Climbing the Ladder 5 - Reaching New Heights
Copyright© 2026 by Michael Loucks
Chapter 20: Not for Lack of Trying
Fiction Sex Story: Chapter 20: Not for Lack of Trying - Jonathan's business life is booming, but he's also suffering from yet another loss. While he's done his best to pick up the pieces of that sundered relationship, he can't help but feel responsible. However, where two close relationships have withered, another blooms. Violet has transitioned from a badly damaged girl to a vibrant woman. Will he continue to climb this ladder, or will there be another ladder to climb in his future? No matter what, the only direction he plans to go is up.
Caution: This Fiction Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Workplace
July 14, 1984, Chicago, Illinois
"I'm glad I came yesterday," Taya said as we got into the shower.
I chuckled, "I bet!"
She laughed, "Obviously that, but I really enjoy spending time with you. I know the score, and it's as much on me as it is on you, because I chose to go to an out-of-state school."
"True confession time," I said. "Tell me what you want."
"Besides orgasms?" Taya asked with a smirk as I began washing her hair.
"Those go without saying!"
"You'd think, but I've heard from plenty of girls about guys who couldn't get them there. I doubt you ever have that problem!"
"I think you'd be surprised, and the answer is that it takes two to tango. Without revealing any specifics, one girl I was with thought her participation was limited to lying there, doing it once, then going to sleep."
"Did she like, step through a time machine from the 1950s?!" Taya asked as I began soaping her body.
"I have a sneaking suspicion that girls then enjoyed sex just as much as they do now! Oh, I'm sure there were some prudish or clueless girls and guys in the 50s, but do you really think that as good as sex feels, 'once, in the missionary position, then sleep' was the norm?"
"Now that I think about it," Taya said, "I suspect the received version of sexual relationships before the 60s is probably way off. That said, I suspect sex between married couples was often like that."
"I'd say it's a lock that the received version is way off," I replied. "That's what the prudes want us to think. What I know is that the sexual revolution was in the late 60s, but my mom got pregnant with me in 1962. While she hasn't come right out and said it, I'm positive she enjoyed the encounter. The results were sub-optimal at the time, but I'm pretty sure the sex was good."
Taya laughed, "You're so funny! Most people our age or younger do not want to even think about the idea that their parents had sex, let alone discuss how good it was!"
I chuckled, "My mom had private conversations with Bev about our sex life!"
"How did THAT happen?"
"My mom was clued in enough to put Jonathan and Bev together and come up with 'fucking'! She knew Bev wasn't able to talk to her parents, so she stepped in, so to speak."
"I just cannot see my dad doing anything even remotely like that! He'd be more likely to go medieval on the guy! And my mom's idea of talking about sex was a two-minute conversation about my period when I got it and then a five-minute lecture when I was fourteen about how 'good girls' behave."
"You're VERY good!" I declared with a grin.
"Not what she meant, but thank you! As are you!"
"Will you answer the question I asked before we followed the rabbit trail?"
"Hmm," Taya replied with a smirk. "Sex. Bunnies. Yep! But seriously, if I had my way, at least as I see it at the moment, I'd graduate, move back to Chicago, and see if we could make it work. Please don't take this the wrong way, but you do come with quite a bit of baggage for a twenty-one-year-old guy."
"That fact is not lost on me."
"Which is why I said 'see if we could make it work' because as much as I like you, and as great as the sex is, I'm not sure we could find common ground. That said, there is no way I would give up without trying, though I have a strong suspicion that in three years, things will have changed in ways neither of us can predict. May I ask a pointed question?"
"Of course."
"Whom are you going to take out on Friday nights when I go back to Princeton?"
"Violet."
Taya turned to face me so I could soap the rest of her gorgeous body.
"I suspected that would be the case," she said. "I also think, from the interactions I've had with her, and things Katy and other girls have said, that she has come to terms with the excess baggage."
"I'd say that's accurate," I confirmed.
"Then my question has to be — how do you see the future?"
"I believe the traditional phrase is 'through a glass darkly'. The baggage you correctly articulated means I don't see myself marrying. That doesn't mean I won't have a long-term, committed relationship, but I made a commitment to Keiko to be cremated and interred next to her. I'm positive you can do the math there."
"She'll always be your wife, and you won't marry again because it ... well, 'dishonors' seems too strong, but I don't know another good word to describe how it impacts your feelings about her as your wife. That has implications for any future relationship, and is a lot to ask of someone."
"It does, and it is. To flesh out the point," I said as Taya began rinsing off, "I do eventually want to have another child, but the timing on that is open."
Taya took the soap and began lathering my body.
"The bottom line, then, is you'll have what amounts to a common-law marriage, though I remember from history class that Illinois hasn't recognized those since before the Civil War."
"I would draw up a prenuptial agreement that protected the woman."
"Isn't that backwards from the norm?"
"You know full well I don't do things conventionally in my private life!" I declared. "But if you think about it, I'm asking a lot, and have a lot of baggage, so it makes sense."
"Your logic is impeccable," Taya said. "Completely out of touch with social norms, mind you, but impeccable."
"On most moral issues, society can go fuck itself!"
Taya laughed, "I think that's the problem! Too much moralizing and not enough fucking!"
"You won't get an argument from me on that point!" I declared.
"Let me ask this question, and the answer will not change anything for the next four weeks — will you have time for me when I come home on breaks?"
"With the caveat that I have two trips planned in December, yes."
"Where are you going?"
"Saint Martin and Hawai´i," I replied. "I'll be in Saint Martin from December 15th to December 22nd, and then in Hawai´i from December 26th to January 1st."
"Another question you aren't required to answer — who is going with you?"
"The Art School Girls are going with me to Saint Martin; Deanna is going with me to Hawai´i."
"Which girls, if it's OK to ask?"
"You can stop asking if you can ask," I said. "Just ask, and I'll either answer or demur. I'm taking Deanna, CeCi, Kendra, Kassie, Willa, Anji, and Stacey."
"I'd ask if you had room and time for one more, but our last day of exams is December 21st. We don't start classes again until January 14th. Will you have time between when you come back from Hawai´i and when I have to leave for Princeton?"
"I'm positive we can find time to get together."
"Cool."
We finished in the shower, dried ourselves, dressed, then headed downstairs, followed by Misty, who was my shadow when I was home. Taya left, and a few minutes later, I left for breakfast with Violet. When I arrived, she let me in, and we shared a quick hug and kiss. I followed her to the kitchen, where breakfast was ready, and we sat down to eat.
"What happened in Los Angeles?" Violet asked.
"In order to explain, I need to violate a confidence and discuss a past relationship. Normally, I won't do that, but I think the future mother of my child has some extra privileges."
"She also happens to be a good advisor and likes fucking you!"
"Likes?" I asked with a smirk.
"Loves!"
"Better," I replied with a grin. "In any event, what I need to tell you about is the underlying problems with Marcia."
"She's frigid?" Violet smirked.
I laughed, even though I shouldn't have.
"No, more like what I guess I would call an eighth-grade view of sex."
"'You want me to do what?'" Violet smirked. "'No way!'"
I chuckled, "Not quite that bad, but that actually isn't the point I wanted to make. After we slept together, I tried to discuss her attitude towards sex with her, and she flat-out refused. She had a very specific idea in mind of what I thought, and she was dead wrong. The problem was, she had her mind so thoroughly made up, nothing I could say or do could change it.
"Later, when she realized that she was going to lose me, as it were, she tried to arrange a situation where we were, in effect, forced to share a bed. I flat-out refused and immediately ended what was supposed to be a weekend getaway to see if we could connect. Once again, she basically refused to communicate.
"You know the rest, minus one detail — once I made it clear I wasn't interested in a relationship with her, she went on her Marxist rant, and that's when she pulled her money from the fund. To be clear, it wasn't about the quality of sex; it was about her lack of communication and her unwillingness to discuss it. The same thing happened in California."
"With the faux Phoebe Cates?" Violet asked.
"Yes. I have to share a few details, and I trust you completely to not repeat them to anyone or even hint that you know."
"Of course."
"At her suggestion, we had dinner at a nice Japanese restaurant, and everything was going swimmingly. She drove, as I didn't have a car, and LA has lousy public transportation. When we returned to the hotel, she parked in the garage and grabbed a bag from the trunk, all unbidden. We went to my room, used the whirlpool, and then went to bed together.
"The next morning, she asked if I was upset that she wasn't a big fan of blowjobs. I'm not sure what prompted that question, because I hadn't asked for one, nor had I implied I wanted one. I know some guys expect oral sex to be a trade, if you will, one for the other, but again, I didn't say or even imply that. Her comment was completely unwarranted by anything I had said or done, unless she equated me going down on her with me having some kind of expectation that she would do the same for me.
"I responded by saying that communication was key — you talk to your partner about what you like and don't like, and work it out. I explained, for a casual thing, slight incompatibilities aren't a big deal, but it would be different in a long-term relationship. Her response was to ask if I'd reject a girl who wouldn't blow me. Nothing I said after that dissuaded her from her belief that it was a litmus test. When I pointed out she was making it a litmus test, not me, she insisted that refusing to do something is OK, but asking your partner to do something was, in effect, an ultimatum."
Violet was quiet for a moment before she responded.
"That only makes sense to me if she thought there was some kind of long-term possibility and was actually hoping for it."
I nodded, "I suspect so, though I don't think I did anything overt to convey that, and you know she initiated the kiss and offered the rain check, and as I said, unhesitatingly came back to my room without me expressly offering, including bringing a bag with her."
"Did she know about Keiko?"
"Yes. The conversation before dinner went a way where I explained about Keiko, Bev, and Sofía, though with minimal details. I didn't bring up my future plans, except to say in the context of the oral sex discussion that I wasn't ready for a long-term commitment. That led to a discussion of first dates and second dates, and in the end, all Leslie could do was focus on the blowjob issue — one she had raised. Nothing I said, or could say, dissuaded her from believing that was a litmus test."
"Guys do want them," Violet observed. "My friends in High School basically said every guy wanted them."
"I understand, but I didn't bring it up; she did, and when I tried to talk to her about communication and negotiation, she wasn't buying, and refused to even consider my point, which was not about oral sex, but about communication. I basically had flashbacks of all the frustrating and inane conversations I had with Marcia, and concluded Leslie is simply immature. Well, either that, or she believes in the 'my way or the highway' type of relationship. I agree not everything can be negotiated, but I also don't put anything off limits unless it would violate my core principles of not harming others and not being a party to cheating."
"So, getting married is on the table?" Violet asked with a sly smile.
"I've never ruled it out," I replied. "I've simply said it's highly unlikely and that no girl should count on me changing my mind. You've accepted that, but I also know that if, for some reason, I were to change how I feel about it, you'd say 'yes' in a heartbeat."
"I would! And you do NOT have to worry about blowjobs! It turns out I like giving them!"
I chuckled, "You've made that clear! But do you honestly believe I would have rejected you if you had chosen not to do that?"
"Of course not!" Violet said firmly.
"QED."
"She didn't cause any trouble, did she?"
"No. She was completely professional and thanked me again for dinner when I was leaving Ford, Jackson, and Finch. I was a bit worried after our conversation, but my concerns proved to be for naught. That said, I did conclude that relationships with clients are as fraught with risk as relationships with Spurgeon employees, you and Bianca to the contrary notwithstanding."
"I think that's a wise policy."
And that made me think about Missy because her dad worked for Spurgeon, though her behavior was entirely consistent with someone just looking to have a good time. The other question was Kayleigh, but given that the relationship was going exactly nowhere except as friends, I wasn't concerned.
"On a related topic," I said, "Taya's evaluation is that I very likely have too much baggage for the kind of relationship she wants to have."
"You and I could have our own dedicated baggage car on an Amtrak train!" Violet declared. "Or maybe our own dedicated 747 cargo plane!"
"As I said to Taya, she accurately described the situation. She also observed that you have come to terms with my baggage."
"And you with mine, which was the only possible way forward that led to agreeing to have a baby and then having sex. I assume that means she's bowed out?"
"Do you think there is any real competition?" I asked.
"I suppose it depends on what you mean," Violet replied. "We agreed to have a baby together, but left everything else open. To me, that means there is a chance we don't end up as a monogamous couple, even leaving Deanna out of the equation for the moment. I'm pretty sure I know what will happen in the long run, but I think the events of the past year have driven home that nothing is ever certain."
"Sadly. I do agree with you that the most likely outcome — and the one I want — is that you and I are together. Fundamentally, we have that now, and it's simply a matter of not messing it up. Communication is key, and that's why I responded to Leslie the way I did. You and I have always communicated well, even before we started sleeping together."
"Fucking."
"Yes, Dear," I chuckled. "Fucking. You really do seem to like using that word, not to mention actually doing it."
"As do you! You know why, right?"
"Because I can be dense and clueless at times, and using that word reminds me that you are a changed person."
"Self-awareness is the beginning of wisdom," Violet said. "You're getting there."
"Aristotle," I observed. "'Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.'"
"Which is what I said!"
"And being me, I had to correct the slight paraphrase!"
"Jonathanland is bizarro-world!" Violet declared. "But I love every minute of it!"
"I'm glad."
After we finished breakfast, I helped Violet clean up, then headed to class. I was very happy that it was the penultimate class session, with the final exam on the 28th. Neither sociology nor English composition was interesting, though I did pick up some useful information in both classes. That information could have been conveyed in a single class session for each class, making the other seven or fifteen class sessions a pure waste of time. That said, they were core requirements, so in the larger scheme of things, they were necessary.
When class ended, I headed home, showered, and dressed for my date with Piper. I didn't know when she'd call or where we'd go, given she only asked about having dinner, and I'd asked her to call after 1:30pm. Once I was dressed, I sat with Bianca and Sofía.
"Nicole plans to move in on August 15th," Bianca said. "She asked about rent and utilities."
"Do you know how she's paying for school?" I asked.
"First Bank of Mom and Dad," Bianca replied. "They're covering tuition along with room and board. Her spending money comes from her campus job and her Summer job."
"What's she doing?"
"Working as a receptionist for a French company's office here. Being bilingual is a requirement, and her French is obviously good enough to do that."
"I'll say!" I smirked.
Bianca laughed, "Not that kind of French, you nut!"
"Out of curiosity, what do they call a 'French kiss' in France?"
"According to Nicole, they don't have a word for it. They just call it kissing at length, or something similar. Supposedly, American GIs and British soldiers encountered it during World War I, as it wasn't common in the US or England before that. The word came into general use in the UK and US in the '20s."
"Interesting. Do Nicole's parents know she's bisexual?"
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