The Owl and the Pussycat

This story is basically a traditional romance, in that in the first chapter, Boy Meets Girl; very shortly after, they become lovers; in the last chapter, they get married - 4½ years later. It is leavened by occasional detailed, explicit descriptions of sexual activity between the two protagonists. Peter Abelard Godwin is a professor at a small private university in a small town somewhere in the NE United States; Celia Vermeer, when Peter first meets her, is an exotic dancer working at the Cathouse, a local strip joint. Very shortly thereafter, Celia quits her job and moves in with Peter. From there, the story chronicles the ups and downs of their relationship, as Celia begins to develop a vocation in liturgical dance at Peter's church and wings for her mind at Peter's university, while Peter gradually loosens up, becoming less reserved, more open, more easy-going, increasingly able to fully enjoy the adventurous loops that Celia keeps throwing him. Both protagonists become enriched intellectually, socially, and spiritually, as they gradually decide to wed. The plot is complicated by Celia's decision at a certain point to leave Peter, believing that she is not satisfied with him as a lover and considering the possibility of finding richer pastures elsewhere. Eventually, somewhat older and wiser, Celia returns, having concluded that, in the end, she will be happier with Peter than with any alternative she's liable to find. A secondary issue is Peter's growing passion to punish Celia's former employer for the crimes & indignities she has suffered in the past, and the resultant refashioning of the Cathouse into a more progressive, women-ruled establishment. A further complication is that, while the story takes place almost entirely in the NE United States and most of the characters are Americans, speaking Standard American English, Celia comes from London, England, and resolutely speaks with a Cockney accent. I have striven to develop a written representation of Celia's accent that, like Sir Walter Scott's depictions of Scottish English in novels like The Bride of Lammermoor, gives the reader a sense of the 'differentness' of Celia's accent while not getting in the way (to any great extent) of understanding what she is saying.