What some would call a modern day Challenging what it means to be "kept"
I asked him to give me the illusion that I could live without money. The woman who gave me the idea was kept herself, in the tradition one could expect. Using her looks and ability to seduce with a few dropped words and glances, she was taken care of respectably, leaving her free to pursue an advanced degree, travel as she pleased, invest in socially meaningful work. Sure, she always met me dressed impeccably and in the lounges of very pretty hotels. The champagne would always be a gift.
But would I ever be satisfied as that most conventional sort of mistress?
What would my kept life allow me? To greet the receptionist my salon, to flirt with my aesthetician (I never need to worry about distracting myself from the pain of wax when lain on her table; she’s absorbing all on her own), to be warmly recognized each time for my signature manicure, all these trappings of girlishness that even I feel somewhat indulgent for adopting as routine, to come and go as if money doesn’t exist. And I do. My pet, a sort of combined personal assistant, servant, and confidante has already attended to all the frothy details. So I may. So I don’t have to.