The phoenix's hypothesis - Book 1 (MxM 18+)

Chapter 43: Chicago - Part 1

Anthony, Sat Jun 20th 2015

This trip was such a great idea to take my mind off things! I am so glad I finally had the chance to visit Chicago and I'm not disappointed, this is such a beautiful city! The skyline is even more impressive than the one in New York! We already did two tours with the Chicago Architecture Foundation, one on a boat on the river, and one walking the streets of the Loop. It was so interesting to have a guide explaining the history of all the buildings, describing the different architecture styles and how they interacted with each other.

After our first tour, yesterday, we had a nice long walk on the shore of Lake Michigan, enjoying the beautiful weather, before having a romantic dinner on the 95th floor of the John Hancock Center. Needless to say the view on the sunset was absolutely stunning. Today we visited the Cultural Center with its beautiful Tiffany dome and lazed a bit in Millennium Park before going on our second tour.

This is a very nice way to distract me after the awful events that occurred nine days ago. I am relieved to see I am not living the same hell as I did three years ago, my Master has probably a lot to do with that. While I was incapable of doing anything and just brooded the whole day in bed or in the couch, he made sure that all the pictures of me that were displayed in the French high school were destroyed, and that all the persons that made copies of them deleted them. He even managed to get me a huge settlement for wrongful termination!

Then, he properly kicked my ass and shook me to at least do something. Whether it was a math problem, some preparation for our weekend here or just reading a book was irrelevant to him, what he forced me to do was just keep myself busy with simple things I like, instead of letting the day pass numbly. And I must admit it worked pretty well, at least I'm not spending my days reliving the public humiliation I experienced twice in my head. I don't know how I would have coped with this without his help, and I'll be forever grateful for it!

On Saturday night at the club, the scene with ice and wax made me completely let go of everything and I must admit I was feeling way better the next day. Then on Sunday, I received an email from my previous teacher to whom I had sent my proof saying it seemed correct to him and that he would recommend it to be published. That was such great news! I submitted it on Monday to the scientific journal he advised to me, and now I just have to wait for it to be reviewed. Hopefully it should take a bit less than a month. My old mentor also gave me clues of generalizations of this proof to explore, and I will look into that next week.

Not everything in the garden is rosy, though. I can't set a foot outside - at least not in our neighborhood - without panicking at the idea of seeing a former colleague or student. Except on Saturday, I had nightmares every night that left me wide awake and panting. Falling back asleep was quite hard, even with my Master helping as best he could. And even with focusing on different activities during the day, there were still times where I almost had anxiety attacks. Each time, I managed to focus on my proof to deflect the flashback, like my therapist taught me to, but I am not as used to experience those as before...

None of this applies to this weekend however, as I am definitely going to make the most of my time here! Last night was sweet and we made love several times in the fancy hotel room my Master booked for us, tonight will be more related to the lifestyle. We are in a cab, on our way to the Black Diamond. This is a BDSM gay club owned by a friend of Master Aiden's, secretly hidden behind a regular nightclub called the Black Moon. We will have dinner there with the owner, his friends and their Subs, before enjoying a show with them in the VIP area and retreating in a playroom my Master rented for the night.

I am very excited about the idea of discovering another club and see how they practice the lifestyle here, but at the same time, I am a bit nervous about meeting new people. What if they don't like me? Plus I won't know anybody when I'll go prep. The atmosphere in the Subs' room at the Blue Hedonism is quite relaxed, nobody judges anybody and we are all at ease around each other, but maybe it is different here...