Carl Won't Stop Talking

I met Felicia at a Starbucks not far from the town green. We hadn't been chatting online long before she suggested that we get together for coffee. It was great reconnecting with her on Facebook. I dated her for a few months my senior year in college, but we lost touch after I moved out to California for my first big job after graduation.

Moving back home kind of felt like admitting defeat. Sure, I got a good job based on the experience I got from working at DocuCon, but it was the burst of the Dot Com Bubble that left me jobless. And then there was my failed relationship - again, my first big one since college. Somehow, coming back east just seemed less like the return of a hero and more like a quiet defeat.

Felicia, however, was overjoyed.

"Marco!" She practically ran to the door when I walked into the cafe, burying herself against my chest in a big hug. The hug lasted long enough for me to overcome my surprise and return the embrace. Then the hug went a little longer than that. And then longer still.

Eventually I did the guy thing and patted her twice on the back to signal we're done. "It's good to see you, too, Licia."

"Come! Sit! There's so much to catch up on," she said as she took me by the hand and led me to her table. She moved her coat and bag out of a seat and then sat in the one opposite. I couldn't help but notice that her chair had a commanding view of the door. That explains how I got nailed with my surprise hug as I walked in. It was an ambush by an obviously eager Felicia. I smiled at her. It's nice to feel wanted.

"How much more is there to say?" I asked. "I think we chatted online for at least three hours the other night."

Felicia made a dismissive gesture. "That doesn't count. It's not the same as face-to-face time."

She was right, of course. I looked her over. Her hair was different, and though it was possible to see some changes over the last nine years, it wasn't easy. Same bright look in her eyes, same wide and wild smile, the same beautiful face and body. Actually, now that I think about it, it looked like her breasts had gotten a little bigger.

She cleared her throat, and I looked up from her cleavage into a smug grin. "Um, you look good, Licia," I said.

"Nice save, Marco." She wasn't angry. She was never angry when I ogled her in college, either. I spent a few years getting to know her as a friend before we started dating our senior year. There was plenty of sexual tension in the early years, but she never truly seemed to mind my roving eyes and less-than-subtle innuendo. It made me rethink the decisions I'd made all those years ago. Why wasn't I still with her?

"It's true! It's like you haven't changed a bit since college." As the words left my lips, I noticed the wedding ring on her hand. Oh yeah, that's why I wasn't still with her. "How's Carl?"

Felicia squirmed slightly in her seat and fussed with her ring. "Oh, you know Carl. He won't shut up about you being back in town. He'd be here too if he didn't have to work."

"Really? He doesn't mind that I'm... Well, I mean, things were kind of weird between us at the end." Now it was my turn to fidget.

Felicia perked right up. "What, Carl? No way! That was years ago. Water under the bridge, honestly. He's just as excited about you coming back as I am. Really, that's all he can talk about."

"That's a relief." Carl was dating Felicia before she and I got together. And when Felicia and I split up, Carl was right there for the rebound. Actually, since the two of them married soon after graduation, I should probably think of myself more as Felicia's fling than Carl's rival. Carl and I were never best buds or anything in college, but the three of us hung out together regularly, and I knew he was a good guy. He was handsome, too - the kind of the strong, silent type. Maybe Felicia landed the right guy.

"So, tell me about your time out west? What was it like? You mentioned you were seeing someone. Is she still in the picture?" Felicia asked, still spinning her ring but looking me in the face again.

"Well, no. Not still in the picture," I answered, taking a deep breath before the next part, "and not a 'she'. He's a 'he'."

I could actually see the whites around Felicia's pupils as her eyes went wide in surprise. "What? You're gay?"

"Jesus, Licia!" I hissed, "Not so loud!" I looked around. I'm sure few people in liberal Rhode Island gave a rat's ass about my sexuality, but it's still my business. "Not gay. Bi."

"No way!" Felicia's eyes were still wide, but at least she's a little quieter. "That's so cool!"

"I don't know what's so 'cool' about it. It just means that I can get dumped by both men and women. In fact, Richard..."

Felicia interrupted me before I could get into the sordid details of my breakup. "Can I tell Carl?"

"What, that I got dumped or that I suck cock?" If there were any uptight Rhode Islanders still listening in on our conversation, I might as well make it more interesting for them.

A little seat wiggling again from Felicia and she actually blushed. "Both."

She looked down at the diamond on her ring, and I noticed something. Felicia's nipples were hard! I can see them jutting out as plain as day. Is she even wearing a bra? Looking at her shoulders, I can see where the bra straps are under her sweater. It's definitely not that cold in here so she must be legitimately turned on. Today is starting to get weird.

"Well, yeah, sure. I don't see why not." I'm not exactly in the closet. My parents know, but I don't make a big deal out of it. My opinion is that being sexually attracted to someone shouldn't just depend on what they've got in their underwear. I'm actually surprised that more people aren't bisexual. Heck, I'm just as turned on now by Felicia's hard nipples as I ever was by Richard's cock.

Felicia interrupts my reverie by grabbing both my hands. "Come over for dinner tonight."

"What?" Damn, I wish this conversation would slow down a little. Between my newfound horniness and Felicia's rapid speech I'm struggling to keep up.

"Dinner. Tonight. Our place. Carl won't mind. He's dying to catch up with you." She took out her phone. "I'll call him now."

"Wait, stop! I can't tonight. I start my new job tomorrow. I need to get a good night's sleep before my big day." Felicia looks crestfallen, so I quickly say "I'd love to, just not tonight."

"Tomorrow night?" Hope springs eternal in Felicia's eyes.

"Sure." They can't expect me to stay late on the first day of work, right? And it'll be nice to unwind a little after what's sure to be a stressful experience. "I'd love to."

Felicia grabs my hand and squeezes. "Goody! Carl is going to be so thrilled!" she chirped. "Now, tell me all about this dickhead who dumped you."

Felicia and I spent the next hour talking about the nature of relationships. I told her all about Richard, how we met and how it ended. She told me about what it was like getting back together with Carl, how she missed me at first, but how she and Carl are really happy together - and how she still kind of misses me. I got a little confused about her tales of marital bliss and her lingering feelings about me, especially since she kept holding my hand. She even stroked it a little, like she used to do back in college. It's probably just an absent-minded habit by now, but back then she did it to turn me on. She'd squeeze my fingers and whisper into my ear, "This is what I want to do to your cock." Damn, she was squeezing my fingers right now, exactly the way she used to, while telling me about her and Carl's weekend stay out on Cape Cod. Leaning in, she even flashed that same mischievous smile.

"Oh!" Suddenly upright, Felicia checked the time on the outside of her clamshell phone. "I've got to get going. Carl's probably home by now. I can't wait to tell him all about our meeting. He's going to have so many questions!"

With a quick peck on the lips, Felicia was out the door. I sat wondering for a few minutes about Carl. While Felicia hadn't seemed to change much over the years, I gathered that Carl had. When I refer to Carl as "strong and silent," it's with an emphasis on the "silent." While he wasn't ever surly or rude, you'd barely get more than ten words out of Carl. He'd only smile and nod, just happy to be there. I guess Felicia's chatty nature must have loosened him up. I supposed I'd find out tomorrow night.

That night I put away a few more things in my new apartment, drank a cup of microwaved tea, and went to bed. I should have been sleeping, but my mind went back to my meeting with Felicia. God, she looked so great. Seeing her had brought back all those feelings I had for her in college. I didn't really want her for my own anymore - it didn't seem right to want to win her away from a guy she was obviously still wild about - but I still craved her. I thought about what her tits looked like under that sweater, her nipples erect as they had been in the cafe but beautiful and bare, just as I remembered them in college. And I thought about her hand stroking mine, squeezing my fingers teasingly as we talked, and remembered the way her hand felt rubbing my crotch. And I thought about the wide, mischievous smile she liked to flash before swallowing my cock.

But it was Carl's cock she was swallowing now. I wondered what that must look like and if she did the same things to him that she used to do to me. But, unlike the images etched in my mind, people change. They learn new things, they adapt to new partners' desires. Felicia must be a different lover with Carl than she was with me. Lord knows that I've changed. While I thought about same-sex encounters a lot when I was in college, I still hadn't actually been with another man. That experience, of course, definitely changed the way I thought about sex. In a lot of ways, it rewrote my definition of fucking. Well, perhaps expanded it, since I would still define what Felicia and I did in our tiny dorm room beds as fucking. I was still pondering that aspect of the definition when I drifted off to sleep.

It was my hard cock that woke me up the next morning, not the alarm I thought I'd set on my phone. Damn it! Late on my first day of work? Not if I got my ass in gear. I had to redo my crooked tie when I got there, but I still managed to get to work on time. I spent an hour at human resources filling out forms and hearing about a myriad of benefits options and rules, got my employee handbook binder, and met up with my new boss, Amy. She took me on a whirlwind tour of the office complex, introducing me to my coworkers as "our new genius from DocuCon," and pointing out the empty desks leftover from the round of downsizing they did last year. Great, I thought, now I have to live up to a reputation of being a Dot Com genius or just leave as a name associated with another empty desk.

And my new company wasn't in great shape. They had bounced back relatively quickly after the bubble burst, but it was because of layoffs - meaning that, in addition to the dead weight they cut, the more talented staff had left for greener, more stable pastures - and by leveraging their assets. The bottom line was that they were overextended financially and pretty much directionless. They needed success quickly, and it was up to me to deliver it. Fuck me. I got to my desk, took down the outdated Far Side calendar, and got to work.

Most people left early since it was a Friday, but Amy and I worked on. It was six o'clock when I remembered Felicia and Carl, and it was almost seven when I finally managed to extricate myself from work. I called Felicia, made my apologies, and got directions to their house. Fortunately, it wasn't far. I had planned to go back to my apartment to clean up and get changed, but there wasn't enough time for that now. Wearing my first-day-of-work clothes meant that I looked nice when Felicia opened the door, but skipping my morning shower and wallowing in flop sweat all day meant I felt gross. Felicia didn't care. She gave me a big hug and a kiss where I stood, still on their welcome mat, before pulling me inside.

"Carl!" Carl was standing right behind her when she called him, and Felicia jumped a little when she turned around. "Carl, it's Marco!"

"I think we've met a few times, Licia," I quipped wryly, shaking Carl's hand. He was all smiles and pumped my hand warmly with both of his. Carl had lost a little hair since college but the higher forehead suited him. Now, instead of just handsome, he looked more manly and less like the affable college kid I'd known. He still had that bright crinkle of joy in his eyes and his affable and somewhat goofy smile. Like Felicia's hugs, Carl's handshake lingered perhaps a little longer than necessary. I didn't mind.

"Come. Sit down. Relax. Do you want wine? We have wine." Felicia turned to Carl. "Carl, what kind of wine was it that you bought?"

Carl started to answer but Felicia turned back to me and spoke before he got a single word out. "It's red, whatever it is. You drink red, right?" I smiled at Carl, who just grinned and shrugged, then told Felicia that yes, I drank red.

I sat at the high counter in their kitchen while Felicia got out a wine glass. The bottle was already open, and I could tell from the lipstick on the glass on the counter that Felicia hadn't waited for me before she started drinking. She poured me a generous helping and leaned on the counter, her glass in hand. Carl sat on the stool next to me. "Nice tie," he said.

"Don't pester the poor guy, Carl! He's got to be exhausted after his first day of work. Take off your jacket and relax!"

"Thanks, Licia, but I think I probably wreak. I'll leave it on."

"Nonsense," she replied. "I want you to be comfortable. Take off your tie at least. Oh, and we don't wear shoes in the house."

I looked at Felicia's bare feet and Carl's socks. "Oo, sorry." I slipped off my shoes. "Where can I put these?"

"Carl can take those," Felicia said to me. And then to Carl, "Just put them by the door."

"I know where they go," laughed Carl as he padded out of the room, my shoes in hand.

We watched him leave the room, and Felicia made a little noise in her throat. "I never get tired of looking at his ass." I mentally agreed with her appraisal, but I hadn't realized I was nodding until Felicia laughed. I covered my embarrassment by pulling off my tie as nonchalantly as I could. I rolled it up and stuck it into the pocket of my jacket. Carl walked back in and, after a sidelong glance at Felicia to see if she was watching me, I checked him out from the front too. That part looked pretty good, too.

"You're probably hungry, but Carl has a ton of questions for you," said Felicia. "Do you like eating Chinese?"

"You mean the food or the people?" I didn't need a lot of booze to lower my inhibitions, and the first glass of wine had loosened my tongue. Carl chuckled and handed me a menu while Felicia refilled my glass.

"You know what I mean, pervert." Felicia swatted my arm, then rubbed the spot she swatted, as if to apologize to it. "This restaurant is great, and they'll deliver in 30 minutes. What do you want?" I picked the number three special, and Felicia phoned in our order.

I must have been hungrier than I thought. An hour later and I had finished eating. Felicia and I had finished off the first bottle of wine and opened a second. "Carl," I asked, "you're not a fan of red?"

"Carl doesn't like anything without a head on it," answered Felicia before Carl could open his mouth. "He's a beer drinker."

"What kind does he like, Licia?"

Felicia laughed, spilling a little wine. "Ask him yourself. He's sitting right there."

"So Carl," I said, "What kind of..."

"St. Pauli ," interrupted Felicia. Carl and I laughed, and at that moment I realized how much they loved each other. It wasn't just that Felicia could finish - and start - Carl's sentences, it was the fact that Carl really didn't mind. They were made for each other. Suddenly I felt like a third wheel.

"Hey, listen," I said, "This has been fantastic, but I should probably get going. I've got work tomorrow. And I wreak. I need a shower."

Felicia looked puzzled. "You work on Saturdays? Starting on a Friday is bad enough, but having you come in on the weekend seems kind of cruel for your first week. "

Huh. Her words might have slurred a bit, but Felicia had a point. I forgot that today was Friday, and Amy hadn't said anything about coming in tomorrow.

"You can use our shower." I was a little started to hear Carl's voice, but he kept talking. "And I've got clothes you can wear."

Felicia, strangely wordless, nodded enthusiastically. They both wanted me to stay. I was so touched that I could have cried. "Uh, sure," I said, clearing my throat. "That would be great."

Felicia, Carl close behind, walked me down the hall to the shower. Leaning in close within the tiled enclosure, she showed me how the shower worked while Carl got some towels from the closet in the hall. Carl stood behind Felicia, his hands on her shoulders, and told me they'd find me something to wear. The pair left, and I got undressed.

After the usual awkwardness of working a strange set of handles, I got the shower to something close to a decent temperature and stepped in. I was pretty well lathered up when I heard the bathroom door open and close. I rinsed off, wondering if I'd fit into Carl's pajamas. I fumbled with the knobs, but I got the shower to shut off and stepped out. My clothes were gone, replaced with a satiny robe in a dark, sort of paisley print. Well, that will definitely fit. I toweled off and slipped on the robe.

I padded barefoot to the living room and found Carl and Felicia on the couch. They must have decided to make me feel more at home because they too had changed into bedclothes. Carl was wearing cotton pajamas, but Felicia was showing a bit of skin in a silky, dark red slip trimmed in lace. It was short and barely held in place with spaghetti straps. She was holding Carl's hand. Both of them were grinning like lottery winners.

"Looking good, Licia," I said. "And Carl, I didn't know anybody still wore matching pajama sets."

"He just wears them for special occasions," chirped Felicia. "Normally he wears a lot less." She looked askance at Carl, but Carl just smiled.

I sat in an oversized chair near the couch. "Impromptu sleepover parties must count as a special occasion," I said as I let my eyes drift over Felicia. Her nipples were at least as hard as they were when we'd met at the coffee shop, and they were just as arousing to look at. I arranged the robe as best I could across my lap, but it was short and the slippery fabric didn't want to stay closed. There wasn't much fabric to hide my growing excitement, and I wondered if they'd notice. I shot a glance at them on the couch. Felicia looked up in time to catch my eye. Yeah, she'd noticed. And was it my imagination, or did I see Carl's pajamas start to tent at the crotch?

Felicia cleared her throat. "Carl wanted to ask you a question," she said. Carl didn't even bother to open his mouth. He just looked back at Felicia and waited for her to continue speaking. He didn't have to wait long. "So, you're bi, right? That means you know stuff about both men and women, right?"

"I suppose. Why do you ask?"

"Well," she continued, "Carl wanted to know who's better at oral stuff, men or women?" Maybe it was all the wine she'd had, but Felicia's skin reddened from her cheeks to her cleavage. "You know, like blow jobs?"

"I guess it depends on who's doing it," I replied, "but I think men have a natural advantage. They know how it feels getting sucked off." If Felicia blushed more, I didn't notice. I was watching Carl's bulge. "When it comes to knowing how to suck cock, it helps to have a cock that's been sucked." It definitely wasn't my imagination: I saw Carl's bulge twitch.