by Maggie Voysest

Weekends away, or when Gigi ran away to meet a man

Gigi couldn’t resist men. She just didn’t know how to say no. Something in her flickered, sparked, and burst into flame when they looked at her in a certain way, with admiration, with wanting, with desire. She would turn on the flirt and literally charm their pants off. They even seemed to forget that she was petite and voluptuous, totally engaged by her eyes, her smile, and yes, her bodacious tatas, those most precious of gifts. Gigi’s talent was that she was bubbly, vivacious, and confident of herself. She was not every man’s type (not if they wanted tall, blonde, and skinny, for sure), but she was happy with herself and her curves, even if some of them were in the wrong place.

Gigi was happy with herself, but somehow she was always happier when she had a man in her life. I know. I know. She’s heard it all from her friends. That it shouldn’t take having a man to be happy with your life. That you need to be happy with yourself before you can be happy with someone else. That you… blah blah blah. What they didn’t seem to understand was that Gigi WAS happy with herself and her life. She had two great sons, some very good friends, and a wonderful job she loved. Was it so wrong to want to have a man to add to the richness of her life? It’s not as though she was looking for a man to fill up an emptiness, or to ignore problems with herself or her life. She wasn’t trying to have a child to save a dying marriage. She simply wanted a special man in her life, so that she could:

• stop going on online dates that went nowhere
• stop having meaningless sexual relationships
• stop spending so many nights alone
• stop being so cynical about love
• and finally start believing in love ever after again

Some of the men that Gigi dated along the way and with whom she just became friends would later say that they didn’t think Gigi would ever be satisfied with just one man. Gigi thought they were wrong too. If one man could give Gigi all the attention, love, and sex she craved, then gosh darn it, yes, she could be happy. Deliriously so. Ecstatic. Thrilled. She had had some long term relationships in which she was happy with just one man, because he was filling all of her needs. I think that people stray or fall out of love when their needs are suddenly not met, when one of the partners stops giving as much and begins to ignore, take for granted or not appreciate what he or she has.

But I digress. When Gigi wasn’t looking for love, she was perfectly happy with instant gratification. Even when she was not in the best of shapes, she didn’t have too much trouble finding it. Now she wasn’t a total femme fatale or sex goddess, don‘t get me wrong. She couldn’t get just any man she wanted… gosh, if only it were that easy. Some men would not give her the time of day. Some wouldn’t even simply smile back at her. A smile. Gigi almost always smiled. Why is it so hard for some people to smile? A smile isn’t a compromise. It’s not a relationship. It’s just a smile!! But no, some people cannot smile at strangers. Are they too full of themselves, not interested, or just plain not friendly? Gigi smiled at strangers all the time, even while driving, if she glanced over to see who was driving next to her. Yes. Gigi flirts even when she is driving. Are you really surprised at that? Sometimes she wondered if the stranger she had just flirted with was the love of her life, now driving away forever. “Wait!! Take my number,” she sometimes wanted to yell. Should she make a sign for moments like these? Gigi would never stop hoping to find the love of her life. She might stop looking for him at times, when giving up in despair, but she never stopped hoping, So she would worry at silly things like “What if I just passed him by, and we didn’t know it?” Oh Gigi. What a strange mix of a woman she is, sometimes a hopeless romantic, and sometimes very casual about her sexual relationships.

Gigi could almost always get men to flirt with her, even if it never went beyond that. Gigi enjoyed life, and wanted to share that enjoyment with everyone around her. It was her joie-de-vivre (joy of living). Flirting in Europe was so different than in the States. In Spain, men call out “piropos” to women walking by. Piropos has no real translation. It’s a compliment made by a stranger, that focuses on one part of a woman. Maybe her eyes, her smile, the wiggle in her walk. In the States many women would be offended by this, and even see it as a form of sexual harassment. In Spain, it is simply a compliment given to you by a stranger. One that makes you smile and feel beautiful, even if there are flaws to your beauty. An overweight woman might receive a compliment on her eyes, and she feels them shine with pleasure. An older woman is made to feel young again. And women like Gigi put an extra wiggle into their walk, and feel glad to be alive and attractive in some way, shape or form.

Gigi received piropos at many different occasions. Sometimes by strangers coming up to her in grocery stores and book stores, simply to tell her that they thought she was beautiful. Why it happened just last weekend when she was in a bookstore researching publishers for her book. And this was in Michigan yet! So maybe there is hope for American men. Piropos always made her day, at least for a few hours. As they should. Everyone feels better when they receive compliments. Flirting made Gigi feel that way also. It had to be a very bad, sad, mad day for Gigi not to flirt. And she flirted with old, young, cute, and ugly. She flirted not to get someone into bed, but just to feel alive.

When Gigi met a man who was attracted to her, and it was mutual, then it was get ready, set and go… and a chase to the finish line began. Now of course, she had to feel some kind of attraction to them first. But it wasn’t always the way they looked. Sometimes, there was something in their personality that attracted her more than sheer good looks would attract a normal woman. Maybe it was the way they talked. Their voice. The accent they spoke in. The look in their eyes. The naughtiness in their character. The wildness in their imaginative fantasies. The way they used their hands. This je-ne-sais-quoi (I don’t know what) that made them attractive in her eyes. Sex appeal goes way beyond good looks. The French have a word for this: beau-laid (beautiful-ugly). There have been many famous men who are technically not very good looking, who still are found irresistibly attractive by women. It’s in the way they hold themselves and carry off this sexy confidence in themselves. Gigi had that confidence too, so even though she was nowhere near when the skinny fairy handed out svelte bodies, she was able to turn what she had into a dangerous machine. She acted sexy, and therefore came off as sexy.

So when Gigi met someone she was attracted to, and it was mutual, then it was just a matter of time before something happened. If they lived near each other, then it would result in a gleeful, happy romp in bed. If they lived far away, well, that complicated things, but Gigi was very resourceful, and if they attracted her enough, then she went above and beyond to make sure they met in person. All things were possible in Gigi’s world, and sometimes caution was thrown to the winds, and before she knew it, Gigi was in Baltimore, in Boston, in Memphis, in Atlanta, in Windsor, in Toronto…simply to have a rendez-vous with a man.

Gigi found out quite late in life that she was highly allergic to many things. She’d thought it was only a seasonal thing, but soon found out she was allergic to dust (“Does that mean no more house cleaning doctor?” she asked innocently), mold, many types of grasses, clams, and bee/wasp stings. She was soon armed with enough epi pens to leave at home, work, and in her car. Her friend Mary laughingly said Gigi would need a pharmacy stock of epi pens if she had to leave one in each of her men’s homes. I wonder what Gigi’s health insurance would think of that and just how many of these men’s homes they’d cover? I mean huge orange epi pen boxes just do not fit into the cute, trendy little clutches that Gigi loved buying. Gigi just thanked her lucky stars the doctor (sadly not at all cute) didn’t tell her that she was allergic to chocolate, shopping, or her favorite thing of all: men. Now online dating, yes. Gigi had developed a severe allergy to that. But can you blame her?

And so we get to the chapter in Gigi’s memoirs when she simply took off for a weekend, and ran away to a man. Ran away from all her responsibilities and obligations to have one wild and crazy weekend. With no worries. With no promises of futures. With no love ever after. Just a weekend of fun. Now if Gigi had a daughter, she would have warned her of the dangers of running away to meet men who were either virtually strangers, or practically so. Yet Gigi never thought of it that way for herself. Each time she had run away to meet a man, it had been after weeks of talking by email or phone. Some were friends from her past childhood in Mallorca. Some were complete strangers she met on the internet. Not once did anything bad happen to Gigi. Each time it was a truly memorable, unforgettable experience. Maybe not true love. But still something rather special, another step closer to understanding herself and what she was looking for in a man. She wanted a man with a wild and naughty side to him. Every time she made those crazy trips, she asked herself if there could possibly be a future in it. There never was, but Gigi never regretted any of her weekends away.

Each of the men gave her something special, treated her just the way she wanted to be treated: as a beautiful, desirable, wild, special woman, and none of them ever made the weekend feel tawdry or cheap. Now passionate and sexual it was, yet they always treated Gigi with respect, some of them keeping in contact with her for years after the weekend was over. There wasn’t always a repeat performance, and for the most part they were one-time events. But these weekends were never forgotten by either side, as Gigi not only had her desires and fantasies come true, but helped bring theirs about too.

Her first crazy get away weekend was the one in college when she ran off to Boston to see her ROTC guy Dave, already mentioned a few chapters ago. Maybe it was the excitement of that weekend that tempted Gigi into having more like it. She had met Dave the summer she was 20, and it was the first time that she was away from her parents and free to go explore her sexuality on a weekend away. It would be many years before she had another weekend away, since she met her husband Tim in college, and her crazy days were soon over, for many, many, at times tedious and boring married years.

Her next weekend away was when Gigi was separated from her husband Tim. She had been talking on an AOL chat with an old high school friend Shahbaz. Shahbaz was one of the many Iranians who had gone to Gigi’s school in Mallorca. She had had a crush on many of them, both from her school, and from the other English-speaking schools. Never let it be said that Gigi left any race, religion, or nationality untouched. She was not prejudiced or biased in the slightest. Shahbaz was a few years younger than Gigi, but she and her girlfriends used to look at the younger boys in school and wonder which of them would grow up to be gorgeous. Shahbaz was on that list, and Gigi had to admit that he had done a very good job of growing up to be an attractive man. Gigi found his email on their high school website, and soon they were chatting away, which very quickly led to flirting and great phone sex. He was studying to be a doctor and lived in Louisiana, not too far away from Gigi.

Just by chance Gigi was driving down with two girl friends to see another friend who had moved to Alabama. They were planning on spending one night there, and then would all drive down to Florida. When Shahbaz found out she would be so close to him, he asked her to meet him and spend just one night with him. He told her he would arrange everything and would get them a hotel in Alabama. Gigi was so tempted. She told herself that it was a sign. Gigi truly believed in signs. Here she was going down south, and there he was, just a state away. Or is it two states? Gigi’s geographical knowledge of the United States is not as good as her European knowledge. It only took him a few amazing phone conversations to convince her that if he was that good on the phone, then just imagine what it would be like in person. That was enough to get Gigi to commit. Or should it be, get Gigi committed? You be the judge. I try never to judge Gigi for her at times wild actions.

So off to Victoria’s secret went Gigi. She liked to have new lingerie for each of her new exploits. Maybe one day Victoria’s Secret will be paying royalties to appear in her memoirs and movies. Hmmm…and maybe they will start making lingerie that fits her bodacious tatas better. I mean really! We are not all small on top, so why do they only make small lingerie? Voluptuous women want sexy lingerie too… But I digress yet again. Gigi had her little weekend get away bag ready and she drove down with Jean and Shawna. They would be spending the night with Deana, and the next day they would all drive down to see Belinda in Florida. They had not all been together in a very long time, and it was Gigi’s first Christmas after having had her heart broken by James, and also the first Christmas since her separation. She had spent Christmas Day with her sons and actually even went to her soon-to-be ex’s family gatherings, but her heart break was still too new and she needed to get away and forget it all.

Gigi hadn’t seen Shahbaz in years, but she wasn’t nervous. Ok, not too nervous. It was kind of exciting to be meeting him in a hotel, just to make quite a few fantasies come true. Gigi had it all planned in her head for days. She was wearing a short black skirt, a black top that had a plunging neckline, and underneath the skirt, very naughty garters and black fishnet stockings, and extremely high heels. Her friends had dropped her off at the hotel, and Gigi had changed in the bathroom. She wasn’t about to drive like that all the way down from Michigan! (Although years later she would do just that).

Shahbaz was waiting for her in their room, and from the minute she walked in, it was a sizzling hot sexual experience. Now I am not going to go into all the details, but he definitely rocked Gigi’s world, and turned all their phone conversations into reality. Finally Gigi was able to experience sex with one of her Iranian crushes. Mmm mmm mmm. Did they train their young men from childhood on how to please women? Were they the ones who wrote the Kama Sutra book? Was Khalil Gibran Iranian? Did Iran have harems? Gigi had to research that. Wait, no. the Kama Sutra was an Indian book on sex. Khalil Gibran was Lebanese. Iran did have harems a very long time ago. Maybe she was just lucky to find an Iranian man who really knew how to please a woman. All Gigi knew is that he left American men way behind. Maybe Americans should be trained in the arts of love…

Gigi and Shahbaz had an amazing night, with several fantasies carried out. They even spent part of the next day together, going to a mall, one that had an ice skating rink that they went on together, and then did some shopping. Gigi never saw him again, and after a few conversations online, they lost touch until years had passed and she found him on face book. Yes, another past lover found on face book. But he was not a fb addict, and they only messaged each other a few times. Gigi often wondered at how people at times go in and of your life. Sometimes they bring something meaningful into it. And sometimes they are just a very small part of it, and are gone as quickly as they came.

Her next adventure away was to Memphis. Yes, “Gigi does the South” seems to be the theme here. This time it was with a total stranger, but one who would remain a part of her life from that moment on, though from very far away. Gigi met Jesse on AOL. He was Mexican, older than her, and lived in California. He might be one of the ones who got away, because Gigi and Jesse shared something very special, that, had he lived closer by, might even have developed into a real relationship. But Jesse was married. Married, though separated, and had several young children. He was fluent in both Spanish and English, and was as romantic and sensual as Gigi. They sent each other songs and poems, and became very close, knowing each other so well. He adored Gigi, from the top of the her head, down to her toes, calling her “mi eterno amor secreto” (my eternal secret love).

They spoke on the computer and on the phone for months. Gigi couldn’t afford to go all the way to California. She was still separated and sharing the house with Tim while she waited for their divorce to go through. Jesse kept her company many a night, and they dreamed of the day they could meet in person. One day, Jesse told Gigi that he was going to Memphis on business. He asked her to please meet him, saying he would pay for everything once she got there, since it was a business trip and he had an expense account. It was Gigi’s birthday, and when her mami asked her what she wanted, she said that she needed a vacation. And back she went to Victoria’s Secret. Red this time. Oh the money Gigi has splurged there.

Their flights landed in Memphis at almost the same time. Gigi got in first and ran breathlessly to Jesse’s gate to greet him, sneaking peeks at the one photo she had of him. Jesse wasn’t big on photos, although he had a large collection of Gigi. When she first saw him, it wasn’t an OMG moment, but the attraction between them began to grow quickly and steadily through looks and small touches, to the point that a dinner was never eaten quite so fast, and the “Check, please,” request that Jesse made came very quickly after their meals had been served. And then it was off to another hotel, and another weekend of amazing discoveries… and some new experiences for both of them. The shower. A national park. A joke about doing it on a mound that was a Native American burial ground. Gigi didn’t feel quite right about that one, and Jesse forever more joked about how they should have, and maybe should return to some day in he future. They had such a fun weekend, with lots of laughter and memories to be shared and treasured forever more.

Jesse had asked her to bring her toys, her “back-ups” as he called them, and Gigi learned that some men are not threatened by toys, and like to add them to the fantasies to be carried out. Although men, if you could see some of the toys that are around today, you should feel threatened. Very, very threatened. Gigi took Helen, one of her single girl friends to her first toy store. She was very reluctant to go at first, asking what would happen if she died and her parents found her toys under her bed. Gigi promised her that she would throw them away. Gigi laughingly told her about the day one of her sons found her toys. Thankfully he was young enough to be convinced that it was a back massager, and she’d find him doing just that to his own back. She had to hide her toys after that, because he’d either play with it, or take out her batteries for his Game Boy. Helen had to be dragged to the store, but later that night, she texted Gigi thanking her. Telling her she wouldn’t see her again in a very long time, and could she please come by first and drop off lots of food and a year’s supply of batteries. Oh Gigi. What an influence she was on some of her friends…

Now Gigi did see Jesse again, years later when he was in Wisconsin on business and he drove all the way to Michigan to see her. But at this time, Gigi was dating her Canadian boyfriend Daniel, and told Jesse they could only meet for drinks and dinner. But that nothing else could happen. He left the next morning without seeing her again, saying it was too difficult to be near her, and just be friends. See! One man IS enough for Gigi, if she is happy with him. Jesse and Gigi still talked on the phone, at least a few times a year, and now have found each other on face book. He still calls her his secret eternal love, and tells her he thinks of her and their weekend in Memphis all of the time.

Her last weekend of pure sex came many years later. It was right about the time of her booty year. Chad had also gone to Gigi’s high school, but they barely knew each other at the time. When Gigi discovered face book, she added people who had gone to her school, whether she knew them or not. It was so much fun to share memories. Chad had such an amazingly sexy voice. He didn’t live too far away from her, in Toronto, which was one of Gigi’s favorite cities. He was an amazing singer and song writer, and had just as naughty an imagination as Gigi. They very quickly went from flirting to phone sex, and began to plan on meeting.

Now soon after they met it was Halloween week, and Gigi and her girls always dressed up and went to the Halloween party at their salsa club. Yeah Halloween and salsa. Go figure. Gigi had been a leopard for years, but finally felt like trying something new. At a costume store she found a Little Red Riding Hood, and using her sewing skills passed on by her grandmother and mother, she altered the dress to make it into a very short, short, suggestive and sexy outfit, instead of the demure long outfit it came as in the package. She even bought little red crinoline underskirts and fishnet hose to wear underneath. Chad began to call her LRRH and she called him BBW, for Big Bad Wolf. He asked her to come see him after Halloween, daring her to drive across the border in her outfit. Suddenly in Gigi’s lonely, boring life, that seemed very challenging and deliciously naughty. So she did. She drove across the border, dressed in her outfit, making the border patrol’s eyes pop. He couldn’t even ask if her motives for crossing were for pleasure or business. Gigi just told him that she was going to a belated Halloween party at a club where an old friend of hers was playing. She blushed as she said it, and the border patrol (young and cute and yummy) simply smiled knowingly.

It took Gigi about five hours to drive there, and once again it was amazing from the moment she walked in. Chad had this sensuality about him, this ultra naughty look in his eyes, and was one of the most amazing kissers she had ever met. Now like Gigi he wasn’t drop dead gorgeous or in the best of shape, but like Gigi he acted sexy and came across as sexy. They felt so comfortable together considering they barely knew each other. However, Chad had not had a relationship in a very long time, and was not used to women sleeping over. It freaked him out just a little bit. Ok a lot. And though Gigi had planned on spending the weekend with him, he politely asked if she would mind leaving the next day… “What?’ thought Gigi. She wasn’t hurt, but she was a little put out, after all she had gone through to make his fantasy come true. But Gigi didn’t like to stay where she wasn’t welcome, so she drove all the way back to Michigan. This time in normal clothes…

All of these weekends were a success in that they accomplished their purpose. A feel good, get-away-from-it-all and expect-nothing-but-physical-pleasure weekend away. Only once did a weekend away turn into a serious relationship for Gigi, and that was when she met her Canadian boyfriend Daniel in Windsor. They were together for six and a half years, until he left her for the 24 year old Inuit woman. Daniel was one of Gigi’s love of her lives, but their relationship was always a long distance one, with no chance to turn it into permanent because neither one could leave their children behind.

Daniel could have had his very own chapter too, but after the way he broke up with her (cowardly on the phone), Gigi had still not dealt with his desertion, and wasn’t ready to write about him or give him the credit he might have deserved once upon a time. She still hurt too much from the way he shut her out, not just from himself but from his children who had been a part of her life for so very long. He cowardly broke up with her, and cowardly stayed away from her, refusing to add her to his face book, acting as though she had never mattered nor existed. If he had at least had the decency to remain friends with her afterward, then maybe she could have dealt with it all better. Gigi was even still close with her ex-husband Tim. They got together at his family, whom she loved and was still very close to, for all of the major holidays. And so ends the chapter on Gigi’s weekends away. But don’t fear, my true Gigi fans. There is still so much more to write about. Vacation flings in Miami. Girls’ nights out. Gigi and her three Mr. Brown’s. And some very hilarious chapters on Gigi’s friends. You would think at this point I would have had to revert to inventing stuff about Gigi to continue entertaining you, but such is not the case. Gigi has a wealth of stories for me to write about, and for you to enjoy and feel a connection.

To read Part XVI, see The Adventures of a Thoroughly Confused Gigi – Part XVI