Esmer reached into his desk, and pulled out an envelope. Megan noticed her own name written across the front. “This contains the phrase which will permanently remove your conditioning. You have until Wednesday to claim a refund, in which case I will read the phrase myself and then give you your money back. After Wednesday, the phrase in the envelope will still work, but I won't give you a refund.”
“ Why me?”
“ Do you mean, why not your husband?”
Megan didn't like the question being phrased so bluntly, but she nodded.
“ I could have conditioned him to clean every time you had sex, but based on your evidenced level of sexuality, I didn't think that would help. I was afraid you would be in divorce court without ever having sex again. I was paid to save your marriage, Mrs. Fletcher. You might not think much of my ethics right now, but I take my job very seriously.”
“ You had talked about marriage being a compromise. How is this a compromise?”
Dr. Esmer smiled broadly. “Dr. Fletcher, you and your husband are admirable people. I am familiar with your story. It made the front page a couple years ago, as you may recall. But you are also very strong-willed. Both of you. Compromise is not always easy for people like you. I don't think you know it when you see it. You should be familiar with the concept of doing the minimum intervention necessary. If you haven't noticed it already, your husband is being conditioned as much as you are. Just not through hypnosis and not by me — at least not directly.”
–
“ I take it you and Eric went to see him.” Sandy was giving her an annoying smirk, but there was sympathy in her eyes.
“ Why didn't you tell me what he would do?” They had gone to Esmer on Sandy's recommendation.
“ Because you wouldn't have gone.”
“ Shouldn't that have been my choice?”
“Didn't he give you an out? A way to reverse the conditioning?”
“ Yes, but that isn't the point.”
“ Of course it's the point. You still have a choice, but now you know what the choice is.”
Megan sat down on Sandy's couch. She was full of conflicting emotions: fear, arousal, anger, humiliation. “What did he do to you?”
“ He saved my marriage by hypnotizing John.”
Megan waited for Sandy to explain.
Sandy sighed. “John was spending us into bankruptcy with his collectibles obsession, and I had gained sixty pounds, which was killing our love life. Now, if I exercise for at least thirty minutes every day, John feels no interest in buying vintage movie memorabilia on eBay.” Sandy sipped her coffee and turned in profile. “I've lost thirty pounds so far.”
“ You do look nice,” Megan admitted. “But doesn't John feel like he has lost something?”
“ John is happier than hell. We aren't in danger of losing the home, and our sex life has improved. I no longer want to divorce him. You are over-thinking this Megan.”
Megan said nothing, but crossed her arms and chewed her lip.
Sandy elaborated. “I deal with contract law every day. One party wants X, another party wants Y, and the contract sets the terms. Everyone is better off. Marriage is a contract as well. From what you've told me, you set an expectation of sex and didn't meet it. Eric set an expectation of housework and hasn't met it. Your choices are to walk away from the contract, live with the breech, or enforce the terms. All Esmer did was come up with a clever way to enforce the terms.”
Megan furrowed her brow, less certain.
“ Look at it this way. Are you happier? Is your marriage stronger?”
“ I am not sure.”
“ Well, tomorrow is a perfect day to find out.”
Valentine's Day
Megan felt a lump in her throat as her car turned into the driveway of her home. Lights were on in the house, indicating Eric was already there.
Am I ready for this? She had already decided that this would be a romantic evening, of sorts. She was going to try it the way Dr. Esmer suggested. She would ask Eric to clean some dishes, or straighten out the shit he had undoubtedly left all over the floor of the bedroom, and the conditioning would kick in. They would have sex, and they would both be happy.
Then why do I feel like I am selling my soul?
She parked the car, and noticed her hands were shaking as she removed the key from the ignition.
Oh, God.
She opened the door from the garage, and walked up the stairs toward the dining room.
Eric was waiting at the top.
How long has he been here?
A motion of his hands drew her attention toward them. He was holding a red rose in his right, and a miniature dove chocolate bar in his left.
“ Am I supposed to choose?”
“ No, you get both.”
She popped the chocolate in her mouth, and took the rose.
“ I have dinner ready. Why don't you sit down?”
Two candles were lit on the table, and the rest of the lights were out. A small vase was sitting in front of her chair. A wine glass was waiting for her, filled with a red. She placed the rose inside the vase. “What's for dinner?”
“ Each course is a surprise.”
“ Ooh, I get courses?”
“ Of… a certainty.”
She laughed, and noticed she was no longer nervous. The house was dim by candlelight, but she could see that it was clean. Eric had put away his morning mess rather than leaving it for her, and even the kitchen was already clean of most of the food preparation.
Eric wouldn't have anything to clean to get her aroused, she realized. Why am I disappointed by that?
The first course was a yellowish soup that smelled of chicken and lemons. “ Avgolemono,” he said. “Greek chicken soup compromised of egg, lemons, and rice.”
“ Comprised.”
“ Isn't that what I said?”
She let it go. The soup had a creamy texture from whipped eggs, with the sour of the lemons balancing the salt of the chicken broth in a perfect marriage of tastes. Eric didn't cook very often, but he knew how. He had told her once that it was one of his favorite seduction techniques. He hadn't used it on her because they had spent almost all their dating time at her house, but he had insisted that it was one of the most reliable methods of getting into a woman's pants. Looks like he is right.
The second course was a steamed artichoke with a curry yogurt dipping sauce. They took turns removing a leaf. Megan remembered once telling Eric that artichokes were the sexiest food in the world. It was like taking off a piece of clothing. Watching Eric use his mouth to remove the fragment of heart off of each leaf reminded her of what he looked like when he went down on her, and she bit her lip at the memory.
Eventually the leaves were gone. Eric removed the choke with a spoon, exposing the heart. It had the soft pliable texture of lips or labia. She leaned across the table to feed most of the heart to Eric, before finishing off the last bite herself.
Eric said not a word, just looking at her in the dim candlelight. Megan respected the silence, and found herself getting aroused as they finished their appetizer. She wanted him now, and was certain this wasn't the work of Esmer's hypnotic conditioning.
Eric rose to get the entree out of the oven, and finally spoke. “You have been in an interesting romantic mood for the last week.”
“ Is that what you call it? Interesting?”
“ Most of it has been very nice. You have surprised me a couple times, which is something you haven't done much in the last year.”
Megan said nothing.
“ You aren't giving up. I like that about you. You never give up.” He set the serving dish in front of her.
It looked like tiny chunks of meat wrapped in leaves, skewered by a toothpick. “Marinated kebobs broiled in a basil leaf.”
She tasted one. It was heaven. “What's the marinade?”