E-Beth Ch. 04

But Teddy? He was a nice guy. He'd been crushing on me for months before anything happened. And once we did get together, he'd treated me like a princess. He'd been young, eager, and sooo devoted to me, like a little puppy. And yet, when I needed him to become the big dog, he could do that too. He fixed things. He opened doors. And he savagely *took* me when I wanted him to.

One might think that adding Stella to the relationship would have distracted him. Actually, he became even more attentive to me. Yeah, he made a lot of time for her, especially in the last couple of weeks while pretending to be her boyfriend for the sake of her roommates. But he somehow managed to never let me feel neglected or underappreciated. We still had our dates and spent a lot of quality time together. And I always saw the love he had for me in his eyes.

And I loved *him* for it. In three months, Teddy had already become the best boyfriend I'd ever had since David.

But did that just make him an even better player than Marcus, Vic, or Chad? Had he somehow tricked me with his youth and innocence and nerdiness into not realizing he was somehow manipulating me?

Or was he just a kid in a candy store with too many options? Maybe Teddy was really just a good guy, caught up in an impossible situation that *I'd* created. He had me, and if I'd left things like that he might very well have been with me to the very end. But nooo... *I* had to go and bring a prettier, younger, skinnier girl into our relationship, and a natural blonde to boot. I was the comfortable hamburger that Teddy would have been satisfied to dine on... up until *I* served him the prime rib that would be even tastier. What should I have expected? It was my own fucking fault.

What could Teddy say to me on the phone? That he was sorry? That he never meant to hurt me? That he just had more in common with Stella and they fit together better than me? I worked too much. I was too focused on my career. I spent some time with Teddy on weekends but didn't give him much on weekdays. I had my kinks, but I wasn't wild and impulsive like Stella, who would seduce him into a quickie in the janitor's closet. Teddy was young. Stella was young. I was a boring old fart. He'd traded me in for a better model.

I didn't want to talk to him. So I didn't answer the call.

Stella was calling me, too. I didn't want to talk to her either. The lying bitch had promised to my face that she would never do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Teddy. But behind my back she'd somehow gotten him to tell her he loved her. Some friend.

Now I just turned OFF my phone.

I was angry. I was hurt. And there was only one place in the world I wanted to go.

****

The door popped open and David stood before me. "E-Beth!" he exclaimed and then opened his arms for a big hug.

A shudder of relief went through my body. After driving away from Argen, I'd headed straight to the airport and booked myself on the next commuter jet flight back to the old college town. Even though it was a one-hour flight, plus getting through security and boarding and all those other delays, I'd left early enough in the day that I worried David and Amber wouldn't be home from work yet. I didn't really know how much longer I could hold up, and I was so thankful that at least David was already home.

"Surprise," I said only half-heartedly. It was our usual greeting whenever I showed up unannounced like this, but I was just too drained to muster any enthusiasm, no matter how happy I was to see him.

David immediately looked concerned, and he stepped through the doorway and onto the porch to hug me. "Are you okay?"

The instant his strong arms wrapped around me, I cracked. My knees buckled and I started dropping to the ground. But David caught me and pulled me up to my feet. My strength returned enough for me to bear-hug him desperately. And I started crying against his chest.

"Shhh..." David soothed, holding me up with his left hand and reaching for my cheek with his right. He stroked me gently, repeating his soothing sounds. But he didn't try to say anything for a few minutes while I simply stood there and bawled my little head off.

But eventually, I got myself under control. I tilted my head back to look up at him, seeing the warmth in my old lover's eyes. And for the moment, at least, I felt safe.

"Come on, let's get you inside," he said tenderly.

I managed to nod and then raised my eyebrows questioningly. "Amber?"

David shrugged. "At the hospital. But her shift ends at six."

I nodded again and let David carry me inside. I'd tell him my story first. And then hopefully I'd have a better handle on it when I told Amber later.

****

They say pregnant women have a glow about them. It's true. I happen to know the biochemical reactions that go into it. First, blood volume in a pregnant woman increases by 50%, causing a woman's whole body to appear more flushed, especially in the cheeks. Pregnancy hormones also increase oil production, leaving a woman's face shinier.

But I also think a part of it is in the way a woman carries herself. Amber, now five months pregnant, certainly walked around as if her every movement said, 'Yes, I'm happily married to my soulmate and pregnant with our first child. I'm about to have everything I ever dreamed of, and I couldn't be more thrilled with my life.'

As much as I loved my friends, just to see Amber made me even more depressed. We were the same age. Actually, I was a few months older than her. And yet she really did have everything she'd ever dreamed of. She had her soulmate husband. She owned a fantastic house with the big yard in which to raise a gaggle of kids. She was working her dream job as a doctor, she drove a shiny BMW, and on top of all that, she was the most gorgeous woman in the world.

She was everything I was not.

Not that Amber tried to rub it in my face or anything. David called her at the hospital to let her know that I'd come by. And when my best friend returned home, she'd immediately come to hug me. That's right: "best friend". I'd briefly given over that designation to Stella, but the backstabbing bitch didn't deserve it anymore.

The three of us sat down on the couches in the living room, Amber with me, and David in the easy chair. And a little more clearly than before, I told Amber my story.

She'd already known about the Holiday Party, as I'd explained the situation to my friends in Hawaii before their wedding. I'd also already told them when I'd started dating Teddy. But for some reason, I'd never gotten around to mentioning that I'd invited Stella into bed with me and my boyfriend. And both David and Amber were at rapt attention as I explained the developments of our three-way relationship from one-time threesome to Stella's pretend-boyfriend to their declarations of "I love you" to each other.

"This always happens," I complained. "I bring some hot, young babe into bed with us and the next thing I know, my boyfriend's got it in his head that he's some sort of sex god and runs off with someone else."

"Maybe you should stop bringing girls into your bed," David drawled.

"I can't help it!" I whimpered. "I blame you, Amber. If it weren't for you, I'd just be a normal, *straight* woman looking for love. But *nooo*, now I NEED female attention, too. Vic was right: I need another girl in bed with me to really get off."

David and Amber looked at each other, communicating something between each other with their eyes.

"And now it's happened again," I sighed in resignation. "I did what we'd discussed. I found a 'nice guy' instead of giving into my arousal for the 'bad boy'. But my nice guy still ended up choosing a hot young girl over me."

David snorted. "E-Beth, how many times do I have to tell you: *You're* a hot young girl."

"Am not," I scowled. "I'm over the hill."

"Yeah, right," Amber drawled. "You turned 26 what, a week ago?"

"That's still technically 'late-20s'," I complained. "Stella's only 23, same as him."

"Coupla years," David waved me off. "It's not like you LOOK older."

"Don't I?" I picked at my hair and squeezed my own cheeks. "I'm running out of time here. I'm not very pretty to begin with-"

"Nonsense," David cut me off.

I ignored him and just kept going. "The older I get, the worse I'm gonna look. And it's hard enough for me to find quality guys as it is."

"Will you STOP it!" Amber barked shrilly. Her sudden outburst was surprising enough to make me pull my head back. My best friend then exhaled and gave me a plaintive look. "Good lord, E-Beth. Will you stop complaining about your looks? You're beautiful! And it's really annoying when you keep harping on this delusional perception that you're not!"

"Easy for you to say."

"Fine," Amber huffed. "I'm ugly! I'm unattractive! So there!"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. You're the most gorgeous woman in the world, Amber, even pregnant."

"Am I? Well, I don't believe you," she spat.

"Of course you are!"

"And why should I believe you?"

"Because it's true!"

"You're just saying that because you're my friend."

I rolled my eyes. "Pull a hundred guys off the street and ask each one of them if they think you're gorgeous, and every single one of them will say you are."

Amber arched an eyebrow at me. "Is that what it's gonna take for you, too? Do we have to bring you out to a mall and ask a hundred guys if they think you're beautiful? Will THAT get the point through your thick skull?"

I blushed. "Well... maybe... But you're still light years ahead of me."

"Am I?"

"Sure. You're tall and thin and elegant. You're not stuck with my nose or this facial structure or my thick thighs."

"I think my nose is too pointy and doesn't have the right shape. I think my cheekbones make me look too gaunt and skeletal. I think my hair is too thin and I can never pull off the full-bodied styles that I really want. And my hips are too skinny and not womanly enough, making me look top heavy with these boobs. My torso isn't proportioned right. And right now I freaking have a massive exercise ball attached to my waist!"

I blinked a few times in surprise, not sure how to respond to that.

"Sometimes I wish I had *your* curves, E-Beth. Every girl has things they'd like to improve about their appearance, even me," Amber sighed. "When are you going to realize that you're beautiful?"

"You're a ten, Amber." I shot a glare right at David. "Honestly, what am I?"

David shrugged. "You're a ten, too."

I rolled my eyes. "Please."

"E-Beth, you're beautiful," David said sincerely, looking right at me. "Are you exactly the same as Amber? Of course not. Different heights, different curves, different hair and eye colors. So what? Are you really so shallow as to put all your stock of self-worth into how you look?"

"I'm not shallow," I retorted defensively.

"Then why is this such a big deal?"

"Big deal? The big deal is that my boyfriend left me because I wasn't pretty enough for him!"

"You sure that's the reason?" David cocked an eyebrow.

Amber added, "Are you even sure he left you? From what you told me, Teddy is just as in love with you as ever. You're basing all of this on a lunch quickie he had with your third lover! It's not like they hadn't been screwing all this time without your permission. And what if she really WAS about to tell you? It doesn't even sound like he was going to break up with you or anything. It was just another ordinary day."

"It doesn't matter," I whimpered. "He's going to pick her."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because she's younger and prettier than me."

David facepalmed.

"Okay, fine, fine," I conceded, taking a deep breath. "Maybe I'm not a two out of ten. But he still told her he loves her. Where does that leave me?"

"Did he tell you he loves you?" Amber asked.

I blinked. "Yes."

"Do you believe him?"

I blinked twice. "I did... But now... I dunno..."

"So you believe him when he says the L-word to her, but you're 'I dunno' when he says the L-word to you?"

I frowned, "It's complicated."

"How?" Amber sighed. "Look, there're really just two possibilities: One, like most guys, he doesn't really mean it when he says 'I love you', which means he doesn't love *either* of you. In that case, he's a dirtbag you'd be better off without. Or Two, he loves the both of you, in your own unique ways. And when he says he loves you, he really means it. Did you ever think of that?"

"What?"

"C'mon, look at us right here. David, do you love me?"

"Of course I love you, honey," David told his wife.

"Do you love E-Beth?"

David turned his warm smile to me. "I love you, Elizabeth."

My heart melted.

"And do you love him, too?" Amber added, pointing from me to him.

"Yes, of course I still love you," I said to my ex-boyfriend. "Not romantically. But I'll always love you."

Amber waved her hand. "And there you have it. This is the same situation you're in with Teddy and Stella."

I blinked and frowned. "Wait, wait, no. This is completely different. What I have with the two of you is special."

"Special, I'll agree." David nodded. "But not necessarily unique. From everything you've told us, from your friendship with Stella to the devotion Teddy's shown you up until this point, the three of you have some of that same potential."

"Do you want to steal David from me?" Amber asked casually.

"What? Of course not!" I shook my head at the very thought.

"Then what's got you convinced that Stella's trying to steal Teddy from you?" Amber raised her eyebrows.

"I... uh..." My jaw waggled up and down a few times. "She... uh..." My mind raced over everything I had seen between them. Really, Stella *hadn't* done anything to show that she was trying to take Teddy away from me. Join us, sure, but take him away? No. Maybe that meant she was being manipulative and sneaky and being very careful about how she got her hooks into him without me watching.

Then again, maybe Stella was being true to what she'd promised. She was my friend. And she would never do anything to jeopardize my relationship with Teddy, not intentionally at least.

But I wasn't sure. Whimpering, I reached both my hands up to hold my head and bent over, clenching my eyes as if I could shut the world away.

It had been a really shitty day.

****

I didn't really want to bitch about the Teddy/Stella situation all night; and as supportive as they were, David and Amber didn't want to listen to me bitching all night, either. At first, I fretted that I had to come up with SOME resolution in my head as to what was going on before it was too late. But then Amber reassured me by saying, "If he really loves you, he'll understand. And if he doesn't, then he's not worth it anyways."

We also had company. Cherys and Danielle were dropping by to visit with little Ellie. It had become a regular Thursday night thing to have dinner together as a big extended family. It gave David a chance to see his 8-month-old daughter and Amber some time to practice being a mommy. Cherys and Danielle were just happy to delegate away babycare duties for a couple of hours.

For me, the dinner with old friends and playing with baby Ellie were welcome distractions from my own troubles. And by the time Cherys and Danielle returned home at 8pm to put the baby to sleep, I was feeling much calmer about everything.

Amber told me to turn my phone back on and let Teddy and Stella know that I was alive, at least. But I shook my head in the negative and just sagged deeper into the couch. "If me being gone like this for one night pushes the two of them into forming a relationship with each other -- and without me -- then so be it. I'd be better off without them."

David and Amber looked concerned, but let it pass. In the end, we spent the next several hours catching up on THEIR lives before going through our nightly routines in preparation for sleep.

It was probably the first time I'd visited that the three of us *didn't* end up fucking right away. My best friends sensed that I wasn't in that kind of mood, and didn't pressure me. But they still welcomed me into their bed, and I snuggled happily beneath the covers on my left side, with my head pillowed on David's chest while he lay on his back, Amber mirroring me on his other side. We all talked quietly as the drowsiness overtook us. Amber caressed my cheek. And then I drifted away to the pleasant dreams of one who feels safely cocooned beneath a loving man's arm.

****

As shitty as Thursday had been, Friday *more* than made up for it, in multiple ways.

First came the multiple orgasms. **

I woke with a strong man spooned around my back. At first, I thought it was Teddy and a flush of warmth spread through my whole body. Relief, happiness, and lust shot through me, waking me up quickly. But then I looked around the room and recognized David's and Amber's master bedroom, and I quickly sank back to reality.

But that was okay. Far from being disappointed, I sighed with an old remembered contentment feeling David's arm wrapped around me. We'd pivoted in our sleep, so that I was facing the edge of the bed with David's broad chest flush against my back. His left arm had wrapped around my side, and his hand was underneath my borrowed T-shirt so that he could cup and hold onto one of my big titties. As I began to move, he reflexively squeezed his fingers to grip my breast tighter; and my own stretching made his coarse palm scratch against my nipple.

David's cock was awake before he was. I felt the big weapon splitting the cleft of my buttcheeks, his dented boxer shorts digging the strap of my thong panties deeper into my crack. I hadn't been in a sex mood last night, otherwise we might very well have slept without any underwear. And this morning, I wish we had. I would have loved to feel the rigid but surprisingly soft skin of his bare cock against my fully naked buttcheeks.

At least I didn't have to wait long. David woke up while I was grinding my ass against his morning wood. I heard the change in his breathing as he came awake and realized he was squeezing my tit and bear-hugging me from behind. And then I felt his hot breath against my neck just before he bent and kissed me behind my ear. "Good morning, Elizabeth," he breathed in such a sexy, deep voice.

"Mmm... morning, David."

"Morning, E-Beth," Amber suddenly chirped in front of me, startling me as I popped my eyes open and realized my best friend was kneeling on the floor right in front of me. She leaned over and quickly pecked my lips. And then before I could react, she slid herself beneath the covers, pulled my panties down to my knees, and took a long lick at my already moistening pussy.

"Oh, shit..." I whimpered.

All three of us were very sexual people. We hadn't had sex last night. So we made up for it this morning. After the first lick, Amber paused long enough to drag my panties the rest of the way off my body before rolling me onto my back, spreading my legs to the sides, and then parking herself between my thighs. She looked adorably cute with the bedsheets covering her head right to her forehead, but no farther; and her angelically beautiful face then descended into my lovenest to resume her cuntlapping.

Meanwhile, David was tugging my shirt upwards to get at my round melons. He kissed me with a raw, fierce passion that set my heart racing. And I was very quickly so turned on that I couldn't decide whether to flail out and grab his cock or work my shirt off so that he could begin suckling my teats. In the end, I did both, but with his help. He shoved his boxers down his thighs so that I could wrap my left hand around his turgid tool. And he helped me drag my shirt over my head while I worked the other side of it with my right hand. Together, we accomplished both goals, and soon he was licking and kissing and fondling to both of our hearts' content.