Synopsis
Casey loves walking at night and watching people without being seen the more intimate the view, the better. Being unseen makes it better. It turns her on.
But then she loves all kinds of games, and the kinkier the better. When she spots an uncovered window that lets her see a naked man whipping a naked woman she wonders if she's found a kindred spirit.
~~~~~ PG Excerpt ~~~~~
It wasn't until later that she realized that the episode had gotten him upset with her. She'd unsettled him and that was when he first used the term he'd really meant. "You are off-kilter," he said.
"Off kilter?"
"Totally off balanced. Something is wrong with you."
"Different," she said, wounded. "Not wrong."
Finally, she saw how conventional he was. By then she'd set out to embrace her off kilteredness. She'd had her hair done in an asymmetric cut that covered her left ear. That kept her right ear, the one she wore the her erotic earring in, exposed.
Finding out that Rob thought she was just being pointlessly weird made her sad.
She knew that she'd always had a knack for making people uncomfortable. She didn't set out to do that it was more who she was than what she did, although it was hard to separate the two.
After than dinner, it was clear that Rob wanted her to change. He expected her to see the wisdom of being more conventional. But experience had taught her that pretending to be someone else fooled no one and only confused her. She stayed who she was, seeing life as a strange game, played for fun, not to win or lose, even if the game got a bit dark at times.
She had always liked the dark. In the dark, things had more of an edge to them. Being close to a sharp edge exhilarated her. But it bothered Rob. It scared him and eventually made him turn away from her. She knew that her manner doomed their relationship. The end had come into sight. But because of her off-kilteredness, watching that drama play out held a strange attraction for her.
How would that evolve?
Yet, despite who she was, who she thought Rob was, the unraveling of the relationship happened in a rather conventional way.
She found out he was cheating on her.