Heartbreak and Hope Ch. 02

It was odd after that for Bill to say I had a nice package. It was just as odd to hear him say he liked my wife's pubes on her femininity. We both said 'Thanks!' May as well get used to it right?

He continued, "Understand that women in The Cornwall Islands tend to be much more sexually and socially aggressive than you are used to. A woman is every bit as likely as a man to ask them out. First dates are ALWAYS a Dutch treat and much more likely to involve something outdoors and a light casual meal, not a four-star restaurant. Head games are frowned on. Everyone however is expected to follow the relationship status color and hitting on a person with a yellow background is considered to be very rude. Both sexes will actively scan their casual lists for green profiles when their relationships end. It's just a thing because The Cornwall Islands are so couples based."

"I cannot emphasize enough how much life here is COMPLETELY based on people being paired up. It is one of the non-obvious reasons we chose The Cornwall Islands. The nudity was obviously one reason, but how life works here is also a huge part of it."

"Everyone in The Cornwall Islands is more social and getting together is just a thing. DO NOT expect to be home more than three or maybe four nights before nine at night. Movie Max is going to fill your first week and pretty much every Saturday, but expect your social contacts to spread very fast. Being nice to new people at work is considered good form and you will receive invitations on the first day. ACCEPT THEM. We want you to become part of this wonderful country while you are there."

"Workmates will get together for drinks after work. Your workmates IN GENERAL are expected to be your friend. You are allowed to dislike individual people, but drinking with your workmates is considered polite, bringing your spouses or significant others is expected and the drinking age is 18. When your workmates ask you over, they are asking you and your spouse BY DEFAULT. When someone asks you to a social event it is ALWAYS including your spouse unless they specifically say alone."

"As I mentioned before, people don't tend to be single for long. Most social events in The Cornwall Islands are based on people being paired up and the entire society is based on couples. If people over the age of eighteen don't start dating around if they are single, they are relentlessly paired up by friends until they become exclusive with someone."

"The attitude about sex is much more European in outlook. Sex is good. Sex is fun. Sex makes people happy and it is good for them. They will even talk about it much more casually. It is not uncommon for someone to apologize for not taking a call by saying they were having sex with their significant other. There is no embarrassment about it. They will talk about their sex lives in normal conversation."

"Bosses are expected to be polite and firm, but fair. Being evil and condescending is not allowed by law and there is MUCH more social equality among different levels in an organization. Sleeping with subordinates is still frowned upon. Sexual harassment is, even more, frowned upon and illegal than in the US, but your boss asking you to watch a soccer game at a certain pub or bar is everyday normal there. Note football is soccer, not the NFL which they call American Football. By the way, bosses get special accounts to buy drinks, snacks, or even dinner for workmates. It is a rebate from the corporate taxes paid so they may as well spend it."

"Health checkups are twice a year, mandatory and free. Part of the health system is a holistic approach and you do not have the right to refuse the checkup. It takes ten minutes and can be handled at any walk-in clinic. Hospitals are for severe problems. Only a severely broken bone goes to a hospital, Clinics fix cuts and most broken bones all the time. Ninety-five percent of health issues are handled at the clinics and they are everywhere. Just show your Cornwall Islands ID which has your health number and you are admitted for whatever you need. Note the checkups include an STD check. There is a lot more sex going on and this is how they keep a handle on it."

"Gym memberships are mandatory and free. All gyms and their memberships are open, that is, Your ID is your entry because it has your health number, and the more time you are there on exercise machines where you enter your health number, the bigger your use tax rebate is. When any gym scans your ID, they get an admission charge from the government which is funded through the VAT tax. You will see MUCH less obesity and you will end up participating in a sport or three through your social connections. It's just a thing there. In sports, there is A, B, and C league. Only the 'A' league is competitive. The rest is just for fun and losing by twenty goals in soccer is both common and awesome as the WINNING team is expected to pay for after-game drinks rather than the loser. This is by design and they want the less athletically gifted to participate. Again, excepting the A league which is televised on the Islands cable channels. Winning only matters for 'A' league."

"Okay, a new topic. A few rules as far as sex goes."

Vaginal sex sessions are expected at least four times per week and enthusiastic participation is expected. Sloppy, wet, fulfilling sex is required. You are to give yourself completely to your spouse. MEN, this exchange is you also. This is not a license to do a pump and sleep. You are one hundred percent expected to have an active sex life and work hard to please the other person by bringing them to orgasm. There are penalties for consistent five-minute fuck and sleep sex. One-offs will happen and we get it."

"This brings me to bonuses. In addition to your Movie Max stipend and salary, You will be able to earn bonuses for acting in a way that we want you to. A bonus is an additional reward Movie Max will provide for doing things that will help your relationship and the show."

"You will accumulate bonuses. Basically, they are like gift cards and can be anything from a five-dollar Mcdonald's gift card to a five-hundred-dollar Home Depot gift card. They are random lots and you own them when you get them, but you will not see what they are until the final show in two years. The average value is just over thirty dollars and the maximum is five hundred. Most of the bonuses are things to help you restart your life after the show or food."

"Oral sex is encouraged and will result in a bonus. Anal sex will also lead to a bonus. Doing things together leads to bonuses. Being good to each other leads to bonuses. You will learn how many of your bonuses the following day for the first week so you get the idea of what happens. After that, you will learn how many bonuses you get on Sunday following the week."

"I will give an example now. I was watching the cams when Joshua entered room twelve where he was to meet up with his new wife Jennifer. Joshua, you pumped your fist upon seeing her. She that saw you were happy that she was your future wife. It made her smile and feel good. I *LOVED* that. I award you ten bonuses for that. Jennifer, a similar reaction, "Ten for you." Joshua, your timid hug afterward sucked, so nothing for that. For heaven's sake, you are going to be intimate with her tonight, HUG HER BETTER! You need to fuck her silly and hug her closely. I assure you that she needs both. I will give two bonuses for taking her hand as you walked here. That was sweet, Joshua, and she clearly liked it.

Jayson, I loved your reaction upon seeing Cara. Ten for you. Cara. Ditto. Ten for you.

"Those were the best initial reactions I saw. No, I did not see any disappointed looks. We deliberately gave you a hundred future spouse choices to start to eliminate those. Pretty much everyone here had at least two top-three requests. These are the twenty best swaps we found of thousands."

"We want you to explore each other so for example. Every time you have any penetrative sex, you get one bonus. If it is lingering, sloppy, wet, and messy, you get another bonus. The first blowjob gets five and the first cunnilingus gets five. The first anal gets twenty. Having dinner together... maybe- maybe not for one. What we are looking for is acting like a couple. The goal is to make you fall in love and have to make a hard choice at the end."

Once the bonuses were explained, we went to a table with different wedding rings, I asked her which she wanted and we picked them together. None were huge diamonds, but there was a nice selection. She chose a half-carat diamond with two sapphires 'engagement' ring and a plain gold band wedding ring. It was very strange to just look at a tray full of diamond rings, point to one, and have it given to us without paying for it. Thanks, Movie Max, it really is a pretty ring with a decent-quality center diamond and two, quarter-carat deep blue heart-shaped sapphires; one on each side of the diamond. The tag said the color F and VS1 quality and the top of the hearts were pointed toward the diamond in the center.

I chose a stainless and black ring and yes, I deliberately chose it because it did not look like my ring with Ashley. The ring was part of a second chance and a new beginning. It was an odd feeling to know I was getting married again to someone I knew only for several hours. There were multiple wedding photographers taking stills and videos of the whole process from picking rings to the upcoming ceremony.

A few minutes later, we were in front of a judge and a two-minute ceremony was performed. Marriage licenses had been arranged by offices in The Cornwall Islands. They are valid for a ceremony anywhere and will be validated upon our setting foot on the islands. Jennifer wanted to wear flowers in her hair. There was a selection of flowers on a stand from which she chose three small pink roses and wore them in a clip at the back of her hair which she picked from an accessory cart. She wore her hair back then down. She was amazingly cute and pretty. As I said, I love cute and pretty and her smile was bright when I put my arm gently over her shoulder.

We had the short version ceremony individually and Movie Max had two judges going simultaneously, performing the ceremonies. We were second in line, and when we got to the "You may now kiss the bride" part, she kissed soft and hot. She was a damn good kisser and melted into me for that kiss. It was the first time our genitals touched and I wanted to take her right there.

While we kissed, I kept my hands safely right above her hip at the small of her back. She looked at me and smiled. She loved the fact I had not mauled her as I really wanted to do. She smiled, thought for a second, and said, "I'm your wife now. Go ahead." We kissed again and I gave her ass a nice little squeeze then left it there for about five seconds. She smiled. No, I did not overdo it. One of the photographers was right on us, snapping away.

Sha laughed as I withdrew my hand and said, "You like?"

My smile said it all.

She laughed and said, "Good! The vows I gave you.... I meant them."

I said, "I meant mine too."

While we waited, we made out a little after the ceremony as the couples behind us had their ceremonies. Yeah, she was a truly amazing kisser and she clearly loved doing it.

Once everyone had their ceremonies completed, we lined up to take a shuttle van to the airport. It was mid to late afternoon when we were taken to a private hangar at the airport and we walked hand in hand toward one of two waiting private jets. The walk outside in the rather cold, though brief in and around fifty degrees with sunshine. Yeah, my dick went into scared turtle mode. Once inside the plane, there were four other couples on board our jet; Jayson and Cara, Andrew and Stephanie, Zach and Sara, and Anthony and Sophia.

We got on board and took two seats side by side and yes, I gave her the window seat. She kissed me again and said thank you for being sweet to her. She looked me directly into the eyes and said, "Giving me the window seat is one of the little things that goes a long way with me."

I loved it, she was being direct in telling me how to be her good husband.

After that direct message, I looked closely in her eyes, finally having time to rest since meeting her. She was tired. I was tired. Bone tired. We had both just traded our former lives for security and a second chance. I realized I now was headed to a home and was secure in that knowledge for the rest of my life. Unless I did something extremely stupid, I had food and shelter until the day I died.

She smiled at me. I noticed every once in a while the smile faded.

I asked her, "You are just like me aren't you?"

She looked up and asked, "Pardon?"

I said, "Intruding thoughts about your ex..."

She nodded. Pain came to her eyes. She said, "It hurts."

I nodded and said, "Exact same here. I know."

She smiled at me and said, "I am very glad I got to marry you for this Joshua. This would have been a thousand times harder with anyone but you."

I smiled. She was speaking from the heart.

She took my hand, looked me in the eye, and said, "You miss your ex like I miss mine. Understand... I will be your wife for the next two years at least. I expect you to try..."

She looked at me and repeated the words. I see her intelligence in her eyes. Yes, her intelligence is sexy as hell. She repeated, "I EXPECT YOU... to try... to love me. I need your word on that."

There was an intense demand in her eyes and, Yes I loved it. This was going to be two years of our lives. It can be good or bad and I was going to do my best to make it good. I could see she was thinking the exact same thing.

I smiled and met her gaze with meaning and said, "I will. I promise."

She said, "And so do I."

She paused, looked at me, and said, "This is a second chance for both of us. I was homeless a few days ago. A chance at a decent life. It cost me so much... I am chasing this second chance as hard as I can."

She held my gaze a moment longer.

[Cody Johnson. Til You Can't}

She paused and said, "I need a complete marriage, Joshua. I mean to the point that my body is yours and yours is now mine."

She looked at me intensely, "I consent to you touching me anywhere and any time. You may not hurt me or get me arrested, but I give you that consent and... I also need it from you. I crave complete intimacy."

I agreed and smiled.

She wasn't kidding. She put her hand on my penis and left it there for a several seconds. She did not stroke me hard though I was about halfway there. She said, "Mine."

She opened her legs just a bit and put my hand onto her slit. She said, "Yours."

There were five rows of two seats in the jet and none of us could really see anything the other couple was doing unless they actually started fucking. I noted that Anthony and Sophia who were the couple in front of us, had their heads turned toward each other and looked like they may be making out. I could not tell for sure and was not going to stand up to make a scene.

I smiled. I loved her intensity. She removed my hand and her hand and smiled. She said, "You were by far the most comfortable person on those dates. I asked some hard questions and you did not flinch. I appreciate that. That is why I am so much more comfortable with you and I am glad you are now my husband. You answered even the hard questions that night."

I put my hand on the outside of her thigh, being more friendly and familiar than anything. She smiled then opened her legs rather wide and put my fingers between her legs all the way down to her entry which I touched lightly. She smiled and said, "My body...IS yours. Yours. IS mine."

The warmth of her vagina felt like magic to my fingers. I teased her inner labia a bit and she gave me a grin. I had a small rise. She brought her hand over and started stroking me until I was fully hard then removed her hand, stuck her tongue out at me, and said, "Don't start something you cannot finish." She was brilliant and sassy. I FUCKING LOVE IT!

It took me a couple of minutes to get soft again. She left my hand at her entry and said, "I love being touched intimately, but don't start anything... seriously. You may leave it there... in fact. I like it. Leave it there."

She held my now deflated penis and said, "I love touching intimately too." She left her hand on my penis but did not stroke it.

The plane started moving and I remember taxiing to the end of the runway, then taking off. This was the last time I was going to be in the US for two years. This was a true life change. Jennifer leaned into me and sighed, relaxing against me. I did note that she did not have me remove my hand from her vagina or remove hers from my penis. She really did seem to love intimate touching. It seemed like she dozed for a while and was getting comfortable with me.

We landed at six in the evening, local time, after our flight from Charlotte to St. Ives Island. We stood up, then left the plane, waiting for the second plane to come to the hangar.

The other three jets landed three minutes apart after us. The other jet with our St. Ives group came in and disgorged its passengers near us. While we were waiting to get into the luxury shuttle van that was to take us into town, the two jets carrying the St. Austell group waited in the distance on the taxiway at the end of the runway..

The silhouette of those planes framed against the last darkening glow of a beautiful orange sunset was burned into my mind. I realized Ashley was on one of them, sitting next to her new husband. That hit me HARD..

MY Ashley...

I was holding Jennifer's hand. Jennifer was looking at them too. She understood. She reached for my hand and squeezed it lightly. Yes, it helped. Our chemistry... was real. She has been mine for four hours and... it was comforting. She understood.

I realize Ashley is in the past.

We read each other's minds. It hurt, but we understood our mutual pain.

HIS Ashley. MY Jennifer. I kept holding her hand for comfort.

We were taken by a luxury shuttle van for the twenty-five-minute trip into town from the airport. She rested her head on my shoulder. I smelled her wonderful light powdery scent as she sighed lightly, relaxing against me. I put my arm over her shoulder to draw her in and I looked at her. I smiled and she smiled back then came in for a sweet kiss. Light, yet hot, but not lingering. She settled back against my shoulder. MY Jennifer. She felt... right.

It was dark when we arrived in Somerset in front of a Tudor building with a sign that said, 'Italian Terrazza'. There was a patio on the second floor with tables and umbrellas. I looked down the street. There were strings of lights everywhere... Most white but some colored; Trees, eaves, windows, even from building to building crossing the street.... All along the street and the streets leading away, creating a magical effect. Italian Terraza was across the road from the harbor front and the waterfront promenade. The city of Devon across the harbor showed as twinkling lights five miles in the distance. Magic! I'm stark-ass naked and standing outside. It's not hot. It's not cold. If perfect. More fucking magic. Life here was like living in a fucking magic movie set.

The oddity is most people walking along the street are stark-ass naked as if it were common everywhere. Couples passed us, talking and laughing like anywhere else... Stark naked save shoes and women carrying their purses or pocketbooks. Men had phone-wallets that strapped along the outside of their upper arms. It makes sense since almost no one had pockets.

We had to wait almost ten minutes outside while they got ready for us at the restaurant. I was looking around. I held her hand and she clearly loved doing it. Lots of happy people, the vast majority were couples, walking from place to place, most smiling and laughing... Restaurants, bars, music... more fucking magic. It was Valentine's Day on a perfect seventy-five-degree warm night and everyone was out having a good time.