Men in Her Life

"Sorry Callie, I cannot meet you after work today."

"Come on Marva," the pleading voice on her cell phone comes through clearly, despite the noise in the parking lot around her. "I need to introduce you to this great guy. Charlie is perfect for you. You will fall head over heels in love with him the first time you hear his voice."

"Nope, I can't do it. Tonight is Bryan's birthday party and if I don't do my share, Karen will never forgive me," Marva answers.

"Oh heck, I forgot about that party. Okay, that's the only reason I'm letting you off the hook. But next weekend, I get you for Friday after work and I'll bet Charlie will take up your Saturday night."

"Charlie? Charlie who?" Marva asks.

"No more info, until you meet him," Callie answers, laughing at the frustrated growl Marva gives her.

- - -

Here she is and it was not her idea. Maybe, she should not have listened to her sister. Karen thought it would be a great idea to give their brother, Bryan, a surprise birthday party in his own apartment. Alright, okay, Karen promised to do the hard work, and pay for most of what they needed, order and pick up the food trays, shop for all the supplies and probably most risky, going to Bryan's apartment early enough to make sure it is presentable for the party, or at least make sure the bathroom is clean. All Marva needs to do is greet all the guests in the bar in the next block and like the child's game of "Follow the Leader," lead everyone to the apartment house, into the elevators to the fourth floor, and ring Bryan's doorbell. After that she will enjoy the party and get rid of the trash.

Karen thought a "Bring Your Own Booze" party would be appropriate, because it is a frequent way to get-together among their friends, most of whom are young professionals and none of whom are exactly affluent. Their lifestyles are too busy for any of them to begin to think about collecting some of their modest, but growing, incomes into real savings or assets.

Karen didn't think about the rule about not taking alcoholic beverages into a bar where liquor is sold by the drink. So, instead of being in the air conditioned comfort of the bar, Marva is standing in front of the bar, collecting bottles of liquor and coolers of beer into the trunk and back seat of Karen's car, plus trying to keep the party guests that aren't inside, from blocking the front door of the bar. They are waiting for the phone call from Karen to say that she has convinced Bryan to get dressed and take her to dinner, even if she has to agree to pay for it herself. When Marva finally agreed, it was her only requirement. She did not want Bryan to attend his own birthday party in cut off jeans and a muscle t-shirt, or worse, no shirt, as is his usual mode of dress when he is home alone, which may or may not be frequent. He does not voluntarily share much information about his private life with his sisters.

After receiving the phone call, it does not take a great deal of encouragement to get help with the party food platters, and everything else, from the trunk of Karen's car. Several party guests have been waiting inside the bar at least since they left work more than two hours ago. There are other willing hands for the ice chests, drink mixers, shopping bags of disposable plates, napkins, and all the other party supplies that will eventually end up in the trash. In fact, most of her efforts are spent trying to hold the noise level down when the elevator doors open. But after ringing the doorbell and twenty people screaming "Happy Birthday," all she has left to do is enjoy the party, eat some of the snacks, and turn down all the offers of, "Hey Marva, you ready for another drink," although she tells everyone who offers that she does not drink.

"So, you are Bryan's little sister, huh?" The late to arrive stranger asks, and then holds out his hand, "I'm David Wells. I didn't know I was coming to a party."

Marva offers her hand and after a quick handshake, says, "Yes, I'm Marva Preston. How do you do David?"

David Wells is a dark man, dark hair, dark eyes, and dark complexion, in his late twenties. He is a gregarious person, and can make a friend of almost anyone, when he wants to persuade them to buy what he is selling. He is often a bold flirtatious man, usually teasing every woman he encounters, confidently touching them in some way, either companionably putting his arm around them or holding their hand for a moment while he smiles at them as he passes along compliments. He is a successful salesman, given a product he can understand well enough to promote, and takes great care to make sure he is well groomed and fashionably dressed.

"Ah-h-h-h," David Wells says. "So I finally get to meet "The Marvelous Marva"."

"Marvelous Marva, where did you hear that?" She asks her question with a puzzled look on her face.

"Sorry, I'm just catching up here. Bryan called me last week. He arranged for me to have a job interview with his company. I didn't know he was having a party."

Finally understanding, Marva laughs, "Oh, what a coincidence. Sorry, I didn't recognize your name. I called most of his friends to tell them about the party."

As they chat comfortably, David continues to look at Marva, enjoying the view. Marva is a small woman, in her early to mid-twenties, not really petite, but not far from it, just not an Amazon, like her older sister, Karen. She wears her dark straight hair to just below her ears, usually tucking the sides behind her ears, or occasionally using clips or combs to hold the sides away from her face. She has slim hips, but muscular legs, those you would see on an energetic person who runs or walks for exercise. Although her bust is probably average size, it is emphasized by her small waist. She is not a bold, out front, sales person like her brother. Instead, she can most often be found at the rear of the room, watching everyone or finding something to do to make her self useful. Almost everyone notices how fair she is, her skin is so light it is almost transparent. Even tiny blood vessels can be seen on the surface of her hands, arms, and any skin not covered by her clothing.

It seems, David and Bryan have known each other, for several years. They worked together for two years, before David accepted a transfer to another city and Bryan changed companies. Now, David is hoping to go to work for the company where Bryan now works, as his best chance to move back to the city.

Several times, over the next few hours, David's eyes are drawn to Marva. He enjoys her lively personality, as she deftly escapes the wandering hands of several of Bryan's friends and occasionally tries to do a small amount of hostess work, telling someone to go eat some of the food on several large trays spread around the apartment, or she collects a handful of trash to take to the kitchen.

When everyone has finally made at least one round of the various food trays and had one, or in several instances, a few drinks, the gag gifts begin to make their way into Bryan's hands. One of the women gives him a tube of chocolate flavored body paint and offers to demonstrate. Bryan opens more than one package of flavored condoms and playfully throws them around to the guests. A plastic battery operated vibrator is presented to Bryan by a salesman from his office and two of the women are asked if they would like to borrow it, one of whom says only if Bryan holds it for her. One of the women admits she personally knitted the tie-on ball warmers and offers to tie them on any man who will demonstrate how they should be worn. The hot pink, sex organ, ice cube tray is a big hit, particularly by one guest who moans that it takes too long to freeze or he would use it on any willing partner in the room. The strawberry flavored edible underwear disappears from the box and no one will admit they took them.

One of the men snatches the fluffy pink lined handcuffs from Bryan's hands and puts them on the nearest woman. It takes a while to find the keys, but she is good natured about it because all the men around her offer to feed her and hold her drink up to her mouth.

As the evening advances, an occasional couple is seen walking down the hall, either arm in arm, or lips mashed to lips, headed toward the master bedroom, or the bedroom in the hall, as their hands move to buttons and belt buckles. Marva turns down several invitations as she tries to hide her amazement at total strangers offering a quick tour of the bedrooms, although those are not the words they use, or leaning over to whisper, "I need to taste every inch of your skin."

Perhaps her easy blush convinces most men that she is not as experienced as the other women in the room. They may have heard Bryan mention his little sister, little being appropriate for size and now meeting her, little works for younger, too. She does look younger than the rest of the crowd, in fact, a lot younger. Bryan is thirty and Karen is a few years older than that.

At least three times that David notices, Marva goes out to the balcony, down the hallway, or to the kitchen to take a telephone call from a cell phone she pulls from her jeans pocket. There is no way she could have a decent conversation with anyone, while standing in the living room full of loud voices, laughter, and even louder music. One of the times David sees Marva step out to the balcony, he starts to follow, but is stopped by David wanting to introduce his older sister, Karen.

David, like most of the men in the room, has no interest in Karen. Anyone who watches Karen, for more than two minutes, discovers there is another woman very near and several times they are very affectionate, holding hands, or Karen has her arm around the smaller woman's shoulders. It takes little more than a glance to determine Karen's interest is in a same sex relationship.

Karen is not really an Amazon. She is tall, certainly six feet tall and maybe an inch, but probably not two inches, more. Her brother Bryan is less than an inch taller than she is. Everything about her is tall or long. Long arms, long legs, long hair which reaches well past her shoulders, and long slender fingers any piano player would relish. She does play the piano, but not nearly as well as her younger sister, who despite her small hands, has a well developed reach that amazed every one of her piano teachers. But Karen has a voice that sends chills down the spine of a man. It is a deep, sexy voice. Most men, soon after meeting her, regret her sexual preferences. They would prefer to hear a voice like that whispering in their ear as they satisfy her obvious sensual nature. Some men have even gone so far as to brag they could turn her into a lover of men, rather than a lover of women.

When David offers his hand to shake Karen's hand, Bryan introduces the woman standing beside his older sister, as his secretary, Cynthia Martin. She seems to know all the inside scoop on the company where Bryan works. She offers David a few quick suggestions to use when he appears for his interview on Monday. She hints that the company is gearing up for a large product release and is hiring additional salesmen so they can be trained and ready to sell on the product release date.

When Marva returns from her most recent visit to the balcony, Karen stops beside Marva and leans over to say, "Cynthia and I are going home. You'll bring the car?"

Marva nods at her older sister, as David walks up to stand beside her a moment. "So, Marvelous Marva, what's with the phone calls?" David asks the young dark haired woman he watched walk back into the room from the balcony.

"Uh, it's a favor for my boss," she answers. She does not like to answer the question, or more particularly does not want to share information about the call, although there is no reason it should bother her.

"Excuse me. Your boss calls you at eleven o'clock at night? Is that some new kind of harassment I'm not familiar with?"

Marva laughs, "No-no. Actually, I was talking to a client. My boss and I have an agreement. The client did not finish his business because we had a bomb threat at the office today and had to leave the building for several hours. I agreed to take the calls until midnight, so I wouldn't miss Bryan's party, because my boss wanted to attend his daughter's music conservatory recital and I get two extra vacation days."

"Hey, strangely, I believe you. That is too convoluted to be anything but the truth," David laughs and enjoys the young woman's blush, while she looks down at her feet, in an effort to hide her pink cheeks. "I'm sorry," David says, putting his finger under her chin, so she will look up at him. "I did not mean to embarrass you. I'm just teasing."

"It's alright. I'm just one of those girls who blush easily," Marva says, and then does it again, because now, she is embarrassed by the attention of this good looking man.

David puts his arm around Marva's shoulders and leads her a few steps down the hall. "Can you say that again? It's so loud in there," he jerks his head back, indicating the living room, "And I didn't hear what you said."

"I said," Marva says too loudly for the less noisy hallway, and then lowers her voice. "I'm just one of those girls who blush easily. I thought I'd grow out of it, eventually. I'm still waiting for that to happen."

They watch as a couple emerge from the nearby bedroom, both of them adjusting their clothing, while the man runs his fingers through his hair, and the woman pulls a tube of lipstick from her pocket to apply fresh color to her bare lips.

"Well, Marvelous Marva, I think your blush is very attractive and I'm intrigued," David says, watching the young woman's dark blue eyes open wider.

"What is with this Marvelous Marva? I've heard you say that before," she asks watching the couple rejoin the party.

David leans a little nearer and surprises her when he softly kisses her on the lips, lingering a moment longer than a quick peck. He raises his head to look at Marva, and then lowers his head for a longer kiss, a not very gentle slide of his mouth from one side of her lips to the other, pressing them with the tip of his tongue. He finally answers her question, "Your brother calls you Marvelous Marva and now I know why. I need to kiss you again." He grabs her hand, pulls her into the bedroom the couple just vacated, and pulls the young woman into his arms, kissing her mouth, sliding his mouth along her jaw line, and then nibbling at the soft spot beneath her ear, making smacking noises, as if he is appreciating the taste of her.

Marva puts her hands on David's chest and slowly pushes, he removes his arms from around her and says, "I don't mean to offend, but I've watched you laugh at every man here tonight and I wanted a little of your attention, just for me."

She looks at the door, remembering he turned the lock on the door and says, "Well, I guess you have my attention now, but I really need to get back to the party."

"Marva, will you have dinner with me tomorrow night? Or, if it's already Saturday, tonight." David asks.

"I ... I don't know ...," she hesitates.

"Look," he says honestly, "I'm only going to be in town a few nights. Please, I'd like to take you to dinner."

Making a snap decision, Marva says, "Yes, alright, yes, I think I would enjoy that."

"Good," David announces, "Sorry I took you away from your duties. Let's get back to the party."

By one o'clock in the morning, Marva has taken all of the food trays to the kitchen and combined the few leftovers onto the smallest tray. By two o'clock, she has collected most of the trash and taken at least one bag of garbage to the big dumpster on the side street. It wouldn't be fair to leave all the work to Bryan, after all the party was for him. Anyway, it was part of her agreement with her sister. If Cynthia came to the party, Karen was going to apologize and see if Cynthia would accept. Karen was not sure what would happen if Cynthia did agree, but planned to leave the party early if they could get away.

Shortly before three o'clock, Marva is closing the door after ushering the last couple from the room and is giving her brother a hug, wishing him an additional happy birthday, and telling him good night as she reaches into her pocket to retrieve the car keys, when she suddenly remembers handing them back to her sister. "Darn. Bryan, I let Karen get away without getting the car keys from her. Can I sleep in your spare room, or on the couch?"

"Sure Marva, you can have whichever one David doesn't take," her brother responds.

From across the room, David adds, "Take the bed. I'm fine on the couch if you'll find me a pillow and a blanket."

Taking the other pillow from the bed and a quilt out of the linen closet, she puts them on one end of the couch, and tells both men, who are sitting around the dining room table with a bottle of beer in their hands, "Don't stay up all night." She returns to the bedroom, kicks off her shoes by the door, pulls off her jeans and crawls in the bed.

- - -

It is full daylight when Marva slowly awakens to someone's head between her knees as sexual thrills go up the sides of her hips. Before she can react to what she has never experienced before, the head begins working it's way up her stomach, stopping for only a moment to pull her halter top down to nuzzle her breasts, and then places his lips on hers, licking her as if she is delicious. As her eyes flutter open he works his way up farther, rubbing his stiffened cock across her lips as she opens her mouth to ask David what he thinks he's doing.

With his hands holding her arms above her head and his knees clamped on both sides of her head, he begins pumping, each thrust going deeper and deeper until he is fully buried down her throat as he erupts, spilling his ejaculate down her throat. The final thrusts choke Marva, and she sees stars when she cannot get air through her throat, past his quickly deflating penis and she cannot get her arms free to push David away. She is fully awake when her cell phone rings just as David falls to the bed beside her, lying spread eagled as he whispers, "Marvelous Marva."

Marva rolls off of the bed, grabs her jeans and escapes to the bathroom, where she opens the phone, mumbles something, at the same time she vomits into the toilet.

"Good morning Marva, its Charles Tester. I let you sleep as late as I could. I need some information please."

"'Kay," is the only sound Marva can mutter.

"Hey, are you alright?" Mister Tester asks, finally listening to a toilet being flushed and Marva coughing.

"I ... I don't ... he tried to ... oh, God."

Insistent, he says, "Where are you? Tell me, Marva. Where are you?"

"My brother's," she mumbles, coughing as additional gagging is heard, while she tries to bring something up from her already empty and heaving stomach.

"Give me the address," he demands. "The address, Marva, give me the address," Mister Tester is almost shouting.

"1201 Trenton, yes, it's 1201 Trenton."

"Can you get out of there? Can you leave," he asks insistently. "Will he let you leave?"

"I guess so," she answers. David did not seem like he was interested in anything beyond relaxing after his exertion.

"I'm sending you a cab. Go outside, NOW. Do you understand? Tell me you understand. Go outside, I'm sending a taxi for you."

"Yes, yes, I'm going," she answers. Sitting on the floor, Marva straightens her halter top, pulls it down around her hips, tugs her jeans on, pulling the legs up far enough to clear her feet, struggles to stand, and zips her jeans before trying to turn the doorknob. Opening the door an inch or two, she sees David is still on the bed, where she left him. Breathing through her open mouth, she quietly leaves the bathroom, slowly moving across the bedroom, bends to pick up her shoes and leaves the apartment. Rather than wait for the elevator, she takes the stairs, frequently jumping down two steps until she reaches the ground floor and bursts through the door, to run across the small entry and out the self locking front door as a taxi pulls up before the front door.