Earth had changed much since the turn of the previous millennium.
The great cities had merged over the centuries to create giant, almost unending metropolises where anonymity was easy, whether it was sought or not. In these places, the horizon was blocked in all directions by enormous constructions of glass and steel and concrete and space was at a premium as the population exploded.
Many decided to leave.
The advent of interstellar travel had re-opened the prospect for frontierism for humankind. For those who wished to leave the urban, same and sterile Earth, options for pastures new were potentially limitless.
She was such a one. Cherry.
She longed to see the stars, to feel the freedom of the wide open galaxy and embrace, most importantly, opportunities to meet new and interesting people. People of all races.
Living in what might once have been somewhere between New York and Washington, DC -- later the middle of a vast conurbation that covered most of the eastern half of the North American continent, from Quebec City in the north to Miami in the south and as far west as Minneapolis, Kansas City and even Dallas -- Cherry felt encumbered, hemmed in somehow, by the sameness of it all. She had come to understand that the scope of experiences available to her in a world of such ubiquity were limited at best.
Thus, at a very young age, she had committed herself to striking out, on her own if necessary, in the spirit of exploration and adventure.
With the whole globe essentially a monoglot, 'western' society and with so little open, green or natural space remaining, travelling the world offered little prospect for excitement or experience and most 'outdoor' entertainment or activity was virtual -- conducted from the comfort of a chair in a VR studio, or for the very wealthy, their own homes.
The falseness and unreality of this had little appeal for Cherry. Without having to be told or taught, Cherry instinctively reacted negatively towards the unrelenting, almost overwhelming onslaught of marketing and hype that told her she should be happy with her lot, that to engage in the artificial and tame existence her Earth offered was the pinnacle of existence. Much to her loving parents' constant concern, since the time she had been a small child she had tried to recreate the experiences others lived virtually in the real world and found time and again it was either impossible or unacceptably dangerous.
Cherry did not come from a wealthy or affluent background, far from it, and she knew that it could take years for her to save and scrounge enough to make her galactic ambitions a reality. Thus, she had concluded shortly after her eighteenth birthday, and her first experience in that realm that, while she waited for the opportunity to escape to the stars, sex would have to be her chief outlet for self-expression.
She'd always been popular with the boys. Girls too. She was instantly beautiful to anyone who saw her. Some said it was her face, her full lips turned up in an apparently perpetual smile, her striking green eyes or her fiery red hair with its bouncing curl that struck them. For others it was her ample, firm breasts or her long and supple legs or her toned physique that caught the eye. Still, she was not vain or conceited and really had little concern for her appearance most of the time.
To put it succinctly, she was effortlessly gorgeous.
Attitudes to sex had continued to liberalize from the late twentieth century forward. Thus, Cherry was fairly unusual in abstaining until she was 18. She'd had many boyfriends, was never without a date when needed but, encouraged by her mother especially, she had resolved as a young teenager to 'save herself' for 'the one'.
Many of her friends derided this choice as hopelessly old-fashioned. If not for her powerful will and self-confidence, also probably largely thanks to her mother, she might well have succumbed to this pressure much sooner. A lesser person almost certainly would have. But not Cherry.
As time went on however, the practical realities of the challenge of 'saving herself' grew. Hearing the lurid tales of her friends fumbling encounters, Cherry became more and more accustomed to masturbation of various types to express her sexual desire, and she did have sexual desires. There were many times when her commitment to wait was challenged in her own mind with one boyfriend or another and as time passed she found herself curling up in her bed and using her fingers or the various implements she'd obtained for the purpose to get herself off more and more often. She came to think of it as 'relieving the tension'. Often, these would be marathon sessions, playing with herself until she'd cum two or three or more times.
When the topic was discussed with her friends, she was a little confounded by their comparative experiences, surprised to learn that the ease with which she could bring herself to completion, and several times at that, was not shared by any of them. Indeed, this knowledge only challenged her commitment to wait even further. If she could bring herself so much pleasure, surely bringing a partner into the mix could only make her feel even better?
As it happened, 'the one' turned out to be more accurately described as 'the first'. He came along shortly after her nineteenth birthday. Her ability to douse her desire with masturbation had finally reached its limit and when one more opportunity to go the whole way, as it were, presented itself, her resistance finally came to an end.
His name was Phil. Not uncommonly, they'd met online and after lengthy text, audio and video exchanges over a period had agreed to meet for a 'real' date.
She liked him. They shared some interests and habits -- at least it appeared to her that they did. Later, she would come to realize that Phil was mostly just interested in Phil. Still, at that initial stage and perhaps as a result of her inexperience, it felt good.
He was a little older than she but this only added to the mystique he offered in Cherry's mind. When they did meet in person, she found the 'real' conversation was as lively and exciting and stimulating as the online one had been. So when, at the end of that first date, he'd invited her to his apartment for a drink she didn't hesitate to join him.
She later thought that, as they sat on his couch and started to kiss and touch each other, Phil probably assumed she was more sexually experienced than she actually was.
She could never remember a single moment when she decided he was going to be 'the one', there mightn't have been one. Indeed, it wasn't that she just didn't stop him you see, she was the one taking the lead, whipping his cock out and devouring it with abandon only moments after they'd sat down. Phil complimented her technique. She laughed internally at this, considering this was the first real cock she'd ever taken in her mouth. Evidently, Cherry was very astute when it came to following instructional videos.
She was so good that Phil had to ask her to stop lest he cum too soon. She felt a real disappointment -- it was her first experience of sucking a real cock and she'd been excited by everything about the experience -- the taste, the texture, the heat, the hardness of it.
The disappointment didn't last long. When Phil gently led her back to a lying position and hiked the bottom of the plunging, short, red dress that hugged her hard body and dove his mouth into her pussy she was almost overwhelmed with pleasure and the excitement of yet another new experience.
