Corruption of a Geek Goddess Pt. 02

I knew Chelsea would be at that YouTuber convention, but I wasn't that interested in going, and anyway Mark would be with her the whole time and she'd still feel weird about the three of us hanging out together. But then Chelsea told me about Mark's funeral that weekend and how he wouldn't be going to the Con with her, and that was too perfect to ignore. I got in touch with the organizers and, sure enough, they still had room for another booth. Opportunity.

The next day Chelsea mentioned that her neighbor was going with her. Okay, that's a complication, but nothing we can't handle -- I just needed a wingman. I looked up this "Nora" woman online, and... not bad! Really pretty, and she looked fun. I just needed someone to peel her away from Chelsea for a while, and I had the perfect guy: my old college teammate, Cody.

Now, Cody's not quite as decent & upstanding as I am. (Don't start.) Nora's married, but that wouldn't slow him down one bit. Never does. In fact he kinda takes some sick pride in going after girls who aren't single. Even better, he happens to look like a younger, fitter version Nora's husband, so that should get her attention. I still didn't love his chances of actually closing the deal, but that didn't matter. Dangle a cute young MILF in front of Cody and promise to pick up the tab for everything and, boom, he was in.

Anyway, I figured I had a real good shot at bagging Chelsea again (at least 70/30, right?), and another turn in the sack would go a long way towards locking her down as my regular hookup. And for the record, that's not because I'm some super-smooth operator whose game is impeccable. It's because, deep down, Chelsea wanted it even more than me. It was obvious if you know what to look for.

I decided not to tell Chelsea ahead of time that I'd be there. I'd just show up, that way she wouldn't have time to get in her own head about what could happen and whether it's okay.

So, early Saturday morning, shortly after getting set up at the convention center, I went looking for her. I eventually spotted her down the aisle, unpacking her stuff with Nora and facing away from me. I walked over until I was about 10 feet behind her, stopped, and just said:

"Well, hello there, pretty lady!"

Chelsea turned around wearing a polite smile, took one look at me, and her jaw fell on the floor. Automatically she blurted out, "Oh, shit."

The look on her face was fucking priceless.

Chelsea

I almost fainted dead away when I saw Dylan standing there, all sweetness & light. What. The. Fuck.

No, that's seriously what I said: "What the fuck? Dylan, what are you doing here?" I pulled him off to the side to have a hushed conversation.

"What do you mean? It's a convention for YouTubers & content creators: my booth is around the corner over there. My friend Cody's watching it right now."

"Yeah, sure, but--"

"I know, you're wondering why I didn't say anything. I was a last minute addition and I thought I'd surprise you. For real, I didn't want you to feel nervous or anything these last few days for no reason. We always get along fine in the end."

Yeah, that was nice of him. I wasn't feeling nervous at all now.

But, he was kinda right. We started talking -- just about small stuff, the convention and the weather and so forth; all our heavy or kinky conversations were on the phone -- and before long we had that easy back & forth going. I introduced him to Nora and he was his usual charming self. He just makes it so easy to forget about the gross tonnage of wrong peeking out from around the corner. In fact I only remembered how fucked up this was (or could be) right at the end of our chat. And it wasn't even from anything naughty.

"So, where are you staying?" Dylan asked.

"Um, nowhere. I mean I'm commuting from home, the drive is doable."

"Gotcha. Yeah, I didn't want to make the extra trip, so I'm at the Marriot."

"Oh, cool... so, the one just down the road?"

"Nah, they were booked. The one downtown."

"Cool, cool..."

And that's all it took to send me spiraling: just the little reminder of how easy it would be to do something awful. I'm out of town, Mark's on the other side of a damn continent, and this guy I fantasize about kind of a lot has a bed that's just a 20-minute drive away. And for the love of god, Chelsea: why did you make a point of finding out precisely where he was staying? Yeah, that's right. You know why, you slut.

After that I was feeling horny & guilty, and that's turned out to be a potent combination for me. So I started teasing Mark extra hard via text -- partly to make up for the awful things running through my head, and partly because I had sex on the brain and needed a non-Dylan's-hotel-room outlet. And I managed to avoid Dylan for most of the day, making excuses to be elsewhere whenever possible and hanging onto Nora for dear life. But of course when the convention photographer came around to my booth late in the afternoon, that just happened to be when Dylan & Cody were hanging around, and he snapped an adorable shot of the four of us together, Dylan's arm wrapped around my shoulders and the side of my blushing face pressed up against him. Mark saw that pic the next day (of course he did), and I had no good answers for why I hadn't mentioned that Dylan was here with me when he texted.

Sunday wasn't as busy at the convention and we had more downtime. Dylan seemed to have lost interest in doing convention stuff or manning his booth, because he & Cody spent most of the day hanging out with us. Thank merciful god Nora's here with me, I thought -- as long as I stuck by her side Dylan couldn't do anything outrageous, and (more importantly) neither could I.

To be honest, whenever I was able to forget about my sins and my guilt for a while, it was nice having the boys around. They were funny and helpful, and they really livened up what could've been a slow day. Cody enjoyed chatting up Nora in a playful way, and Nora was having great fun playing along. It did occur to me that watching this fit, younger guy hit on a happily married woman was a little like getting a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Past, but it didn't bother me. Neither of them seemed to be taking it seriously, Nora's got a great marriage to take care of, and anyway she wouldn't do anything with me around. All in all, we had a great time.

And that's basically what led to the thing that happened next. It was 5:00 PM, the end of the convention, and we were packing up to leave -- that's when our plans changed.

"Ugh," I said to no one in particular, "not looking forward to this drive home."

Dylan piped up: "So don't go yet. Me and Cody are gonna stick around and go see this band that's playing downtown. You should totally come with."

"Ooh!" Nora said, and that was trouble. I at least tried to object.

"Um... I don't know. It's a long drive and I'm kinda beat. Maybe we should just call it a day and hang out some other time?"

"No!" Nora said. "Chelsea, please! I never have a chance like this to do anything fun. We'll just go for a little bit, and I'll even do the driving after. Come on, please?"

"Yeah, Chelsea, come on!" Cody said, playing along.

And Dylan added, "Come on. It'll be fun, and we'll have you back home before you know it. I promise."

They were all looking at me like kids begging Mom for a toy, and I just didn't have it in me to be the Fun Police. And anyway it was only my rational brain saying No -- it really did sound like a good time, and Chelsea likes good times. Besides, the same logic from before still applied: as long as I stayed with Nora, nothing could happen that I'd later have to regret, right?

(Look, just shut up. Don't judge me. I can feel you judging me. You weren't there, okay?)

So we went to the goddamned show... and it was, indeed, pretty goddamned fun. It was at this big bar with a stage and the band was really good. I guess Nora forgot her promise to do the driving, because she had three drinks in her before I could blink, and then kept going. Since I'd be the driver after all I had to stop after two and try to enjoy her drunkenness vicariously, waiting for Nora to have enough fun for the night.

So I stayed. Dylan tried to get me to dance but I knew where that shit ended -- no thank you. I just chatted with him (as much as I could over the music) and kept an eye on Nora. Seems like she really did need to blow off some steam, because she was tearing it up. Drinking, laughing, dancing with Cody. Then dancing suggestively with Cody, then kinda hanging off him. It was mesmerizing to watch, but also kinda horrifying. I wanted to shout at her, "Nora, you're married!" You're one to talk, Chelsea.

I spent a couple hours like that. Then I checked my phone for a second, and when I looked back up Nora & Cody were hungrily making out in the middle of the floor. Oh dear god, please don't do this to me. The band took a break a minute later and I dragged her off to the bathroom.

"So, I guess I'm driving tonight," I said. "Are you ready to go?"

"Right. Crap, sorry about that. Yeah, let's go, but... um, can we just stop by their hotel real quick on the way? Just to say goodbye, and Cody wanted to show me this thing on his laptop." Well, shit. Imagine my total lack of surprise.

"I kinda want to get home. Let's just say our goodbyes here, ok? We should go."

"No no no, Chelsea, it's totally fine. You go. I can just crash at their hotel tonight and ride back with them in the morning."

"Nora! Don't. Seriously, no. I'm your sober friend and I'm telling you it's not worth it."

"I'm not gonna fuck him! Maybe... just... make out a little more..."

I shut my eyes and took in a deep breath. You're killing me, Nora. I thought that she'd be my security blanket, but it turns out I'm hers. If I leave her here, there's a 100% chance she wakes up tomorrow far from home and freshly fucked, a newly-minted adulteress. Oh, god... I wonder if Dylan would take a turn with her, too. He probably would, the gorgeous bastard... but it would be hot. He'd just climb onto the bed while she's still out of it, start kissing her (and he's such a great kisser), spread her legs apart, push himself into her cheating slit, raw, and fuck her until she's a quivering mass of -- No! Chelsea, don't think about that!

If I go with her... I don't know. I can keep an eye on her. Make sure nothing too bad happens. Get her back to her husband tonight, in one piece (mostly). And it would be good to give myself another half hour to clear the alcohol from my system. Plus, I'd have a chance to stop being such a scared little baby; that night with Dylan has just had this hold over me since it happened, and I'm sick of being afraid of what he might do, afraid of what I might do, and who I might be. If I can just be in the same room with him for a little while, maybe I'll see I could just say 'No' and put the whole thing behind me. I can't actually deal with this problem until I face it. Be brave, Chelsea.

"Ok," I finally said. "I'll go up with you. Thirty minutes, and then we go home. No more."

I took her hand and led her back out towards the bar; when I looked over, Nora had an eager smile on her face.

***/*****/*****/***

The night was still young when the four of them set out from the bar to make the short walk to the hotel. Cody & Nora were out in front together, tipsy, laughing and cavorting. Dylan & Chelsea followed behind them, watching, chatting a little. Dylan was satisfied, doing his best not to spook his prey -- the day's momentum seemed to be entirely with him and his plans.

Chelsea, on the other hand, had a very different mindset. She was psyching herself up, steeling herself to keep a watchful eye on Nora, and to gently-but-firmly rebuff Dylan if (when) he made a move on her. She checked the time on her phone: 7:32 PM. If you're still there at 8:00, you just say goodbye, grab Nora and drag her home -- no matter what. No matter what, Chelsea...

The group arrived at the hotel and took the elevator up to the 12^th floor; Dylan opened the door to his room and they all piled in. Chelsea spotted an important detail: Dylan & Cody were not sharing one hotel room -- they had two adjoining rooms, with Cody's just on the other side of the door it shared with Dylan's. That might make it harder to play chaperone, she realized.

Sure enough, after just a few minutes of drunken chatter about the convention and the band they saw, Cody took advantage of the first pause in the conversation:

"Oh, hey," he said to Nora, "you want to see that app I told you about?"

"Sure!" The pair of them boozily staggered towards Cody's room as Chelsea tried to stop them.

"Well why don't you guys, I mean, you can bring the laptop... in here..." Her plea fell on deaf ears; Nora just looked back as she walked and held up one finger to suggest she'd be right back, then disappeared through the doorway, and like that Chelsea & Dylan were once again alone together. She, sitting nervously on the edge of one of the beds, while he sat on the other one, trying to look reassuring.

"Oh, relax. Let 'em have their fun," he said.

"She's married..."

"No, she's bored is what she is."

A peal of laughter came from Cody's room, followed by Nora's giggly voice: "Heheh, stop that! Oh! Mmmmm..."

The noises coming from the next room made it clear that something was going on; Chelsea grimaced. "So, I suppose that's what you have in mind for the two of us?"

"Haha! Why Chelsea, what do you take me for?" he joked. "But, nah. You know I want you, but you say you don't want to play again, so I'll take your word for it. I won't try anything if you don't want... but I do find it interesting that you came up to the room with us."

"I'm her ride. And, I want to look out for her."

"Oh, stop. She's a grown-ass woman, older than you. You don't have to take care of her; she'll be fine, you'll see. So chill out. You'll wake up tomorrow, world's still spinning. Don't worry so much."

"Hrrm." They sat in silence for a moment, listening to the sounds from next door: the rustling of clothes & sheets, quiet giggles, muffled little moans. Chelsea cringed -- hearing her friend's marital vows crumble from 20 feet away was awful, but also sickeningly arousing. She tried to summon her willpower. "Maybe I should go in there..."

"Ha, I'm pretty sure she'd tell you get the hell out. Anyway, Cody's no monster: I promise you, nothing's going to happen she doesn't want."

"Hrrm," Chelsea said again. She had no response for that and just looked off to the side, so Dylan tried to redirect the conversation.

"But, while we wait, can I ask you about something? If what we did was so terrible, why are you still talking to me about your sex life? And why are always roleplaying with Mark about the idea of you & me together? And then telling me all about it? Because it feels like, for someone who hates what we did, you sure like reliving it."

"It's not like that! You know why I do it: it's for Mark, for his fantasy. I owe it to him."

"Ohhh, ok. I'm sure that's it. Has nothing to do with the fact that we had an amazing time, and we're both still thinking about it, and that Mark seems like he'd be ok with it -- haha, he loved it even more than you did and he wasn't even there." She glared at him. "Look, Chelsea, as a friend, no bullshit: take Yes for an answer, you know? We can hook up again and it'd be totally fine. It's what we both want anyway."

Chelsea sat and stared at Dylan for a long few seconds; from the other room, she heard the unmistakable sound of a belt being undone, but she was too focused on Dylan to try and do anything about it. He was echoing all those nagging doubts she'd had about her own actions, the evil little thoughts she'd been fighting against for months. And because he'd come distressingly close to the mark, her subconscious reacted violently.

Yeah, she knew there was a little truth in Dylan's spiel... but it was just so cynical & self-serving. What, was she supposed to admit that this sexy asshole who was just trying to manipulate her into cheating on her fiancé AGAIN had a point? Fuck that! She'd be god-damned if she was gonna give him an inch, not after that bullshit he just tried to pull. He was not going to win this argument. He just wasn't.

"No. Nice try, dude, but no. You don't know me as well as you think, ok? This is all for Mark. Now please knock it the fuck off."

Chelsea enjoyed what felt like a victory for all of two seconds before fate intervened: that was the moment her cell phone rang. It was Mark. She swallowed hard, motioned to Dylan to keep his mouth shut, and answered the call.

Chelsea tried to sound chipper: "Hey, sweetie! How's it going?"

"Good, good. Just getting ready for bed, checking in. How'd it go today?"

"Oh, it was great. We just got home a bit ago," she lied.

"Cool. So what was it like? Did Nora have fun? And did you have any, ha, 'adventures' I should know about?" He was clearly in the mood for another session of kinky roleplay over the phone. God, he's insatiable with this shit.

"Yeah, um, Nora had fun... listen, babe, I'm actually exhausted, about to pass out here. Why don't I tell you all about it tomorrow?"

"Oh, sure, of course. I won't keep you. Uh, my flight tomorrow gets in 9:15 AM your time, so... I guess I'll see you then?"

"Yep, count on it. Can't wait!"

They traded quick goodnights and Chelsea got out of the call unscathed. She would have been relieved, except Dylan chose that moment to burst into laughter.

"HAHAHA-hahaha... Ohhh, Chelsea. You had me going there for a second. 'This is all for Mark.' Yeah, clearly. Heheheh..."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"If it's all for Mark, why did you lie about where you are? He would've loved hearing that you were with me at a hotel. But you couldn't tell him because you're actually here for you. Haha, I knew it."

Dylan raised his arms in a mock victory celebration, and Chelsea's face flushed in embarrassment. Jesus, was he right? Did that even make sense? Did she really come here for her own sake? More importantly... did Dylan just win this fucking argument? Argh! She fixed him a cold, determined stare and made a bad decision.

"Asshole," she said simply. Then she picked up her phone and called Mark back; he answered on the second ring.

"Hello again," he said. "Forget something?"

"Yeah. I mean, no. Honey, can I tell you something? I'm not at home."

"Oh, ok. What do you mean? Where are you?"

"I'm still in Anaheim. I'm in Dylan's hotel room..."

Chelsea held her breath through a long silence. Ack! Chelsea! Why the FUCK did you do that?! The sound of her own heartbeat was deafening as she waited for Mark to respond, no idea how she was supposed to proceed from her. Why hadn't she thought this through for 10 damn seconds? Finally, Mark's voice came through the other end.

"Ohhh, in-ter-es-ting... so, he's there in the room with you? Or maybe you're waiting for him to come back, getting yourself warmed up for him?"

My god, he thinks it's another game. Of course he does, why wouldn't he? And now he expects you to play it out. Great job.

Chelsea bowed to the inevitable and prepared to talk her boyfriend off over the phone again. She lay down on the bed, her head propped up on the pillows, and tried to shoo Dylan out of the room with a hand gesture. He sat up, smiled broadly and shook his head, mouthing, 'No way' -- he wouldn't miss this for the world. Chelsea groaned and shut her eyes, trying to pretend he wasn't there, that it really was just one more private fantasy with Mark. Why are you doing this, Chelsea???