Keeping Your Man Happy

Tess has been dating Mark for almost a year. They had long since passed the butterflies-in-the-stomach phase of their relationship. Nights out on the town had fallen in favor of movie nights in one of their living rooms. The question "what does he think of me?" had been replaced with "what are we doing for dinner tonight?" And sex had become more sporadic and routine. Tess didn't actually know where her matching lace lingerie was, but it was probably at the bottom of a laundry pile somewhere. Their relationship was now firmly "comfortable".

Tess wasn't unhappy, by any means. She liked Mark and enjoyed hanging out with him. Now, there was a lot less pressure. Tess knew that the stereotype for a late-twenty-something woman was to be pushing for a ring or a next step, but she was happy living life for the time being. And Mark had voiced no complaints either.

This particular date night was at Mark's apartment. As Tess rode the elevator up to her boyfriend's apartment, she thought how much easier this stage of the relationship was. She didn't have to do her makeup nice or spend much time on her hair. She didn't have to spend a lot of time on an outfit—sweatshirts would suffice. She didn't have to have matching underwear even. Mark wouldn't complain so long as he got to take it off. This part was just easier.

Mark let Tess into the apartment. They had ordered Chinese and Mark had said he would find something they could put on. Tess would probably spend most of the time on her phone, playing games or scrolling the internet, so it really didn't matter what he put on the TV. She was surprised, however, when he held up a DVD case.

"My buddy Ron loaned it to me," Mark said. "It's an early 2000's comedy with Bradley Cooper before he was big."

That immediately had Tess's interest. Comedies were light and fun, especially before Anchorman changed the genre. And Bradley Cooper was Tess's celebrity crush.

"What's it called?" Tess asked.

Mark's face went blank for just a moment. "Uh... I forget."

"Well check the box. Or the disk," Tess said.

"He burned it," Mark said, looking down at the DVD and flipping it over. The non-shiny side was blank and white. "Let's put it in. I'm sure it'll come back to me."

Before Tess could say much more, Mark hurried forward to the DVD player. He put the disk in, pressed play, and stood back. Tess flopped onto the couch, pulling her phone from her pocket. It was weird watching a disk in the age of streaming, but Tess didn't really plan on focusing on the movie anyways. Maybe she would watch if Bradley Cooper lost his shirt at any point, but that was about it.

A strange music started playing. Tess's eyes flickered up to the screen. There was no DVD menu. It had gone right into playing the movie. That made sense if Ron had burned the disk, but it didn't look like a comedy movie. It looked more like an educational movie.

A pleasant-looking woman was smiling on the screen. Her hair was done up big and she wore a patterned dress. A thick coat of red lipstick covered her lips. She looked like a 50's housewife come to life.

"Hello," the woman said pleasantly. "Let me be the first to welcome and applaud you for joining us on our relationship journey. This is the first steps towards a new dynamic for you and for your partner."

"What is this?" Tess said with an unsure half smile. Was it a fake-out start to the movie? Was Adam Sandler about to come through the door or something?

"Uh, I don't know," Mark said. He was still standing in the living room, looking awkwardly back and forth between Tess and the TV. The woman on the TV answered Tess's question.

"This is 'Keeping Your Man Happy'," the woman on the screen said. Tess scoffed instinctively. "This informational video will peel back the onion on your relationship and find what's at the heart of it. It will help reconstruct your view of your role in this relationship and help you find the answer to that all-important question: How do you keep your man happy? Let's get started."

"I guess Ron burned the wrong disk," Mark said with a chuckle that seemed a little too forced. "That's weird."

"Uh huh," Tess said. Her phone sat open on her lap, but she was watching the screen. She felt like she had seen that woman before at some point. Or, had heard this song before? There was something incredibly familiar about all of it. Her eyes started to hurt and Tess realized that it had been a little while since she blinked.

"Maybe we should... leave it on," Mark said, looking closely at Tess. "You know, just for giggles."

"Yeah," Tess said. "For giggles."

The woman on the screen continued to talk. She explained how empathy was such an important and powerful part of being a woman, but women rarely used it to feel the important emotions that their man felt. They failed to ask the question that woman were uniquely equipped to answer: "Are you happy?"

After a little while, Tess became vaguely aware that the Chinese had arrived and Mark was eating, but then she refocused on the television. The woman was explaining how a man's happiness was immensely important and it was the responsibility of his woman to uphold it. The woman on the screen was so incredibly familiar to Tess, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She was no longer wearing a fifties housewife outfit, but a sweatshirt and blue jeans. Her hair had been blonde, but now it was brunette. Why was she so familiar?

After a little while, Tess realized that Mark had finished eating and was sitting at the kitchen table watching her watch the documentary. That information dropped out of her head when the woman on screen began talking about the proper order of priorities and how women tend to jumble them up. Women tended to prioritize self-fulfillment and achievement over the more important priorities like supporting one's partner or servitude. Normally-good characteristics—such as self-respect or dignity—could become barriers to your man's happiness, which was the highest of priorities.

Tess realized that the woman on screen was wearing the same shirt as she was. It was the same blue jeans and the same hair. This should have been odd, but Tess was still focused on the woman's words. The coincidences seemed very secondary.

Tess didn't know how long the DVD went on. She didn't care in the midst of it. She was just fascinated by the woman who looked like her and the words she spoke. They were ideas that Tess might have found backwards, sexist, or even downright offensive, but somehow they made sense. They felt right.

The woman ended by explaining how empathy worked differently in women than in men. Women were more easily able to see themselves in other's situations. Women would even tend to fill a "blank spot" with themselves, which would allow them to more easily teach themselves important principles and truths.

"That's why I might be resembling you now," the woman on screen said. "Because you are imparting your own characteristics—how you see yourself—onto me. It's a little like one of those internet magic tricks, like the color-changing dress or 'Laurel' verses 'Yanny'. Don't let it alarm you, but learn from it. Take a look at yourself in your relationship. Are you who you want to be? More importantly, is your partner happy with who are you in this relationship? Are you fulfilling your responsibility to his happiness? Are you bringing your upmost to this relationship?" The woman—Tess herself—smiled warmly at the screen and said, "I would encourage you to revisit this video and learn again about how you can do your most to keep your man happy." She smiled and the video went black.

Tess stared blankly at the television, feeling a sort of emptiness inside her now that it was over. Her head felt light and she was tired. She continued to stare, many of the sections of the video replaying in her mind.

After a few minutes, Mark appeared in her vision. "Tess?" he said softly. "You look tired. Do you want to take a nap?"

Tess smiled. "That sounds nice." Her voice sounded distant and she thought she was slurring the words. She allowed Mark to take her hand and walk her to bed. As soon as she laid down, she was asleep.

--

When Tess woke up, she could hear the television in the living room. Her mind was clear and she felt a sort of pep in her chest. She was at Mark's house! He was her loving boyfriend and she was here.

Tess stood up and looked at the clock. She had been napping for two hours. It was after ten. Tess hurried to the bathroom and checked her hair. It was horrendous. It pointed in every which direction and she didn't think it had seen a brush all day. She frowned, wondering what Mark thought of her hair. She did a little work on it with his comb, but it was no where near where she wanted it to be.

Tess stepped into the living room. Mark was sitting on the couch, watching a movie. Tess saw the unmarked DVD on top of the DVD player. Her eyes focused on it.

Mark glanced over and saw her. "Hey, there you are," Mark said, standing. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling better, but..." she put on a pouting face that she hoped Mark would find cute, "...I ruined date night this week. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine," Mark said, reaching for her. Tess stepped into his arms, pressing herself against him and rubbing his chest tenderly.

"Well how about we try again?" Tess said with a smile. "Tomorrow night? I'll cook dinner and pick the entertainment and everything. How does that sound?"

"That sounds great," Mark said.

'You should give him a blowjob,' a voice in the midst of Tess's head said. 'That would make him happy.'

Tess was confused. That seemed like something she didn't do very often. Where had that thought come from? Besides, she couldn't just drop to her knees in her boyfriend's living room and suck him off. That was absurd. Would he even want that?

'Of course he would want that!' The voice insisted. 'He's a guy. That's the first thing he wants.'

"I'm..." Tess furrowed her brow. She was feeling lightheaded again. "I'm sorry. I should probably go."

"Sure," Mark said. "Tomorrow though?"

"Yes," Tess nodded. She glanced again at the DVD. "Ummm... can I borrow that DVD? I think I dozed through some of it and it seemed funny. You know, in a sort of ironic way."

Mark shrugged, but Tess thought she saw him smile. "Sure. Help yourself."

"Thanks babe," Tess said. She put a hand on the small of his neck, leaned up, and gave him a long kiss. Her tongue played on his lips and her hand pressed firmly against his chest. She broke the kiss and smiled again at him. "I'll make this up to you tomorrow."

As she rode the elevator down, the voice in her head still debated her, 'You should have blown him. You just made him horny and left him to jerk off. You should have blown him.' By the time Tess had gotten home, she was pretty sure the voice in her head was right. It wouldn't have been that hard to have blown him in the living room and she could probably bring more blowjobs to their relationship. After all, she wanted her boyfriend to be happy, didn't she?

--

Tess called in sick the next day of work. She didn't do that frequently, but she wanted to make it up to Mark that she hadn't paid him any attention during their entire date night. She picked up the ingredients for his favorite meal. She scoured her apartment until she found the matching set of black lace lingerie. She looked up videos online for how to do makeup that would really knock him off his feet. She tried a few until she found one that she thought he would really like.

It was early afternoon when Tess finished her makeup. She felt a little silly sitting in her living room in black lace lingerie and makeup on, but it had been too long since she had done anything really spicy for Mark. How could she expect to keep him happy like that?

The thought called Tess's attention back to the DVD. Curious, she fished it out of her purse, put it into her computer, and turned it on again.

The woman in the fifties outfit was there again, but as Tess watched she very quickly was replaced with a woman who looked a lot like Tess. The same lingerie, the same makeup, the same hair. She did look sexy. She hoped Mark would be happy with it.

Tess watched again, listening carefully as she described how to keep a man happy. Her attention was captured. At the end of the video, when the woman asked her to look at herself and determine if she was making her man happy, Tess giggled. She knew that she was doing a good job of making her man happy like this.

After the video, she picked a cute top that showed more cleavage than she was used to and a short skirt. Again, it was good to do the work to keep her man happy.

--

Tess arrived at Mark's an hour and a half before he would get home from work. She used the key that Mark had given her to get in and set the groceries on the counter. She started preheating the oven, then took a look at Mark's apartment. It was a typical man's apartment, but it lacked a woman's touch. Tess wondered how many times she had seen this apartment without considering that she could serve her man by cleaning it.

Tess worked quickly. She dusted, picked up, vacuumed, washed dishes, and scrubbed. She repeatedly hurried back to continue the recipe along, wanting it to be ready whenever Mark got home. An image of the 50's housewife entered Tess's mind and she giggled, wondering if the 50's housewife was going to suck her man off like Tess was planning to. Tess's giggling tapered off when she realized that the 50's housewife probably spent a lot of time on her knees to keep her man happy—perhaps more time than Tess had spent recently.

Tess began feeling weirdly guilty at that thought. She had gotten comfortable in her relationship with Mark, but had she forgotten to try? Had she settled into mediocrity and stopped caring about making her man happy? How selfish had she become? Tess did her best to think back to the last time she had done something exciting for Mark. She had let him handcuff her on his birthday, but that was three months ago and she hadn't exactly been enthusiastic about it. And before that? Tess couldn't remember.

The timer for dinner went off. Tess snapped back to attention as she donned oven mitts and opened the oven. She decided that the past was the past. She couldn't go back and do better, but she could start trying harder now. After all, that's what tonight was about. That's why she was dolled up and ready to play.

--

When Mark walked into his apartment, the smells of his favorite meal greeted him. His apartment was clean, with every surface clear and shiny. His girl approached, allowing herself to be ogled as she approached. She looked amazing in the short skirt, deep neckline, and makeup. She pressed into his chest, wiggling her breasts slightly against him as she greeted him with a tender, teasing kiss.

After she broke the kiss, Mark's eyes dropped down to her body. "You look amazing!"

"You think I look good now? Just wait for the view you'll be getting later," she said with a promising wink.

Mark ate his dinner quickly, eyeing her cleavage through most of the meal. Tess ate lightly, butterflies fluttering in her stomach as she thought about how happy she was going to make her man.

As soon as Mark had cleared his plate, Tess took him by the hand and walked him into the living room. With a firm, playful push, Tess placed Mark onto his couch. She slid out of her top, let her skirt work its way down her thighs, and stood before her man in the sexy black lingerie that she had selected just for tonight.

Then, she knelt.

Tess unbuckled Mark's belt, unzipped his fly, and gently tugged his jeans down to his ankles. His boxers followed.

"I hope this makes you happy," Tess said with a soft, sensuous voice. "Please enjoy me." Then she bent down, letting her tongue play with his already-hard cock. She teased the tip with swirls, pausing to plant kisses. She worked down his shaft, treating each inch like a delectable dessert, until her mouth was pressed up against the base, her chin against his balls. She planted a long, sucking kiss here, making a soft moan from her throat to let him know she was willing and happy. Then, her tongue emerged again and she ran it up his shaft to the point. Once she arrived, she opened her mouth and really got to work.

Tess had rarely given blowjobs and did not consider herself an expert on them. The few times she had gone down on a man, she had kept his head in her mouth and used her hands to do most of the work. Now, however, that was unacceptable. She took his cock as deep as she could into her mouth, using her lips to form a seal and sucking as she descended. When she reached as much as she could take, she held it there, letting her mouth and throat grow accustomed as her tongue entertained him. Then she eased backwards, allowing herself a break, and then plunged down again. With each subsequent motion, she took his further into her mouth. She ignored her body's instinctive gag, pushing harder. She picked up the pace, developing a rhythm.

This wasn't about getting through it. This wasn't even about checking off a box to make a birthday boy satisfied. This was about making her man happy. That required devotion, adoration, and even worship. Tess was putting in that work.

She picked up a more aggressive pace, thrusting her face down onto her man's cock. Her hair bobbed back and forth, but Tess didn't care. She reminded herself that dignity was secondary to service. To make her man happy, she had to play the whore. Hell, she could be the whore if it made her man happy.

Tess sucked, slobbered, bobbed, fondled, thrusted, and gagged until all of a sudden her mouth was filled with hot cum. She coughed once, then immediately began swallowing. With each bob up on his cock, Tess swallowed to make room for more, then bobbed back down to refill. He grunted and gasped on the couch as she sucked it all out of him.

With a feeling of satisfaction, Tess finally sat back on her knees. Spit covered his chin. She smiled. "Did I make you happy?" Tess said sensuously.

Mark groaned, leaning back on the couch with a contented smile. He laughed once, eyed her body as she leaned back, and said, "Yes. Today, you have made me happy."

Tess blinked once. Today. She blinked again. Did that mean tomorrow he wouldn't be happy? What did that mean for Tess? Would she have to make him happy all over again tomorrow?

She cast the thoughts of out her head, reminding herself that tomorrow was tomorrow's problem. Today, she had made her man happy. She settled down onto the couch next to him, not bothering to cover herself again. They watched a movie, him in jeans and t-shirt and her in black lace lingerie. For today, Tess decided, it was enough that he was happy.

--

Tess awoke on Saturday morning. Her first thought was, 'Is my man happy?'

She sat up, aware that this was an odd first thought. Why had that been what she was worried about? Wasn't it just the last night that she had dressed like a slut and sucked him off? It was only now that Tess was realizing that he never returned the favor. She hadn't had a single thought about her own orgasms the night before and, frankly, neither had he.

But still, there was that question. Was he happy? Was the slutty, sloppy blowjob on Friday night enough to cover her man's happiness through to Saturday? Tess genuinely didn't know.

Tess stood and looked at herself in the mirror. She was feeling the urge to go put on whore-level makeup and go suck her boyfriend's dick again just to make sure he was happy. But was he also putting in that effort? Was he sitting at home wondering how to make her happy? Was that fair? Did it matter if that was fair?

Tess was very confused and she was starting to get a headache. What had spawned all of this? Was this just because of that stupid video? Had it gotten inside her head somehow?