30 Days (22 page)

29

I
was more determined than ever to win Harrison back. I ran my plan past Nikki to make sure it had enough smut factor to be effective, but not enough crazy to scare him away. With her approval, I launched Operation Star Wars, otherwise known as Get Harrison to Talk to Me.

Cell phone. Check.

Blank cards. Check.

Lingerie. Check and double check.

Dildo and duct tape. Oh yeah, baby.

I was good to go.

My plan was twofold. First, I had to get Harrison to speak to me again so I could earn his forgiveness for not giving him a chance to tell me what was going on. Second, I needed to woo him. I didn't have the first clue how to woo a man, but I knew Harrison well enough at this point that I could at least take a reasonable stab at it.

There was a chance that this would all be for nothing. He could be by his ex-wife's bedside right this moment declaring his renewed love for her. Illness did strange things to a relationship and I'd seen couples reunite more than once in similar circumstances. If that was the case, if I'd lost my chance to be with him, then I'd have to accept it. I had an opportunity and I'd blown it.

But if I hadn't, if there was a sliver of hope that maybe the two of us could make something together, then I needed to try. I owed it to both of us.

I started the Saturday morning of the Labor Day weekend. The air was cool and the breeze had picked up, typical for a late August day. I had a cloth grocery bag filled with my items, ready to go in case things worked out. My cell phone was sitting on my coffee table, the display screen currently blank. I took a fortifying breath, picked up the phone, and searched my contacts for Harrison's number.

It was hard to wait for a response. There were any number of reasons why he didn't get back to me immediately. He could be out running errands, or at the hospital with his wife, depending on what they were doing for treatments. Anything. I shouldn't pressure him into responding. That wasn't the tone I wanted, nor was it how I wanted to regain his trust.

Still, I needed to say my piece.

I pressed send and a weird shaking crept up my arms. It was almost enough. Almost. But there was one last thing I needed him to know. There was no sense in chickening out now.

There. The ball was officially in his court.

Leaving my phone on the table and the bag on the couch, I got up to go scrub my toilets. Because why not. I spent the better part of the next hour washing down every inch of every surface I could find in my condo until I couldn't clean another thing. Then I vacuumed. Then I organized my shoes. I was about to start on doing the laundry when my phone started playing “Born To Be Wild,” my Harrison-specific ringtone.

I never considered myself particularly athletic, but I jumped over the arm of my couch to get to the phone, landing bouncing on the cushions. Taking a moment to steel myself against the myriad of possible answers that could be waiting for me, I ignored my pounding heart and picked up my phone.

Well that was anticlimactic. I then looked at the clock.
It's nine o'clock. You're normally long up by now.

Wait.
What?

That was something I should have known.
Sorry.

I was getting a little antsy that he hadn't mentioned anything about what I'd said. It's not as though I declare love via text message every day. Still, I knew Operation Star Wars wouldn't be won that easily. I had to push on.

Yeah. Don't be mad at him. He only told me after I bugged him.
Not exactly true, but I didn't want to get him in trouble.

I'm not.
A pause.
She'll be fine.

Now he was being stubborn on purpose.
I'm sure she will. Lots of cancers are easily treatable if caught early enough. What does she have? Breast? I hope not, but there are a lot of excellent treatments now.

Another pause, much longer this time.
No, skin cancer.

I wasn't about to belittle any sort of cancer, but if a person was going to get one, that was like winning the lottery. What confused me was Harrison leaving town to be with her. He could have handled things long distance and with the occasional visit. Then I remembered the phone calls, his frustration, and some of his comments.

Ouch.
I'm sorry.

No, but I didn't give you a reason to stay either.
Well, I'd gotten him to talk to me and for once I wasn't screwing things up. It might be too early to start the wooing phase, but it would give me an idea of if this would work.

I grabbed one of the blank cards from my bag, wrote down my message, and took a picture.

 

 

With a few button presses, the image was sent off. The delay for his response took longer than I'd hoped, but when it came the butterflies in my stomach took flight.

Yes! Operation Star Wars was underway. I shoved my phone into my pocket, grabbed my bag, and went to my bedroom to get ready. When I left my condo, I knew I wouldn't stop until I won him back.

30

T
he next phase of my plan involved a little visual teasing. I decided the best place to start was at my coffee shop. I didn't realize how busy this place was on a Saturday morning, but wasn't going to let that stop me. I took a picture of the outside of the building before going in and getting in line. Len, the barista who'd put a little extra punch in my coffee the last time I was here, was taking orders. Thankfully, there were too many other people around for him to do anything more than smile and wink at me.

I smiled back as I paid for my drink, bolting the moment I could. It took a minute to find a table that wasn't next to a family. I sat, put my drink down on the table, and put my bag on my lap. Now for some fun. I shuffled through the sex cards until I found the one I wanted. I placed it on the table and snapped a picture and sent it to Harrison.

 

 

I had to be careful before I did the next part. Waiting until I was certain no one was looking, I pulled the dildo from the bag, put it next to the coffee cup and card, and took another picture. Grinning, I shoved it back in the bag, just as one of the other baristas walked by. She gave me a weird look.

Shit.
“I'm doing something for a bachelorette party. Dildo about town.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say because the woman laughed and nodded. “Been there done that. My friends chickened out and I was the one with the toy. Have fun.”

“Thanks!”
I'm a lying liar who lies.
At least it was for a good cause.

Not wanting to look too obvious about what I was going to do next, I drank my coffee as quickly as I could. I then got up and went to the bathroom. It was one of those small, single-stall rooms, which was why I figured it would be perfect for this next card. All it needed was a little alteration.

I took the dildo out once more, along with the duct tape. Using a little ingenuity, I taped it to the wall about waist height. Perfect. Dropping my gear to the floor, I got undressed as quickly as I could so that the only thing I had on was the lingerie I'd bought for this occasion. I stood beside the taped up dildo so it was still visible in the mirror and took a picture.

Oh yeah.

It took a bit longer to get dressed again, but I managed it in short order. There was a knock on the door, which caused me to drop the cards that I'd been sorting through.

“Just a minute.” Aha! There it was. Resting it on the dildo, I snapped another quick picture before ripping it off the wall and shoving it into my bag.

 

 

I sent it, along with the picture of me and the dildo, off to Harrison, before making sure that I'd removed all evidence of what I'd done and left the room. There was a young mother and her toddler standing there waiting for me to leave.
No guilt, no guilt . . .
“Sorry. All yours.” I bolted from the coffee shop.

My phone had buzzed several times after I'd left, but I was too chicken to see what Harrison was saying. At worst, I'd hoped he was enjoying the humor in my little adventures. At best, I hoped he was getting turned on.

The next stop on my little sexventure was the CN Tower. It seemed slightly ridiculous to pay money just to get a picture, but I wasn't going to do Operation Star Wars half-assed. It was all or nothing.

Not that Harrison would appreciate the meaning behind this, but being terrified of heights, the CN Tower was the last place in Toronto I tended to go. First, it was a big, honking, concrete tower. Second, you had to go up said concrete tower in a glass elevator. Last, the bloody thing had a glass floor. No. And yet, here I was, fee paid and climbing into the elevator to go up to the top of this monolith so I could get the perfect dildo picture.

Who said romance was dead?

When the elevator doors slid open I noticed there was a group getting ready to do the edge walk. Those idiots paid money to get strapped into a harness and go on the
outside
of this thing. They were nuts. And yet . . .

I went up to the guy who looked to be in charge. “Excuse me? I have a very odd request.”

By the time I'd explained what I wanted him to do for me, the dude was laughing his head off. “You want me to take a picture of your dildo by the door outside?”

“If you could. It's a bit of a joke. My boyfriend is out of town and . . . well.”

“It's cool. Just, don't tell anyone I did this. I could get in trouble.” He held out his hand and I gave him the bag. “Give me ten minutes.”

Fifteen minutes later I sent Harrison two pictures.

 

 

The second was the image of the dildo in front of the door that led to the outside of the CN Tower, the Toronto cityscape behind it.

With those done, I thanked the guide and went back down to solid ground. Needing a distraction from the elevator scenery, I took a moment to scroll back and see what he'd said earlier. The first one was simply a smiley face. But with each subsequent picture I sent, his comments got more verbose.

By the time the elevator reached the ground, I was a grinning fool. It was working. I had one more stop before I could head home. On the way to the subway stop, I popped into the bookstore. Having spent more hours than I could count here over the years, I knew exactly where the book I wanted was. Originally, I planned to simply take the picture of the dildo next to the Kama Sutra, but as I picked it up and flipped through some of the pages, I realized I might actually want to have a copy. You know, just in case I ever found myself in a situation where I needed a hot-ass sex move and didn't have any good ideas.

I paid for it as quickly as I could before shoving it in my bag along with the other things. The rest of the pictures I wanted to take I could do back at my place, so I hopped on the subway and headed back.

With the running around I'd done, it was already late afternoon. I was starved and in need of food. The timing worked out perfectly with what I had planned next. As I made myself an egg and cheese sandwich, I pulled out a few things that might be fun to play with: a wide-faced spatula, my bottle of honey, and a rolling pin. I didn't quite know what we could do with the rolling pin, but I knew Harrison would have more than a few ideas. I lined them up, this time positioning them with the card, and snapped the picture.

 

 

This time I waited for Harrison's response. I stared at the phone's screen as I ate my sandwich and then continued on with a bag of chips. When it came, I had to read it a few times before it registered.

My hand was between my thighs before I knew it. How was it possible that he could turn me on that fast? I had one more picture left to send him, and after that comment, I wanted to take things to the bedroom. I positioned the Kama Sutra against my pillow and set the dildo and the card beside it.

 

 

I was surprised when I didn't hear back from him right away. There are a number of logical reasons why he couldn't respond. It was noon there. Maybe he had to meet with friends, check on his wife, work. Still, when an hour went by and there was still no response, I decided that I couldn't wait around any longer. Operation Star Wars would have to go on hold and I'd keep my fingers crossed that things would work out.