Chapter 37

Shelly finished her morning classes with trepidation. At 10 a.m., Rachelle had texted her and told her that she set up a gyno appointment for one o'clock and she would grab her at lunch. Shelly had made the mistake of researching her problem on the internet, a fountain of misinformation if you landed on the wrong site. She was convinced she had dyspareunia, a condition that causes pain during intercourse regardless of stimulation.

She dreaded having the doctor confirm her self-diagnosis almost as much as she dreaded having the doctor's face between her legs. Rachelle was right on time – and cheerful as hell – further sending Shelly into a snit. She was just about to call the whole thing off when they arrived at the small clinic where Dr. Aubrey Young had her office. Unlike the doctor's office in her hometown, Shelly found Dr. Young's office to be bright, almost welcoming. It didn't have the antiseptic smell she associated with doctor's offices. The nurses there wore colorful scrubs, not stiff white uniforms. Dr. Young, who had been alerted to Shelly's previous experience at the gynecologist during her brief discussion with Rachelle, greeted the young women warmly.

Shelly decided Dr. Young didn't even remind her of a doctor. She wasn't old, first of all. Second of all, she wore jeans and T-shirt beneath her lab coat, not a suit or a dress. Lastly, she seemed cool. Rachelle had not gone into detail on the phone, preferring to let Shelly decide how much information to impart. The doctor took time to sit and talk with Shelly: 1) why she was visiting; and 2) why she hadn't gone to an OB/GYN in almost five years.

The first was easiest.

"My boyfriend is huge and it hurts when we try to have sex," Shelly announced with a blush when the doctor asked about the specific reason for her visit. "I mean, it won't even go inside me."

"How big is huge?" the doctor asked with a smirk. "Do you mean really big or humongous."

"Uh, what's the difference?" Shelly asked. Having seen only two live cocks in her life, one at each end of the spectrum, she really couldn't say.

"Well," Dr. Young said, looking around conspiratorially despite the fact they were alone in her office. "Big is about like this."

She held her hands about six inches apart.

"He's bigger than big then," Shelly said. She reached out and spread the doctor's hands to what she thought was the correct size. She was a bit generous but didn't miss by much.

"Whoa!" Dr. Young said. "That falls past the humongous category. That is in 'Ye Gods' class. Shelly, it is perfectly normal for your body to have trouble accommodating something of this size. Have you had a problems like this with other partners?"

"I've only had one other partner," Shelly said.

"And where did he fall on the chart we just discussed?" Dr. Young asked.

"Laughably small," Shelly replied without a moment's hesitation. "With Adam, you measure with a yardstick. With Eric, you measure with a thimble. My friends thought I... , uh... , I might still have a significant portion of my hymen intact."

Dr. Young nodded. It was rare, but not unheard of, for a perforated hymen to remain attached.

"We'll check that for certain," Dr. Young told her. "There might be other reasons – including the possibility that it will take a long time and a lot of foreplay before your body can accept something that size."

"A lot of foreplay doesn't help," Shelly said. "I have been aroused, stimulated, motivated and masturbated. What I can seem to be is fornicated."

Dr. Young laughed aloud. The girl seemed to be relaxing and that was good.

"I will give you my standard spiel then," Dr. Young said. "You need to practice safe sex. If you do not know of this young man's sexual history, I encourage you to make him wear a condom. Additionally, if you are not on birth control and you do not wish to have children, I encourage you to use other forms of contraception. Are you opposed to contraception on religious grounds?"

"God no," Shelly said with a smirk. She liked this woman. "I am opposed to children at this point in my life but mostly on philosophical grounds. I use the OCP and have been for three years. Do you suggest something else along those lines?"

"I can do injection or implant," Dr. Young said. "I usually offer those options to my younger patients because it does not require you to remember to take something every day. They are also slightly more effective. When is your next period?"

"Nine days," Shelly answered.

"Are they regular?" the doctor asked.

"Usually," was the reply. "I was three or four days late right before Christmas and it scared the hell out of me. Luckily I had only had sex once during the previous time and it was too early in my cycle for there to be much of a chance."

"We'll discuss your options after we do an examination," Dr. Young said. "Since you have been to the gynecologist only once in your life, you will find this extremely invasive. I need to check for many things. We will do a routine physical – your height, your weight, a breast exam, a urine sample. Do you take any drugs, prescription or non-prescription?"

"The pill," Shelly answered.

Dr. Young nodded. The routine questioning continued, but in a way that Shelly felt it was more of a conversation than an inquisition.

"By law, because I am doing a pelvic exam, you may ask your friend to accompany you in if you wish," Dr. Young concluded. "You and I will never be alone while you are undressed. I will always have one of my staff members present. But you are entitled to a chaperone if you choose."

Shelly pondered the question then decided it might be nice to have Rachelle to hold her hand while the doctor did all the crappy things she said she was going to have to do.

Shelly was sore but relieved when she left Dr. Young's office. The results of some of the tests wouldn't be back for a week but Dr. Young said everything looked normal down there.

Everything except for the fact Shelly Smith had been sexually active for almost three years and still had 65 percent of her vaginal opening covered by her hymen. The doctor asked Shelly if she wanted to have it broken naturally or she wished to have it removed. Shelly didn't even have to think about that one. Although it would be nice to give Adam 65 percent of her cherry, she knew it would cause him distress to take it.

"Cut it out please," Shelly said. Rachelle squeezed her hand in support as the doctor induced a local anesthesia and cut away the remainder of the membrane which was thicker than normal but not thick enough to explain the girl's condition. The doctor could only shake her head when she thought of how little the penis must have been to poke a hole but not break the tissue completely.

"You'll be sore for a couple of days," the doctor advised. "The surgery itself will cause you some discomfort for the next day or two but you will hurt inside too from where I checked you for cervical cancer."

Shelly nodded and got dressed. When she was fully clothed, Dr. Young asked Rachelle and the nurse to step outside for a moment.

"Your guy, is he gentle with you?" the doctor asked when everyone was out of earshot.

Shelly smiled and her whole face lit up.

"Amazingly so," she said. "He is the sweetest, most caring man I've ever met. The reason I asked you to remove what was left of my hymen is because it would break his heart to hurt me even that little bit."

The doctor smiled and nodded, relief evident on her unlined face.

"He will have to be very careful of bumping into your cervix," the doctor cautioned. "Most men do not have that problem but he will. If he is gentle, it should not create problems for you. But if he or you get over-enthusiastic it could. Contrary to myth, cervical contact is not pleasurable for most women. It is extremely painful because there is no lubrication except for what he brings with him. Now, if you decide you want to switch birth-control methods, call me when you reach the last seven days of your pill packet."

"Uh, that's tomorrow," Shelly said.

"Oh, well, let's set up an appointment for when you would normal start a new packet, say next Wednesday," Dr. Young said. "Will that be a problem for you?"

"Well, I want to discuss it with my friends and get their opinion," Shelly said. "And I want to do a little research. Do you have information packets I can look at before I decide?"

The doctor smiled warmly. This young woman was so likeable but she was also intelligent and responsible.

"I do and I can recommend several web sites if you have the internet," she answered. "Let's go ahead and set the appointment. If you decide to change your mind, call me and cancel it and I'll see you in three months. If you keep the appointment, we can discuss your pap smear results then. If not, I'll call you."

Shelly agreed but then thought of something.

"I am still on my father's insurance as of now," Shelly said. "But I'm sure I'll be dropped in three months. What are your rates? I might have to go to a free clinic or something."

"We won't worry about that," Dr. Young said. She was a capitalist at heart but this girl had gone 20 years and seen a gynecologist once. If she shunted her off to a clinic it would be 20 more years maybe. "What is the co-pay on your father's insurance?"

"Fifty dollars," Shelly answered.

"Then that is what I'll charge you regardless of whether you have insurance or not," the doctor decided. She put her arm around Shelly and guided her to the outer office when Rachelle waited.

Shelly hugged her friend.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Hey, I only made a phone call," Rachelle replied.

"For that and for staying with me," Shelly whispered. "I'm glad you were there."

Rachelle looked down at her friend, her heart bursting with affection.

"Shelly, I will do my best to always be there," she said earnestly.

Adam found himself sitting quietly, reading his chem lab notes and eating a sandwich, when his cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He was surprised to find Tate Benedict on the other end when he answered.

"Is everything OK with what we did last week?" Adam wondered.

"It was great," Tate said. "Derrick, Ben is here so I'm going to put you on speaker if you're not already in class."

"No, you caught me before it started," Adam said. "I have about 45 minutes and I can talk while I'm walking over there if necessary."

There was a brief pause then he heard Ben say hello.

"Hi, Ben," Adam responded. "What's up?"

"That was really what we were wondering," Ben replied.

"Uh," Adam stammered. "I'm not sure where this is heading."

"Is that what's going on or just a general statement?" Tate asked.

"Maybe both but definitely the second," Adam said with confusion evident in his voice.

"Have you talked to Ashley lately?" Ben inquired.

"Not since yesterday evening," Adam answered. He didn't think his living arrangements were anyone's business and he didn't count the brief conversation they'd had this morning.

"Do you know why she won't even consider what we've offered?" Tate asked. "Her rep said she decided the deal was absolutely out of the question. I, we, thought it was a pretty good offer. We decided we would be honest right from the start. Ashley didn't really seem like the type to try to haggle or hold us hostage."

"Guys, I am completely clueless as to what you're talking about," Adam responded. "Honestly, since we left there Thursday morning, I've spent about 80 percent of my time with Ashley. We found out she lives almost next door to me and she's become friends with my friends. At no time did she mention a single word about Daystar. In fact, after a one call to her agent less than an hour after we left there, I don't think she's spoken to him once. I could be wrong but I don't think I am."

Adam heard a loud exhale from the other side but didn't know if it was Tate or Ben.

"We had an epiphany Thursday evening," Tate explained. Adam refrained from asking if it had hurt. "Ben and I sat down and were going over the stills from Thursday morning and do a read through of the script Sahara sent over. We had time because two of the three shoots were canceled and this was worth our time even if they weren't. Friday morning, I called Jerry Goldsmith, the head of Dazzle Video. He and I got to chatting about his production company, specifically the new line he's created, the scene you and Sahara did together."

"He's torn," Tate continued, "He sees the potential for new money coming in. But he also sees a huge headache looming. He knows he will have to beef up his staff to keep 'Interludes' from being stolen and given away. By the time you calculate salary, benefits, new equipment, he is worried that the profits won't be enough to justify the expenses, at least in the short term and that is what his investors worry most about. I don't have investors. I own this outright – or I did until Friday when I reached an agreement in principal to sell 20 percent of the company to Ben."

Adam found himself wondering how this affected Ashley or him. Ben cut in to answer that question.

"Dazzle's boy-girl section is going to work with our feature section," Ben said. "We're going to cooperate, share resources – including talent – to minimize costs for both of us. This is hush-hush and I know you're friends with Sahara, too, or at least you seemed to be. But Dazzle is planning to make a major offer to her in the next few weeks. I jumped the gun on them, called Elite and made that offer to Ashley on Friday. I want her to be the first contract girl signed to Daystar Studios."

Adam's eyes widened. He really didn't know what a contract girl was but it sounded impressive.

"That sounds like a good thing," he professed. "Is it?"

Dual sets of laughter came through his phone.

"It is a good thing for both parties," Ben said. "For Ashley, it gives her security. She is guaranteed work and she is guaranteed a percentage of all legal downloads and sales. We don't restrict her from working other places but we get right of first refusal. We don't rep her but we can put a stop to her working somewhere that would lessen her profitability or productivity for us."

"Things like the guy in Arizona," Adam said. He was sitting in a highly public place, surrounded by a large group of people. He wanted to be vague.

"If you're talking about 'Daddy's Little Fuckhole, ' then that is exactly what I mean," Ben said. "If she wants to do a Dazzle shoot or work on something that is even halfway decent, we wouldn't stop her so long as it doesn't conflict with what we've got scheduled here. She won't be doing our web sites – unless she wants to. What she'll be doing is our new feature line and being the face everyone associates with Daystar Studios. Dad and I decided we can offer her $50,000 a year to simply promote our line, appear as our representative at industry gatherings and appear in two feature productions as the lead or in a major capacity. Why would she turn that down?"

"She wouldn't," Adam said forcefully. "I can say without a minute's hesitation that she has never heard of this offer. She would jump at it in an instant."

There was silence on the other end.

"Is that what Dazzle has in mind for Sahara?" Adam asked.

"Generically," Tate replied. "I didn't go into specifics but yes. They have spoken about it to Sahara's rep but she asked them to wait two more weeks before presenting anything official. I assume she has contract negotiations coming up. It would appear to be about the end of her first month there. This would really give her a hammer to hold over their heads at Elite. I think it has been five or six years since they repped a contract girl. Ashley's rep said she has two and half months left on her deal, so we went ahead and sent a prospectus over."

"He lied to you," Adam said. "I think she might have four weeks left and she's not renewing it if that idiot is involved. Look, you need to talk to Ashley. I'm not qualified or authorized to discuss this or make a recommendation. It sounds like a good deal but I know so little I wouldn't know if it weren't. Can I have her call you?"

"Would you mind?" Tate asked. "That's really why we called. We hoped you would contact her and have her contact us. Today, if possible."

"How does about 10 minutes sound?" Adam asked. "I'll give her a call and let her know you wanted to talk to her. I won't mention your offer or what Sven has told you. For all I know, he might have texted her or e-mailed her or something. But I will urge her to call you even if it is just to explain why she's passed. Is that fair?"