Chapter 3
As far as Sherry could determine the whole ugly mess really started with Margo. Because without Margo, she never would have met Margo's big brother . . . and if she hadn't met Margo's big brother . . .
The evening that Margo came into her life, Sherry was wide open for exactly what the girl had to offer. A couple of guys, named Gary and Barret, had just got through kicking her heart around like a football in a no-rules soccer clash. The details were pretty much hackneyed. Promises, promises, promises--with Sherry shelling out the goodies and winding up with an empty vagina, lucky that she didn't have a swollen belly to boot, for her indiscretions and misplaced faith.
As in most cases, the end-result was all that counted. By the time the second of the two guys got through disillusioning her, her estimation of the male had plummeted to a record low and she told herself that she wanted nothing more to do with the male specie--ever! Which is why the advent of Margo Drake proved to be so timely, so very welcome.
The unheralded event took place at one p.m., after Sherry had finished work at the Grano State Bank, where she was employed. She had stopped in the local supermarket, on her way home, to pick up a few needed items.
It began with a casual meeting of eyes across the frozen food counter when they both reached for the same TV dinner. Then a faint, uncertain, sort of flirtatious smile as they both very graciously allowed the other to take the package, each of them winding up with something entirely different. They met a few moments later in one of the aisles, again selecting the same product from one of the shelves.
Sherry was aware that the girl had kept eyeing her almost continually since their meeting at the frozen food counter. It caused Sherry a mild flutter in her tummy, the way she sometimes felt when being sized up for a pickup by a man. She could never remember feeling that way toward a girl before, nor could she understand the sudden quickening of her pulse when the girl spoke.
"I see we have the same taste in food," the girl said.
Sherry glanced at the cart the girl was pushing. It contained almost item-for-item what Sherry had in her cart. "Looks like we do."
A glimmer of recognition shown in Sherry's eyes. She recognized the girl now. Her name was Margo. She was in the graduating class during Sherry's first year at Grano College. She hadn't been very active in school events. In fact, Sherry couldn't recall seeing her more than a few times on campus. What made the identification even more difficult, Margo had undergone considerable change since she graduated almost a year ago. Sherry" remembered her as a tall, nondescript girl in spite of her fiery red hair. She'd worn it short about to the lobes of her ears at that time. But now it had grown until it hung down below her shoulders. Her body had filled out quite a bit, too, and while she wore conservative, even slightly masculine clothes to try to hide the fact, it was clear that she boasted what must have been at least a 38 bust, with her other measurements in proper ratio.
Margo asked, "Aren't you the girl who used to run around with Gary Symes during his last year of college?"
That was like striking an exposed nerve and Sherry winced accordingly. Because Gary Symes was one of the sonofabitches responsible for her present attitude toward men. Like Margo, Gary had been a senior when Sherry was a beginning freshman at the local college. He came along in the guise of the U.S. Cavalry, hard on the heels of her first miserable experience with a man and he really took advantage of the situation. He rushed her the entire semester, literally and figuratively swept her off her feet and into bed. She was flattered by all the attention he gave her, especially since he was Mr. Big on campus--scholastically, athletically and in the game of hearts. It was the big romance of the college year and everybody, including Sherry, was sure they could smell the orange blossoms and hear the distant strains of Lohengrin.
Everybody was right. Both orange blossoms and Lohengrin were there. A few weeks after he graduated, the wedding announcements went out. His name was on them--but Sherry's name was conspicuously absent. He'd decided on someone else. Someone, everybody said, more suitable to his social standing. Because Gary and family were right off the top rung of the ladder.
Gary jilting her was bad enough. But worse still was what she had to go through at college. An endless round of pity and those who didn't pity her, laughed behind her back because she'd been so gullible as to believe that anyone with his looks, background and money could have intended marrying her.
Finally it got so bad that Sherry couldn't take It. So she dropped out of college in her junior year and took a job in the Grano State Bank. That was more than six months ago. Six months during which she'd applied herself to her work and completely eliminated sex in any form from her life. For some girls that may have presented no problem. But not for Sherry.
Since she first discovered how pleasurable sex could be as a teenager, it had been an important part of her existence because she had thoroughly enjoyed it. To suddenly give it up, abstain the way she had for the past six months had not been easy. At times, the desire that stirred within her neglected body became almost more than she could stand. But she weighed it against another heartbreak and decided it was the lesser of the two hurts.
Now with the mention of Gary Symes' name, Sherry was sure that her conversation with Margo was going to involve another long round of pity because she hadn't made it with Mr. Symes. Sherry was pleasantly surprised when Margo didn't even bring up his name again. Instead she wanted to know if Sherry was still attending college.
Sherry explained that she was working at the bank--had been since she dropped out of school. From there, the conversation proceeded very nicely as they continued through the labyrinth of aisles, loading their carts, almost uncannily selecting the same items.
Once, when Margo stretched across one of the produce bins, her short skirt crept up and Sherry couldn't resist looking at the redheaded girl's fleshy but nicely shaped thighs, above the tops of her nylons. Several times when Margo walked a few steps ahead of her, Sherry couldn't help but watch the way her loosely contained, amply rounded buttocks wiggled back and forth.
Sherry found herself wondering what Margo might look like sans girdle and other accessories, something she could never remember doing before.
When, after checking out the things they'd bought, Margo found out that Sherry had no car, she offered to drive Sherry home the couple of blocks to her two-room-kitchenette apartment. On the way, Sherry learned that Margo worked for the local branch office of a nationwide insurance company and that, like Sherry, she lived alone, not too far from Sherry's place.
"Since we both seem to have the same taste in food, why don't we make it for dinner some night?" Margo suggested as they sat for a few moments, finishing their talk in front of Sherry's apartment.
"I'd love to."
' 'I mean real soon."
"Friday night maybe?"
"At my place," Margo insisted.
It was agreed.
Friday night at seven, Sherry stood in the cold, stone floor corridor outside the door to Margo's apartment, her long, slender, ivory-lacquered fingertip pressed against the bell. She couldn't understand why she felt as tense as she had felt on her very first date with a man.
Margo opened the door and greeted her with a warm smile. Looking radiant in a flowing hostess gown of soft green silk that did nice things for her high-piled red hair and brought out the mystic catlike green in her slightly slanted eyes.
Alongside her, Sherry looked almost like a little girl in a micro-skirted, pastel yellow cocktail dress with spaghetti straps and a high empress waist. Only her luscious young breasts swelling above the plunging neckline proclaimed she was definitely not a little girl. The tall white heels she wore added at least three inches to her height but Margo still towered above her.
After closing the door, Margo took Sherry's arm and showed her through the apartment that consisted of a large bedroom, living room, bath with a sunken tub and a full-sized electric kitchen. The basic color scheme running throughout the apartment was red that gave each room a look of warm sensuality.
Margo said she had furnished and decorated the place herself. It showed not only good taste but a very marked artistic sense for decorating. The furnishings for the most part were French provincial but built for modern comfort. Margo said that some of the things she'd collected herself, other things had been left to her by the woman with whom she'd lived for several years.
When the tour was over, Sherry found that Margo had prepared a batch of martinis for the occasion. They had a couple then sat down to dinner. Sherry was pleased to discover that Margo was an excellent cook. Why then did she go in for TV dinners?
"I hate to go to all the trouble of cooking for just myself," she explained. "So I take the line of least resistance and reach for the thaw-and-heat variety."
Sherry understood perfectly. Being an even better cook than Margo, she did exactly the same thing when she was alone.