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Good Friends

By: StangStar06



Elliot Carson looked at the screen on his HAAS controller. He pressed the buttons that would run the program at 25% rapid and in single block mode. Running in single block, meant that the huge machine would execute only one single block or command in the program at a time. It would then wait for him to prompt it before doing anything else.

He closed the door to the machine's cavernous machining envelope and wished for the best. He'd been tweaking this program for more efficiency and hoped that he'd finally gotten it right. If so, it would cut down on the machine's cycle time and save the company more money. Saving the company more money meant that Elliot's production numbers went up and that his profit sharing check would be bigger.

Elliot lost all thought of that as it happened. He'd been so pre-occupied by the machine that he'd lost track of the time and almost missed one of his two favorite times of the day. Watching "her" arrive at the plant was the best. Watching "her" leave was a close second. 

She walked briskly to the time clock and looked for her card. She punched the card, put it back in her slot and walked up the stairs towards the office. Today as usual she was wearing a skirt that stopped just below her knee. Her calves were beautiful and her ankles were as spectacular as the rest of her. Her ass was perfect, not huge, not flat just perfectly proportionate for her frame. Her breasts were just there as far as he could tell. They weren't huge by a long shot and they weren't flat. They stood out from her torso, but not a huge amount.

It was her face and that luxurious mane of hair that Elliot noticed first. Her face was perfection. She was blessed with huge blue eyes and a Cupid's bow mouth. Her nose was cute and covered with a light coating of freckles. He dreamed of looking into those eyes someday and kissing those lips, but it would probably never happen.

Her hair was a golden blond color and was literally the longest mane of hair he'd ever seen. It extended all the way down past her ass nearly to her knees. It was always tied up or restrained in some way. Today it was in one long pony tail that swished and bounced off of her ass as she walked. Elliot watched her all the way until she disappeared from view into the office upstairs.

"Earth to Elliot. Earth to Elliot. Come in Elliot, are you there?" laughed the voice of Elliot's best friend, Mark Daniels. 

Elliot turned around and barely noticed his friend. It always took him a while to return to normal after seeing her.

"Elliot, can you hear me?" asked Mark.

"Yeah, of course I can," snapped Elliot. He was embarrassed that Mark had caught him staring at the woman and hoped that maybe his friend wouldn't notice.

"Man, you zoned out over that one," said Mark, removing all hope of Elliot maintaining his dignity. "You really went gaga over her, Bud."

"No I didn't," snapped Elliot. "I don't even know what you're talking about. I was going over my calculations for the radii in this program because if I got them wrong, I'm going to fuck up a pretty expensive casting."

"Hmm, it seems pretty coincidental that your calculations started right when that blond came in and ended right when she disappeared from view," said Mark. "But I believe you. After all you are my best friend."

"That's because I'm the ONLY guy who can stand you for very long," said Elliot.

"That is probably true," said Mark. "Anyway, lunch today? On you of course, I'm technically broke until we get paid tomorrow."

"Okay," said Elliot turning back to his machine. "See you then."

Mark quickly went up the stairs and into the office. He looked around and saw the blond woman. She was sitting at a desk near the center of the room. All around her were other secretaries and assistants. He stared at the woman trying to see exactly what was so special about her that had drawn his friend's interest.

There had to be something. Elliot hardly ever looked at women, let alone spaced out in the middle of the shop floor over one.

Mark went and spoke to Sally, the office gossip. Sally smiled broadly as Mark leaned over her desk. She leaned forward to give him a better view of her chest and quickly looked around to make sure that the other women in the office were watching her.

"I told you, you'd be back," she said. "What happened, did you run out of single women to go after?"

"Sally, you getting married is one of the worst things to ever happen to me in my life," said Mark. "I really wish you hadn't done it, because now we can get together every once in a while, but it can't be anything regular. It would arouse too much suspicion. And I don't need any husbands beating down my door."

"You had your chance, baby," said Sally. "You could have married me yourself. Shit, you still can."

"Sally what do you know about the blond over there?" Mark pointed at the woman that Elliot had been staring at. 

Sally looked to see who he was talking about and then turned her head back. Her eyes had changed. "Mark you need to stay the fuck away from her," she snapped.

"She's been through a rough enough time already. She doesn't need you pumping her up and then dumping her on a whim, or because after you've fucked her a couple of times you're just bored. She's not your type and you're not hers."

Mark looked at the woman again. Her face seemed plain, but she was kind of pretty. He'd seen better though. She had hardly any tits. She wasn't very tall or very short. She didn't wear a lot of make-up or jewelry. Her clothes weren't very stylish. Shit, she was the most average woman Mark had ever seen. The only thing that stood out about her was all of that hair. Holy shit, he wondered. How the hell did she go to the bathroom without getting shit all over it?

"Don't worry, Sally," said Mark. "I'm not the least bit interested in her."

"Yeah right," said Sally. "She has a pussy, so you're interested. But if you mess with her, every woman that works here will make sure that you lose your job."

"Honest to God Sally, I'm not interested in Rapunzel," said Mark.

"Her name is Kathy," snapped Sally. "And if you're not interested in her, then why the hell were you asking about her?"

"A friend of mine is kind of nuts about her," said Mark.

"Well tell your friend to stay the fuck away from her," snapped Sally. "Or else...."

"Or else what?" asked Mark, bringing his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her cheek. She wondered if he'd actually kiss her here in the office in front of everyone. Mark was such a bastard. She was sure he would. He'd do it without even a thought, her marriage and reputation, be damned. 

"Or else we'll make sure that both you and your friend have problems," said Sally, snapping out of her near swoon. Mark was trouble. It was all she could do to keep from pulling her panties down and handing them to him. 

"Don't worry," said Mark. "I doubt that anything will happen. You know how shy Elliot is."

"Elliot," snapped Sally. All of a sudden her entire demeanor changed. "Ohhh, the poor baby. Tell me what's going on."

A few hours later Elliot sat at a table across from Mark in a mom and pop restaurant near the plant where they both worked. Mark was a salesman and a very good one. He used his charm to schmooze people into buying everything he sold, whether they needed it or not.

Elliot was a CNC programmer and he was also very good at what he did. The two men had been friends for most of their lives. Mark was outgoing and friendly, on the surface. Elliot was more reticent and shy. 

Those qualities were only on the surface though. Mark would walk up and talk to anyone he saw. He'd ask them all kinds of personal questions and make them think that he really wanted to know them. A good example of this was when they were in their last year of high school. They got a new science teacher who was a really beautiful woman. Mark walked right up to her and was soon asking her all kinds of questions. What's your daughter's name? How old is she? Oh it's too bad she's in a wheelchair. Her birthday is when?

Elliot on the other hand almost went into shock when having to meet new people. He hung back and stayed off to himself. People sometimes thought he was aloof or just plain snooty until they actually met him. But in reality nothing was farther from the truth. Elliot would go a long way out of his way to help anyone. Even people he barely knew. In our example about the science teacher, three weeks later was the science teacher's daughter's birthday.

Mark totally forgot about it. Elliot went into the classroom early and left a present for the child. When he got caught doing it, he claimed that Mark had told him to do it. The overwhelmed teacher went to thank Mark and found out that he had no idea when her daughter's birthday was. When she went back to Elliot, he apologized profusely and told her that he wanted to get the child a present but was embarrassed to do it because she hadn't actually told him about her daughter, it had been Mark.

People who knew both of them for any period of time came to love Elliot, while Mark tended to get on their nerves after a while. With dating it was the same thing. Elliot had one girlfriend from his early teens all the way until his second year of college, when her family moved out of the country. They kept in touch for years and he was heartbroken when time and distance ended the relationship. 

Mark dated someone new every time the wind blew. Most of the women he dated more than once claimed they'd date him again occasionally but not seriously. "He goes out with a lot of different women..." said one. "...Because he only has enough bullshit to last for one or two dates. After that, he just gets on your nerves."

"Her name is Kathy," said Mark as the two men ate. "She's from a small town in Ohio. She moved here three weeks ago and has been working here for two weeks. She isn't dating anyone. She lives alone. She doesn't have any kids. She likes your car, so that might be a way for you to start a conversation with her."

"Mark, what are you babbling about?" asked Elliot.

"You dream girl," said Mark. "I went and got you the 411, because I knew that left alone you'd just sit there and stare at her until someone else started dating her. Then you'd watch her in secret until she got married and broke your heart."

"Mark, I still don't know what you're talking about. I'm not interested in any of the women at work," said Elliot. Inwardly he was really excited to know her name.

Later on at work that afternoon, Sally and a couple of the other women in the office took Kathy on a tour of the plant. They walked her around to all of the other departments and introduced her to everyone. A lot of the men in the plant were very outgoing. They smiled at Kathy and tried their best to charm her. Unfortunately a lot of them were also married.

When they got to Elliot's office he wasn't there. "He's probably on the shop floor," said Sally. "Those are the only two places Elliot ever is. Either in here on his computer, writing programs or down on the shop floor, testing them. He's a really nice guy, Kathy. You'll like him."

When they got to the shop floor, most of the guys there were eager to meet the pretty new secretary as well. Everyone who worked on the floor came over to meet her, except for Elliot who wasn't anywhere to be found. 

"Mark, you're full of shit," said Sally later. She walked in to Mark's cubicle and slammed the door before she realized that he was on the phone. She smiled a shit eating grin in embarrassment and sat down. As soon as Mark hung up the phone, she started in on him again.

As Sally took a deep breath to start yelling at him, Mark smoothly stood up and kissed her. Instead of coming out as a scream her breath was released as a sigh. Mark reached out and mauled her breasts though her clothes and Sally got weak in the knees.

"Now what were you about to say?" he smirked.

"I think you're lying about Elliot," said Sally. "We took Kathy around on a tour and he was nowhere to be found. If he liked her, don't you think that he'd have been there to meet her"? We did it that way so it wouldn't put him on front street. He'd just be one of many people she was introduced to, this afternoon. I think that you're lying to me and are just trying to get into the poor girl's panties. I think that you're using your best friend just to advance yourself to another conquest."

Mark reached around and patted Sally on her ass. "So what if I am?" he asked as he rubbed.

"Maaaark, stop that," crooned Sally. Mark noticed that though she'd said stop she didn't move away from him and took no action whatsoever to actually make him stop.

"Well, she's a really nice girl and she's been through hell," said Sally. "I can't let you hurt her."

"I'm wounded, Sally," said Mark pulling her to him. "Elliot is my best friend and I swear to you that he really likes her. I wouldn't lie about that. Besides, there's really nothing special that I can see about her. He can have her, if we can get them together. I have no interest in her or even in fucking her. She just seems kind of weird to me with all of that long ass hair. But since you don't believe me, I propose a bet."

"What kind of bet?" asked Sally? At that moment she was wishing that like Kathy she'd worn a skirt that day. Mark was rubbing her pussy through her pants and she was tempted to take them off.

"If I can prove to you that Elliot is the one who likes Blondie, then I get to fuck you in the ass. If I can't prove it then I swear on everything that I hold dear not to ever even speak to her," he said.

"Mark, I haven't even let my husband have my ass," whined Sally. "Pick something else."

"Scared huh?" asked Mark smiling.

"No, I'm sure that you just want to toss that girl on the scrap heap after you have your way with her," said Sally.

"Then make the bet," said Mark.

"But what would my husband say?" whined Sally.

"First, he's not going to say shit because he's not going to find out," said Mark. "And second it's none of his business anyway. I want to fuck your ass not his. And since you haven't given it to him yet, you're probably saving it for me anyway."

"I am not!" snapped Sally, turning red.

"Think about it Sal," said Mark. "Your husband just loves your pussy doesn't he?"

Sally nodded wondering where Mark was going with this.

"Well I was there before he was, to warm it up for him," said Mark. "So someday if he ever does want to fuck your ass, I'm sure he'd appreciate me having warmed that up for him too, don't you think."

"I don't know," said Sally. "He gets pretty jealous."

"But if you're right, it's not going to happen anyway is it?" asked Mark.

"I know I'm right," said Sally. "Because I know you, Mark. You're the noise a donkey makes."

"What the fuck are you talking about Sally?" laughed Mark.

"He whore, He whore, He whore," laughed Sally. Then she stuck her hand out "It's a bet," she said. "But you have to prove it to me within 48 hours."

"It won't take that long," laughed Mark. "Just meet me here tomorrow morning about 10 minutes before the morning shift starts."

"And shy Elliot is just going to admit that he likes Kathy?" asked Sally. "Every time we've tried to fix him up with someone it's been a disaster. Honestly he's the sweetest guy I know. He, unlike his friend is perfect husband material. Shit, I'd love for my daughter or my sister to marry him. But he's so God damned shy that he'll probably be a bachelor for his whole life."

"Just be here at 7:20 tomorrow," said Mark, who was stinging from her remark. Oh yeah I'm stinging from you saying I'm not husband material. But by tomorrow night your fat ass will be stinging, he thought.

Early the next morning Mark met Sally outside of his office. He took her to the catwalk that overlooked the floor. He pointed down at Elliot, who as usual was hard at work doing some complicated technical thing on one of his machines. 

"Aren't we going to go down there so he can tell us that he likes her?" asked Sally. Mark noticed that Sally had squeezed herself into a skirt that was a couple of sizes too tight to be appropriate for business. Only the fact that the skirt was black let her get away with wearing it.

"Elliot would never admit to something like that," said Mark. "Just watch him. Watch his face. Then after you see what I want you to see, we'll go and talk to him. I want you to watch his face as he tells you he hasn't seen her."

Sally noticed that Elliot was deep into his programming. Elliot got so into it that sometimes he even spoke to people using the G&M codes that CNC machine operated on.

She remembered when he had to deliver the address to the staff about where to go in the event of a fire. He said G00, which was machine code for a rapid movement. No one knew what the hell he was talking about until one of the other programmers burst out laughing and explained it to everyone.

Mark pointed towards the door. Kathy entered the plant and started walking towards the time clock. Sally looked at Elliot. His jaw had dropped open and he was staring intently at the blond woman as if he wanted to etch her features on his eyeballs so he could always see her. His whole body turned to keep her in view. The expression on his face told the entire story. It was like something out of a fucking fairy tale. Elliot would probably die for Kathy without ever having spoken to her and probably without ever knowing her name.

It was the saddest thing Sally had ever seen. It was also too romantic to let pass. But if she didn't do something it would go by without anyone ever knowing. She'd known Elliot for the whole time that he worked here. It took literally months before he would even speak to her and he had to see her every week to collect his check stub. The company used direct deposit, so their pay was forwarded directly to their bank accounts but they still got a pay stub to let them know how much had been deposited and why. 

Once she got him to talking, Sally had discovered how sweet Elliot could be. Sally had a tiny little Toyota car that she loved. During the winter especially the car was impractical and also simply too small. Sally had planned a party for her sister's kids and needed to go shopping for a lot of things that she knew would never fit into her car. Elliot had a really nice Mustang that he doted on, but during the winter he drove an F-150. As soon as Sally had gotten done talking about her problem with some of the women she knew, who had suggested that she just make more than one trip, or have the items delivered. Elliot quietly came over and put his keys on her desk.

"Elliot, that is so sweet of you," she'd said. "But I'd be afraid to drive that huge truck."

Elliot had driven her to every store she wanted to go to, and transported all of her packages. He'd spent the whole day shopping for toys and games and food for a party for children that he didn't even know.

After seeing Elliot's reaction to Kathy, Sally knew that she had to help get the two of them together. It was so sad. He watched her walk in and punch her card. Then he watched her walk all the way up the stairs until he couldn't see her anymore. Then he just turned back to what he was doing. He shook his head and smiled and moved on. It was simply too fucking romantic to let go.

Sally also realized as she looked at Mark's smirking face that she'd lost the bet.

"We have to get the two of them together," she said. Mark just nodded.

"When and where?" he asked. 

"I don't know, we have to figure out how to get them together without it looking like we planned it," she said.

"Not that bullshit," said Mark. "You know what I'm talking about. First things first. Besides you wanted to lose this bet."

"What makes you think that?" Sally asked indignantly.


Good Friends



"You normally wear pants, Sally," he said. "Today you show up in a skirt that is so short and so tight that it just looks like you want someone to bend you over a desk and fuck that ass."

Sally walked away fuming. She wasn't a slut. She just had needs.

Later, just after quitting time, Sally was bent over Mark's desk. He'd pulled her skirt up and taken her panties off and was licking her vagina from between her spread legs. He licked her outer lips and slowly moved inside. His tongue very gently moved over her sensitive folds. He made a slurping noise that caused her to erupt in laughter as he moved to her opening and then he attacked her clit. Sally thought that she had died and gone to heaven.

She hadn't been this wet since the last time Mark had fucked her, on the eve of her wedding night. Mark stood up behind her and she heard the sound as his pants hit the floor. He'd obviously been excited. She heard his keys and everything that was in his pockets jingle.

Sally had a tingle to go with the jingle as she trembled in anticipation of his assault. Mark used the head of his dick to scoop up some of her juices for lubrication and pushed it slowly into her pussy. He slowly pushed until he was all the way inside her and she started moving herself as soon as she adjusted to his length. She pushed her ass against his lower abdomen in time to his thrusts. "Oh baby," she moaned. "You can do this whenever you want."

Mark just smirked behind her. Then he pulled his dick out of her all the way. "Mark, why are you stopping?" she whined. Mark started forcing his dick that was covered in her own secretions into her smaller hole. "Oh God, Mark," she hissed. "It's not going to fit. Slowly, you have to go really slow."

After what seemed like an eternity the head of Mark's dick snapped inside of her anal sphincter. He stopped to let her get used to the feeling. She felt as if someone had stuck a white hot poker up her ass. After a few seconds she relaxed and the pain started to go away. 

Mark seemed to feel her relax and he started pushing forward, a little at a time until over half of his dick was in her ass. Then he backed out a little and started to move forward again, going a bit deeper each time. Before long Sally was pushing her ass against him again and they started going faster and faster. What had started out very painful was now bringing Sally pleasure. It was a different feeling than vaginal sex but in its own way very good. Maybe it was because she was a virgin to this kind of sex. Maybe it was because it was so much nastier to her, but she was building towards a massive orgasm.

Sally screamed and Mark clamped his hand over her mouth. "Shut up stupid, we're still in the plant. There are way too many people still here for you to be screaming," he hissed.

"It's so good," she whispered. "Just don't stop fucking my ass."

Mark started pounding Sally harder and harder. Sweat broke out on his forehead. Sally spread her legs further apart to give him better access. Mark ripped her blouse open sending a spray of tiny buttons across the office. He started to rub her breasts through her bra. Sally lifted it until they came free. She looked over her shoulder to one side and Mark hungrily clamped his mouth down on hers, all the while they built towards a furious rhythm. 

Then the door opened and the cleaning lady reached in to grab Mark's trash can. She looked up at them and smiled. "Hi Sally. Hi Mark," she said.

"Oh shit, don't stop," said Sally.

"How's the new husband, Sally," asked the cleaning lady as she ducked back out of the room.

"Bitch," hissed Sally.

"Relax, she won't say a thing," said Mark. 

"Let me guess. You're fucking her too," said Sally. Mark just smiled.

Sally's formerly virgin ass was giving Mark more friction than he could handle, without warning he just erupted squirting hot semen throughout her bowels. In a chain reaction Sally's insides started to clutch and she exploded too. The strange thing was that she felt the orgasm in her pussy even though he'd fucked her ass. 

Mark staggered backwards as he pulled himself free. Sally was still throbbing and waiting for her vision to clear. She leaned down and took Mark's dripping member into her mouth. Mark's still sensitive dick started to spurt again. "Ooh Shit, that was good," he said.

"Oh yeah, you can do that to me any time you want too," said Sally.

"Nuh unh," said Mark. "Remember, we can't get together very often. The husband, remember?"

"Fuck him," snapped Sally. "I might have to send him to you for lessons." She pulled her skirt down and tried to fasten her blouse, but realized that it didn't have buttons anymore. She reached over by her purse and grabbed the sweater she'd worn over her blouse. She buttoned the sweater and then looked at Mark as she stuffed her panties in his pocket.

"Did you do what you were supposed to do?" she asked.

"Why do you think my breath smells like gas," he smirked. 

"Mark, your breath doesn't smell like gas," said Sally. "It smells like my pussy."

Downstairs on the shop floor, Elliot was closing up his toolbox. He'd go back up to his office and shut down his computers on his way out. As he turned to shut off the lights on his section of the floor he noticed her standing there.

He looked at every line and curve of her face for what seemed like an hour but was probably only a few seconds.

"Sorry to bother you," she said. Her voice was melodic. It was like music to his ears. He was so awed by the fact that she was talking that he didn't actually pay any attention to what she was saying.

"There's something wrong with my car," she said. "I just moved here and I don't know anyone one to call. And I don't have a cell phone yet. Could you let me back into the office so I could use the phone on my desk to call a tow truck?"

"What's wrong with your car?" croaked Elliot. 

"Well, it just won't start," she said. "I don't know anything about cars. I just put the key in and turn it and it takes me places."

Elliot was even more in love with her now. "If you'd like I could take a look at it for you," he said almost too quietly for her to hear.

"That would be awesome," she said.

Elliot followed her out the door to the parking lot. She stopped in front of a 10 year old Ford Taurus. She handed him the key and he got inside. Elliot turned the key and heard the starter. He looked over and her gas gage was on E.

"You're out of gas," he said. 

"But I had almost a quarter of a tank," she said. "I don't live very far from here and that should have gotten me home tonight and back here tomorrow, before I needed to fill up again."

"I'm sorry," Elliot said. "I believe you. But there's nothing wrong with your car, you just need some gas. Maybe you hit something and got a leak in your fuel line. If you'd like I could go and get you some?" 

"I don't have any money," said Kathy. "I just moved here and I really don't know anyone yet."

"It would be my pleasure," said Elliot. He reached into his pocket and got his keys out. "You can wait for me in the office, while I go."

"Wouldn't it be easier for me to go with you?" she asked. 

"I guess," said Elliot. "My car is over here."

Elliot stopped at his Red 08 Mustang GT vert. The car was his favorite thing on the planet. He had customized nearly everything on the car, but it still looked almost stock. He didn't do too many things to it that would affect its outside appearance.

"I love this car," said Kathy. "I'd wondered who it belonged to."

Elliot got in and waited for her to put her seat belt on. He took off slowly which was difficult because with the supercharger the car put out nearly six hundred horsepower. Keeping all of that power under control was difficult, but he managed. He didn't want her to think that he was showing off. Elliot was dying to let the top down and see all of her beautiful hair blowing in the wind, but he didn't want to anger her so he didn't even mention it.

He drove to the gas station that was only a block away. He looked in his trunk and got out the small gas can he usually kept there. Elliot himself didn't run out of gas. That was next to impossible since the display in his car told him how many miles he could drive before the tank was empty. But he'd run into friends and other people over the years who did so he liked to be prepared to help when he could. His emergency kit also included jumper cables and an emergency battery charger as well as blankets, flares, a first aid kit, etc.

Elliot filled the small can and put it into his trunk. Then he drove back to Kathy's car. He put the gas from the can into her tank and asked her for her keys. After several attempts the car's motor caught and Elliot drove off, leaving a surprised Kathy standing by Elliot's Mustang.

It took about 10 minutes and she was beginning to get worried, when Elliot drove back up to her. She looked at him questioningly, and he told her that he'd needed to test the car.

"I wanted to make sure you didn't have a leak from your gas tank or fuel line," he said. "If you did, you might be in this same boat tomorrow." He left off the part where someone else might get to rescue her. Someone more aggressive, who'd start dating her and take her away from him.

"Thanks," said Kathy.

"You're welcome, drive safely," said Elliot.

Kathy knew that the gallon of gas they'd put into her car wasn't going to last for very long. She decided to use a few of her remaining dollars to put a bit more gas in her tank. She looked at the gas gage and then realized what kind of man Elliot was. He probably HAD tested her car to make sure she didn't have a fuel leak. But he'd also gone back to the gas station and filled her tank.

Since she didn't go anywhere except from her apartment to work and back, except for the occasional stop at a market or store that was usually on the way. A full tank of gas would last Kathy for weeks.

As she thought about it, she realized that with gas prices hovering near four dollars he'd put at least 50 dollars worth of gas in her tank. Then she realized that she didn't even know his name.

As soon as Kathy had driven away, Elliot got into his car and smiled. He'd been afraid to smile while she was with him. He didn't want her to think that he expected something for helping her. He lowered his window and threw away his air freshener, then quickly raised the window again. He leaned over the seat next to him and sniffed the air. There it was; a lingering scent of her perfume. Elliot decided never to clean that seat again.

The next morning Elliot got to work early. He wanted to try out the program he'd written for a part they'd start running next week. Ordinarily that wouldn't mean he needed to come in early but in his shyness, Elliot didn't want to be on the floor when Kathy came in.

A few moments before the shift started Mark and Sally met on the catwalk above the shop floor to peruse the results of their handiwork.

As they watched for the door to open and Kathy to come in both were slightly buzzed with the excitement of what they hoped would happen.

Sally turned and casually pushed ass against Mark. He moved over, thinking that she needed more room or that she couldn't see. Sally rubbed her finger lightly over Mark's crotch area.

"Hey, husband remember?" said Mark. 

"Fuck him, you started this shit," snapped Sally. "I did some thinking, last night and I want more of what we did. If you really look at it, I'm in control of what we do, so I get to decide when we stop."

"What the hell makes you think anything that stupid?" asked Mark.

"Well," said Sally. "You have way more to lose than I do."

"What makes you think that?" asked Mark.

"My husband, Bob, wants me to quit working," said Sally. "I think, that he thinks that if I work outside of the house that there's a chance of me having an affair someday. He reads all of those stories about cheating wives on the internet. Sometimes I wish he'd just look at porn like everyone else." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She also noticed Mark's eyes zero in on her chest so she unbuttoned another button and leaned forward.

"Anyway, if we got caught, or someone...like ME, just reported us, I'd simply go home and tell Bob that he got his wish, I quit. You on the other hand would be out of a job. Then of course there's the fact that I could simply tell Bob." She smiled, showing all of her teeth.

"He'd probably want to kill you," she said. "And I know he's a doofus, but he really loves me and he's a lot bigger than you are."

"Well if he's so fucking big, isn't he bigger than me down there?" asked Mark.

"Honey, it's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean," smirked Sally. "He does have a big dick but all he does is sticks it in and hopes that I cum before he does. What good does that do me?" She reached out and patted the front of Mark's pants.

"Besides you have nothing to worry about when it comes to size. You're just fine, Baby. And your motion...makes tidal waves in my ocean."

Suddenly Sally's head clicked towards the door. Mark turned in response to her movement. Both saw Kathy enter the building. She was early. Sally smiled thinking she knew what would happen. Sally thought that Kathy had come in a few minutes early to talk to Elliot. Elliot had gotten in even earlier than she and Mark had. He'd been down there on the floor puttering around one of those damned machines when she came in.

They watched as Kathy walked towards the shop floor instead of the time card rack. It was so exciting. They looked down on the shop floor to see if Elliot had noticed that she was coming over to his area. 

"What the fuck?" hissed Mark. His friend was gone. Where did Elliot go? They'd been so distracted talking about Sally's husband and other things that they hadn't noticed Elliot leaving the area.

Down on the floor, Kathy looked around and went back to the time card rack. Then she went upstairs and into the office to work.

Mark and Sally looked at each other in shock. "Where is he?" snapped Sally.

"How the hell should I know?" asked Elliot. "I'm his friend not his Siamese twin. Shit he's probably in his office. You know how shy he is. I wonder what happened last night."

"You check with him, I'll check with her," said Sally. "Call me as soon as you know anything."

A few minutes later, Sally walked into the large office where all of the secretaries, assistants and data entry specialists worked. She looked around and saw Kathy at her desk. Sally talked to a few of her friends and looked at what Kathy was doing before she approached her. 

Kathy was typing away entering some document into the plants database. Sally took a serious look at her. Her hair was long and pretty, that was true. Her face just seemed normal to Sally. She didn't see ravishing beauty or anything that was above average.

Kathy's breasts weren't spectacular; in fact they were on the small side of normal. Everything about this woman was just average. There was one small thing that was different about Kathy that day. Sally noticed that Kathy had applied just a touch more make-up. That was very telling. She'd obviously planned on talking to Elliot.

"Hi Kathy," said Sally. "Are you Okay? One of the guards that I talk to, told me that you'd had some car trouble last night. He remembered you from when I took you around and introduced you to everyone yesterday. He said that by the time he got to you you'd driven off with someone."

"I'm fine Sally," said Kathy. "You know, the nicest man you'd ever want to meet, helped me yesterday. But the weird thing about it is that when I went to thank him this morning, I couldn't find him. Maybe he only works part time. I didn't meet him yesterday when you took me around to meet everyone so I have no idea who he is."

"Well, the place isn't that big," smiled Kathy. "Sooner or later, I'm sure you'll run into him again. But be careful, some of the guys in this plant aren't worth a damn. All they want is to get into your pants and after that they're gone."

"I already know about men like that," said Kathy. "That's part of the reason I moved here. I'll tell you about it sometime, but I'd better get to work."

Sally was sure that if anything had gone wrong with their plan, it wasn't Kathy. God Damn Elliot. He was too fucking shy for his own good. 

Across the plant Mark walked into Elliot's office. Elliot looked up and saw Mark and stopped playing Ms Pac Man on his computer.

"Hey Mark, you still broke?" asked Elliot.

"Even more so than yesterday," said Elliot. "But that's not why I'm here bud. Why are you in here?"

"Uhm, it's kind of my office," said Elliot. "I do all of my programming in here. That's kind of why they gave it to me. Believe or not, my name is on the door and everything."

"You know what I mean," snapped Mark. "You're usually on the floor, with your nose up some machine's butt."

"Mark, do you have a customer coming in for a tour and you want them to see the machines running or something?" asked Elliot.

"Nope, I'm just wondering how things are going with my best bud. And you're happier when you're on a machine," smiled Mark. "Hey, you know that woman that you supposedly don't like?

"I never said that I didn't like her," snapped Elliot so quickly that it made Mark laugh.

"Well, anyway," smiled Mark. "I heard she had some car trouble last night. I think it was her starter."

"Nope, she ran out of gas," said Elliot.

"How do you know that?" asked Mark. "Any way, are you up for lunch again today? Same place as yesterday?"

"Same person pays too, I assume," laughed Elliot. "I suppose that would be okay, as long as you aren't going to keep bothering me about that woman."

"I will not even mention her," smiled Mark.

Three hours later, Elliot's Mustang pulled up in the parking lot outside of the restaurant. He could see that Mark was already there because Mark's Impala was parked two slots over.

Elliot walked into the restaurant and smiled at the waitress who usually took care of them. He looked over by the windows and saw Mark. He walked over and sat down. 

"What did you order?" asked Elliot. 

"Nothing yet," smirked Mark. "I thought I'd wait for you."

Mark and Sally had planned for Elliot's shyness this time. Mark had arrived first but only moments before Sally had. They were sure that if they were sitting together when Elliot entered the restaurant he'd have turned and left. So they waited for him to get to the table before springing the trap.

Just as Elliot sat down, Sally arrived and Kathy was with her.

"Oh, wow, I know you, don't I?" said Sally as she saw Mark. "Hi Elliot, it's unusual to see you when it's not a Friday." Elliot stood there unsure of what to do. There was nowhere for him to hide and no way to get out of the situation without being an asshole.

"Can we join you guys?" asked Sally.

"Of course," said Mark. "Have a seat. Hi Kathy, I've never seen you outside of the office before. Have you met my best friend Elliot Carson?"

"Almost," smiled Kathy. "He rescued me last night in the parking lot."

"And he didn't tell me a thing about it," said Mark smiling. Sally was smiling too. Everyone at the table was smiling except for Elliot.

Well, it's not her voice, thought Mark, who was checking items off of his list. She has that typical trailer park voice. He was trying to figure out exactly what it was that made the woman so special to his friend. In all the time they'd known each other Elliot had never reacted this way to any woman. Even Belinda, the girl, now a married woman, who Elliot had loved until halfway through college didn't get this strong a reaction.

Oh well, he'd figure it out later, for now they just needed to get through this lunch.

The lunch seemed to fly by. After it was over, Elliot didn't remember what he ate or even if he did. He remembered every detail of Kathy's blue eyes, everything she said and every expression on her face.




Good Friends



"Elliot is probably the nicest guy I've ever met," said Sally, as she walked through the plant with Kathy. This was part 2 of Mark's plan. They walked back to the office the long way. 

"He sure is quiet, though," said Kathy. "But you're right he is nice and he's cute too."

"He thinks the same thing about you," said Sally.

"I don't see that at all," said Kathy. "He never said a word to me the whole time. He spoke to you and of course he spoke to this friend."

"Honey, Elliot didn't speak to me for nearly a year. He's probably the shyest guy you'll ever meet. If it did turn out that you liked him, I'm warning you, you'll have to do a lot of the work. But you'd never have to worry about the things that happened to you in Philadelphia, happening with him," said Sally. She stopped walking because they were right behind Elliot's office.

"Damn that Sally is hot," said Mark to Elliot. Sally who was around the corner with Kathy stuck her finger over her lip for silence as they listened to the men's conversation.

"I don't think there's another woman in this plant who's as hot as Sally," said Mark. "It's a damned shamed she's married." Mark was talking loudly and Elliot, still floating on his Kathy cloud hadn't said a word.

"Do you agree with me El?" asked Mark.

"Well, not really," said Elliot. 

"What?" asked Mark in mock surprise. "Who is there around here that's more attractive."

"Mark, we're friends right?" asked Elliot.

"Best friends," said Mark. "Like Fred and Barney."

"So you won't tell anyone I said this, right?" asked Elliot.

"Never in this life," said Mark, knowing that Sally and Kathy were right around the corner listening. At least he hoped they were.

"Well," said Elliot. "Sally is nice. But she can't hold a candle to Kathy. I think that Kathy is probably the most beautiful woman in the entire world. She's prettier than anyone on TV or in the movies. Her hair, her body, and those incredible eyes, she's perfect. Even her voice. When she talks it's like an angel singing."

"Elliot!" said Mark. "Why didn't you tell her any of that or say anything to her at lunch?"

"Why the hell would someone like that ever want to talk to me?" asked Elliot. Mark just laughed.

"See ya later El, Are we bowling tonight?" asked Mark.

"Of course, wouldn't miss it," said Elliot.

Around the corner, it was all that Sally could do to keep Kathy from running around the corner and talking to Elliot.

"Where are you going dummy?" she said. "We can't let him know that you eavesdropped on his conversation. That's just rude."

"So!" snapped Kathy. "I don't see a problem. He likes me. I like him. I guess I should have been more honest with you Sally. Ever since he helped me out last night when I was stranded, I've known that I wanted to get to know Elliot. I didn't know his name or anything until lunch today. But I knew where he works and I even went there this morning to try to talk to him."

"But..." began Sally. She was worried this whole thing was getting away from her. If Kathy came on too strong, Elliot would bolt.

"Look Kathy, in relationships, men have a lot of the advantages. Just this once you've got some advanced knowledge that we got through pure luck. You know already how he feels about you and what kind of guy he is. But I don't think you should push too hard. Elliot is really shy, if you come on too strong, you'll lose him."

Kathy nodded. As they'd sat across from each other at lunch, she'd taken a serious look at Elliot Carson. He was really handsome but didn't seem to know it. She could tell that if he'd give her a chance that they could be very good together, but he hadn't so much as looked at her. In fact she'd come away from the lunch with the distinct impression that he didn't like her. But now that she'd heard what he really thought of her, it was like her heart just opened up. She wanted to talk to him so badly it hurt, but Sally was right about most of the things that she'd said.

Kathy simply wasn't what she appeared to be. She looked as if she was a demure and gentle, lady-like person. Once you got past the surface though, Kathy was a bulldog. Once she got something in her head, you almost had to kill her to get it loose. 

Kathy had reviewed her conversation with Sally. She had to admit that Sally was probably right about how shy Elliot was. Kathy thought back about her past. She'd only been in love once before. She'd had fallen head over heels for a man who turned out to be totally wrong for her. 

To be truthful, her friends and family had warned her from the beginning that he was trouble, but the bulldog in her wouldn't let go. 

Kathy had met James at a revival meeting of all places. Her family had always been actively involved in the church, so every summer, any and all revivals that were held in or near her town were on the schedule. Her father and mother both believed that hearing "the word," delivered by different men of God, heightened the flavor of God's message for man.

Going to the revivals gave them a chance to hear many different ministers and socialize with other people who shared their beliefs. They had even changed churches once or twice after hearing a charismatic orator with a different approach or a friendlier manner.

At one of these meetings, Kathy had met James Henderson. He was a young pastor and as mentioned, Kathy fell head over heels in love with him. He didn't have a church of his own, but he helped out as the assistant pastor at a church that wasn't very far from her home.

Kathy switched churches immediately. Her parents objected at first, but then decided that it was more important that she go to church period, than which church she attended.

Seeing James at church soon led to seeing James after church. Before Kathy knew it she was dating the charismatic young man and the rumors started.

It soon turned out that the rumors were true. James was already married and had children with his wife. Kathy's parents forbade her to see him. But it was like putting out a fire with gasoline. James told Kathy a tragic tale about having to marry a woman he didn't love because it was the right thing to do, since she was carrying his child. He swore to her that he was in the process of getting a divorce and would soon be free to be with her. 

He even got her an apartment so they could be together. Kathy soon found out that James, besides being a liar, was a heavy drinker. He was also violent when he got drunk. He often took his anger out on her but was very apologetic when he sobered up. He explained to her that his violent outbursts were only because he was so emotional, especially about her. He also told her that since she was always with him, it was only natural that she'd experience them with him. It was all part of the sharing process that lovers went through. If she wanted to take the good, she had to also take the bad. 

As James explained it to her, that was what was meant by, "for better or for worse."

To Kathy, it seemed like James was hinting that he wanted to marry her. Actually James had come up with his "take the good and take the bad," line after watching an old episode of, "The facts of life." 

Kathy had been a virgin when they got together even though she was 22 when they met. Kathy's family had placed a high importance on going to her marriage bed a virgin, so all through college she'd held onto to her innocence only to lose it to a man who turned out not to be worthy of the gift she gave him.

After a few months, news that the young minister was carrying on an affair somehow got out. The pastor of his church demanded that he cease the affair at once. James lied and said that he'd already done so. He attributed the affair to his youthful inexperience at dealing with the adulation that some women have for young ministers. Kathy was painted as a church groupie who had seduced the poor young man.

James assured the minister and the deacons that he had nothing to do with her any longer and tried to stay away from her. Kathy was told that she was no longer welcome at the church. 

James, of course, told Kathy a completely different story to keep her around. Kathy found herself isolated from both her friends and family. James became the only person in her life.

James, on the other hand, began to blame Kathy for his failure to advance further in the church hierarchy. It got to the point where he had his family, that he doted on in public, playing the dutiful husband and father and then in private he had Kathy as his own private whore. He never took her out in public and only went to visit her after dark.

He also took out all of his frustrations on her by often using her as a punching bag when he got drunk. Then tragedy struck when Kathy discovered that she was pregnant. There was no way that he could sweep this under the rug any further. Kathy decided that it was time he either got the divorce he'd been promising her or let her go.

She told him about the baby and he told her that he needed to pray on it, to decide what to do. When she didn't hear from him for over two weeks, Kathy took matters into her own hands. She went to see him at the church. Though she wasn't allowed in, she did get to see James with his wife and children. His wife was nowhere near the monster he'd always claimed. She saw him hug and kiss his wife with a tenderness he'd never displayed towards her and her heart broke. She realized that she'd been fooled all along. Her parents and friends had been right the whole time.

It got worse. That night after church was over James was dismissed from the church. He left the church in a rage and got drunker than he'd ever been. He came to Kathy's apartment and though he had a key, kicked the door in. Then he turned his fury on the pregnant young woman. He left her bloody and unconscious on the floor of the apartment. Only the intervention of a nosy neighbor who called the police had saved her.

It was touch and go, but Kathy survived, her baby didn't. James was sent to prison for murdering his own child and for assault and battery with intent to do great bodily harm against Kathy. She got out of the hospital after a lengthy stay, to find that her family had paid her medical expenses but wanted nothing to do with her. Her grandmother gave Kathy enough money to start her life fresh somewhere else.

To say that life had been unfair to her, was an understatement. No one seemed to care that Kathy had been an innocent young woman who was taken advantage of and abused by a charismatic man in the church. People only saw the whore who brought down a young man of God in the beginning of his career. When they remembered the fire with which he spoke, they thought only of the awesome potential that he'd thrown away to spend time between the thighs of a Jezebel.

The blot against Kathy's entire family was serious as well. They thought they had no other choice but to disassociate themselves with her. So Kathy took the money her grandmother had offered and moved away.

During her whole life, no one had ever though that Kathy was anything special. Even James had never complimented her unless he was trying to get between her legs. But now she'd found someone who thought that she was beautiful and special. Perhaps her luck had changed and things would go her way for once. She smiled and thought that maybe running out of gas had been luck in disguise.

As she typed away that afternoon, Kathy found herself making more mistakes than usual. She had trouble focusing on what she was doing. 

Finally the clock was merciful and moved to quitting time. As Kathy got ready to leave, the thought of going back to her small apartment alone again weighed heavily on her. She punched her card and walked to her car in the parking lot. She walked past her car and over to Elliot's Red Mustang. She put her purse on the hood and sat down and waited. She'd been reading a terrible paperback novel and she pulled it out of her purse and began to read it.

Finally about a half hour after she'd left the building, Elliot came out of the building and started for his car. She saw the mixture of emotions on his face as he saw her. She thought at first that he was going to run back inside the building. But he realized that she'd seen him. She got down off of his car and waited for him to get there.

"Hi Elliot," she said smiling. "I never got a chance to thank you for helping me the other night."

"Uhm, you're welcome," he said, looking down.

"Elliot, I enjoyed having lunch with you today," she smiled again. She noticed that he didn't answer. She thought that maybe he didn't know what to say, so she decided to just go for it.

"Elliot, forgive me if I'm being too forward," she said. "But I get the feeling that you're really shy, so I'm going to have to do this myself. I've been working at this plant for almost three weeks now. I've been hit on a few times and even asked out three times but I've only met one man I wanted to get to know." She noticed his face sadden as she said it.

"Do you need me to introduce you to someone?" he asked.

"Yeah, I need you to introduce me to that Elliot guy," she smirked.

"Me?" he said excitedly. The pure excitement in his voice, was contagious and Kathy found herself wanting more of what he was making her feel. She'd been worried about what she was doing but everything about it just felt right, Fuck Sally.

"Yeah you..." she said taking a step closer to him. "...Unless, there's already a woman in your life."

"Nope there's no one," he said. "Well there was once. But that was a long time ago. We met in school and..."

Kathy just smiled as he gushed. For some reason he was trying to tell her his whole life story in one sentence. "Elliot, we have plenty of time, to get to know each other and I want to hear it all, but you have to slow down. And maybe this isn't the time or the place," she laughed.

Elliot frowned. "Sorry," he said. "I was just..."

"Elliot, you have nothing to be sorry about," she smiled. "You're just excited and whether you know it or not, that makes me feel really good. Can we...?"

Before Kathy could finish her sentence Sally and Mark showed up looking worried. Sally looked at Elliot and then back at Kathy. She wondered if Kathy had already pushed Elliot too far and fucked things up. She elbowed Mark who started talking.

"So what are the two of you doing?" asked Mark. 

"Just talking," said Elliot. He looked as if he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't.

"Maybe later this week we could all get together and do something?" said Sally.

"Yeah, MAYBE?" said Kathy. "Elliot and I were just about to go and do something NOW, weren't we?"

Elliot nodded and smiled. "But El, what about the bowling league?" asked Mark.

"Well..." said Elliot. He was torn between his duty to his friends and Kathy. Just before Kathy won the conflict in his mind, she spoke up.

"How about if I come and watch you," she said. "I'd love to see you compete. Maybe we could get something to eat after that?"

"That would be perfect," said Elliot. 

"Kathy, why don't I follow you to your apartment? We can drop off your car there? You and I can drive to the bowling alley together. I'd like to see this too," said Sally.

"I'll go over with Elliot," said Kathy. "I love his car. Besides shouldn't you go home first or at least call your HUSBAND?"

Sally was suddenly afraid for Elliot. Kathy was setting her claws into him and she didn't seem like she'd let up. Sally would have to have a talk with the woman tomorrow. But for now, Elliot was on his own.

Elliot bowled well, but not as well as he usually did. He was in luck though, because his team still won. Elliot didn't care. He barely remembered the games. He was so busy concentrating on Kathy. He didn't even sit with his teammates. He started out sitting next to Mark but as he saw Kathy sitting near Sally in the spectator's area he gravitated there and finally ended up sitting with her. After the third time that he had to be called to take his turn, both his team mates and the members of the opposing team, who all knew Elliot, voted to let Kathy sit in the area around the lanes.

Elliot spent the rest of the evening staring into Kathy's eyes and talking to her. When Sally finally left, she knew she'd created a monster. She'd either made Elliot the happiest man in the world or the most miserable. Only time would tell.

At about 9:30 Elliot and Kathy left the bowling alley. Elliot carried his bowling bag in one hand and his other hand held Kathy's hand. He was deliriously happy.

"Would you still like to go and get something to eat?" asked Elliot. "I know you have to be up to get to work tomorrow."

Kathy just smiled at him. Earlier in the evening she'd been trying to get to know Elliot. She'd already been burned once and she was very cautious. But as she looked into Elliot's eyes, she knew that he wasn't anything like James had been. She got the feeling that this man would die before he ever hurt her. And his interest in her wasn't fueled by lust. She'd gotten used to that too. She could tell when James was just telling her what she wanted to hear because he wanted to fuck her. She didn't sense that from Elliot at all. She got the idea that he just genuinely wanted to spend time with her, and it was contagious. She was tired of being alone.

"I'm starving," she said. 

"Where would you like to go?" he asked.

"Elliot, I'm the one who's new here," she said. "Surprise me. Take me to an Elliot place."

He smiled and walked her back to his car. They went to a Deli that wasn't very far from the plant. They ordered sandwiches that even Kathy had to admit looked great. She expected him to hustle her to a seat in the back of the crowded restaurant but he surprised her by leaving. He took her instead to a hill that over looked the lake. They sat on soft grass and ate their food and laughed and looked up at the sky. They talked for what seemed like only a few minutes. Kathy was shocked when she looked at her watch and discovered that it was after midnight.

"I'm sorry," said Elliot. "The time just got away from me. I was having such a good time that I didn't think. I'll take you back to your car, now."

"Elliot, what are you sorry about?" asked Kathy. "I'm a grown woman and I do have a watch on. I was having a great time too. This is the best first date I've ever had."

"This was a date?" asked Elliot.

"What did you think it was?" asked Kathy. "Elliot, before you take me back, we have to clear something up. First, I had a great time tonight. I loved every second of it. I like you, a lot. I really hope that you like me even half as much. I'd really like it if we did this again. I know that you're very shy, but you are the man here. If you want us to do this again, you're going to have to cowboy up and ask me. I can pretty much promise you that I'll probably say yes, but you're still going to have to ask me."

The next day was fraught with near disaster for the fledgling romance. First, Sally had a long talk with Kathy about her intentions toward Elliot. She was worried that Kathy might not be the right woman for Elliot after all. 

"If I'd know you were such a shark, I never would have introduced you to him," said Sally. "He's a really nice guy and I don't want to see him hurt."

"Sally, I have no intention of hurting Elliot," said Kathy. "I like him just as much as you do, probably more. After last night, I hope that he and I are permanent."

Sally was smiling from ear to ear and nodding her head. "Good luck," she said.

After that had passed, an even worse debacle occurred. Elliot had been thinking about Kathy all day. Just before lunch he'd worked up the courage to go and ask her to lunch. He walked into the office she shared with the other women and his heart nearly came up his throat. One of the salesmen who worked with Mark was sitting on the edge of Kathy's desk, leaning over her. He was one of those smooth talking guys, who like Mark had been through a number of the secretaries. 




Good Friends



Elliot turned and left the office. He went back to his own office and stayed there the rest of the day. 

Kathy had been thinking about Elliot for most of the morning too. She'd been sitting at her desk hoping that he'd drop by to see her and ask her out again this evening.

The previous evening she'd noticed that Elliot was too eager to do anything he could to please her. She had the idea that if she told him to jump off of a cliff, he'd do it. She wanted him, but she didn't want him as a slave. She'd always dreamed of a relationship where both partners were equal. Her parents didn't have that, and she surely hadn't come close with James. But Elliot could give her that and more. That was part of the reason she'd told him that he had to ask her out. She wanted him to be more confident with her. Even though there was no way that she'd ever turn him down.

As she fantasized about him and their possible future, she realized that she was just as likely to jump off that cliff for him. Sally's little talk had just served to make her realize that Elliot had a lot of people who liked him. She hoped that they'd all accept the two of them together because it was going to happen.

Just when she was beginning to think about going down onto the shop floor, one of those sleazy salesmen had come into the office. After waving at a lot of the women there, he'd headed straight for her desk. He'd sat down on the edge of it and filled her in on some kind of document he needed typed up. 

After every paragraph of the document, he told her more about himself and how great he was. He asked her for her phone number several times. He also told her how lucky she was that he'd taken an interest in her since he was really popular.

She knew his type instantly and knew what he was after. 

"Are you going through all of this trouble just to get me to go out with you?" she asked. "Maybe you're hoping that we can catch some dinner sometime? What you're really after is what happens after dinner though, right? I mean, if you go through all of the trouble of listening to my inane female chattering and pretend to care about the things I say, especially since you're going to be spending money on me, then the least I could do would be to reciprocate, right?" The salesman, Big Ed was smiling and nodding his head.

"Now tell me how could I do that? What would you want from me? Maybe something we'd both enjoy, right? Something to take the edge off and release a little tension? Is that what you had in mind?" Kathy asked, smiling back at him.

He nodded and smiled even more. This chick was a pushover he thought. This would be the easiest pussy he ever got. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. He'd better wear a rubber, she was probably a real slut.

"Exactly!" he said. Sally was watching the whole encounter with a shocked look on her face. She couldn't believe Kathy was even thinking about it. Kathy was obviously the same kind of woman that Sally was. There was no way Sally could let her loose on poor Elliot.

"Well you're out of luck," snapped Kathy. "I'm not that kind of woman. I already have someone I'm very interested in, thank you very much. So there's no need for you to waste your time on me. Your document will be ready in twenty minutes. You can pick it up from the copying machine so there's no need for you to come back here."

Ed was floored. Around him nearly all of the secretaries were laughing. "Fuck you bitch," he sneered. "I was just trying to do you a favor. It's not like you were anything special. I've fucked most of the women in this room at one time or another. You're just new. Don't bother typing up my paper. You'd probably just fuck it up anyway."

All of the women were so busy watching what had been going on with Kathy and Ed, that not a single one of them saw Elliot come in or leave.

By mid afternoon, Kathy couldn't take it any longer. She went looking for Elliot. He wasn't on the floor so she tried his office. The door was locked. She asked someone about it and was told that if the door was locked Elliot was probably on the floor. She went back to her office and slammed herself into her seat.

Sally came over immediately. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I can't find him anywhere," said Kathy. Sally went back to her own desk and called Elliot. "Hey, Elliot, someone is looking for you," she smiled.

"I have a meeting to go to," said Elliot. Sally checked the schedule. Elliot had no meeting scheduled for this week until Friday. It was Wednesday. 

"Okay, maybe after your meeting you could call her or just drop by," said Sally. Then she called Mark. 

"Mark, check on Elliot. He's upset with Kathy already. I told you things were moving too fast," she said into the phone. Then she went back to Kathy's desk. Sally was floored. She was married and had dated probably hundreds of men throughout her forty plus years of life. She had never once been as devastated as Kathy looked. The woman had only gone out with Elliot once, but she was distraught because she couldn't find him. Sally had made sure not to let Kathy know that Elliot was hiding from her. Maybe Elliot hadn't enjoyed their time together as much as Kathy had.

Mark showed up about twenty minutes later after talking to Elliot. He hustled Sally out into the hallway and explained to her that Elliot was hiding in his office and alternating between depression and fury because he'd gone to see Kathy and saw her talking to a salesman.

Sally almost died laughing as she explained the truth about Kathy and Ed. "This is like some kind of high school romance," laughed Mark. "If I wasn't watching it, I'd never believe it."

At that moment, Kathy came out of the office and asked Mark if he'd seen Elliot. The sick puppy look on her face made Mark burst out laughing again.

"Sally, remind me not to ever fall in love for real," he smirked. "It's got to be the worst, shittiest thing in the world."

"What are you talking about?" asked Kathy. Sally and Mark, between bouts of uproarious laughter, explained what was going on with Elliot. Then they started laughing again. By the time they stopped laughing they noticed that Kathy was gone.

Mark and Sally quickly ran after the small woman. They knew exactly where she was heading and why. As they rounded the corner, all they could see was the flash of a long blond ponytail disappearing in the distance towards Elliot's office.

Before they got there, they heard the banging start. As they neared the office they heard the yelling. "God Damn it, Elliot," they heard in the high pitched voice that Mark remembered Elliot describing as melodic.

"Open this fucking door, right now!" Mark ran faster.

"Oh shit, I knew I shouldn't have introduced that bitch to him," said Sally. "I just had a feeling something like this would happen."

By the time they got to the office all they could hear was Kathy yapping hysterically, then silence. Mark looked inside Elliot's office fearing the worst. Sally came huffing and puffing her way into the office and ran into Mark's back. She looked around his body and saw that Kathy had Elliot pinned against the wall. She was kissing him softly and gently over nearly every inch of his face. Elliot's arms slowly closed around Kathy's waist. 

"Don't make me do this again, Elliot," said Kathy smiling at him. Elliot's eyes were as big as pizza plates and he had the biggest smile Mark had ever seen.

As Kathy turned towards Mark and Sally, Mark noticed that there was something different about her. As if she'd had an afterthought or suddenly remembered something, Kathy turned back towards Elliot. "Isn't there something you were supposed to be doing today anyway?" she asked.

"Uhm, Kathy," said Elliot. "If you're not too busy, sometime, it can be any day you'd like...or you know whenever...would you maybe like to do something again? I mean, uhm, with me?"

"That was a very big step Elliot," said Kathy gently. "I know how hard that was for you. But it is really important to us for you to communicate what you want from me, better. I know how shy you are but you don't need to be with me. So the answer to your question is...No."

Mark and Sally both went into shock. What was this bitch playing at?

Elliot's whole demeanor changed. The smile that had been plastered across his face faded and he looked down at the floor. It happened so quickly and he was so sad all of a sudden that Mark wanted to slap the shit out of Kathy. Sally pulled him back. "Stay out of it," she whispered into his ear.

"I understand," said Elliot. "Maybe, some other time." He tried to walk past Kathy and she got angry all over again. She pushed him back against the wall.

"Elliot, are we going to have to do this again?" she snapped at him. "Less than five minutes ago, I told you how angry I was that you'd come to see me and saw some big smelly salesman leaning over me and just slinked away with your tail between your legs. What did I tell you that you were supposed to do?"

"Be more assertive and fight for what's mine," said Elliot slowly. 

"So, if you want something from me and I say "No," What should you do?" she asked

"I don't know, Kathy," he said. She just smiled at him.

"Don't worry baby, we're in this together," she said. "You should ask me why I said, "No." Because Elliot, I like you just as much as you like me. I think I probably like you more. So if I say "no," to something, there has to be a reason. So you do have the right to ask me why I turned you down."

Elliot nodded his head. "I'm sure you have far better things to do than go out with me, Kathy but can you tell me why you said, "No"? He asked. 

"Yes, I can Elliot," she smiled. "I said no because I wanted you to ask me with more confidence. I don't want to hear vague hints and maybes. I'll do whatever you want me to Elliot. I just need you to ask me like you mean it."

Elliot took a big gulp of air. He looked at the woman in front of him. Though she wasn't a big woman, her presence seemed to dominate the room. He looked into what he thought were the most beautiful blue eyes he'd ever seen. He could see so many possibilities there for both of them. He saw need and want and hope and so much love that it was crazy.

"Just tell me what you want, Honey," she said softly.

"Kathy, can we go out again?" asked Elliot. For once he didn't stutter or mince his words he just spoke to her.

"Anytime and every time you want," she smiled. "When would you like to see me?"

"Every day for the rest of my life," he said. "Could we go out tomorrow night?"

"Of course," she said sadly.

"Did I do something wrong?" asked Elliot.

"No Honey, you were perfect," she said. "I was just kind of hoping you'd want to do something a bit sooner. Tomorrow is a long time away."

"I wanted to ask you for tonight," he said. "But I didn't want to seem to be pushy."

"That was very considerate," she said. Kathy reached up to Elliot and lightly kissed him on the lips. "I'm really excited about tomorrow," she said. "Honey, I need to ask you a favor though."

"Anything," said Elliot. He couldn't believe that she liked him. And she had called him, "Honey."

Kathy kissed him again and smiled. "I have to get ready for a really important date tomorrow. It's kind of a first official date with a guy I really like. I want everything to go well, so I'm really nervous. Do you think that maybe, we could go get something to eat after work tonight and hang out and talk about what I should and shouldn't do on my date tomorrow?"

Elliot just nodded his head and the smile was back.

"I'll see you after work, Honey," she said. She looked up and saw Mark and Sally for the first time. "Shouldn't you guys be somewhere working, or whatever it is that you do?" she asked then as she walked by.

Mark turned to Elliot, shaking his head at his friend's lovestruck expression. "I'm going to marry that woman, someday," Elliot exclaimed.

"You're damned Skippy," they heard Kathy yell from the hallway.

Sally just shook her head. She grabbed Mark's hand and led him from the office. "Elliot, try to get SOME work done today," yelled Mark. "This is, after all, a place of business, not the love boat."

"Where the hell are we going?" Mark asked Sally as they left Elliot's office. "I have a sales meeting in 40 minutes."

She led him to a file storage room on the third floor. The room didn't have a lock on the door, so she stuck a chair under the door handle and quickly pushed two large boxes of files in front of the chair.

"Tell me that you didn't feel that," she hissed. "The whole atmosphere in that room was so fucking hot. I was sure she was going to fuck him right then and there. I got the impression that she didn't really care about anything except him. Did you notice how long it took either one of them to even know that we were there? When she said, 'Tell me what you want, Honey.' I was sure he was going to say, 'I want you to suck my dick right now.' The whole situation, even just hearing them talk and just looking at them, made me want you so badly, Mark."

Sally was unbuttoning her blouse as she walked slowly towards Mark. Mark reached for her breasts as she drew nearer to them. "I kept waiting for sparks to shoot out of them," she slurred.

"They do change when they're together," said Mark. "He becomes more confident but I think she's making him that way. But God damn it. The other day I looked at her and I spent a lot of time staring at her. But for the life of me, I didn't see anything attractive about her. She has almost no tits, and a tiny ass. Her legs are too skiny, they're ordinary at best and to be truthful, she just looks like one of those plain Jane Pennsylvania trailer park chicks to me. No, I have it. She looks like a fucking mop. That boney body and all of that hair. But when they got together I think I started to see her the way he sees her. And she started looking a little bit hot."

"I don't want to even hear about you looking at her," snapped Sally. "You like bigger tits? Here's a nice big pair for you to play with. I already know you liked fucking my ass the other day so it must be big enough for you. You were begging me for it, well now you have it. So leave Kathy alone." 

Sally pulled Mark's pants and shorts down in one motion. She grabbed his dick and practically swallowed it. Her head bobbed up and down and she slurped loudly. Mark had to lean against a stack of boxes for support.

"Kathy who?" he said weakly. With one hand, Sally massaged Mark's dick as she slurped away at it. With the other she fingered her own already wet vagina. She suddenly stopped and pushed Mark away from her. Then she pulled her panties to the side and spread her legs as she lay back on a stack of boxes.

"Come and get it," she said. Mark needed no other encouragement. He moved forward so quickly that he almost tripped over his pants that were down around his ankles. He grabbed his dick and pushed just the head into Sally's nearly gushing pussy.

"Oh shit, Mark," she gasped. Don't play with it, just fuck me. Hard and fast, Baby. I need it right now."

Mark didn't feel like arguing so he gave her what she wanted. He slammed his dick home in one furious thrust. Sally's hips matched his rhythm instantly. The sound of bodies slapping together and moans were so loud that if they'd been on either of the two lower floors, they'd have been discovered. 

Mark leaned down and started sucking on Sally's left breast as he hammered her. Sally grabbed Mark's hips and started pulling him into her harder and faster. She was building towards the biggest orgasm she'd ever had and didn't want anything to stop her. She couldn't remember ever feeling this horny. 

"Oh Mark," she squealed. She pushed her hip towards him even harder, trying to get more of his dick inside her.

"Sally, I'm gonna shoot. I have to pull out," hissed Mark.

Sally pulled him even deeper inside of her as she felt her vagina clutch him and begin its orgasmic spasms. There was something so nasty about feeling Mark's semen paint the walls of her unprotected reproductive organs. She wondered whether or not she'd be able to take a shower before her husband wanted to fuck her. She also wondered if he'd notice the difference.

"God Damn it Sally," hissed Mark. "What the fuck was that about? What if you get pregnant? That fucking gorilla of a husband of yours will kill me. And look at me, I'm bathed in sweat and I smell like pussy. How am I supposed to go to my meeting now?"

"Sucks to be you," smirked Sally. "Me on the other hand, I'll just tell someone in the office I'm having female problems and go home, so I can clean all of the Mark out of me before the gorilla gets home."

Mark pulled up his pants and tried to make him-self look somewhat presentable. He had cologne and another shirt in his office. It would have to do.

"Tell me the truth, Mark. Didn't seeing the two of them make you really hot?" asked Sally. "I really think they belong together. I'm telling you, they'll be married and she'll be popping out shy little babies in under a year."

Sally was half right. Elliot and Kathy started spending all of their time together. Kathy's attempts to make him more confident and more assertive paid off. It worked with her and with everyone else. Elliot started asking for things that were his due, instead of waiting to be noticed. He was soon promoted to production supervisor. But even before that, less than three months from the night he took Kathy to the bowling alley, they were engaged.

The changes in Elliot were mental but the changes in Kathy were physical. Overnight, though she didn't actually change, her perception of herself did. Kathy knew that Elliot loved her. It made her feel sexier and more attractive. This, in turn, gave her the confidence to start showing herself off instead of trying not to be seen. The men in the plant and everywhere else noticed. There were several men in the plant who kicked themselves for not noticing her before Elliot scooped her up.

There were a couple of incidents before they all found out that Kathy was not a woman to be hit on. The first two were very similar to the incident with Big Ed. In fact Big Ed trying again was the third and final time that anyone in the plant ever tried anything with Kathy.

Elliot was walking into the office. He'd brought flowers to surprise Kathy. The florist had delivered them, but he wanted to give them to her himself. As he walked in he saw Ed push Kathy against the wall and move in as if he was going to try to kiss her. Kathy was pushing him back with all of her strength and Elliot just snapped.

He went over to Ed and grabbed his arm. He twisted the large, soft man's arm behind his back until it was about to snap. Ed was up on his toes with tears in the corner of his eyes because the pain was so bad. Elliot grabbed Ed's chin and without releasing Ed's arm, jerked Ed's neck around until their faces were nearly touching. He looked into Ed's eyes and said one word.

"Mine," said Elliot through his teeth. Though he never raised his voice, Ed and everyone in the room understood his meaning.

Elliot let Ed go and pushed him away. Ed sucked in his first pain free breath since the incident began. "Elliot, I...I...was only joking," said Ed. "We're all friends. It was only in fun."

"It's always fun until somebody gets kicked in the nuts," said Elliot. "If you ever touch her again, both of us will be broke. I'll be broke because they'll have to fire me for what I'll do to you. You'll be broke too, because you won't be able to work while you're in the hospital." Ed ran off as Elliot just stood there glaring at him.

Kathy went to Elliot and calmed him down. She didn't want him getting into trouble over something silly. She loved Elliot with all of her heart and her life was perfect. She couldn't believe that only six months had passed since she'd been stuck in a relationship with a man who only abused her.




Good Friends



Everything about her life with Elliot was different. Before Elliot, the only man she'd had sex with was James. She'd been under the impression that sex with Elliot would be similar, but she'd endure it for him. It wasn't. Where James had been rough with her and quick, Elliot would sometimes spend almost an hour just massaging her and rubbing her body until she was about to burst from pleasure. 

Another thing he did that she had to get used to was when he put his mouth on her, "down there." James had never done that. A first she was really self-conscious about it, but over time Elliot got her to relax and she opened up to so many more aspects of sex that she never knew existed. It got to the point where she couldn't stand to be away from him.

She started staying at his house later and later until she finally just moved in. Then, came the biggest shock she ever had. Elliot told her that since she'd come from a strong religious family, perhaps they shouldn't be living together.

Kathy started to cry because she thought that he wanted her to move out. Her mind went crazy. She had all kinds of thoughts that maybe he'd found someone else. Some whore had just swooped in and was trying to take her man away, right under her nose. The bulldog in her came out and just as quickly went away, when she noticed that Elliot was down on one knee holding a ring out in front of her.

"Well?" he asked smiling at her.

"Honey, I told you a long time ago," she cried. "You can have anything you want from me. All you have to do is ask."

"Kathy, I love you," said Elliot. "Will you marry me, and stay with me forever?"

If Kathy thought that she and Elliot had a fairy tale existence to that point, her life got even better afterwards. Kathy spent a couple of months planning her wedding with Sally's help. Elliot did have to travel for "business" once during the planning stages. He'd never had to before and it seemed funny to Kathy, but she trusted him.

She noticed that on their wedding day, Elliot was far more nervous than she'd expected. And he kept looking around.

"Elliot Carson, what is going on?" asked Kathy. "You've been acting funny ever since that business trip. I wonder about all of those phone calls that you go out of the room to take. You look at me strangely all the time. What is it? Are you cheating on me? I know Sally cheats on her husband, but I never thought that we would be like that. Don't you love me anymore?"

"Kathy, I love you more than anyone else I can think of. There is something going on, I guess I can't hide anything from you. There was no business trip. I arranged a surprise for you. I wanted our wedding to be something that you'd remember for the rest of our lives," he said.

"Honey, it's already going to be the happiest day of my life," said Kathy. "You don't need to come up with anything to surprise me. I already have everything I've ever wanted right here."

A few hours later, Kathy was nervous. Mark was supposed to be walking her down the aisle since she had no one else. Mark was doing double duty as both best man and giving the bride away. 

"Where the hell is Mark?" she asked. 

"He's standing up there with Elliot," said Sally smiling.

"He's supposed to be here," said Kathy. "Who's going to walk me down the aisle?"

"Elliot got some other guy to do it," said Sally. "He's outside waiting for you."

Kathy opened the door and saw a man standing with his back to her. For a second her heart nearly stopped and then he turned around. 

"Are you ready?" asked the man. Kathy's makeup started to run as her tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Yes Daddy," cried Kathy. "How did you...?"

"Shh, we'll talk later," he said. "That husband of yours is really hard to say no to."

Kathy and Elliot's honeymoon was great. They spent two weeks on a cruise through the islands. They came home and started their life together. They grew more and more in love as time went on. They often had parties or barbecues and invited most of their friends. Everyone seemed to be happy for the couple. They also helped out from time to time when others were in trouble.

Less than a year after the wedding, Sally's husband Bob divorced her. Sally got pregnant and Bob who knew that he had a very low sperm count confronted her about it. He told her that as soon as the baby was born they'd do a DNA test. She couldn't handle the guilt or the pressure, so she finally caved in and admitted that he might not be the father. She claimed to have had a drunken tryst with a guy she couldn't remember. It had only happened once and she loved only him, she claimed.

He had slapped her across her face, then pulled out several pictures including one of her with Mark's dick in her mouth. He made sure she saw the date on the picture. Then he showed her more pictures and he even had videos from other places and dates. 

He told her that she'd be served with divorce papers the next day. Surprisingly he didn't go after Mark at all. When Sally got the divorce papers, she was happy at first. It meant that she wouldn't have to sneak around with Mark anymore. They could be together. She'd been paying a lot of attention to Elliot and Kathy. She wanted the kind of marriage they had. They were still as much in love then as they'd been from the beginning and it didn't seem to be slowing down.

Two days later, Sally discovered that Bob had sold their house and she had to move out. He'd cleaned out all of the bank accounts and their investments. He hadn't paid her car note in months. She was totally embarrassed when a big fat blond woman with tattoos all over her body and a big hook piercing her lip showed up at the plant to repossess her car. She had a big, bald headed guy who looked like a wrestler and a smaller Hispanic man with her. They weren't taking no for an answer. For some reason they had a camera crew with them. Sally gave them the keys and tried to call Bob, but he just laughed and hung up on her.

Bob had even cleaned out Sally's accounts. He'd also somehow gotten her credit card numbers and proceeded to max them out with cash advances. 

Sally turned to the only place she could. She went to Mark, only to find out that Mark had no further interest in her.

He told her that the sex they had was great, but it was just sex, in a "no strings" type relationship. He didn't want to marry her and to be truthful; sex with her had become a chore. She was also not the only woman he was sleeping with. 

Sally was distraught. She ended up getting an abortion. Kathy and Elliot loaned her the money. She also stayed with them until she got her feet back under her. Sally tried everything she could to find her husband again. She missed him. She'd realized it soon after he'd left. The thing that was missing from her life wasn't the once or twice a week trysts with Mark. It was the everyday and every night conversations and spending time with a man who loved her.

Sally moved out of Elliot and Kathy's house, in part because watching the two of them and how much they loved each other was painful.

Mark had also been watching Elliot and Kathy. He'd become obsessed with Kathy over the years. He simply couldn't understand what it was about her that made his best friend want to spend the rest of his life with her. He spent hours staring at her. He ogled her when she wore swim suits to swim in their pool. He knew that he wanted her. He told himself it was because Kathy was the only secretary at the plant he hadn't fucked and he wanted his record to be perfect, but he knew there was more to it than that. He couldn't explain it but he wanted Kathy badly.

He didn't think that she'd be any different from any of the other married women he'd had. So he started to make very subtle advances towards her. He complimented her often. He made it a point to spend time with her both with Elliot around and whenever possible alone with her.

If they were having a barbecue and Elliot needed to go to the store for something, Mark was on her like a cheap suit. It was really hard though because Elliot rarely left Kathy alone. Elliot loved Kathy so deeply that he didn't neglect her. Even three years into their marriage he still surprised her with little gifts and told her he loved her every day.

Mark didn't think he'd ever get a chance at Kathy, until one day out of the blue it just landed at his feet. The chance he'd been waiting for. Elliot had recently been promoted again. He was now the production manager. Elliot made at least three times Mark's salary but now had to go to a lot more meetings. He also had to travel occasionally, but he actually took Kathy with him when he did. Even after being married for that long, they hated to be away from each other.

They were supposed to be having a barbecue one Saturday and Elliot was called in because of an emergency. Kathy told him to tell them that he couldn't make it. Her parents were flying in again for the barbecue. Elliot had been responsible for Kathy's parents coming back into her life. He'd gone to their home in Philly and told them all about Kathy's life and her relationship with him and literally begged them to come to their wedding. He'd also explained to them how James had taken advantage of her and how she'd had to pull herself up and move on in her life alone until she met him.

Her parents had come to the wedding and now were coming to visit Kathy and their son .

Elliot's decision to go to the plant angered Kathy. She and Elliot rarely argued and this was the first time that the bulldog had come out in Kathy and had been directed at Elliot. 

He promised her that he'd be there before her parents arrived. She expected him at about noon. Mark came over at one but he was always at their house anyway.

Kathy was so pissed at Elliot that she had a few drinks to calm herself down. The drinks were stronger than she thought and she was soon feeling really good. A few of their friends were outside around the pool while Kathy continued to drink and prepare the food.

"You want me, don't you?" she slurred drunkenly at Mark. He just nodded his head. Kathy had noticed a long time ago that Mark was always lurking around her. Women have a kind of radar about men. She'd also been hearing for years about Mark from all of the women she worked with. The rumor was that she was the only woman in her entire department that he hadn't fucked at least once.

She'd often wondered what it was about him that was so special that women would risk their marriages for. She'd seen what happened to Sally. But it had all been idle curiosity that under normal circumstances never would have gone anywhere. She loved Elliot with all of her heart and couldn't imagine cheating on him.

"I'm really pissed at Elliot," she said. "It would serve him right for not listening to me." Mark went over to her sensing blood in the water. He gave her another drink and started rubbing her ass through her pants.

Kathy started feeling really good and thought that it was Mark, not the liquor making her feel that way. A half an hour later, Kathy was flat on her back in her bed, when Mark started pounding away at her. She wasn't enjoying it at all. He didn't know what he was doing. It reminded her of James. He wasn't making love to her, he was just fucking her. She started crying and pushed him off of her.

"Baby, just let me finish," begged Mark. Actually Mark hadn't found anything great about the sex either, but he was so close to cumming that he wanted to get his nut off. He just couldn't figure it out. She wasn't that pretty. Her body wasn't lush and now she wasn't even good in bed. She just laid there like a rock. What the fuck did Elliot see in her?

Kathy was hysterical. She'd cheated on the man she loved. Though she'd been drunk when they started she was now stone cold sober. She knew that a very special part of their relationship had been severely damaged due to her temper.

"Get the fuck out of my house," she snapped at Mark. "Don't ever come back."

"Kathy wait," said Mark. "This was a mistake. A very, very, big mistake on both of our parts, but if I just leave and stop coming over here, Elliot will know something happened. The best thing would be for both of us to just forget that this happened. We both love Elliot. Neither of us wants to see him hurt. I'm not in love with you and I'm sure you're not in love with me. Let's just forget it. It was a drunken mistake."

Kathy nodded, vowing that she'd become an even better wife to Elliot. She and Elliot already had sex most nights, but in the first few weeks after the barbecue, Kathy tried to kill Elliot with sex.

A few months later, when she'd almost got the incident out of her mind, she started to relax. It was really hard because every time she saw Mark, she felt guilty. She was also fighting really hard to pretend that things were normal, when every time she saw Mark she felt nothing but disgust.

She got angry at herself all over again every time she saw Mark and realized that she very easily could have lost her Elliot, over that smug, selfish bastard. When she felt that badly, she needed to try to make it up to Elliot all over again. So she'd try to fuck him to death again.

So, roughly six months after the barbecue, Kathy discovered she was pregnant. According to the doctor she was about six weeks along, so she knew that the baby was Elliot's. That enabled her to put the entire Mark incident out of her mind as she concentrated on raising her family. Elliot and their daughter were Kathy's entire world. She never took them for granted because she realized that at any time circumstances could steal them from her. Happiness is only one bad fucking decision away from misery. 

Two years later she was pregnant again, this time a son. Kathy and Elliot were the dream couple that most of their friends envied.

It was four years after the birth of their son and six and a half years after the incident that it all unraveled. Elliot bounded into the dining room of the house he shared with his wife and soul mate, Kathy and their two children. They were having yet another barbecue and her parents were coming over again. It was different this time because for the past year, hiss didn't have to fly to visit. They'd bought a house only three miles away so they could be closer to their grandchildren.

Another thing that made this barbecue special was that Elliot had been planning on surprising Kathy. Their 10 year anniversary was coming up and he'd hired a minister to come over so they could renew their wedding vows in front of all of their friends. He'd also bought Kathy another ring and they were going to leave in a few days on the same cruise that they'd taken for their first honeymoon. Thes were going to watch the kids. 

All of that went out the window as Elliot stepped into the dining room. He heard two voices and recognized them as his best friend Mark and his wife.

"Damn, that little girl is smart," said Mark. "And you know what Kathy? She's a real charmer too. She reminds me of myself at that age. Are you sure she isn't mine?"

"Mark, don't be stupid. She was born 15 months after we...After what happened. I also have the blood test results that they did at her school. She's my husband's daughter through and through. There's no chance of her being yours," said Kathy. "Every time you bring up my lapse in judgment, it just makes me hate you more."

Elliot quietly went back up the stairs into the bedroom he shared with Kathy. He lay down on the bed with his heart pounding so hard that he was sure everyone downstairs could hear it. It was becoming hard for him to breathe and the tears running down his cheeks made it hard to see. He just stared at the ceiling gathering his thoughts until a voice brought him back to reality.

"Daddy, are you coming downstairs," his six year old daughter asked him. "I want you to go in the pool with me."

"I'll be down in a few minutes Steph," he said.

"Mommy wants you to come now," said Steph. "She said she misses you and to tell you that you're going to get it tonight."

Steph came into the room and sat on the bed. "Daddy, when Mommy tells me I'm going to get it, she means I'm going to get a spanking. Tell her that she can't spank you. You're the best daddy in the whole wide world. You don't need a spanking."

Elliot looked at the tiny cherubic figure in front of him. No matter how this played out, he had to make sure that things worked out well for her and that she and her brother would always be taken care of and loved. 

"Daddy, are you crying?" she asked him. 

"No sweetheart," he said. "I just had something in my eye." He grabbed her hand and lifted her onto his shoulder. He was hopeful that her euphoria at being carried in her daddy's arms would wipe out the recent memory of his tears.

Elliot put Stephanie down and she ran into the arms of her grandparents who had just arrived. Her four year old brother put down the toy truck he was about to throw into the pool and ran to meet them as well. 

A couple of their friends waved or yelled a greeting to Elliot. He smiled and waved back. Kathy was making a beeline in his direction. He pretended that he hadn't seen her and moved so that she had to go through a couple of other people to get to him. "I'll be right back, I'm going for more beer," he loudly announced to no one. 

"If you buy it, we'll drink it," yelled one of the guys.

Elliot headed for the fence to the driveway and ran right into Mark. "Hey bud, you want me to ride shotgun?" asked his friend of over twenty years. 

"Nope, I got it," said Elliot. He was sure he'd kept the rage he felt towards Mark out of his voice.

Mark was sure he'd seen anger on Elliot's face. He wondered what could make his lifelong friend that angry. Whatever it was, if El needed to talk, Mark would be there for him. To get that angry it had to be about Kathy or the kids. Mark offered again.

"El, I'm not busy, I can go and help with the beer," said Mark.

"I told you, I've fucking got it," snapped Elliot. "Why don't you go and see if Kathy needs you."

Mark could tell something was wrong, but he was sure that Elliot still trusted him. Elliot didn't trust anyone with Kathy, or his kids. So if Elliot was telling him to check on Kathy, it meant that Elliot was upset about something and wanted to, as usual, make sure his wife was protected and okay.

Elliot waved at his father and mother in law on his way out.

Mark went over to Kathy and offered to light the grill. Just as he arranged the charcoal he heard Stephanie talking to her mother. "Mommy, I don't think you should spank daddy," the child said.

"Steph, what are you talking about?" asked Kathy.

"You told me to tell daddy that he was going to get it," said the little girl. "Well, I think he's already sorry for what he did so he doesn't need a spanking."

"Honey, what does your daddy need to be sorry for? Mommy was just joking with daddy. He knows what I mean. Why do you think he was sorry?" asked Kathy.

"Because when I went upstairs to get him he was laying on your bed crying," said Steph. "But don't worry, I'll tell him that you're not going to spank him."

Kathy barely heard her daughter's reply. For very close to ten years she and Elliot had been living a perfect life. They had their little tiffs and arguments but all couples did. She and Elliot had never said a cross word to each other in all of that time though. He was more than her husband, he was her other half. As far as she knew, they had no secrets from each other. What could Elliot have to cry about? Steph had to have been mistaken. After all, she was only six.

Kathy turned and saw Mark fussing over the grill. There, stood her only regret since meeting Elliot. Every time she looked at him, it made her skin crawl to think that only 7 years ago she'd let him fuck her in a moment of drunken weakness. She wished that he and Elliot would have an argument or maybe Mark could just get a fucking girlfriend. That way he could stop hanging around her house so damned much. 




Good Friends



Jill looked over at the phone when she heard the ring. After several rings it went to voicemail. She just didn't want to talk to anyone right now. She and Justin broke up last night, and although it was mutual, and for the best, she was still sad and disappointed. Another failed relationship. She wanted to enjoy feeling sorry for herself for awhile in peace and quiet. She stood up to walk into the bathroom and look at herself in the mirror. She considered herself to be sort of pretty. She looked in the mirror and saw a woman with long brunette hair, and deep brown eyes. She turned sideways -- she could stand to lose a few pounds, but mostly liked her curves. She had nice hips and a gently rounded backside, to go along with her 36C chest. Justin was missing out, she decided.

The phone rang again, and irritated, Jill quickly stepped back into the room, picked it up to see who kept calling. It was her friend Elly. She sighed and decided she better just answer, or knowing Elly, she would just keep calling.

"Hi Elly."

"Hey girl, what's going on? You aren't answering your phone?"

"Sorry," she said hesitating, "Justin and I broke up last night, and I was having a little pity party for myself."

"Oh hon, I'm so sorry. I'm on my way over."

"No, Elly you don't-"

Elly cut her off, "Not a chance. See you in 20," and hung up.

Jill smiled in spite of herself, Elly was such a great friend, she knew exactly what she needed.

True to her word, 20 minutes later there was a knock on her door, and Jill opened the door to see Elly standing there with a bag in her arm. Jill always was a little jealous of Elly's petite body. She was blond, 5'4, with a tiny frame and cute perky boobs. If they weren't such good friends, she would hate her. "I am here to make everything better," Elly said, stepping in around Jill and heading to the kitchen, with Jill following. She set the bag down, and pulled out a gallon of ice cream and a bottle of wine. "I brought supplies!"

Jill just shook her head. "Ok, you grab a couple of spoons and the wine glasses, and I'll pick out the movie!

A couple of hours later, the ice cream and wine were gone, and Jill and Elly were stretched out on the floor in front of the couch, watching the ending movie credits.

"How are you feeling sweetie," Elly said, reaching over to squeeze Jill's shoulder.

"Better. I'm really ok, it wasn't like it was going to work with him. We have hardly spent any time together lately anyway, it's just.."

" I know -- sorry. Geez," Elly said feeling the tension in her friend's shoulder. "Even after my ice cream and wine treatment, your muscles feel so tight. Lay down and let me give you a neck rub and massage, I'm sure you could use a little more TLC."

Jill felt like she should say no, after all Elly had already done for her, but that sounded so good, her neck was pretty sore. So she just moved to lie down on her stomach on the carpeted floor. Elly straddled her friend's butt, and started kneading Jill's upper shoulders and neck, trying not to be too rough, but break up that muscle tension. She smiled when she heard Jill let out a small sigh. She loved her friend, and since they shared just about everything, she knew that she and Justin hadn't spent much time together for the last few weeks, including in bed, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was sexually frustrated. Jill could do something about that.

"That feels so good," Jill moaned. "You can stop in an hour or two."

"Just be quiet and relax -- you deserve it."

Jill did just that, and let her friend go to work on her aching muscles. It felt amazing to just lie there, and be pampered. She barely noticed when Elly started to push up her shirt in the back, and unhook her bra, pushing the straps down.

"Hey," Elly said softly.

"Hmmm," Jill responded softly.

"Sit up for just a minute. I can do a better job without material in the way." Jill sat up sleepily, and lifted her arms as Elly pulled the shirt over her head, and pulled her bra off. "Lay back down," Elly said, and Jill did.

Elly started the massage again, now not impeded by clothing coming between her hands and the skin of Jill's back. Elly couldn't help thinking about how soft Jill's skin was, and she was enjoying the feeling of her Jill's supple flesh under her hands, almost as much as Jill was being on the receiving end.

The soft hands moving up and down the skin of Jill's back was giving her goosebumps. Not surprising considering that it had been awhile since anyone had touched her much. Elly's hands traced circles whisper soft on Jill's back and she couldn't hold back a small moan.

Elly smiled, glad to be bringing her friend a little pleasure, but she could do better. She paused, pulling her own shirt over her head. She had small perky breasts, so didn't need a bra, and her nipples reacted to the sudden exposure to the cool air, and hardened. She brought her hands up to her own breasts, cupping them and rubbing her nipples. She held in a moan, not wanted to disturb her friend's experience.

"Don't move," she whispered, and seeing that Jill wasn't moving, she stood up and shimmied out of her jeans and bikini underwear. She wasn't surprised to see her hairless pussy glistening with liquid, and she reached down and gave her clit a small rub with her middle finger. She shook her head, looking back at her friend still laying passively on the floor, and walked to the bathroom. She pulled out the baby oil off the shelf, and headed back to the livingroom.

She straddled Jill's hips again, pulling the top of her sweatpants down a little, to expose her lower back and top of her ass. She opened the oil, poured some in her hand, set the bottle down, and starting rubbing her hands together to warm the oil. Then she continued the massage, starting with the middle of Jill's back, and moving to caress her sides by her breasts, down along her hips, and to the top of her ass. She could hear Jill's even breathing, and feel how relaxed she was under her. She leaned over to softly run her breasts over Jill's oiled back, paused to see if her friend would respond, and when she didn't she reached up to Jill's neck, and rubbed her hard nipple points back and forth, unconsciously pushing her cunt against the fabric of Jill's sweats.

Elly pulled slightly up and away from Jill's body, and moving her by her hips, turned her around gently so she ended up on her back. Jill's eyes stayed closed, as Elly grabbed the bottle, and prepped some fresh oil. She started rubbing her friend's breasts, softly squeezing the firm flesh, circling around the hardening nipples. In her half-asleep state, Jill moaned deeply and pressed her hips up against Elly's pelvis. Elly held her breath, waiting for her to wake up. When she didn't move again, she leaned over and started nibbling on Jill's neck, her breasts now rubbing against Jill's, her nipples somehow hardening further, and her pussy was starting to throb.

Jill moaned again and Elly moved down to take one nipple in her mouth and suck gently, while the other hand continued to flick and squeeze the other nipple. She couldn't get enough of her friend's tits, and starting moving back and forth suckling between the two nipples. Then she took a hand to reach down into Jill's sweats, under her panties. Oh, god, Jill was so wet, her panties were soaking. She was obviously ripe for some relief.

Elly wasn't gay, but she had been open to lots of different kinds of sexual experiences, and found her sexual relations with women had been so pleasurable. She knew Jill had some interest in women, but would never have approached her, so this had presented her the perfect opportunity to bring them both some needed pleasure. She just hoped this wouldn't wreck their friendship.

Jill was floating in a partially asleep state, dreaming about someone touching her, caressing her everywhere. She gave in to the sensations overwhelming her, not remembering the last time she had felt this good, if ever.

Elly continued to rub Jill's slickened clit, feeling the warm wetness leaking from her own pussy down her thighs. Jill was pushing up against Elly's hand, needing more pressure, thrusting and moaning. Elly took a nipplie in her mouth again, sucking hard, hand moving faster and faster over Jill's clit, feeling her friend start to tense up near to orgasm.

Jill let out a small scream as she came, juices from her pussy squirting over Elly's hand, and her eyes opened slowly to look down at Elly's still sucking on her breast. Elly hadn't stopped rubbing Jill's pussy, and now slipped three fingers inside her, while flicking her clit with her thumb. Jill couldn't believe what was happening, that her friend was touching her like this, and had just made her come harder than she ever had before. Barely were those thoughts running through her head, when another orgasm started to build, and Jill couldn't stop Elly or even mutter a word. She didn't want this to stop, she was so aroused her body was on fire.

Elly pulled off Jill's nipple and looked at her friend below her. She saw she was awake now, and completely turned on. Their eyes met, and Elly knew Jill didn't want her to stop, so she needed to give her more, she knew she was on the edge. She crawled down Jill's body, pulling her sweatpants all the way off. Looking at her friends soaking wet pussy, she licked her lips in anticipation. She wanted to eat Jill's pussy as much as she knew her friend would enjoy it.

Her hands pushed Jill's thighs apart, with no resistance, and lowered her mouth to first suck on her engorged clitoris. Jill's hips jerked up in response, and she started moaning, unable to form words. Elly sucked relentlessly, while she pushed her fingers back inside Jill's cunt, working quickly in and out, in and out. Her own hips were thrusting against the floor, lost in her own pleasure. Elly let out a muffled moan, against Jill's pussy, while Jill's moans were getting louder as her hips were thrusting up against her friend's face.

Elly pulled away from Jill's pelvis, and Jill sighed in frustration. Elly pulled herself up on top of her friend, kissing her, tongue pressing to get inside. Jill opened her mouth and felt Elly's tongue press in against her own, tasting Elly and her own juices from Elly's mouth. Their pussies were pressed against each other thrusting harder and harder, pressure building until they both yelled out against each other's mouth, climaxing.

Elly collapsed on top of Jill, head against her neck, feeling her juices and Jill's wetness combining against their thighs. Slowly they were able to catch their breath, and Elly moved off Jill, to sit beside her prone friend. She cautiously glanced at her friend, afraid of what her reaction might be.

"Well," Jill finally said after a few quiet moments, "I'm a little confused, but I feel better". Jill sat up to face her friend. "Thanks for coming over.

They both started laughing, and reached over to hug each other. This friendship had just gotten a lot closer, and Jill was looking forward to more "friend" time with Elly.



Good Friends



AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my submission to the "Winter Holidays" contest, so make sure to vote if you like what you read! I am also working on a companion story to my Summer contest submission, "What She Knows," so look for that if you liked either that story or this one. Thanks!

*

"I swear, I knew it would happen. He couldn't finish the last day of class without doing it -- you know that guy I told you about. You won't believe what he said to try and get me to sleep with him..." Sara began talking before taking her seat. She unpacked her books without breaking rhythm, barely noticing Brian's disconnect.

The two sat at a small table near the front of a quaint coffee shop downtown, and the afternoon sun was buried in thick, grey clouds made deceptively whiter by the falling snow. Brian had an impulse to walk away from Sara's soft voice and step into the snow. The emptiness of the mid-Saturday streets looked serene and inviting. He even shirked the desire to warm himself with a coat from the cold that crept in through the glass.

He didn't look at Sara while she spoke, but hung on her every word just the same. It was in his nature to put the well-being of others first, and he even did so covertly.

"...but that was fine for about two weeks, then they broke up. Then, magically, he wants to spend all this time with me, and just...it's so obvious. I mean, you're a guy. Well, you know what I mean. I just, I want the easy way out sometimes... and just tell this guy the way it is, that whatever he thinks ain't it, it just ain't. You know what I mean?"

"I guess," Brian replied.

She clicked her pen several times, but it didn't pop out. "Well, it is what it is. That final is over anyway, so at least I won't have to worry about him anymore. Hell, I don't have to worry about class anymore! Oh shit, do you have a pen?"

He simply pointed to his bag without saying anything, and she started rifling through it until she found one. In the process, her eyes fixed on a book.

"Really? 'Sexuality and Art'?"

"It's for class. We're learning about..."

"Bullshit. I know what your classes are. You totally got this for yourself. That's really cool. And... surprising."

"Why is it surprising?"

"Well it's just... you never talk about sex. You're always just so... straight-edge about everything."

"If you say so."

Sara noticed something somber in his tone. And something she might have called resentment.

"Is everything ok?"

He hesitated. For a moment, he wanted to tell her no, and to tell her everything. He would have trusted her.

She was staring at him, and every second that passed he felt more and more defenseless. He and Sara had been friends since high school. They had been through hell together, and no one knew him better than her.

"Yes, I'm fine," he finally said.

"Bullshit."

"It's nothing, don't worry about it."

Sara closed her notebook, making sure to do so as conspicuously as possible. She looked at him sternly with a smirk, and waited for him to look back at her. When he did, he knew it was over. He felt a mixture of anxiety and relief.

"Look, I don't even know what's wrong."

"What are you thinking about?"

The word that came to his mind was "women," but didn't want to say it. That would be simplifying it, he thought. She would pick up all the pathetic bits of what he felt, but know very little about what he really thought. This was hard, but he'd been sliding emotionally for months. Something had to give. He had to tell someone.

"I just... I don't know. I have nothing to be proud of."

"That's crazy! You finished your senior film way before your class... totally blew everyone away. Everyone's talking about it. Shit, they're talking about it in my classes."

"I don't feel like I thought I would feel, though. I can't explain it."

She smiled at this. "You don't have to. You're an artist, Brian. I've always known it, and if there's one thing about you that makes you an artist it's that you're never satisfied."

"That's not fair. I'm satisfied with that film."

"You should be. It doesn't look like a student film at all. That's why it got into festivals already." After reading his expression, she added, "Buuuut... this isn't about that, is it?" Brian looked back out the window, and Sara finally responded, "Who is she? Give me all the details."

"It's not what you think."

Sara let out a big but short laugh that made her sit up straight. She was about to ask for more, but Brian continued.

"I've been thinking about Samantha."

Sara's smile softened, and her amusement turned into puzzlement.

"What about her?"

"I don't know. How close we were. I don't know, it's probably nothing."

"No, it's something alright. Only time I see you get like this is when you don't have anything going on. Are you going back home for the break?"

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"I just don't really feel like being around a lot of people I have to smile for, you know? I just saw the family for Thanksgiving. It's no big deal."

"Maybe, but you shouldn't be alone. You should have Christmas with my family. They always love having you."

"I guess so."

Adding a little pep to her voice, she asked, "Hey, what are you doing right now?"

"Studying with you."

"Screw that. It's Saturday. I have something that might cheer you up."

After they packed up and headed out into the cool, calm snowfall, Brian instantly felt a thousand times better. He even felt silly, in fact. He hated being the downer.

But suddenly, it felt like old times. He didn't know how many times he and Sara went on walks together, and how many of those times were walks through the snow. She was an explorer, like him, and they always got lost together. Only she would have known how much a simple walk through the snow would change his whole attitude.

She'd seen him through many hard times, just like he helped her through one heartbreak after another. He saw so much goodness in her, even when she made bad decisions. He thought she was one of the most forgiving, generous people he'd ever known. And watching the snowflakes come to rest on her long, brown hair, he was also reminded of just how beautiful she was.

They walked until they reached the park, and they circled the lake, watching the ducks. They talked about silliness and life, but not a word of what was really bothering Brian.

She might have thought, as they later arrived at her doorstep, that it did the trick. But she knew him too well. He just wasn't the same, and she could sense it.

So she invited him in for some Cognac and said she had something to give him, and he agreed.

The first thing he noticed upon entering was that her place was less than tidy. Sensing his judgment immediately, she shot back, "Don't judge me. In a week I won't have to worry about my defense 'cuz I'll be done, and I'll be done with school, and then I can worry about this shit."

"No it's not that. I wasn't judging..."

She walked into the kitchen, saying, "Keep talking."

"I don't see a mess, ok? I see you busting your ass. Believe me..."

"Damn straight. Same as you."

"Not exactly. If I hadn't wasted three years of my life doing nothing, I'd be getting my Master's too."

"You still can." She entered the room with two glasses filled with Cognac and handed one to Brian. Brian took a sip, but timidly looked out the window, even though a tree was blocking most of the snowfall.

"Talk to me."

Brain tried to appear more shocked than satisfied by the statement. He wanted to talk. Boy, had he ever. But that didn't make it easy.

It was several awkward minutes later, after finding a spot on the couch and looking down into his drink, that he said anything.

"I don't know. Lately, I've just been thinking about women a lot."

"What about?"

"...being with them, you know."

"Like a girlfriend?"

"No. Well, not really. I just mean... I see them everyday, and one day, I won't."

"So you're worried that if you don't find a girlfriend now, that you'll never find one?"

"No, I said... it's not about finding a girlfriend. I just... there's this hump that I've never been able to get over with women, and it makes me feel... like I'll never..."

She started to grin, as she guessed what he was getting at. "Are you talking about sex?" His response to the question gave it away, and she delighted in getting it right. "Gosh, you are such a romantic! You can't even say the word. It's cute, though." When she said this, he opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off, saying, "BUT... you can't bring yourself to sleep with a woman you don't care about. I get it. It all makes sense now. That's why you're thinking of Samantha again."

"I'll never be as close as I was with her."

"Do you still love her?"

"God no, that was years ago."

"What was the sex like? I mean, if you don't mind my asking?"

"What sex?"

"You were together for like two years. You mean to tell me you two never did it? Not once?"

Brian had always enjoyed her playful optimism, and she always brought it out in full force whenever she was trying to be a listener. But now, he found it painful to see. And she had no idea how hard it was to be telling her this stuff.

"It was going to be Samantha. I loved her, and I wanted it to be her. But I had too much pride. And I had this silly idea that it would make me a better person to wait. That's why I wanted to wait, but only at first. Then, we started fighting. She knew every button to push to set me off, and she brought out a very dark side of me. Sex was one of them. She would say things like 'what kind of a man doesn't fuck his girlfriend?' And she was right. I should have. Not just because I loved her, but if I knew then that it would be the only real chance for someone like me..."

"Wait... are you still a virgin?"

Brian didn't respond. He just sighed and downed the rest of the Cognac, then leaned back on the couch, staring straight ahead. He knew that she had all the information now, and he couldn't look at her.

She had finally said the words, and he couldn't bear to respond. He tried, but realizing how pitiful it made him feel, he had to turn away from her. He felt he had made a mistake telling her, and felt foolish for making it out to be a big deal.

"Hey, that's nothing to be ashamed of," she said. She leaned over and ran her fingers through his hair until he turned to look at her. "You're still young."

When he said nothing, she got up and left the left the room. When she returned, she brought the bottle of Cognac with her. "Somehow, I think we're going to need this."

She filled Brian's cup, but he still was at a loss for words. So she sat down beside him again and said, "Look, I'm here for you, ok? I know this is not something that's easy to talk about. I feel honored that you trust me this much, though."

"You're pretty much my best friend at this point, Sara. I had to tell someone. I feel horrible."

"And you're like my best guy friend! I hate seeing you so sad. You're the sweetest guy I know. I'd do anything to find someone for you. You deserve to be happy."

"Yeah, good luck with that."

"You used to be more confident. What happened?"

"What I need is a body like yours."

Without even hesitating, she said, "So you're a lesbian?" He wanted to keep to his misery, but the joke actually put a smile on his face. "See? You just gotta cut through all that shit, man."

"It's not just finding women, though. Even in the rare instance that a girl gives a loser like me a chance, it never get serious enough before it all goes to shit. So I can't commit."

"I don't think you have commitment issues. You're just afraid of women."

"Why would you say that? I'm sitting right here with one, aren't I?"

"That's different. I'm your friend. You don't see me that way, but that's beside the point. When you have a chance to be with a girl who likes you, you always back out. It's your choice, and I know why you do it, too. We've talked about it a hundred times and you never listen to me."

"What are you talking about?"

"You need to put your romantic ideals aside for a change and take a risk. Not every girl is gonna be the one you spend the rest of your life with. But if she offers you her body, it's not always an empty gesture. Like Gina."

"All she wanted was sex, though."

"That's not true. She really liked you. You would've liked her more if you had sex with her. I told you that at the time, but you didn't listen. And now she's gone."

"Look, it can't be like that. I can't accept that. I don't want sex dictating anything."

"But you want sex, don't you?"

"Well therein lies the real problem."

"Every guy that has a pulse wants sex. I just think you're scared."

"Well even if that's true, Gina was an exception. Girls who want me don't come along very often."

"They will if you want them to."

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have to work very hard to get guys lined up."

"You'd be surprised how hard I have to work!"

Brian would have normally laughed at this, but in this particular moment, he just looked down at his drink.

"I almost just want to do it and get it over with."

Then, seeing his sullen disposition in light of all that she'd learned, Sara had an idea. It formed an expression on her face that she wouldn't have been able to hide if he'd been looking up at her.

It was a smirk.

She took another sip of her drink, then said, "You can do it with me if you want."

Brian almost didn't believe she said it, and looked confused. She was smiling, which perplexed him even more. "But we're..."

"Friends? I know."

"So... what are you saying?"

"I'm saying we should have sex. You and me. Right now. On this couch, if you'd prefer."

"But, that would be weird, wouldn't it?"

"Do you have feelings for me?"

"Not really. I've never thought of you like that."

"Not even once?"

"Well, I do find you attractive, but..."

"...but you've always seen me as a friend first. Nothing more. Right?"

"Yeah?"

"Right. Then yes... we should definitely have sex."

"Why?"

"Brian, you've helped me through so much over the years. Frankly, I wonder why you're still my friend after all of the shit I put you through, because I feel like I'm never able to help you. But now I think I can help you. I know I can help you, and I want to."

"How is it going to help me to have sex with you?"

She put her glass down and slid closer to him. "I really think that once you finally have sex, you won't be so worked up about getting older and all that stuff. And I know you would never have sex with someone you weren't close to, cuz you're stubborn like that. But you and me... we're very close. I'm not just anyone."

"I understand what you're saying, and it does make sense. But it still feels weird. I don't know if I can."

"Just think of it like I'm teaching you how to ice skate or paint or something. It's just an activity that two friends are doing together. Except, more like therapy. Doesn't have to be weird at all."

"You're serious? You want to have sex?"

"Yes."

"And you don't think it will change things?"

"It's likely to make us closer, but that's just because of what it is. If anything, it'll strengthen our friendship."

"That's crazy."

"Look at it this way." She straightened up and turned to face him more directly. "If you needed help painting a house and I had paint to give you, you know you could come to me to help you, because I have paint. And while I may be your friend first... I'm also a woman. And what you need is a woman's body. And I...," she added with a grin, "happen to have one of those."

"I just feel pathetic. Like you're doing this out of pity."

"Brian, pity is the last reason I'd have. I care about you. That's why I want to do it. I wouldn't do this for just anyone, if that's what you're thinking. You are the sweetest, most awesome guy I know, and you have yourself to thank for that. That's why I'm doing it."

He found her arguments persuasive, and she could see that he was loosening up. His demeanor was lighter, almost hopeful.

She put a hand on his thigh and moved it down between his legs, then felt his crotch gently. He felt his penis harden instantly to the touch, and it stunned him. It all seemed like just talk, but her hand made it real.

"I'll take that as a yes," she said, smiling.

She now was now more excited than she'd ever been. She knew what it meant to reveal her body to the closest friend she'd ever had, but she buried her nervous anticipation. She chose to undress herself as she would if no one were watching. Casual, like the everyday event that it was.

She removed the shirt she was wearing first, then unclipped her bra. When she slid it off, she fought the urge to look at Brian to see his reaction. She wanted to know right away what it made him think and feel, but knew she should act nonchalant. His eyes were drawn instantly to her breasts. He followed them as she leaned over to pour another drink, liking the way they moved and bounced slightly with her body.

She could feel his eyes on her, and it was starting to turn her on.

She turned to Brian handing him his glass, making eye contact for the first time. She found his look of innocence truly precious, and she looked away for fear that he might take an uncontrollable chuckle from her the wrong way.

She stood up instead, holding her own glass. "To your first time," she said, holding it out. They toasted and drank.

Then she put the glass down and began to remove her shoes and socks. She was short, and her long, brown hair hung down like a curtain as she bent to pull her socks off. The hair slid along her breasts until she threw it back behind her ears, gingerly. She unbuttoned and unzipped her blue jeans and slid them down.

To Brian, it might have been weird if she had tried to be sexy when taking off her clothes. Had she behaved as he'd imagined she did with other men, he might have put a stop to the whole thing. But instead, she was very natural. He could easily imagine her undressing the very same way on some not so special day for a very typical shower.

This oddly calmed Brian, because he didn't want to see Sara as anything but the Sara he knew. And it gave him comfort. She wasn't trying to be anyone but herself. She was just Sara.

And Sara must have been thinking the same thing. She smiled at him before finally removing her underwear, and even her smile was simple and sweet. It said, "I'm glad we're friends, and I'm happy to be doing this for you."

He thought she was going to approach him right away, but she didn't. She stood there, studying his reaction. This time, she couldn't help herself.

But she justified it to herself by concluding that if he really was afraid of women, she should give him all the time he needed to be comfortable with one. She found that his eyes were fixed on her pussy, but was surprised by how long he looked at it. Then she joked, "Getting a good look?" She laughed, but Brian immediately looked away.

"I'm sorry..."

"Don't be," she said with a chuckle. "Have you ever actually seen a woman naked before? Be honest. And movies don't count."

"I've made out with them lots of times. And I've seen tits before."

"But never naked?"

He shook his head.

"Look at me," she said. He turned his head back to look at her and found her still in the same pose, with her hands at her hips.

"You're absolutely beautiful."

"Oh stop it Brian. I don't need you to give me compliments. Just look at me. Look as long as you want."

It all started to click for Brian. He realized that she was right. He was scared, because it was different.

But it was beautiful. Like he had always seen it in movies, only now it was in the flesh. And he could never have expected that the first woman he would be seeing completely naked would be Sara.




Good Friends



Nothing had changed yet, and that thrilled him to no end. He'd known her for so long, yet even now with no clothes on, Sara seemed just like the same old Sara. Better, in fact. More complete.

She was right, he realized. She was helping him in a big way that only she could do.

She took a few steps toward him until her skin touched his pants briefly. She leaned over to grab the bottom of his shirt, then pulled it over his head. She knelt down and began to remove his pants, and his heart began to race. He let her pull the pants off, and suddenly he felt more nervous than ever.

His erect penis was now clearly evident through his underwear, which she was seconds from pulling down. His expression seemed far enough beyond nervous that she said, "Are you ok?"

"I'm... just... a little nervous." He couldn't justify it to himself, however hard he tried. He had nothing to be afraid of or ashamed of. She would see him just as he saw her. He would soon be exposed and begin to feel her fingers on his skin. Her body would soon be against his, and he would soon be inside her.

"It's ok," she said, running her hands up his inner thigh slowly. "Just relax. We're almost there."

Every moment her fingers slid closer to his waistband, and all the moments her fingers slipped underneath and along the waistband felt like eternity. She was pulling it ever so slowly down, and the chilly December air of his good friend's apartment touched his member one inch at a time.

She was sliding his underwear off with such ease, he didn't have to adjust his position. Time sped up as his penis sprang out at last into the cool air, and before he knew it, his underwear was at his knees. She continued to pull them off slowly, as if out of respect for him.

Her eyes drifted briefly from his eyes down to his penis, now erect as ever. She smiled and straightened up on her knees and moved in between his legs. She put her hands on the sides of his legs and caressed them slowly.

"Now how do you feel?" she asked, still smiling. He issued a chuckle and tried to respond, but could think of nothing to say. So she added, "Are you still nervous?"

"Not as much."

"If you ever want to stop, just let me know. I don't want you to be nervous anymore, I just want you to be comfortable."

Her hands slid up the sides of his body and across his chest. She did this a few times before sliding her right hand back down to his belly.

It was at this moment that Brian started to see Sara not just as a friend but as a woman. Even undressing was not a particularly sexual thing, but the way she was touching him was.

And when he felt her hand brush against his penis for the first time, he knew he was at her mercy. But she would take care of him in that way only a woman could do.

She held his penis gently and began to rub it. He didn't know what to do but let her, and the urge to come rose almost as soon as her hand touched him there. She continued to rub him slowly, enjoying every reaction he made to her hand.

"I like this," she said with a smile. "Who would have thought that we would be doing this one day, huh? You and me? And I had no idea that you were..."

He interrupted her with a groan that she didn't anticipate right away. She looked down to see that he was already coming into her hand and onto her couch.

"It's ok," she said. "I'll clean this up, it's no big deal." Her tone was light and servile, but did not quell Brian's feeling of shame at having come so quickly.

She retrieved a warm, wet rag, which she first used on his member, then she wiped the couch. As she did so, she was saying, "Sex is fun, but it can be messy, that's for sure. But don't you feel bad one bit. If a girl wants to sleep with you, she knows what she's getting."

When she was done, she returned to sitting beside him, tossing the rag on the coffee table. She saw that he still seemed upset, so she assured him, "You have nothing to be ashamed of. This is all new to you, so of course it probably feels more epic than it is. You've probably masturbated before, right? Of course you have. But what you're feeling now is only different because I'm here. I saw it. That's why you're upset. But there's no need to be, ok? It's all about being comfortable with another person. Make sense?"

Brian nodded apprehensively.

They looked at each other in silence for a moment, then she said, "Oh! I almost forgot to give you your present."

"My present?" he said, as she walked out of the room again.

She returned with a small present wrapped in red paper with a blue bow. She handed it to Brian and sat down beside him on his left. "I know Christmas isn't 'til next week, but I thought you might want it early. Go ahead, open it."

He unwrapped the package to find a jewelry box, inside of which was a ring. It was a class ring.

"It's your high school ring."

"But I never got a high school ring."

"That's the one that you were going to order. Your mom snuck into your room and got the forms you filled out for it the year we graduated. I was going to get it for you, since you couldn't afford it."

"Why didn't you give it to me then?"

"Well... that was the year that you and I got into that big fight and didn't talk for like two years. Then I forgot about it. But I realized I still had it when I was going through old stuff this last year and, well, here it is."

"I can barely remember this. This was my world for like a year, not getting this ring. And now it's like I'd completely forgotten about it."

"Well I know it means more than that. It was a small milestone, graduating high school. But at the time, it was huge to you. And I guess I wanted to give it to you now because, well, I'm proud of you."

"This is so thoughtful."

"You're the most driven person I know, and you mean a lot to me. I'm a much better person when you're in my life."

"Ok, you need to stop. You're gonna make me cry." He gave her a hug as his eyes began to water.

"This is one of the sweetest things anyone's every done for me," Brian added. "And my way of thanking you is to make a mess on your couch."

Sara busted out in laughter. "Yeah, but that's what makes it fun. You never know what's going to happen when you have sex with someone for the first time. It's not a science, it's an exploration."

"This doesn't turn you off?"

She smirked.

"Does it turn you off when you see a woman come?"

"Of course not."

"Well it's the same for women. I can only speak for myself, but I know it turns me on."

"That just turned you on?"

She grinned again and leaned back, putting her arms up on the back of the couch and giving him once again a good view of her whole body.

"A little."

Her answer turned him on. He suspected, by the way she was sitting cross-legged, that she wanted him to touch her. And he wanted to touch her. The thought alone was starting to make him hard again.

After a few moments, she said, "Go ahead."

"What?"

"Touch me, silly..." she said with a laugh.

"Where?"

"Anywhere you want."

He didn't protest. His hand caressed her chin, then slid down her neck to her chest. When he felt her breast in his hand for the first time, he felt his penis harden once again.

He couldn't help notice her staring at him with the most gleeful expression. "Are you enjoying this as much as I am?" Her question gave him an unusual surge of confidence.

He replied, "I have to admit, I thought this was a terrible idea at first. But now..."

She smiled, and said, "What are friends for?" They shared a laugh. He pinched her nipple and played with it while her body reacted. She surprised herself with a moan, and decided to add, "And that's the kind of thing that makes a girl wet."

"This is making you wet?"

She only nodded slowly. "You're a natural lover, Brian. I'm jealous."

"Of me?"

"No, of the girl that gets to be with you. Don't stop..."

As if she read his mind, he slid his hand down until he felt the thin puff of hair between her legs and felt his fingers reach the lips of her opening. She didn't know if he would realize just how wet he was making her, but pretended that all was normal. He didn't need to know that much, she decided, or else he might get confused.

He might think she wanted more than sex if he knew just what his touch was doing to her.

She was becoming very horny, and was looking up at him again. As he continued to rub her there, she did her best to hide the nervousness she now felt, despite how every careful movement of his innocent fingers pushed her deeper into pleasure she could no longer control.

It wasn't the fingers, she knew. It was that they were his fingers.

Those fingers explored her, and quickly found what she liked. They learned fast, and they were steady. Sara tried to steady her breathing, hoping it would help control the pleasure.

And she was making Brian horny, too, but he was growing worried. The moistness between his fingers terrified him. It would be too much, he thought.

Had Sara not closed her eyes while he moved his fingers, she might have seen it right away. But then she opened them at last and, seeing his look of distress, remembered her role.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know if I can..."

"We don't have to do it if you don't want to. You can totally back out, I would understand. I'm here for you, whatever you want to do, ok?"

And that was when he saw the new image of Sara most clearly. He could see her body was not agreeing with what she was saying. His image of plain old Sara was starting to merge with this very sexual woman in a way that he found endearing.

The friend he'd known for half his life, who'd always been there. Would see him through hell and cheer him on the whole way. Her body now craved his, even he could see it. Every inch of it yearned for his touch.

She was revealing her great sexual appetite, but proved she would temper it at his will. Buried in the animal she was becoming, she would still respect his friendship. She would abandon her desires instantly if it's what he wanted. A lesser friend, he reasoned, would not care.

It was this willingness to temper desire that made Brian feel not only comfortable with what they were about to do, but also made him feel cared for.

He'd never felt so unconditionally accepted by anyone.

It didn't matter what happened here today, he realized, because she would be there for him. She really was offering her body to him out of friendship, and a humbling gesture of love for a friend that he couldn't fathom. And he knew, looking into her accepting eyes, that he didn't have to worry about pleasing her, because that's not what this was about. This was his bridge to cross, and she wanted to help him cross it.

But she didn't know this. She had no knowledge of this profound discovery he'd made. She couldn't have known how well he would adapt, or how weak she would become in his hands.

"Can I kiss you?" he asked.

"Of course you can kiss me," she answered, finding the question adorable.

"I don't know what the rules are, because this is all very strange. But I want to kiss you."

"Then kiss me."

He put his other hand to her face and leaned in to kiss her. Her heartbeat began to race, as the conflict arose within her. She wasn't sure if the kiss was a good idea, and now she really wasn't sure. She was starting to lose control of the situation.

"The answer is yes."

"To what?" she asked.

"I want to do it."

"Ok." She pointed him to the table, upon which was a condom that she'd retrieved earlier.

When he saw the condom, he reached over to grab it. He opened the wrapper and started to put it on, feeling his nerves respond to every single movement. He was shaking so bad that he wasn't sure he would even be able to put it on, but Sara steadied his hand.

She leaned into him and said, "Just breathe. You're still very tense. Let me help." She turned his body to the side, and started to rub his back and shoulders. "Remember to relax."

He didn't realize that she was stalling. She couldn't let the situation get out of hand. She knew they would still be having sex, but she wanted to be in control. She would have to be. If she wasn't, this might turn out to be the biggest mistake of her life. It might cost her the best friendship she'd ever had.

"Are you still comfortable with this?" she asked.

"Yeah. I said so, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. I just wanted to ask."

He turned around again to face her, saying, "Do you?"

She hadn't expected the question again, and hesitated to respond. "I want to help you. That's all I want to do."

"That doesn't answer the question."

"Well, I admit, I'm having doubts."

"We won't do it then, that's fine."

"No. No, look, we don't have to do that. Fuck. Brian, I'm sorry, I just really don't know how to explain what I'm going through right now."

"You don't have to explain. Really, I'm not offended."

"Offended? Oh, this isn't about you at all. It's not that."

"What is it? What's going on?"

"Well... don't take this the wrong way, but... I'm worried that I'm enjoying this a little too much."

"What does that mean?"

"When you touch me... I don't know... It just feels different. It's incredible, and I don't know what that means."

"What do you think it means?"

"Maybe nothing. I don't know. I just hope it's physical, and nothing else. That's possible, you know. Like, we have great physical chemistry, you know? I've had sex with plenty of guys before, and some of them I was able to be casual with. We can be friends afterward, you know? I guess I just sort of thought I could do that with you, and we could still be friends, you know?"

"And we can't?"

"I think so. I'm just... I'm so nervous about what this could do to... us. I don't want to lose one of my best friends over this."

"I understand why you're saying all of this. I can't help think, myself, that the woman I'm about to sleep with is someone I care about deeply, and that it might mean something. But it's like you said, this is like you teaching me to ice skate, right?"

"And that's ok with you?"

"Of course it is. I know this was your idea, but if you're worried that I might have lingering feelings... well, I wouldn't be doing this if I did. That would be too confusing and weird."

"I don't know why I'm the one who's nervous. Geez, look at me..."

"I know. And you're the one that's supposed to be teaching me."

"Well let's not waste anymore time, then." As she said this, she guided him back to rest on the back of the couch. She slid her hand down to hold his now-softened penis, which hardened instantly to her touch. It was soon harder than ever, and when she felt this, she got up and stood before him. She let him look at her body one more time before she climbed onto him.

He felt the warm lips of her pussy press down on his member for the first time. He felt her breasts against him, and was inches from her face. She sat up and felt behind her for his penis.

They were looking into each other's eyes as she felt for him, and eventually guided him into her.

She lowered herself onto him, and was so wet that he slipped in with ease. The sensation was the most powerful thing he'd ever felt in his whole life. He knew immediately that he would always associate the first experience of this feeling with the amazing person that was his friend, Sara. That made him feel ecstatic.

It was enough for him to blurt out, "Thank you," more than once, not caring if he looked like an idiot. And it delighted Sara to hear it every time. She was clearly enjoying the whole experience as well.

She chose to go slow, and even stopped a few times to give him relief. He used the few moments to kiss her and thank her some more.

"This is the greatest idea you've ever had, Sara," he said

She laughed, and said, "We're not even done yet, dear."

Then, she leaned into him again, kissing him, and began to fuck him.

She expected to make him come right away. That was her intention, anyway. It did not happen right away, though. Instead, she began to shudder with pleasure herself. It was not enough to make her slow down, but she had become so horny at the thought of fucking her best friend that all bets were off. She was blushing and dripping with sweat.

She was about to slow down, but felt his hands on her hips. He steadied her, and so she kept fucking him.

It had been less than a minute, but all of a sudden she let out a sharp cry, tensed her muscles and came.

Her whole body shuddered, and she gripped Brian's body tightly. She had never lost control so easily, and she was too dizzy to even realize it right away.

Brian didn't even believe it himself. He might have been a virgin, but he was no fool. He had waited all to successfully to come. Had she waited fifteen seconds longer to have her orgasm, he knew he would have come with her. He was practically there already.

When she caught her breath, she sat up and grinned to herself. "What the fuck, Sara?" he joked.

She had the smile of someone who was embarrassed, but didn't care too much. She debated whether or not she should tell him that she's never come so fast in her life. She worried what he'd think. "Um... I guess I... rather enjoyed that."

"Is sex always like that for you?"

"Oh God no. I don't think I've ever come that fast."

"Why did you?"

Her laugh was very sultry, and she started to move her hips side to side. Only a faint part of the Sara he'd always know was looking down at him. She was still there, but faint.

But this was a different Sara altogether. This one was very, very horny, and it was even stranger that he was the reason she was so hot.

She caressed his chest and face, running her hands affectionately through his hair, and said, "I can't help it anymore." She leaned back and rested her hands on his knees and began to slowly thrust herself up and down. When she spoke, her voice was just above a whisper. "I just... really like... having sss-ex... with you... mmm..." Her eyes were closed and her head was tilted up. "Oh... yeah... put your hands on me... oh... go ahead..."

Brian's hands moved up the side of her body to her breasts. As he did, she quickened her thrusts. "Oh my God... oh... are you coming? oh... come now..." He was already coming when she said it, and her breathing quickly slowed as her muscles tensed.

She sat up to meet him as he groaned, and she kissed him while they both came together.

Afterward, they were both without an ounce of energy for words. They now knew each other much better than they ever had before, but they had nothing to say. At least at first.

After a minute or two of silence, with Sara's head resting on Brian's shoulder, she sat up to look at him. She was dripping with sweat and was still a bit euphoric, but she seemed mostly back to normal.

She looked at Brian, knowing something had definitely changed. She didn't know if it was a good change or not, but she would never look at him the same way again. He couldn't do what he did to her and have everything go back to the way it was.

She would never forget the way he made her feel. She just couldn't.

She would spend years trying to explain what happened there on that couch, and why her innocent friend Brian would make her hotter than she's ever been.

And watching Sara's orgasm was not something he'd expected either. He didn't expect any of it. One minute he's walking through snow with his best friend, lamenting the current trajectory of his miserable life, then next he's having sex with her.

He would have a hard time forgetting how her body shook and how her breathing changed. It would make him hot for Sara many more times to come, romance or none. His body would yearn for hers just as hers would for him.

And she would find it difficult to erase the single greatest moment of pure joy she'd ever experienced in her life.




Good Friends



Her heart was still at odds, but her body knew one thing for certain: Brian was perfect. Or at least, fucking Brian was perfect. She didn't know which was which and didn't care.

The two looked at each other at last for several more moments of blissful silence. They had never spent a longer time looking at anyone else in the eyes, uninterrupted, and they knew it at the same time. He could think of nothing to say, and neither could she.

When she finally broke the silence, her tone was carefree at last. She brushed her hair back behind her ears and said, with a smirk, "Any questions?"