Ascendance, A Romance (Part 4) [This completes the story of Ishmael’s journey of self-discovery. It will make more sense if you read parts 1 and 2.] I got home shortly after noon. Snapshots of all the things that happened last night kept flashing through my brain like a high-speed slideshow, with a still image of Julie’s face staring down at me with a mixture of triumph and contempt popping up every few seconds like a ref...

Mona said she was going to push me to see just how much humiliation I could take. How far would I go to please her? She loved doing it to me, of course, that’s how she got off. But, she explained, I wasn’t only doing it for her; I was doing it for myself. I had to push the envelope to discover who I really was and what I really needed. She said that she was the key that would unlock a part of me that was hidden deeper tha...

Part 2 [The story won’t make sense if you haven’t read part 1. Part 3, if it comes, will complete the story.] “What’s bothering you?” Julie asked. She said this to the back of my head as she followed me out of the meeting room. “That was an important design meeting, and you were somewhere else? Care to tell me where?” I don’t think so, I said to myself as I looked at my watch. It was Friday and I was trying to leave early...

I really don’t know how it happened. There were moments when my thoughts were icy clear and I knew exactly what I should say, but when I opened my mouth nothing came out. Instead I went along, I complied. Mona would say she simply opened a door and I walked through. But into what? I felt . . . I felt . . .. I don’t know what I felt. Mona would say I felt free. And therein lies a tale. I’m just an average guy, a 36-year-ol...