Chapter 14: 3-0 ll

I waited until I got home and spent twenty minutes playing with BJ before stepping into my room to make the call. She didn't pick up at first, the phone ringing five times before putting me through to her voicemail. But just when I was about to start recording a message, my phone buzzed with her incoming call, and I quickly switched over to answer it.

"Heya, Deej," I greeted brightly.

"Heya, Ben," she replied just as brightly, but with a touch of concern in her voice. "Is everything okay? You're not big on calling in the middle of the week. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I just have a little favor to ask. Would you happen to be free tomorrow night?"

"Wednesday night? Uh, more or less. Why?"

"JKE is having its company Holiday Party and I'm without a date."

"Adrienne still isn't talking to you, is she?"

I sighed. "Not yet. Hence the reason for my call."

"Uh-huh..." DJ didn't sound convinced. "So how far down the list am I?"

"Excuse me?"

"How many other girls did you ask before you got down to me? The party is tomorrow night. You're scrambling last minute to find a date and you've gotten desperate enough to ask me."

"What are you talking about? You're my very first call."

"Pssht. Yeah, right."

"I'm serious. You're the first one I'm asking."

"Not Dayna? Even with Adrienne and Sasha checking into a hotel somewhere and not talking to you, you expect me to believe you didn't ask your third girlfriend first?"

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Rubbing my temples, I bowed my head and muttered, "She kinda broke up with me this morning."

"WHAT?!?"

"She didn't tell you?"

"NO!"

"It's a long story, but the upshot is that she was perfectly content to be an extra girlfriend as long as things were going well with Adrienne and Sasha. No pressure on Dayna, just fun and sex and more fun. But she never wanted me to take our relationship seriously, and with the other two momentarily out of the picture, she said its time I realized that she and I don't have a future together."

"But ... but..." DJ sputtered.

"And as for me calling you last minute," I continued, "it's been a rough couple of days and I wasn't really thinking about the party. I'd completely forgotten about it until June brought it up while we were leaving the office like thirty minutes ago. Yes, I'd always expected to be going with Adrienne on my arm, and most all of my co-workers are expecting me to have Adrienne on my arm. And since that's obviously not gonna happen, I figure showing up with anyone less gorgeous than her would seriously damage my rep, so I immediately thought of you. Instead of people wondering where Adrienne's at, they're just gonna want to know who you are and how in the world I could be so damn lucky to have you by my side."

DJ giggled. "Flattery always sounds so cheesy from other guys, but for some weird reason it always works when it's coming from you."

"It's 'cuz you love me."

"That may be true."

"And I'll always love you."

"Okay, now you're turning sappy." DJ sighed. "But seriously, what the heck is going on with Dayna? I get what she's saying about you two not having a future together, but her timing is shit. It's just cruel to break up with you at a time like this with everything else going on with Adrienne and Sasha."

"It's complicated."

"With you, when is it not?"

"She insists that she isn't abandoning me, that we're going to remain great friends, and even physically-intimate friends. Truth be told, she'd probably be my date for the company party if I asked her, if for no other reason than to prove that she's not abandoning me. But ... well ... it's me that doesn't want to ask her. I get what she's saying about not abandoning me, but things are still a little awkward between us and I'd honestly rather not deal with those complicated emotions at a time when I'm supposed to be schmoozing and networking my way to the top of the JKE corporate structure. If we hadn't broken up this morning, sure, I'd have asked her first. But she did break up with me, and here I am calling you."

DJ whistled and I could practically see her shaking her head. "With Dayna out, you've gone from three girlfriends to zero."

"Well, Dayna hasn't actually left me or anything, and Adrienne's and Sasha's statuses are still very much up in the air, so you can't say I've got ZERO girlfriends..."

"But as of this very moment you've got zero girlfriends," DJ drawled.

"You can be my new official girlfriend if you want. Then I'd still have at least one."

"Excuse me?"

"I said we could make you official. That IS what you asked for little more than a week ago, the last time I was at the Berkeley house."

"Fuck you, Ben."

My eyes popped open wide in surprise. "Wait, what?"

"You heard me. Fuck YOU."

"Whoa, whoa, I didn't mean to upset--"

"I am NOT your fucking fallback option!"

"I never said--"

"You can't just MAKE me your new girlfriend because all your other ones walked out on you!"

"I'm not trying to--"

"Did you or did you NOT just say you could make me official so that you'd still have at least one girlfriend?"

"I didn't mean it like--"

"Fuck off, Ben. My answer is NO, I am NOT going to your stupid company party tomorrow night."

"Deej, please, I didn't mean--"

"I will NOT become your fucking REBOUND... again."

"I didn't mean to suggest--"

"You know what? Here, talk to Eden. I'm sure SHE'D love to be your date to your company Holiday Party."

"It's a corporate event. There's an open BAR. I can't bring my 17-year-old SISTER to my company party!"

"That's your problem, not mine," DJ scoffed. And then she hung up on me.

Dammit.

You just HAD to go and stick your foot in your mouth ... AGAIN.

Shut up, you.

First you opened your big trap with Dayna. And now with DJ. Who's next, Dawn?

I said SHUT. UP. Do I need to go drown you in alcohol again?

Hey, if you want to start down THAT road, buddy...

Tossing my phone onto the bed, I turned and dropped into my armchair with a sigh.

Dammit.

I must've been staring at the far wall of my bedroom for ten minutes before my phone rang, stirring me out of my stupor. But I was sluggish enough to not react immediately, at least not until it occurred to me that DJ might be calling me back, and I suddenly lunged across my bed for the phone and answered it without even checking the caller ID.

"Deej?"

"Sorry, no," Dawn's voice replied. "She's still angry with you for asking her to become an official girlfriend. Brooke's doing damage control."

I groaned. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know you didn't, but she's in a weird place in her life right now: caught in this limbo between the failure of her last relationship and her impending graduation. There's not much point in her trying to find a new steady boyfriend when school is about to end, and she's so focused on her academics and making sure she graduates that she wouldn't have time for a boyfriend even if she tried. Had you asked her last week to become 'official', she'd have said yes in a heartbeat; but only under the same sort of casual fun terms that Dayna had being an add-on girlfriend, and not a real serious, primary girlfriend, you know?"

"I know," I replied while rubbing my temples with both thumb and forefinger. "That's all I really meant to say when I suggested it. But obviously she didn't take it that way."

"Obviously. But she'll get over it. Meantime, I didn't call to talk about DJ."

"You didn't?"

"Well you still need a date for tomorrow night, don't you?"

"You offering?"

"Well, I suppose I should feel offended for you calling DJ first instead of me..."

"Dawn, it's not like that," I immediately said defensively. "I called DJ first because--"

"Relax, relax," Dawn laughed. "I'm just messing with you."

"What?"

She laughed again. "Don't worry about me. I'm easy. I'm the best friend, not a romantic rival. I've got zero expectations when it comes to this sort of thing. DJ, on the other hand, is still a potential romantic interest for you, so it's important that you ask her before asking me, so that she doesn't feel like a second-best choice."

"Of course, I went and stuck my foot in my mouth and made her feel like a second-best choice anyway by asking her to become an official girlfriend after my other ones left me."

"Yes, that was extremely stupid of you."

"Glad to know we're in agreement."

"I should also point out that there's still time to ask Dayna. You know she'd want to be there for you at a time like this, especially after the breakup. She still cares about you."

"I know she does, and I know she would go, but I don't want her being my date just to prove a point. If I had no other options, I suppose I might still ask her. And maybe in another month or so after letting things settle down between us, I wouldn't hesitate. But for right now, I'd rather not go down that route if I don't have to."

"You don't have to. I'll go with you if you'd like."

"I'd like that a lot."

"Then it's a date!" Dawn enthused brightly. "Only not, because I'm not your girlfriend, just your best friend ... with a pair of tits, because your co-workers would look at you funny if you brought a guy as your date instead."

"Don't even go there."

Dawn laughed again. "I just bring it up to make sure you remember that I'm your best friend, not your girlfriend, and you shouldn't have expectations about getting lucky at the end of the night like you would with a normal girlfriend."

I blinked twice. "You'd turn me down for sex at the end of the night?"

"Oh, I didn't say THAT. Of course I'll wanna fuck your brains out at the end of the night." Dawn giggled. "I just said you shouldn't expect me to, the way you might expect a girlfriend. But don't worry, you'll still end up getting laid. It's not often I get to see you in the middle of the week, and I'm not one to let the opportunity go to waste."

I laughed, she laughed, and I sighed, saying, "Thanks for doing this for me, Dawn."

"Anytime. I'll see you tomorrow night."

Talking to DJ, staring at the wall, and then talking to Dawn had taken more time than I'd originally intended to spend in my bedroom, and when I finally emerged I wasn't surprised to find that Kim had gotten dinner started without me. What DID surprise me was who else was present.

BJ sat in his high chair, fussy and uncooperative at the tail end of his meal. The bowl in front of him was only half-full of Israeli couscous, and his milk cup was already empty. Kim's plate, as usual, was way more than half-full. She rarely ever ate much while feeding our son, and I immediately knew I should sit down on the empty seat to the other side of BJ's high chair and take over feeding duties so she could actually eat. But despite this impulse, I found myself frozen in shock, unable to walk forward and actually sit down in that chair.

Instead, I merely gawked at our other dining companions. Brandi's presence was to be expected, and Dayna's was no big surprise, either. Although she'd broken up with me, my ex-girlfriend had made it abundantly clear that she would not be abandoning me and would in fact prefer to maintain our relationship much as it had been these past several months, albeit without the 'official girlfriend' title anymore. But two additional chairs at the dining table were also occupied, and although their backs were to me, I immediately recognized them both.

Dayna was the first to notice my arrival, and she sat up straight and gave me a hesitant smile. Sasha noticed Dayna's change in posture and the direction of her gaze, and she turned in her chair to look back at me while reaching over to touch Adrienne's arm. And finally, my fiancée twisted around to face me.

Tears burst from her pretty hazel eyes. She jerked out of the chair so violently that it tipped over backwards, not that she cared as she sprinted across the fifteen-foot gap between us, flung her arms open wide, and launched herself at me.

I caught her but staggered under the impact, taking two steps backward and bumping into the wall behind me. I nearly fell, but Adrienne got her feet under her and we both managed to stay upright. Her face was buried in the crook of my neck as she sobbed uncontrollably, squeezing my torso with every ounce of her strength and clutching me like she'd never ever let go.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered, her voice muffled with her face still mashed into the crook of my neck. "I love you so much, Tiger, and I'm so, so very sorry."

Firmly, I held my fiancée in my arms and squeezed her tight as if raw strength could somehow reassure her. She shuddered in my arms, continuing to cry as her hands shifted position, clutched at my back and shoulders, and then shifted again. I could feel the pressure of her heaving breaths as her large bosom pushed against my chest. When I relaxed my own grip, she tightened hers and even wrapped one leg around mine, just another way of holding onto me as if her life depended on it. So I went back to squeezing her, reassuring her that I wasn't about to let go, and I felt moisture begin to dribble down my own cheeks as the seconds turned into minutes and more.

Eventually, Adrienne's shuddering calmed down and her sobbing quieted. She was still breathing heavily, and her breasts were still pushing into my chest, but she relaxed her grip enough to relieve some pressure.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled quietly into my neck. "I'm sorry I had to leave you. I know these last couple of days must've been really rough, and it didn't help that I wouldn't even text you back."

"I understand," I sighed, stroking her back. "You had some things you needed to work out first."

"I did." She pulled her head back far enough to set her forehead down against my shoulder and exhale slowly. "I have."

"You have?"

After taking another deep breath and exhaling it out, Adrienne finally raised her chin enough to look me in the eyes once more. Hers were now quite red and surrounded by wet-smeared mascara. "We need to talk."

"I figured that much."

Nodding slowly, my fiancée interlaced her fingers through mine and took a step back. Both of us glanced at the dining table as she led me down the hallway toward her bedroom. Our friends and family stared back at us, their meals momentarily forgotten. Even BJ seemed to sense something serious was going on, and he sat in his high chair quietly, watching us intently. But then we passed beyond the wall and moved out of sight.

Once inside the master bedroom, Adrienne turned and sat down on the edge of her bed. She never let go of my hand and pulled me down beside her, and we wound up flopping onto our backs before she rolled onto her side and lay her head on my chest.

I wrapped my left arm around her, cradling my fiancée against my body while I reached up with my right hand to stroke her cheek and hair. She stared across my chest to the wall beside us, eyes unseeing, taking deep breaths as she enjoyed this simple embrace while gathering herself for the conversation to come.

"I'm in love with Sasha," she finally said. "I love you, and I never, ever want to leave you, but I'm 'in love' with her."

"And you're not 'in love' with me."

"No, I'm 'in love' with you, too," she quickly clarified. "It's just ... I'm ... I'm more in love with her than I am with you."

"Because I'm a male?"

"Because she's her. I just ... I love her. I'm IN love with her. I want to spend every waking hour of every day with her. That's not to say that I don't enjoy spending time with you. It's just that ... I mean ... It doesn't make sense, really ... Sasha and I met almost two years ago, and yet I'm getting butterflies in my stomach being around her like we're still in the honeymoon phase."

"Maybe you are in the honeymoon phase."

"Even after all this time? We've been calling each other 'girlfriend' for more than a year. And we've certainly been besties for a while now."

"Maybe before you only thought of her as a 'girlfriend' in a very casual sense. You were dating her while dating me, and the three of us were very much a triple. Like you said, you've long thought of her as your bestie, but it's only recently that you started to seriously consider BEING with her for real."

"I suppose that's true."

I sighed. "In fact, it kinda seems like you only started to seriously consider being with her after you got engaged to me. Like only then did the idea of Sasha as 'bestie' and 'fellow girlfriend' start turning into Sasha as 'romantic partner'."

Biting her lip, Adrienne turned and buried her face against my chest, almost like an ostrich trying to hide from the world. "I'm so sorry," she whimpered, and all of a sudden she started crying again.

"Shhh, shhh," I soothed, stroking her with both hands and squeezing her tight against my body. "I'm not angry about that."

"But I'm supposed to be your fiancée!"

"Yeah, about that..." I began with a grimace. "I've been doing some thinking of my own these past couple of days, and I'm starting to think we may have made a mistake."

Adrienne popped her head up. "What mistake? Getting engaged?"

I grimaced. "Yeah."

"A mistake because I ultimately fell in love with someone else more than you?"

"No, no. It was a mistake because I didn't actually intend to propose to you that day at camp."

"I know. I was there, remember?" Adrienne giggled at the memory and wiped a tear from her eye. "You should have seen your face. It was the sort of thing that could only happen to us."

I smiled, buoyed by her amusement as I tried to explain the whirlwind that brought us to that moment. "Remember how everything was happening so fast? You were so, SO angry with me for sleeping with Dawn. I was trying to make you understand that you were still my Number One. I made the impulsive decision to drop down onto one knee, and--"

Adrienne jerked her head back and stared at me with a look of dangerous suspicion. The giggles and fond memories had disappeared. "Waitaminute, did you only propose as a way of stopping me from leaving you that day?"

"What? No! Absolutely not."

"So it wasn't a false proposal you never had any intention of following through on?" she asked in a hurt tone.

"I didn't intend to propose to you when we walked out of that cabin, but after we got engaged I had every intention of following through. I LOVE you, Adrienne. I'd have been THRILLED to become your husband."

"But..." she led me.

"But..." I continued with a sigh, "What if the two of us getting engaged was premature? What if we weren't ready to become fiancé and fiancée? If we had been, the last five months would have been very different."

"You mean I wouldn't have gone and fallen in love with Sasha."

"I mean like planning our wedding, or at least making an effort to actually do so. Yes, I mean like you going and falling in love with Sasha and spending every waking hour by her side. And I mean like me spending more time maintaining the relationships I have here in San Francisco instead of going off to Berkeley every weekend."

Adrienne shook her head. "You can't totally blame yourself for that one. I could have made more of an effort to keep you here. If I'd just asked you to spend more weekends at home, you would have."

"If I'd wanted to spend more weekends at home, I would have."

"If I'd wanted you to spend more weekends at home, I would have asked."

I shrugged helplessly. "So we're both to blame for the lack of quality time spent together."

"We're both to blame for our engagement never getting off the ground."

"True enough," I agreed.

Adrienne sighed and started fiddling with her engagement ring. "I loved the concept of being engaged. I loved wearing this big-ass rock on my finger and showing it to all my friends and any paparazzi photographer who wanted a pic." With a little effort, she slid the ring off and held it up in front of me, offering it for me to take.

I made no move to take it though. "If you stop wearing it, you're gonna get a flood of questions and fresh media attention," I cautioned.

"But this belongs to you." She again gestured for me to take the ring.

I held my hand up, palm out. "Keep it. That way there are no questions asked, and more importantly I think, nobody starts hounding Sasha when they see her with you all the time after your engagement ring disappears. People know you're bisexual, but as long as you're publicly engaged to me, nobody questions you having a best friend to hang out with."

"But it'll be a lie."

"It'll be your beard."

She thought about that for a little bit, and after twisting the ring around right and left to look at it from different angles as if for the first time, she slid it back around her fourth finger. Then she turned and scooted up the bed far enough to kiss me on the lips. "Even now, you're still looking out for my best interests."

"Always. Forever and Always. I love you."

"And I love you." She kissed me again, but when she pulled back, she gave me an apologetic look and added, "I just ... I don't really want to marry you. Not right now."

I sighed. "You don't have to marry me ever, not if you don't really want to."

Biting her lip, Adrienne raised both eyebrows and asked, "Does that mean there's somebody else you'd rather marry? Someone whose name starts with a 'D' and ends with an 'Evans' perhaps?"

I snorted. "Yeah, that really narrows it down."

"Doesn't mean I'm wrong."

"Actually, it does. The answer is 'no', there's nobody else I'd rather marry right now. If you want to think of it like a race, you're still in the pole position, still Number One."

"You still want to marry me?"

"I don't think I want to marry anyone right now. I'm not ready for it, and neither is anybody else in my life. Okay I take that back: Kim's ready."

Adrienne smiled at that.

"But I'm honestly NOT at the right place for that, not with anyone. All I'd intended to say is that you're still the closest one to it. You're Number One. I love you more than anyone else in the world, and you're the single most important person to me in the entire world. If tomorrow you woke up and realized you weren't romantically in love with Sasha anymore, if you decided instead that you wanted to seriously consider getting engaged to me again, and seriously wanted to start talking about weddings and planning to have children with me, I'd at least be willing to discuss it."

Adrienne frowned. "Now I feel like I'm letting you down again."

"Don't." I shook my head. "We let each other down. I'm realizing that it was premature for us to start thinking about marriage. I'm realizing that I'm not ready for that sort of thing yet. And I'm realizing that you are happier with Sasha than you were with me. But I never said I stopped being 'in love' with you. I still am. I still wish you hadn't gone and fallen in love with Sasha and realized you were more in love with her than you are with me. It hurts, I'm not gonna lie about it. But I can't be the third wheel in your relationship the way she was always okay being the third wheel in ours. I'm sorry, but I can't. I wanted you to be MINE. I wanted to OWN you, own your heart, remember?"

"Tiger, I AM yours."

"Not anymore. Now you're hers."

"That's different. She's a woman."

"She's your woman, and she's got your heart now, not me."

"But that doesn't mean I don't love you."

"Of course it doesn't. But it does mean that I have to let you go. I'm not going to keep you caged, not that I ever could in the first place. I love you to pieces, and I value your happiness above being with me. If Sasha is the one person you want most in your life, then you deserve to be with her, no matter what I feel. She's ... she's where you belong."

Adrienne pursed her lips, giving me a sad look. "Even now, you're trying to do what's best for me."

"Of course I am."

"Even if it means breaking your own heart."

"Because that's how much you mean to me."

Leveraging herself up on her elbows, Adrienne frowned and looked down at me. Taking a deep breath, she bent forward and tenderly kissed me, letting her love flow through as our kiss built and built into the slow-burn of warmth, passion, and affection we'd always had.

When she finally pulled away, she was crying again, her face a mask of misery. "I don't know if I can do this to you. You love me, don't you?"

"Of course I do."

"Then how could I possibly do this to you? You're my Tiger."

"I'll still be your Tiger even if you choose her over me. I don't want you to feel guilty about this, alright? I'm happy for you, happy for the both of you. This is what's best for everyone."

"It's not what's best for you."

"Better for me to know you're happy with each other than for me to believe I'm keeping you two apart. This isn't you breaking up with me and breaking my heart in the process, alright? I don't want you to carry that burden." I squeezed her shoulders tight and leaned in to rest my forehead against hers. "This is us taking a step back and realizing that your heart belongs with her."

Still crying, Adrienne clutched my arms in return. "I don't want to lose you."

"You're never gonna lose me." I leaned forward and pecked her lips again. "I'll always be here for you, Forever and Always. I'm your rock, remember?"

"You're my rock. My hero. My..." she sighed. "My brother."

"Family forever, even if the romantic part doesn't ultimately work out."

Although bleary-eyed, Adrienne's irises flared gold as she set her jaw and stated with deathly-quiet seriousness, "You'll forever be my only man; I hope you remember that. The one and only cock I will ever have for the rest of my life, no matter what."

I smiled. "I can live with that."

Still crying, Adrienne kissed me again, and this time she slithered atop my body. Cradling my head in her hands, she held it firmly while probing my mouth with her tongue until I parted my lips and let her inside. Inhaling sharply, Adrienne suddenly deepened our kiss, gripping my head and moaning as she began to writhe on top of me. And the feeling of her weight and increased passion started to have an effect on the rest of my body.

My heart rate increased and my hands began to stroke her spine. Adrienne was wearing a simple blouse over the top of a baby blue cotton camisole, the top several buttons undone to expose her massive cleavage. They would have never reached far enough to close anyway. She also wore a short pencil skirt that showed off her long legs, and her feet were bare.

I rubbed the fabric of her skirt over her round bubble butt before sliding a hand upward beneath the back of her blouse and camisole. She moaned into my mouth and reached her own hand down between us, rubbing my thigh before sliding her palm over the top of my crotch, testing out the growing bulge within. I managed to slither my hand all the way up her back far enough to reach the clasp of her bra. And once that was undone, I pulled both hands back and slid them between us so I could blindly start to work on the rest of her buttons.

"Fuck it. Tear it open," Adrienne panted between our lips before slamming a fresh nuclear kiss down on me. Explosions of light temporarily blinded me, but as soon as I recovered I gripped the two halves of her blouse and rather violently jerked them open to the sides.

Buttons went flying in all directions, although at least one of them remained fastened further down close to her waist. No matter, I was able to bunch up the hem of the blouse and her camisole both, jerking them up her back while Adrienne extended her arms above her head. And eventually I managed to work both blouse and camisole off completely and toss them off to the side.

Adrienne's bra went next, and she did that herself before throwing it after her shirts. That left those glorious globes bare naked and beautiful as she crushed them into my chest while kissing me even harder than before. A moment later, she read my mind by sliding herself further up my body, enough to smother my face in her beautiful boobs, using her own hands to mash the melons against my cheeks and practically suffocate me beneath her titflesh. Oh, what a way to go.

In the meantime, I took advantage of her elevated position to slide my hands beneath the hem of her skirt. Yanking the stretchy fabric up and over the big round globes of her butt, I turned the skirt into something more of a belt around her waist and then used it as a grip to roll her body off me and over to the side. Adrienne yelped in surprise but giggled when I planted her on her back beside me and quickly clambered on top in a missionary position. Sitting back on my heels, I fumbled with my pants and finally managed to unbutton and then unzip them. I didn't do anything more than shove them and my boxers down to my knees before fisting Big Ben and leaning over her. Both of us were too impatient to bother with any further foreplay or to remove any additional layers of clothing. Adrienne reached down to yank the strap of her own panties to the side, I centered my mushroom head at her entrance, and then I lunged.

"Ohhh, Tigerrr..." my lover moaned as she felt the first two inches penetrate. While she was already quite wet, her labia hadn't parted much yet and she felt as tight as a virgin. Raising her legs and wrapping them around my back, her heels briefly dug into my butt before I grabbed both of her legs beneath her knees and forced them back and out to the sides. And with her body spread out beneath me, I leaned my weight forward and pressed myself further inside.

"Fuck meeeee," Adrienne groaned as she felt inch after inch invade her tight cunt. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled my chest down on top of hers, clutching me once again like she'd never let me go, only this time while feeling my dick burrow ever deeper into her body.

And then we were finally joined.

At full depth, I stopped and let my body sag down onto hers. Cradling me with all four limbs, Adrienne closed her eyes, slowed down her breathing, and concentrated on the feeling of having me buried inside her. And I closed my eyes, slowed down my breathing, and concentrated on the feeling of being inside her as well.

"I'm never gonna stop this," she murmured. "I could never live without being able to do this with you. No matter what else ever happens in our lives, no matter who else we might marry, I'm never gonna stop fucking you. I'm never fucking gonna leave you, and it's got nothing to do with any promises I made to Mom. I'm never gonna leave you because I never want to leave you."

Panting softly, I kissed her cheek and replied, "Ditto."

For the next ten minutes, the two of us barely moved. We kissed. We nuzzled. We caressed. And we continued to make love. We stayed in that missionary position, our bodies joined together as one, and I slowly pumped in and out of her pussy enough to keep myself hard but not so much as to get either one of us off.

Reaching climax would mean the end of everything. Okay, Adrienne could probably keep going and going after cumming and cumming, but we both knew that my ejaculation would bring our lovemaking to an end. And neither of us wanted that to happen just yet.

We repeated our promises that we'd never leave each other, no matter what else might happen in the future. But the problem with the future is that it's perpetually unknown. Neither of us could possibly predict we'd have come to this point in our relationship, to a point of ending our engagement and letting each other go. For today, this sort of break up wouldn't have to mean a real break up. In a way, it wouldn't be so different from the breakup I'd had with Dayna just this morning. The titles would be gone, but the love would still remain. I wasn't going to abandon Adrienne, and even as she pursued a serious romantic relationship with Sasha, she wouldn't be abandoning me. The two of them would remain in this apartment, as would I. For all I knew, we could end up having a threesome by tomorrow, if not later tonight.

But once my ejaculation finally came, once I we fucked ourselves to completion, this period in our lives would come to an end. In this very moment, we were still engaged, still in love, still... together. And a moment after that, we would not.

I wasn't ready.

She wasn't ready.

But we couldn't stay like this forever.

So in the end we both started crying again. In the end we both started making love to each other again. And in the end, I finally came.

I filled her up with every drop of love I had left in my body. I cried out every drop of tears I had left in my head. In the end, I actually cried myself to sleep right there on top of her.

And when I awoke ... she was gone.

-- WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2007 --

"So you're coming tonight, right? You'd better not flake on me."

Laughing, I nodded my head and reassured June, "I'm coming tonight, I'm coming. I'll text you when I'm on my way, and if you want you can wait at home until you get my text just to ensure that I beat you there."

My co-worker blinked a couple of times before giving me a smile. "Good idea."

Shaking my head, I gave her a wry grin and stated, "You know, if you really want a career in this field, you'll eventually need to figure out how to socialize, schmooze, and network with the movers and shakers of the world for yourself."

"Perhaps, but not tonight. Tonight I can stand next to you and whichever hot date you bring to the party. Your hot date will attract upper-management men to initiate contact with you. Over the course of the conversation, you will introduce me as well and say something nice about how hard I work and how your success in the company is due in part to our teamwork. And at least I'll get that name drop and a little bit of career promotion without having to say more than two words."

I shut my eyelids halfway and gave June a disapproving glare. "Really? You're gonna try to get through this company party without saying more than two words?"

"What? I do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to actual number-crunching and analysis, and you do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to presentations and public speaking. We both win."

"The analytical work we split 50-50."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that."

"And even IF you did most of the heavy lifting for actual work-work, you can't expect me to carry you through every social situation for the rest of your career."

"Why not? Management loves you. Adrienne is buddy-buddy with the owner's wife. Hye-Kyoung says you'll be promoted in another month or two, max, which is kind of record or something. Keep this up and you could make VP in less than ten years and I can hitch a ride with you all the way to the top."

I arched an eyebrow. "You've actually given this some thought."

"I give everything some thought."

"Ever think about standing on your own merits, coming out from your shell, and earning your own way to the top instead of tying yourself down to me?"

"I AM standing on my own merits." June shrugged. "It's just that my way is more logical and doesn't require proficiency in public speaking."

I rolled my eyes. "And what happens to your career if I jump ship and go work somewhere else?"

June blinked at me. "You only look as good as you do, and management only loves you as much as they do, because you've got me doing the analytical heavy lifting behind the scenes, remember? WE look good, as a team. JKE netted two hundred million pure profit in the last year solely off our research. When you get promoted, we'll get higher profile deals, the company will profit even more, and everything'll snowball from there."

I sighed and shook my head. "You know what? I'm not gonna argue this stuff with you right now. I gotta get home, get changed, and pick up my date for the party. We can talk about you hiding behind me at social functions later."

"But you'll let me hide behind you tonight, right?"

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes again.

"Speaking of which, who IS your date for tonight? I seem to recall it being somewhat up in the air."

I chuckled. "You'll see soon enough."

June frowned. "What, you're not gonna tell me?"

"I'm peeved with you for the crap about hiding behind me at the party, so no, I'm not gonna tell you."

"That's awfully mature of you."

I stuck my tongue out and blew her a raspberry.

June sighed, planting a fist on her hip and jutting it out to the side. "Text me when you're on your way. I'll expect you to have arrived before me."

Chuckling, I gave her a rueful nod. "Some days I wonder why the hell I put up with you."

"Because I do all the research heavy lifting and keep making you look good, that's why." June folded her arms across her chest and gave me a 'well-duh' look.

Shaking my head, I grabbed my messenger bag and swung the strap over my head. "I'll see you tonight."

"Seriously, though, who are you bringing?" Still with arms folded across her chest, June looked at me expectantly.

Smirking, I shook my head and replied, "You'll find out tonight just like everyone else."

"And may I say, dear Adrienne, that you were absolutely stunning at the Victoria's Secret Fashion show."

My supermodel "girlfriend" smiled thinly as she allowed Robert Sharpley, JKE's VP of Acquisitions to take her hand and kiss the back of it respectfully. She knew the man held a lot of power in the company and he kept his gaze from being overtly leering, but I could tell she was a little stiffer with him than she'd been with other men who had similarly approached her tonight.

"My apologies, Mr. Sharpley," I said in a pleasant tone as I turned away from my conversation with June, took Adrienne's hand away from Sharpley, and kept it in mine. "But I need to borrow my girlfriend back for a moment. Excuse us."

Flashing him a megawatt smile, Adrienne gave the Vice President a coy wave with her fingers, the kind of wave that promised she'd be back to flirt with him later, but once I'd led her sufficiently far away from him on my route back to the open bar, she glanced over at me with a grateful expression.

"Thanks for the rescue."

"Anytime." I arched an eyebrow and glanced back. "He seemed normal enough. Something happen? Something different from the other two dozen old guys who have hit on you tonight?"

Adrienne shook her head. "No, nothing like that. Just got a weird vibe about him, that's all. I've learned to trust my instincts. Helps keep me out of trouble with guys like that at parties like this."

"I'm all for erring on the side of caution." We made it to the bar and I got the attention of the bartender. "Cosmo for the lady, Seven-and-seven for myself."

Before I'd even finished our order, the bartender grinned and put both requested drinks up on the counter for us. "Saw you two coming a mile away," he explained.

"Gee, thanks, Jerry." Adrienne circled around the bar and pecked the bartender on the cheek. I'm sure he considered it better than any monetary tip I could have given him, and he gazed up in awe at the gorgeous creature whose lips had touched his skin.

Adrienne scooped up her martini glass and I collected my tumbler as well. I turned about to find that June had followed right behind us, as expected. Donning one of Eve's dresses and once again wearing a tasteful amount of makeup, my co-worker was more than just presentable: she was rather pretty. But she didn't drink alcohol, so she ordered a plain Sprite. And together, the three of us moved aside to an open bistro table to set our drinks down.

Moments later, Rakesh and Kamar meandered over with their own half-empty cocktails in hand. Both guys' eyes yo-yoed down to Adrienne's exposed cleavage for a brief moment, as they had done every thirty seconds all night whenever in our presence, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Gentlemen, long time no see," I greeted sarcastically but without any heat. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes since the two of them were last in our orbit, undoubtedly trying to stay near Adrienne as much as they could get away with.

"Woulda been back sooner if not for Hye-Kyoung's wife," Kamar explained.

I frowned. "You guys got distracted ogling Hye-Kyoung's wife over ogling Adrienne?" Our manager's wife was mid-forties and rounder around her midsection than she was tall.

Rakesh rolled his eyes and shook his head. "She got to talking about her fruitcake, and bird-brain here actually asked her for the recipe."

"I was trying to be polite," Kamar groaned. "Hye-Kyoung is still our boss."

June, Adrienne, and I laughed, but before we could continue any further, a firm voice boomed from behind me. "Ben! Good to see you again!" It was the voice of someone in charge and used to getting his way.

I turned away from the bistro table and smiled to see the big boss before me. "Mr. Kwong! This is a surprise." I shook his extended hand.

"We're not in the office tonight, and it's a party! You can go ahead and call me John." The President and Owner of JKE didn't let go of our handshake.

"John, then. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays." I gave John Kwong's hand another pump, and this time he let go. That freed me up to turn and extend my hand out to the gorgeous blonde bombshell by his side, clad in a cleavage-baring sheath dress that would have fit right in on any Oscars red carpet. "Cassandra, always a pleasure."

Cassandra Cooper bypassed my extended hand and leaned in for a warm hug. "You too, Ben. And Adrienne, so happy to see you as well."

My date beamed as she stepped into Miss Cooper's hug, and the two statuesque blondes also exchanged air kisses by each other's cheeks.

"I'm a little surprised to see you here," I commented to John. "Did you make the flight out just for this party?"

John smiled at his assistant. "Well, not just for the party. We were able to coordinate some other business to attend to both yesterday and today. We'll fly back to New York tomorrow morning. Meantime, why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

"Of course, where are my manners? First, this is June Song, my project teammate." Gently placing my hand on the small of her back, I quite literally moved June out from behind me and guided her front and center.

"June," John Kwong greeted with a hand extended to shake. "Pleased to meet you."

"Mr. Kwong, likewise," she replied demurely, keeping her eyes downcast nervously as she shook his hand and dropped it almost immediately. He didn't correct her about the use of his last name.

"Don't let her shyness fool you," Adrienne put in. "June is the real brains behind their operation. She deserves a lot of the credit for the research and recommendations that come across your desk."

June blushed and averted her eyes as she felt everyone's attention on her, perhaps even more surprised to hear Adrienne sing her praises.

"Don't worry, we can tell," Cassandra interjected. "Ben and June have rather different writing styles."

"Indeed. I've been impressed by both of you, and your work," John continued. "I understand your manager is recommending you both for promotion next quarter, as well."

June's eyebrows popped in surprise as she finally looked right at him. "Really? Both of us?"

John smiled at her warmly. "Really. We'll be bringing the two of you to the home office for additional training soon. I look forward to working with you more personally."

June blushed and beamed as she shared an excited grin with me. Adrienne reached out and hugged her from the side, and June was so happy that she didn't even react.

John now turned his attention to the two other gentleman with us. Rakesh and Kamar had been only mildly successful at not gawking at Adrienne's cleavage twice a minute, and they weren't doing much better with Cassandra's bodacious bosom put on such display by her plunging neckline that her boobs could only have been held in place by invisible tape. Fortunately, they managed to keep their attention in the right place to exchange pleasantries with the boss. John told them to keep up the good work, and two minutes after that, John and Cassandra bid their leave of us to continue their rounds.

"See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" I asked June once they were gone.

Eyes still wide as she stared after them, she turned to me with a sheepish smile. "I suppose not."

"The big boss said he was impressed with you and your work. Aren't you glad you came to the party now?"

"Embarrassed, but glad, yes."

"Embarrassed over what?"

"He just ... I mean ... I dunno..." June blushed again, and she turned to bury her face against my shoulder.

Chuckling, I hugged her to my side. A moment later, I caught Rakesh and Kamar giving the pair of us some bemused looks. Ignoring them, I patted June on the back and then let her go, and when she stood up straight she'd managed to get her blushing under control.

Just then, another JKE executive came by with his hand outstretched for a shake. "Ben, so good to see you. Mind introducing me to your famous girlfriend?"

Adrienne giggled. Just another party.

Although both Adrienne and I had consumed quite a number of alcoholic drinks that night, we'd managed to keep from going overboard and remained in the happy/buzzed range instead of the drunk/nauseous range. Feeling the happy buzz kept our moods light and our affection playful for the entire taxi ride home. But as the elevator ascended to carry us up to the 35th floor, not even a happy buzz could keep a sense of awkwardness from coming between us.

Last night had been a breakup – of that neither of us had any doubts. We still loved each other, and we'd promised to continue being there for each other, but the fact was: our engagement was over, and that change in status wouldn't be as simple as returning to an ordinary boyfriend/girlfriend relationship. We remained friends, and of course we were still roommates, but despite the continued presence of my engagement ring around Adrienne's fourth finger, we weren't "together" anymore, and I wasn't entirely certain how this night was going to end.

I'd woken up alone in Adrienne's bed yesterday evening, my empty stomach growling. I'd emerged to find that while dinner was over, Kim had set aside a plate for me to microwave. But despite my hunger, I'd headed straight for the couch where Adrienne and Sasha sat together, deep in conversation with Dayna, Brandi, and Kim.

BJ was already asleep, and the six of us as a group hashed out the status of our relationships. Adrienne and Sasha were the couple, Dayna and I were back to being friends-with-benefits, and Brandi was back to being my sister without benefits. It was official now: I'd gone from having three girlfriends down to zero.

All of them reiterated that they still loved me, even though our circumstances had changed. All of them assured me they wouldn't try to distance themselves or otherwise exit my life. Adrienne and Sasha would remain in the apartment and stop staying in the hotel. Dayna and Brandi would still visit and have dinners with the larger group. Horny nymphomaniac Dayna even proclaimed that until she found herself a new man, I would remain her primary source of cock.

Likewise, Adrienne and Sasha both had no intentions of finding any sources of dick besides mine, but unfortunately that didn't mean we'd be having sex again anytime soon. Both of them had decided that in order to make a clean break from me, and in order to give their burgeoning romance a real shot, they wanted to be faithfully monogamous to each other for a little while. There would be room for me in their sexual lives again someday soon – neither of them was 100% lesbian after all – but not right away. And knowledge of that decision as I rode up the elevator with Adrienne's hand in mine after the JKE Holiday Party was the primary source of my present awkward feelings.

Somewhere along the line last night the Holiday Party had come up in conversation. Before I had a chance to explain that I'd already asked Dawn to accompany me, Adrienne insisted that she'd be my date. I'd been planning all along for her to be by my side – we both knew her presence would be good for my career – and at a time like this, Adrienne had jumped at the opportunity to prove she wasn't abandoning me despite the ending of our engagement.

Ultimately, I'd agreed. I'd even stepped into my room to call Dawn and explain the situation. Thankfully, my best friend had been just as understanding about the cancellation as she'd been about the chronological order of my invitations.

I still wondered how things would work out regarding the public charade of our continued engagement: how long Adrienne would keep wearing the ring, how often she'd ask me to make public appearances by her side, and what would happen should I actually fall in love with someone else and decide to take that relationship public, but we'd cross those bridges when we came to them. In the meantime, I'd looked forward to gauging how she acted around me in the aftermath of our "breakup", and I'd been pleased to find she behaved almost exactly the same throughout the entire JKE Holiday Party as she would've had we still been together...

... except perhaps for the way our night would end. A few days ago, there'd have been no question about my supermodel girlfriend and me ending up between the sheets fucking each other's brains out. The only questions, perhaps, would have been which, and how many, other girls were in the room with us. But not tonight. Tonight I knew Adrienne would be sticking to her self-imposed Sasha-monogamy, her girlfriend waiting for her return in the master bedroom.

And me? Despite spending a whirlwind evening flirting and chatting and drinking with Adrienne by my side, I'd not forgotten that she wasn't actually my girlfriend anymore. Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to pay Kim a little more attention than I'd been doing in the recent past. If there was a silver lining in going from three girlfriends to zero, it was that my social calendar had certainly opened up, and there would be more opportunities for the kind of quality time my baby mama insisted she didn't need but I knew she really wanted.

It was a confusing time emotionally for everyone, myself most of all, and only time would tell how things would ultimately shake out. But for now we would all try to make the best of the situation, and I chose to believe that there was enough love in all of us for everyone to find a way to make our relationships work.

Starting tonight.

Starting with me.

So just before the elevator dinged to announce our arrival at the 35th floor, I squeezed Adrienne's hand and turned to look at her. "I had a great time tonight. Thanks for being there for me."

"Anytime, Tiger. Anytime," she replied warmly as she put her phone away back into her purse.

I leaned over, kissed her, and backed away as the elevator doors opened. "Tell Sasha I said 'hi'."

Adrienne giggled, her shoulders relaxing from the tension I knew she'd felt in the elevator as well. Perhaps she'd been wondering how to remind me that she would not be having sex with me tonight, but I'd taken care of that for her now. She flashed me a naughty grin. "I'll do that. As for you, tell ... her ... I said 'hi' as well."

"Her?" I gave my adoptive sister a puzzled look.

Adrienne giggled. "Trust me, Tiger."

I rolled my eyes as I fitted my key to the door and let us into the apartment. Adrienne followed and pulled me to her for one last kiss. With an impish smile, she turned away and headed down the hallway to her room, leaving me with the taste of her lips on mine and the scent of her perfume in my nostrils. And curious, I turned in the other direction and headed down the hallway to my own bedroom.

It was standard procedure for me to leave my bedroom door open whenever I wasn't inside it. Unless we had formal company over, there was really no reason to close it otherwise. Keeping the door open allowed fresh air to circulate through the room, and also told everyone that it was unoccupied, but tonight my bedroom door was closed. Taking a deep breath, I steeled my nerves for anything. With Adrienne's "trust me" ringing through my head, I twisted the doorknob. And as the door swung open to reveal my bedroom before me, my fingers suddenly lost their grip on the knob as my jaw dropped to the floor.

"Welcome home, babe."

Dawn lay on her right side in an alluring pose, her head propped up by her right hand with the elbow planted on the mattress. Her left arm scooped beneath her breasts, squishing them together and forward to create an amazing display of cleavage barely restrained by a powder blue lace bra that brought out the color of her eyes. Her slender torso was pivoted to make her waist look even narrower than it really was, creating an hourglass curve as her skin rose up the swell of her rounded hips, clad in matching powder blue lace panties. Her long, long legs stretched out to the end of my bed, her left knee bent forward. And the final bow on top was a literal satin ribbon bow, in the same powder blue color, wrapped around her neck like a choker.

Dawn was a gift, a present come to life, and I smiled at the realization of exactly whose gift she was.

"Adrienne set this up? She asked you?"

"She asked me to come take care of you tonight, if that's what you're wondering. Not that I needed much convincing. I told you before that it's not often I get to see you in the middle of the week, and I'm not one to let the opportunity go to waste."

"I'm sorry you didn't get to be my date tonight," I apologized.

"Don't be. It's not like I needed to suffer through a long business evening getting stared at by middle-aged men I've never met before. This way, I didn't have to do any of the work, but I still get to have all the fun at the end of the night."

I smiled. "Glad to know you see it that way."

"I do. But enough talking." Dawn sat up, posed prettily with her chest thrust forward, and smiled wide enough to bring a twinkle to her eyes. Reaching one hand up to her neck, she tugged lightly on the end of the satin bow. "Why don't you come here and unwrap your present?"