Learning to Forgetting to Love Ch. 01

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Tom is set up on a date, but things do not go as planned.
3.6k words
4.19
15.9k
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Part 2 of the 2 part series

Updated 09/22/2022
Created 02/18/2014
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sk11
sk11
21 Followers

Author's note: It's been a while since I posted a story, so I hope this gets the ball rolling again. This chapter sets up the story, but there's also some sex at the end of the chapter. Thanks for reading, sk11.

*

Tom walked into the classroom and immediately froze in his tracks. All around him, students were quietly seated at their desks, each of them with a stack of papers face down in front of them. As he hurried to find an empty seat, Tom struggled to remain calm, obviously unprepared for an exam. Sweat began pouring down his face, and anxiety further distorted his features as each second passed. It is at that time, of course, that he woke up.

It had been years since Tom had graduated college, yet it seemed that that particular nightmare would always stay with him. As he sat up in bed and stretched his arms, he looked at the other side of the bed, only to find it empty. Another ghost of the past, though this one brought back far more vivid memories.

"Figures," he said to himself quietly.

He had met Diana in college and they'd quickly fallen in love. They got married after graduation, but after three years of blissful holy matrimony, the woman he had believed to be the love of his love had abruptly stepped out of it. Ever since, Tom had lived in a fog: he thought he glimpsed her in crowds, yet it was always someone else; he thought he sometimes caught her scent as he wandered around his apartment, but she had never stepped foot in his new place; and, most of all, he was convinced he would find her beside him upon waking up each morning, but that had not been the case in 751 days and counting.

"Get your lazy ass up!" yelled a female voice from across his bedroom wall. Shortly after, the words were punctuated by sharp raps on his door.

Tom slowly dragged himself out of his bed, recalling how Diana had always woken him up with a kiss -- either one on the lips or one below the sheets. He sighed and wondered when he would finally be able to let her go, yet at the same time fearing the day she did not occupy his first and last thought every waking day. After experiencing his idea of paradise in the years they were together, nothing else could compare anymore. She was his soul mate, his other half, but also his Pandora's box now that she was gone.

As Tom wandered into the kitchen, he found his roommate already helping herself to a bowl of Froot Loops.

Tom and Layla's mothers were friends and colleagues, so the two of them had known each other since they were kids. They'd gone through pre-K to Grade 12 together, and their childhood friendship had remained strong up until this day. At the time that Tom had moved to Philadelphia to start his graduate program in Developmental, Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at UPenn, Layla had been looking for a roommate after finding a job in the area, so they'd quickly reconnected and decided to share an apartment.

"Took you long enough. You weren't jerking one off in there, were you?"

"Fuck off."

"You know, have I told you how tired I am of your constant moping?"

Layla wasn't shy about calling him out on his inadequacies and giving him a hard time, but Tom knew she did it with the best intentions.

"It's too early in the morning for this, Layla. Just leave me alone."

"No, not until you're finally over that bitch. How long has it been? Two years?"

"751 days."

"Jesus Christ. Okay, let's just put aside the disturbing fact that you know that exact number. It's time to get off your ass, Tom. You know how worried your mom was the last time she called. I'm getting worried, too."

Tom sighed. Anger had spurned his move to Philly and his dedication to his professional life instead of his personal one, but since then he'd moved on to the next stages of grief. UPenn was not exactly a walk in the park, and he now seemed stuck in the depression phase, his academic work consequently suffering.

"Well don't. Like I told both of you, I'm fine."

Layla frowned, unconvinced by his words. Suddenly, she popped out of her stool with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"I know! Let's get you laid!"

"Stop it Layla, I'm not cheating on my wife."

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit, Tom. You and I both know that you're married in name only. I'll call up one of my friends who thinks you're cute and set up a date for you two."

Tom shook his head, but before he could say another word, Layla had already dialed the number and was currently chatting with someone else.

Completely apathetic by this point, Tom just walked away, looking for some cereal as he tuned out the chatter in the background.

*****

A few days later, Layla came back from work and was immediately on Tom's ass to get dressed and get cleaned up.

"Why?" Tom asked, clueless. Of course, he had completely forgotten about the date Layla had set up for him.

"You have to get ready for Sally, idiot!"

"Who's Sally?"

"You know, tall blonde, big boobs, she came by the apartment once before we went clubbing together."

Tom still had a blank look on his face.

"Come on, we don't have much time."

"I don't want to do this, Layla."

"Stop being such a pussy. Besides, I already called your mom to tell her you had a date and she sounded so excited on the phone. You wouldn't want to disappoint her, would you, Tom?"

Tom glared at her, but Layla just had a Cheshire grin on her face.

"Fine, I'll go on your stupid date. But after that, you have to leave me alone, alright?"

"Deal. Now start shaving," she said, as she handed Tom his razor.

As Tom removed several weeks worth of facial growth, Layla went rummaging through his closet, finally settling on a navy blue blazer, a plain white Oxford shirt, and a pair of khakis, all of which she laid out on his bed.

"Hey! Put on your contacts while you're in there!" Layla yelled from his bedroom.

Tom just grumbled his assent, and got out a couple of dailies; he hadn't worn any contacts in years. When he finished the struggle to put them on, Layla herded him into his bedroom and ordered him to get dressed quickly. It took him a couple of minutes to do so, and Tom finally slipped into some brown loafers before stepping out of his room.

Layla was immediately upon him, massaging gel into his scalp to bring order to his unruly hair. After a few minutes, she was done and stepped back to admire her handiwork. She stood silent for a moment, and Tom looked back at her, extending the silence. As they made eye contact, a slight blush touched Layla's cheeks and she smiled as she slowly stepped forward. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as step by step, the distance between them diminished, until finally Layla was no more than inches away from Tom and he could feel her short, rapid breaths against his skin, see the gold specks in her amber eyes, and feel his own heart racing. Layla brought a hand up to Tom's face, caressing his clean-shaven cheek and seemed to hesitate, finally seeming to snap out of the trance and come to her senses. She swiped a finger across his cheek and just as quickly, turned around and started walking away from Tom.

"You look very handsome, Tom -- Sally's a lucky girl," Layla said, as she raised her finger to show Tom the shaving cream he had missed cleaning off.

Tom then exhaled for the first time in over a minute.

"What the hell just happened?" he said quietly.

*****

Tom was actually having a good time, surprising even himself. His parting encounter with Layla had somehow jolted his senses and he felt more alive than he had in weeks. As a result, he was having a very pleasant conversation with Sally as they enjoyed their meals.

"So what do you do?" he asked.

"I'm a chemist," she said, gauging his reaction as she did so. Smiling when he didn't react, she said, "Most people don't believe me when I tell them that."

"Why not?"

She raised one shapely eyebrow and gestured towards her body. Tom looked her over at that point and realized what she meant: she had long legs and an ample cleavage that were emphasized in the tight dress she was currently wearing; most would probably think her day job's attire consisted of the latest in haute couture, not a lab coat.

"You're an interesting guy, Tom. Clueless, maybe, but that's cute," she said with a giggle.

"Sorry, I haven't been on a date in years, so I probably lost whatever minimal mojo I once had."

"Well, I'm having a good time tonight and don't worry, Layla told me about your last relationship. So where do you work?"

As Tom elaborated his studies, Layla seemed keenly interested and they stayed on the subject of stem cell research for several minutes.

"I guess we're just a couple of nerds," Sally finally said with a laugh.

"Guilty as charged," Tom replied, placing his right hand over his heart.

From there, the conversation switched to TV shows, movies, and books. They often found common ground in these topics and before long, their meals were long forgotten and the waiters came by to collect their cold dishes.

"Come on! I admit I might be biased because of my profession, but Breaking Bad is definitely the best show of all time!" Sally said.

"Nope, it was without a doubt a great show, but I think everyone's a bit caught up in the honeymoon afterglow. The Wire is a masterpiece and it'll always be the best in my books," said Tom, putting an end to the current discussion. "Anyway, would you like some dessert?"

"I think I just want to get out of here."

Tom nodded and caught the eye of their server to ask for the bill. When he arrived, Sally tried to pay for her half, but Tom firmly declined.

"It's not every day I can treat a beautiful woman to a wonderful dinner."

Sally beamed and said, "Would you excuse me for a second?"

"Of course."

Sally got up to go to the washroom. Once there, she got out her phone and gleefully texted Layla.

"Why didn't you set us up ages ago?!"

"I take it you're having a good time?"

"He's smart, charming, and I don't think he realizes how totally hot he is."

A pause.

"Sounds like you really like him"

"I think I do, we share the same interests and he's so easy to talk to. I think I might break my rule for first dates."

There was another pregnant pause before a reply came.

"Should I make myself sparse?"

This time, Sally took a few seconds before typing out her reply.

"Do you like him, Layla?"

This time, no reply came for half a minute and Sally decided to dial her friend. It was picked up after a few rings.

"Hi Sally."

"Hey Layla. Listen -- I know you guys have known each other since forever, so if you want to make a move, I'll back off."

"No! There's nothing between us, Sally. He's been depressed for a while now and he needs to be with someone. Don't worry about me and just go ahead."

"Alright, love you, bye."

"Love you too."

Sally returned to the dining room, walking back towards their table.

"Damn," she thought to herself as she reseated herself in front of Tom. "And I really liked him."

*****

Tom returned home, appearing even more depressed than he had looked over the past few weeks. He had really warmed to Sally and thought that the feeling had been mutual, but that had obviously not been the case.

"Sorry, Tom, could we just be friends?" she had said at the end of the night.

"Sure," he replied, surprised.

Although he was still in a fragile state, he thought he was ready to at least give another relationship a chance. Sally's rejection had broken him back into tiny little pieces. After exchanging numbers, they'd said their goodbyes, and Tom had wearily dragged his feet up the stairs towards his apartment. He collapsed face down into his bed, unafraid of the nightmares that might come in his sleep as they could not be any worse than those that plagued his reality.

*****

The next morning, or afternoon actually, since it was well past noon, Tom got out of his bed and trudged into the living room, where he promptly plumped himself on the sofa and turned on the TV.

Unbeknownst to him, Layla had been looking at him since the moment he'd left his room, at first skittishly, but soon after with sympathy after assessing Tom's current state. She sat down in the bean bag beside the sofa and began watching the cooking show that happened to be playing.

"That looks delicious, it's making me hungry. Do you want anything to eat, Tom?"

No response as Tom continued to stare dazedly at the screen.

"Tom!"

"Sorry, what?" he said, looking at Layla for the first time that day.

"Do you want anything to eat?"

"No, I'm not hungry."

Layla sighed, remembering how his appetite had slowly been recovering over the past week or so. Looks like they were back to square one.

"Listen, I heard from Sally about what happened last night and I'm sorry it didn't work out between you two."

Tom's attention had returned to the TV, and Layla was visibly pissed.

"Hey, douchenozzle! Pay attention when I'm talking to you!"

Layla's anger made it through Tom's haze and he looked sincerely apologetic as he turned back towards her.

"Sorry, Lays, you've been a great friend to me, it's just I don't care about anything anymore."

Layla smiled widely at the nickname, one he hadn't used since their teenage years when she had yelled at him for using it in front of her friends.

"You can't call me that!" she had said.

"Why not? You love those chips and that's how I've been calling you since we were kids."

"I don't care, it's corny and my friends will make fun of me."

"Fine, if that's what you want, I'll stop."

And he had, but thinking back, that might have been the first wedge that had slowly separated the two of them as they went through the turbulent phase of puberty. Layla deeply regretted it now, thinking of the wasted years during which they'd grown apart.

"Don't give me that emo bullshit, Tom. You knew Sally for one goddamn night!"

"Two . We met that time you guys went clubbing."

"Ha! I knew you wouldn't forget someone with tits like hers!"

Tom had the decency to blush and he put on a small, embarrassed smile. It seemed he was already getting back to his previous self.

"I liked her eyes..." he said, unconvincingly.

"Oh yeah, what colour are they?"

When Tom struggled to remember, Layla burst out laughing and Tom soon joined her.

"Okay, so maybe it wasn't that aspect of her appearance that attracted me, but I can assure you I was a gentleman the entire night."

"So she tells me."

"Then why did she give me that bullshit line about only being friends? I know I haven't been on the dating scene in years, but I'm still like 95% sure she was into me. That's what hurt me -- the first time I take a chance on someone after Diana and I'm completely shot down."

"95%?"

"Gotta have a margin of error. Two standard deviations is standard."

Layla just shook her head; on an intellectual level, it did seem like Tom and Sally were indeed a perfect match.

"Really? She told me that she didn't think there was any physical chemistry between you two, and that's why she gave you that line."

"Physical chemistry? We didn't touch each other the entire night."

Layla looked at him questioningly, before saying, "Excuse me one second."

Tom watched as she went to her room and slammed the door behind her. Shortly after, he could hear her talking to someone on her cell phone, presumably Sally. About a minute into the conversation, he heard some yelling, before Layla finally stopped talking and he saw her return sheepishly to her bean bag, a sight quite foreign to Tom.

"So it seems I had it all wrong, Tom."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I think I might be partly to blame for the current situation."

When Tom didn't speak, Layla took a second to gather herself and then continued.

"Okay, so maybe entirely to blame. You see, Sally had this crazy idea that I was into you, and that's why she called the whole thing off. You weren't wrong, Tom, she totally had the hots for you and thought that there was definitely something between you two."

"Is it true?"

"I think so, Tom. She totally came clean --"

"No. Is it true that you're into me?"

A blush creeped up into her cheeks as Layla turned her gaze downwards, giving Tom all the answer he needed, but he pushed forward.

"Answer me, Lays."

After another moment of silence, she did.

"Yes," she said with certitude.

Suddenly, he was upon her, his body draped over hers and their faces just inches away from one another.

"So you're telling me that you're the reason I had my heart rebroken? That all this time, if you'd been honest with me, I wouldn't have had to suffer through all that?"

She looked apprehensively at him, but finally nodded briefly.

"Then I guess you have to pay the price."

And suddenly, his mouth was on hers, aggressively trying to purge everything from his body and allow only passion to consume him. Layla, taken by surprise, did not react at first, but then quickly returned his fervor with years of pent up emotions. Their tongues clashed at a frantic pace in their struggle to discover one another, leaving the couple struggling for breath but not caring.

Soon, Layla was back to her normal personality, and she smiled lasciviously as she pulled roughly on Tom's shirt to get it off. She then removed her own, revealing the lacy bra that enclosed her large breasts. She then suddenly stood up and began walking towards her bedroom, unclasping her bra and tossing it aside as she did so. Tom got the message and he hurriedly followed after her, removing the remainder of his clothing as he tried to catch up. When he got to Layla's room, he found her lying completely nude on the bed while looking ravenously at him.

"I've waited way too long for this moment."

"I guess we have to make up for lost time, then."

Tom was rapidly on her, showering kisses behind her ears and neck as he massaged breasts that were more than a handful. As he tweaked her nipples, she gave out a shriek of pleasure and their mouths collided once more, discovering the sensations to be new, yet somehow familiar. Tom then descended Layla's body, kissing her neck, breasts, and navel as he did so. As he began kissing around her pubic region, he discovered that Layla was already soaking wet.

"Just fuck me, Tom!"

"Let me get a condom."

"No need, I'm on the pill."

Tom needed no further persuasion, and he raised his body back up so that it was parallel with Layla's. He watched the arousal in her amber eyes, probably the only emotion he had never seen reflected in them in the years he had known her. Then, he plunged into her.

"Yes, Tom! Yes! Yes! Yes!"

He grunted as he pistoned rapidly into her, setting a strong and constant speed. At the same time, he kissed Layla, further building the fire of their passion. It was clear neither of them was going to last long, and Tom focused his attention on bringing pleasure to Layla.

"Oh, fuck! Just like that, Tom! Fuck!"

Tom increased his speed, loving the feel of Layla's tight pussy on his cock. As he did so, he brought one hand up to one of Layla's ample breasts, while the other went down to play with her clit.

"Oh, shit! Shit, shit, shit! I'm going to cum, Tom! I'm going to cum!"

"Cum for me, Lays. Cum for me."

"Ooooohhhhhhhh," Layla said as her whole body seized into the biggest orgasm she had ever had, which made her pussy clamp spasmodically on Tom's cock.

"Ahhhhh," said Tom, as he came inside Layla, shooting spurt after spurt into the quaking pussy that was milking his cock. Just when he thought he had nothing left to shoot, Layla's pussy would once again contract and make Tom cum again. Finally, after what seemed like minutes, Tom settled down on the bed, cradling Layla as small spasms continued to wrack her body. He brushed her short, dark brown ringlets with one hand as he circled the other arm around Layla's abdomen.

sk11
sk11
21 Followers
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