CHAPTER 1
The Friday night office crowd had vacated, leaving the bar to those who had no reason to go home. Jeff, Tully, Moose (Maurice) and Sandy waited for Cathy to load the dishwasher one more time and to grab a coffee, knowing when that happened she'd come down and lean over the bar chatting with them, allowing them to look at what she had stacked down there as if it was a perfectly natural thing for a woman to do.
Cathy Roberts who'd gone through college with the guys and had married one of their pals Kevin, now serving in the military in the Persian Gulf. Kevin had told his wife that his four pals would keep an eye on her, adding that's what friends were for. The pals did more than that because Cathy had needs and occasionally invited one of them to her bed. Some had been invited there numerous times, particularly randy Moose who actually believed that giving Cathy a good work out and keeping her happy was helping with the war effort. He thought that would keep her happy and she'd send more cheerful letters to her husband.
Cathy leaned over the bar and the guys received a good eyeful of rounded white flesh contained in a peach colored bra. That disappointed them because Jeff, Moose and Tully preferred black for bras while Sandy's preference was floral.
Opening the conversation, Cathy said, "Mike Roach gets married this Saturday, leaving you four the last of our freshman year at college still unable to commit to a woman apart from the three or was it four gay guys?
The guys looked nervous at the mention of gays.
"Who'd married an asshole like Mike Roach?" Jeff snorted.
"Joanne Browning, that's who."
The guys looked at Cathy as if she'd frothed at the mouth.
"No way."
"No not the delectable Joanne B."
"That is amazing news."
Cathy sniffed, "She arrived home divorced and Mike was the only sympathetic guy who called on her at her mother's home. So guess what -- he got lucky." "Very lucky," chorused the guys, making Cathy smile broadly.
"Let me ask you this," she said. "When are you guys getting married? Surely none of you wants to be the last guy off the bench?"
The guys shrugged and Sandy said, "That's a fair question guys. Answer our lovely barmaid."
"Mom wants me to leave home so she pesters me about finding a decent girl and getting married," Tully said.
"I come under similar pressure," smiled the handsome Sandy who added, "but she is still concerned were are too young to marry. For fuck sake, we're twenty-eight years of age."
Jeff and Moose agreed they were comfortable flatting with Jeff's older sister who did most of the work and didn't nag as she would if they were married to her.
"Hmmm," Kathy said. "Sounds to me that no decent young woman finds you guys attractive enough to be a potential husband."
Moose objected to that assumption. "Dames all over the city love us and have been prepared to roll over for us."
"Oh, is that so," Cathy continued to push. "Hands up who of you wish to get married."
The four of them raised their hands.
"You lying toads. You just don't want to have me thinking which one of you will be last off the bench."
"You're wrong about me Cathy," Jeff said. "I'd marry tomorrow if Miss Wright came along."
"Me too," Cully said and Moose nodded and said he didn't want to be last off the beach.
They all looked at Sandy.
"Well guys, let's go about this systematically. Why don't we work as a group to find a Miss Wright for each of you?"
"Okay," said Moose. "But what about you?"
"I want nothing done for me. I want my Miss Wright to find me and don't care how long that takes. You guys want to get married because your parents married and expect you to marry and give them grandchildren. My parents didn't marry and apply no such pressure on me. I'm willing to get your married. I've heard the Rosewood Photographic Club wants more males because of a membership imbalance. And the fitness center is over-run with females but the male membership is open. Let's join those two organizations and see what happens. Not all of the babes attending the club or gym will be married or are lesbians. You may be shafting yourself stupid within a couple of weeks of becoming a member. What do you think Cathy?"
"It's possible females joined the photographic club to meet interesting males and perhaps would like more than just being photographed by a male. At the gym you'll show what you've got and they will almost certainly lead to interesting appraisals if you talk nicely to the females and prove you have good manners as well as something between the ears. I'm told hot babes go to the gym."
The four guys said they already went to an all male gym.
"Are you gays?"
They looked horrified.
Sandy said, "Tully, Jeff and Moose -- you were in the camera club at college for your first couple of years. What do you say about us all joining the photographic club? As for the mixed gym I'll be applying for membership tomorrow. "I don't want women who see me entering the all-male gym thinking I'm gay."
"Yeah, I'm with you Sandy," said Moose. Jeff and Tully said they were too.
"If the mixed gym requires references I can vouch that none of you guys are gay," Cathy smiled mischievously.
* * *
Tully was the first to score. Three weeks after joining the photographic club he was dating Pam Lobb, dropping his waitress friend like a hot potato. The guys were very happy for Tully because Pam had real class and a tidy body. They'd been partnered to photograph nesting birds together and in the forest came across some nesting ducks one a edge of a huge patch of moss on the forest floor leading out to the rushes at the water's edge.
"Ducks will be nesting here," Pam a theatre nurse said confidently.
Tully, a financial consultant said the odds were good.
The first approaches scared away the nesting ducks but then they came to one that eyed they defiantly. They placed their tripods low and took some good shots and then as Pam disturbed another duck Tully caught it at the moment it lifted off, five eggs exposed under its body. The photographers retreated well satisfied.
"I have coffee and a bar of chocolate in my backpack," Pam smiled. "Let's sit on this gorgeous mat of moss and have a snack."
"Great idea."
As they were finishing, Tully asked, "Would you care to strip off and lay on the moss, looking at the camera?"
"And what would you be looking at?"
"I anticipate a pretty nice looking body."
Pam frowned and said that request was pretty forward.
"Okay, forget it. I just thought it would make a great nude photo, something for you to treasure."
"Are you interested in getting into my pants?"
Tully colored. "Since you've asked, the answer is yes. I noticed you in particular the first time I arrived at the club."
"You're lying."
"Well don't believe me. You were wearing a black skirt, black and white sneakers, a multi-colored shirt, blue and white earrings and a blue band around your pony tail."
"Oh god, you did notice me. What did you think?"
"Nice tits and a warm smile."