Ladies' Night at the Wargaming Club Pt. 02

Ladies' Night at the Wargaming Club Part 2 - One Year Later

This is based, with permission, on the characters and setting developed by ShibbolethParty in his story "Ladies' Night at the Wargaming Club".

All characters are over 18, as specified in the text. Also please remember that while misogyny can make for an erotic story, there is no place for it in real life.

*****

Two rather beautiful women, one with straight blonde hair, the other a natural redhead whose hair fell to her shoulders in curly ringlets, were walking along a side street in a shopping area. The shops were a mix of minor local businesses rather than the top retail outlets that were their more usual destination, but that made no difference as it was after 6 p.m. and most had shut for the day anyway.

Both women prided themselves on their excellent fashion sense but for the meeting of geeks they are heading to they had deliberately dressed down a little, although their clothing was still stylish and of good make and their hair and makeup were perfectly presented - they just couldn't help themselves on that. The blonde, whose name was Jenna, was wearing a neat blouse and knee-length skirt combination in different shades of blue, together with short cotton pop-socks and flat shoes. Sophea, her red-haired companion, had gone even further to fit in by choosing a plain green tee-shirt and grey jeans together with trainers, albeit all were of designer brands. Both women also wore a jacket top.

Jenna looked at her best friend - or, strictly speaking, one of her two best friends although she was having doubts about the other - and voiced the thought that was uppermost in her mind, "Why the hell are we doing this Soph? It's so dumb."

"We've discussed this already Jen," Sophea replied. "We've got to find out once and for all what's wrong with Julie. And, stupid as it is, the only way she would agree to spend time with us was if we came to this 'games night' thing. We don't have to take it seriously, just pretend to play some games, talk to Julie and then leave when we want."

Jenna didn't bother to reply because Sophea was right; they had discussed this many times. Up until a year ago she, Sophea and Julie had been very close - a proper 'Best Friends Forever' group. They had met at college almost a dozen years ago and discovered they had similar interests and tastes, especially in music and fashion. They had enjoyed competing to discover new local bands and inviting each other to gigs to show off the latest one. Whether the result had proved to be gold-dust or dross they had still had a lot of fun in the process.

They shared a passion for stylish and fashionable clothes and make-up and had helped each other to work out the look that suited them best. Unintentionally this had led to another side to their friendship - the effect they had on boys their own age. Although their looks were quite different all three friends were more than averagely pretty, and while sometimes beautiful girls are competitive with each other this was not so in their case.

Jenna remembered the huge pleasure they had got from walking into a room together and watching the guys' heads turn. They had also registered the annoyed expressions of girlfriends but, while they liked to flirt, they never stole other girls' men. They weren't like that at all. They were just three nice young women, reveling in being 18-years-old and having fun.

All three had retained their looks, even as they moved on with their lives. Julie had deep brown eyes and dark wavy hair, worn long back in the day but more recently styled in a bob. She was slim and on the short side, around 5' 4", but still curvy in all the right places, with a nicely rounded butt and shapely breasts. Now, at 30-years-old, her light-brown complexion was as smooth if she were still 18.

Sophea was the tallest of the three, a good six inches taller than Julie, and her skin was very pale and lightly freckled, as benefited a born redhead. Her ginger hair was also naturally curly and when she was younger she had hated both that and the color, until she found that a lot of guys liked it and she got a good deal of attention as a result. Now, at 29, she was totally comfortable with what nature had provided, albeit the ringlets that naturally formed in her shoulder-length hair were artfully arranged through visits to an expensive salon. Physically she was no more slender than Julie but her extra height made this more obvious and she was less curvy, with 32A breasts, but she knew her long shapely legs were enough to attract most men.

Jenna liked to think she split the difference between her two friends. She was the middle one in age and height and she was pale-skinned, but not as much so as Sophea, having a healthy pinkish tinge to her complexion. As a child she had been startlingly blonde, but her hair had darkened as she grew to adulthood. She had responded by ensuring that her natural fairness had some assistance from a bottle, and her long straight hair was now a golden yellow once more.

As they had progressed through their twenties they flirted less and got more serious about relationships. All had acquired boyfriends and - in Jenna's case - a husband, but throughout they had not let that get in the way of their friendship. Jenna had met her husband Paul through her second job. He was an accountant but certainly not dull, as the stereotype might suggest. In fact, he was a wonderful man, intelligent, kind and loving and they had a great relationship. They had been married for three years now and had reached the point where they felt financially and emotionally secure enough to try for a child.

The only slight cloud in their marriage was that she had not yet conceived, despite her and Paul doing all the right things according to the standard advice. Eventually Jenna had insisted they get checked out and their doctor had highlighted two issues. Firstly, while there was nothing wrong with her, Paul had a rather low sperm count and, secondly, that this was not too much of a problem provided they both took things naturally. The reason that Jenna was not getting pregnant was that she was becoming too obsessive and stressed about it. All she needed to do was relax and enjoy being with her husband.

The problem was that Jenna couldn't relax. She had all the dates she was most fertile mapped out in her diary and insisted she and Paul made love on them. It was starting to become more of a chore than a pleasure. In fact, that was another reason Jenna was rather annoyed about tonight's expedition. She was near peak fertility and by rights she should have been at home demanding that Paul perform his husbandly duties.

Sophea, in contrast, had had a series of boyfriends who, assuming they made it past the first couple of dates, generally lasted between six months and a year. For some reason they never seemed to stick. Sophea was always full of reasons why they had failed in one way or another, but Jenna and Julie felt that since their friend was the common factor here, perhaps she was just difficult to please. However, her latest - David - had been her boyfriend for almost two years now. Perhaps Sophea had finally found the right man. If so, Jenna couldn't blame her. David was a handsome, athletic hunk but also quite charming.

That was not a description that could be applied to Julie's long-term boyfriend Isaac. Julie and Isaac had been a couple for nine years and lived together for six but Jenna and Sophea had never been able to understand what their friend saw in him. Sure, he was intelligent and even, in a good light, not unattractive, but personality-wise he was in their opinion a compete loser. A thin, scrawny nerd who was obsessive about wargames, alternative history, fantasy, sci-fi... in fact anything geeky, but had no interest in parties, fashion, music or celeb gossip; in short, all the things the girls loved.

Jenna and Sophea had indulged Julie's odd boyfriend out of loyalty and done their best to get on with him, but he hadn't made that easy and eventually they had given up. Instead, they waited for their friend to come to her senses and dump him. Up until a year ago the signs had been promising for the imminence of the expected break-up. Julie had been becoming more discontented with Isaac and her friends had been eagerly awaiting the inevitable outcome. They felt Julie deserved better.

But in the last year there had been a complete change. Suddenly, Julie had nothing but praise for Isaac. In fact, 'adoration' would have been a better word. According to her he was perfect in every way - handsome, masculine, wise and wonderful. She also suddenly showed a new-found interest in his gaming hobbies. It was downright weird.

Even stranger had been the other changes in Julie's personality. She had ceased to attend any 'girls' night out' events. If they saw her at all it was always with Isaac and she showed him respect bordering on the subservient, allowing him to do most of the talking for her and always deferring to his opinions right down to letting him choose her meals and drinks in restaurants. And then about six months ago she had suddenly resigned her job in order to be a 'home maker', as she put it; this rang alarm bells as Julie had always loved her job. And yet... and yet... whenever they saw her, Julie seemed genuinely and blissfully happy, happier than they had ever seen her. It was all very odd.

Jenna and Sophea had discussed the problem at length over more than one bottle of wine and concluded that they had to make a determined attempt to speak to Julie alone. Then their friend had contacted them urging them to come to the Wargaming Society's Ladies' Game Night. They took her pleas that it was "a fantastic fun evening" and that, if they came, "they would never look at gaming in the same way again" with a huge pinch of salt, but it did seem like an opportunity to get together with Julie and perhaps find out what was going on; hence why they were walking along this backstreet at 6 p.m. on a Saturday evening.

*****

Jenna was distracted from these memories by the realization they were nearing their destination. As they approached the place where they had been told they would find the entrance to the Counterfactual Historical Wargaming Society - who the hell came up with that name, Jenna thought - they saw a familiar figure standing waiting for them. It was not Julie as they had hoped, but Isaac.

"Hi Jenna, Sophea," he greeted them. "I'm glad you could make it. Julie's already inside. I just thought I'd check you didn't miss the CHWS entrance. It can be hard to find." He pointed to a doorway and Jenna saw what he meant. It was sandwiched between two ground-floor businesses, a laundromat and a paint shop, and the only indicator was a small sign above the entrance.

Sophea was more interested in Isaac himself. While he remained what he had always been, a skinny socially awkward geek, he was not wearing what she might have typically expected for an event like this, that's to say jeans and a tee-shirt adorned with some obscure pop culture reference. Instead, he was wearing a sports jacket, chinos and a decent shirt. The redhead couldn't help but ask why he was so smartly dressed.

Isaac seemed slightly embarrassed. "Ah, well, I've applied for a place in the Inner Circle. A vacancy has come up as a member has had to move away. It would be a rare honor to get it, so I am trying to put on a show."

"The Inner Circle?" said Jenna almost laughing. "Sounds like some sort of mystical order of wizards or something."

"Oh, well, it's just the management committee of the club, really," said Isaac. "I would be the new membership secretary."

Jenna and Sophea did laugh this time. It was typical of this bunch of nerds to come up with a ridiculous portentous name for their club committee.

"Actually," Isaac continued, "you two are part of my application process."

"How?" said Jenna, both puzzled and somewhat annoyed by the suggestion. It sounded too much like Isaac was using them for something.

"Well... part of the requirement is to recruit... umm... new members of the club," he explained limply.

The women laughed again. Sophea said, "Oh come on Isaac, you know us better than that. There's no way we would join your dumb club."

Her disparaging of the wargaming club seemed to annoy Isaac and he said huffily, "Actually it was Julie's idea. She suggested you two; said you deserved the honor. And I should point out that she thought the same as you once but now she'd never miss a Ladies' Night. Julie loves them, so maybe we can change your minds too."

"Best of luck with that Isaac," Jenna said brusquely. "Sorry, but we're just here to see Julie. Why don't you take us in?"

Isaac went to the door and politely opened it for them, revealing a steep flight of steps upwards. Jenna briefly wondered whether he would try and go last so he could cop a look at them from behind, but no, once the women reached the door he turned and led them up the stairs with a polite invitation to follow. It seemed he was being the perfect gentleman tonight.

Once at the top Jenna and Sophea found themselves in the main games room, full of smaller tables surrounded with chairs. The table tops were covered in boxes with colorful pictures and odd titles being unpacked to reveal a bewildering array of boards, counters, cards and dice. A number of games were already in progress. Large banners on the walls proclaimed it to be "Ladies' Night" in colorful letters.

A little way to their left they saw Julie standing by a table and frantically waving at them, a big beaming smile on her face. But before they could go over to say hello, Isaac began introducing them to a tall older guy, perhaps in his early 50s, with greying hair. Many of the men they could see in the club tended toward the corpulent, but he was in much better shape and Jenna might have said he was pretty attractive for an older man, except she didn't care at all for the appraising look he was giving her and Sophea. 'Creep' she thought.

"This is Cliff. He's the club president and our host for this evening. Cliff, this is Jenna and Sophea, friends of Julie," Isaac explained.

"Good evening, ladies. Julie absolutely loves the Ladies Nights and she's a big favorite with the members too. Very competitive is our Julie, as perhaps you'll get to see later," boomed Cliff, a big smile on his face. "It's always a pleasure to welcome new guests, especially such charming ones as yourselves."

'Creep' thought Jenna again but what she said was, "Yeah, thanks, but I don't think we'll stay all evening. We just wanted to spend some time with Julie."

"Well, we'll see," said Cliff, "many of our guests end up staying much longer than they expect. It's hard to get away once you get into it. Still, let me give you these." He handed each of them a bottle of water and a name badge. "A lot of ladies say it gets quite hot in here, my apologies for that. It's important to stay hydrated, so drink plenty of water. We've got lots and it's free, so just ask if you need more."

Jenna was looking at her name badge. It said her name and underneath in brackets, 'Isaac'. Cliff saw her looking and said, "Don't worry about that. We just like to keep track of which member invited which guest - you know, for the records." Jenna looked at him quizzically; it was not obvious why that should matter. However, Sophea had already put hers on so Jenna did likewise. Cliff smiled at them again and said, "Enjoy the evening ladies," and stepped aside as Isaac led them toward the table where Julie was waiting. Jenna was conscious of Cliff's eyes following her butt as she walked away.

Isaac was talking again, "As you're beginners I've laid on a special game just for you two plus Julie and also another newbie who's never played before. I'll just sit out and watch and maybe give the odd tip, if that's ok." Jenna glanced at Sophea and winked. Sure it was ok with them; it gave them a better chance of speaking to Julie, but as for Isaac's 'tips'... well, who gave a damn for that.

Nevertheless, Jenna's heart sank as she approached the table and saw the game that had been laid out for them; it was 'Settlers of Catan'. Not that there was anything wrong with the game as such; in fact it was probably very good if you liked that kind of thing, it was just that it brought back bad memories for Jenna and Sophea.

About six months ago Julie had invited her friends over to the condo she shared with Isaac. They had been expecting a fun evening of wine and gossip with their friend, instead they'd found themselves inveigled into playing 'Settlers'. That Isaac would want to do such a thing was no surprise, but the fact Julie was just as keen was unexpected and had left them little choice but to agree unless they just wanted to walk out on her.

It had not been a fun evening. Isaac had inevitably triumphed over his inexperienced and disinterested opponents, but what was odder was the way he told Julie exactly what to do and she did it. The result was that she finished with the second highest number of victory points and seemed pleased, although in truth Isaac might just as well have played for her. And now they were going to do it all again, although at least without Isaac this time.

The next slightly unpleasant surprise was Julie's outfit. Their friend herself seemed in fine shape; she was bright, cheerful and positively radiated both contented happiness and great pleasure at seeing her friends, greeting them warmly with hugs and kisses on the cheek. Nor was it her hair or make-up, both of which were up to the old Julie standard. It wasn't even the quality of what she was wearing, which were perfectly respectable makes. Rather it was the unsuitability of her clothing choices.

Julie was 30 now; a woman of that age is perfectly entitled to look sexy and alluring if she wants to, but it is generally delivered with style and a touch of sophistication. Julie was certainly looking sexy but in the way an 18-year-old might have chosen. She wore a tiny pair of figure-hugging shorts and a minute crop-top that just about covered her boobs and, apart from ankle socks and white trainers, that was it. Vast areas of leg, midriff, shoulder and arm flesh were on display. True, Julie still had the figure to pull this off but it lacked class and decorum. As an outfit, it would not have been entirely out of place on a street-corner hooker.

Jenna and Sophea were still wondering what had happened to their friend's fashion sense and good taste, when the fourth member of their playing party arrived. A tall, powerfully built African- American man in his late 40's wearing a smart suit guided a petite and much younger girl of the same ethnicity between the tables toward them. The girl was dressed very respectably in a sort of business suit of jacket, blouse and knee length skirt. Without saying anything he pointed to their group. She sat down and the man walked away toward where Cliff was standing.

Her name badge said "Maddie" and underneath "Trevor" but she still introduced herself, seemingly keen to be friendly. She was also a little nervous, everyone else at the table being a decade older than her. "Hi, I'm Madison Brown, but everyone calls me Maddie," she said. "I was invited by Mr. Mason. He's my boss. I'm so lucky to be here. Every year he takes on a number of interns and from them he picks one to be his personal assistant for the year, and he always invites the lucky one to come to this event. He says it's sort of a bonding experience. Here I am, 19-years-old and with no experience and he picks me! It's great but I can't think why. As I say, I'm so lucky!"

As she chattered on Jenna and Sophea glanced at each other. They had a pretty good idea why this Mason character had selected Maddie as his potential new assistant. She was only 5'5" tall but extremely curvaceous; her breasts had to be a least a D cup. Further, with her smooth chocolate-brown skin and mass of curly brown hair, she was a very beautiful and sexy girl. The older ladies feared it was only too likely that she was another naïve young woman about to fall under the spell of a rich - but dirty - older man.