Chapter 2

The next day Rhonda was not so amused.

"What do you mean you popped your cherry to some stranger and took off like a crazy person before you could even ask his name? Girl, what is the matter with you?"

Sherry clutched her head and moaned in pain; a combination of pain brought on by Rhonda's yelling and a little over indulgence from the night before.

Rhonda wasn't done. She could be the sweetest person in the world, but she was not one to shrug off what she considered sheer stupidity. "Sherry how could you?" she ranted at a higher decibel.

"I don't know? Call it self-preservation," she mumbled wearily.

"Sherry did you use a condom? Don't you know it's the age of STD's. What if this guy had AID's or something? Oh ... My ... God! How could you be so stupid?"

"I don't know?" she mumbled more to herself than to Rhonda who was way past hearing anything she had to say. She dropped her head onto the kitchen table and let her arms hang uselessly to the floor. There really wasn't anything she could say for herself so she just let Rhonda rant.

"Sherry, what if this guy drugged you or something?"

"Nope, that's not the source of this pounding headache."

"Sherry this guy could have drugged you and kidnapped you and cut you up into little bits!"

Sherry snorted at that. Rhonda heard it and was not amused.

"My God Sherry, what if something had happened to you? I wouldn't be able to live with myself! You couldn't fucking wait till I introduced you to Steven's cousin Addison? A nice guy, from a good family, good looking, smart, educated ... older ... wiser ... wealthy..." Rhonda continued to expand on all the good qualities this paragon of manhood possessed.

Sherry closed her eyes and tried to tune her friend out. "Addison." She liked the sound of the paragon's name. "Addison," she mumbled over Rhonda's ranting, "Addison, meaning son of Adam." She didn't know why she knew that, she must have read it somewhere.

"What?"

"Huh?" Sherry countered when she realized Rhonda was talking to her, not at her, again. She sat up to look her friend guiltily in the eyes.

"I said 'WHAT?' As in what are you mumbling about?"

"Err ... Nothing. Look Rhonda, I think we're done with this conversation. I love you and I know you're only worried, but it's over now. I know I was stupid, but I can't change what I did, so will you please, please let it go? Please?"

Rhonda softened her tone and with a sigh gave only one final complaint. "Go figure that the one and only time you decide let loose and have fun, you go and ruin it with a horrible memory you'll never forget!"

Sherry smiled weakly at Rhonda. Getting up, she patted her shorter friend on the head and said "whatever you say." Then she walked away to her room, where she closed her door firmly and threw herself on the bed to think about the night before. How could she possibly explain to Rhonda that that last comment couldn't be further from the truth? She would treasure that night for as long as she lived. Well, most of it, She would try to forget about as much she could regarding Jonathan. But the rest had been a dream.

Her beautiful stranger, her knight in shining armor, seemed like a far away dream that was starting to grow fuzzy at the edges. It had been beautiful and special and she would never forget it.

She did regret one thing, not sticking around for another round of sex, and maybe more. But like she had told Rhonda, it was over and she couldn't go back.

Rhonda started pestering her about the paragon the next day.

"Come on Sherry, he really wants to meet you!"

"No."

"Why not? He's hot, I swear it. Perfect for you."

"No."

"Just one date, he saw your picture before the party, and he wanted to meet you then..."

"No."

"Sherry!"

"Rhonda! No! Stop pestering me."

And the next day...

"Sherry, you can't say no. You have no reason."

"I said no!"

"Why not?"

"I don't need a reason, just quit it. I said no!"

And the next day...

"Sherry, he's Steve's cousin. He's a genuinely nice, and dying to meet you. He's been pestering both me AND Steve about arranging a date."

"Rhonda, for Pete's sake, stop pestering me. I said No!"

"What if we just invite him to dinner, just keep it casual?"

"I'll be out that night."

"But I haven't told you what night!"

"Jeez Rhonda, take a hint. I'm not interested."

"But..."

"No!"

Sherry didn't want to admit that the reason she was saying no was because she was still mooning over her mysterious one night stand. Him she would see again; it wouldn't be fair to the 'paragon' (as she had taken to calling him) to even meet, cause there was no way he could possibly be as thrilling as her mysterious stranger.

But Rhonda continued to pester day-after-day, for a whole week, until Sherry finally gave in. 'Just to get Rhonda off her back!' she told herself.

So on Saturday night she sat on the couch and watched Rhonda leave for the night. She had agreed, but she had made Rhonda promise to scram so she wouldn't spend the night trying to play cupid. She wanted to be in control of this date. A little dinner (preferably a quick pizza delivered at the door), a DVD on the couch (to keep the chatting to a minimum), and a polite goodnight (early enough that she could return to the TV to watch some junk or another before turning in to bed).

"Yay ... Good luck with Addison, Sherry! I'm spending the night at Steve's in case you want to spend the night with a NICE guy!" Rhonda giggled her way out the door and barely missed getting a sofa cushion in the face for that comment.

Sherry had half an hour till her "date," but she didn't bother to get dressed. Pulling her hair into a high twisty knot on top of her head, she plopped on the couch. She could feel loose bits of her hair tickling her neck, but she didn't bother fixing it. She was going for comfort tonight, not style. To that affect she wore longish pink tank top that hugged her bra-less curves, but was completely hidden by a bulky black, zip-up hoodie. She was wearing baggy men's pajama bottoms that she had stolen from her brother years ago, and baggy pink fuzzy socks. The only 'sexy' thing she wore, as far as she was concerned, was her black Brazilian-cut panties. She liked wearing them; not just because they were comfortable, but because they reminded her of another pair she had left behind.

'Besides, ' she reasoned, 'it's not like the paragon was gonna get a chance to see em!'

Maybe 20 minutes later her door-bell rang. She groaned and stomped silently to the door. The paragon was early.

As she swung the door open, she was already speaking to him. "Come on in, Addi-"

"Addison," he corrected when she stood in the doorway, her mouth hanging open, and a shocked look on her face.

His grinned a perfect row of pearly whites at her as he walked past her into the house. Turning around, he pried the door knob from her hand, closed the door firmly behind him and tugged her hand till she followed him to the living room.

"Addison?" She choked out.

"Yeah, that's me." Touching her bottom lip with a finger tip, he smiled down at her. "Took you long enough to say yes to this date darling. Had half a mind to just show up and make your acquaintance ... Officially."

Sherry gulped, unable to think of a single thing to say.

He chuckled softly, the sound running over her skin in a soft caress. She barely noticed that they were still holding hands, hers clutching at his; he noticed.

"Yeah ... I gotta say, you're a hard girl to pin down. Don't you ever make time for fun Sherry?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head, wanting to clear the fog. She loved the way he said her name; like Cherie, holding the "ee" sound for a fraction of a second too long, making it sound like an endearment. When her eyes snapped open he was still there, silently watching her with a smirk on his face.

With his free hand he reached over and slowly pulled the zipper of her black bulky hoodie down till it hung open, revealing the clinging tank-top. He was pretty confident that it wasn't the temperature that had her nipples standing perkily at attention.

Pulling his hand from her clutching fingers he put his hands on her shoulders and slowly pulled off her hoodie, giving her every opportunity to pull away if she chose. Then he let the thing fall to the floor.

Sherry could only stare at him in fascination. She barely blinked, afraid he would disappear.

Not taking his eyes from hers, he toyed with the strings of her baggy pajama bottoms. Eventually they came loose and they slumped down, barely clinging to her hips. He smiled softly at her and tugged on them till they shimmied down her legs. Without even thinking about it she stepped out of them, managing to slip off her socks in the process.

He finally tore his eyes from hers and took a long and appreciative look at the picture she presented. Sherry followed his eyes with her own; saw him pause as his hot gaze skimmed her tingling breasts. Then his gaze continued till he reached the tip of her toes and back up till his eyes were once again locked with her own.

"Addison?" She whispered uncertainly.

"I like it when you say my name," he murmured. "Turn around Sherry."