Chapter 1

Sometimes people remember the strangest things at the strangest moments.

Sometimes it's a sight, a smell, or a situation. Other times it might be a phrase that causes anxiety and you don't know why. All you know is that it's caused your body to react in a negative manner.

And sometime some of us realize that it's the hand of "fate" that causes us to be more aware of our surroundings than others because it refuses to leave us alone.

I remember the moment when my marriage was over. When I looked back at what was the trigger that signaled it, it was at Friday, August 22 2008 at 6:38 pm when I looked at the clock on the dining room wall.

We were in the middle of our family dinner when five simple words were uttered that changed our lives forever.

They were "Guess what, I ran into Teala today"

Of course there were other words mixed into the conversation, but those were the words that made my insides go cold as a chill raced my spine.

There might be a million people named "Teala" in the world, but only one elicited that response from me.

Let me go back and explain some of what was going on so that it makes more sense.

My name is Jason Thomas. I am the only son of Martha and Steven Thomas.

Fate has always played a large role in my life. In fact since the moment I took my first breath.

For example, my mother almost didn't carry me to term because she was in an automobile accident and they had to rush her to the hospital due to complications.

They had to take me at only six and a half mos., and against all odds, I survived not only a premature birth but the collision caused when the drunk driver ran the light and hit my mother's side of the car. My mother had some spine damage and she would forever need to walk with a cane afterwards but I really showed no ill effects of the accident.

My father worked hard to provide for us, but the settlement from the accident made it somewhat easier and my parents insisted that I go to college and get a good start on life. Growing up I was somewhat gangly and my father took to working out with me once I reached fourteen. I reached my maximum height at fifteen of 6'1".

He kept saving one day I would have a body that women would be proud to be seen with. But that didn't happen until I was almost out of college. For some reason my body waited until I was almost 22 to show the fruit of my hard work. But it also might have been the poor eating habits and light nights as well.

It was only by the briefest of chances that during my senior year I met Katharine Galownia, but to me and everyone else we were to only call her Katie. She just preferred that, as she said only her parents called her Katharine whenever she was in trouble.

When I met Katie she could have stopped traffic without trying. Anything she wore she made look good. She looked like a California swimsuit model with her long flowing light blonde hair and very generous figure.

I wouldn't have ever met her but we were in the same Computer science lab one afternoon. I was putting the polish on a project for one of my classes "Data Analysis using Spreadsheets" when I heard an exasperated sigh from the front of the room.

Normally I wouldn't have stopped to speak with one of the beautiful people, but I heard "This is stupid. How do they expect me to figure what they want out without more information?"

Walking slightly closer I could see it was similar material as to what I was just working on. I was really only taking this class in case I needed some form of managerial foundation. I didn't want to be in the trenches forever.

"Do you need any help?" I asked.

Katie gave me a strange look. It was then I figured that she thought I was trying to pick her up.

"No I'm good thanks," said Katie tersely as she went back to her work.

"Ok, but the problem you've having is you're not using a pivot table to sort your data. If you don't use one then none of your data will line up correctly," I said as I started for the door.

"Wait, what do you mean use a pivot table?" asked Katie just as I reached the door.

Returning to her workstation I sat near, but not close enough to touch, and pointed out how the basics of a pivot table worked. Soon I could see that she was starting to grasp it.

Katie was overjoyed.

Suddenly she started asking questions and I tried to tailor my answers to keep them as simple as possible. I could see her starting to make sense out of what I was trying to teach her.

As I wound down, and could see she was getting it, I stood up to leave. Katie stood up and tightly hugged me. It was all I could do to will "little" Jason to stay asleep and keep from coming out to see what the fuss was all about from his home in the crotch of my pants.

Almost as if she realized what she had done she released me and returned to her station smiling.

Katie and I would meet a few different times over the course of my last year. I found out in bits and pieces when I helped her that she was an only child. Her father had been killed in a mine cave-in and she was raised by her mother on the death benefits and the insurance money.

Katie had worked hard on her own with part time jobs to go to school and she was majoring in communications. She wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life yet, but she did know she wanted to work with people and not be cooped up a stuffy office the whole time.

While I enjoyed her company I knew I was way out of my league. Katie never seemed to act like she thought I was more than a friend. Guys do know when the girls see you as hot and available, or if they only see you as the guy who helps them with their homework.

Girls really do let you know these things if you're paying attention.

Besides, I didn't date and I was coming up on my twenty second year as a virgin. I had no problem being attracted to girls, but I just didn't have the time to spare for anything but preparing for my future life.

Between college work-study, studying, and my small part time job to pay for anything over my basic room and board I just didn't have time for a girlfriend. Not if I wanted to graduate in the top percentile of my class and get a good job. I only had one shot at top of my class and I really wanted that badly.

As such all my hard work at school paid off and I did graduate at the top of my class with honors.

The only thing I really regretted, when I looked back at my college years, was that I never asked Katie out. That and I never did date anyone else or really do anything outside of the computer lab. I sacrificed a lot to be the best in college.

If fate had left me alone I would have been happier, but it was determined to keep playing a hand in my life.

My first job out of college was with a smaller company that was on the rise and was hiring an Assistant service manager for their computer service department.

I would take over part of the duties for the service manager and I would be the one would to interface with the customers about their repairs. It would also allow me to polish up on the latest computer applications and hardware.

I applied for the job, and I beat out four other candidates for it. I was later told on my first day that I wasn't hired because I was the best qualified. One of the other applicants actually had better qualifications than I had.

That stunned me. I started wondering what the ulterior motive behind my hiring was.

The partner of the company who hired me went on to relieve the he could see was stress in my face. He said I was hired because while I did have the qualifications to work here, and would be an asset, it was my manners that set me apart from the others candidates.

A lot of their customers were doctors and Attorneys, and they would expect common curtsey as something they earned after eight to ten years of devoting their lives to learning their craft. Not to mention that manners also would also go a long way towards calming down irate customers.

Because of that I was picked because I really impressed the three people who interviewed me for the job with my level of professionalism and manners.

I was stunned. I never knew how much my mother's demanding that I use my manners all the time would be something I would be able to market into a job. She so ingrained it into me that it was now second nature.

Now I was able to start my new job, and for a year I was relatively happy. Eventually I would go out on customer calls to verify what our techs were doing what they needed to do to keep the customers happy.

It was on one such a call that I again ran into Katie again.

She was working at the company that I was visiting. She had been having problems with her computer workstation, and so far we had failed to fix it. We had tried to move her company from an older version of Novell to a Microsoft operating system.

The problem with that approach was there was no direct upgrade path for that. So the best we could do was move as much of their data as we could and then try to find out what didn't work. We also had to get various replacement applications for what didn't work.

The sales staff did the best they could, but the customer was still finding various little things that they "forgot" that we still needed to fix. It was things like this that kept us from closing the ticket on this conversion.

I had talked to Katie before on the phone, but to be honest I never put her name with the girl from college. For some reason after graduating she hadn't returned home, but stayed in Indiana. And to be honest I didn't just assume that everyone named Katherine Galownia was related to Katie so I made no assumptions.

I also didn't connect her with the name because the woman on the other end of the phone was a "touch" irate when she called in to complain.

When I went to see her I saw right away it was Katie from school. I tried to play it cool and not stare, but if anything Katie had become better looking than she had ever been before in school.

Of course by now "my" hard work on changing my body was also paying off. I had a few dates during the year, but not one clicked. And to be honest I didn't want to just go to bed for beds sake. I wanted more than that from a woman.

That didn't mean that I didn't fool around with kissing or hand jobs, and sometimes running my hand under a shirt or two. I just didn't commit to going all the way. The last thing I wanted was someone who felt a connection that I didn't after sex, and then I had to deal with finding a way to get away without hurting her feelings

Some men may not understand that and some might. Some of us aren't born with the gift of gab or the willingness to sleep with anything that moved. I might have tempted myself with a lot of things but casual sex just wasn't one of them or in the make up of who I was.

But another concern I had was if the woman would go to bed with me at a drop of a hat, what might I gamble at catching from her or her previous partners? And to be honest I just didn't have enough experience, and waiting was far easier.

Anyway, I had the need to visit Katie's company a few different times after finding out Katie worked there to see various people about their problems. I made it a point to always stop by just to say hello, but didn't stay long.

Eventually I found she was the girl Friday for her company. It was a non-profit fund for the arts business where she organized many things for the other members to keep them up to speed.

Working up the nerve I finally asked Katie out. I used the guise of wanting to catch up with what was going on in her life since we graduated.

She accepted by way of asking "What took you so long?"

What I found out during one of the many dates that followed our first one was that Katie always wondered why I didn't ask her out back in college. She was used to men always trying something or wanting to take her to bed if they gave her any help.

Katie told me she was surprised that I always helped her but always left soon after she understood what she needed to do for her class. That intrigued her about me. She hadn't met anyone before who didn't try to put the moves on her in some form or fashion.

Eventually Katie told me she started to make up excuses to see me in the computer lab, even though she had long since started to understand her class. She even started to fake lack of understanding to see me.

She said all she wanted was to see the quiet, but helpful boy, who asked nothing from her and appeared to expect nothing in return.

But she was always surprised that I never asked her out. Katie often wondered about me and if I even liked girls. And when I came to visit her company she decided she would finally get me to ask her out.

And here I thought I was being slick by waiting as long as I did to show my interest.

We dated exclusively for six months before we both knew it was right and I popped the question. I did the cliché thing and put the ring in her champagne glass during dinner. Katie of course said yes and I could have floated home I was so happy.

But that old trick almost ended badly. A cop having dinner behind me saw what I did and thought I was putting a date rape drug in Katie's drink. He tackled me from behind when I went to get down on one knee and had me on the floor. It was only when he heard what I said and Katie squeal yes that he let me up.

He felt bad but I was happy that he was dedicated enough to watch out for people even during his time off. Imagine if he had just looked away and I was trying to drug her?

Then only thing that had to wait was that Katie told me the only thing her father had told her mother from the moment she was born until he died was that he wished she would go into marriage a virgin. Her mother impressed that on her and pointed out that it was the only thing her father ever wanted. As such Katie was determined to honor his only wish since he had died.

I was ok with that because to be honest I didn't know anything either and I didn't want to be caught looking stupid or embarrassed if she knew far more than I did. I didn't mind learning, but I've always found that some people have very little patience if they think you are taking too long to learn things you should have already known.

But I did surf the web and read everything I could find. I also found a few sites on the Kama Sutra as well the best way to make love. I might not have any practical experience, but I was determined that I would have more book knowledge than anyone else in the world.

So Katie and I never went all the way, but we did make out hot and heavy quite a few times. Katie also let me touch her quite a few times under her shirts or blouses.

The first time I tried she started to balk, but when I pointed out she had been doing the exact same thing to me for weeks and it was my turn she settled down. Her only condition was that I had to keep it above belt.

During all this joy the only "fly in the ointment" to say was her roommate, and very best friend from college, Teala Johnston.

Teala and Katie were polar opposites.

Katie was 5'9 with very long blonde hair down her back and a figure at 38DD-28-38. She was all soft and nothing but curves. Katie also had a cute thin upper lip and a slightly fuller, but still kissable bottom lip.

Her friend Teala was somewhat slimmer at 5'8 with short brown hair often styled into man's cut. She also had a modest and very athletic (that I was to learn also later) 32b-22-33 build.

Teala was also gifted with what I was later told was called "dick sucking lips". They were very full and heart shaped, and she often would lick them in a way that made men stop and stare at her. Many men on the street solely stopped to watch her lick her lips like she did when she was out, and she always smirked at them once she was finished as she walked away.

I knew she enjoyed of their reactions to what she did. It was why she did it so often.

During our senior year in college Teala had gone to an end of year frat party, gotten fall down drunk, and ended up pulling a train with every frat member there. That wasn't anything new because Teala was always going through men like someone blowing their noses on tissue paper.