An Open Entanglement Ch. 02

The problem with comedy clubs, and this had been an issue with their second date, too, was that guests were encouraged to drink - a lot. Encouraged by the good feel of the evening they were having together, Taylor and Jim thus drank a lot, consequences be damned.

Drinking also made the jokes onstage funnier for them; laughing at the same things made Taylor feel good about her fiancé. It reminded her how easy it was to be with Jim, who had so much love and respect for her. There had been a time when their relationship hadn't been suffering from the issues they did now and she wished it were possible to get back to that time.

***

They had met in a professional environment, where it had been easy for her to hide her personal struggles. Following the fallout of an emotionally and sexually abusive relationship, she had felt defeated and insecure. Her colleagues had always just seen the pretty shell she put on display, but no one cared it had lost some of its luster.

For Jim, it might as well have been an invisible shell. When they talked, he always looked into her eyes and not down her blouse, genuinely hearing every word that came out of her mouth. Through their slowly building friendship, she started remembering what it felt like to be herself; she was free to be as smart and ambitious as she wanted to be, as moody and frigid as she needed to be, and somehow, Jim still wanted to be around her.

He was handsome in an unassuming way. Taylor liked the way his eyes shone with wit and dry humor, untainted by lascivious intent, which was often what drove men to interact with her. They had an easy connection, one forged by a sense of understanding and trust, which bloomed romantically over a short period of time.

She felt seen by him. He didn't want her to change, didn't want her to be only a fraction of who she actually was. That was more than what she could say about all her ex-partners combined. He made her feel loved, not with gifts or grand gestures, but with small surprises, remembering things like how she liked her tea and when her cat's birthday had been.

They didn't work together for long, but kept seeing each other. Even after they became a couple, the sex followed months later and infrequently at that. By that time, they were already engaged and moving in together. It had seemed like the logical thing to do. Taylor was content with Jim's undemanding libido, as hers had been badly bruised by her previous relationship and was taking forever to recover.

His tedious attention to their financial strains and the early signs of workaholism had been easy enough to ignore; besides, with the sexual pressure off the table, she had been able to continue focusing on herself and her work. She hadn't thought about what would happen when she was fully back to being herself.

Being fully herself meant her sex drive would match her ambition and intelligence. Something Jim never knew about and would likely never find out...

***

After the comedy show, they were both staggering from the drinks. Taylor called a shared ride that got them safely home. They had to lean on each other while climbing up the stairs to their apartment, something they hadn't done in quite a while; the fact that they were still laughing slowed down their climb considerably.

Jim's freakishly good memory enabled him to recite some of the best jokes from the show, while still drunk out of his mind. She had to close his mouth with one hand to keep him quiet in the hallway and used her other hand to fish out the keys to their apartment from her purse.

The apartment was completely quiet for once. They tiptoed around the furniture, giggling, and made it to the bedroom without injury. Jim quickly undressed down to his underwear and moved to the bed.

Taylor made a show of undressing, or at least, she tried to. Her jeans had somehow got too tight along the course of the night; stripping them down her legs proved to be quite the challenge, while Jim sat there, laughing quietly at something in his head.

She had worn a simple white tee underneath her sweater to go out. She unhooked her bra and slipped it off from underneath her top. Her voluptuous breasts sagged slightly, mostly visible through her shirt, with her nipples rubbing against the cotton.

She stood there for a minute just wearing her t-shirt and panties, pulling her long blonde hair into a bun, before moving towards the bed. By the time she had got under the covers and turned to Jim half-expectantly, he was already asleep with a smile on his face.

***

Brad and his friends spent all of Saturday hiking, barely talking about anything that mattered. The sun was on their side for the most part and they made it halfway back to the car and set up camp by a small lake before it had got too dark.

Nathan's tent went down halfway through their dinner, at which point it was already pitch black outside of the radius of their campfire. After sharing an after-dinner joint, he made an ambiguous gesture towards Brad's tent, which was the bigger of the still standing tents.

"No fucking way," Brad protested, while Jack was more upset at not having being chosen.

"You don't think I'm cuddly enough, Nate? Aw, c'mon!" Jack joked.

They crushed a few more beers around the fire before Brad gave in and shared his tent with Nathan. They all slept soundly, nothing bothering them in their dreams.

***

On Sunday, Taylor woke up to a tugging on her panties. At first, she thought she was still dreaming and that Brad, her sex god neighbor, wanted to go yet another round with her; however, it was her fiancé Jim, who was clumsily trying to get them off her as a morning surprise.

Following the presentation and the nice weekend they were having in the absence of the neighbor, Jim had woken up finally fully feeling recovered from his back surgery. He was vaguely aware of the fact that it had been more than 2 months since he last made love to Taylor. In his mind, his health concerns had been justified, but he hated the treatment he was getting from her.

Jim knew his lack of sex drive also had something to do with the asshole next door, who had sex every night, with no regard to who he was keeping up with the noise. He meant to go talk to him, man to man, but unlike that second-rate swimming instructor, he had a real job with real working hours and responsibilities, which left him too mentally tired to deal with the neighbor, even on the weekends.

That morning was the first time in 2 months that he had woken up with a stiff dick and Jim had a promise to keep. Taylor was sleeping soundly next to him, wearing a long white tee and panties. He could see her nipples pushing against the thin material and remembered the feel of her large breasts pressed against his chest.

His hands tried to go around her hips and pull her panties down, but it woke Taylor up. It took her a second to remember where she was and whom she was with. Despite the multiple showers she had taken since, she thought he could still smell Brad on her. Her mind frantically tried to come up with an excuse to stop Jim before things moved forward.

"What time is it?" she asked groggily, stalling. His advances would have been welcome the previous night; however, in the harsh light of the morning and Jim's awkward movements, she wasn't really in the mood. Still, it felt nice to be desired and at least for the sake of appearances and avoiding a confrontation, she didn't want to turn him down, knowing it wouldn't last long anyway.

Not hearing her, he moved on top of her, his hands insistent of finishing the job of taking her panties off. Taylor kept her eyes closed, but her legs opened up instinctively after her underwear slid down. Thanks to her dream, her body was more than ready. Jim would have no idea he wasn't the cause of the wetness he found between her legs.

Quietly, he slipped on a condom on his morning wood. His dick entering her was just as quiet and uneventful from Taylor's perspective. She had been horny upon waking up, but Jim's quiet grunting on top of her did not engage her in any way. At any rate, he was done quickly and she was thankful to not have to fake it.

"Good morning, beautiful. You looked so sexy sleeping, I couldn't help myself. Now, shall I go make us some eggs?"

He hadn't even pretended to care about whether she had come or not.

"Just because you gave me some PIV for the first time in 2 months, doesn't make you a stud", she thought darkly to herself; the contrast between his limited scope of sex and Brad's was starker in daylight.

"Sure, eggs..." she mumbled noncommittally and made her way to the bathroom.

For once, the shower got steamy hot quickly. After a few minutes under the water, her body also started to warm up, sending signals of the dire need for an orgasm, especially after the completely anticlimactic reunion with her fiancé.

Taylor's finger found her clit hidden beneath the folds. It became easily reachable after a couple of expert strokes and throbbed under her touch. She fingered herself with the same finger to get some of her own juices for lubrication and went back to her clit. Closing her eyes, she could imagine Brad on his knees, his tongue exploring all of her, but always coming back to her clit until she couldn't take it anymore.

As she got closer, her other hand rolled her nipple and pinched it, like he had done. She imagined riding his face, feeling those lips and fingers on her, torturing her to within an inch of her orgasm. The heat wave coursed through her body within seconds, her toes curling under the hot water. Her finger kept flicking her clit afterwards, just to feel the continuing vibrations.

She felt cold and detached, coming out of the shower. Because she'd taken a couple of extra minutes in the shower, her eggs had gone cold; she still ate them quietly and tried to come up with a game plan to move forward.

After breakfast, she packed a thermos with iced tea and announced to Jim that she was going out for her run; he was already sinking into the couch with a book in his hand. He didn't try to stop her; he had no intention of running with her and her girlfriends. After all, his Sundays were for relaxing at home.

***

Taylor waited 10 minutes for her friend, Kate, by the lake. It was their meeting spot for the weekly run. In the past few months they had become friends and she had come to depend on Kate's easygoing company. Even if she couldn't come right out and tell her friend that she had cheated on Jim and would likely do it again in the near future, having someone to listen to her was an increasingly welcome change from her fiancé.

She ran alongside the river by herself, when her friend appeared to be a no show. The isolation helped her unwelcome thoughts spiral like the winding path she was running on.

Brad wasn't her first slip-up. Since her confidence and libido had recovered, there had been others - many others - but always a one-time thing, in the heat of the moment kind of thing. Jim had never known or noticed a single hair out of place, because she knew how to deal with her own shit. Sure, there was remorse and the cliché "I won't do it again" that had her trying to stay faithful for weeks at a time, but not really...

Jim's back injury really had nothing to do with her unfaithfulness. She just had needs that he couldn't satisfy, so she outsourced. It never took much effort on her part; she barely had to do anything other than bat her eyelashes to get some at a shopping mall changing room or a coffee shop bathroom. Men were easy prey for her.

Her usual encounters were adrenaline-driven quickies, more about being in the moment and the freedom to seduce anyone she wanted in a whim. These encounters, more often than not, led to her orgasm, although she'd be hard pressed to admit if it was the partner's skill or the rush of having sex with a stranger.

Brad was an anomaly, she told herself. It had to be the timing of him moving into the building. He had entered her life when she was trying extra hard to be there for her fiancé, when he needed her the most. She absolutely didn't have feelings for the neighbor.

And then scenes from the massage crept into her mind; it had turned into so much more... The way he had asked her for her words; almost as if he knew that she was used to fucking random guys without so much as a "hello" and then walking out like nothing had happened. Maybe he had simply wanted verbal consent, but having to put her needs into words had resonated with her more than she thought.

She chased the thoughts away and ran faster, trying not to think about the quickie they'd had on Friday afternoon before he'd walked out on her and how embarrassed she'd felt. She couldn't let that happen again, no matter how much her body had enjoyed it in the moment.

By the time she was back in the apartment, Taylor was convinced her mind could overtake her body. Her needs were more than satiated; she could concentrate back on the important things like her job and saving her relationship with Jim.

***

Brad woke up on Sunday under quite different circumstances than Taylor. For one, no one was trying to have sex with him while he was still pretty unconscious. For another, Nathan had already woken up before him and was working on the fire for breakfast s'mores.

Jack unzipped his tent door and came out stretching, around the same time as Brad did. Over the years they had spent enough time around each other that someone watching them now would swear the way they adjusted their balls in the morning looked similar.

"Did you sleep well, muffin?" Jake putting on a fake British accent was what passed for humor around those parts.

"Oh, he most certainly did," Nathan replied in kind. They had both thankfully passed out quickly, with minimum snoring.

Brad snorted in response. He took his time to stretch his muscles, which were coiled up from being squeezed into the tent with Nathan. It hadn't been the most restful of nights, but they were there to catch up and crush the hike (which they had), not for the comfort of sleeping outdoors.

The three friends sat around the small fire. Nathan stuffed his face with cookies, too hungry to wait for the marshmallows, before bringing up the topic of the girl with Brad.

"Sooo, are you going to see Taylor again?"

It was a loaded question for Brad, especially at breakfast time on a gorgeous Sunday morning. Judging by the expressions on his friends' faces, both possible answers to the question were wrong.

His silence was also a wrong answer, so he tried to say simply what was on his mind.

"I dunno. I was thinking about it, yeah."

"What? You gotta be fuckin' kidding me!" Jack was clearly disappointed in his best friend and wingman. Nathan was already a lost cause, but Jack had been sure that he and Brad would continue partying well into their 40's.

"Hey, man, you saw her, I thought you'd understand. She's so fucking hot, and so..." Brad tried to defend himself against Jack. Nathan remained pointedly quiet.

"Ah, come on! Can you please just go back to fucking yoga instructors?"

"I never said I'd stop doing that."

"So, you'll still be flexible? Hang out and share the love? 'cause we need the love, too." Jack was starting to sound more and more selfish.

"You need the love. I'm doing fine." Nathan jumped in briefly, before Brad launched his salvo.

"Hey, assface, I introduce you to plenty of girls! If you had game, you wouldn't need me wingmanning you to seal the deal. I bet you couldn't even close with the girls that are already in your house!"

"But... She... They..."

"Right."

"Hey, wait.. I've.. uh.." Jack was still unable to form a full sentence in his own defense, having clearly not moved onto either of the girls. Then he decided to move forward with his usual bravado.

"Trust me, they want a piece of this! They all want a piece of this!"

"No, they don't, Jackie. We've seen your dick pics, dude. Enough already!"

"Yeah, speaking of which, please stop drunk-texting dick pics? It's not impressive, seriously." Nathan felt it was time to back Brad up.

"Whatever... What do you care anyway? You got a girlfriend, Nate, and Brad sounds like he's pretty set on this new girl. Maybe you guys should have a double wedding; that should be fun!"

"Riiightt..." Brad and Nathan echoed each other in the same tired tone. They turned to each other and shared a small smirk, which Jack didn't notice and continued to ramble on.

"Whatever, man. Look, you need to come back and hang out with me and the girls tonight back at my place. I'm sure Taylor can wait one more night, while you watch me sweep the girls off their feet right in front of you."

"The only way tonight will end is with me and both of those girls on your bed, Jack, while you're passed out on your couch. As for Taylor, I can't blame her for wanting more of this. We got interrupted last time, so I just want to make sure she receives the full package, if you know what I mean."

Nathan had a funny look in his eyes, watching his two best friends trying to outdo each other. He knew better than to take Jack seriously, but he also knew Brad would take the bait, no matter what his feelings for Taylor were, as he never backed down from a challenge. He couldn't spell it out for Brad and could only hope he would figure it out for himself.

***

They got back into town late on Sunday night. Nathan dropped his two friends off at Jack's apartment, which was the only one in the building with lights still on. The guys came in to find the girls, Claudia and Silke, hanging out in the living room.

TV was on a random channel, showing one of the stoner movies of the early 2000's. The faint smell in the room suggested the girls had probably smoked a joint or two before Jack had arrived with Brad in tow, but at least they had been nice enough to air out the apartment.

They were both slender, around 6 feet tall, with platinum blonde hair, grey/icy blue eyes and thin, but delicious lips. The major difference between them was their haircuts; Claudia had long, flowing hair down to the small of her back, whereas Silke had a pixie cut that accentuated her angular face with high cheekbones.

Besides the hairstyle, Brad really didn't have much else to tell the girls apart, when Jack introduced them to him. They were friendlier than he expected; both he and Jack got a tight hug from each of them, as though they had been long time friends.

The loose cotton pajamas they were both wearing were a bit childish and didn't give away their curves too much. Even with the tight greeting hugs, he barely felt their breasts press against him. With some difficulty, he managed not to feel up their asses, hoping he'd eventually get around to that.

It still wasn't clear to him if his friend had already slept with both girls, but his teasing from earlier had got under Brad's skin. He was not about to settle down with Taylor and he definitely was not about to lose either of these girls to Jack.

All four of them lounged on the couch and were half watching the movie, half talking about random things. It was teasingly revealed that while both girls were currently single, they had dated each other briefly, before going back to men. Silke watched the guys' faces while sharing that bit of information, reveling in the way their eyes slightly widened, followed by the inevitable licking of lips.

After that, Jack lost no time in announcing both he and his longtime friend Brad were both single and available. Following all the suggestive jokes he had already been making, the girls seemed to take no offense. However, Brad could see that Claudia was looking at him way more than she was looking at Jack, waiting for him to make a suggestion of his own, as if she was waiting for an invite.