She paused and I froze, looking at her distress…and her boobs…and her pussy. Had I been on a chair, I would have been sitting on the edge of it…poised…”What, Karen, WHAT?” I thought loudly to myself.
But I said softly to Karen, “What, Karen, what? I love you…you can tell me anything…anything!”
Karen started to choke up when she said, “Drummond, I had an affair with…with…ZETA! I had sex with ZETA! Can you imagine….ZETA!”
Every fiber in my body went from twangingly tense to totally relaxed. Inwardly I breathed a huge sigh of relief, I said silently to myself, “Is THAT all. WHEW!”
Now, with genuine relief generated calmness, I said to her, “Karen…Oh…Karen! That’s nothing bad…there’s nothing to forgive…I can understand totally something like that happening…totally!”
“Drummond! I don’t think you understand,” Karen started to explain, “I’m not proud of having had sex Zeta…looking back…way less than proud…but it’s the ‘Zeta’ I’d like to forget not the sex. What I am so ashamed of is NOT telling you about it and, really not talking to you about… well… the times I’ve been with a woman. I didn’t hide those things from you, conceal them, I just…well…just didn’t think about them….and when I did think about them, I just didn’t think they were important to the ‘you-and-me’ of the…well..you and me!”
“Karen, my dearest Karen,” I tried to be both soothing and understanding, “first, we can talk about Zeta and the other things. When Zeta and I were having sex, she told me…bragged, actually…about all of her sexual conquests….men and women…Zeta was a sexual creature, no question about that and I had the vaguest thought that perhaps you and she had some sort of sexual liaison…then again, knowing Zeta, I suspect that of practically every woman I saw her associating with…well…except for the old Mrs. Garnish of the lace shawls who reeked of asafetida…and even then, I wouldn’t have put it past Zeta to have a go at her!”
I got a little chuckle out of Karen. She smile wanly but I could tell she was relaxing, too.
I continued, “I can see now, Karen, where she could have been as much a thorn in your side as mine, and I doubly applaud your clever and effective ploy in ‘disappearing her’! So…that’s THAT for Zeta! As for not having told me about her? Well, you have just told me! It is only a matter of timing and I trust you so I trust your timing. You told me when it was time…it’s that simple. But I am intrigued about your revelation about ‘girlfriends’. I know you will tell me more about that….when you feel you’re ready.”
I leaned over, gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead, then her lips. I put my arm around her and drew her to me. We sat that way, our backs against the headboard, and luxuriated in the sensation of our naked bodies being together.
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It was already dark when I woke up. My stirring awakened Karen, too.
“Hungry?” she asked me.
“I could use a bite…of food, that is.” I said, trying to inject some humor.
“We will need to fix something ourselves,” she said as she began to get up, “all the help is gone for the night. I told them to skedaddle. The live-ins are down in their little cottage and the other two are off to town, I’m sure. Let’s do some food!”
Karen threw on a sports jersey–I won’t tell you the team but she does not have good taste in sports franchises, I can tell you that much. I grabbed one of Kurt’s robes and off we went to the kitchen.
Now this kitchen was a kitchen in capital letters, K-I-T-C-H-E-N. It wasn’t like the one you or I have in our apartment or house. It was essentially a restaurant caliber food preparation set up. Dinner for 20? No problem. Snack for two? Actually a little more difficult. Karen managed to cobble together a couple of cold-cut sandwiches, popped open a couple of bottles of beer–imported, don’t you know…one bottle worth a six-pack of domestic. There was a small table in the “kitchen” where we sat in half light, eating and talking.
In the dim florescent illumination, Karen looked almost ghostly. It changed the tone of her skin, the color of her hair and eyes; plus, without make-up Karen–while still gorgeous–appeared to be a shadow being…an ethereal spirit.
“Drummond, I want to explain,” Karen started out slowly, “I didn’t want to keep any of this from you…at least I didn’t mean to…I just never got around telling you about it because you and I were having so much fun, and then we fell in love, and then…well…it just didn’t seem important, that’s all.”
I nodded and Karen took a nibble of her sandwich and went on, “I’m not gay, Drummond, I think you know that by now!”
I nodded enthusiastically but kept quiet.
“And…I don’t view myself as bi-sexual, either,” she said, affirmatively, “it’s just that…well…I did the college girl things in the sorority…you know…we were all 18, and older, now and away from home and the sense of freedom stimulated our spirit of adventure. Dorm room stuff, you know? We girls would see each other naked, or practically naked, because we used a couple of common showers…I mean…it was impossible not to look. Believe me, there was a lot to look at..some really beautiful young women in my house.”
I interjected, “And I bet you were the most beautiful of the whole bunch!”
Karen did a play-slap at my hand and went on, “The girls I was close with were just as shy as I was at first but we did each other’s hair, make-up, mani/pedis and things like that. It seemed shocking then…but not now…we compared our boobs…gave ourselves nipple ratings…and had fun trimming each other’s pubic hair. One girl got wild and shaved hers off; we did too but I found out that it itched too much growing back so I stopped that.”
Even in the dim light I could see Karen blush as she giggled.
Controlling herself, she went on, “Well, we were four to a room…can you imagine that? Four, count’em FOUR! One of the holidays, I think it was Thanksgiving, two of my roomies went home. My family was on the other side of the country, so I decided to save my travel money and go home for Christmas. Cecilia, my roommate, was from Italy–‘Chechilia’ she pronounced it–and certainly wasn’t going to spend the money to travel there just for a long weekend. We weren’t the only ones there but the house seemed empty there were so few of us.”
“I think I can see where this is going, Karen,” I said to pause things, “have another beer?”
Having finished her beer and sandwich, Karen nodded, and got back into her story, “Yes, I can tell you have an idea what was going to happen. And…well…it DID! Now Thanksgiving is in November, naturally, and where I was in school November weather is COLD. The sorority, to save costs, cut back on the heating while the house was mostly vacant. They didn’t turn off the heat the just turned the thermostat down to the mid-60’s. It was cold enough to wear sweaters inside and flannel ‘jammies’ at night. Well, Cecilia didn’t have flannel ‘jammies’. Her nightwear was a long cotton nightdress, decidedly less comfortable to wear in cold weather. That first night, I could hear her shiver with the cold, even with extra blankets.”