Chapter One

 

Working around computer people took some getting used to, but Cheryl had always had a fascination for them, so was long used to the way geeky boys looked at her. But things had been different in high school and college. There were lots of girls to look at there. Now that she worked for an insurance company, that wasn't necessarily the case.

Oh there were a lot of women around, but most were middle aged, and, to put it politely, had given in to middle aged spread. Most of them were twice Cheryl's size. As a junior computer technician, a start on what she hoped would be a career where she would be programming systems, she had to interact a lot with the mostly middle-aged office people, fixing their computers, and unlike the computer nerds in school, these men were not often exposed to a girl who looked like she did.

That was a bemusing thing for Cheryl had never really thought herself all that beautiful a girl. She wasn't blonde, didn't have big boobs, and didn't dress in a way designed to accentuate her curves. But she did like to look nice, and her clothes did flatter her lithe, twenty two year old body. She wore her brown hair in a loose pony tail to keep the hair out of her face as she peered into PCs, and wore jeans because she was forever on her knees pulling at cables.

Her tops were casual. The IT department, at least, her section, didn't wear business wear given how often they had to rummage around inside computers and under desks. And so she looked pretty much as she would have looked in college. That, apparently, was more than enough to garner a lot of attention from the middle aged men she interacted with.

A lot of her colleagues complained of the surly attitudes, but she never encountered them. All the men seemed quite pleased to see her, and quite friendly and chatty. Sometimes the men from surrounding cubicles came over to chat, too, joking around with her about computers and software. They weren't dumb enough to try and come on to her, of course, not given the office rules, and most were married and twice her age anyway, so she never felt threatened or wary.

She was aware all of them would have loved to see her naked, of course, but that had been the case since high school, so she hardly thought about it. Her friend Dillon said she was the best eye candy in the building, which was both embarrassing and flattering.

She didn't particularly WANT to be eye candy, not here, but then again, well, it wasn't exactly an insult, now was it?

She never played up to them, never flirted, though she often joked around with them, and was always nice. And there hadn't been any incidents, well, except the one. That was when she'd been wearing loose cotton khakis tied together with a drawstring, and when crawling under a guy's desk to unplug the computer they had slipped down just a bit. She'd been wearing a particular green thong, one that had a thin waistband which curved up high across her hips, and when she'd straightened she'd realized a couple of inches of that had been exposed on one hip.

She'd adjusted quickly, and pretended not to notice that the middle aged guy standing there had a bulge in his dress pants. She'd been a bit flummoxed, though, a little awed afterward, more than embarrassed at the thought a mere few seconds sight of the thin silk cutting across a few inches of bare hip had given the guy an erection.

"Wow, I must be a lot hotter than I thought," she told Sean that evening.

"Probably hasn't seen a hot girl like you in years," he said with a grin.

"It's still kind of icky," she'd replied.

"He's probably jerking off right now thinking of how he fucked you up against his desk."

"Oooo, don't be gross!"

They'd then had wild sex, which was nothing new, as they did that almost every night anyway.

Not tonight, though. At least, not this evening, since she'd let him persuade her to go to friends of his to watch a ball game.

Seeing Brian always made Cheryl slightly nervous. They'd been teenage camp counselors a few years back when somehow or other it had seemed like a good time to go skinny dipping with him. The beer had helped that decision, of course.

No question he had a great body, and the memories of the following week or so were imbued with the eroticism of the hot, passionate sex they'd had whenever they could get away together. But they'd barely known each other, and it was patently clear there was no way there was going to be any kind of relationship but sexual. They were just too different.

There was a lot of embarrassment in that brief relationship, and a lot of regret. It was dumb of her, and immature. But she'd done worse. The problem was that Brian was an immature jock, even at twenty five, and always seemed to give her a knowing look when Sean's head was turned. It was a look that said, "I remember what you looked like, what you sounded like, what you felt like when I was fucking you, baby."

Sean knew she'd slept with Brian years back, of course. She wouldn't keep that from him given the two were friends. That was before she'd started seeing Sean, and it wasn't like it had been any great romance, after all. But she still worried about Brian's attitude pissing Sean off too much and causing trouble in their relationship.

But Sean had insisted they go over and watch the game with Brian and his girlfriend Tammy, a girl Cheryl also had little interest in seeing. Tammy had been a typical blonde bimbo cheerleader in high school. Cheryl had been more of a nerd, though she'd been on the soccer team due to pressure from her father.

The two of them couldn't have been more different, both then and now, and it irritated her having to spend any time with the couple. But at least, she consoled herself, they'd just be watching the baseball game, so it shouldn't be too difficult to cope for the evening.

He greeted that at the door of his house. It was a dump, the house, one of those 'handyman's specials' that men like him tended to buy. Then again, men like him knew how to renovate them, which was a talent Cheryl herself certainly wished she had. But there were open walls where he was running pipe, and the lights overhead were often bare because he planned on redoing the ceilings.

"Take your coat, beautiful?"

She handed him her jacket and he tossed it on a chair. Why had she thought he'd hang it up?

"Shirt?" he asked, holding out his hands.

She gave him the finger. Sean laughed and tossed his jacket over Brian's head.

"Hey, guys. What can I get you?" Tammy asked, coming out from the kitchen. "Beer? Beer? Or Beer?"

"Beer!" Sean said.

Tammy hadn't changed much since high school," Cheryl thought. She still wore tight tops which showed plenty of cleavage, and too tight jeans. Her light cotton top was a scoop neck, which meant the guys looking down had a great angle shot of her breasts.

Cheryl herself was wearing a casual green cotton blouse that buttoned down the center and a beige skirt. It was comfortable, it fit her well, was attractive, and didn't show off her body. She had no need to show off her body, and didn't understand why Tammy thought she did. Or maybe showing off her tits was just routine given by now.

Sean and Brian wandered around while Brian pointed out all the things he'd done and was doing. Tammy sat on a bar stool at the kitchen island talking about how they were going to redo the kitchen cupboards and get stainless steel appliances, then pointed out the back to where Brian was building a deck. There was a lot nothing out back, for they were on the edge of the suburbs and the house backed onto an empty field and then trees.

It looked nice, but Cheryl didn't envy them. She and Sean lived in a very neat condo on the seventeenth floor of a new building. Everything was modern, gleaming and functional, and she didn't have to worry about her idiot boyfriend setting the place on fire with his rewiring efforts.

She glanced at her watch. Surely the game must be ready to start.

* * *

The thing about beer, Cheryl thought, an hour later, was that all the best times in her life so far had involved beer. But then again, so had all the dumbest decisions. Then again, she thought, glancing across the table at Brian, she could say the same about men.

She watched him trying to balance a playing card on his nose and rolled her eyes. He was a nice guy, but jock to the core, full of loud, bragging, swaggering macho exuberance which saw women as sex objects and little more.

All this passed through her mind in an instant as she accepted the Heineken from Sean as he sat down next to her with his own.

"Whose deal?" he asked.

It was raining in New York, so the ball game was on hold and they were passing the time sitting around the dining room table playing cards, hoping it would clear. Brian didn't answer. He was on his fifth. Sean was on his third, while Cheryl was matching him.

"Mine."

She watched Tammy shuffle the cards, mildly annoyed at how her cleavage grew as she leaned forward. Cheryl glanced sideways at Sean and then stepped on his foot to pull his eyes away from it. He glanced at her with a grin and shrugged and she rolled her eyes. It was impossible for men not to look, she knew.

After high school, Cheryl had gone on to university and was now starting a job in a major computer company as a junior programmer. Tammy had gone on to work at Wal-Mart, and was now a cocktail waitress at an upscale bar. Whatever satisfaction Cheryl felt at that was tempered by the fact Tammy made more money than her with all the tips she got.

Still, Sean might be a sports fanatic but he was a lot more intelligent and had a more wide-ranging mind than Brian. There was no way he would have much interest - beyond the obvious - in a girl like Tammy. He also handled the fact she and Brian had slept together before he'd known her without any real issue. She had to give him that much credit.

She wasn't sure if Tammy knew she'd slept with her boyfriend, again, before those two had hooked up, and wasn't going to ask. That was between her and Brian.

She picked up her cards and examined them, then cast an uncertain glance to her right, where the unexpected fifth member of their little group was sitting. Amy was Brian's step-sister, and visiting them from Boston. She was Asian; a tiny, lovely, self-contained girl with long dark hair and a sweet face on her petite frame. According to Brian she was a lesbian, but she didn't look like a lesbian to Cheryl, and she wasn't sure if Brian was just playing one of his macho games or not.

It wasn't like she could ask her, after all. And she supposed it didn't really matter anyway. Brian's father had married her mother when they were about seventeen, so they'd only lived together a year or so. Despite that lack of time as siblings they did seem to needle each other like a brother and sister.

"My cards suck ass," Amy said, tossing them on the table.

She was on her fourth beer.

"Shouldn't you say they suck pussy?" Brian asked with a leer.

She reached into the bowl of pretzels and threw a handful at him.

"Hey, I have to clean up, you know," Tammy complained.

"That's what you're there for," Brian said with an arrogant shrug.

She snorted and threw some chips at him.

"Can we not have a food fight, please?" Cheryl said, brushing stray chips away from her.

"Not with just chips and pretzels anyway," Sean said.

"There's dip too," Amy said.

"We could go out somewhere," Cheryl said, looking out the window.

"Too fucking hot," Brian said.

"If you'd get the A/C fixed in the car..." Tammy complained.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll get it done."

"You've been saying that for weeks."

"He likes you to wear those tiny tops of yours everywhere you go," Amy said with a smirk.

Cheryl didn't doubt it. She had no idea why a guy would want everyone staring at his girlfriend, but Brian seemed to take some sort of bizarre pleasure in everyone thinking his girlfriend was sexy. She supposed everyone wanted their friends to admire their significant other to some extent, but Brian took it to extremes.

"Her tops aren't tiny," he said. "She just has big tits."

"Are we playing, or what?" Tammy asked impatiently.

Brian tossed a pair of chips on the table, and Tammy raised him.

"I think she's got a good hand," Sean said with a grin.

"You should see what she can do to me with it too," Brian said.

Tammy punched him and nodded at Sean to bet.

"My hand sucks," Amy repeated, bringing the bottle to her lips.

Maybe she'd had more than three. Or maybe she was affected more. Cheryl doubted she was more than a hundred pounds wet, and half of that hair and breast. She wasn't as big as Tammy but wasn't exactly flat-chested either.

"I bet your hand has been in some interesting places," Brian said, taunting her.

"Yeah, like inside your girlfriend," Amy replied.

"Oooo," Cheryl said as Brian and Sean laughed.

Tammy frowned and gave Amy the finger.

"You're so little you could probably get your whole arm up inside her," Brian said.

"Hey! Do you mind!?" Tammy demanded.

"No, I wouldn't mind. I bet you'd even like it."

Tammy gave him the finger then turned to Sean. "Bet or fold, Sean."

He tossed a pair of chips onto the pile and took another card. Cheryl did the same.

"My hand sucks," Amy said.

"We know," Cheryl and Brian said.

Brian raised, and Tammy raised again.

When it came around to Amy again Brian pointed his finger at her. "We don't want to hear it, brat."

"You gonna stop me, big man?" she demanded.

She leapt to her feet and assumed a martial arts stance. "Haaiii!" she shouted.

Brian rolled his eyes. Sean laughed.

"How much have you had to drink?" Tammy demanded.

"Yeah, sit down before someone spanks you," Brian said.

"No man's hands get on my ass, fat boy," Amy said, sitting down again.

"I'm not fat, I'm big-boned."

"Your ass is starting to look like the seat of that tractor you drive," Amy said.

"I drive a bulldozer, midget," he said.

"What-ever," Amy said in an exaggerated, eye rolling manner.

"There's nothing wrong with Brian's ass," Tammy said as she tossed another pair of chips onto the pile. "And I should know."

Cheryl tended to agree. Brian hadn't really put on much flab at all since his high school football days. He was still hot, if you liked big dumb jocks.

They went another round, where Amy once again announced that her hand had sucked ass. Brian lunged at her, but he wasn't serious, and she dodged him easily enough.

"Loan me fifty," Tammy said to him.

He looked down at the empty spot where her chips had been and grinned.

"No way, babe."

"Come on!"

"Got a hot hand, huh?"

"Maybe!"

He shrugged and smirked. "You'll have to put something else up instead."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Well, if you got no more chips you could, say, bet your top."