It was New Year's Eve, he was getting ready to go to a party, and he didn't want to go.
For the past few months, he'd been a veritable hermit. When his last girlfriend left, he'd realized how much he liked being alone, how much he could get out of solitude. But he still had friends, and they still required his attention every now and then, so he agreed to join them when they invited him to a party near his apartment at the home of a mutual friend.
It was a cold night, but a clear one, and as he walked the few blocks to the party, he thought that tonight might be fun after all. Going out once in a while, getting to know some new faces and names, might not be the dull chore he'd lately been viewing it to be.
Then he got to the party.
He was greeted at the door by Ryan and his girlfriend, Sarah.
Oh boy
, he thought. Sarah had had somewhat of an infatuation with him a few months previous, and while he hoped it wouldn't be awkward, he suspected it would be.
"Hey, how's it going? Long time, no see!"
"Yeah, I feel like we haven't seen you in forever," said Ryan.
Forever is what the awkward silence that followed felt like, as Ryan and Sarah stood there, fidgeting, obviously unsure of what to say. Luckily, he was rescued by the sudden appearance in the vestibule of the friends who had invited him.
"Sarah, where do you keep the extra cups?" Denise, his savior friend, gave him a knowing look as Sarah bustled out to the kitchen, followed by Ryan, of course. They really were an adorable, and very loving, couple. He just wished they were less awkward around him.
He hung up his coat in the overstuffed closet next to the front door and joined Denise and her sister, Cathy in the main living room. There was a karaoke machine set up on a tall table in the corner of the room unattended for the moment, and the room was largely empty except for a small group of women gathered around the tv, where the announcers were getting ready for the New Year's ball drop in a few hours' time. Most of the people were in the dining room where drinks and snacks had been set up.
He made the rounds, getting to know everyone a little bit. Most of the people there were new to him, but they quickly blended into each other. Jake, the administrative assistant, Heather, the advertising company worker, Brett, the paralegal, some other young professionals doing other young professional things. All nice people, he thought, albeit a bit cookie cutter.
After a couple of ciders, he started to feel a bit warm and stood next to the open window to the side of the room to cool off and get a moment to himself. In the other room, someone was singing "I'm Gonna Be," by The Proclaimers on the karaoke machine. Whoever it was, she was doing a really good job of it. He loved the song, and the singer added a certain lilt to her singing that really made it come alive. He walked into the other room and saw that the singer was a slender brunette woman. She was really into the song, clutching the microphone in both hands, eyes tightly shut, not even looking at the words on the machine's screen. She was young, probably about 21 or so, with long hair. Her face was freckled. She was thin, with long and graceful legs and a figure accentuated by the tight, medium length blue dress that she wore.
As she finished off the song, a few people clapped, and she blushed slightly before, smiling, passing the microphone to Denise, who started up a hearty rendition of Sisqo's "The Thong Song." The girl walked off into the other room to get another drink. He watched her walking away, noticing as she left the room that, for such a slender girl, she had a rounded, firm ass. He may have been a hermit, but he was still a man, after all.
After a few more beers, he had to go to the bathroom, but there was a line of people waiting. He got in line, hoping it would move quickly. The hallway leading to the bathroom was dark, which felt good. His head was spinning from the beer, and he could sense the beginnings of a headache on the edges of his mind. He moved up as the line progressed and rubbed the bridge of his nose to keep the headache at bay.
"Could this line move any slower?" said a melodic, heavily accented voice right next to him, causing him to jump. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you!" she laughed.
"It's fine. I just didn't see you there," he said, looking up. He stood up straight, surprised again. It was the girl from karaoke earlier. Though it was hard to see in the hallway, he saw that she had a nose piercing and dark eyes, hazel or green, he couldn't tell. "You're the girl from earlier, singing the Proclaimers' song, right? That's one of my favorite songs," he said. "You did a really good job, better than the original, even."
She smiled and blushed slightly. "Thanks! I try, I guess."
"I'm not just saying that to be nice. It was really good. Better than I could do," he laughed. "Though I think I'd need quite a few more drinks to ask for the mic."
"Aww, you shouldn't be too shy. You never know where a little boldness will get you..." He smiled at the mischievous look in her eyes. He knew she didn't mean anything towards him, but he felt his cock stir in his pants anyway. "I'm Molly, by the way."
"Thomas," he said. He still couldn't place her accent. It sounded British, maybe English, but not quite. "Where are you from?"
"I'll give you three guesses. Nobody ever gets it."
"England?"
"Nope."
"Scotland?"
"Wrong again! You're close, I'll give you that, but you won't get it."
"And if I do?" He figured that, if she wasn't Scottish or English, she might be Welsh, so he wondered if he could make this little game a bit more interesting.
"Like a prize or something?" He nodded. "Ha! Let's see, how about I give you a kiss if you get it right?"
"Well," he said, laughing, "I guess I'll take that, though I was kind of hoping for something a bit more."
She playfully slapped his shoulder. "Ah! You're a cheeky one then! All you're getting is a kiss right now!"
"Right now?" He said, grinning.
"Oh, go on then, make your guess!"
"All right, let's see, maybe Australia?" he said, toying with her. "Hmm, no, not Australia. New Zealand then, perhaps?" he looked at her expectantly. She just looked at him, smiling, and shrugged, laughing a bit under her breath.
"I'm not helping you out. Is that your guess, then?"
"No, it's not. Because I think I'm going to have to go with Wales. Now, how about that kiss?" he said, leaning in towards her. She looked at him, with her eyes slightly narrowed, obviously having expected him to make a wrong guess. He tapped his foot expectantly, giving her a knowing smirk.
"All right then, come here." He leaned forward, putting his hand on her slender waist and pulling her into him. He looked into her eyes and couldn't stop smiling. He could smell the faint scent of wine on her breath and a hint of perfume, something flowery and pleasant. She was impatient and reached up to pull his head towards hers. He had expected just a quick kiss, but once their lips touched, her tongue entered his mouth, caressing lips and tongue. He pulled her closer, his tongue meeting hers and his hands drifting down her body to settle on her ass, giving it a quick squeeze. It was firm and full, and he could feel his cock beginning to harden and push against her as she rubbed against him. Her kiss was passionate and hungry. He imagined what other skills her tongue possessed, and his cock pushed even more insistently against the fabric of his pants. She pulled away, with a glint in her eyes, then looked down at his erection straining towards her. "Well now, what have we here? Looks like someone's enjoying that kiss..."
"Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt anything," said a voice from behind the two of them. While they had been engaged, the door to the bathroom had opened, and Brian had started to come out, obviously pausing when he saw the winner's kiss going on. Thomas, having turned to see who'd spoken, spun back around to hide his raging erection, leaving Molly to giggle, covering her mouth with her hand. Brian walked on past the two of them, leaving Thomas standing there, face burning and erection quickly subsiding from being caught out.
"I'll just go on in the bathroom then," Thomas said, still bashful, though if he hadn't actually needed to use the toilet, he would have had half a mind to invite Molly in with him to pick up where they'd left off.
"See you in a bit," said Molly, having recovered from the fit of laughter she'd had at Thomas' predicament. He went in and closed the door behind him. He relieved himself and then splashed some cold water on his face, thinking of what he would say to Molly when he opened the door again. He decided that he would probably just play it safe, ask her if she wanted him to get a drink, and see where it went from there. After a few more minutes, he opened the door, but when he looked out into the dark corridor, he found Ryan there waiting, shuffling from foot to foot, obviously needing the bathroom quite badly.
"What happened to Molly, the girl who was waiting out here?"
"I don't know. There wasn't anybody out here when I came over. Maybe she went to go use the bathroom in the master bedroom. I would have done that, too, if I'd known how long you were going to take. Fuck man," he said, brushing past Thomas, undoing his pants in his hurry for relief.
Thomas went back out to the main room, finding Denise still screaming into the karaoke machine's microphone. She wasn't the best singer in the world, but she more than made up for it in her enthusiasm. Thomas got a drink, meanwhile, looking around hopefully for Molly. When Denise finished her song, she passed the microphone off to someone else and walked over.
"Haven't seen you for a while, been banging someone in the bathroom?" she said, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"Actually...no, not really, but, in an...unrelated note, have you seen Molly? I was talking to her a while ago, but she kind of disappeared. I wanted to ask her something."
"Oh? Who's this Molly?" she asked, more than one question going unspoken.
He described to her that Molly was the girl they'd seen singing earlier and gave her a summarized description of their conversation in the bathroom line, omitting some crucial details. Denise didn't need to know everything just yet.
