The Unwelcome Wedding Guest

Give it he did, once again. Now that he knew his way around her body quite well, Rob had no trouble stroking her just the way she liked, circling her clit with his thumb without ever rubbing it too hard, nibbling her earlobe just right, and soon he had her bobbing just short of an orgasm.

He'd also learned that she liked a bit of teasing, and Betty happily indulged in his rubbing just a touch too slowly to send her over the top, keeping her in a deliciously frustrating tizzy with the added thrill of her ready view of the night just outside. Not for the first time, she was amazed at how something so private and so beautiful could be happening just beyond the mundanity of a side street at night.

There was nothing mundane about the moment when she came. "Ohmygodohhhhhhh!" She grabbed hard at his arm for balance and shut her eyes tight, yet she saw brighter colors than ever, and Rob slowed his rubbing but didn't stop. "Thank youuuuu," she cooed, opening her eyes.

"I wonder if they could hear you outside!" Rob snickered.

"Who's they?" Betty opened her eyes and looked out the window. There was a couple on the sidewalk across the street, but they showed no sign of having heard her over the din of the city. Betty wasn't sure whether she was happy or sorry about that. "Doesn't look like anyone did," she said. "Their loss, huh?"

"Too bad we can't do the main event in the window, isn't it?" Rob quipped.

"Oh, but we can!" Betty hoisted herself up onto Rob's computer table and spread her legs. "Now bring that over here, my dear!"

"I didn't know you could..." Rob began. Before he could even finish explaining what he didn't know, he found himself in Betty's heavenly wet, hot embrace. Now it was his turn to moan, and neither of them looked out the window this time. "Never did it standing up before," he said.

"Nice change, isn't it?" Betty whispered breathlessly, already rocking her hips and losing herself once again in the sensation.

She hadn't really been at all sure it would work; it had simply seemed worth a try. How right that was! She was free to wiggle around on the table and thrust at him just a bit as he thrust into her, and his hands felt even better than usual on her breasts as they hung free. Best of all, she was free to help herself along with her fingers. As she did so, she opened her eyes to see him gazing in awe downward. "You don't mind, do you?" she whispered.

"Mind? It's beautiful!"

He leaned in for a kiss, and their lips were still locked together when she came again. He felt her screech vibrating in his mouth before he had time to pull back to hear it. "Yessss, keep going keep going please!" Her eyes were shut tight again and she was rubbing harder and rocking as fast as she could against him, and he went right on thrusting, feeling himself getting very close now.

"Oooh! Yes, thank you! Are you close!" She opened her eyes."

"I'm there!" He flailed harder than ever at her for a moment, then threw his arms tightly around her and held still deep inside her. "Ooowwwfffff!"

Betty stroked his hair for the big moment and the joyful quiet that followed. From her perch on the table she had a clear view out the window. The sidewalk was empty.

Before her last call with Randy before their date, Audra saw no point in even pretending. After locking her bedroom door, she took her shorts and panties off. Thinking better still of it, she decided to undress completely. Maybe she would even tell Randy as much; he didn't need to know she'd be thinking of Nick, after all. For good measure, she also got her vibrator out and set it at the ready on the bedside table. She didn't want that buzz giving her away, but it just might prove necessary to turn him on that much.

There were a few minutes for her to lie back on the bed and play around with her fingers, just like she used to do when her mother wouldn't yet let her get a vibrator, before the phone rang. Audra was surprised at how much she enjoyed the trip down memory lane, but she was glad to hear the phone all the same. The sooner she could get through flirting with Randy, the sooner she could turn her attention to Nick, after all.

"Hello," she cooed in her best bedroom voice.

"Hullo, dahling," came Randy's equally flirtatious voice.

Audra burst out laughing. "Lovely accent, my friend," she said. "Feeling flirtatious, are we?"

"Aren't you? T-minus twenty-four hours, after all. You decided what you'll be wearing tomorrow?"

"Yes, but I'm not about to tell you," Audra admonished him. "If you don't recognize my face from my inthesea profile..."

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem," Randy said. "It's just that you've got me horny as hell and I wanted to know what to imagine after we hang up, if you will."

"Why wait until we hang up?" Audra couldn't help herself.

"Good question!" Randy laughed nervously, or at least it sounded nervous to Audra. "I'm game if you are. But I'll have to ask what you're wearing now."

"Nothing but a smile, Randy." The poor bastard had asked, after all.

"Ah, came prepared, did you?" he asked.

Audra could barely disguise her disappointment that he wasn't more awestruck. But she let it slide when she remembered it wasn't his face she was imagining anyway. "Hey, I'm a woman who knows what she wants." Not you, she thought silently, but he didn't need to know.

"Well then. Hands or toy?"

"How impertinent! But yes, I have a toy." Feeling too brazen to be demure just then, Audra reached over with her free hand and turned it on. "Wishing it were you, of course, but it'll just have to do, won't it?"

"Well, then, let me walk you through it!" Randy said. "Just imagine me fluffing your pillows to start..."

"My pillows? I'm naked and you want to bother with the bed?"

"I meant your breasts, dear."

Audra laughed, her first honest reaction all evening. It felt good. "Oh, all right! Never heard that one before. But yeah, fluff 'em up, Randy!" She rubbed the vibrator around her wet lips and dipped it just a touch inside, and let loose with a joyful moan.

"I'm fluffing them hard, babe. From the bottom up, pressing your nipples in with my thumbs, hard!"

Audra rubbed herself harder to keep from laughing -- the jerk thought that would feel good? Didn't he know anything about women? But it didn't matter, for she could just feel Nick's gentle caresses and warm breath on her breasts. "Oh, yes, do it," she said. "And I'm tickling your penis just so..."

"Oh, I think I'd like that," Randy said. "Get it nice and hard, babe, and then in we go!"

"Already?" Audra couldn't help herself. Then she laughed. "Sorry, I mean fine, but don't you want to play a little more at first?"

"If you want, sure."

Typical male. But Audra reminded herself that Nick wouldn't be like that. He would appreciate her body and treat her to plenty of caresses and kisses and nibbles. Nevertheless, she now imagined him inside her instead of the vibrator. "Ohhh, N-Randy!" A near miss, but in the moment she hoped he might let it go by."

He didn't. "N-Randy? That's a new pet name."

"It's because you've got me so wound up!" Audra said. "Everything comes with a mmmm or an nnnnn for now!"

"Nnnno kidding? So now I'm rubbing your pussy every which way, thennnn..."

Sure you are, she thought, and her mother's admonition from years before roared through her mind: Most men couldn't find the clitoris if it had a flashing light. Randy was probably that kind of guy, but Nick wasn't. Audra had, by that time, heard what went on in Janice's bedroom enough times to know that. The memory of that had her more worked up than ever, and she nearly forgot to bother with Randy's pathetic efforts.

Nearly.

"I'm wriggling all over the place at your touch, and now I want you! I want you in me now! Oooh!" She'd hit a particularly sweet spot with the toy. Let Randy think it was his words.

Evidently he did. "Oh, you like that? All right, here I come inside, gliding in effortlessly so you don't even notice until I'm in."

"You can do that?" Audra wanted to believe it. "Most guys, you have to guide them in, you know?"

"I'm not most guys, am I?"

"I'm suuuuuure," Audra sighed, having once again given in to imagining Nick making love to her. "Oh, you feel so good inside me! Make me come again and again!"

"Starting out slow, and kissing your breasts again..."

"Yes please!"

"Picking up the pace, gazing at you as you get lost in the sensation..."

"Can't wait to do that!" Audra grunted; now she was near her first real one. "Faster! Now!"

"Flailing away at you, grinding as hard as I can!"

"Oooofffff!" Audra rubbed the toy around just right, and dropped the phone. "Sorry, I need two hands for this!" she lied. "That's how good you are!"

"Can I come?" She could only just hear it.

"Please do!"

Then she was free to focus only on herself for a few minutes, broken only by Randy saying something about needing to go get some toilet paper. That made her laugh, the silly fool hadn't come prepared like she had! But who cared about that?

Audra got herself off again before she was aware of him being back at the phone. Once she was squared away, she said, "Are you back?"

"Yes, back and driven wild!"

"You're sweet." For just a moment, Audra felt a twinge of guilt for what was in store for Randy once she'd caught Nick's eye. But he was a guy, he'd get over it. "So how do we keep our hands off each other tomorrow night?" she asked.

"Who says we have to?"

"I do. I like everything I've learned about you, Randy, but it is still the first date. Besides, you know, I've got a lot on my mind with the wedding this weekend."

"Ah, right. I'm really looking forward to that."

"Did I say I'd be taking you, dear?"

"Yes! You did!"

"Oh, right," Audra said, though she couldn't recall for sure if that was true. "Sorry. Like I said, my mind's elsewhere. But it'll be on you tomorrow!"

"Seven o'clock at Grover's?"

"I've already reserved a table for two. Don't be late. They get pretty busy."

"But I won't know what you're wearing."

"Just say you're there to meet me. They'll have my name."

"See you then, dream girl!"

"Can't wait!" And to her surprise, it was true. As she hung up, Audra wasn't sure if it was a matter of getting this step out of the way or if she really was looking forward to being with a man who wanted her, regardless of whether she wanted him. But regardless, the butterflies within were quite real as she set about getting her clothes back on.

Betty and Janice had split the bill on a hotel room for Wednesday through Friday nights, and had evaded Audra's notice when they each left for work with a suitcase Wednesday morning. "She must know by now," Betty said as she turned the television on just after dinner that night."

"About Randy, you mean?" asked Janice, who was opening the bottle of wine they'd bought for the night.

"That too," Audra said, looking at her watch; it was just past seven o'clock. "But I meant about us not coming home tonight."

"I don't think she cares, do you?" Janice handed Betty a glass, full nearly to the rim with merlot, and they clinked glasses in triumph.

"Honestly? I think she will care when she gets home," Betty said. "She's going to want to whine to someone. And for once I couldn't blame her. I would too if I got stood up."

Janice looked at the clock on the table between their beds and laughed. "Going soft in your joy at getting married, aren't you?"

"I didn't say I had any sympathy for her, did I?" Betty replied. Helping herself to another look at the clock as well, she added, "God, I hate being this vindictive, but the truth is I'd love to see her right now!"

"Me too," Janice admitted. It was 7:07.

At that moment, Audra didn't know or care where her roommates were. Grover's was busy as usual, but she'd had the foresight to reserve the corner booth for two where her ex, Mitch, had brought her on their second date. That night had been nice enough, and as Audra sipped her margarita now, she remained optimistic about giving Randy a nice memory. Maybe, she mused, she should have told Randy about the cute blue sundress she'd decided on after all. Then he wouldn't have felt entitled to be fashionably late. But Audra couldn't blame the guy much for that. It was a trick she'd employed enough times, after all.

Still and all, after one look around the crowded dining room, she forced herself to focus only on her drink from now on. It wouldn't do to look desperate just because he was...she checked her watch...nine minutes late.

Janice took advantage of a commercial break at 7:30 to call Jeremy. "How're you girls handling your camp-out?" he asked.

"Yeah, this is my kind of campground," Janice said. "You know, if you guys want to come by and have a glass of wine..."

"Don't you know I'm on a date?" Jeremy reminded her.

"Are you, now? Just how is that date going?"

"Well, we're about half an hour in, and I imagine dinner has been served by now..."

"Oh, well, I don't wish to interrupt your dinner," Janice said.

"Lovely. Maybe we could stop by after our real dinner. I'll bring another bottle of wine if we do."

"If you do! What a player!"

"But you knew that. So long for now, Janice."

"Enjoy the date!"

Jeremy and Sean really were just sitting down to eat before the call came in, and by the time they'd hung up, Sean had everything on the table. "Thanks," Jeremy said, joining Sean at the table.

"Isn't this all awfully nasty?" Sean asked, helping himself to the stir fry.

"You wouldn't ask if you knew this gal, trust me," Jeremy replied.

"Just remind me never to get on your bad side or your friends'!" Sean said.

Jeremy's phone rang again. "Sorry!" He took the phone out of his pocket and looked at the incoming number, and slid the phone back into his pocket without answering it.

Audra, halfway into her second drink, stared at the phone as if willing Randy to pick up. But there was no answer. When the voicemail came on, she seriously considered leaving an angry message, but restrained herself. Maybe traffic was bad? He couldn't answer the phone while driving, after all.

She didn't really believe that. Far likelier that he was playing the same games her mother had taught her. Hadn't his folks ever told him that sort of thing was a woman's prerogative? But there might be a reasonable explanation, and she didn't want to talk herself out of her big chance to make Nick eat his heart out.

The waiter snapped Audra out of her angry reverie. "Ma'am? I'm afraid if you're not going to order anything to eat, I'll have to ask you to move to the bar."

"Oh, all right," Audra said, taking her first look at the menu of the evening. "What's the daily special?"

The movie was mindless fun, but Betty saw no need to wait for another commercial to get up and refill her glass. "You ready for a refill?" she asked.

"Yup." Janice held up her empty glass and Betty refilled it, then turned her attention to her own. Her attention now off the TV for the moment, she looked at the clock. "Seven fifty-four," she said. "I wonder if she's still at the restaurant?"

"I'll bet she is," Betty said, retaking her seat. "Players always think they're being played. She probably still thinks he'll show up nice and late."

"And then she'll give him a lecture about how only she can play games like that!" Janice could barely get the words out as she was dissolving into uncontrollable laughter. Betty joined in.

Jeremy and Sean had just finished washing the dishes when the muffled buzz came from Jeremy's pocket yet again. "Well, I knew you were happy to see me," Sean quipped.

"What's that, three times in the past twenty minutes?" Jeremy asked, after a quick look to make sure it wasn't someone else; it wasn't.

"Well, wouldn't you want to know where your date was if he was an hour late?"

"I wouldn't bother asking, I'd just tell him to get lost if he ever did call me again," Jeremy said loftily.

"Sure, dear, sure," Sean said. "Now, what kind of wine do you want to take over to the hotel?"

"We don't have to go, you know," Jeremy replied. "If you'd rather stay in..."

"I'd rather join in on the schadenfreude I know all three of you are going to have when she calls them in tears," Sean said. "And don't expect me to believe you're not dying to join them for that. Shall I call an Uber?"

Jeremy nodded and went to the refrigerator to get a bottle of chardonnay.

Audra did enjoy her dinner, at least. When Randy still didn't answer his phone on the third try, she gave up and decided to drown her sorrows in a third margarita and chocolate cheesecake for dessert. It wouldn't be on her hips yet on Saturday. Through every sinful bite, which she loved in spite of herself, she did keep one eye on the phone. But it just sat there beside her discarded napkin.

When she handed her credit card to the waiter, she said, "Could you also call me a cab?"

"Certainly, ma'am." He looked relieved, and for a horrible second Audra wondered if he'd been afraid she was going to try to drive home. Once again her mother's words soothed her nerves: Men always think we haven't got a brain in our heads, Audra. It's called projection. She took a deep breath and felt mollified, if still furious at Randy.

She picked up her phone to put it in her purse, and paused with it clutched in her hand. Now would be a more appropriate time to give Randy a piece of her mind, for she certainly wouldn't let him join her at the wedding now. But the restaurant was too crowded.

The Uber driver was an older man. An audience of one whose opinion she didn't care about, and it'd be good to have him know someone else was listening in case he tried anything anyway. Out came the phone, and she dialed Janice's number.

Janice had left her phone on the table with the now-empty wine bottle, and the call came in just after the front desk had rung to say they had visitors. With Betty gone downstairs to meet Jeremy and Sean, Janice had no choice but to have those first moments of sweet revenge to herself. She tried to sound as sober and even-voiced as possible. "Hi, Audra! How's the hot date?"

"Cold as a witch's tit, that's how!" Audra sounded near tears. Janice couldn't recall ever hearing such a thing before.

"That bad? What happened?"

"He never showed up! I waited an hour and a half, and even bought my own dinner so I could stay there and wait for him!"

"Oh, Audra, I'm sorry. Listen, calm down, there might be an explanation. Maybe he was in a car accident or something."

"I thought of that. I mean, yeah, maybe. That's the only reason why I haven't called to tell him just what I think of him, but I doubt it. You don't really believe that, do you?"

"Don't really believe what?" Janice's stalling for time paid off, as she heard the click of Betty opening the door.

"Good evening!" Sean called out in the moment before they all saw Janice was on the phone. He clapped both hands over his mouth, but it was too late.

"Who's that?" Audra demanded. "It's not Nick, is it?"

"No, it's no one you know." Janice waved at her three friends and gave them a thumbs-up with her free hand.

"What the fuck, Janice, you're playing around on Nick? You bitch!"

"No, I'm not -- for cryin' out loud Audra, haven't you ever heard of a platonic male friend?"

"She certainly doesn't have any," Betty snickered just loud enough for Jeremy and Sean to hear.

"Oh, I suppose you believe in the tooth fairy, too, Janice!" Audra whined on the phone, which Janice had put on speaker mode just in time for Betty and the guys to hear. "Didn't your mother ever teach you anything like mine did? Men never really want to be just friends! And right now I don't want to see any man anywhere. So could you ask your friend to leave before I get home, whoever he is?"