My Invitation: Surprise Consequence

[ Please read "My Invitation" (in Erotic Couplings) and "My Invitation: Grand Opening" (in Group Sex) as they are the beginnings of this tale. There is no explicit sexual activity in this chapter. The relationship between Nick and Kim is so much more than sexual, and totally sexual. I encourage women who read this story to write me, letting me know the feeling you have as you read Kim's story. Votes and comments (public or private) are encouraged from all readers on all my stories. ]

The weekend after our first night at the Club Kim moved in with me. I called four friends and they helped us get all her stuff moved in one day. The next day was spent putting things away and rearranging my life.

I had lived in the house ever since my parents passed and left it to me. Eight years to be more exact. Over that time I had shared the house with a few select house guests, friends, lovers for a weekend or even two, but Kim was the first to move in. The changes weren't even subtle. My eight years had transformed my mother's home into my bachelor pad. In her home there was a living room. In my home a TV media room, with big screen plasma TV and great surround sound stereo. In her home there were doilies on the backs of chairs and couches. In my home, a towel on the back of my recliner.

Kim moved in and the house changed, my life changed and our life together was incredible. Within a week she bought material for new curtains, "To lighten the place up." I didn't know it was dark. It was. She got new sheets for our bed. I thought the old ones were fine. When she showed me the new ones I knew she was right, again.

A month after we had moved together I was sitting at my desk at work when my phone rang. ID said it was Kim.

"Hi Honey."

"I just got a call from a hospital doing a seminar for women on breast cancer. They want me to speak. I want to do it and... I want you with me."

"When?"

"Saturday after next. The seminar goes from ten until four with me speaking from two-thirty to three-thirty."

"My calendar has us at the Club the night before. I think I should call and change us to Saturday night, or maybe the next weekend."

"Let's make it the next weekend. I want to be able to hang out with new friends after the seminar if we meet some."

"Ok. I'll change or reservations. Which hospital?"

I knew a nice restaurant near that hospital and told her I would reserve a table for us for after the seminar.

When I called the restaurant they wanted to know how many would be in our party. I didn't know so I said eight. I made three invitations on my computer that I could give to couples at the seminar, inviting them to join us at dinner.

When the day arrived Kim dressed in a suit. Business skirt and jacket with a white silk blouse underneath. As she pulled the skirt up I noticed no panties, just suspender hose. One more glance told me that she was not wearing a bra. She looked stunning. She had me wearing a dark charcoal suit with a blue shirt and dark tie.

The opening speaker was an oncologist who spoke for an hour about research and treatment options. It was spoken as a clinician speaks. Lots of science and no heart or soul. The second speaker spoke about prosthetics and the healing process. Another clinician. The rubber chicken lunch wasn't bad but so far there had been no excitement. All the luncheon conversation was muted. Of the two hundred people attending I counted eighteen men.

As we ate Kim kept looking around. She stopped looking and turned to me. "If you were speaking, what would you say?"

"Here's Kim!"

"Seriously. I feel something in this room and I need to speak to it. But, I can't quite identify it."

"Sweetheart, the women in this room are afraid. If they don't have breast cancer they are afraid they will have it. If they do have it they are afraid they'll lose their breasts and stop thinking of themselves as women. They are afraid their men will leave them, that their sex lives will be over, that love will disappear. Whoever invited you here knows you are the one who can speak to all of those issues."

"I hope you're right." At that moment a woman stepped up to the table and said, "Hi. I'm Marsha Whitehead, coordinator for today's program. You probably don't recognize me but I met the two of you at the Club not long ago."

Kim stood and they embraced. I stood and she embraced me. As I embraced her I said, "I think I remember you. You were dressed a little more casually last time I saw you."

We broke the embrace and she said, "I think last we saw each other you and I were in the showers." She sat with us and said, "Kim, I know you can feel the tension in the room. I invited you to speak because I need you to show them a woman who is who you are. A strong, sexy, alive woman who is still living life fully."

""I'm not sure what I should say."

"Yes, you are. Just stand up there and tell them your story and about your sister. Tell them about Nick. Hell, if you feel inspired show them the hearts."

Kim was quiet for a few moments and then looked at both of us and said, "I'm ready. Let's do this!"

They stood and walked to the speaker's platform. The murmurs died in the crowd and Marsha spoke.

"I have invited our last presenter to speak to you from a different context than the other speakers. Her name is Kim and she will tell you what she wants you to know. Please welcome Kim."

Kim stepped up and Marsha backed away. She looked out at the crowd and said, "I need some information from you. If you have had a diagnosis of breast cancer, please raise your hand."

Well over half the women in the room raised their hands.

"Thank you. If you have not been diagnosed but fear the diagnosis may find you in the next fifteen to twenty-five years raise your hand, please."

The rest of the room raised their hands.

"If you are a man, please raise your hand."

Eighteen of us raised our hands. There were a few giggles in the room. Uncomfortable giggles.

"Thank you. If you raised your hand for me then you are who I came to speak to. I want to begin by telling you about my sister."

She told the story of her sister and how painful it was for her to die of something she couldn't even call by name. She described the worry she had every day about finding a lump, and then finding it. She talked about seminars like the one they were in, trying to digest all the big words and jargon about her life and her limited options.

She asked for a glass of water. She took a good sized drink.

"Maybe it's stage fright or something but I'm feeling hot up here. Would it be Ok if I took off my jacket?"

There were positive noises made and Kim unbuttoned her jacket and took it off. There was a stool beside the podium and she took the microphone and sat on the stool. I was sitting near the back of the room and I could see the light glint off her golden hearts. The room was silent.

"On the eighth of November six years ago I had my breast removed in order to save my life. While I was recovering I heard my mother talking on the phone from my apartment. She said I had had a female problem and needed a little surgery. I got angry. Not at my mother, but at a society that loves us so little that they have taught us to hide anything that might hurt our status as sex objects. I made up my mind I wasn't going to be like my sister. I never bought the pads to fill the other side of my bras. I tailored my clothes so they fit well on both sides of my body. I told the people I work with and the people I see socially that I had breast cancer and now I don't."

She stood up and walked across the stage. "I look healthy don't I? Almost a year ago I ran in the Revlon Run/Walk for breast cancer here in Los Angeles. I wore running shorts and a jog bra. I had tailored the jog bra to hold my "D" cup left breast and to fit snugly against my right side. One of the people who ran near me on that run was a man. He asked me out. We had dinner a few times. Each time we went out I offered him three choices of what I could wear on our dates. A cover me up completely, a dress that hinted that I might only have one breast and something that fit snugly. He picked snugly. When I asked him why he picked what he did he said he liked the color."

A little laughter was heard.

"I worried that he was a freak. Thoughts of, I'm no longer fully a woman, how could he be interested in a one tit wonder, went through my mind. He isn't a freak. He is a man who is and has been interested in me as a person and as the woman I am. His name is Nick and he is here today with us."

She pointed and the room erupted in clapping and cheers. I smiled and waved. When the room calmed down Kim spoke again.

"Nick has been a powerful lesson for my life. Because of my sister I knew I would not hide what happened to me, whatever the cost. I thought the cost might be living the rest of my life as an Amazon of legend, without a man beside me as warrior. I was wrong."

She paused, then asked, "Are there any children in the room?" She waited and someone shouted out, "No!"

"Then please close the doors for a few minutes. Let's not have anyone new come into the room."

We waited and heard the doors close. Then Kim started unbuttoning her blouse. As she unbuttoned she talked.

"The day my bandages came off my chest looked like someone had purposely disfigured me. I had no idea what I would see when I looked. The scars were red, swollen and angry. From my neck to my waist I was bruised and I hurt! The doctor who did the surgery smiled at me when he took the bandages off! Some of you know exactly what I describe because you have been there. Some of you may benefit by seeing that the red, swollen, angry marks don't stay red, angry and swollen."

She put her blouse on the stool and faced the audience. She stood tall and proud. The bright lights hid nothing. She turned so that everyone could see her. As she turned the light struck the gold hearts on her chest. I heard murmurs from some people in the audience.

Softly she spoke, "I am whole and complete, just as I am."

She waited fifteen or twenty seconds and said it again, a bit louder. "I am whole and complete, just as I am."

A woman in the front row stood and took off her jacket and blouse. Everyone in the room watched and some stopped breathing. Under the blouse was a substantial white bra. She unsnapped it and let it fall to the floor. Her breasts were gone. The scars were a lot like the ones on Kim, only on both sides. When the bra dropped she had locked eyes with Kim and tears fell from both of them.

They said it together, "I am whole and complete, just as I am." They said it a little louder. Then twenty women or more stood up and clothes fell to the floor.

Kim spoke again and it was a choir, "I am whole and complete, just as I am."

More women stood and Kim waited for them. Now the room vibrated with their energy and voices, "I am whole and complete, just as I am." Kim added, "My breasts do not make me a woman. My heart makes me a woman. My soul makes me a woman."

The room repeated her words... five times. Looking around I felt overdressed. I looked at Marsha and she was in tears. I looked at Kim and she was on fire, crying and basking in the difference she had made. I felt so proud of her, so honored to be in her life.

When the noise settled down Kim lifted the microphone and said, "I still have a little over half an hour of the time I was given. I will stay right here for any of you who would like to talk to me. For those who want or need to leave, I will not be offended. Please, let's not let anyone new into the room. I want to wait to get redressed."

When the clapping died down I could not see either Marsha or Kim, they were surrounded on stage by fully dressed women and partially dressed women. One of the men in the room came over to me and gave me his card. His card said he was the head oncologist at an Orange County medical center.

"You are with an extraordinary woman." He said.

"Thank you. I agree."

"Is there a way I can arrange for the two of you to come and speak at our conference in May?"

I gave him my card and said he should contact us by email or snail mail to see what we could arrange. He smiled and wandered off. A waitress came up to me with tear tracks on her face.

"Can I get you something? I think she will be busy a long time."

"Diet Coke?"

She smiled and was gone. Very quickly she was back with a diet Coke and a big glass of ice. I asked her how much.

"You cannot pay! Your lady gave me my life back! She made me know I am not less of a woman!"

She walked away, head held high.

At the appointed time for the seminar to end an announcement was made that the doors would be opened and people who were not ready to see whole and complete women might be shocked. Lots of blouses went on. Fewer pads in fewer bras went back on. A trash can by the exit filled with expensive bras and prosthetics. Marsha walked Kim to our table.

Kim looked at me and asked, "Are we Ok?"

"I am so proud of you! I am the most blessed man on the planet." I stood and hugged her and kissed her.

"I'm starved."

"I have a reservation for eight." I said.

"And I have one at the same restaurant for twenty more." Marsha said. She turned to those following, told them what restaurant and that if they wanted to join us we would enjoy it.

Twenty minutes later we were seated and had ordered. We had arrived at the restaurant well before six. The restaurant closed at ten. They tossed us out at ten. All of us. Kim had accepted a dinner invitation for us for the next evening. She had also accepted one for Sunday evening. Two more nights without cooking at home. Sounded good to me.

It was nearly midnight when we got home. Kim was beat. The emotions had run high since just before she started speaking. I undressed her and tucked her in bed. I think she was asleep before I got to the bathroom.

At two minutes after nine the next morning the phone rang. I answered.

"Hi, this is Marsha. Is Kim awake yet?"

I looked at her and her hand came towards me from under the covers.

"Yeah, just a sec." I handed her the phone. Fifteen minutes later she was off the phone and bubbling. Marsha had been given a bonus for booking such a great speaker! She wanted to drop by and give Kim her share.

We got up, showered and dressed casually. Kim started breakfast. I answered the door. Marsha came in with her husband Mark. I led them into the kitchen.

Kim had made enough food for the Third Air Force so Mark forced himself to eat breakfast with us. Marsha had toast and coffee. Kim served and Marsha told us her boss had called her at eight that morning.

"He had heard from many of the organizations and individuals who were represented yesterday. He had almost a hundred and fifty emails this morning. So, he had a bonus delivered. In cash. We divided it in half and here is your half."

Mark put a package on the table. Kim opened it and it was hundred dollar bills. She looked up and Mark said, "There are thirty-four hundred dollar bills in your hand. Thank you."

Kim and I were in shock. We hadn't expected anything other than a free rubber chicken lunch. Marsha even paid for our dinner the night before.

"Oh, there's more!" Marsha said. She dug into her purse and came out with an envelope. She handed it to Kim. She opened it and said, "It's a check! For a thousand dollars! What for?"

"That's what we pay speakers. I forgot to tell you when you agreed to speak."

"I'm sorry I missed that speech," Mark said.

"It was incredible!" I said.

Over the next months Mark heard and saw Kim speak. She spoke at five conferences for survivors, doctors, social workers and to psychologists. I spoke twice. Our circle of close friends has expanded and grown in both numbers and intimacy. I had never seen a woman with a piercing where her breast used to be before I saw Kim's. Two weeks ago we went with friends to a clothing optional beach and I saw at least ten women with hearts shinning in the sunlight, one piercing their nipple and one piercing the scar where their breast used to be. Kim's hearts have an "N" engraved on them.

Four of the women at the beach showed their hearts to me, and they explained that the "K" engraved on their hearts were because Kim helped them find their hearts.

Yesterday I bought two hearts with "K" engraved on them. I can feel them attached to my nipples, rubbing against my shirt right now. Kim will see them tonight when we go to the Club. She opened my heart too. I am a lucky man.