Karen, My Friend's Girl Pt. 02

"That was fantastic! I've been wanting to have sex in this shower ever since we got it, and I thought it was going to be yesterday before the bloody landlord interrupted us!" She laughed, and I continued. "So, er, are you okay? I mean, I shouldn't have cum in you last night, and then now?"

"It's okay," she said. "At least, I hope so! My period's due in a few days. Anyway, it wasn't your fault last night, I just couldn't bear to not have you in me right at that moment!"

I shrugged. "Well it felt fantastic, you know that? And I know you've got to go back today, but I want you to know that I've never had such a great weekend."

"Mmm," she smiled, "me too. I've felt totally, sexually, alive for the first time. I know we're not really couple material, but it's been great, really great." She bent forward, and we kissed, gently.

I stood up. "Come on, I'm starving. Must be time for some breakfast." Slightly reluctantly, we turned the shower off, and dried ourselves. Like the previous afternoon, the spell had been broken, and we went upstairs to put some clothes on with very few words between us, and sat by the kitchen table eating toast and drinking tea in quiet contemplation. "So, what time coach are you getting?" I asked.

"Well they're every hour," she said, "so I guess anytime. Do you fancy walking me back to the bus station?"

"No problem, of course," I said, and she went upstairs to gather the few things she'd brought with her. When she'd got dressed, I'd noticed that she hadn't put any knickers on under her knee length skirt, although she did wear a bra today. I pulled open a drawer, and held up to her the underwear I'd taken on our second meeting, exactly a week ago. "I guess I should return this, as you've been such a good girl this weekend!" I smiled. "Well, such a bad girl, really..."

She looked at me, fondly. "No, you keep them. Don't know if I'll ever bother with them again!" The mischievous smile was back, and I groaned.

"Ooh, I almost feel sorry for any guy sitting next to you on the bus home, you saucy minx!"

She laughed, and the walk into town was friendly, relaxed. Two friends. I knew it was over between us, but what a ride.

EPILOGUE

I didn't expect to hear from Karen after that. But when Jez rang me at my parents house soon after the university term had finished and I'd gone back for the summer, it all came flooding back. He asked if I fancied going for a couple of beers, and I agreed.

Jez looked great. "Hey, mate, nice to see you," he greeted me when I walked into the pub. "What are you drinking? Not too much, I hope!"

I sat down as he brought the pints over. "So how's it going with you then?" I asked.

"It's just great," he replied, grinning. "The last time I saw you I was really depressed after, you know? When we went to that club, and I seem to have got really pissed - for which I apologise, by the way - and blown it with Karen?"

"Yeah," I said cautiously, wondering what he was building up to.

"Well, firstly thanks for looking after me, and her, that night," he said.

"Hey, no need to thank me," I said. Did he know about me and Karen?

"That week was really weird, I just felt rubbish. I was sure she liked me, but I was also sure I'd blown my chance by making such a fool of myself. And then just when I was building up to ask her out, she was ill at the weekend, and I didn't even see her!" I smiled grimly, feigning sorrow for him, but actually remembering how Karen had spent her 'sick' weekend. "But she rang me up on that Sunday afternoon - I didn't even know she had my number," he continued. "And she confessed that she hadn't been ill at all." I raised my eyebrows, thinking he was about to tell me that he knew all about it, that he hated me for what I'd done. He didn't. "She said she'd just been thinking about me, about us, all weekend, and wondered if I'd like to go out with her! Crazy, eh?"

I laughed, a bit more confident of myself. Perhaps she hadn't told him everything? "Women, eh? You can't anticipate what they're like," I said.

"Well," he continued. "She came round to mine, and I thought we'd go out for a drink or something. But it was weird, she just seemed to want to drag me to bed! Fantastic, eh? Never happened to me before, not even with Mel, and you know what she was like!" I laughed again, remembering some of the exploits Jez and his ex, and me and my ex, had got up to around three years before. "And, to cut a long story short, she's living with me now."

He smiled, as I did. "Well that's great, mate, sounds like you were right about her all along."

Jez leant over the table, and said in a quiet voice: "And that's not all. We're expecting a baby!"

"Blimey," I said, taken aback. "Congratulations! I mean, that's great, isn't it? Is that what you want?"

"I know it's a bit soon," he said, "but yeah, it's exactly what I want. Its what I've always wanted, its why Mel and I split up, really, you know, she didn't want kids, at least not for ages. But I've got everything now, a woman who loves me, and who I love, and the chance of a family."

"Well good for you," I said, genuinely pleased that he seemed so happy. "So, how far gone is she? How long did it take you to decide?"

He laughed. "That's the weird thing, we didn't really talk about it before, we just seemed to know that it was what we both wanted. It must have happened that first night we were together, I just assumed she was on the pill, you know?"

I sat upright in my seat suddenly. Fuck! That was the same weekend she'd spent at mine! Could that mean I was the father? The conversation went on, but I wasn't really concentrating. We did only have a couple of beers, because Jez wanted to get back home, and that night I lay in bed, thinking hard.

But in the morning it was crystal clear to me. Jez was the father. He loved Karen, and would love the baby, and I'd love neither. I'd treated him badly when I'd first met Karen, and although he didn't know about that, the guilt was still there. I'd never come between them again.

They asked me to be the godfather when Claire was born, but I just couldn't. I told them that it wasn't something I could do because I didn't believe in god, and they were very understanding. I don't see them very often these days, but I suppose in some way I'm happy to have played some part in bringing them together. My friend looks very happy with both his girls now.