Knowing Rose Parker

So am I going to be reading about myself? Rose asked as she lay languid, flat on her belly. Her chin resting in her palms as she propped herself up on her elbows. Her hair was dark, long and luxuriant with a soft and silky texture. She gracefully flicked the strands to one side and they cascaded down her shoulder, falling in ebbs and flows amongst the folds of the crisp bed linen.

You may have to wait a little while. I'm sorry, but I struggle with words sometimes. Dick replied.
Really? But you seem so... confident.
This... Dick motioned in his own general vicinity, pausing as he searched for the words.
This is different. Dick added in an annexed fashion.
The Dick that existed behind the closed doors was not someone who existed in the real world.
Who was he? Dick thought to himself. Was he really the calm and collected individual prone to bouts of loquaciousness in the company of beautiful women? Women like Rose? or was he really the painfully introverted science fiction geek of his sexless youth?
Dick pushed these probing internal reflections to the back of his mind.
All issues a good therapist could sort out at a later date. Dick thought to himself.
For now, the exquisite creature before him deserved (or demanded rather) his full and undivided attention.
I am someone else when I am here... behind closed doors. Dick offered. It was the best he could do when forced to think introspectively.
I understand what you mean. I'd get fired in an instant if the firm ever found out I did this. She empathised.
Her honesty was sobering and all at once Dick understood that the girl before him probably didn't exist in the real world either. A libertine goddess with a clandestine occupation beyond her regular nine-to-five. She existed only within the boundaries of the hotel room as did Dick. But for now, the unreal version of Dick and unreal version of Rose were sharing the same wavelength. And Dick liked it.

Rose was disarmingly chill and it made for sparkling conversation. It was as if she was casually strolling through the rooms of her private life, opening windows and doors. Inviting Dick to take a peek. Through the interstices of the persona that was Rose Parker, Dick caught glimpses of a sophisticated young lady of exceeding confidence and keen intelligence. He was in awe that such endowments could come wrapped up in such a sinfully seductive exterior.

Dick on the other hand, despite his advanced years, was almost callow by comparison. In the real world, he had the uncanny natural ability to make women feel uncomfortable. A painfully introverted personality combined with the unquenchable desire for coitus can make for the most interesting of social scenarios.

However, things were different with Rose Parker. Their engaging conversation revealed a surprising degree of mutual interest and this seemed to make all the difference.

Like Dick, Rose was a bibliomanic. A prolific reader who inhaled literature like oxygen. And it showed in her good diction. She preferred the old-world charm of page-turning over the new-world of e-reading. She sited To Kill a Mockingbird as one of her all time favourites. A novel that Dick also treasured.
I want to have a child just so I can name him Atticus. She proclaimed proudly.

Dick had to admire her intellectual jocularity.
He prattled off a list of his own favourites and when he finally named one that she hadn't already consumed, it happened to be one that Dick was currently re-reading. He dove into his backpack and returned with his paperback copy.
Please take it. He said offering it to her.
It was a copy of A Confederacy of Dunes. A cleverly witty novel that Dick adored.
I can't take your book! She guffawed.
Dick insisted, knowing how someone who loved the written word as much as Rose did would appreciate it.
She finally accepted the gift, hugging it to her chest. She smothered Dick with a volley of kisses.
Oh thank you! I just want to snuggle up and read it right now! She gushed with excitement. 
Her joyful show of appreciation at such a minor display of generosity warmed Dick to his core. He was glad to be able to gift something so succinctly appropriate for Rose. And the thought of a little piece of himself occupying Rose's bookshelf bought him an immeasurable amount of pleasure. In that moment, he found the desire to smile irrepressible. He beamed as Rose affectionately sidled up next to him.
You are such a surprise. Rose said to him.
Dick blushed a little. He hoped Rose had not noticed.
A good surprise I hope. Dick bantered.
Yes. A very good surprise. She responded.
Am I what you expected? Rose asked.

You are far beyond anything I ever expected. Dick said, cringing slightly at his own cloying sentimentality.

For the days that followed their fateful rendezvous, Dick found himself smiling subconsciously. And when he caught himself, he found that Rose was occupying his thoughts.

Dick thought back to Rose's question. It had taken him a few days, but Dick had discovered that Rose was everything he never knew he wanted.