Orchid Lover

William loved orchids. He would visit a nursery near his home whenever he could. He would wander through the beautiful flowers, smelling their delicate, citric, occasionally bitter, perfume. In his infatuation, some of the blossoms appeared to him to be the delicate ears of elves, and others the secret parts of women.

He knew that one day he would have an orchid of his own. But which one? The flowers that were beautiful didn’t always have the most pleasing fragrance, and the ones that smelled sweeter were often very plain. It would not do to be impulsive.

After weeks of consideration, he finally settled on a Catasetum with a beautiful fragrance and delicate purple and pale yellow blossoms. It was expensive, but what was money compared to love? He took it home. For weeks, he lavished it with attention. He stopped going to the nursery. His orchid smelled heavenly, like citrus and cinnamon with a hint of vanilla.

One night, very late, when he was nearly asleep, William gazed with sleepy eyes at the orchid beside his bed. The face of the nearest blossom was turned directly toward him. Its lower front petals were shaped like a cup with a delicate outward-folding lip, and the upper petals were a smaller, upturned mirror of the lower ones. Together, they seemed to form an open, inviting mouth. A flash of heat and desire came over him. Giving no thought to what he was doing, he stretched forward and licked it, gently, between the lips of its cup. As his tongue touched the center, it seemed to him that the lips of the orchid suddenly squeezed his tongue with a gentle suction. Before he could draw back, he felt himself let go in a spasm of release.

He fell back on the bed, breathing heavily. Was he mistaken, or had there been a flavor? A delicate, green, almost animal, muskiness? He sat back up and looked at the blossom. Its head was drooping slightly now. Maybe it had been the nearness of his nostrils to the source of the fragrance that had made it seem so. Maybe it was his imagination that the flower had seemed to kiss him back. Maybe, but he didn’t think so.