Awakenings
by Ann Douglas
(ann_douglas@hotmail.com)
Part One
For perhaps the tenth time in as many minutes, Kathryn Gray glanced up at the large clock on the office wall. It had been one of those days that seemed like it would never end. She had a theory that the three-day weekend that waited beyond five o'clock caused time to move much more slowly. A silly theory, she admitted to herself, but as good an explanation as any as to why the day was dragging on forever.
Kathryn had been working at Moore and Ryan for nine months now. It had been the twenty-three year old redhead's third job since graduating from college some two years before. All things considered, she was glad to have it. Even if it meant that she had to travel almost an extra half-hour from her parents house out in Queens. At least on this job she had a chance of being promoted into a position where she could use the business degree she had worked so hard for.
"Another twenty minutes to go," she said silently to herself as she looked down from the clock to her near empty desk.
Normally Kathryn wasn't a clock-watcher, but today she had finished all of her assignments early and was feeling a little bored. In fact, she had already set up a few things for Tuesday morning to get a head start on them. It was just her nature to be constantly active.
"Looks like Miss Perfect's all done for the day already." Said a quiet laughing voice from behind Kathryn.
"Hi Angela," Kathryn smiled as she spun around in her chair in response to the comment.
Angela D'Martino was both a year older and three inches taller than Kathryn. The 'Miss Perfect' nickname dated back to their days at the local high school in Queens. It was a term that annoyed her, but Angela usually got away with using it. After all, if it weren't for Angela, she wouldn't have this job.
Kathryn was working in a neighborhood store as a management trainee when Angela came walking in to buy something. They hadn't seen each other much since high school graduation. Not that unusual since Kathryn went away to college and Angela stayed home and went to City University. Still they still considered themselves friends and Angela mentioned that the company she was working for in Manhattan was looking for some new staff people. If Kathryn were interested, she'd be happy to put in a good word for her.
Although skeptical at how much Angela's good word would be worth, seeing as she had only been working for the company a year herself, Kathryn got her resume together and went down for an interview. To her surprise, she got the job, despite there being more than a dozen other people applying for it. What surprised her even more was that the department head had casually mentioned that she had a sterling recommendation from one of the firm's vice-presidents. He had even stopped in after the interview to welcome her aboard.
Thanking the man whom she would now be working for, Kathryn was more than a little confused about the recommendation. That was until she learned later that Angela worked as some sort of assistant for that vice-president. Somehow she had convinced him to write that recommendation.
Exactly how Angela had accomplished that was something they hadn't exactly covered in any of the business courses back in school. One night a few months ago, there had been an office party to celebrate the end of a major project. About half past nine, Kathryn had gone looking for Angela to let her know she was leaving and see if she wanted to share a cab ride home. She couldn't find her at the party, but knowing her friend's habit of taking a nap after she'd had a little too much to drink starting to check the now deserted offices that had couches.
It took a while to find Angela, but once she did, everything fell into place. Partially opening the door to a small conference room, the first thing she saw was her old friend. The second was that she wasn't alone.
Having doubled dated with Angela a few times back in high school, the image in front of her wasn't exactly new. It was just the setting that took her back for a moment.
Angela was kneeling on the carpet, the low cut blue dress she had worn to the party now down around her waist. Back in school, the brunette had stirred the envy of many of the other girls when she became the first girl to develop - and then continued to do so after many of the other girls had stopped. From shared shopping trips, Kathryn knew the black bra on the floor beside her was a 38D cup.
Standing in front of the large breasted twenty-four year old was that same officer who had lent his name to Kathryn's job application. Like Angela, he was only partially dressed, although in the case of the fifty-nine year old, it was his pants and briefs that rested around his ankles. >From where she stood, Kathryn would've been able to get a really good look at the silver haired man's cock - that is if it hadn't been buried deep in Angela's mouth.
Back in their school days, Angela had a reputation among the guys as a first class cocksucker. It was very obvious that she had, if anything, improved in the years since.
Her tongue seemed to be almost everywhere at once. Licking under the crown, tickling the sensitive area beneath his balls, massaging the sides of his cock as she again took him all the way into her throat.
"Oh Angela..." the vice-president moaned.
Angela gripped the base of his cock tightly, preventing from reaching a climax. She could feel the pressure against her slender fingers, she knew how badly her boss wanted to cum.
"I have to cum..." he pleaded, giving voice to that which her touch had already told her. "Please Angela, I want to cum."
The brunette continued to suck and stroke him for another few seconds. The she released the pressure against the base of his cock, sending a stream of hot whiteness into her mouth.
Angela slurped the creamy liquid, letting it splash across her face. It dripped from her lips and down her chin. Letting the now softening cock slip from her mouth, she reached out with her tongue and licked it from her lips. It was a satisfying treat.
Kathryn only stood there a few brief moments more before stepping back into the outer corridor, least she be noticed now that they were done. She never mentioned what she'd seen to Angela or anyone else.
For a while, it had bothered her that she'd gotten her job because Angela was blowing and perhaps even screwing her boss. Then after a while she decided that however she got her foot in the door, she was proving every day that she was the right person for the job. The proof of that had come with her very first raise and increased responsibilities two months before.
"What's up Angie?" Kathryn asked, using the nickname that Angela hated as much as she hated hers.
"A couple of the girls are going out for drinks after work," Angela said, her tone acknowledging that she had crossed over the line with the 'Miss Perfect' crack. "And I was wondering if you wanted to come along. We going over to the Baron Dekalb and there are usually a lot of great guys there on Friday nights."
"That sounds like fun," Kathryn said. "But I already promised Yolanda that I'd meet her after work. Would you mind if she came along?"
Instead of the quick agreement Kathryn expected, Angela paused a few moments, a look of hesitation on her face.
"I'm not sure that would be a good idea." Angela finally replied. "A lot of the girls are a little uncomfortable around Yolanda."
"Why in the world would any of them be uncomfortable around Yolanda?" Kathryn said, a touch of confusion in her voice.
Yolanda Ortega was a computer consultant who'd been working on an upgrade of the firm's mainframe the last four months. Four years older than Kathryn, the black haired Latina had quickly become a good friend. They'd sat next to each other one dark rainy day in the cafeteria and Yolanda had noticed that Kathryn was reading Lord of the Rings. She commented that it was one of her favorite books and by the end of lunch they discovered they shared more than a few interests.
Since then, they'd made it a point to have lunch together whenever they could and usually went out after work at least once a week.
"So what's wrong with Yolanda?" Kathryn asked again.
"Well I'm not really one to spread office gossip," Angela said in a much lower voice as she paused and looked around her to see if anyone else could hear her.
"Yeah right...." Kathryn thought.
"But it seems that your friend isn't exactly a straight arrow." Angela continued.
"What are you talking about?" Kathryn said.
"Well simply put," the brunette went on. "She's gay... "
"Gay?" Kathryn repeated.
"A lesbian, a dyke, whatever you want to call it," Angela said. "She's into other women and that makes some people uncomfortable."
Kathryn had to laugh. "Where did you ever get a asinine idea like that?" she asked.
"Straight from the horses mouth," The taller girl stated. "Or at least from the person she told it to."
"You mean she tried to pick up someone here at the office?" Kathryn asked.
"More like someone tried to pick her up." Angela explained. "To be more specific, John Rosselli asked her out to dinner."
"John Rosselli has hit on every unmarried woman in this office, both you and I included." Kathryn interjected.
"That's true," Angela agreed. "But both you and I know that John doesn't have a fragile ego that would make him come up with a bullshit reason as to why he didn't score with the lady computer genius. He gets turned down a lot, but just goes on to the next possibility."
Kathryn had to agree with her friend. Like too many men they knew, John thought he was god's gift to women. If it wasn't for the fact that he seemed to be obsessed with trying to bed every girl he met, Kathryn might've been tempted to agree with him. John was 6'2" with movie star looks. From the ladies room gossip she'd heard about the women who'd taken him up on his offer, he was phenomenal in bed as well.
"That doesn't prove anything," Kathryn said. "She was probably just trying to put him off. The one reason we all still get along with John is that he definitely takes no as an answer. Since she's only here temporary, she wouldn't know that. She might've figured if she just said that she wasn't interested he'd just be back again the next day. A lot of guys are like that, and you know it."
"But to say she was gay?" Angela asked. "Come on, who's going to say that if it wasn't true. She could've said she has a boyfriend or that she was engaged, or even that she didn't date white guys. No, it has to be true."
Kathryn paused for a few moments. She had to admit she'd come up with a lot better excuses when approached by guys she didn't like.
"So what if it is true," she finally said. "What difference does it make? Unless you're the one sleeping with her she's just another girl in the office."
"As long as we're talking, that's the other thing I wanted to speak to you about." Angela said. "Some people are beginning to wonder about you too. What with all the time the two of you spend together these days."
"Yolanda is my friend," Kathryn said strongly. "And we share a lot of interests, like books and films, the kind of things that no one else in this office seems to care about."
"Okay, I know you're straight," Angela said, taking a step back in her argument. "After all we used to double date. I told them you're not a carpet muncher."
Kathryn hadn't heard that derogatory term since back in high school when they used it to refer it to Sissy Wilson, the girl the in crowd most suspected of being a closet lesbian. She didn't think it was nice when it was applied to Sissy, and thought it less so now that it was being used to label her friend.
"Well I'm not going to cancel my da..., going out with Yolanda." Kathryn said, a sense of anger in her breast. "So you'll just have to get along with out me."
"Suite yourself," Angela said as she got up to leave. "But let me give you one last thing to think about. Yolanda will be gone in a few weeks when she finishes the upgrade. The people you're going out of the way to alienate are going to be here with you for a long time.
As Angela walked away, Yolanda noted that five o'clock had finally arrived. She found that she wasn't as excited as she thought she'd be.
Packing up her bag and leaving her desk, Kathryn had a sense of being watched. As she walked by three of her female coworkers, she was sure that two of them turned and looked at her.
"Angie's getting you paranoid," she told herself as she reached the office door. "You know they already consider you something of an oddball."
It hadn't taken much for a of few of the women her age at the firm to come up with that assessment. First of all, in their opinion, she definitely spent too much time reading. Then there was the fact that she actually had a college degree, where the most many of them had been to was secretarial or one of those office trainee schools. Kathryn was shooting for the stars, while they were shooting for whatever party was planned for that weekend.
Additionally, Kathryn's reluctance to join in on their weekly cock hunts was taken by some as a disapproval of the game. And in a way, she guessed it was. Kathryn did have a boyfriend -- well at least someone she saw on a fairly regular basis. They'd go out, have dinner and maybe a movie, and inevitable wind up in bed together. It was a mutually satisfying relationship - but at the same time missing something.
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A quick elevation ride to the lobby and Kathryn headed for the small atrium on the side of the building. Normally, during lunchtime, the small garden spot would be packed. After five however, it was normally deserted, the multitudes exiting the large office buildings heading instead for either the local bars or the fastest way home.
Sitting down in her usually lunch spot, she patiently waited for her friend. It wasn't a long wait, a few minutes later she spotted Yolanda coming out of the same side door she had used.
Yolanda Ortega was twenty-seven years old and stood five foot seven. She had long black hair, which she wore up in a carefully crafted style, small ringlets of which framed a pretty face. She was within a few pounds of her ideal weight and had a figure that caused admiration in men and envy in women. Pert, rounded breasts pressed against the material of the dark blue dress she was wearing - an erotic image that was overshadowed only by the long, smooth and tan hued legs that stretched out from beneath that dress.
Kathryn sometimes thought she'd kill for legs like that. She knew she was as pretty as Yolanda, but it was those legs that even she envied. Of course being only five three probably had a lot to do with it she usually laughed to herself.
"I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long." Yolanda said as she caught up to Kathryn, her voice carrying just a trace of the South American accent of her native Sao Paulo. "I wanted to run one last system check before I left for the weekend. I think I got the last of the bugs worked out. If I'm lucky, I'm be able to present the program to the board by the end of next week and get that early completion bonus."
"Oh, you'll be leaving soon then?" Kathryn asked in response to the unexpected news.
""I'm afraid so." Yolanda replied, noting the sadness in her friend's question. "I'm afraid that's the lot of being a consultant. You don't spend a lot of time in any one place."
"I guess so." Kathryn said.
"Now don't look so down my friend," Yolanda beamed. "You don't think I'm going to just walk away and forget about the best friend I've made lately - do you?"
"I hope not." Kathryn said, her sad expression wavering for the moment.
"Now put away that sad face," Yolanda insisted. "It's only going to ruin the surprise I have for you."
"What surprise?" Kathryn asked curiously.
"These." Yolanda said as she reached into her purse and handed the shorter woman a small envelope.
The sad look on Kathryn's face vanished in an instant as she took two tickets out of the envelope. A look of both excitement and disbelief replaced it.
"Omigod!" She gasped. 'These are for Adrianne and Edmond - A Romantic Comedy!" Where did you ever get them? I called the box office once and they told me the best I could hope for was six months from now. This is the hottest off-Broadway show of the year."
"Well I have a friend that owed me a favor." Yolanda smiled. "And I remembered you're saying how much you wanted to see that play. The only thing is that they're for tomorrow night. That's not a problem, is it?"
"Oh no, not at all!" Kathryn said, still gushing with excitement. "I still can't believe you got these for me. Yolanda, I love you, you are the best."
With that she threw her arms around Yolanda and gave her the biggest hug she could. She enjoyed the warmth of her friend's closeness for a few moments, then the conversation with Angela flashed back through her thoughts and she remembered she was standing out in what was still a pubic place.
"Is something wrong?" Yolanda asked as she felt Kathryn suddenly tense up and then step back.
"No, nothings wrong." Kathryn lied as she looked again at the tickets. "I was just thinking that these tickets are too much for me to accept. There's no way I could ever repay you for them."
"Now did I ask you to repay me?" Yolanda asked. "Your friendship is enough. I have few enough real friends that I can take them for granted. No, I want you to take these tickets and for you and Eric to have a good time."
"Eric?" Kathryn said, repeating the name of her boyfriend.
"Well that's who I figured you'd want to go with." Yolanda explained. "Was I wrong?"
"Oh, I thought that you got those tickets for me and you to go." Kathryn said.
"I'd love to go with you," Yolanda said, the smile on her face lighting up. "I just thought you'd rather go with Eric."
"If these were tickets for the Mets or Yankees, I'd say yes." Kathryn laughed. "But spending a few hours watching a play really isn't Eric's idea of a fun evening."
"Okay then, it's a date." Yolanda said. "We'll go to dinner first, if that's okay? I know this really fabulous Chinese restaurant that's not too far from the theater."
"That would be wonderful," Kathryn concluded, proud of herself that she didn't even flinch this time when Yolanda innocently referred to their going to the show as a date. "But speaking of Eric, I also told him I'd meet him later tonight so I'd better get home and change."
"Enjoy yourself," Yolanda said as she wrote down an address on one of her business cards. "Here's the address of the restaurant, I'll meet you there about six, okay?"
"Six would be fine," Kathryn said as she looked at the address and mentally figured how long it would take her to get there from Queens on a Saturday. "I'm looking forward to it." She smiled.
"You really are a dear, precious friend." Yolanda said as she unexpectedly leaned forward and kissed Kathryn on the cheek.
With that she turned and walked out onto the street, leaving behind a slightly perplexed Kathryn.
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Dinner with Eric turned out to be one more uninspiring night at Clancey's Bar and Grill. Kathryn had suggested many times that they go into Manhattan for a night and try some of the night life there, but Eric always hedged on the idea. He kept saying he didn't like those kinds of people.
Kathryn and Eric Foster had been dating for the last year and a half. Among their friends, it was taken almost as a given that they'd get engaged one day soon. It was not an opinion Kathryn shared. Eric was usually fun to be with, but deep down she couldn't picture the two of them together ten years down the line.
Also in the opinion of most of her girlfriends Eric was a great catch. With that much she couldn't argue. He stood 6'2" and had a built that had made him an all-star football player in high school. Curly dark brown hair, including a beard and mustache, framed a handsome face. The oldest of three sons, he was already a partner in his father's plumbing supply warehouse.
They had met at a party just before her college graduation and it had been love, or at least lust, at first sight. Unfortunately, the fires that had burned so brightly at 21 had already begun to cool at 23. The reason was both simple and common for many couples their age. Eric, like many of his friends, had reached his peak intellectually and emotionally when he graduated high school. Kathryn in contrast had continued to grow. She was always looking to expand her view of the world. Eric's view rarely extended beyond the limited confines of the old neighborhood, and he liked it that way.
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"Oh yeah, baby," Eric panted as he took a breath and pushed his cock between Kathryn's legs once more time. Kathryn hadn't really been in the mood to have Eric sleep over, but he'd been on his best behavior after they left the restaurant that she couldn't bear to say no.
She realized now that it had been a really big mistake. Her mind was definitely elsewhere. All Eric was doing was masturbating with her body taking the place of his hand. She was relieved when she felt him shudder and climax.
"If he runs true to form, he'll be asleep in five minutes." Kathryn thought as he rolled off of her.
To her surprise, Eric climbed off the bed and reached for his pants. He was getting dressed.
"Sorry babe," he said as he put his shirt on. "I promised the guys I'd play softball in the morning and Billy would rather pick me up at my house than here. It's a lot closer to the field."
On another night, Kathryn might've felt insulted. This time she felt relieved.
"It's okay," she replied. "I have to get up real early tomorrow anyway." she lied.
He leaned over and kissed her goodbye, making a playful grab at her rounded breast while he was at it.
"Get!" Kathryn laughed. "And good luck in the game."
Laying in the darkness of the small apartment over her parent's garage, Kathryn found that sleep wasn't about to come easily. Whatever the drawbacks in her and Eric's relationship, the sex had usually been great. Unfortunately, that hadn't been the case tonight.
Try as she could, she couldn't help thinking about Yolanda. Was what Angela said about her true? If so, how did she really feel about it? She wished there was someone she could talk to about it, but she was sure there was no one she knew who would ever understand.
Even her mother and father, who were ever so understanding about the nights Eric slept over, would fall back on old preconceived notions concerning a lesbian friend. Finally, about quarter to four in the morning, sleep finally came.
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It was closer to lunchtime than breakfast when Kathryn finally opened her eyes. She had been asleep for almost eight hours. She was, she immediately realized, soaked to the skin with perspiration, especially her pussy. She had a vague recollection of having erotic dreams, but couldn't for the life of her remember what they had been about - or more importantly, whom they had been about.
"Good morning," Virginia Gray said as she walked into her daughter's apartment carrying a small pile of laundry. "I thought you were going to sleep the day away."
"Morning, Mom." Kathryn said as she reached for the pair of panties she had left on the floor. "It's been a busy week, I guess it all caught up with me."
Virginia Gray was only 19 years older than her daughter and had a much closer relationship with her own children than she'd had with her own mother. The entire sex talk with her mother, which had occurred on her sixteenth birthday in 1972, had consisted of the simple phrase "Nice girls don't." By the time it came for her to have a little chat with her own child, Virginia had learned that nice girls did - and with an abandon and variety that Grandmother Willis would've found most shocking.
Somewhat reluctantly, her husband had agreed that if Eric and Kathryn were going to do it, and of course they were. It might as well be in the garage apartment that they'd originally built for Grandmother Willis rather than off in some fleabag motel. Or in the back seat of a car, which was where the future Mr. and Mrs. Gray had consummated their relationship. Besides, both of them had noted, Eric was definitely son-in-law material.
"I happened to glance out the window when I got up during the night and noticed that Eric's car was gone." Virginia said, ignoring her daughter's nudity. "The two of you didn't have another fight - did you?"
"No Mother," she answered as she grabbed a towel from the pile that had just been put on her bed. "He's playing ball this morning and didn't want to spend the night."
"Oh that's good. I do hate it when the two of you fight." Virginia said as she picked up the remains of her daughter's discarded clothes. "Are the two of you going out again tonight?"
It had become obvious some time ago that Eric's best ally in trying to convince Kathryn that they should make their relationship something more was her mother. There wasn't anything that could make Virginia Gray happier that to see an engagement and later wedding ring on her daughter's hand.
"Actually I'm going to a play in the city tonight with one of the girls at work," Kathryn said as she reached in and turned on the water in the small closet sized shower that her father had built. "Yolanda Ortega, you've heard me mention her before."
"Oh yes, that girl you like to talk about books with." Virginia said, her opinion of what she viewed as a wasted Saturday night evident in her voice. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather go out with Eric instead."
"Mother, its not like we're engaged or anything." Kathryn said as she waited for the water to heat up. "He still goes out with his friends and I go out with mine."
An unusual look flashed across Virginia's face, one that Kathryn rarely saw. It was a look of indecision, something her mother rarely suffered from.
"I know that look, Mom," Kathryn said. "What is it?"
"Well it's probably nothing." she said.
"But...." Kathryn added.
"Well, I just think that perhaps you should spend a little more time with Eric, that's all. "She said. "Make sure he knows that you care about him"
"I would think he knows that." Kathryn said as she motioned in the direction of the unmade bed.
"Be that as it may," Virginia continued. "I think you should spend more time with him. In fact, I don't think it would be a bad idea if you went over to the ball field and surprised him. The two of you could go to lunch."
"There's something you're still not telling me, Mother." Kathryn said impatiently.
"All right," Virginia broke down. "Mary Wilson over in the diner told me that Eric was over there yesterday having lunch with Tracy McDonald and they seemed pretty cozy. You remember Tracy McDonald, don't you?"
Of course Kathryn remembered Tracy McDonald. Back in high school it was a toss up as to whether Tracy or Angela was going to earn the title of class slut.
"Tracy works for her father's construction company now and they do a lot of business with Eric's company." Kathryn said. "It might've been a business lunch."
"According to Mary," Virginia said. "The only business going on in that booth was monkey business. She practically had her big breasts in his face the whole time."
"Well if that's what Eric's looking for, there's not much I can do about it, is there?" Kathryn said as she looked down at her own 34-inch bust. "It's not like I'm going to run out and get implants."
"I wish you'd take this more seriously." Virginia said insistently.
"Mother, you take this whole Eric thing much more seriously then I ever did." Kathryn said, knowing that was exactly the last thing her mother wanted to hear. "If he decides to find more bountiful pastures, I'm not about to chase after him. Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to start getting cleaned up."
Surprisingly, Virginia didn't labor the point but simply gathered up the last of the dirty clothes and walked out of the apartment. Kathryn shrugged her shoulders and stepped into the now hot shower.