Heartbreak and Hope Ch. 02

Heartbreak and Hope.

Joshua Simmons b January 9 1997 MME 2018

Marriage 1 Ashley Simmons b February 1, 1999, AS 2018

+New Husband Justin Jacobsen b May 10, 1997

Marriage 2 Jennifer Marten b January 12, 1998, BS Accounting 2019

+Old Husband Aaron Marten b Sept 14, 1996

St. Ives Island Group

Group 1: Joshua and Jennifer. Jayson and Cara, Andrew and Stephanie, Zach and Sara, Anthony and Sophia.

Group 2: David and Brianna, Nicholas and Hannah, Ryan and Lauren, Brandon and Jessica, Nathan and Anna

Covid does not exist.

Fiction. Still my universe and still my rules. I know very well this would not happen in real life and timelines are compressed.

Song suggestions at points where the lyrics fit

I recycle names. This story has nothing to do with other series.

Moody and emotional. This is a long story about people adjusting to a vastly new situation. It is wordy and descriptive. They talk about their perceptions of how things are going for them. You were warned.

Heartbreak and Hope Ch02

Friday, February 14, 2020

...I walked into my corridor as she did the same.

Once I walked past that line, I was officially divorced from the wife that I love more than myself. The divorces were being handled in real-time in The Cornwall Islands.

I walked past that line, down the hallway and the enormity of it hit me. My former life, ALL OF IT, was gone. They were smart to have the marriages take place hours later rather than right after because my emotions were shot. I wanted to punch someone, but there was no one to punch.

My life was gone. My marriage was gone. EVERYTHING... All... gone.

Gone.

We were all led into a locker room and told to strip off completely, including our wedding rings. We were to have nothing from our old life. It was a room full of naked guys and a few were quietly crying. I won't lie. I was close.

I didn't allow myself to pause, and a minute later I was naked save for the wedding ring. It was the last thing I had on. I took it off, put it in a linen bag and drew the strings closed then put the bag inside the box with my clothes, phone, and wallet. There are two fucking dollars in that wallet and that was all I had. I looked inside the box and it was all there. The remnants of my life. We were told the boxes would be put in the containers with our possessions. I noted the box said Joshua Simmons on all four sides and the top. Movie Max was extremely thorough.

I sealed the box shut with the tape they provided and handed it to a clothed man who was collecting them. I still loved Ashley and hated the divorce, but circumstances dictated otherwise and we were already legally divorced.

I looked around and saw the room was cammed. THE WHOLE FUCKING THING WAS CAMMED!.

A man wearing clothing from Movie Max came in, announced names, and assigned everyone to a room. I was to go to room seven and wait. I walked out of the locker room and into a hallway... It was an odd feeling walking naked in the open like that. They were kind to us and it was warm enough for us to not have shrunken penises. I walked past a door that had a '1' on it then '2' and on. I came to the seventh door with a '7' on it, then entered it. The room was perhaps ten feet by ten feet and inside was a couch, a table, and a TV with the standard basic cable channels. I noted that Movie Max was not included.

There were two doors across from each other on opposite walls for entry and exit, plus a door to a bathroom with a shower. There was a clock and a video screen to give me instructions. It said, 'Wipe your genitals with the antiseptic wipes provided on a table. There was a shower with several sample-size packets of body wash and shampoo along with a comb, razor, and other toiletries in a basket. The monitor said that both sexes will take a shower to clean up to be presentable for their new spouse. Women will douche their vagina with the provided douche. I have to admit one thing, they thought of that before I did.

As I washed away my old life I realized this is my chance at a better life.

[Shinedown. Second Chance.]

After my shower, there was an announcement over the TV, 'For the next almost five hours, you will be alone to collect yourself. We know this is hard. This TV is a touch screen. You may use it as a terminal to order food and drink if desired.'

An hour later, I was actually hungry so I ordered a chicken sandwich. I was sitting there alone, eating and thinking, alternating between thinking of memories with Ashley and still hoping for one particular pick of the final five. I was still hoping for Jennifer. I'm going to have to live with someone for two years and we got along well. She wasn't the prettiest of the dates, but she was attractive. That date was the best of the twelve and it didn't hurt that she was brilliant.

A woman named Julie was my second choice and close, but there was something special about Jennifer and Julie had walked away from the contract so she was not an option. Jennifer was my number one choice and I even wrote in the comment section, "JENNIFER!"

I reflected that I had to do this and do it right. I had to make this opportunity work because it was given to me based on me making the good faith effort to make this work out and I was determined to give it my all. Danielle was my third choice and Kayla was my fourth. If it wasn't Jennifer, would Danielle be so bad? She was very sweet and very smart with an IQ of 130, just not Jennifer-level genius smart. No matter who I end up with, I must give it my all and be good to her.

Sex with any of the women was bound to be wonderful. Movie Max had made it clear that sexual compatibility was something they selected for early. Being a friend and lover is key. Having just one would lead to an unhappy marriage. Of all the marriages of older people that I knew who had been married happily for a long time had one thing in common. They were indeed based on being both lovers and friends.

Even if it was not Jennifer, I had to make it work. It wasn't fair to either of them or myself to give anything less than one hundred percent to my new wife, regardless of who she was. I had paid the price of admission and was helpless to stop Ashley from marrying another man at this point. I was sure there was plenty of security to prevent anyone from backing out. The ONLY path was the path forward.

Suddenly... an odd feeling.... Two hours later, peace came over me. I just accepted it. Ashley was gone from my life and probably forever. Whoever my new wife was, it was clear that Movie Max had worked hard to provide me with only good choices. Carlos was correct, there were no awful choices, only ones that may lack a spark.

Four hours and fifty minutes after I had entered the room, the TV announced, "Walk out the back door to room twelve."

I opened the back door of room seven and walked out into a wide hallway, and yes, I was extremely nervous. I got along with all five women of the final cut, but Jennifer had the most chemistry and it was easy to talk to her, even her hard questions. I passed several naked guys going through different doors to different rooms. The room numbers 10 and under were on one side of this hallway and those 11 to 20 were on the other. I stopped in front of a white door with a '12' on it. I hoped... I paused for perhaps twenty seconds, but it seemed like twenty hours.

Time slowed down. I could feel my heart beating. Be a man and smile, even if it is not Jennifer. This woman has put herself in a very vulnerable position. Be good to her... and that starts out with an enthusiastic smile and a warm greeting as if I had won a million dollars. I had won in a way already, I fully intended to fulfill my contract and never have the worries of hunger and homelessness again.

This was it. I was about to meet a woman for only the second time and I'm going to marry her shortly afterward.

I put my hand on the doorknob.

I sighed, then opened the door...

I looked at my future bride and did a fist pump.

Jennifer looked up, smiled at me, and said, "YES!" I guess the attraction was mutual. She is my intellectual peer and she is Five foot four with a pretty face, shoulder blade length light brown hair, a sweet smile, and kind eyes. Yes, I liked those even more than her pert and a bit larger for a B-Cup breast with round quarter-sized areolae, shaved smooth vulva and nice 80s trim hairy mons. Yes, I am a sucker for pubes. I hugged her carefully, being polite, keeping a distance between our genitals. Her breasts pressing into my chest... wonderful.

An announcer named Jay came in with a video guy, joined us two minutes later, and smiled. He handed each of us a new iPhone 11 Pro Max. I looked at mine and it was already set up and active and the background simply said, 'Joshua Simmons.' She showed me hers. It said, 'Jennifer Simmons.'

Jay smiled again and said, "Welcome! This was an amazing match. You both picked each other first. Joshua's comment was simply, 'Jennifer!' Jennifer's comment was, 'Please! Joshua!. Making out with him was the only time it was easy and sex is expected so I'm hoping that connection will work.'

I looked at Jennifer, smiled and she smiled back. A thought intruded. This morning she was some other guy's wife and probably had as much sex with him recently as I did with Ashley. Still. I was as happy as I could be under the circumstances. I got my number one pick as did she.

Jay said, "Understand, as the second closest match that accepted, more of your footage will be used. You are the closest match on St. Ives Island because the closest match is in the St. Austell group."

It was funny how every so often I would forget I was stark-ass naked and I was going to be on a porn channel.

St. Ives Island is the southern island of the two islands making up The Cornwall Islands. The North Island was named St Austell. We were in the St.Ives group of ten couples. We were led to a meeting for instructions for our group. We were told that a few minutes later, the St. Austell group went to a different meeting. As I walked, I gently offered my hand to Jennifer. She smiled at me and took the offered hand.

We were led into the meeting room and sat down at one of the ten tables with two chairs at each. I was ever gallant and pulled out a chair for Jennifer. She smiled at me again. Damn, she had a cute little ass. Yes, I wanted to squeeze it. No, I didn't.

A new announcer, Bill said to our group of ten couples, "Welcome to the St. Ives group! In twenty-five minutes, you will have a legally binding marriage ceremony performed. Women, your surname will be changed to that of your new husband... Just deal with it as we are aiming to make the marriages appear to be as typical as possible and eighty percent of women change their surname to that of their husbands. You will be given an ID for The Cornwall Islands that works just like ID's in the US. It is also your driver's license and health insurance card."

"If you wish, you may partake in flowers for aesthetics but understand, you entered this contract nude and you will remain that way for at least two years so there are no wedding dresses. After the show and contract, we will ship all your possessions that you accumulate from the Cornwall Islands to your final destination. Note that any furniture stays there. We are not shipping furniture so don't spend much on that. We have provided full basic furniture in your apartment. Your personal vehicle is a lease made by Movie Max and you each have one. There is one exception to being nude. Shoes and socks are permitted and you may purchase them tomorrow. Yes, we are aware there may be hazards on the ground and pavement gets hot."

"You each have been handed an iPhone 11 Pro Max. It is yours to keep and yes, there is spy software installed. Note that we are ONLY looking for communications with the outside that involve your ex-spouse and nothing else from it will be used for the show. You may keep it at the end and we encourage you to do a factory wipe at that point. We have included a five hundred dollar Itunes gift card account with that phone and Family Share is activated. None of your communications will be with the major social media giants as that would be too great a risk of communicating with your ex-spouse. They are blocked."

He told us to bring out our phones and he would explain a few things about two apps on the phone.

He said, "One app on your phone is 'Counselor 1-2-3" which is available to you 24/7. There is a counselor who can talk you through most things and even find a live counselor if need be during normal working hours. Should things be too difficult, we have arranged these services at no cost to you."

Bill explained an app on all our phones called 'Cornwall Islands Social' which people will refer to as CIS. (Pronounced SIS)

He said, "This is the social media app for The Cornwall Islands and it is all-encompassing for life there. Understand that nudity is viewed differently and that no one native there has any modesty as you think of it. They see naked people every day of their lives. They live naked and they like it, but it is not sexual to them until there is sexual intent. It is rarely under seventy degrees or over ninety so there is little need for clothing. They are aware they are different and will make allowances for being a tourist destination, but their views on modesty are entirely different than yours. Obviously, any social media app for The Cornwall Islands is going to allow nudity... and a lot of it."

Bill said, "Everyone, open up your CIS apps. Note that you each have nineteen profiles on your 'people' page. These are the people in the St. Ives Group including your spouse. The people in the St. Austell group are directly blocked from your app."

"Note that in the top right corner is a yellow square. There are three colors for those squares. blue means they are business only and only allow direct messages which you may block. You can follow them as you wish and businesses almost always post their specials and sales on those blue pages. It also works with the GPS on the phone so if you type 'restaurant', all restaurants will show on a map within whatever radius you set. If you were to say, be walking near The Central Fountain and type in 'restaurant' and set the map to a quarter mile, you would see every restaurant within easy walking distance from you. If you select a particular restaurant, it will let you select its front, menu, and specials pages. Also for people buddy level and above, you have access to their favorites lists such as restaurants or clubs."

"Yellow means this is a social connection and they are closed to offers of dating and sex outside their current relationship. Green means they are social and open to dating and or sex. Inside the box is a letter, C for casual, B for buddy, and F for family. Note that your spouse has an F and everyone else has a B. We have set everyone in this group as a buddy."

"Unlike Facebook, there are three levels of friendship in this app. Casual, Buddy, and Family. You will get a ton of casual requests. Casual gets access to your name and your photos section plus the ability to send a direct message. You are all attractive and you will get requests to exchange codes. It's considered polite to accept most requests unless the person seems unstable. Women on The Cornwall Islands are very aggressive in collecting codes. Basically, everyone collects nudes, but to get them, they have to give them. Yes, I know, you had no idea. Yes, this seems odd, but that is the way life works here. Understand. Being naked is normal here and they like your intimate body parts but no more than they like your face. They appreciate all your bits because they get to see all your bits simply due to being naked all the time here."

He said, "Each of you click on your spouse and hit the photo icon."

I hit the photo icon of Jennifer and was shocked, there was exactly one picture of her wearing clothes. It was a picture they took of us after our date and our makeout session. There were a dozen nudes of her including one of her vagina and I mean legs open and close up. Straight up, it was her beaver shot.

Jennifer looked at me in shock and showed me my profile. My boner picture from the interviews was there though the one where I was cumming was not. I showed her her profile with her spread open vagina shot. Yeah, that was a big shock for both of us.

He continued, "As I said, they like to look at all of your body. It's just a thing here. You can compliment a person of the opposite or yes, same-sex and be specific. Where an American may say something to someone they know that they have nice hair, a man on The Cornwall Islands may well say to a woman that she has a beautiful chest or her 'femininity' which is their polite word for saying her vagina is attractive. They mean nothing more than a compliment. A woman may well show you her vagina and I mean about half open. She is basically asking you to say her partner is a lucky person. This is NOT a come-on or an invitation. Men will do similar though their package is always on display with no leg spreading needed."

"You may well get a request for 'an exchange' in CIS. This makes a casual contact that you can change to buddy or family once made IF you both agree. Again, at the casual level, they only gain access to your name and your photos section at that point plus the ability to direct message you."

Compliments are just a thing. A woman may well say to a man 'Nice package' and ask to exchange codes. Again... This is NOT an invitation for sex. Women on The Cornwall Islands will look right at your package and don't give a shit if you catch them looking. People scope each other out all day and it is just the way they live. Saying a woman has nice breasts or even vagina or telling a man he has a nice penis is not rude as long as you say the correct terms. Package for penis, chest for breasts, femininity for vagina, and ass for ass. To them, it is no different than saying someone has an attractive face. Some people will exchange codes with you and actually ask you to compliment them and it may well be their package or femininity. Yes, it will be bizarre the first time you are asked. Just look then say it is nice then move on. In a few months, it will seem completely normal to you."

"Complimenting people is just something they do. Not complimenting is considered standoffish at best and often considered rude in any social situation. Checking someone out is normal and every day. It would get you slapped in the US, but on the Cornwall Islands, it is being sociable. It happens less in a business setting but it happens."

He looked at all of us and said, "Each person please stand up, line up, and come to me."

Bill then had us each go through how to exchange codes and set people from the initial status of Casual to Buddy by exchanging with him. Bill is a big boy is all I can say. He had several erection pictures along with a ton of nudes and a few clothed. It's just a thing to people from The Cornwall Islands. When we set his status from Casual to Buddy, I found out Bill was gay and married to a guy named Grant, liked SCUBA diving, and lived on the outskirts of Somerset. Oh, and he had a Ski-Doo for sale. I took note of his favorites list of restaurants.

He finished that presentation by showing us how to upload from our phone cameras and told us we were expected to update our profiles with nicer pictures and be social on it like the residents did. I had Bill take a picture of Jennifer and I together with both our phones which we then uploaded onto CIS.

I switched the background on my phone to the picture from our date then did a text box that said Joshua (Fancy gold heart image) Jennifer. Jennifer loved it, switched her background to the same one then gave me this amazing but brief French kiss. She clearly loved swapping spit.