Jim takes Clarissa, who is really Sharon scuplted into an awesomely lovely young black woman about Sharon's height, to dinner at Sharon's favorite restaurant. "Don't you think they'll know me there and wonder why I'm not with Sharon?" he asks Clarissa. Clarissa laughs, letting her laugh sound like Sharon's, although she's told Jim that in public she'll use her false Clarissa persona to be more like the real Clarissa. "Let them wonder," she says. "We both know that Sharon's safe and sound in here," and she taps her chest just above her flawless dark breasts. Jim leans over -- they're stopped at a light -- and kisses Clarissa's beautiful but still unfamiliar face. The head waiter knows Jim by sight and seems puzzled to see him not with his attractive girlfriend but rather with this dignified but drop-dead gorgeous black girl. Clarissa notices the man's discomfiture and laughs a delightful little laugh very unlike Sharon's. Clarissa orders asparagus as an appetizer -- Sharon is allergic to it but her Clarissa body isn't -- and a drier wine than Sharon usually drinks. "This body likes those things, Jim," she says, when the waiter has gone off with their initial order. "Oh, it's wonderful to be someone else and be able to enjoy different things in a different body," she gushes, and Jim finds both the idea and her new voice strangely erotic. She orders roast pork in a special herbal sauce -- Sharon was raise Jewish and still avoids pork, but as Clarissa she has no qualms about that. The more time he spends with the Clarissa body and the delightful personality that is a blend of the best of Clarissa and Sharon, the more he's infatuated with the woman, and by the main course they're holding their glasses to let the other person drink wine from them, taking forkfuls off each other's plates and even passing morsels of food from mouth to mouth with a kiss. Even a casual observer can see that they're wildly infatuated with each other, so it's a shock to Jim and the Sharon self inside the Clarissa-form alike when Jim's old friend Rick comes over from a booth where he's been having appetizers with his girlfriend. "Jim," says Rick, "how are you? And you must introduce your charming date." Clarissa produces her beautiful laugh. Jim introduces Clarissa, who lets Rick take and kiss her dark, elegant hand. "You never told me you'd broken up with Sharon," says Rick to Jim.
Fri Jan 14 17:06:06 2000