The house Lauren bought on Artesian Road has a wonderful yard connecting the backs of all the four-storey houses on the same block. Over a century and a half, when this part of London took shape, people have built all kinds of extensions to their houses. Besides, the yard is overgrown with lush vegetation of all descriptions. Although the only connection with that space is a narrow terrace accessible from the stairwell, one can enjoy it from windows on three floors.

Lately, Lauren has been spending quite a bit of time at the new house in preparation for a substantial building program this summer. She has redesigned the ground floor, but several other floors will be affected, as well. Yesterday I received an electronic-mail message dealing with a variety of things concerning the house. The last paragraph was delightful:

While I was sitting on the tiny terrace in the back of the house I heard the most outstanding human symphony. Two voices mounting together toward an orgasm. It was the sound of abandon, surrender, and symmetry of a kind I have never heard before. It was an erotic moment of a cosmic variety. Lovely. I felt blessed.

I responded a couple of minutes afterwards, but I made sure that I do not say something that might offend Lauren’s sensibilities, like that the man could have been faking it:

Of course, I love the story about the voices mounting to an orgasm in the back of the house. However, I cannot but notice that men and women do not come the same way. In fact, the two patterns are completely different. So, either the guy was kind of singing along, enraptured by his lady’s voice, or we are talking about two women.

I left the office before I received Lauren’s reply. It was waiting for me this morning. “It was definitely a man and a woman,” Lauren wrote curtly. That was the entire content of her message. She was protective of her enchantment. She did not want to hear about anything that would spoil her experience. I thought of writing back and asking how long the whole thing took, but then I realized I had better step back.

But can a man and a woman really experience orgasm as in Lauren’s story? Given the vast variety of sexual experience, there may be some couples capable of it. Assuming that this is so, can other couples learn not only to reach orgasm at the same moment, which is not so difficult to achieve, but also to reach it slowly, gradually, following the same path, as it were?