Julie's Adventure

Julie Murphy was running late, as usual. Since moving to Birmingham 20 years ago, she had wholeheartedly embraced the Southern tradition that, if you're 10 minutes late, you're right on time. She had come here right out of graduate school, taking her first full-time academic position at UAB. She never meant to stay, figuring to be here for 5 years at the most. But she met her husband Jonathan in Birmingham, they had started a family, and Julie had quickly moved up the career ladder. Full professor; tenure granted a year ahead of schedule; she had even served several years as department chair.

As chair, Julie had granted herself permission to establish a Center, a request that had been denied by all her previous chairs. The Center for Mathematics Education was a one-woman operation, but it had quickly become her passion. The Center had two primary focuses: encouraging more high school students, particularly girls, to consider majoring in math; and providing workshops for high school teachers to be able to teach math in ways that made it more interesting to their students.

By any objective measure, the Center had been a stellar success. More than 30 local high schools had fully participated as 'partners' in the workshop series, and dozens more had completed at least some of them. Among the 30 partner schools, they had seen an increase of nearly 40 percent in their graduates who planned to major in math as college students; the other schools had smaller but still impressive gains. Follow up interviews showed that most of these students continued as math majors and were excited about their academic choice.

Most gratifying to Julie were the testimonials she got from the teachers. Many of them had been teaching for decades, and had long since given up on finding new ways to make math relevant and exciting to their students. Some of them cried when they talked about how the workshops had reinvigorated their careers. All of them were excited about the increases in majors. And they gave Dr. Julie Murphy all the credit.

As much as she has loved her own teaching, and as good as she had been at being department chair, Julie came to see the work of the Center as her genuine contribution. So much so that she stepped down as chair, and cut back on her teaching, to be able to devote more time to running the Center.

The only part about running the Center that Julie hated was the fundraising. The University gave her no funding, and damned little in the way of resources. She'd had to fight like hell to get course releases to teach fewer classes. She relied on outside sources of money to keep the operation afloat.

She got some grants, and received sporadic funding from national organizations, but since this was primarily a local initiative, Julie relied on the business and philanthropic communities in Birmingham. The fundraising wasn't something she enjoyed, but she had gotten good at it.

Julie Murphy would have been described by nearly everyone else as a stunning woman. But not by herself. She had grown up with an almost crippling lack of self-confidence. She reached her full height of 6' 2" in junior high school, and was teased and tormented by cruel classmates and a particularly hateful older sister throughout her high school years. More than anything, she wanted to disappear. Not literally, but in that way that many seem to have, during those awkward teenage years, of becoming invisible.

Julie tried her best to divert attention from herself. She wore loose-fitting jeans and baggy sweatshirts, and slouched down whenever she had to stand. She sat on the back row, kept her head down, stayed quiet, and focused on her schoolwork. She rarely dated, and outside of a few close friends, had little in the way of a social life.

By the time she was in graduate school, however, Julie had blossomed. Her height had always made her stand out, but now the rest of her appearance did, too. She had small, perfectly shaped tits, topped with prominent nipples that were always hard. She hated wearing a bra, and so rarely did. She assumed that no one would notice, but nearly every man who looked at her knew instantly.

Hard work in the gym had toned her body and flattened her stomach. Her best assets, those impossibly long legs, were lean and powerful from running. Her thigh muscles rippled when she walked. And you could have bounced a quarter off her tight ass. Julie had gotten prettier, too, in the way that so many gangly girls seem to do as they get into their 20's. She'd grown her hair out longer, and it had developed a loose natural curl that was very appealing.

In short, Julie Murphy was a tall, beautiful woman, who now drew a lot of attention to herself. Men hit on her constantly, a new experience for her, and she let them seduce her. She wasn't stupid; she knew they only wanted to have sex with her. So she decided to play their game.

She entered into what she thought of as her "slutty" phase (although, she would have been furious if anyone else had used that word). She ran through bed partners at a rate that would make many men feel woefully inadequate. She had a series of very short-term relationships, many of them one night stands, over the next several years.

Along the way, Julie acquired two things. One was a tremendous amount of sexual experience. She learned what she liked, and what men liked, and frankly just became a really good fuck. Her experience gave her a measure of confidence, and she learned the art of flirting to get what she wanted. The other thing she acquired was more problematic, though. She developed a taste for that spark of a new relationship. Since all of her relationships remained "new", she never learned the virtues of comfort, familiarity, or contentment.

When she started in her Ph.D program, she decided that her slut days needed to come to an end. Her work load at school was going to require a much more disciplined approach, and this was starting to get close to real life. Time to settle down. During her last year, she began dating a law school student, and they married shortly after they both graduated. He moved with her to Birmingham.

They settled in to life in their new city. They bought a home; he set up a private practice; Julie started teaching and establishing her research agenda. But it turned out that her husband had been with Julie for the same reason that all those other men had: he liked the sex. He just liked it so much that he stayed around. He was somehow able to hide his true self from Julie for a while, but eventually it came out. He was a horrible person, and a worse husband. Before the end of her first year in Birmingham, she was desperately unhappy.

One of the first people Julie had met in her new home was a man named Jonathan Brown, who worked in a research office on the UAB campus. They developed an easy friendship, and often had lunch together. They were also part of a group from campus who would meet for drinks after work on Friday afternoons. One Friday, they stayed as the others drifted home, until only the two of them remained.

"You don't usually stay so late" Julie said. "Why haven't you gone home?"

"Really nothing to go home to" Jonathan muttered. "What about you?"

"Yeah, me too neither" she said.

That was the start of a marathon therapy session, where the two friends described the sorry states of their lives. Julie was married to an insufferable prick; Jonathan to a self-righteous bitch who had decided, at the age of 29, that sex was the work of the devil, and she would be having no more part in that, thank you very much. Both of them were miserable.

Over the next several months, they helped and supported each other as their respective marriages collapsed and wound down. Divorce is never pleasant, even when it's what you want, and it was helpful to have each other to lean on.

Julie wondered, throughout that whole time, why Jonathan had never made a move on her. Most of the men she'd known would have bedded her that first night when she had told him how unhappy she was. But Jonathan had kept his distance romantically. He became the most stable part of her life, the most reliable friend she had. From that steady presence, Julie began to feel a comfort she had never known before.

Jonathan would come to her office, sometimes several times a day, to tell Julie a bad joke or share some stupid story with her. He had helped her pack and move, and even confronted her prick ex-husband one night when he showed up drunk at her apartment. And yet, no hint of anything more than a steadfast friendship.

What Julie did not know was that Jonathan had fallen hopelessly in love with her. He chose not to act on it though, because he valued her friendship too much. One night of sex would not be worth losing that, and he was convinced that was the most that could ever happen between them. Julie was out of his league, romantically, and so he was content to remain her friend.

Until another Friday when they were again the last of the group remaining. Julie couldn't take it anymore. She was drunk, and horny, and had realized that she was starting to fall for Jonathan. She'd had friend drop her off at the bar, and made sure when she first got there to say that she would need a ride home. Jonathan immediately volunteered, as she had known he would.

She'd asked him to come in, and practically attacked him. Jonathan hadn't been willing to risk their friendship by making a move on Julie, but he was only human. The woman he'd fallen in love with wanted him, and she got what she wanted.

That night was a rousing success, and things progressed quickly from there. They moved in together within a week, and got married 6 months later. All their friends wondered what had taken so long; they had been watching these two idiots fall in love with each other for almost two years.

Things were good between them. That comfort and contentment borne out of their friendship carried over into their marriage. Jonathan was as good a husband as he'd been a friend. After their daughter was born, Julie saw that he was also a gentle and devoted father.

On top of his other fine qualities, Jonathan was a skilled and attentive lover. He had paid attention over the years, and knew how to please his wife. He could have her humming like a fine-tuned German sports car in minutes, and Julie never failed to cum when they had sex. Jonathan saw to that. It seemed to Julie that her pleasure was more important to him than his own.

And yet...as happy as she was; as much as she loved her husband, Julie's past began to catch with her. She craved that spark, that exquisite feeling of being with someone new. Of fucking someone different. That craving began to gnaw at her, getting progressively worse as the years went by. She thought often of having a discreet affair, but she genuinely loved Jonathan, and didn't want to risk her marriage.

As it turned out, starting the Center gave Julie the opportunity to indulge that craving. The Center became part of a network of similar operations at universities across the country, and they had semi-annual conferences. The first one she went to, she hooked up with a colleague, and her itch was scratched. She started having flings at every conference. It was perfect! These guys were discreet; they were married and had reputations to protect. Nobody was looking for anything more than a good fuck. And Julie always gave them that.

She had a few regulars that she hooked up with, and never had much trouble recruiting new lovers. At some conferences, she'd have one of each. And there was that time in Cincinnati when she had fucked three different men on successive nights! Thinking about that weekend always made her pussy twitch.

As this behavior became routine, Julie got sloppy. After returning home from one conference, she got an email from her latest lover, going on in some detail about the amazing sex they'd had. Ordinarily, she would have deleted that immediately, but the phone rang, and she got distracted and forgot about it. An hour later when Jonathan woke the computer up to use it, the email was the first thing he saw.

Julie tried to deny that anything had happened, but the email was too damning. Eventually, she admitted what she'd done, but claimed it was a one-off; a drunken mistake. Jonathan didn't believe that, but he let it drop. He tried to tell her that it wasn't the sex he was upset about, it was the lying. He didn't care who she slept with, as long as she was honest with him about it.

Jonathan had never been prone to jealousy. It seemed to him that insisting on fidelity implied some sort of ownership claim over her, and he had never felt that way. It was Julie's body, and he had no right to tell her what she could do with it. But he wanted to be able trust her.

Jonathan had thought for some time that Julie had been having affairs. There had been a lot of little clues through the years. Once, after she'd returned from a conference, he'd found three crusty pairs of panties stuck together in the laundry. She wasn't as stealthy as she thought she was. He had hoped that the undeniability of this latest email would provide the opportunity for Julie to open up, but that had not been the case.

He was never sure why she wouldn't tell him about her affairs. Either she didn't believe him when he said he didn't care; or she was ashamed of her behavior and just couldn't admit it; or the fun for her was partly in the deceit itself. Whichever it was, it really wasn't a deal-breaker for Jonathan. He remembered as a kid, people would write to a newspaper advice column, complaining about their significant others, and the columnist would answer, "You have to decide if you'd be better off with them, or without them." For him, that was an easy question to answer. He'd lived without Julie before, and with her would always be better.

Ultimately, he knew that people did what they did because they wanted to. He couldn't make Julie stay with him; he could only be a good partner to her, and hope that was enough to make her want to stay. So he supported her career, and picked up the slack around their home when that became necessary, and tried to be the best husband he could be. He wanted her to be happy, and if having periodic affairs, and keeping that part of her life hidden from him, made her happy, Jonathan knew he could live with that.

After the confrontation over the email, Julie stopped for awhile. But eventually, her old itch returned, and she had to scratch it. She was much more careful, though. The exact same three explanations for her unwillingness to tell Jonathan the full truth had occurred to her too. She honestly didn't know which one it was; maybe it was a little of all three. But she didn't want to get caught again.

On this particular Tuesday, running late as usual, Julie was on her way to the office of Calvin Johnson. Calvin was someone she had met through the local philanthropic community shortly after starting her Center. He was the Executive Vice-President of the largest insurance company in town, and one of most well-connected people she had met. He was also the first good friend she made in Birmingham who was black.

Calvin had been one of the Center's best advocates, particularly with the local fundraising efforts. He had introduced her to more people than she could count, people who had given large donations, directly or through their businesses; who had agreed to serve on her Board of Directors; or who had volunteered to help with the Center's programs.

His advocacy in general had been invaluable, but what Julie most appreciated was the access Calvin had provided to the African-American community. Birmingham has a sizable black upper class, but they were understandably suspicious of white "do-gooders". Calvin had gotten Julie in front of people she would never have met otherwise. And that access was important. Like most southern cities, the Birmingham public schools served a student body that was overwhelmingly African-American. The Centers' programs would, in practice if not by design, benefit mostly black students. Julie needed the support of the local black community.

As Julie and Calvin spent more time together, they developed a close friendship. What had started as a strictly professional connection became more personal, and they began meeting for lunch regularly. The first time they arranged lunch, Calvin had suggested a rib joint near the UAB campus. It was a dive, and Julie thought it was an odd choice for a business lunch. But Calvin told her it was one of his favorite places to eat, and he had a hunch she would like it too. He was right.

As time went on, their friendship became even more intimate. Calvin had noticed that Julie had a knack for working people. There were several approaches that successful fundraisers used, but in Calvin's experience, one of the most effective was wielded by women who were good at flirting. Flirting worked on most men, and quite a few women, because it was flattering and caused people to let down their guard. And few played that game as well as Julie Murphy.

She eventually started flirting with him, and he gave it right back. Their banter, always easy, became more sexually charged. Calvin was in a quandary though; he wasn't sure if Julie was merely playing the role he'd seen her play with others, or if she was sending him a more personal signal. He was very attracted to Julie, but wanted to be certain before he tried to push further.

Calvin was happily married, but like a lot of people, had engaged in a few affairs over the years. He had never been tempted, though, by the snowbunnies, those white women who wanted to fuck black men because they were black. Julie Murphy was a stunning woman, and Calvin had never gotten even a hint of any racial attitude, good or bad, from her. But he wasn't sure about the signals she was sending.

Julie felt like she had been making herself fairly obvious. When Calvin did not respond in the way she was used to, she figured that he must not be interested. She was attracted to Calvin, and wondered what sex with him might be like. She had never been with a black man before, although the thought was intriguing. There was the racial difference; the whole social taboo thing. Plus, the stereotypes she had heard-many black men had huge cocks! She'd never been a size queen; some of her previous lovers had large cocks, but they were not skilled lovers. Still, the idea of a large, black cock made her wet.

She had grown up in a small racially segregated community in southern Missouri. There were few black students in her high school class, because there was an all-black school across town. One black boy in particular had been very friendly with her, and had even asked her out once. But in that time and place, that was a non-starter.

Later, there was a black Ph.D. student a year ahead of her in grad school. He was sexy; Julie remembered when their classes played softball together, he always wore a sleeveless shirt, showing off impressively muscular arms. After one game, they had flirted at a bar the group went to, but nothing came of it. She had fantasized about both of those young men over the years. So she was intrigued about the prospect of a sexual relationship with Calvin, but like him, worried that she might be misreading signals.

The two friends had a lunch scheduled, but a week before, Calvin sent Julie an email. "Instead of lunch next Tuesday, could we meet in my office at 1:00? I hate to miss out on the ribs, but I have something I've been wanting to ask you for a while now. Let me know, and either way, I'm looking forward to seeing you."

Calvin had decided the time had come to take a chance. He was fantasizing about his beautiful friend almost continuously. It might cost him her friendship, but he thought it was worth the risk. If Julie wasn't interested, he might still be able to salvage things by claiming to have misunderstood the meaning of their recent banter. At any rate, he knew her well enough to know that he would need to be direct with her. This was not a woman who played games.