Man & Woman

“Spin around and let me look at you,” he said but what he meant was every woman is a Buddha. He thought she looked like Betty Draper from Mad Men and he saw Betty’s image superimposed over her own but what he said was, “You look wonderful.” She said, “Aren’t you sweet,” but what she thought was your tie is not straight. She straightening the knot of his tie. He guided her to the door of their apartment with his hand firmly on the small of her back and she said, “I’m so excited!” when what she was really feeling was a thousand points of light cascading through the limbs and cells of her body. He was feeling like he wanted to ravage her right then and there before they went out and she was feeling the same but they missed it and instead they would have tired and slightly drunken sex later after the party. Standing on the corner, they waited a few minutes for a taxi and he said, “You can never get one when you want one, right?” but what he had wanted to say was something like I would be happy in a Turkish prison with you you are so goddam beautiful and after all all women are Buddhas and you are the one in the center of the tanka painting of my heart. He felt a pang of cowardice for having not said at least something of the sort. He said, “You are so beautiful,” and she blushed and again felt a deep sexual attraction for him, her man. She thought about having sex with him, maybe in the taxi, or in the various places she had thought about having sex with him throughout the day. As he opened the door for her, she said exactly what she thought, “You look like Don Draper,” and he laughed because he had had the likewise Betty thought about her earlier and after all this was why he had married her because they lived in the moment so well together, they thought and communicated their thoughts so well together, at least most of the time. He looked into her eyes before she ducked into the taxi and he wondered what it was in there in her eyes that he worshiped and he thought I worship you I worship you I worship you and he said, “Get in there, you silly goose.”