Lea and Jake Pt. 01

It all began at a party with some friends. At least that is how I would like to think how it began. Perhaps in reality it had begun much, much sooner. Perhaps what transpired that warm May night in downtown Manhattan was, in fact, inevitable, and if nothing had happened that evening, there would have been some other night, somewhere else, that would have ignited the very same flames that after this evening threatened to completely engulf our lives.

Jake was his name. He owned a big apartment down in the Village, with views of the city that in one sweeping motion revealed why New York always and always will possess such an allure to all the dreamers in the world. The apartment was packed with people, successful people, people from the media and the arts and tech, everyone dressed flamboyantly, everyone drinking and smoking and doing all kinds of drugs, the music blasting in the background. It was all one big celebration, a celebration to thank the gods that we all were young and successful, with New York as the glamorous soundtrack to our lives. Little did I know that after this night, the relationship my girlfriend, Lea, and I had would change, forever; that after this night, nothing would remain the same ever again.

Before I continue, let me give you some background so you can understand the gravity of what happened. Up until that evening, Lea and I had had the stereotypical high school sweetheart backstory: we were from the same town, went to the same schools, went to the same college and were lucky enough to both land jobs in New York, just starting out with what hopefully would be the type of lives and careers million of people dream about. We came from a small town in upstate New York, and we more or less knew each other since we both were kids. Our parents used to socialize quite a bit, and even if Lea and I were not exactly friends before we became a couple, I always knew who she was and, truth be told, always had fancied her a bit. Fast forward to high school, and we became a couple; we deflowered each other a few weeks before graduation.

Of course, all relationships, no matter how or when they started, have their ups and downs, but by and large Lea and I have always had a good time together. We are very similar in how we approach life, and we enjoy each other's company immensely. And, yes, despite not having been with anyone else, I am just as much, if not more, in love with Lea as I was that day when I, as an acne-prone teenager, summoned up the courage to ask her to be my girlfriend. That said, I will also admit that never having been with anyone else has always nagged me a bit. I am not sure why; maybe it is just how we guys are wired. My friend Mike, a real womanizer, had been able to sleep through virtually the entire downtown Manhattan since he also moved to the city after college, happily relaying one night of debauchery after another whenever we would meet up for beers. While I could never see myself without Lea, I must admit that I often wondered why the two of us wouldn't have sex more often or why she wasn't at least half as wild as the girls Mike routinely picked up weekend after weekend. Not to say I didn't enjoy having sex with her, but she wasn't the type of woman that would surprise me by dressing up in sexy underwear or do any of those sexy fantasies I secretly harbored in the darker corners of my mind. Not that I am more twisted than the regular guy out there -- probably less, truth be told! -- but the standard missionary or doggy-style positions, with the occasional oral thrown in (but her demanding that I move away from her when I was close, lest I come in her mouth or on her face) -- even with a girl as hot as Lea, things had started, ever so slowly, to grow stale in the bedroom. I didn't like that one bit. We were too young for that.

Sometimes I would bring these things up with her, or at least try to, but she never really felt comfortable talking about sex, and if we ever did start talking about something and together starting to fantasize about doing something out of the ordinary, well, that never led to anything beyond mere words. While I loved her deeply and knew she loved me just as much, the sex was not as great as I feel it should have been at this stage of our lives.

We decided to move in together when we moved to Manhattan. As you can imagine, moving to New York, both young and excited, but at the same time terrified, without really knowing anyone and both starting brand new jobs, with all of the pressure and stress that entail, made the first six months a bit tough. We later met a bunch of people who would become our friends, but in the beginning living in New York could feel lonely and just plain hard. The only people we knew from before were Mike, a guy I met in college, a happy-go-lucky character; and Jake, a guy Lea had gotten to know, also in college, as they shared most of their classes together. Jake had grown up in New York so he knew the city inside and out. His father was a wealthy hedge fund guy and had bought him a condo in the Village as a graduation gift, which tells you everything you need to know about him. He was in fact a pretty decent guy even though we never really hit it up. Actually, to be completely honest, I cannot say I liked him too much -- he did have that radiating aura that stems from people of privilege, the undisputed knowledge that the world is theirs to enjoy, that the world exists solely for their pleasure and their pleasure alone.

It was mostly Lea that wanted to hang out with him when we got to the city, if nothing else because we hardly knew anyone else at that point. Sometimes I would tag along; more often than not I would just remain at home; I just didn't feel comfortable around him or his pals. Look, I know I am a pretty good-looking dude and typically I am the pretty loud and confident, slightly obnoxious, guy in any group, but with Jake and his group of friends things just played out differently. The way they acted, the way they could just spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a simple Thursday night without it making a dent in their pockets; all of this was just so alien to me. I also couldn't really participate in their conversations; I had not been going to the Hamptons every summer since I was born, and I didn't know wine or art or fashion or any of that sort. I was and am a pretty normal guy from a normal, middle-class background, just like Lea. There was an ocean between me and them that I could never hope to bridge.

Lea, on the other hand, didn't feel like that at all. She is a social chameleon, and can hang out and make friends with people of all backgrounds. In the beginning, I must admit I was pretty jealous that she would go out to party with a bunch of guys and their, more-often-than-not, temporary girlfriends -- if you can even call those girls that -- and we did have a few minor arguments about it, stemming from my insecurity and not wanting my girlfriend to be hanging around a bunch of dudes whose greatest goals was to do as much coke as possible and fuck as many hot girls they possibly could. But Lea repeatedly stated that there was nothing for me to worry about, and gradually I started to become embarrassed that I had these emotions at all, so I just put all of that aside, trusting Lea completely and, quite frankly, never having any reason not to fully trust her. And, yes, I did come along sufficiently often to realize that, no, there was not anything to worry or feel jealous about with those clowns.

As I said, most of the time Lea would hang out with them without me. But this particular night, the night when Jake was hosting this big party at his place, I had come along. Or, to be more precise, had showed up a bit later, having met Mike for a few beers beforehand. I arrived around eleven and was welcomed by two petite girls doing coke inside the main entrance -- you can understand what type of party this was. There were people everywhere, the music blasting to a degree that made any attempt at conversation next to impossible. I felt pretty tired as I had had a pretty rough week and also been sharing a joint with Mike earlier that evening, neither of which made me particularly keen on spending the night partying with Jake and his crew. To be fair, my sole objective when arriving was to find Lea, stay for another obligatory hour or so, and then leave with her to get home to have sex and get some sleep. Not perhaps the most sophisticated proposition, but there you go. In all seriousness, I was pretty keen to get some alone time with her as we earlier that week had had another argument about sex, or what I believed to be a continued lack of sex, and I just wanted to make up with her and get ready for a relaxing weekend together without any of the negative emotions associated with the stress and pressure of living in the city weighing down on us.

I waded through the crowds, trying to locate her. Some random guy gave me a beer, which I gulped down in an instant. As I said, the place was packed, with people dancing and talking and making out and doing drugs everywhere and anywhere in every single room. Eventually, up on the rooftop, where it was a tad quieter, did I find her, standing with some of Jake's friends. As soon as she saw me, she ran over and gave me a deep kiss. I kissed her back, happy to see her in good spirits and that any arguments between us seemed to have been forgotten. She was happy and drunk and certainly did not seem to be wanting to leave this party anytime soon. As I said, Lea is a social creature and her energy has a tendency to spread to those around her, so it did not take long before I, too, was laughing, drinking beer after beer and having a good time speaking to random strangers while admiring the shining lights from the skyline of the greatest city in the world.

Occasionally, I would glance at whatever Lea was doing. She floated from group to group, seamlessly integrating herself in whatever conversation that was ongoing, a skill I never had had nor would ever hope to have. I caught several guys blatantly checking her out, something I, truth be told, couldn't be too upset about -- Lea, with her long dark hair; her even longer, slim legs; her overall petite, feminine figure; her perky breasts; and her rich and warm laughter all drew admiration from men and women alike. I, too, smiled admirably at her as she suddenly started to dance as her favorite song came on on while I took a seat at the corner, just enjoying the buzz in my head and the pleasure of being surrounded by beautiful and happy people.

A few hours later, the party finally started to sizzle out, and the few dozen or so people remaining had all gathered on the rooftop. Someone brought up a tequila bottle, and within short, whoever was not already drunk now had a rich hangover to look forward to tomorrow. People were happy, everyone singing to some cheesy tunes that someone had put on the loudspeakers downstairs.

I spotted Jake sitting across from Lisa in the middle of the rooftop, trying to look at her without anyone noticing, but not doing a particularly good job at hiding it. Perhaps it was amplified by the now numerous beers I had consumed, but I immediately felt the crawling sense of jealousy in my belly being stirred back to life. As I said before, Jake and I had a weird relationship. We never really spoke much to one another with neither of us ever making any real attempt to get a conversation ongoing. I accepted him as a friend of Lea's, a person she evidently enjoyed spending time with; he accepted me as the boyfriend of Lea's, a girl with whom he was friends with. Did I ever feel there was anything else there? Sometimes I did. Tonight I did for sure. Once again, I couldn't really fault any guy for trying to check Lea out -- especially tonight as she was wearing a short, red dress doing a splendid job of accentuating her long, toned legs -- but Jake looking at her made me uneasy somehow.

After some more time -- and now people were seriously drunk, Lea and myself included -- someone was sufficiently wasted to suggest that we all play "Never have I ever". You know, the silly college game where you are supposed to state something like "Never have I ever bungee jumped" and whoever has indeed bungee jumped before needs to take a drink while those who haven't don't. At this point, it was five guys, including myself and Jake, and two girls, including Lea, sitting around the table in the middle of the rooftop, while there were some other people just chilling around us, so the seven of us started playing. It is a silly game and probably a lot more fun when you are, say, 18 rather than in your mid-20s, but even if the game did start out a bit awkwardly, it soon, as expected, went straight into R-rated territory, which made things slightly more interesting. The more the statements came to be about sex, however, the more I felt Jake started to look at Lea more brazenly, this time not bothering to hide it. It was pretty evident he found her very attractive, and he was sufficiently wasted with whatever booze and drugs he had in his system to make that fact increasingly evident. Maybe it was just the general drunkenness amongst the people still around, but there was now indisputably some kind of a weird electric feeling in the air as the game we played forced people to reveal what intimate activities they had, or had not, done in the past. To my great chagrin, it soon became pretty obvious that Lea and I had had a pretty limited experience when it comes to sex -- at least in comparison to this group -- as neither of us, having never had sex with anyone else, had done much of the things that people kept bringing up. All of which, strangely, made me feel as if I had missed out on a large portion of life.

"Never have I ever ejaculated on somebody's face," one of the guys said, before downing whatever he had left in his glass. "Or," he continued, smiling at Lea and the other girl at the table, a cute, blond girl with that innocent girl-next-door-look, "have I had the pleasure of having a gentleman ejaculate on my face".

He started laughing. All of the other guys, including Jake, took a sip of their respective drinks, and so did the cute girl next to me, triumphantly and theatrically taking a long, slow sip of her wine. I felt how my cock hardened as the thought of blasting my sperm all over her face suddenly popped into my mind. She really was cute, with long, light hair and big, blue eyes. I could only imagine how sexy it must be to watch the sperm slowly roll down her pink cheeks with her mouth wide open.

"Look at that," Jake suddenly exclaimed loudly, interrupting my sordid thoughts, while glanced at Lea sitting there with her full wine glass, "you really are a prude, aren't you?"

She looked back at him annoyed, not enjoying being the center of attention right now.

"I just..." she started, looking around, "I just... don't see what the point is."

He continued looking at her with a cheeky smile on his face.

"Hence why you are a prude. If you never even let a guy come on you..."

She didn't respond, but had an annoyed look on her face. Or, as I think back, with a look that probably was more of pretended annoyance. I remember how I could see how her eyes glittered rebelliously, as if she wanted to find a way to get back at him. They did this, Jake and her, always bantering back and forth. She now probably wanted to let him know that she was not just some boring prude compared with everyone else on this rooftop, something which, alas, once again to my great chagrin, was nothing but the plain and utter truth.

We resumed playing, but whatever came next failed to reach my ears. All I now knew was that Lea and Jake continued to exchange glances, as if there was now some kind of silent challenge between them.

You may at this point wonder why I didn't do anything, but I am also not sure what I should or could have done. It was all so subtle, small glances here and there, nothing tangible for me to call out without making a fool of myself. Jake talked like this to everybody; it was just part of his personality. Also, sitting a bit to the side, I felt so completely forgotten at that moment, a feeling that completely overwhelmed me and turned me into this passive observer, an observer lacking any ability to act, to do anything. I don't know why. I hardly engaged in the game, and when it was my turn, the guy sitting next to me started talking, and nobody called out that it had, in fact, been my turn. My mouth was dry and the strange insecurity I always had felt around this group resurfaced, ten times stronger than ever before. My head was buzzing with the mix of weed and too many beers, further amplified by a long week working with too little sleep. While Lea and Jake started giving each other small glances, I just sat there, immobilized, unable and incapable of doing anything about it.

After a few more minutes, the game faded out and people started talking about other things, a mix of all kinds of discussions, the ones only way-too-drunk people way-too-late at night find fascinating. I started talking about sports -- one of the few common interests I shared with this group -- with some of the guys, while I tried to keep an eye on what Lea was up to next. She had moved away a bit, sitting next to Jake, with them talking quietly to one another. I tried to reassure myself that there was no reason to feel jealous, while I at the very same time desperately tried to eavesdrop and pick up on what they were talking about.

"...I don't know... It's just... it's just so dirty," I heard Lea say through the music and competing conversations.

I could see how Jake smiled at her, leaning in towards here.

"Well... that's the point..."

It was a surreal situation. I was sitting there, trying to maintain a conversation about basketball with some random guy, while simultaneously, with questionable success, trying to make out every single sentence in the other conversation ongoing, the one between my girlfriend, Lea, and her friend Jake, the subject of the conversation being her laying out why she never had allowed anyone -- that being me -- to ejaculate on her face, all of this to a guy who obviously found her very attractive to a degree that was abundantly clear, never mind that I was mere feet away, and with neither of them paying me any attention. It all felt so bizarre, like a scene from a dark comedy.

After a few moments, he got up and went downstairs. Lea remained where she was, just sitting by herself, glancing at her feet. She didn't look my way or at anyone else. Later, I would wonder why I at this point just didn't grab her and called for an Uber. It was now early morning, we were both drunk beyond belief and the party had since long come to an end.

Before I had mustered the energy to act, however, he returned, with two drinks in his hands.

"So, does Ms. Prude want another drink?"

I looked at Lea. She had something in her eyes I had not seen before. Maybe it was just the alcohol, but I could swear she almost looked horny and a bit... embarrassed. As if she was sitting there thinking about something, something that had sufficient power to make her cheeks blush.

"Give me that drink," she responded fiercely, gulping it down in an instant before anyone could react.

"And, no," she continued, looking straight at Jake, "I am not a prude."

He just smiled back.

"So prove it."

I almost dropped my beer when she, without hesitation and without warning, pulled down her dress, showing him and everyone else on the rooftop, and the entire city of New York for that matter, her well-rounded, perky breasts. In an instant, all drunken conversations ceased, all eyes drawn to a half-naked Lea, people stopping whatever they were doing to admire her firm, pale breasts, lit up by the reflection of the light from dozens of nearby skyscrapers.