I was sitting on a couch next to a girl named Selena- whom I'd known all of five minutes- and listening to her expound on some of the basic principles of magic, which wasn't a topic I knew much about or gave much credence to. I liked listening to her voice, though, and I was enjoying the party. There were people all around, the atmosphere was relaxed, and both Selena and I were having Heinekens from our mutual friend Emily's fridge.

We both looked up when someone changed the music- I could vaguely make out that Emily was standing over her laptop at the far end of the room- and put a new album on. I nodded with approval, recognizing the opening of "Sunday Morning", a pleasant almost childlike-sounding song that belied some of the darkness on the rest of the album.

"We needed something sexier!" Emily called out.

We both laughed, then Selena turned back to me and smiled. "This sounds familiar."

I wasn't trying to be the cool guy who knows old music with her, but I also wasn't going to completely punt on the opportunity. "Yeah, I really like this album. It's the first Velvet Underground. You know, the one with Nico? There's a banana on the cover?"

I felt a little awkward mentioning one of the most phallic of all fruits, but Selena didn't seem to mind, her eyes lighting up. "Oooh, is this the one with Femme Fatale?"

"That's track number three. I think."

"I like that one", she asserted. "And...what else would I know from it?"

I hesitated. "Well. There's Heroin, which is a really beautiful song in my opinion. I guess Venus in Furs is pretty well known also..."

"Oh! Venus in Furs, that sounds familiar. Isn't that the one about..."

I cleared my throat and took a sip of my beer, hoping she would finish the sentence. But she seemed unsure. "I think it's about, uh, you know...BDSM."

She smiled, remembering, her gaze looking off into the distance for a few seconds. "'Shiny shiny boots of leather'...is that how it goes?"

I chuckled. "Yep, that's the one. Track 4. Except I think he says 'shiny' three times, not two. He really wanted to emphasize that point. You seem like you actually know this album pretty well."

She shrugged, took a sip of her own beer, and leaned back against the couch next to me. "I used to listen to it a lot, but it's been a few years."

I found myself mimicking her posture somewhat, turning to face her, and for the first time I noticed how pretty she was. About my age, mid-30s perhaps (although there was also something vaguely, mysteriously ageless about her- or so it seemed to my romantic mind). Dark hair, dark eyes, and a violet cotton dress that reached most of the way to her knees, met by stockings tinged with a similar color. I noticed suddenly that she'd been making, with her finger, slow circles on one of her knees, right around the point where the dress ended. It seemed to me that she'd been absently doing that for the last couple of minutes, but I couldn't be sure.

"I used to listen to it a lot, too. It's a great album", I added, probably unnecessarily, and had to make a conscious attempt to stop looking at her finger.

"Do you think", she began, smiling conspiratorially, "that Lou Reed was into that stuff? I mean, do you think he liked the idea of some sexy woman in leather boots whipping him, making him submit, stuff like that?"

I chuckled, cleared my throat again, took another sip of Heineken, and answered as casually as I could. "I don't know. I think he...was a creative person who liked inhabiting a lot of different kinds of characters. I think he wanted to explore lots of different mental states in his lyrics. I don't know what he really liked sexually, though. I guess it wouldn't totally surprise me."

Still smiling, Selena reached up to brush her hair back before returning her hand to her leg. I forced myself to meet her eyes. We were both facing each other on the couch now, seemingly closer than we'd been when we'd started the conversation, though I couldn't remember how that had happened. The miracle of alcohol.

In any case, she continued, "You know, I had a friend who was into that kind of thing."

"Really?" I again did my best to sound casual. "Like, a female friend?"

"Well, of course, silly!" I shifted in my seat and crossed one leg over the other as inconspicuously as humanly possible. "I mean, I was friends with the guy, too. At least while they were dating- you know, that kind of friend."

"Sure."

"Anyway. They were kind of open about it. Not with most people, but when close friends- like me- were around? She'd just be teasing him constantly, making him wear a chastity cage- I don't know if you know what that is-"

I couldn't help glancing at her hand again, her finger still making those small circles on her knee, right at that point where the hem of the dress ended and the visible stockings began. I forced myself to look back at her, and cleared my throat again. "I've...heard of them. Never seen one, though."

"Well", Selena continued, her eyes lighting up and amused, "it worked pretty well on this guy. I would say flawlessly, actually. I mean, he had no ability to masturbate- much less have sex- without Gwen's- that's my girlfriend's- approval. It was SO funny! You should have heard how respectful and obedient it made him. You really should have heard him, Matt- 'oh please Mistress, anything you say Mistress, Mistress I really need to cum.'" She giggled at the memory, her knee bouncing up and down a little, seemingly with delight.

"Poor guy", I suggested. "As a fellow male, I feel that I should be a little outraged that my brethren are being treated this way. That sounds kind of...inhumane! Even immoral. Isn't that against the law?"

Selena rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, he loved it. And he had a safe-word- you know what that is?"

"I know", I acknowledged.

"So he could've ended it any time. But he chose not to. But let me tell you, I think sometimes he was tempted to. Because"- she lowered her voice now, leaning in a little closer and looking around (no one was listening)- "Because Gwen NEVER let him have orgasms", she said, breaking out into giggles again.

I whistled, experiencing a range of conflicting emotions. "NEVER?"

She sat up again, still giggling, and took a few seconds to compose herself. "Well, I wouldn't say NEVER. But they were extremely rare, and only bestowed when he'd been a very, very good boy. He told her at one point- according to her- that he said he was starting to forget how they felt." She seemed about to break into laughter again, but somehow contained herself. "Ah." She rested her head back against the couch, sighed, and we were silent for a few seconds.

The album was still playing, track #3, and Nico filled the silence:

"'Cause everybody knows (she's a femme fatale)/ The things she does to please (she's a femme fatale)/ She's just a little tease (she's a femme fatale)..."

Looking over at me as if for the first time, Selena said, "How did we get on this topic again?"

We both laughed. "I have no idea", I said. "No, I do. It was the Velvet Underground. Venus in Furs. Which incidentally is the next song."

"Right, right." Selena still seemed to be trying to compose herself. "What were we talking about before that?"

"Magic, I think. Something about casting spells?" On one hand, I hadn't been sure how much longer I was going to be able to keep my composure while talking to this pretty girl about kinky sex, and was glad we seemed to be returning to a less erotic topic. On the other hand, I felt a deep sense of disappointment, sadness, even longing, and I tried to steel myself.

"That's right. You were expressing skepticism." She raised a slightly scolding finger at me.

"Well." I shrugged. "I think I'm open-minded. But I've never had any experience with that sort of thing myself."

She looked back at me without saying anything for a few moments, as if sizing me up. Then she said, quietly, her hands smoothing her dress over her long legs, "Would you like to?"

In most other situations, I would have said no, or equivocated. In this case, I said "Yes" before I even consciously thought it.

Her smile came back. God, she was pretty. "Because I have this idea", she said.

"Go on."

"Well. Do you remember when I told you that, when you cast a spell, it only works on someone if it's what THEY want as well?"

I didn't. "Uh, yeah. Kind of like hypnosis, right? Or at least what they always tell us about hypnosis?"

"So you can't, like, enslave someone unless deep down they want to be enslaved. So don't worry. But that's just an example."

"Uh-huh. I see."

"But that goes for things much more innocuous, as well. You don't have to worry about someone casting a spell over you to make you hop on one foot every time you see the color green...unless you've been nursing a secret desire to do that all your life."

I pretended to consider it. "I had a phase with hopping to the color green as a teenager. But it was embarrassing, let's not talk about it."

She chuckled and played with a strand of her hair with one hand, the other having come to rest in her lap.

"But you don't worry about anyone casting spells on you anyway, because to you there's no reality to it."

I nodded, smiling myself. "I'm not aware of ever having had a spell cast on me. But like I said, I think I'm at least somewhat open-minded."

"Well. Like I was saying, I've got this idea."

I had to force myself to breathe.

"With your permission- your consent, that's important- I'd like to cast a spell on you. It's something that I think you'll like, but I'm not going to tell you what it is."

I nodded hesitantly, my legs still inconspicuously (I hoped) crossed- nodded hesitantly even though I immediately knew I was going to say "yes."

Come to think of it, in retrospect, maybe she knew as well.

"Anyway", she continued, "if you notice it in your life- and like I say, I really think it's something you'll like- you can call or text me and tell me your guess about what the spell is. If you're right, then...I guess that means I was right, and it worked."

I was willing to play along. Anything that involved texting or calling Selena in the future sounded good to me. "And so...what happens to the spell then? When I become aware of it, does that...break it?"

She smiled again, slyly, and leaned in closer to me. Almost like we were going to kiss. "Wellllllll...not necessarily", she whispered. Venus in Furs was on in the background, but I hardly noticed it. "If you don't like it, of course, I'll put an end to it immediately. Pinkie swear."

We shook pinkies, smiling, our lips almost touching. "But if I don't like it, it doesn't work anyway- right?"

"Uh, correct. But I guess I just mean that, even if you do like it deep down, as evidenced by the working of the spell, you still may wish to end it. Just, hypothetically speaking. Some things we like are still...difficult to handle. And I would honor that wish."

Gently, she reached over and stroked my hair, sending shivers down my spine. I wanted very badly to reach over and caress her legs, but there were a lot of people around- and besides, I was a little intimidated by her, by her beauty and by something else that I couldn't place- almost an otherworldliness. "You would free me", I suggested.

She nodded, smiling fondly. "Smart boy. Now you're getting it. On the other hand", she continued softly, "If you DO like it, we can keep the spell going for...well, for as long as you want, really. Or as long as I want", she added, laughing wickedly. For a second she seemed about to collapse into a similar fit of giggles as the one that had consumed her when she'd been telling me about her girlfriend's poor unfortunate (?) teased-to-insanity boyfriend.

I wasn't quite sure I understood that last formulation, but I was past the point of caring. And in any case, there was no actual risk, since magic wasn't real. Still...why was my heart pounding so hard? I took a deep breath and said, "I'm ready."

Straightening her shoulders and arranging her legs in the lotus position, she fixed me with a grin- later, in retrospect, I would think that it had looked triumphant- and touched my forehead. Quietly, eyes closed, she said a few words in a languge I didn't recognize.

She then opened her eyes again, still shining and fixed on mine.

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"It didn't even hurt."

"Of course not."

I allowed myself to brush her hair away from her face, and to lean in slowly. She returned my gesture with just the lightest and quickest of kisses. "And the nature of the spell?" I asked quietly. "You're not going to tell me what it is, are you?"

She smiled back at me. "No. That's part of the game, silly."

*

I returned home for the evening, got in the shower, and began to turn the strange encounter over in my head. Or that's one way of phrasing what I did, anyway. The other way of phrasing it- more to the point, in fact- would be to say that I began, in the shower, to visualize Selena's smile, her legs, that moment when one of her breasts had brushed against my elbow. That point at which her skirt had ended and her stockings had begun. And furthermore that I began to touch myself as I imagined this, one hand extended to the wall of the shower to steady myself, more excited by the encounter than even I'd realized, because I was at the edge quick. And yet...it didn't happen. I couldn't do it. It was like some invisible wall was holding me back. It was strange...but it had never been my preference to stand while masturbating, anyway.

It wasn't until I'd toweled off, put on a pair of boxers, laid down in bed, and tried again with the same result, that I started to feel a little worried. Confused.

And yes, more than a little frustrated as I laid there with blue balls, trying to go to sleep, and thoughts of Selena running through my head. My erection simply would not go away, and yet it seemed there was nothing I could do with it. It wasn't just her body- but her words, her smile, her manner. The way she'd seemed to know the effect she was having on me. Finally, without even consciously thinking about what I was gong to do, and against my better judgment (survey says you're supposed to wait a day or two before texting, and definitely not during the middle of the night), I rolled over in bed, picked up my phone, and texted her.

"Hey, it was really nice meeting you tonight." I hesitated before writing the next sentence. "I think I might have a guess about the nature of the spell you cast." I hesitated again before hitting send.

Ten or so minutes later, I got a message back: "I thought you might! Coffee shop tomorrow?"