Copyright June 2005. All rights reserved. May not be copied or published without express written permission from the author. This is a work of fiction. Any similarity to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
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Chapter 01 -- 1991 A Political Junkie Finds Sexuality
I remember the first time we met.
It was 1983 and I had volunteered to work for the Democratic candidate for Governor of Michigan, James Blanchard. We won, too, by the way. I was standing on a stepladder in one of those old high schools that had an auditorium with an old-fashioned stage. Mark wandered in while we were setting up for a rally. I saw him walking down the aisle when my friend Brenda commented on how good-looking he was. He had an easy-going confidence that showed as he glanced around the room and stopped at the foot of the stage.
There was a lot going on, people trying out speaker systems, others hammering signs onto strips of wood, people talking. I was holding one end of a banner while someone worked on the other end and I needed a tack. The tacks were on the floor far below the level of the stage. I looked down to find Mark standing there looking up my skirt. I asked him to hand me the tacks, but for several moments, he seemed so intent on my nylons that he didn't respond.
I stood looking at him with a smile until he looked up.
"The tacks?"
He bent to hand them up and I could see that he was blushing at being caught trying to see my panties. His embarrassed grin was engaging and I liked him right away. I didn't know it then, but a long and increasingly close friendship had begun.
Our first pleasure together was the electric thrill of being on the winning side of a political campaign. To this day, I find the excitement of political campaigns almost sexual. They make me tingle with excitement the same way.
In 1991, we both attended a statewide convention on Mackinaw Island in the Straits of Mackinaw. It was to be a fateful event that altered the course of our lives to this day.
Convention is ending
The band struck up a spirited and very loud "Happy Days Are Here Again" for the umpteenth time. I sighed wearily but sadly that the convention was coming to a close. Spotlights swept around the grand hall and balloons were released from overhead to fill the floor with red white and blue. A banner proclaimed "We're BACK in 1992!"
There is electricity to political activities that I find irresistible. I don't know if it is the feeling of power, or the high-energy people, or meeting people whose names are familiar on the nightly news. Whatever it is, I am aware that it raises an excitement in me that is almost sexual in nature. I shivered with the pleasure of it once again, even though three days and the inevitable late night parties had left me slightly drained.
"How does the most beautiful campaign manager in Michigan manage to look so fresh and lovely after three days of this?"
I smiled as Mark's familiar arm slipped around my waist and I leaned into him.
"I think you are not looking very carefully! Under this faΓ§ade I'm exhausted!" I said loud enough to rise above the band. His arm squeezed me in an old friend's embrace. I felt a glow of pleasure in his company and the obvious warmth of his gesture.
"Will you manage my campaign again next time, then?"
"I said I was tired! Besides, my husband may lock me up if I come to many more of these and leave him baby-sitting."
"But I need you! No one else will do!" he exaggerated.
I looked up into his dark brown eyes and smiled my agreement.
"Yes, OK, you're so helpless! I know!" Actually, I was delighted. I had successfully run his first campaign for the state legislature last fall and it was great fun. I found it very exciting. But, of course, he was a great candidate I actually thought he would one day be in the U.S. Senate. I was admittedly his biggest fan.
"It'll be a little easier this time with the kids in school at least?" he said hopefully. "They are school age now, right?"
"Yes, Mick is in first grade now. There's practically nothing to do anymore!"
Mark smiled and rolled his eyes appreciatively. "Thanks, Beth, you're a marvel."
Someone supporting Bill Clinton had the microphone and we stopped to listen.
"I met this guy once. He's pretty high powered." Mark said. "Maybe he can make it. Got that southern charm, you know. And smart!"
"I think it's time to find our car-pool and head out, don't you?" We left the ballroom and scanned the lobby for Janet, who had been my roommate for the past three days. We spotted her in the bar having one last drink with one of the guys from the Upper Peninsula.
The Drive
"Oh, there you are!" she shouted. "I've been looking everywhere for you," she laughed, holding up her drink.
"I can see you have," I replied, twisting my mouth into a skeptical smile.
"Listen, guys. I've got one or two items I didn't get finished and I want to stay over for another day. Would you mind driving back yourselves? Charlie here has offered to fly me home in his plane tomorrow. I hate to confuse things, but .... Oh, and I think Kelly wants to stay over too. Can you two manage?"
This left Mark and me in Janet's suburban for the 4 or 5 hour drive downstate.
"Up to you Mark, I'm probably going to fall asleep though, so don't count on help with the driving."
"OK, sure, not a problem." Mark smiled.
And so, we found ourselves alone on the ferry staring into an autumn sunset and the Mackinaw Bridge beginning to twinkle into view.
We pulled our coats around our necks and drank in the view along with deep breaths of crisp fresh air off the lake.
"Your husband isn't political, I guess?"
"Worse. He is interested, but has gone bad - he's moved to the right of Attila the Hun! But, he isn't a bit interested in political party activities of either side. He considers this my hobby and is happy to leave me to it if I don't insist on playing golf with him!"
He smiled that lovely smile and leaned his head to the side, staring into my eyes with the warm friendship that made me a little weak in the knees. I had been tempted during the last few years, but so far, I was still completely faithful to David, my one and only. The gentle flirting between Mark and me was pleasant, but harmless. And I think it was never obvious enough for anyone to think otherwise. For an ambitious first-year state congressman, that was important.
"How long have we been buddies, now?" he asked quietly, turning out into the highway and heading south.
"Well, if you count the first time I caught you trying to look up my dress, it's exactly nine years," I laughed.
"I do count that one! And a very pretty sight, too."
I punched his arm. "Now cut that out!"
I stared off into the sunset and recalled the meticulously neat 21-year old standing at the foot of the high school stage. I had volunteered for a campaign and stood at the edge of the stage holding one end of a sign for some one. He had been so engrossed in trying to see up my short skirt that he didn't hear my question. I had just had my first baby and I knew that an old married lady had no business enjoying the attention. We were immediate friends and saw each other whenever there was a political event that needed volunteers.
Janet's suburban was a huge thing and it felt more like a truck to me. I leaned my head against the window and watched drowsily as the headlights cut a swath into the night. It wasn't very comfortable and that brought me to a fateful mistake, .. .. well maybe mistake is not the right word.
"Mark,- would you mind if I leaned on you instead of this hard cold window? I hate this big old truck."
"Mmmmm, as the big bad wolf would say, 'be my guest.'"
"Now cut that out!" I said. I scooted across the wide seat and pretended to puff up his shoulder in preparation for a long snooze.
We droned on through the night as I dozed off on my friend's shoulder with the masculine scent of his body rich in my nostrils. It was just like when I was a child and my father drove through the night with me sound asleep against him - or, with my head in his lap. It was a delicious feeling then and now.
The Dream
The pleasures of the past few days drifted across my mind. The sounds, the friends, the big name politicians, the jokes, the flirting, all those exciting elements that thrilled me so. Being involved in it was nearly sexual in the way it affected me. I was on a constant high at these events.
I drifted in and out of sleep several times and each time drifted back off. I slipped my heels off and curled my legs up on the seat, then snuggled deep into his shoulder, my hand resting on his forearm. The exhaustion set in and I fell deeper into sleep, waking only when we hit a bump or something interrupted the steady hum of the engine.
I noticed on one wakeful moment that my arm was resting on Mark's leg, my hand drifting down on the inside of his thigh. I could feel the warmth of his leg under my wrist. I stared down at my arm, lighted by the dashboard lights. I felt too tired to move it; I just stared at it. But then I noticed that there was a distinct bulge in his pants visible in the dimly lighted scene.
I knew that I should sit up. I knew that my arm should not be resting so warmly against his thigh. I knew that I should not be causing my dear Mark the discomfort of an erection, no matter how innocently it had begun. The bulge was lovely and it looked quite large in the orange glow of the instrument lights.
Without thinking, I rubbed my thighs together slightly, pleasurably, like a caress - or like a plaintive cry for a caress, which was it? I could hear the quiet whisp-whisp of my nylons; could he hear too? And would it be something sensual to him, drawing his awareness to my legs, to the warm secret place between my legs? I wondered. Or was he already aware of a faint sexual scent in the closed space of the car.
I raised my self, but as I did it, I accidentally touched the bulge in his pants with the back of my hand. I felt guilty immediately. I pretended it didn't happen.
"Are you OK? Want me to drive awhile?" I asked.
Mark shook his head, "I'm fine. Go back to sleep."
"Not in your way?"
He raised his arm and tucked me under it, shaking his head without comment.