Part 5: Friday

Chapter Twenty - Chuck

I woke up before the alarm went off. I was a wee bit disoriented, not being used to waking up with company.

Maggie had shifted some time during the night. When we had fallen asleep, we had been spooning. She had flipped over. Now she was facing me, one leg wrapped over mine, her right hand around my waist, her left hand up against my chest-along with her face, which was buried into my chest. My hand had ended up on her hip. She looked so sweet and peaceful wrapped around me like that.

I thought about things while I watched her. I'd been going on instinct, really-not really analyzing my feelings for her. Of course I knew I liked her. Gazing down at her sleeping form is when it really hit me-I had gone way past 'like'. She was sweet and tender-and also brash and forthright. She was vulnerable-and also gutsy and bold. She was obsessed with sex-and really wanted to be loved. She was, in short, beguiling. Enchanting. Even more intoxicating than I first realized.

I could wake up with this adorable little minx wrapped around me every day. God knows I'd never get bored! Why the hell hadn't any of the many other guys she'd been with ever fallen head-over-heels for her? Actually, I knew the answer to that-all they saw was the pussy. I somehow saw so much more than that.

Even if I was the one that had nicknamed her Sugarlips.

I meditated on all this for about 20 minutes, staring at her the whole time. Then she woke up.

"Hmmm?" she groaned sleepily.

"Good morning Sugarlips," I said, kissing her on the forehead.

"Morning," she said awkwardly, clearly self-conscious. It seemed like she was trying to extricate herself from our embrace.

"Where are you going?" I said, wrapping my arm around her.

"I'm uncomfortable."

"Bullshit. I've been watching you sleep for the last 20 minutes. You couldn't have looked more comfortable if you had been sleeping on a cloud."

"OK, so I'm mentally uncomfortable."

"Bullshit."

She sighed. "Fine. I liked waking up like this a whole hell of a lot and it scares the shit out of me. Happy?"

"Ah, good. A little honesty."

"You gonna let me go now that I've been honest?"

"Not on your life."

She sighed again. "You're impossible."

"You love me."

She looked at me with a start. "I what?"

"You love me."

"You're impossible and crazy."

"Come here," I leaned down to her. "I want to kiss you." She let me kiss her. Actually, she started out letting me kiss her-she ended by kissing back with remarkable vigor. "Hmm," I said after we broke the kiss, "I think Sugarlips has a double meaning."

"Oh, you," she snorted.

"Admit it. You like that nickname."

"OK. I admit it. It's unbearably sweet and totally nasty all at once."

"Which means it's perfect for you." She blushed at that.

"What time is it anyway?" she asked.

"Five minutes before my alarm goes off."

"Aah. Not enough time for a little nookie, I suppose," she grinned.

"Not unless it was a quickie."

"I like quickies."

"I don't. Especially not with you."

She sighed, and this time did unravel herself from my arms. "I need to pee anyway." I grinned at her and let her get back up. When she came back, I said, "My turn," and went to the bathroom myself.

Chapter Twenty-One - Maggie

OK, I liked waking up in his arms way more than I wanted to admit. To myself, and certainly to him. All this "you love me" crap.

Damn, it was nice.

He came back after a few minutes, grabbed clothes, and started putting them on. "Get dressed. All your stuff is on that chair there. Meet you downstairs." Then he was gone.

Jesus, what a fucking puzzle.

I got dressed, got downstairs, and found him in the kitchen. The coffee was brewing, and he was frying bacon. "Jeez, look at this!" I said. "How domestic!"

"Mom made sure I learned how to cook. How do you take your eggs?"

"Sunny side." A guy cooking for us? Jesus. Head, stop spinning. I watched him finish the bacon, then do the eggs. He then served everything-even toast-and poured us each a coffee.

We were eating pleasantly, when he said cryptically, "You have until tomorrow."

"For what?"

"To decide."

"To decide what?"

"The answer to this question." He took a breath and looked right at me. "Maggie, will you go out with me?"

I dropped my fork. He just had billions and billions of ways to make me completely discombobulated, didn't he? "Are you serious?"

"As serious as it gets. Maggie-no games. No playing around." He looked right into my eyes. "I'm falling in love with you."

"You are?" I squeaked.

"Yeah. But I don't know how you feel." I started to say something, but he cut me off. "And I don't want to know-not right now. Look, it's the last day for us in The Program. Have fun. Do what you want. I'm not going to force you to make a decision today, when your hormones are going to be, no doubt, running wild." He took a breath. "Because, if you say yes, I'm going to hold you to what you said earlier." I looked at him, a question in my eyes. "You said that if you ever met anyone that you decided you wanted to have an actual relationship with, you'd be monogamous. I want all of you. I don't want to share. And you need to decide if you can do that."

"Wow," was all I could come up with. I had a lot to think about.

He drove me to school, we undressed at the entrance just like all week, he kissed me lightly on the cheek-then he disappeared.

What a morning. My poor teachers. Usually I'm a decent student, though I'm no Natalie Weinberg. Not this day. I was in a complete fog.

I had one constant mantra running through my head: Love or sex. Love or sex. Love or sex. I couldn't get it out of my mind. Because there was no longer any doubt in my mind about one thing-I was falling in love with him as surely as he was with me. And him loving me was as good as it gets. He made me feel like a fucking princess.

So, Maggie the Princess or Maggie the Fuck Bunny? Shit, some guys I'd done had barely known my name. I was just an available pussy. Chuck not only knew my name-and a whole lot else about me-he had even named my pussy, for Chrissakes!

How could I turn this down?

Well, all too easily, one part of my brain told me. The part that contained my libido. This would be a major lifestyle change. Could I live with that? My brain was fighting this war all morning. I decided I needed someone to talk to. At lunch, I asked Amanda to grab a private table with me.

"Chuck asked me to go out with him," I told her without preamble.

"Cool! What did you say?"

"Nothing, yet. He doesn't want an answer until tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"He said it's my last day in The Program, and he wanted me to sleep on it. I spent the night with him last night, all night."

"Wow," Amanda said. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Amanda, I think I'm falling in love with him. But can I give up sex?"

"If you spent the night with him, I don't think you're giving up sex," she laughed.

"You know what I mean. Sex with other people."

"Is that so important?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure out," I admitted.

"Look," Amanda asked, "how is sex with him?"

"Unbelievable," I admitted.

"Quality over quantity," Amanda grinned.

"True. But variety is nice sometimes." I sighed. "You know me and controlling my sex life. If I'm in a steady relationship, I surrender some of that control."

"Remember how much control I surrendered when I started going out with Jared. A different situation, but control was involved. Maggie? It's worth it."

"For you, yes. For me?" I sighed again.

"Look, who's the best person you've ever been with?" she asked me.

"Well, Chuck."

"Besides him."

"Oh, that's easy," I grinned. "Jared."

"Good choice," she grinned back. "I think I need to lend Jared to you this afternoon." I just looked at her. "He's your favorite bed partner, right? Then he's the best thing you'd be giving up. It might help you make your decision."

"Partially, it might at that. Not completely, because of the variety thing. But, yeah, it couldn't hurt," I admitted.

"I'll set it up."

Lunch ended then, and we went to bio. The rest of the afternoon went as usual, and, after school, I found Jared waiting for me. Chuck was there, too, getting dressed. He just winked at me then took off.

"Amanda said you needed a little lovin'," Jared grinned at me.

"Yeah. Did she tell you why? It's occurred to me that, if I do this, I'd be blatantly using you."

"Yeah, she told me why," he said. "You might be using me, but it's for a good reason. Hell, Maggie, what are friends for?" I laughed at his salacious little grin. "Besides which, if you do go with Chuck, this'll be my last chance. And you are the second-best I've ever been with. Use me, abuse me, anything you want."

I cracked up laughing. "Jared, you're a peach."

"That I am. Let's go."

We went back to my house, no one was there. Jared took me in his arms and made love to me. He went down on me-something he's very good at-then fucked my brains out. Jared is an accomplished, considerate, and caring lover-and he has the biggest dick I'd ever had. In other words, if you wanted to beat Jared Wicklow at lovemaking, you'd better be awfully good.

Or, you'd better have one hell of an emotional attachment to the person you're in bed with.

When we were done-and I had enjoyed multiple screaming orgasms-I knew. I absolutely knew. Jared was one of my best friends. I adored him. But I wasn't in love with him-Amanda was.

And it just wasn't the same.

Chapter Twenty-Two - Chuck

It was with no small amount of trepidation that I had given her that ultimatum, believe me.