A surprised and stunned Karen McCall stared down at her boyfriend of three years. On one knee, Glenn knelt before her with loving eyes in the middle of his apartment lounge. In his hand he held a small blue box; the lid was open and an engagement ring with a glimmering stone sat in a white surround.
"So Karen, will you marry me?"
Karen's mind went into overdrive; her first thoughts were of shock, and then of her parents locked in a loveless marriage. Was it to be the same for her? She lifted her eyes to Glenn's grinning face and smiled dutiful.
"Ahh, Glenn. It's just such a surprise. I don't know what to say." she said truthfully.
"Just say yes and let me make an honest woman of you."
For what seemed an eternity, she looked down at the ring and thought about what it all meant. Karen slipped forward off her chair and knelt in front of Glenn; she looked into his eyes, then leaned forward, put her arms around his neck and pulled him close. But her face told him all was not right, where was the big smile and the yes that he had so expected and hoped for?
Her brain was now in turmoil as this was all so unexpected. There had been no talk of marriage; they had happily been boyfriend and girlfriend for so long that it was almost like a marriage. They weren't quite living together, but Karen spent most Friday and Saturday nights at his apartment and some week nights too, but she tried not to make a habit of it as it was too hard to get to her place of work. She liked Glenn immensely, but was it really love? She tried to imagine that he was going to be the only man in her whole life. He had in fact been her only lover; a late starter, she had fooled around a little but never gone all the way until she met Glenn. She enjoyed sex and was content until this moment. But was this all life had to offer? She tried to imagine herself as a wife and a mother; she was suddenly scared for the first time in a long, long while.
Like a lot of women, Karen didn't consider herself to be attractive, but she knew that men liked to look at her with their lustful eyes. She wore her brunette wild wavy hair cut short as it was more manageable. She was of average height; her breasts were smaller than she'd like them to be. Her legs were short but shapely, her thin ankles an advantage when wearing short skirts. Friends told her that she was pretty, but at best she considered herself passable after spending ten minutes in front of a mirror with her makeup bag.
Eventually Karen pushed Glenn away to arms length and looked into his troubled eyes.
"Oh Glenn, why didn't you discuss this with me first? Its not that I don't love you, because I do." she lied for the first time. "It's just a lot for me to take in."
"Why?"
Karen took a deep breath and looked into his disappointed eyes, "Because, you know how I want to travel, and I've got my career to think about. I've no intention of becoming the domestic housewife and mother just yet. It's not about our relationship, it's about timing. About the things I want to do before I settle down."
"But we could do those things together." he suggested hopefully.
She smiled, "Yes we could, but we need to discuss what we both want first."
"So, is it a yes or a no?" he asked.
"We need to talk and I need time to think about it. It's not a decision that I'm going to make tonight."
She could see the torment and hurt in his eyes, but she knew in her heart it was a time to stand strong and resolute.
As usual on a Friday night, Karen stayed overnight. She let him have his way with her; she just lay back with her legs spread wide as he rode her until he emptied himself into her. She made the right moves and encouraged him, but was more than pleased when he finally rolled off and fell fast asleep. Karen then lay thinking about the future as Glenn snored contently beside her. The more she thought about it, the more determined she was to enjoy her young life as best she could, her down-trodden mother was a prime example of why she had to make her own decisions. After a sleepless night, she watched Glenn get up and go to work his Saturday shift.
Later that morning, she confided in her best friend and flatmate, not that she had any choice. Annie took one look at Karen's face as she arrived home; she stopped what she was doing, and led her to the dining table. Over a strong cup of coffee, Karen told Annie what had happened. Annie listed without interruption with the exception of passing over the tissue box to help with the tears. In her usual direct way, Annie then put the whole thing into perspective with one question.
"Do you love him?" she asked.
"What's love?" Karen replied.
Annie's laugh broke the mood, "Don't fucking ask me what love is. You should know I'm the last person to ask. I've never found it and I'm not really looking for it either."
Karen always looked up to Annie; she was far more confident and emotionally stronger than her. But she had to be, both beautiful and vivacious, men chased from all directions. Annie enjoyed the chase and played hard to get; then bed those who were considered worthy, only to discard them when she tired of them. She didn't believe in male commitment, she just wanted fun on her own terms. Annie had always been amused at Karen's relationship with Glenn. She didn't dislike him, but he didn't exactly have the get up and go that Karen needed. Accordingly, the fact that he was the only guy that Karen had slept with was a tragedy, but not that she'd said so. While Annie had a well earned reputation for saying exactly what she thought, they'd been friends for too many years for them to ever hurt each other. They were different as chalk and cheese, but that's what made them good friends.
"If you want me to be honest, the only concern that I have is that Glenn has been your only real boyfriend." Annie commented after taking a sip from her coffee mug. "I mean, how are you ever going to know whether he's mister right when you don't know who mister wrong is? There's not one guy I've met that's made me want to give up my freedom." she said. "Maybe I'll just be a slut till the day I die." she then added cynically.
Karen smiled, "You're not a slut; you just like sex too much."
Annie grinned wickedly, "Oh, I'm a slut alright. I had my first threesome the other night."
"What?" Karen cried with a look of horror on her face and placing her hands over her cheeks.
Annie laughed at her friend's reaction, "I was at Joseph's place and we were planning to go to bed when one of his friends arrived. To cut a long story short, we all ended up in the same bed."
"Annie, that's disgusting. You shouldn't have."
Annie sat back in her hair and looked over at Karen, "Thing is, it was the most exciting sex I've ever had. You wouldn't believe how good it was. Four hands, two mouths and two very hard cocks."
Karen had to laugh, "Did they respect you in the morning?"
Annie smiled, "I don't know about respect, but they both fucked me again."
A laughing Karen held up her hands in front of her, "Stop, stop; too much information."
"They made me breakfast, does that count as respect?" Annie added humorously. "Seriously, do you really want to tie yourself down? You're only twenty-three for Christ's sake. You've finally got the world at your feet; you've just graduated and got a good paying job. You can now start chasing your dreams. The question is do you wanna be tied to mortgage, an apron or washing nappies?
"Funny, I was asking myself the same questions." Karen replied.
The next few days were tough on Karen, her resolve stayed strong until Glenn contacted her, usually several times a day. Then she would weaken, if only for a while. She suggested that they continue as they were and see what transpired, but to her surprise Glenn declined stating he only wanted commitment. Well, two could certainly play that game.
On Wednesday night, Annie went out leaving Karen home alone. After checking her emails, Karen began surfing the web, something she liked to do when alone. Her mind wandered to sex and Karen's threesome, and for the first time in her life she began to look at adult websites. Not hard to find, she then did another search on threesomes. For the next hour, she flicked through numerous sets of photos with people in various situations. She soon mastered the filtering to amateur threesomes, and the more she looked at, the more aroused she got. By pure chance she hit on a site that offered erotic stories which only further aroused her. She shrugged of the urge to call Glenn, and retired alone to her bed. Removing her trusty vibrator from her bottom drawer, she lay back on her bed and pleasured herself through multiple orgasms, while all the time fantasising about having sex with someone else, just like on the websites, and just like Annie did.
On the following Friday night, Karen hit a local bar with her work crowd. It was a regular thing on Fridays, a few drinks in a nice bar was a good way to wind down after a hard week. Her work crowd were good fun, and mixed freely with other regulars with whom they'd got to know. The bar was vibrant and noisy with everyone having a good time. Karen too was enjoying herself, her troubles with Glenn forgotten if only for the time being. A few others joined them whom Karen didn't know, two girls and a guy. By sheer chance, the male of the trio ended up standing beside Karen. Without being a show off, he was one of those guys that naturally held the floor, he laughed a lot and told stories; he teased others and made fun of himself. More importantly he made others laugh, including Karen. She stole a few glances and liked what she saw. He was tallish with dark hair, his face rugged but in a good looking way. A white business shirt hung casually over wide shoulders and tucked into jeans over a flat stomach. His skin was the colour of light copper, but from the sun rather than genetics. What Karen was really drawn to was his big blue eyes, and his natural instinct to smile.
After a while, he turned to Karen, smiled and held out his hand, "We haven't been introduced, I'm Del."
She grinned and shook his hand, "Hi, I'm Karen. What sort of name is Del?"
"Short for Delray, but I hate it. Everyone just calls me Del."
"Delray isn't too bad, I kinda like it." she replied.
He laughed, "Tell you what, if you keep talking to me, you can call me whatever you want."
Karen couldn't suppress a grin, "Something tells me that's one of your standard lines."
He leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Only for the real pretty ones."
Karen moved away a little, still unable to rid herself of her silly grin. She quickly realised his comments were more about humour than to actually chat her up. Even though he was an obvious flirt, she was sort of enjoying the attention. As the evening progressed, they chatted to other people as well as to each other. Del only left her side to go to the bar, but he always returned, Karen could have moved away at any time but she didn't feel the need to. The numbers of people dwindled as the night wore on, then one of their group suggested clubbing and within minutes, drinks were finished and belongings picked up. Karen declined to go with them, the thought of more alcohol, loud music and hours of dancing didn't appeal. Minutes later she stood alone with the exception of Del still at her side.
Karen took a sip of her half full glass and then moved to a now vacant small table and sat down, after standing for a few hours her feet were killing her. Del followed and sat down opposite her placing his beer on the table.
"No clubbing for you either?" she asked.
"Nah, not my scene. So what are you going to do now?" he asked.
