I realized she wasn’t sure how she’d be received. I took a step back, the better to look into her hazel eyes. “How did they ever find you?”

“I don’t know,” she began. “I...”

“When we have about an hour, I’ll tell you the whole story,” Chuck said as he stepped carefully onto the dock. “I was kinda proud of myself.”

“Where were you?” I asked her. A look of confusion passed her face, but for only a moment.

“I had to think,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I’ve been living with a family for the last 15 years.”

“She means a cult,” Chuck said. “She’s been deprogrammed. And it was a battle.”

“That’s true,” she said, her old smile arriving right on schedule. “I’ve been able to see the light. I’m so glad they got me the hell out of there.”

“Where was that?” I pressed on.

“Idaho,” she said. “Down in the southwest corner of the state on a big piece of property.”

“It’s amazing to see you,” I said, realizing we were now the only two people standing on the dock.

“Well, I can’t believe I look like this again,” she said. “For 15 yeas, I didn’t color my hair, shave anything or wear any makeup.”

I tried to imagine her that way. I couldn’t.

“Do you have a family? I mean, like a traditional one,” I said awkwardly.

“Did I have a husband? Four, I guess. Used to be five, but one died,” she said without any real emotion. “I had six children, but they told me they were able to fix my body. They also told me to give you this.”

She handed me a folded up piece of paper.

Use the trigger words CULT FREEDOM and she will forget all about her children back in Idaho. They’d kill her if she tried to return. But ask her anything you like until you do. I read it, put it in my pocket, took her hand and began strolling back towards my bungalow.

“Why did you leave? I hoped it wasn’t personal,” I said.

“Why does anyone run away from a loving family, a great school and a guy who loved her?” she said. “I was fucked up. There were things inside me that you never knew about.”

“Such as?” I asked.

“Such as, I was terrified of failure,” she said, stopping to look at me. “Anything less than an ‘A’ meant I couldn’t face my parents, and I was so distracted by some of my new friends, my grades started slipping. I just knew my mom and dad would pull my tuition money and put me to work in their grocery store. I got in my head that I would soon be out on the street, and one of the girls in this back-to-nature group offered me a hand of friendship that grew into something more.”

“Oh, wow,” I explained, stunned. “You mean to tell me you thought you were a lesbian?”

“No, I was convinced I was sexually available to anyone in the Family who desired me,” she said as if that made sense. “When you start thinking that way, moving to Idaho and giving up all material things doesn’t seem to be that big of a step.”

“But you’re back now?” I again asked her.

“I’m back,” she agreed. “Now, can we go screw like teenagers?”

We could.

I led her by the hand into my already familiar room and over to the bed. She looked directly at me as she slipped off her dress, and her large, natural boobs (but not nearly Melanie large) hung so perfectly on her curvy frame. She struck me as being older than when I knew her – but I was fine with that. After spending a night with two retro teens, I could stand the company of an adult.

She was looking at herself in the mirror.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve looked like this,” she said. “I feel like I’m looking at a stranger.”

She paused, actually turned to look at me.

“This is what my oldest daughter looks like – if they’d let her actually show herself,” she said. What she didn’t add was, You’d like her. After all, she’s your daughter.

“You’ve been through a great deal, lived a full life in a short time,” I said. “I’m glad we didn’t take all of that away from you.”

She looked at me. “I wish you would,” she said.

I nodded and took out the paper she’d handed me. I read the trigger words as I looked at her.

“#Cult freedom,” I said, apprehensive at what I’d just done.

The changes were small, but remarkable. Her boobs lifted and shrunk slightly. Her waist drew in, the muscles of her legs firmed up, as did her abs. Her face also seemed to brighten; no, it was her eyes. She’d become the girl who was leaving, not the girl who left. It was up to me to keep her from leaving again.

“You are so beautiful naked,” I said. “I want to keep you by my side.”

“Really?” she seemed to brighten even more. “I have no idea why I wanted to leave. I, I didn’t leave, did I?”

“Not for long,” I said. “You’re back now.”

With that, we embraced, Holly not waiting for me to undress. She pushed me back onto the bed and straddled me with a playful glimmer in her eyes that wasn’t there a moment ago. I saw – confidence. She slid down my body and undid my shorts while never breaking eye contact, then did likewise with my zipper. She had to look away to pull down my shorts, which gave me an opportunity to pull my golf shirt over my head. We were now on equal terms.

Without any further foreplay, she lowered herself onto me. The look on her face, like remembering something important, aroused me even more. And these days, there was a lot of me to arose.

“You’re inside me,” she whispered.