Entering University

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* Education of a Jezebel

* Part 7 - Entering University

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This is part of a novel. Previous parts should be read first.

Chapter 20

At Kelley's gym Monday before work - she'd surprisingly only gained two pounds over the weekend - one of the married men that she sometimes innocently flirted with complimented her. "You've got a nice rosy glow about you today, have a good weekend?"

"Oh, it was wonderful."

"Date with a guy then?"

"Something like that," she mysteriously commented. In the locker room she gazed at herself in the mirror. Yes, the breasts still pointed away from each other, but neither of the men who'd admired her for the first time in the river house had seemed perturbed by that, her belly was just slightly convex - well, after all, she was in her thirties - her ass bulged pleasantly but not too much. Yeah, she thought, she was sexy.

In the office Samantha, as always, tried to get the details out of her. Kelley admitted she'd slept with Don as Ashley made love with her boyfriend - Sam expected something! But, for some undefined reason, she hesitated about confessing to her dalliance with either Nick or the woman. She couldn't tell you why, just then, it wasn't like she was ashamed of it or anything, but still...

She flipped through the voicemails that had been left since Thursday morning, it took her half an hour. Nothing urgent, Sam had handled anything that was time sensitive, and all the messages were business related except for one.

'Hello, Kelley, this is Thomas Ainsley. We talked at the OpenedDoors ball on the twenty-ninth. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to phone you, I was called away on business. If you remember, you suggested you might be receptive to having lunch with me. I may have a better idea. I confess I have a fondness for classic rock, and there's going to be a tribute to the Moody Blues at the Symphony on Saturday the twenty-sixth. I was wondering if you'd care to go with me. I can be reached at 421/782-6325. I hope to hear from you.'

The recording had a formal tone to it, one he hadn't had the night she chatted with him. But perhaps it was because of his British training. It didn't matter, she was glad he called. And it sounded like a nice evening, she and Luciano had season subscriptions to the symphony back in the day. She knew she didn't have anything going on the weekend. Yeah!

When she had a minute to spare, she returned the call, of course it went to voicemail, he was certainly too busy to take personal calls in the middle of the day. She went for glibness, not formality. 'Hey, Tom, this is Kelley. Got your message, sure, Saturday night sounds like a fun time. And, I'm not sure this is right, you were supposed to wheedle it out of me, but here's my cell phone number. Talk to you soon.'

She caught his return on the ride home on the freeway. "This is Kelley."

"Hi, Kelley, it's Tom." The voice was more informal, he sounded happy.

"Hey, Tom, how are you?"

They talked for perhaps five minutes, she explained her weekend with friends (minus the eroticism, of course.) He told her he had to go to San Francisco to a convention, the guy who was supposed to go got sick, she sympathized with his misfortune, he laughed.

"So," he said, "You're interested in Saturday night?"

"I'd love it."

"And you know about the Moody Blues?"

"Of course I do, I've got a father!"

"Wonderful. So, would you like me to pick you up?"

She was about to accept, then she remembered Samantha's warning to never, never, ever let a guy pick you up on first date, not even to let him know where you live. "Why don't I meet you downtown?"

The date was set.

Ashley called her a bit later. "It was a great weekend, thanks for inviting me," Kelley said.

"You're okay, then?"

"I think so, why?"

"Well, I've known you for a long time, and you're going through a few changes. I just expected a little whiplash, that's all."

"No, I'm fine. Really!"

"Okay then. Would you like to come over sometime for dinner with me and Don?"

"Of course. Would it be just dinner or..."

"Don has a little crush on you now. And, yeah, maybe I do too. If you wanted to have fun, we wouldn't object. But if you decide you want it to be a one time thing, that's okay, we'd understand."

Kelley was warmed by the invitation. "Okay, name a night." Ashley proposed two weeks out. "I've got a date that Saturday. How about the weekend after?"

"That would work. See you then."

Kelley thought her social calendar was filling up nicely.

Then, suddenly, over her can of soup, something hit her. She got a pad of paper and began listing the people she'd made love with.

Luciano

Andrew

Kurt

Clark

Darren

Don

Nick

Should she include Ashley? Of course she should, the sex with her had been as intense as with any man. Eight lovers! A year ago, she never thought she'd have more than two, perhaps three, in her entire life. And, even more appalling, six of those had happened in only about six weeks. What was happening. Was this right?

She'd always enjoyed Samantha's tales of debauchery, she wasn't a prude. But she never wanted to follow Sam down that path. Three in a single weekend! No, something was wrong.

She remembered the story of Jezebel in the bible. This horrid woman had made love with over a thousand men in the service of her false god, Baal, then been thrown from a high place to die, splattered on the pavement.

She looked up 'promiscuity' on Wikipedia. "Promiscuity is the practice of engaging in sexual activity frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners." Did this describe her? No, she wasn't indiscriminate. Well, maybe with Darren, she'd give them that. But she rationalized she knew each of her other lovers well before she let them take her to bed. No, she wasn't promiscuous. But even so, it might be well to take a break for a little while.

It had been over a week since she'd spoken to her Dad. "Hi, honey," he answered.

"How are you, Dad?"

"Not bad. I twisted an ankle when I was cleaning out the gutters, it hurts like all get out. Other than that, I'm fine. How are you?"

"Good," she answered, "I was thinking of coming down this weekend."

"Fantastic! I'm glad, I've got something I want to run by you."

"What?"

"It'll keep till Friday night. Love you."

"Love you too."

She felt a little better, but still figured she needed to dump on somebody. Oh, her father couldn't help her, he'd be shocked if he knew what his little girl had been up to! Samantha would just say she was worrying about nothing. Ashley might be receptive to the idea, but bringing up the subject when she'd been intimate with her and her husband might mean she couldn't be objective.

It hit her. "Hi, Peggy. I'm going to be in Glacier this weekend, thought maybe we could do lunch on Saturday."

"Yeah, I can get Mike to watch the kids. Pete's about 12:30?"

"I was thinking we could get some take out and eat in the park if it's nice."

"I'll make us a picnic. Is something bothering you?"

"Just something I need to get off my chest, figured you'd understand."

"You're not pregnant, are you?" Peggy asked.

"Oh, good God, no, nothing like that."

"Okay, I'll bring my shoulder and a crying towel."

"It's not that serious," Kelley laughed.

"Just in case."

Kelley thought that at least she had a plan. But if Peggy didn't help her, she might have to see a shrink. Until she had it figured out, Kelley resolved to avoid all temptation.

Of course, the devil works his magic in mystifying ways. Tuesday night, about eight, Kurt phoned. "Hey, I tried calling you a couple times this weekend."

"Yeah, I saw that. I was at a cottage with some friends."

"Have a good time?" She was sure she could see the leer through the phone.

"Just nice. We canoed, played board games."

"Oh, that's too bad. So listen, I was thinking maybe you'd like me to come over tonight."

Shit, that's all she needed. Not that it didn't sound nice, though. "I'm not in the mood," she lied.

"Oh, okay. So how about if I take you out Friday night? We haven't seen each other in awhile."

'And you obviously haven't been getting any, or else you wouldn't be calling me,' she thought. "I'm going down to visit my father. Why don't you give me a call next week?"

"Sure, no problem." Somehow, his voice didn't seem that disappointed.

Kelley took a bath, opened one of those mini bottles of white wine, tried her best to relax. She watched Lifetime until she grew drowsy, slid in between her sheets. But her brain resisted, she finally got B.O.B. from the nightstand, spent fifteen satisfying minutes with him, fell into a sleep.

She left work a little early on Friday, drove to her hometown. The feeling of unease had diminished a bit through the week, but continued to bother her from time to time.

Her dad was waiting for her, he had the ingredients for Haluski, something her mother had taught her to make. Her father sat in the kitchen and they caught up as she chopped the cabbage, boiled the noodles, layered the concoction into a casserole dish. She told him about the success of the weekend of tours, the loveliness of the cottage on the river and the canoe ride. "Are you dating?" he asked.

"Funny you should mention that. I met a very nice man at the Donor Ball, he's taking me to the symphony next weekend."

"You're not lonely, are you?"

"No, I've got lots of friends."

Once the dish was in the oven, they had a half hour to kill, they took beers out onto the porch.

Kelley probed, "So what's this thing you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well... it's sort of hard..." Kelley watched sweat come to her old man's brow. "It's just that... Oh, damn, I'll just say it. We're thinking that maybe Joan should move in here. What do you think?"

Kelley started laughing hysterically, it really caught her. Tears came to her eyes, she gasped for breath. When she could, she panted, "I'm sorry, Dad, I shouldn't have laughed. It's just that you were so adamant when I was a teenager and Sis was thinking about living with a guy before she got married. You got to admit, it's funny... Oh, wait, are you guys thinking about getting married?"

"We'd like to," he explained, "but there's some legal and tax issues we need to get taken care of. There's a trust in her name that's got some silly restrictions on it. The lawyers say it could take as much as a year before it'll come before a judge. And we don't want to wait. You can understand that, can't you?"

"Of course I can," she said. "So, when's it going to happen? And have you talked to your other children about it?"

"Called them this week. Got about the same amount of respect I'm getting from you. If you're okay with it, we'll probably get a u-haul and put some of her stuff in storage, some in here in the next couple of weeks or so."

"You want me to come down and help next weekend?"

"No, that's okay. Her son is going to help us carry things, we've got plenty of muscle."

"Please, tell me you're not going to put her in one room and you in another and then sneak between rooms every night, are you?"

He chuckled. "Damn your sass. No, we're going to sleep in the same bed."

"Mom would be happy about it," Kelley blessed. She heard the ring of the ancient kitchen timer, she headed back to the kitchen. On the way, in a childish voice she sang, "My dad's gonna shack up, my dad's gonna shack up..."

An autumn rain, cold and overcast, had moved into the area by Saturday morning, Kelley received the phone call. "Hey," Peggy said, "Do we really want to try to find a place to talk? Can't be done in a restaurant, huh?"

"It's really personal, I don't want people eavesdropping."

"Okay, well how about this. Mike is willing to take the kids to an indoor swimming pool this afternoon. Why don't you just stop over here, nobody but us chickens."

"Sounds good."

Peggy had wine coolers and frozen pastry bites ready, the first quarter hour was spent on seeing the new improvements on the house, pictures of the kids. "So, what's going on?" Peggy asked.

"Oh, I don't know." Kelley was suddenly shy.

"Hey, I kicked the kids out for you, dish. It's about you having sex with other guys, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"What's the problem. Got a guy that's got a kink?"

"No, nothing like that." Then she considered how Kurt screwed her up the ass. "Well, a little bit maybe. Nothing serious. But, well, I've been a little loose over the past few weeks, and I just... I don't know... I'm just wondering if it's a bit much."

"How loose?" Peggy invited her to flesh out the issue.

"Five guys in six weeks. And I let a girl kiss me."

"By kiss, you mean..."

"Yeah, full blown."

Peggy slowly drew out the details, gave Kelley ample chance to get her worries out into the open. When she started to slow down, Peggy summed up. "Okay, you willingly had sex with five guys and Ashley. In each case, apparently you wanted to go to bed with them. You had fun. So, what's the problem?"

"Well, I didn't have fun with all of them. I don't think I should have ever let Darren touch me, I got pressured into that one. And when I woke up with Nick I guess I didn't really want sex, but since I was there and he wanted me, I just let it happen. And I probably should have just gone home after the strip poker game instead of sneaking into Clark's room."

Peggy paused, went to the fridge and got more wine out. "Let me tell you a story. Mike and I went to a house party one night. Usually, when we go to these things we sort of know who we're going to be with before we get there, almost always old friends. This was the first time we'd been at this particular party, and there were a lot more people there, and there were only a couple of couples that we knew. But it seemed like fun, so we stayed.

"Nothing was happening. Other people were pairing off, but we weren't getting any offers. The crowd was older than we were, in their fifties mostly, and maybe we were a little standoffish, I don't know. I was about ready to go home, and then Mike suggested something. He'd always been interested in public sex, I knew that but we hadn't done anything yet. So he said we should go into the living room where there were a few air mattresses on the floor and have sex and let people watch us. I was a little bit squeamish but Mike really wanted to, so I said okay.

"So we go in there, and we start undressing, and I'm getting looked at by these guys. It didn't turn me off at all, in fact, I was enjoying how they were looking at me. It made me feel good, that they were enjoying my body with their eyes. Has anything like that happened to you?"

"I guess when I played strip poker it was like that." Kelley admitted.

"So you understand. Then Mike and I started making love on one of the mattresses. We twisted around some, and while we were going at it I could see the guys still watching, they could see everything! A guy came over and asked if he could kiss me, and I looked around at Mike had he nodded his head so I let the guy kiss me and touch me all over. Mike backed away from me, he hadn't even come yet, and I went ahead and let the guy do whatever he wanted. And I found out I wanted it too. I didn't know his name, didn't care. He just had a nice smell about him and his peter tasted very nice, so I let him screw me. And while we were going at it, another guy comes up and Mike looks at me and I look back at Mike, and Mike told him if he wanted to have fun with me go ahead.

"By this time, I'd been in threesomes before, Mike and another guy, and I liked them. I can have as many orgasms as I want if I'm in the mood, and with two guys hard for me I can still have my orgasms after the one guy shoots. That night at the party was like that, I was coming one right on top of the other, and I guess I lost my mind because I sort of woke up and found out I was on my back and yet another guy was on top of me."

Kelley asked, "Weren't you afraid that a guy would be too rough or something?"

"No, Mike was right there the whole time and I always felt I could stop anytime I wanted and I never felt unsafe or anything. Anyways, so three guys whose names I never found out screwed me, one after the other, and when we went home I decided I'd had a great time."

"But..."

"I'm not done yet," Peggy continued. "Of course, the next morning came around. We were in church, with the kids standing right next to us, and we're singing 'Holy, Holy, Holy,' and all of a sudden it hit me. I was really ashamed, Mrs. McCarthy asked me if I was okay and handed me a tissue because tears were leaking down my face. God, it was terrible. When we got home I said I was sick and I went to bed and cried for an hour. So Mike came up and asked me what was wrong and we had a talk about it. I was reacting to the idea, not what I'd actually done. It took a lot of talking with Mike - he was just fine with what happened - and about a month to calm myself down. But eventually I came to realize that it wasn't a problem. Here's the thing, is there a big difference between screwing just one guy that isn't your husband and screwing a bunch? Not really. And I had to admit that while it was happening it was a ball, and that Mike didn't think I was a whore or anything. So I calmed down."

Curiosity grabbed hold of Kelley, she'd stopped thinking about her own problems. "Anything like that ever happen again?"

Peggy laughed. "A few months later, we got a hotel room and invited two single guys I knew. No, I'm not going to show you the pics or videos that Mike took. They kept me going for more than two hours."

Then Peggy brought it back to her friend. "So, the last time we talked, we decided God doesn't care about a little friendly fornication. Are you still cool with that?"

"Yeah, I don't think it's a moral issue."

"Okay, so it's just the suddenness that has hit you, and the way it came so easy, and the number of people, right?"

"I guess so."

"Okay. Well, just like it happened to me, you just have to get used to it. When you're brought up thinking one way and all of a sudden your life goes a different way, it's not necessarily bad, it's just a change. After awhile, you figure it was bound to happen sooner or later, you realize what was good about it, you understand what shouldn't have gone down. Like Darren. You were pressured into having sex with him and the fact that you were sort of paying him back for a good meal maybe felt a little slutty. Don't let that happen again."

"And Nick? How I let him have morning sex?"

"We both know that being with a guy is fun, even if you know you're not going to get off, right? So it was fun. Next time it's like that, just make sure you pee first!"

Just then they heard Mike's car pulling into the driveway, the kids came tumbling in, Kelley stayed to play Sorry with them.

In the evening, she took Joan and her father out to dinner. "So, I guess I'll call you Mom now?"

Joan smiled, "I'd rather you didn't. You had a wonderful woman for a mother, I know your father still misses her. 'Joan' will be fine."

Driving back to the city, Kelley thought about her conversation with Peggy, discerned that the sense of blues had lifted. Yeah, so she'd had some lovers. If she'd been a reasonable person, she would of had at least as many before she got wed - hey, maybe that would have caused her to think better before she married Luciano, she might not have made that mistake.

She simply resolved that she'd never go to bed with somebody again unless she really wanted to. And if she did want to, she'd have all the fun she could!

~~~~~~~~~~

As Kelley entered the office Monday morning, she heard a loud 'ahchoo' from the vicinity of Samantha's office, when she went to check on the boss she saw a desk littered with white tissues and a very red nose. "What's going on with you?"