Ruben Connell
The Metropolitan Hotel
I began using the Metropolitan Hotel for business trips some years ago. There I would spend lonely nights after so many soul destroying meetings. And I used to hate dining alone but back then it had never even occurred to me to kill for pleasure.
"Excuse me," said a confident female voice one day as a waiter ushered me to my table. "Would you mind if I joined you for dinner?"
She was a rather striking woman, erudite in her manner and unnervingly sure of herself. Though I was not especially keen on sharing her company, I felt it impolite to refuse. A waiter made up another place beside me and the lady ordered without referring to the menu.
"I'm Adam by the way."
"Well in that case you can call me Eve."
I never felt entirely satisfied that Eve was her name. It seemed churlish to enquire further. In fact, as the meal progressed I found myself asking very little of her at all. She had a very severe physiognomy which deterred any questioning and, in any case, she was rather adept at leading the conversation in whatever manner she pleased. I supposed she was in sales where the gift of the gab is a prerequisite, but something about her gave me the impression she was rather more than a mere saleswoman.
"When was your last promotion Adam?"
"I can't honestly remember," I lied, taken aback by a question only a recruitment consultant could ask. "Anyway it doesn't really work like that at my place. I'm sort of autonomous."
Without doubt she saw through me, saw me for what I really was. Embarrassed, I began to eat so as to avoid talking. As ever the food was terrible. After a minute or two of joylessly shovelling dry pieces of steak into my mouth I began to smile. Eve smiled too.
"Come and join me for a drink at the bar," she said. "I promise I won't ask any more questions."
At this stage, I should tell you that Eve was very much my senior and, though somewhat arresting, there was no chemistry to speak of. So, with no thought of carnal pleasures to follow, I took up a place at the bar with her and happily listened to her amusing bon mots as we chewed the fat.
"Perhaps you will come to my room after your gin, Adam?" she said, looking me directly in the eyes.
The pressure she exerted on me in so doing was unsettling and I felt myself unable to voice any refusal although I had by no means made up my mind to accept her offer. Indeed, I had no idea what was in store for me should I accept, because that had been left unsaid.
"I don't know what you want," I therefore replied, a little ashamed of myself.
"Adam," she snapped, "You are coming to my room and that is final. You needn't worry. It should only take about half an hour of your time. Certainly no more than an hour. It never takes more than an hour."
Chastened, I remained silent and implied my acquiescence with a nod. As to what it was she had in store for me I could not say.
"Take off all of your clothes Adam," she said as the door swung shut. "And turn down the lights. It's late and my eyes are tired."
I protested of course but this annoyed her and she remonstrated with me as though she were dealing with a difficult child. Again she insisted this should all be over and done with quite quickly as long as I did as I was supposed to. Reluctantly and against my better judgement I began to undress.
"All of my clothes?"
"Yes of course all of them Adam. Come on we're both adults and I'm sure you've nothing to hide."
By this time she was occupied with removing her makeup with a cotton pad and a solution of some kind. Although I was bare for all but my underwear and she was reclined on her hotel bed, the atmosphere left it beyond doubt that nothing sexual would happen. It was therefore a mystery beyond me as to the purpose of my undressing. Only because she appeared utterly disinterested in my body did I remove my final few undergarments. I then stood there, completely naked and covering my arrangement with cupped hands.
"I have done as you asked," I said meekly.
"Well done Adam," she replied, for the first time shifting her gaze in my direction. "Ah, you're just like the rest of them," she simpered. "So modest with your hands. There's really no need but it's up to you. You'll find it much easier if you relax with your arms by your side."
"Find it easier to do what?" I asked, shifting from one foot to another in almost exquisite embarrassment.
"To cry."
This was far from being the response I expected. It had been many years since I had been driven to tears, despite numerous occasions which could have reasonably warranted such an emotional reaction.
"Why?"
"Because you know yourself better than anyone Adam and so you know you ought to."
So unflinching was her stare that it held a magnetic control over my own. I could neither avert my eyes nor compose myself. I cried.
No money changed hands that night. By the time my eyes cleared I was left alone in an empty room although upon my sheepish exit I bent to retrieve a business card from the worn carpet by the door. It was clear therefore that a business relationship had commenced, that is, if I were minded to call the number.
"I'd like to speak to Eve please," I said, having been preoccupied by the whole affair for two days solid. I was back at home, back in my routine and away from the Metropolitan Hotel, but my heart and something of my soul remained there, wanting to understand more of my encounter and perhaps a little more about myself.
"And your name is?"
"Adam."
"Of course," chuckled the voice on the other end of the telephone. "Of course you can speak to Eve, Adam."
The banal strains of a synthesised orchestra occupied my attention for a minute or two before the music stopped and a voice interrupted the melody.
"I was expecting your call," spoke a lady with the familiar clear, confident manner. "Though maybe not quite so soon. How can I help you?"
"I don't know," I replied, confused. "I thought you would tell me about how all this works. What happened that night?"
After a sigh, Eve began to explain. She told me about my clear failings as a human being, of behavioural psychology and how she could turn me into a better man. Though I understood little of the technicalities, it was told with such conviction that it made perfect sense.
"How easily you stood before me and cried," she told me. "And what a relief it was to lose your inhibitions and become a child again. That is what we do Adam. That is what we do."
Business trips out of town ceased to be something I avoided at all costs and instead I took each and every opportunity to spend a short while in a private room at the Metropolitan Hotel, each time in the company of Eve.
So many times I stood naked before her and cried, cried because I was disgusted with myself. At first I would weep ever so gently and avert my eyes. Before long I could wail and moan and stamp my feet as the tears flooded down my cheeks. As my inhibitions abandoned me, Eve demanded ever more.
"Urinate," she instructed me as I stood naked before her in the shower.
"Defecate," she ordered when we met the following week.
Each experience was excruciatingly humiliating at first but on performing I received such genuine praise that I felt able to carry out any intimate act before her watchful eyes.
"Should I masturbate?" I asked one day, unclear whether it was expected of me.
"You can do," she replied distantly. "You can do if you want but would a child do that? No. You will feel sheepish now Adam for asking that question so if you would like to, I suggest that you might want to cry. But do masturbate, as you put it, if you prefer."
In the end, a cycle began where I would simply undress and sit on the bed beside her while I daydreamed about nothing at all. By that stage all aspects of my life had improved. Success came my way in both my professional and personal life. Never before had I felt more commanding at work and never, even in my youth, had I been so attractive to the opposite sex. Advances were received from younger, more beautiful women than had ever shown interest and I enjoyed every single minute of it.
One week, after so many sessions with Eve that I had lost track, I took my usual place at the Metropolitan Hotel and waited for her at the restaurant. No one came. Eventually I sat down to eat alone but before long a familiar laugh from the bar attracted my attention and I left my table immediately to investigate.
"Eve?" I said, noting with some anger that although she was alone, a man's jacket was slung over the chair beside her.
"I'm sorry are you talking to me?" she replied, peering behind her to check I wasn't addressing someone else.
"Eve," I said ever more insistently. "You know I'm talking to you."
"I'm sorry you're making me feel uncomfortable and I'll have to call the hotel staff over if you don't leave me alone."
Back in my room I spent a tense half hour putting one foot in front of the other and covering the same stretch of tasteless, worn carpet. There was nothing for it. I undressed and wrapped the courtesy dressing gown around me before leaving my room for a short trip to the same bedroom in which I had spent so many evenings. The door, as usual, was unlocked and out of habit I entered without knocking. The scene that greeted me there was appalling. On her back lay Eve, her mouth open, throat bare and vulnerable and her head lolled up and down as the man above her heaved back and forth. Both were naked.
"Get out," growled the furious lover. "You're in the wrong room!"
"I want you both to stop," I remember saying.
I don't really know what was going through my head at that point but I felt so low, so dreadfully low. Eve had never shown the slightest interest in me sexually and though the feeling had been mutual, I could only feel rejection.
"Get out," he repeated, shouting this time and threatening blue murder if I didn't obey.
But I couldn't obey. How proud I was at my lack of control as I brandished the desk lamp as a bludgeon and beat down upon his head until he cried and writhed no more. Without inhibitions, I felt perfectly at ease crushing his face and skull with each blow until I was satisfied he was dead. By then, his howls of pain had stopped only to be replaced by alarmed shouting from adjacent rooms.
"You've done very well," said Eve, smiling as she wriggled free from underneath the warm cadaver.
As I wiped the blood and sweat from my eyes with the back of my hand I welled up inside, because that was all I needed to know.