Last Thursday - the Thursday before Mother’s Day - Vince told me that he’d take me into the local city for the weekend for spa treatments and for some us time. He asked me to pack some nice clothes but he didn’t specify what he meant so I packed 2 different pair of skinny jeans and some super nice sweaters, jewelry (which I typically don’t wear because I either break my jewelry or lose it), and a few pair of cute but comfortable shoes.
Friday morning, I arrived at his place in a casual blouse, form fitting skirt, 4” tall shoes and my hair straightened. I took my suitcase, a bag containing my shoes and bag/purse out of my car and locked it. I rolled my stuff up and entered Vince’s condo.
“Babe?” I called out leaving my stuff in the foyer. “Baby? I’m here and actually early.”
Vince came bounding down the stairs mostly dressed. We had the same idea of dressing up a bit; he had jeans, white undershirt and a button down shirt that still needed to be buttoned and tucked in.
“Hey, beautiful lady,” Vince said as leaned down kissing me. “You look amazing, baby. I’m half tempted to cancel the weekend and just stay in bed with you. Damn. You look so great, my love. Are you ready, babe?”
“Vamos, mi amor! No puedo esperar para ver lo que has planeado para nosotros,” I said in Spanish, telling him that I’m ready and that I can’t wait to see what he has planned for us. Vince finished getting ready and brought down two bags. As we left the condo and locked up, a limo pulled up.
“Babe? You’re crazy,” I said. “You’re crazy and amazing but I love you. I can’t believe that you’ve gone above and beyond of anything I could ask you to do for me or us without even asking you to do anything.”
Vince chuckled and helped the driver load up our bags in the trunk then he held a limo door open for me. I kissed him before I got in. He walked around to get in from the other side. Once settled, he let the driver know that we’re all set to go. We talked the entire ride up there discussing the spa treatments he had planned for us.
He could tell that I was excited for this weekend with him, doing spa stuff together and wanting this weekend to be the best of us. We agreed we wouldn’t talk about therapy nor talk about him hitting me…he knew that him hitting me was often on my mind.
Because we were talking instead of focusing on the drive, we didn’t notice that we got to the hotel until the driver pulled up to the hotel entrance. I unbuckled my seatbelt, opened the door and to got out. Vince, clearly, was upset that I didn’t wait to let him open the door for me but he’d have to get over it. The hotel was stunning. Then it hit me. Depending on the room he chose for us could be up to $600/night plus all the spa treatments that he specifically chose for us, the limo. The spa treatments about $1,800 plus food we had. The weekend could’ve easily cost him $4,500 with taxes and shit. The driver brought our bags to us, we thanked him and Vince tipped him.
As we were entering the hotel, I asked Vince if he was ok with spending the amount of money that he did for this weekend.
“Baby?” I said. “You know that I love you and you know how much I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me, appreciate everything that you’re doing for me currently and what you’ll be doing for me in the future, right?”
Vince nodded his head yes, wondering where I’m going to with this.
“I’m worried,” I said. “You’re retired now, getting close in age to getting your pension, you don’t work full time but you do private lessons for those who want to be more musical. Are you ok or even comfortable using your hard earned money for a weekend? On me?”
“Darling,” he said. “I understand your concern of wondering if I’m spending more than I should. Do I agree that this is expensive? Hell yes but baby…you’re worth every dime and you also deserve this…you deserve to be pampered. I don’t care if I become broke as long as you’re taken care of.”
I nodded my head, I took his extended hand and we went to check in. We were given the options of the penthouse on the top floor which faced other buildings or a suite of a few small rooms that faced the city’s park. Vince looked at me for my input and I wanted to say just a regular room with a queen or king sized bed was fine with me but Vince said that we’d take the suite facing the park. We were given the keys and we were told when and where our first spa treatment would be. We thanked the receptionist and went upstairs to the room.
Vince entered the room first, leaving me out in the hallway with our stuff and I held the door open, rolling my eyes. Apparently, he does this often - usually propping the door open with one of his bags - just in case someone was in our room that wasn’t supposed to be. A few minutes later, he came back saying that everything was fine. He brought our bags into the bedroom, placing them in the closet. Holding hands, we toured the suite. The last place we checked was the kitchen. The second I walked into the kitchen, there were several bouquets of different types of flowers, champagne on ice and chocolate covered strawberries.
“Oh my word, my love,” I said in complete shock. “I’m dreaming!”
“No, baby,” Vince said. “This is real; you’re not dreaming. Baby, I love you so much. You deserve this plus so much more.”
I almost started to cry but Vince kissed me, taking my hand to pull me closer. I leaned into the kiss, wrapping my arms around this man that I love and kissed him with everything I had. He pulled away moments later so he could open the Louis Roederer champagne; he poured us both half a flute’s worth and handed me mine. We clinked glasses and drank. Vince wanted to feed me a strawberry but I declined because it’d be a little weird for me and he chuckled.
We ate a few strawberries, finished the champagne and put the rest of the berries in the fridge for later. Vince looked at his watch. I asked if it was time for our first spa appointment. He said it’s close so we should grab what we felt was necessary so I grabbed my phone, the charger and my inhaler tossing them and the keys in my small purse. Vince took my hand after I said that I was ready. We headed downstairs to the spa entrance on the first floor.
The second we walked in, a chipper spa employee greeted us warmly. We were given keys to lockers to place our personal belongings in the locker rooms and we were also given large fluffy robes and slippers; we were told to strip to our skivvies or we could be completely naked. I giggled at the word skivvies and Vince looked at me cracking up asking me how I know about skivvies. I told him that my favorite grandfather was in the navy during a massive war - particularly a massive and well known battle - and they always said skivvies on board. He passed that down to my grandmother - his wife - and their kids (one of them being one of my parents; obviously).
I headed to the women’s locker room to store my stuff and I stripped down to the nude. I put in the most luxurious robe I’ve ever touched and the most comfortable slippers. Before leaving, I put my hair in a loose braid, hoping my hair wouldn’t crease where it was braided. Once ready, I stepped out and saw Vince talking with the spa employees that were going to take care of us.
We were to have a mud bath first. A female employee saw my hair and immediately told me to take it down because she has this magic hair netting that will hold and protect my hair from any treatment without messing my hair up too much - I’d only have to brush my hair afterwards. She quickly helped me with my hair and then off Vince and I went to get our mud on.
We were painted with mud from the Dead Sea, letting it dry before going into a freshly made mud bath (the mud was also from the Dead Sea). Instead of individual tubs, they gave us this big one that’s made for two people and warned us that it would be warm. I couldn’t wait as I was cold. We stepped in and it was much hotter than we expected; I loved the temperature. I was situated soon after but it took Vince a few minutes to get in. Once he was situated, we held hands. I closed my eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
I’m not sure how much time had elapsed but Vince had fallen asleep as well. An employee came in, woke us up and gave us instructions of how to get out and how to clean the mud off of us. We stepped thirty feet away to the shower heads and closed the curtains. As we rinsed off, the staff drained the mud bath - which I thought was partially a waste and but also sanitary - I paid attention to “certain” areas of my body. We were given towels to dry off.
We put our robes and slippers back on and headed to a rather small room where we were given a light lunch of wine, various fruits, nuts and cheeses. From there, we were led to a private room where we had an aromatherapy couples massage as well as a couples hot stone massage.
After being instructed, we stripped and laid face down on the massage tables, we had towels placed over our asses; Vince was disappointed that he couldn’t see mine anymore. As our skin was dry from the Dead Sea mud (very salty mud), our massage therapists included extra lotion to help us gain some moisture back into our skin. I loved my massage. I had some knots and tight muscles that I wasn’t aware that I had. Vince enjoyed his as well but later he told me privately that he was a little weirded out that he had a male masseuse. I told him not to worry about his masseuse’s sexuality as it doesn’t matter; the masseuse did his job and did it professionally. He gave me a weird look. I explained that most spas typically have female masseuses for female customers and male masseuses for male customers for the sole purpose of preventing sexual harassment. Would it still happen against the same sex? Yes but much lower rates.
When we were finished with our treatments, we went to the locker rooms to get dressed. We met up a few minutes later in the hotel foyer and took the elevator up to our floor. I told Vince that I needed to shower as the essential oils that were used were bothering my asthma. He was so upset with himself that he had forgotten about my asthma and didn’t ask for unscented or mildly scented oils. I told him that it was ok as a shower - with soap - would help remove the oils themselves as well as the scent. He let me be as I showered.
I did hear him use the phone to call the spa to ask about the oils, what can he do to help me prevent an asthma attack and that sort of thing. There was a ton of back and forth. They offered a refund - which meant that my masseuse wouldn’t be paid her fee and tip - but Vince said that there was no way he’d accept a refund for something he forgot and he said that he was NOT blaming the masseuse as she didn’t know. The spa manager offered to bring up a variety of different scented soaps but they’d clean the oils off of my skin in a harsh manner but Vince said no to that. They did say, however, that they suggested that they could bring up a non scented exfoliating bar of soap; it would remove the oils that were used but it wouldn’t strip any extra oil off of my skin. He asked if it was a specific brand and they said it was so he said that he’d run down to get it from them. He hung up, grabbed his wallet and one of the keys to go get the soap.
A few minutes later, he handed me the bar of soap. I thanked him then I began to scrub. I scrubbed for 15 minutes and then decided to stop as I wanted my remaining skin to stay attached. I got out and toweled off and took the shower cap off.
“Baby? Babe? Where are you?” I asked looking for Vince. “Can you please grab my inhaler?”
“I’m right here, love,” Vince said. “Here’s your inhaler. You ok?”
I nodded my head as I was shaking the inhaler. Seconds later, I exhaled, placed the mouthpiece in my mouth, pressed down on the canister twice and inhaled, taking the mouthpiece out of my mouth. I held my breath for 30 seconds and gently breathed out. Vince watched me the whole time. I could see the concern in his face.
“My love? I’m ok. Just need a minute or two,” I said taking the few steps over to this incredibly handsome man. “You look like you want something. What can I get for you?”
“Babe,” Vince growled, taking me in his arms. “Yes, I want something. I want you right now.”
“Let’s go!” I said. “I’ve been waiting on you to say something all day, love. Take me to bed!”
Vince picks me up in his arms, carried me over to the bed and gently laid me on the bed. I got comfortable as he stripped his cloths off. He climbed on the bed and slid between my legs. He slides his hard penis in me and I moaned.
Vince took his time thrusting in and out of me. I moaned his name with every thrust. He felt so amazing stretching me out. Moments later, we climaxed together. He pulled out and lay down next to me.
“Babe? I’m thinking of making a reservation at that one 3 Michelin star restaurant.” Vince stated. “What do you think?”
“Whoa,” I exclaimed. “I appreciate that you want to spoil me but it’s completely unnecessary. I’ll be happier with Bubba Gump. It’s not your favorite place but we can go somewhere else if you’d like.”
Vince said that Bubba Gump was 100% fine with him and he’s happy to go there with me. We got up from the bed and got dressed. I asked if we were walking or taking a taxi; he said a taxi as the restaurant is across town so I put on my 4” wedge sandals. Quickly did my makeup and put on some lightly scented perfume that Vince is crazy for and off we went.
I don’t know what kind of pull/weight Vince has or who’s name he’d dropped but when we get to the host stand, he provided my name and we instantly got sat at a table on the second level by the window. I don’t even ask how he got us a table at a busy restaurant in a busy city on a Friday night. I can certainly tell you that he’s NOT connected. Hand to God he’s not.
I get too involved with the menu to notice the server arrived at the table; I wanted to order everything!
“Babe?” Vince said. “Babe. Babe? Hello? BABE!! You ready to order your drink?”
“Easy, old man,” I teased. “Sorry about that. So can I please get a Georgia Peach Tea? And shrimp mac & cheese to start please?”
The server nodded then Vince placed his drink and app order. He didn’t order anything special - just a beer and a cup of New England clam chowder - and he asked for an order of chips and spinach/artichoke dip. He may dress up well but he’s a simple man when it comes to food.
We got our drinks and apps few minutes later. Again, I’m not sure how we had our order arrive so soon; he wasn’t on his phone at in the hour prior to arriving.
“Babe. I’ve got some curiosity,” I said. “How did you get us in so fast? It’s Friday night in the city, we got this amazingly private table and our food came out fast. Who did you bribe? Kidding.”
“You’re a curious one, my love,” Vince said. “I knew that you’d prefer coming here so when I made the hotel reservation and the spa, I made a reservation here. When I made the reservation here, I told them that tonight is a very important night as I’m proposing.”
The server just arrived to take our dinner orders; Vince didn’t look too thrilled at the server’s timing. I ordered the “Texas Chicken Sandwich” and he ordered the shrimp po’ boy. After the server left, Vince continued where he left off.
"Babe, I know what you're going to say when I ask you," he said. "The answer that you've been telling me is no and will continue to be no until you can fully trust me and know that I won't hit you again. I get it, darling. I do hope that you know how much I love you and want to be with you for the rest of my life."
"Darling," I said. "I'm not saying no because I don't love you when I actually do. I want to be with you as well, baby, but I don't know if I can be with someone - whether it be in a marriage or in a serious dating relationship - that I can't fully trust. You broke my trust, love. I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional. I am here with you this weekend because I want to and because I love you. I spend most of the time with with you."
"Darling. I know that you love me and that you want to spend time with me because you want to. I get that you don't trust me. I cheated on you, lied about it, and hit you. It's just that I hope that one day that I ask you to marry me, you will say yes."
"Ugh. Love. We can both talk about this until we're both blue in the face about it. You want to marry me. I don't want to be married. You know how I feel. It's got nothing to deal with you cheating or anything...to me, a marriage license is just a piece of paper stating that two people love each other. Personally, I don't need a piece of paper that - heaven forbid - gets lost or damaged, there's a big fuss over it. Plus, the whole idea of marriage is archaic...women at one point were seen as no better than cattle AND we couldn't get our bank account on our own until the 70s; prior to that as we needed either our father's or husband's permission to get an account. In several states - also in the 70's - we couldn't get dentures - legally - unless either our father or husband gave their permission. Don't get me on the topic of taking our husband's last names. Yeah, I know that's "tradition" but women were more or less owned by their male relatives until the 1800s and possibly into the early 1900s. The suffragettes from the 1800s - and before -fought for the future of my gender and we still are fighting for equal rights AND equal pay to this day."
Thankfully, our server returned with our dinner entrees with our drink refills. Vince, was upset, which is understandable but he also understood where I was coming from. We ate in quiet for a bit before until our server came back to check on us. The server was one of the best that I've experienced as a customer; they already had our drink refills and made sure that our food was to our liking. After the server left, Vince restarted the conversation.
"It's clear where you stand, my love. You won't marry me because you're a strict feminist?" he asked.
"It's not that I hate men or me being a strict feminist. Am I a feminist? Fuck yes. At the end of the day, I am no man's property nor do I answer to a man. Is it because I am a feminist that I don't desire a marriage? It's a good part of it but the rest of it is this, love...it's a man made institution that isn't needed unless one is a hardcore Christian or old fashioned as fuck and also at least half of my family has been divorced. I don't believe in needing to be a part of divorce statistics. If people want to get married, fine, get married. I'm not fully against it but just against it for myself."
"Ah. It makes sense now," Vince had said.
By then we finished our dinner; Vince had asked for the check and paid it. He asked if I was ready and I said that I was. We gathered our things, he extended his hand so I took it and we left. Instead of hailing a taxi, we decided to walk around for a little bit. After a while, we both agreed to call it a night. Vince was a bit upset and hurt with our conversation and I just didn’t want to prolong the night anymore so I hailed a taxi.
When we got back to the hotel and to our room, I got ready for bed and grabbed a few things to head to the smaller bedroom. I wanted to give Vince some space so he could process the night’s conversation. Before I actually went to bed, I went to the “big” bedroom to say goodnight; he was just sitting there with the engagement ring in his hands. I knocked on the door frame before entering into the room and sat next to him.
Resting my hands resting dangerously close to his penis, I apologized for not giving him what he wanted…me saying yes. I asked if he understood and respected my feelings in regards of marriage in general. He said that he did but he’s still hurting. I leaned over to kiss his cheek but he turned his head so we’d kiss.
He laid me down on my back and I spread my legs for him. He slid into my apex; he felt amazing inside of me. He starts thrusting in me, taking his time. I tightly wrapped my legs around his waist trying to bring him closer to me. A few thrusts later, we climax together. He pulls out and lays down next to me. I get up, grab my nightgown and head to the smaller bedroom.
I fall asleep not long after laying down. It was a restless night of sleep. I ended up waking up around 7:30 and couldn’t fall back asleep so I took a shower, got dressed, put on my flats, grabbed my wallet and hotel room key. I went for real coffee at a small bodega a block from the hotel; hotel coffee - to me - has always tasted like brown water.
I get back to the hotel to see a ton of police cars and don’t put much thought into it as it’s the city and something bad had happened. I take the elevator up. As I’m about to use the key to open the room, a police officer leaves the room, takes one look at me, tells Vince that I’m not missing and that he can stop calling local hospitals. I physically - and mentally - facepalm myself. I look at my phone to see that I’d been gone no more than 25 minutes and zero missed calls from Vince.
I walk in and see Vince who seems relieved. Before the police can ask me anything, I grabbed Vince by the wrist and gently pulled him into the closet bedroom. I’m going to LOVE what he’s got to say.
“Dude?” I began. “What in the actual fuck? I’d been gone 25 minutes. There was NO need to get the police involved. At all. You didn't even call or text to see where I was or if I was ok, you assumed that I was a missing person. Just because I have a pair of tits and from the country doesn’t mean that I’m missing or that I was taken.”
“True,” he said. “I agree. I’m sorry I didn’t reach out to you first.”
We then rejoined the police and I talked with them to let them know where I went and that I was ok. As they were leaving, all I could think was it was a waste of their time and a waste of tax payer’s money. I sighed a big sigh and asked Vince what the plan was for the day. He said that we have a few more spa treatments; we had our own massages followed by a final couple’s massage.
As much as I love him, I’m glad that I had my own massage. This man is aggravating. I had 90 minutes to myself…well except for the masseuse. Somewhere in the 90 minutes, I’d fallen asleep. Once the massage was over, I was woken up by the door opening up. I open my one eye a hair to see that Vince was walking in. I groaned internally.
I greeted him as he was laying down on his massage table. Our masseuses switched from the ones we had to the masseuses that specialize in couple massages. I was still tense from when he thought I was missing so the masseuse got their workout in. When the massage was over, we got dressed and decided to split ways for lunch.
He went to check out the performing arts school while I went to a local bookstore. I found a little hole in the wall Thai restaurant on the way to the bookstore. The food was simple but SO amazing. I found so many books that I wanted and thankfully, they were all on clearance so I got them. After I paid - with Vince’s card, of course - I walked the 6 blocks back to the hotel for a nap.
I slept for 2 hours and woke up feeling refreshed. I showered (again) and got dressed in skinny jeans and a nice sweater. As I was putting on my perfume, Vince walked into the suite. Minutes later, he found me in the larger bedroom, leaned down to kiss me. I welcomed the kiss. He pulled away a few minutes later. He had pulled away to invite me into the kitchen as he has some champagne, cheese and crackers. I took his hand and we went off to snack before we walked around the city.
We talked a bit about the conversation from dinner the night before. It wasn’t an easy conversation to have but it was better that we did. Vince blames himself for pushing marriage and kids all the time; he said that he’d always want to go the traditional way for a family and he’s stuck in that mentality but he understands that I don’t need to be married to the person I love and kids may or may not be in my future. He said that he’d be hoping that after all these years, he and I would finally be married. I thanked him for (finally) understanding where I am.
I looked at the clock and noticed that we finished off three bottles of wine, the cheese and crackers in an hour. I sighed. I went to grab my bag of bandaids to toss in my purse. The way that I felt then and knowing that we’d be doing some walking, I’d need bandaids. When we were cleaning up, we were happy to see that the hotel has a small recycling can in the kitchen next to the garbage can.
On our way out of the hotel, we saw a sign for a local bar. We stopped there for a few drinks. After having a few more drinks in us, we were able to have a better discussion of the whole me missing vs getting coffee more freely. He apologized again and said that now that he thinks of it, he realizes that it was demeaning and disrespecting me as a female adult…that I would give one hell of a fight, yelling, screaming, hitting and whatnot to prevent me from getting snatched or hurt. He didn’t realize how he set women back 20+ years until we had the conversation.
Despite him apologizing to me several times, my blood was still boiling. I told him that I’m still mad - and offended - that he thought that I’m incapable of walking a city block and not get hurt. This was one of the things that’s making me think about breaking up with him but I wasn’t going to do it at that time. After having another drink, he paid our tab and we went out for a bit of a walk. He tried to hold my hand but I wouldn’t let him…he knew something was up.
We found a cute Chinese restaurant for dinner. After we were seated, we were greeted and were handed a beer list. We ordered drinks, egg rolls and fried dumplings for our appetizers; we ordered lo mein, sweet and sour chicken, and beef fried rice for our main course. It didn’t take long for the food and drinks to come out to our table. We dug into our food quietly. About 20 minutes later, our entree’s and refills of our drinks arrived. We thanked the server and dug in.
We talked about what we’d do for the rest of the night and when check out would be for the hotel the next day. Vince asked if I was still mad at him. I asked him if he wanted me to be honest. He said that he’d rather my honesty than me hiding my thoughts from him. I told him that I’m still livid because he made me feel small and made me feel like he set women back to the 70s but despite the progress has improved for us though we are still discriminated against. I told him that I’ve broken up with men for less than that. He looked stunned at that revelation but he understood that it wasn’t me threatening to end the relationship.
After eating, we asked for our food to be packed to go, paid the bill and left with our food in our hands. We took our time getting back to the hotel; I actually took his hand this time. He seemed a little surprised but he just smiled. I lost track of the time we were walking but I was tired when we arrived at the hotel. Vince put the food in the fridge while I went to shower. Vince joined me minutes later. He thought that he was being cute but I was still annoyed. I got out and dried off, putting on my pjs.
I went to the larger bedroom, climbed into bed falling asleep in just moments. I didn’t wake up when he joined me. We slept through the night and woke up around 8 when the alarm on his phone went off. We got up, we both showered again - separately this time - packed up our stuff and checked out. I slept in the car on the way back.
Once we got back to his place, I grabbed my stuff, loaded my car and headed to my parents’ place. It didn’t take long, thankfully. By the time I got dressed to help them prep for Mother’s Day, they were just waking up. I took the dogs out, fed them and let them loose around the house. We prepped the little bit as my siblings and their families began to arrive. I went upstairs for a quick nap as everyone getting everyone was getting comfortable. About an hour later, I came back down to join the family.
We all had a great time.
