Courtship by Proxy

By Alex Fogel

Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Cosy Mystery, Erotica, Fantasy/SciFi/Speculative, General Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Romance

Age Groups: 18+

“Courtship by Proxy”, a romantic mystery complete at 51,671 words in nine chapters, is a teasingly erotic tale of a woman’s quest to win the heart of the man she loves through the actions of other women.

Kyle Mason is a success at everything in life, with one exception; he has never been successful in understanding what he did to make the girl next door reject him so completely. This lack of understanding plays a critical role in his inability to form any type of significant relationship with members of the opposite sex over the past ten years.

A mysterious woman, known by the nickname, “Bubbles”, professes her love for Kyle but states that she will only reveal herself to him when she has won his love through her proxies. He is skeptical but his first interaction with one of these “proxies” affects Kyle deeply enough to convince him to give Bubbles’ scheme a chance.

Over the next several weeks, Kyle endures the companionship of five beautiful and sexy women as they trust him, test him, tease him, and train him in pleasures that he has only fantasized about. Kyle wants to trust that his feelings for Bubbles are genuine and meaningful, but he remains haunted by the unknown. Fear that what drove the girl next door away is hidden within some trait within him that could manifest itself again, Kyle is conflicted on whether to hope for a possible relationship with someone new.

At the urging of his uncle, Kyle reaches out to Karen Mayes, the girl that used to live next door, in an attempt to finally obtain the understanding of her past rejections that will allow him to achieve closure. The same animosity that Karen had always demonstrated towards Kyle resurfaces when he informs her that he has fallen in love with someone new. Karen vows to ruin any and every relationship that Kyle attempts until she gets even with him for the torment that he caused her.

Convinced of Kyle’s love, Bubbles is planning to finally reveal herself to him. Kyle is concerned, however, when he learns that Karen Mayes is going to be in town to attend their high school reunion at the same time that Bubbles will be there for to meet him. Bubbles assures Kyle that she is more than capable of handling Karen Mayes and that they should meet as planned.

Arriving at the hotel to meet Bubbles, Kyle spots Karen Mayes and quickly hides in the men’s restroom before she can see him. When his cell phone rings, Bubbles is looking for him. Explaining where he was hiding and why, Bubbles suggests that he meet her upstairs in her room. Since the room door is propped open for him, Kyle enters in search of his mystery woman, securing the door behind him.

Kyle finds the room empty of Bubbles, but hearing a knock at the door, he assumes that he inadvertently locked her out. Quickly opening the door, Kyle is confronted by the first proxy that Bubbles had sent him. She prods him back into the room and onto a chair, ignoring his objections. Using a small remote that she extracted from her purse, the proxy pushes a button and waits to allow Kyle to witness the transformation.

Within seconds, Karen Mayes is standing before Kyle, begging him to listen to her explanation for why she had rejected him in the past as well as for the efforts she had put into winning his love back. She explains her Radical Appearance Modification Project as part of her role at the CIA and how she had used this to present herself to Kyle as the different women he had interacted with.