By Paul Cwick

The doorbell rang and Greg cringed. That can’t be her, he thought. Yet without looking, he somehow instinctively knew that it was. Reluctantly, he got up and walked to the door and looked through the little peephole. Sure enough, there was Cat on the other side, holding a paper sack in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. Oh my God, he thought. What’s she doing here? What does she want, seconds? What if I don’t answer it? Maybe she’ll think I’m out and go away? No, that’s no good; she’ll just come back later. Should I tell her to beat it? "Go away, Cat, I don’t wanna see you again!" No, that’s REALLY not a good idea!

Greg faced a dilemma. After what had happened the other morning, he wasn’t really all that sure he wanted to see Cat again. On the other hand, NOT seeing her could be a problem too. Greg sighed. I’m going to have to face this eventually, he thought. Might as well get it over with here and now. The doorbell rang a second time. Greg took a deep breath, let it out slowly, then finally unlocked the door and opened it.

"Hi, Greg!" Cat said, just as bright and cheerful as she could be, as though the events of the other morning had never taken place. "You haven’t called lately, so I thought I’d drop by and see how you’re doing."

"Oh hi, Cat," Greg said, without much enthusiasm. "I…uh… I wasn’t expecting you." There was an awkward silence while he searched for something else to say. "Um—won’t you come in?"

"Thanks," she said, walking past Greg, after which he closed the door. "I stopped by earlier this week, but I guess you weren’t home. When did you change your lock?"

"The day before yesterday." He caught the inquiring look on her face and went on to say, "See I, uh, lost my key the other day and…"

Cat paused for a moment. "Oh. Well, that’s okay, you can give me a duplicate key later on, there’s no hurry." Greg didn’t answer. Cat turned and headed towards his kitchen. "I didn’t know if you had dinner yet or not, so I picked up a few things on the way over." Greg simply stood silently, tensely, watching her every move carefully. After she unpacked some food from the paper sack and put the bottle of wine on the countertop, she came back out and only then noticed Greg’s silence and lack of mobility.

"Greg, what’s wrong?" she asked.

"What’s wrong?" he said, with a bitter little laugh. "After what happened the other day, you have the nerve to ask me what’s wrong?"

Cat regarded Greg with the blankest of possible expressions and paused an eternity before answering. "Oh. I see… You’re still angry about that." She gave a slight shake of her head, "I thought you would have gotten over that by now."

"’Gotten over it?’ Cat, are you serious? That was really lousy thing you did, taking advantage of me like that."

"Oh, come on, don’t make such a big thing out of it…" she said, trying to laugh it off as a joke.

"Cat, I’m serious! You scared the hell out of me! Not only that, but you totally humiliated me!"

"Well," she said, with a little smile, "maybe you had it coming. Look, let’s not go through that whole thing again, all right? Now look, you admitted you were wrong," At this, Greg’s mouth dropped open. "And I accepted your apology. And that’s it, that’s the end of it. Now let’s forget about it."

Greg was absolutely speechless. Was she even listening? Cat simply could not or would not even try to understand his point of view on the thing, how frightening it was to be attacked by an unseen assailant. He took a deep breath and tried one more time. "Look," he said, "I’m not talking about what I did, I’m talking about what YOU did! To me! To become invisible and then terrorize me the way you did was wrong, do you understand? It was mean and it was rotten."

Cat was no longer smiling, but oddly enough, neither was she angry. She regarded Greg the way a parent would in trying to be patient with a troublesome child; the look annoyed Greg even more.

"It’s bad enough that you have to hog that potion all to yourself—" he started to say, but Cat leaned her head back, rolled her eyes and loudly interrupted:

"Here we go again! Brother, how many times do we have to go through this! All the time, me and my potion! What about you?"

"Me?!?"

"Yeah, you! What about you and your ‘beemer’?"

"My what?!?"

"Your BMW. You won’t let me drive it!"

Greg was taken completely aback. His BMW? Is she kidding? What the hell does that have to do with anything? He almost laughed, it was so ridiculous. His mind groped for something intelligent to say in response, but the best he could come up with was: "Come on Cat, that’s different…."

Cat laughed, "Yeah, right; it’s always different when it’s your stuff we’re talking about!"

In spite of himself, Greg laughed. This was getting absurd. "All right," he said, finally. "Suppose we compromise? I’ll let you drive my ‘beemer’ if you let me share your potion."

Cat smiled. "I don’t think so." she said, with a little shake of her head. "You keep your ‘beemer’ and I’ll keep my invisibility."

Greg’s all-too-brief laughter quickly vanished. An awkward silence followed. Finally, Greg spoke again, quietly, his voice full of emotion: "I just don’t understand how you could do such a thing to me, how you could be so cruel. I thought you loved me."

"Oh, but I do love you, Greg," Cat began, "But look, I really think you’re making way too big an issue out of this whole thing. You’re acting as though my invisibility were a problem, but maybe the problem is with you, have you ever thought of that? You never even stopped to consider my point of view, to think about what a wonderful thing invisibility might be for me. I expected you to be more supportive of me."

Greg simply stared at her.

"I think you’re just envious of me, that’s all." Her green eyes flared up ever so briefly. "You’re envious of my invisibility. You feel threatened and you feel insecure. Now I never would have thought you were the type to feel threatened by a powerful woman, Greg; I thought you were better than that. I’m a little disappointed in you, frankly. But if that’s the way you feel, I guess I’ll just have to remember to make allowances for your little insecurities from now on. I certainly wouldn’t want to injure your poor, delicate feelings."

Greg silently absorbed all of this. In spite of her mocking tone, she did have a point; he WAS envious of her invisibility, and he DID feel threatened by her. Maybe she’s right…. No, no, he shook his head. "Well, even if that were true, and I’m not saying it is," Greg answered, "It still doesn’t excuse what you did to me. And if I did feel threatened, would it be all that surprising? After what you pulled the other day, who wouldn’t be threatened by you?"

At this, Cat’s face somehow softened, her eyebrows raised and she got that curious look in her eyes that almost looked as though she were going to cry. Instinctively, subconsciously, Greg knew the battle was over; he had no defense when she gave him that look. Her voice was soft when she answered him. "Greg, you don’t have any reason to feel threatened by me, don’t you know that? I love you. I guess you just made me so mad the other day that, for a minute, I just didn’t know what I was doing. The trouble is, you’re taking one unpleasant experience and you’re letting it sour you on everything else. What about the nice things I did for you? Hmm? Remember how good it was? It was good, wasn’t it?"

In spite of himself, Greg’s thoughts flashed back and recalled the good times they had shared together. He had to admit that, even though Cat’s invisibility had turned their relationship upside-down, and her tempestuous moods were hard to live with, she still had the ability to pleasure him in the most profound ways, more than any other woman he had known. And despite the blowup they’d had the other day, he really didn’t want to give her up… At least, not yet…

Cat moved closer to him; Greg almost started to back away, but then stood firm. Cat reached her arms around Greg’s neck and her fingers caressed his back. "And it can be good again, if you’ll only give it a chance. Look, I even brought you a little peace offering, see?" She indicated toward the food in the kitchen. "Come on now, Greg, come onnnnnnnn…don’t stay mad at me…let’s be friends…"

Greg resisted for as long as he could. He was angry. He was hurt. He wanted her to know that. He wanted himself to know it. But for some reason, he found it increasingly difficult to remember it as Cat continued her advances; his anger and outrage over the other day’s events gradually diminished. He was only human after all, and he could only take so much. Finally, he’d reached his breaking point; he gave in and began to soften. "Well…." he said, as he reached his arms around her, pulling her closer to him.

Gotcha! Cat thought. God, he’s so easy….just like putty in my hands….

Cat kissed Greg. "Now if you’d still like that dinner," she said, playfully pushing him backwards, onto the couch. "You just sit right there and don’t move. And you’ll have a dinner you’ll never forget." She turned and went into the kitchen.

As Cathy puttered around in the kitchen, Greg waited patiently on the couch, pondering all that had been discussed. Maybe Cat was right, he thought. Maybe he WAS overreacting because of his own envy and insecurity. He had to admit, it did make sense. And maybe she was right about other things, too.. That whole business the other day, for example, was probably his own fault… If he hadn’t gone nosing around in her bag, she wouldn’t have gotten angry and the ensuing scene never would have happened… And she does seem to be sorry now, he thought. So absorbed was Greg in these thoughts that he never noticed the sound of a kettle boiling. Or an unusual aroma filling the air.

Cathy pulled from her purse a small plastic bag containing a special herbal mixture, and emptied its contents into a coffee mug. She poured boiling water from the kettle into the mug and, after allowing the brew to steep, then cool, she then swallowed the potion in a few quick swallows. As she rinsed out the mug, she felt the warm, tingly sensation course through her body as the potion began to take its effect. It started in her tummy, then gradually eased its way outward, creeping into her arms and legs, and up her neck towards her face. God, she loved that feeling, the feeling of power growing from within. It felt so wonderful that she couldn’t help but smile whenever she took the potion. She waited for a few moments in anticipation, then turned to go to the room where Greg sat.

Greg looked up and saw Cat standing in the kitchen doorway. "I’m afraid dinner will be a little late." she said, smiling…and fading away.

Greg’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. He felt the blood drain from his face. "No….Please….don’t…." he said, his voice breaking.

Cat hastened to reassure him, "Now don’t get upset, sweetie, just relax. I promise I’ll be a good girl. I just want to remind you how nice it can be for you if you’ll only put aside your hang-ups for a while and give it a chance."

Greg was struck by a feeling of déjà vu, as the scene unfolding before him was almost identical to the first time Cat had demonstrated her discovery for him. He watched as first Cat’s hands and legs disappeared, and then her face, and then finally, her bright red hair. It’s funny, he thought, but….for a moment there, he almost thought he detected the slight trace of a smirk on her face. But her face vanished completely before he could be absolutely sure.

Now Cat’s blouse and miniskirt seemed to hover in mid-air over her pumps, which toppled aside as Cat stepped out of them. The clothes floated over to where Greg sat and the empty sleeves reached out to him; reflexively, he pulled away. Unseen hands took Greg’s own as Cat gently pulled him to his feet to face her directly. "Now just relax…" the empty blouse said to him, soothingly, "Everything’s going to be all right…." Greg stared in both fear and fascination at the empty clothes standing there in front of him, with Cathy’s voice seeming to come from somewhere inside. "I’ll be gentle with you, I promise." she said.

The empty sleeves raised themselves up before the empty collar of the blouse, and the buttons began to undo themselves, starting at the collar and working down. When the last button was undone, the sleeves reached up and peeled the blouse away from…nothing. Only a brassiere hung suspended in space underneath. The tight miniskirt then unzipped itself and peeled away from unseen contours, beneath which floated a pair of panties just below the floating brassiere. Greg noticed that he couldn’t see even an outline of Cat’s legs; only then did he realize that she wasn’t wearing pantyhose. The bra unhooked itself and was tossed aside, the panties curled away and fell to the floor. Cat was now completely invisible.

"Now don’t be afraid," Cat’s soft, sexy voice said from somewhere in front of him. "I’m not going to bite you. I just want to show you that my invisibility can be fun, not just for me, but for you too." Unseen lips kissed Greg’s cheek; he flinched. "I can do things for you now, you know," she whispered in his ear. "An invisible girl can do all sorts of wonderful things. I can do nice things," she kissed his cheek again. "And I can do wicked things." she nibbled his ear. "All for you. Wouldn’t you like that? An invisible girlfriend to do things just for you? Hmmm?"

Greg swallowed hard, afraid to move, as unseen hands began to softly stroke and caress him all over. He didn’t know what she had in store for him, and couldn’t even be sure whether she was still in front of him or was now in back of him; she seemed to be all around him. He now trembled madly, and silently prayed that she wouldn’t hurt him. Her invisible fingers crept up his neck, caressing his cheeks, and down inside his shirt to stroke his chest. Unseen hands tugged and plucked at his clothes. "Come on, let’s have some fun!" Cat’s voice said, teasingly. "See if you can catch me! Come on! Catch me and you’ll get a reward!"

Greg’s heart was pounding. He was still frightened…but maybe…maybe she was trying to be nice after all. She sounded playful; maybe she was genuinely sorry and was trying to make up. He decided that the safest thing, for the time being, was to play along…but cautiously. He groped around blindly, reaching for the invisible Cat, chasing her about the room in slow motion. He groped at nothing but thin air; she giggled at his efforts. "Here I am!" she giggled. "No, no, over here!" Her voice seemed to come from everywhere in the room, everywhere and yet nowhere. Greg continued to reach into empty space for her, even though he knew it was futile. Every once in a while, invisible fingers would tickle his sides, and then would just as suddenly vanish just as he reached to grab at them.

The teasing and laughing continued for a few more minutes, and then suddenly, Cat was just there, within his reach, as if waiting for him. She must have let him catch her, he realized. She kissed him again and then slipped away from his reach again. An unseen hand took hold of the front of Greg’s shirt and tugged at it, pulling him along. "Come along, now," she said. He followed like a puppy on a leash as Cat led him over to the easy chair and sat him down on it.

Now she was behind him, and her unseen hands began to massage his neck and shoulder muscles. "There now, isn’t that nice?" Cat’s soft, breathy voice said from just behind his ear, as she gently but firmly kneaded his flesh. "Doesn’t that feel good?"

"Oh yes…" Greg said, closing his eyes. It WAS good, he had to admit. Cat’s fingers were incredibly strong and yet sensitive…They were absolutely magical when she gave him a massage…He finally began to relax…

"You see? When you’re a good boy, you get a reward."

"Mmmmmm," Greg softly moaned in pleasure.

"Only bad boys get punished. Do you want to be a bad boy and get punished? Or do you want to be a good boy and get rewarded?"

"Mmmmmm," Greg moaned again.

"I thought so. You see, the Invisible Woman can be kind and loving. But you must earn that kindness and love." she said.

But Greg was barely listening; he was too enraptured in the pleasure of the moment. As the massage continued, the events of the previous Saturday morning now seemed to be only a distant memory to Greg. It SEEMED as though Cat was trying to make amends. Maybe she was sincere after all. Maybe this was her way of apologizing. And she did bring over that food as a ‘peace offering.’ Maybe she did mean well. Ahh, Cat…Cat…he thought. What a mystery. Greg pondered how she could be so cruel and selfish at some times while others she could be so sensuous and sensitive, passionate and loving, like she was now. She really was a remarkable woman, after all… Maybe he just needed to be patient with her, that’s all… Patient and understanding and forgiving…

The massaging fingers gradually ceased, and Greg then felt a curious sensation by his chest. He opened his eyes to discover his shirt unbuttoning itself. "Hey!" he said, "What are you doing?"

"Your turn," Cat said.

"Wait a minute! I’m not invisible!"

Cat clicked her tongue a few times "Too bad…" She said, giving Greg a quick pinch and giggling.

"OUCH!! Hey, I thought you promised to be good!"

"Did I?" Cat said, as the buttons continued to unbutton and the shirt slowly peeled itself from Greg’s torso. "Why should I?"

Putty in her hands.

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