by TAJ
Erika worked in a club. But she wasn't a hostess or a dancer. She was the marketing manager for a very exclusive, very private social club for business dining and recreation. Club memberships started at $30,000, and she wanted my company to join.On occasion, Erika and I would meet over lunch. She was a tall, very attractive Austrian woman with green eyes and long, soft brown hair. She usually wore a smart business suit, but it never hid the fact that she had a beautiful figure. And she knew it. She would leave the neck of her blouse open just enough to give a seductive hint of the treasures one might find inside. She wore French perfume and flawless make-up. And she adorned her wrists and fingers with silver jewelry. I was certain that many a man had signed his company up for the club based on her charm rather than the benefits of membership, which were actually quite few for the price being asked.
Apart from talking business, we sometimes got into discussions of Eastern thought and spiritualism. She was a big fan of Taoist literature, as was I, especially the writings of the sixth century Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu. She had studied yoga and aikido, a form of Japanese martial art. I had studied Zen for three years at a Japanese temple. We had a lot in common. After several lunches together, I finally got up the nerve to ask Erika a question that had been on my mind since I met her.
"Tell me, Erika," I said, fumbling for the right words, "Do you ever date customers?"
She laughed, and then shot right back at me, "You mean you want to know if I sleep with them, right?"
"Er... well... I was trying not to put it that bluntly, but yes."
"Sometimes," she said. "In fact, I will tell you a secret. I have a certain fantasy...."
I could hardly believe my ears as she leaned across the table and said softly, "I'd like to have sex with every kind of man in the world."
"Quite a fantasy," I gasped.
She leaned back and continued, "Of course, it's not possible. That's why it's a fantasy. But I've always been fascinated by the differences of men from many cultures. And I have had some experiences...."
Erika went on to relate some of her experiences with different types of men she had been to bed with. There were Asians and Europeans, North and South Americans, Australians, and a "very dark, distinguished gentleman from the Seychelles, which are islands, I know, but I always forget whether they are in the Caribbean or Micronesia."
I thought they might be in the Indian Ocean near the coast of Africa, but I wasn't really sure either.
"That's fascinating," I marveled. "I've never heard of a woman who collected sexual experiences like that. It sounds like something a man might do. And it would certainly be easier for a man. After all, there are women everywhere in the world who are willing to provide sex for money."
Erika didn't agree with me at all. "It is much easier for a woman, actually. If she is relatively attractive and willing to take some risks, she can have virtually any man she wants. There are a lot more men walking the streets willing to give sex away than there are women willing to sell it."
She had a good point. If a woman wanted to have sex with every kind of man in the world, there probably wasn't much stopping her except her own inhibitions.
"I think it is terrible that women sell sex for money," Erika continued. "I would never do that. But I would take money for sex. That's a different matter entirely."
I told her I did not understand the distinction. Wasn't it the same? Sex for money, money for sex. What was the difference?
She explained: "Let's suppose you want to have sex with me, and I don't really want to have sex with you. You offer me money. I accept it and give you sex. That is sex for money.
"But let's suppose I want to have sex with you, and I want you to join our club. I let you buy me dinner. Maybe you give me flowers, you take me out to a show, you give me a few hundred dollars to spend on myself. I accept it and we have sex. That is money for sex."
I think I understood what she was saying. "You mean, the difference is how you, the woman, feel about having sex with me, the man."
"Something like that," she said. "But there is a difference. A big difference."
"It also has to do with the directness," I said. "If I offer you money -- like right now I offer you $200 to go to bed with me after lunch -- that's sex for money."
"Exactly," she said. "But if I let you take me out tonight and spend $200 for dinner and maybe another $200 to buy me a nice pair of shoes to match my dress, and I'm in the right mood...."
"That's money for sex," I concluded. "I never thought of it that way."
"But the real point," she said, "is not money or sex. It is control of one's life, of one's destiny, isn't it? We are free and willful beings. We are intelligent. And we are sentient. We want to fulfill our own desires and not be subject to another's. We crave choice. Choice is power. When I choose a man for sex and I get him to spend money on me, I am in control. When you choose a woman for sex and give her your money for it, you are in control. The difference between sex for money and money for sex is who's in control."
"Control," I repeated. "A very interesting premise. Very interesting indeed."
