He looked over at me again. "You knew?"

I snorted. "Eric, EVERYONE knew."

His head jerked and he got a slightly frightened look on his face. Not something you'd expect from an impressive-looking man like him.

“Did

Amber? Did she... you know... out of pity for..."

"No, no," I soothed him. "Believe me. She wanted to because she was attracted to you. That you'd been crushing on her for the last four years just made it sweeter. But if she wasn't into you, she wouldn't have done it."

“Okay, okay," he seemed relieved.

"So the question now is: How do you feel? Do you feel the same way you did two days ago?"

He sat and thought about that long and hard, just cradling his coffee mug, dwarfing the ceramic in his big hands. I sipped my coffee and stayed quiet to let him think.

At last he answered "No." He sat up straight and inhaled. "I feel... a lot less tense. And I feel... relieved. And I feel... kind of sad."

"why?"

"It's over. My fantasy, it's over. I'd been dreaming about what it would be like to be with Amber for so Long."

“Disappointed?”

“Not at all! She was AMAZING." He smiled and mentally replayed all that we had done. "But now... I've LIVED my fantasy.”

"So does that mean you wouldn't want to have sex with her again?"

He blushed and looked at me sheepishly. "I wouldn't say THAT... Your girlfriend is still fucking GORGEOUS.“ Then he looked inward again and took another sip of coffee. "But the weight is off my chest now. The desperate desire that I've had buried inside me for so long is gone.

You know?"

I thought back to Cherys. "Yeah, I know.”

SPRING (April 2003)

“A party? You're kidding me."

"Nope!" Amber grinned.

I looked in disbelief at my girlfriend. It wasn't that I was against the idea of having a party in the house. After all, we'd had plenty of parties for various events like birthdays and finals, etc. But Amber wasn't talking about just any party. She was talking about a xparty*, like the ones Nataliya used to bring me to.

Even though Carmita had graduated and moved on, others had continued the "tradition". But once Amber and I hooked up and brought E-Beth and

Diane into the mix, we hadn't really felt like going. We were screwing each other every week as it was. Now Amber was actually suggesting we host our own Little orgy in this very house.

“Who would be coming?" I asked.