(Author's notes: This is a work of fiction. In this fantasy, nobody is worried about STDs. In real life, all non-monogamous sex should be practiced using accepted safe-sex precautions.
All persons involved in sexual activity are at least 18 years old.
Very special thanks to LunaRosa for her perceptive editing. This is a better story because of her insight.
This story is written in multiple first person -- all four characters narrate the story. The benefit is getting to see things as they occur from multiple points of view. To me as the writer, that is worth the extra effort to keep up with who's talking. I hope you as the reader agree.
Note to readers: If you prefer your stories to be non-stop "action," this probably isn't the story for you -- it is slow to become Literotic. But if you like the characters and stay with it, I think you'll find it worth the effort.)
: : : : :
H O L L Y : : : The hotel front desk was crazy busy. Dozens of guests were waiting to get their rooms. There was a clerk at every station, working frantically, but the line was growing faster than they could check people in.
My friends Shannon, Mark, Jason and I waited patiently. When we got to the front of the line, Shannon went first, she didn't get the bad news. I was next in line, I did.
: : : : :
Three years earlier:
S H A N N O N : : : I had just graduated from college, and jobs were scarce. In my senior year I interned with ZNN, the cable news channel, working evenings and weekends, and I guess I impressed someone, because they offered me a job. It was entry-level, and a bit of a sham: thirty-five hours a week, which they called part-time, so they didn't have to pay benefits. But it was a foot in the door, network experience that would at least look good on my resume.
M A R K : : : When I graduated, I returned to my little home town, and spent a year at the small TV station there. On a trip to the big city to visit a college buddy, on a whim I applied at ZNN. I couldn't believe it when they offered me a position. It didn't pay shit, but it was an "in," and I snapped it up.
The idea of moving to the city was overwhelming. Everything cost more, and distances were huge. It took forever to get anywhere, and I didn't know anybody. The one good thing was, I had gotten back together with my high school sweetheart, and she was going to move with me. At the last minute, however, she got cold feet and bailed, so I hit the city alone.
H O L L Y : : : I had worked at ZNN for a few months, and it was a great job, except for the pay -- my paychecks were decimated by rent and a car payment. To save money, I brown-bagged lunch. At first I just ate at my desk, but it didn't take long to realize what a bad idea that was: while I sat there, it looked like I was on the clock, so I was constantly interrupted. The network encouraged tourist visits and school field trips, so the building had a huge atrium with a food court, with dozens of tables. I started taking my lunch down there.
J A S O N : : : The food court was great, but of course everyone breaks for lunch around noon, so it was always crowded. Every day it was the same ordeal: I'd hover around the edges, looking for a place to sit, competing with dozens of others doing the same thing.
One day I had waited a particularly long time, and my food was getting cold. I saw a lady vacating her table, and made a beeline for it. I arrived simultaneously with a really cute girl, wearing a ZNN employee badge just like mine. I really wanted to sit and eat, but I was raised to defer to ladies, so I said, "Go ahead, I'll get the next one."
"Sit," she said, smiling, "we can share, there's plenty of room."
I was hungry, she was friendly -- and pretty -- so I did.
S H A N N O N : : : I guess that made us officially the first to meet. I had already noticed him -- we all did the food court every day, and it didn't take long to recognize the regulars.
A couple of days later, I was looking for a table, and Jason already had one. I caught his eye, and he gestured at the empty chair across from him. Before long, we were sitting together almost every day. I had a boyfriend, so I didn't really consider Jason romantically, which normally I would have, because he was hot, and fun, and obviously I knew he had a great job.
The third or fourth time we sat together, I saw Kristin, who sits near me in the office, looking for a seat, so I asked Jason if he'd mind if she joined us.
J A S O N : : : Kristin is another looker, and fun to talk to, so she was definitely welcome. Her friend Mark joined us a few days later, and he fit right in, too.
Before long, there were seven of us. I mean, it was never all seven at once, most of the tables there seat four, so every day there'd be a different three or four of us. But the core group was seven.
M A R K : : : I got to where I really looked forward to lunch. The girls were gorgeous, and everyone was fun to be around. I had a serious crush on Shannon -- she was intelligent, outgoing, and witty, and she had the face of an angel, great boobs, and killer legs. She already had a guy, though, and frankly, the other girls were every bit as fun and pretty, so I didn't pursue her.
We always had plenty to talk about: what clubs and bands were hot, where the cheap happy hours were, what restaurants had good food and atmosphere, but were affordable. We all dated (not each other), and had stories to tell about great dates, and even better stories about lousy ones.
We all drove used cars, some of them more "used" than others, so if one of us found a mechanic who could fix things that would stay fixed, and perhaps charge less, we'd share that.
H O L L Y : : : I really liked Jason, and since Shannon seemed to know the most about the group, I asked her about him. "Jason is great," she said. "But take your time, Colin is also a great guy, and Mark is too. They're all smokin' hot. No guy wants to feel like your second choice, so before you make your move, be sure Jason is really the one."
She had a point, Colin and Mark were amazing. Deep down inside, though, Jason was who I wanted. Unfortunately, by the time I was ready to act on it, we were all such tight friends, it didn't seem right to disrupt things by reaching for romance.
S H A N N O N : : : Entry level positions aren't very stable at the network, there's a lot of turnover -- management calls it "churn." A lot of the new-hires simply don't work out, but the low pay and long hours inspire the rest of us to look for opportunities elsewhere. Ideally, we'd all like to advance within ZNN, but just as often, the next position up the career ladder is somewhere else.
Colin was the first of our core seven to move on -- he got a fantastic position with PBS and moved to Washington, DC. It gave us all hope.
Kristin was the next to go, hired away by a network affiliate in Los Angeles. Then Melody got engaged to a guy who got transferred to Chicago. That left four of us.
M A R K : : : The first time we traveled together was a long weekend. Jason and I were both going to do the family thing at Christmas, so for Thanksgiving we booked cheap flights to a little town in the Smoky Mountains, which had a bed & breakfast I read about that sounded fabulous. Shannon and Holly were going to visit their families, but those plans fell through for both of them. The b & b wasn't sold out, so the girls joined us.
Long story short, we had a great time.
By our second year at the network, we had all gotten past the phony "part-time" status, and were officially staff. Among other things, that meant we got paid vacation. Just one week that first year, but that's better than nothing.
Holly was going to use her week to go to Oregon and meet her boyfriend's family, but they broke up instead. Once again, Jason and I had planned a trip, this time to Santa Fe. She began dropping hints, so we invited her to join us.
S H A N N O N : : : My boyfriend was becoming less and less tolerant of the long hours I was working, so we split up. What, I was going to be the only one not going to Santa Fe? We had such a great time in the Smokies, joining them was a no-brainer.
The Smokies trip was just a long weekend, Santa Fe was for a whole week. I wondered if it might get weird, two guys and two girls, spending all that time together. If one pair or another started to hook up, it could get awkward. I shouldn't have worried, by then we were such solid friends, no romantic overtones reared their ugly heads. It was a fabulous week.
H O L L Y : : : Santa Fe solidified it -- from that point on, we planned all our vacations together. We were all climbing the career ladder at the network, which meant longer hours than ever at the office. That left none of us in any danger of having a steady BF or GF. The good news was, that meant there was no one to object to our trips together, or want to come along.
We all dated, though, it's not like we were monks or nuns. It was funny, Monday at lunch, I could always tell who had a great weekend, and who didn't. We knew each other so well, just from body language and facial expressions, it was obvious: Mark got laid, Jason didn't but hadn't expected to, and Shannon had expected to, but it didn't work out (jeez, what kind of moron would mess up the opportunity to sleep with a hottie like Shannon -- I'm just sayin').
J A S O N : : : We did holiday weekends in New Orleans, Colorado, then Santa Monica -- we got rooms in a small bed and breakfast barely a block from the beach.
By then we'd all advanced to getting a real paid vacation of two full weeks, and for our next trip we put together a mega-trip to the northeast -- the first time we had planned an entire two weeks together.
We were going to New York City for a week, then the second week at another b & b, this time in rural Vermont. New York was going to be a whirlwind -- we had tickets to two Broadway shows, live jazz at both Iridium and The Blue Note, and a Yankees game. During the day we'd visit the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and the art museums.
Vermont would be the opposite: all we had was four rooms, a rent car, and maps. We made loose plans for hiking, a winery or two, maybe a maple syrup farm, all very low-key and relaxing.
H O L L Y : : : Our flight to New York was fine, our cab to the hotel was fine, and Shannon got her room fine, but after that, the wheels came off.
