It was time to get out of bed and get showered. Then the young couple set off for breakfast on what seemed to be yet another warm sunny Maldives day, holding hands as usual as they made the short walk from their villa to the resort restaurant. There was a light breeze coming from the sea and, yet again, the sea looked inviting for a swim later that morning.
The restaurant was the usual buffet affair. Sarah suggested that Alex went to get coffee for each of them while she headed off with their glasses to get juice.
Alex had been sitting down with the coffee for about 30 seconds when Sarah appeared holding a tray on which sat two full juice glasses and two bowls of fresh fruit.
“I got you some pineapple juice,” Sarah said.
Alex was surprised. “Pineapple juice, but I normally have orange….” He stopped mid-sentence as he realised what Sarah was up to.
“Pineapple juice, darling. It’s good for you, remember? And I got you a nice bowl of fresh fruit as well,” she said, giving him a wink and a slight smile.
“Ah, yes. The experiment. How could I forget about that? And if I remember rightly I need to avoid strong tasting food as well?” Alex queried. “But tell me…how long does the experiment last? 8 hours? 12 hours?”
“Oh, at least 24 hours,” Sarah replied. “Otherwise it’s not worth doing is it? And don’t look so crestfallen. I’m sure you can avoid red meat, curry, etc., for the rest of the day. It is all in a good cause, isn’t it”?
“No, you’re right as always. I will survive but I might need reminding when it comes to food later in the day. Everything looks so tempting….and I don’t just mean you.”
They went their separate ways for a while in the morning. Sarah had booked a treatment in the resort spa while Alex went off surfboarding for an hour, thoroughly enjoying himself. They met up for lunch – a healthy tuna salad – and then by early afternoon they were by the swimming pool reading.
Sarah was reading a women’s magazine and, after studying one article, passed the magazine to Alex.
“Is this the article about 5 ways to make your man feel amazing? I do want to read that.”
“No, this is something different,” Sarah answered. “Just read that article. It’s interesting.”
Alex wasn’t at all sure but took the magazine from his wife. The article was headed “Exploring your partner’s ideas” and was about couples writing down their sexual fantasies and then sharing and acting them out with their partners. It was quite a long piece and Alex was surprised about how detailed and revealing it was.
“What do you think,” Sarah asked. “And, more to the point, perhaps we should try it?”
Alex was continuing to be surprised by Sarah’s willingness to try new things. “Yes, why not? But I think the warning is important. You can see how one partner might suggest something that the other person would not want to do, maybe even find the idea indecent, that kind of thing.”
“Yes, I agree that’s important,” Sarah said. “They talk about the idea of consent and having a code word which means ‘stop’. What would our codeword be?”
“Mmm…How about avocado?” suggested Alex. “That’s something neither of us like.”
“I’d be okay with that.”
“But there are two problems,” Alex said, obviously thinking things through. “Firstly, we are in the middle of a very serious scientific experiment involving food, aren’t we? And secondly…how are we going to get two fantasies done when we are only here another two days? That doesn’t fit in with our general principle of not making love every day does it? We haven’t got enough time.”
Sarah smiled at Alex. “Where there’s a will there’s a way. Firstly, I can’t believe that our experiment is incompatible with something each of us might come up with. And, secondly, well we might just have to forget our frequency principle for our last couple of days here mightn’t we? We don’t want things to be too rigid do we? Oh, sorry, no pun intended.”
A silence descended for a while as they both started thinking.
Eventually Sarah spoke. “I like the idea in the middle of the article about progressive instructions, something like that. So each person’s fantasy is expressed in a series of instructions that come out one-by-one, building the anticipation.”
“Ah,” Alex said, “so my first instruction might be ‘Please put your wellington boots on’, followed by more instructions later on.”
“I’m getting worried about you now,” Sarah said, “anyway, I didn’t bring my wellington boots with me.”
“That was a hypothetical example,” Alex said, “don’t worry. Although, come to think of it, you in rubber boots….well….” He was half-laughing by now.
Sarah got down closer to Alex and kissed him on the lips. “So, darling, how about I go and see if I can buy some little note cards from the resort shop and meanwhile we can both start thinking about what we would like to write.”
Sarah put on her bikini wrap and wandered off to the shop. Alex started thinking hard about what he should write down.
After about 10 minutes Sarah came back with a couple of cold drinks and a little bag. “How about these?” she asked, handing him the little paper bag.
Alex looked inside. There was a pack of 10 small greetings cards with a heart on the front, together with matching envelopes. They were the kind of thing they might keep at home for friends and family to send a quick message.
“Perfect,” Alex said. “Good job. But now I need to think about what to write.”
“I’m ahead of you then,” Sarah replied. “I’ve got an idea already. How about we get them written by the time we head off for dinner this evening?”
They stayed where they were for the rest of the afternoon, both of them obviously in thinking mode. Eventually Alex got up and opened the box of note cards.
“Right, well I’m going back to our room to write out my fantasy in private. Shall I see you in a bit?”
“Ok, Darling. I have a pen so I can write mine out here. How many cards do you need?” Sarah asked.
“Three should do it,” Alex answered. He picked up three cards, three envelopes and his beach stuff and headed off.
When Sarah came back to the villa she saw Alex’s three cards sitting on the desk neatly numbered one to three in big numerals. “Ah, I see you’re all done then?”
Alex smiled “Yes, I’m sorted. Have you got yours?”
Sarah nodded, reached into her bag and put her pile next to Alex’s.
“I had an idea,” Sarah said, reaching into one of her drawers. “I’ve got some small bits of ribbon here so I will tie up both our fantasies and leave them here on the desk.”
“Whose fantasy are we doing first,” Alex wondered out loud.
“Let’s keep the suspense going a bit longer. We can decide that in the morning.”