Chapter 1

It was a typical, sunny North Texas Saturday in July, with the temperature due to hit 104. It was a perfect day to relax at our apartment complex’s beautiful, resort-style swimming pool with my sexy girlfriend, Jackie. The complex was throwing a big pool party from noon, for the 4th of July, with catered barbecue and fireworks after sundown. Jackie and I had been looking forward to going, for several reasons.

Unfortunately, I found out a couple of days before that I would have to work on Saturday. I was the new kid in my company, and I hadn’t earned my stripes yet. So, I got all the shit jobs and shit schedules. If someone were going to have to work on a holiday weekend, it would be me. It sucked, but I wanted to make a good impression, plus the extra pay would come in handy. I was saving up for an engagement ring, and every dollar helped.

The main reason for looking forward to the party was that my girlfriend wanted to show off her new looks. She had recently gone through a pretty significant transformation and was looking forward to the party as her big coming out. Jackie had been heavy most of her life. She also was born with a large, beak-like nose that only got bigger as she got older. Together, they had destroyed her confidence. I didn’t care about either. To me, she was beautiful, and I loved her with all my heart.

Over the last year, Jackie had shed about sixty pounds. To make her new look complete, she’d gone to a plastic surgeon and had a nose job, breast augmentation and a tuck here and there to tighten up any loose parts. Growing up, Jackie never had much self-confidence and was quite shy. She was still shy, but now she looked incredible. Jackie looked sexy. She felt sexy. And, she wanted to show it off.

I could tell it crushed her when I explained to her I would have to work.

“Oh, okay,” she said, with a look of sadness in her eyes. “I’ll stay home. It’s not a big deal.”

“No way!” I exclaimed, “you should go. My boss promised that I’d be done by two, so I’ll only miss the start of the party. You should go on down and get us a spot by the pool. Then I’ll hurry home and run down to join you. Otherwise, we’ll never be able to get a good spot.”

“I don’t know,” she said, sounding very forlorn. I knew it was just her shyness kicking in. She was afraid to go out there without me to support her. Jackie was very fragile. She’d been bullied a lot as a kid and made fun of for her looks. I never understood it, to be honest. I fell in love with her kind heart, gentle spirit and incredible intellect. To me, she was always beautiful.

We met in college at a meeting of the anime club. We were both socially awkward nerds into nerdy things. I’d seen her there a few times but had never had the guts to talk to her. One day, she made some comment about how Marvel comics were just rip-offs of DC characters and storylines. I immediately spoke up to defend the most celebrated comic books on earth, and three hours later we were hanging out in her dorm room talking about whether the Avengers or the Justice League would win in a “what if” fight.

“Aquaman is a pussy,” I said flatly. “Take him out of the water, and he’s useless. Flash can only run fast, and Batman doesn’t even have superpowers.”

“Yeah,” she countered, “but, Superman is practically a God.”

“Well, Thor is a God!” I fired right back.

“So is Wonder Woman!” she said moving her head side to side as if to say “Ha! I told you!”

“Oh come on. You can’t be serious!” I said, getting carried away. “Thor would kick Wonder Woman’s ass, rip off her little uniform, bend her over, tie her up with her golden rope, and fuck her up the ass!”

She paused staring at me with her mouth agape. I figured I had crossed a line. Neither of us spoke for what seemed like forever. I was getting nervous and was afraid my comment had shocked her beyond repair. When she finally spoke, I was the one in shock.

“Do you want to have sex?” she asked, her expression unchanging. She stared intently into my eyes.

“What?” I asked, dumbfounded.

“Do you want to have sex?” she repeated. Then after a pregnant pause, she added, “I mean with me?”

I was stunned. I’d had a secret crush on Jackie for a couple of months. Yeah, she was plump. Yeah, she had a big nose. But, I could see the adorable girl inside all that. The weight gave her curves and something to hold onto. The nose gave her face character. I’d wanted to get to know her, to date her. Hell, I’d had sex with her many times already, in my mind. I just never thought I’d get a chance to do in person.

I had not really dated much. I had been a scrawny kid into dinosaurs, medieval history, and Star Trek. I didn’t know how to talk to girls. I didn’t play sports. I wore abnormally thick, horned-rim glasses, had braces and severe acne that left my face kind of pockmarked. During college, I got contacts, lost the braces, and my acne cleared up. On a whim, I got into martial arts, obsessively, which got me in pretty good shape.

As I sat there pondering her question, though, I was still a geeky virgin.

And, I think I was blushing.

“If you don’t want to, I understand,” she said, as I hesitated.

“No!” I replied a little too emphatically.

She turned away. I thought I saw tears in her eyes. “I get it,” she whispered.

No, she didn’t get it at all. I was blowing my shot and hurting her in the process.

“No! I mean, no I don’t not want to!” I said, completely making an idiot of myself. I was so nervous and tongue-tied, I wasn’t making sense. “I mean, yes! Yes, I want to!”

She turned back to face me. Her face was a mixture of apprehension, nervousness, and hope. “You do?”