XV

Laurel decided not to resign from the project. Her mind was ablaze with all sorts of new notes to write and ideas to test. She had genuinely saved a life with Spermamancy. Her talk with Dylan had given her closure of a sort, and had given new focus to Kate’s advice: she can’t have a boyfriend now while she’s doing this work, but she will, someday.

Jennifer presented her with the improved prototype hairdryer apparatus; it was beautiful. It was a wooden comb, smooth and neatly finished, with the necessary glyphs tastefully burned into it. The handle was thick with little windows cut out revealing a series of glass vials in its hollow core. Each vial was filled with a different substance: sand, vegetable oil, sunflower seeds, and a chunk of natural sponge. It looked like the sort of thing that might be sold at a high-end bath store.

“If you’re happy with the design,” Jennifer told her, “let’s make up a half-dozen or so and give them out to our friends. They’ll likely have suggestions for improvements after a few weeks.”

Laurel looked like a child who had just unwrapped the perfect birthday present. It was so simple and elegant - so much better than hers! “Jennifer you’re a genius!”

Jennifer held back a laugh. “I am truly curious, though, whether a mundane could be taught to work it. Maybe your father or brother?”

Laurel rolled her eyes, grinning. “They’re guys: they don’t even notice whether their hair is wet or dry. But I know just the girl!”

Sniffles and coughs plagued Laurel for the next few days so she stayed home. She spent most of her time writing about her research and coming up with new test plans.

The guys in the band kept texting her, wanting to talk about “what had happened.” She dismissed it as just really good sex, but they didn’t seem satisfied with that. She wondered if she had complicated things too much for them to help with further research.

When she did get back to work, she began by sucking off Rick before playing darts with Theo. When they returned to the bar for refills, he made a proposal. “I don’t know how to ask you this, but how would you feel about coming to a bachelor party?”

She smiled innocently. “But I’m not a guy.”

“Yeah, um...,” he began, rubbing his neck. “There are two types of girls who get invited to bachelor parties: one is tomboys who are seen as one of the guys...”

Theo finished for him: “And the other is the entertainment.” Rick nodded.

“You want me to be a stripper?” Laurel asked, full of surprise. “I’m no good at dancing.”

“You wouldn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to do,” Rick explained. “Just let the guys flirt with you. Laugh at jokes that guys can’t normally say in front of girls. Just that would be enough to make it the best bachelor party this town has seen in years. And if you felt like doing more than that, the guys would certainly appreciate that, too.”

She looked at Theo. He was undecided. “But I wouldn’t have to?”

“Definitely not. And I’d be there to make sure nobody pressured you.”

“I’ll be there too,” Theo declared.

“Yeah, sorry man,” Rick said. “It’s one thing to invite a girl the gang doesn’t know ... They’re a pretty tight-knit group.”

“Then no deal,” Theo said.

“No, Theo, it’s okay. If Rick is there,” she said. “You won’t get super drunk or anything, right?”

“Designated driver.”

“How old are these guys? They’re good guys?” She asked.

Rick chuckled. “None of them are bad guys. Twenty-five to thirty-five, about. I would trust any of these guys to look after my daughter.”

She looked to Theo for advice again.

“Up to you,” he said with a shrug. “It could help meeting some new guys. Honestly, if you were in the right mood, I think an evening of zero-consequence flirting might be good practice for you.”

Laurel was gleeful at the thought - more about the flirting and attention than the idea of sex. Then she frowned. “The bride won’t hate me, will she? She might have heard of me.”

“She’s an easy-going chick,” Nick assured her. “I’ll make sure she spells out ahead of time what the groom is allowed to do.”

She smiled and shrugged. “What should I wear?”

Reasoning that the bachelors might want to take pictures, Jennifer put together an elegant but comfortable mask with bunny ears for Laurel. As another precaution for pictures, they dyed her hair strawberry blonde, although her glamour would ensure that it seemed red in person.

The bachelor party took place at someone’s house, in a basement done up as a man cave. At first, Laurel began as a bartender, even though the guys had to walk her through how to make this or that. She constantly had the attention of a few men who rotated in and out, while others played poker or pool, watched football, or improvised drinking games. The conversations surrounding her were always flirty and often crude but sometimes touched on ordinary topics such as college or X-Men. Nearly the whole room gathered around her when they got her talking about how, before she was sexually active, she and her friends would have sleepovers to experiment together with the basket of sex toys her “cool aunt” had given her.

The guys asked Laurel to give the groom, Andy, a lap dance. She said she didn’t know how, but they told her to just dance close to him and touch him a bunch while he sat in a chair. She tried, but she felt too self-conscious dancing in front of the crowd, so instead she sat in his lap with her arms around him, wiggling. All eyes were stuck on her when she removed her cardigan, slowly, smiling at all the party guests while she did it.

“Your fiance said kissing was okay. Do you want to kiss me?” She whispered.

“You talked to Joy?” He asked.

“Mmm-hmm! She wanted you to have fun, within reason. She was nice.”

Their tongues fought mightily. He held her tight ass in greedy hands. He was hard enough for her to get a good grind on. That’s when the pictures started.

Eventually, he stopped kissing her so that he could moan. Her hips made little movements, stroking his dick with her pubic bone. She whispered in his ear again. “I can make you come like this if you want,” she said, pressing her crotch against his dick especially hard. “Your fiance said your dick had to stay in your pants, but I think this is okay.”

The groom closed his eyes, groaned, and then grabbed her hips to stop her. Loud enough for the bystanders to hear, he said, “Best to leave me my dignity, dear. I’d never live it down if I came in my pants at my bachelor party.”

Someone declared that the prize for the next game of pool would be Laurel’s panties. Most of the room watched while the top players battled it out on the green felt. A number of the men sampled Laurel’s lips or gave her breasts over-the-shirt squeezes. Once the game was over, she took off her boots, stood on the pool table, and let the victor reach under her skirt and remove her underwear. He hung them from the neck of his shirt like a tie, as a trophy.