And where the Black Widow is a man
TELL NO LIES: Promotional model Stephanie Rae Glover is looking to step out of the modelling world and into writing. She types away at her blog, City of Secrets, to write tawdry tales of the city.
Promotional model Stephanie Rae Glover flashes a toothy grin, which weaves into a sheepish smile.
The 22-year-old sits under the Victorian-inspired chandeliers in a Christie and Dupont coffee shop, and she’s sharing her exploits with a man, 11 years her senior, who lives a glamourous life in downtown Toronto.
“I’ve never been in a room where there were all these drugs, and all these scandals, where I’m seeing a man I’m just terrified to tell my mom about, for God’s sakes,” she says, in a single gulp.
The reason for her provocative comment is clear. It’s the fodder for her The City of Secrets blog — a 50 Shades of Grey-meets-Sex in the City, with a sprinkling of Anaïs Nin-like narration.
Though she’s a model, and part-time bank employee, Glover is more than just a pretty face. Just over a year ago she moved to the Bathurst and Dupont area via Whitby, and was swept up into the romantic world offered by the man she calls the Black Widow.
When pressed as to why she associated her male lead with an arachnid typically saved for females, she cites nature.
“That whole concept with the spider is, it sets its web, traps its prey and wraps the prey in its web,” she says. “It intoxicates it. “That was kind of the term with it — I felt intoxicated when I was in this world with him and that’s how the name thing started.
“I was in his world, entangled in his web and caught up with it all.”
Beneath her baring of human desire, there’s some trepidation. As she mentioned, she was afraid to tell her mother about her experiences, or even share the blog with her.
“I guess because I was brought up so sheltered and sex is not a thing you talk about in my house,” she said, her nervousness revealing itself. “I went to a Christian elementary school (and) I went to a Christian high school.
“Everything was very taboo in my house. Even seeing older people my mom was very skeptical about. She’s come to terms with it, but I’m at a certain point at my life I’m going to write what I’m going to write, and I have a passion for it.”
Family still factors into her influences for writing, however. It was her father who taught her the art.
Dave Glover, also known as blues musician Big Daddy G, passed away four years ago, but his spirit is carried on through his daughter’s written word.
“I used to write songs,” she said, adding it’s an art she’s loved since age 11. “I had notebooks and journals filled with these songs — that probably don’t make sense now when I think back to them.”
Though the Black Widow is her version of E.L. James’ Christian Grey, he’s now in her past. She admits she does not pine for the cars, the diamonds or the money that she experienced when first coming to the city.
The love affair ended when Glover realized the one thing Mr. Widow couldn’t offer: love.
“He doesn’t want to love somebody and he doesn’t want a family and I’m completely different from that,” she rues. “I obviously want a family, and I obviously want love … He’s in love with his money.”
There’s a peppering of questions as to whom the real identity of her former beau is, and she laughs.
He is a well-known person, she says, but he’s not a politician, musician or entertainer.
“Trust me, I’ve had everyone who’s close to me ask a million questions and only two people know the true identity,“ she titters.
And that mystery keeps her almost 900 followers coming back for more.