Separation Anxiety

"I don't know, Emily, I think he's still got a thing for you, I'd keep my guard up," Sally said.

"I wouldn't worry, John and I are tighter than ever. Besides, I thought that you were setting your sights on him," she said to Karen.

"I was, believe me, and I thought I was making some progress, but his mind always seemed elsewhere. I swear, half of our conversations seemed to be about you."

"About me? That's silly."

Before they could go any further the break was over and they had to return to work.

Friday, Emily had been hoping to visit John, but someone was sick and she had to fill in at a seminar with Aaron.

"I'm not entirely comfortable with this," John said.

"Now you're being silly," Emily said, "Aaron's been a perfect gentleman, and he's really a nice guy. I'd bet you'd like him if you got to know him."

"If you say so, Honey, but I'll believe it when I see it!"

Aaron and Emily headed off to the seminar, chatting amiably. Emily barely noticed Aaron's subtle touches.

Aaron played it cool. He didn't try to take advantage of their isolation at the seminar, but kept playing his role of the sensitive hurting soul to the hilt.

It didn't hurt his plans that each night when Emily called John she seemed to get madder and madder at his suspicions.

By the time they left the seminar on Friday, Emily was quietly simmering, and Aaron was mentally rubbing his hands together. Emily turned down his dinner invitation, and returned to her room to find a message from John. Reluctantly she returned the call to find an apologetic John, and her mood lightened considerably. Plans were made for John to come up the following Saturday and she had a light dinner and went to bed early.

During the next week, Emily found herself being drawn closer to Aaron. He just didn't seem as sleazy as she had originally thought. They had lunch and/or coffee most days. Karen tried to warn Emily off, that Aaron was up to no good, but Emily chalked it up to her jealousy that Aaron wasn't interested in her.

At the Friday dinner gathering, Emily and Aaron were talking about music, and Emily mentioned a rare Grateful Dead CD that she had, and Aaron asked if he could borrow it to copy it. Emily agreed, and Aaron followed her back to her apartment, thinking that this might be his lucky day.

Unknown to Emily, John decided to surprise her and come up Friday instead of Saturday. He let himself into her apartment, helped himself to a beer and sat down to wait.

There was a bit of a ruckus in the hall, and as John stood up the door opened and Emily came in, looking back at that asshole Aaron.

"Just wait till you hear this, Aaron, you're going to love..."

She saw the look on Aaron's face and turned around to see John, his face turning red.

"Hello, Emily," he said, "I thought I'd surprise you, I guess the surprise is on me." He started to leave.

"No, John, no, Aaron's just here to borrow a CD! Tell him Aaron!"

Aaron hesitated.

"Oh...oh, yeah, a CD, right."

"Listen, I've obviously interrupted something, I'll just leave, I'll call you sometime, Emily."

"No! Don't you dare leave. Aaron, get the hell out of here before you cause any more trouble."

Aaron left, giving John a smirk as he walked by, it was all that John could do to keep from slugging him.

Emily closed the door, grabbed John and sat him back down, sitting beside him.

"John, believe me I know how this looks, but honestly Aaron was just coming to borrow that CD of mine. You can ask Karen, she was there at dinner when we were talking about it."

"That's all well and good, Emily, but why couldn't you just bring it into the office?"

"I don't know, I guess because we were talking about it at dinner and it just seemed easier to get it now rather than try to remember it Monday morning."

John let out a big sigh.

"I guess that makes a certain amount of sense, I just wish it hadn't been him, he's such a sleaze ball."

"No, you're wrong, he's really nice."

"Yeah, that's why he smirked at me as he left. He's playing you, and you just can't see it."

"Whatever... have you had anything to eat?"

"No, I've kind of lost my appetite. Let's just go to bed."

They were both too spent to do more than cuddle and sleep, but a good night's sleep left them both feeling better and they spent a relaxing weekend together.

Things were noticeably cooler between Emily and Aaron the next week. She was still angry at his lukewarm support when John confronted them.

Aaron's ego was too big to admit defeat, but he decided to shift gears a bit and turned his attention back to Karen. Ideally, Emily's jealously would over-power her mad, worst case, he'd have some fun with Karen until he got tired of her.

With Karen playing up to Aaron, Emily and Sally took more of their breaks alone.

"What's up with you and Aaron?" asked Sally.

"What do you mean?" Sally said, "I have nothing to do with Aaron. You know I have my boyfriend John back in Boston."

"Well, you certainly could have fooled me. You two looked like a really hot item."

"God, were we really that bad? I thought it was just some harmless flirting. No wonder John has been so pissy lately. I thought he was just being jealous."

"If you were giving off vibrations like we saw here, I wouldn't blame him!"

Emily was appalled, and called John as soon as she got home.

"Hello?" John answered, not exactly the warm greeting Emily was hoping for.

"John, Honey, I'm so, so sorry."

John stiffened.

"Just what are you sorry for?" he asked, prepared for the worst.

"I've been giving you such a hard time whenever you complained about Aaron, I thought that you were being silly and jealous."

"So, what changed your mind?"

"I was talking to Sally, and she had apparently been seeing the same things you were feeling. I swear, John, it wasn't anything conscious on my part. I honestly thought that we were just being friendly, maybe with a little of what I THOUGHT was harmless flirting thrown in. I honestly never meant anything by it, and since last Friday he seems to be spending his time with Karen; all of our contacts have been strictly business."

"Well, that's good to hear, and I can't say that I'm not relieved. Do you think you can get away this weekend? I think I can get some Red Sox tickets."

"I'm sure I can; it will be good to get away from all these Yankees fans and wear my Sox cap! I'll let you know if I can get tickets for the Friday train."

"That's great, sweetheart, I'll talk to you later in the week. Love you."

"Love you, too," she said and hung up, breathing a sigh of relief.

Friday she left a little early to catch the train to Boston. She wasn't sure but she thought she saw Aaron frowning. She couldn't understand why, he seemed to be pretty well hooked up with Karen.

John met her train at South Station and they went to the North End for pizza. After they ate they strolled hand-in-hand just taking in the sights, sounds and smells, then picked up some cannoli and went back to John's apartment.

They made coffee and put on a silly Rom-Com, but as soon as the coffee and cannoli were gone the movie was soon forgotten as they made out like love-sick teenagers.

Without even turning off the movie they retired to the bedroom where John lovingly removed Emily's clothes, gently kissing each part of her body as it was revealed to him.

Not even bothering with his own clothes, he gently laid Emily down and began caressing her breasts and suckling on her dark pink puffy nipples until she began to thrash in her need. He quickly kissed down her body until he reached her landing strip, pausing only long enough to breath in her heady aroma, then attacked her vagina as if it were his last meal.

It took all of his strength to hold onto her hips to keep her from bouncing him off the bed as he licked her to two orgasms.

"John...John," she gasped, "Please fuck me, fuck me NOW."

While he was definitely enjoying his current task, he knew where his duty lay, and he pushed his pants and underwear down, freeing his eager cock and plunging it into her soaking pussy.

He fucked her to two more orgasms before coming himself. Exhausted, they both fell asleep where they lay, John still half-dressed.

The morning sun was shining through the window, but that wasn't what woke up John.

It was Emily's hot mouth wrapped around his morning wood. He knew he wouldn't last long, and sure enough, he was soon filling Emily's mouth with his cum.

Keeping her mouth snug around his cock, Emily slowly pulled off with a big smile. As she opened her mouth to show him how it was filled with cum, she kept smiling as she made a show of swallowing.

John reached for her to kiss her, but she backed away.

"You may not mind kissing me after cumming in my mouth," she said, "but you, sir, have mega morning breath, and have to brush your teeth! Besides I've got to pee."

As she ran off to the bathroom, John realized that he had to pee like a racehorse and followed her in. Seeing John bouncing from foot to foot Emily spread her legs wide.

"Your aim better be perfect, mister," she said with a grin.

John was taken aback. Their love life was never boring, but this was a bit kinky even for them. The call of Nature was too strong. Being VERY careful with his aim he let go with his stream into the bowl between her legs. Not daring to shake it off he grabbed some toilet paper to wipe off the tip, then washed his hands as Emily finished up.

While she washed her hands, he wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her neck.

"Where did that come from?" he asked.

"I don't really know," she said, "I saw you standing there, trying to hold it, and I just thought of it. It seemed a little nasty, but in a good way. Don't get the wrong idea, I'm not interested in 'water sports' or anything like that."

"Don't worry, not my thing either," John said, "but I think I owe you breakfast. Are we dining au naturel?"

"Sure, but be careful if you're making bacon!"

Emily followed John into the kitchen for a bacon-free breakfast, then relaxed until it was time to get ready for the Sox game.

They decided to really get into the spirit and wore their Sox jerseys and caps as they headed to Fenway. Emily was thrilled that John got field box seats, even if it was on the visitors' side. They enjoyed razzing the other team, wishing they were the Yankees.

It was a great game as they gorged on junk food and beer, sang along with "Sweet Caroline" and cheered as the Sox won with a walk-off homer into the Monster seats.

After making their way through the crowd, they strolled along with their arms around each other, enjoying the beautiful Summer Saturday and walking off some of the ballpark food.

They decided that they were too stuffed to do justice to any sort of fine dining so they just made their way back to John's apartment, put on some music and snuggled until they started to feel a bit hungry.

John made them grilled cheese, tomato and bacon (now that it was safe) sandwiches, and they had a nice, quiet dinner. As they were finishing, they started giving each other little glances, and as soon as the table was cleared the adjourned to the bedroom.

"Should we shower first?" John asked.

"Why, we'll probably just need another one later," Emily replied with a wink.

Quickly undressing they hopped into bed and after some passionate kissing and caressing they moved right into a sixty-nine. This wasn't really one of their favorite positions; it was hard to concentrate on giving pleasure while in the throes of pleasure, but it had been a while since they had tried it.

Emily came quickly, and even though he hadn't come yet, John moved her off him and onto her hands and knees while he mounted her doggie style.

Emily's breasts weren't huge, they were a good handful, but in doggie they hung down invitingly, and John accepted the invitation, caressing them and gently tweaking her nipples.

They came together, then collapsed on the bed, John lying protectively over Emily until they regained their strength and showered together, while Emily gave John another orgasm.

They slept peacefully and had a sweet love-making session before going out for breakfast. All too soon, it was time to take Emily to the train station.

Just before Emily boarded the train they kissed once more, both of them already counting the days until they could be together again.

When Emily got into the office Monday morning, the manager called a quick staff meeting.

"I want to thank everyone for the extraordinary effort that you all have been putting into this project. Some of you have had to leave family and friends behind for an extended period, even those who are local have been putting in extra time, both for the project itself and to give your teammates time to go home now and then.

"We have an opportunity to send a few of you to a training class next week on the new version of the software. I'm sorry that we can't send everyone, and it was a hard decision making the selection, but the people who will be going are Aaron, Emily, Sam and Sally."

There was some moaning and groaning from those who weren't selected. Karen, in particular, was not pleased that Aaron would be there with Emily.

"I realize that those who aren't going are disappointed, but I promise that you will get priority in future opportunities and we'll try to make it up to you in other ways. Are there any questions?"

Hearing none, he sent everyone back to work.

When she called John Monday night with the news, he remembered the tension surrounding the earlier seminar and kept his misgivings to himself.

Aaron seemed to be spending more time with Emily again. At first, she tried to chalk it up to preparing for the class, but then she noticed that he wasn't spending any more time with Sally or Sam, and was especially ignoring Karen.

Friday night, the four of them plus Karen had dinner and drinks, toasting their good fortune at being selected. Emily was very careful with her drink intake, and was very aware of how Aaron seemed to be neglecting Karen and concentrating his attention on her. Karen was not amused.

Emily excused herself after the second round of drinks and left, much to Aaron's displeasure.

When she called John, she decided not to alert him to Aaron's attentions. She was confident that she could handle it, and didn't want to upset him.

The class was very successful, unfortunately the same couldn't be said about the evenings after class. Aaron was fairly obvious in his moves on Emily, despite her rejection.

At the farewell dinner Friday night, Emily was a little careless with her drinking, and already had a bit of a buzz when they adjourned to the club for some dancing.

Aaron soon was monopolizing Emily's dance card, and was making sure her glass was rarely empty. Emily was missing John, and it felt good to hold a warm body close during the slow songs. She was tipsy enough that there were times that she forgot, and thought that she WAS dancing with John.

Aaron was picking up on this and was gradually easing Emily away from their group and towards the elevators, when Sally and Sam caught up with them and pulled them apart. Aaron was angry and Emily was confused. Sam made sure that Aaron stayed put while Sally brought Emily to the room and got her into bed. Emily fell asleep to sweet dreams, with images of John and Aaron floating in and out of her head.

Saturday morning she woke up with a monster hangover. Looking up she saw a pissed off Sally with a glass of water and a bottle of aspirin.

"I should just leave you to your misery after the way you acted last night!" Sally yelled.

"Please, stop shouting, my poor head feels like it's going to fall off," Emily said as she swallowed several aspirin.

"That should be the least of your problems."

"Wh... What do you mean? What did I do?"

"You mean, BESIDES hanging all over Aaron like a two-bit whore, and being on your way to his room when Sam and I caught up with you?"

"Oh, no, no, please tell me I wasn't."

"I would, but then I'd have to lie to you."

With that, Emily rushed to the bathroom to worship at the porcelain throne (so much for the aspirin!), then hopped under a cold shower. Sally brought her some fresh aspirin and she began to feel halfway human.

"Pull yourself together and get dressed, the guys are waiting downstairs to go to breakfast."

"God, no," Emily said, "There's no way I can eat anything."

"You have to eat something. Have some dry toast and coffee if nothing else."

Sally left Emily to her misery, then helped her get dressed and they went down to the restaurant.

Sam and Aaron were there already; if she looked half as bad as Aaron did, she should probably crawl under a rock.

Aaron and Emily managed to struggle through a meager breakfast while trying to avoid the disapproving stares from Sally and Sam.

Sally and Sam wouldn't sit anywhere near them on the bus, so Aaron and Emily were forced to sit together.

"Oh. My. God," Emily said, "how am I ever going to be able to face Karen again, never mind John!"

Aaron, who had been almost giddy looking out the window, put on a sad face and turned to Emily.

"Oh, no, please, Emily," he said tearfully, "Please don't tell Karen what happened!"

"Don't worry, she'll never hear it from me, but you forget, Sam and Sally know, and how long do you think it will be before the whole office knows?"

Aaron put his face in his hands, fake sobbing and leaned against Emily's shoulder. Not knowing what to do, she put her arm around his shoulder, gently patting it.

"Don't worry," she said, "It'll be all right."

Aaron had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. This was working out better than he could have hoped. The only way it could have been better was if he had bagged her ass last night, but then she was so drunk she might not have been any good.

As soon as she got back to her apartment, Emily called John.

"I'm so sorry, Honey," she said, "I had a little too much to drink last night and I was kind of hungover this morning. I'm back at my apartment and feeling quite a bit better."

"I'm glad you're feeling better, but I was sort of hoping for one of your 'special' emails!"

"I'm sorry, John, I promise I'll make it up to you. Are you coming up next weekend?"

"Yes, but I can't come up until Saturday, so don't be hungover from Friday night!"

"Don't worry, it's straight home from work for me."

"That's great, sweetheart, you go get some rest and have a great week. I love you."

"I love you, too. Good-bye."

Emily leaned back with a sigh. She loved John so much... so why couldn't she forget how it felt to hold Aaron?

Monday morning as she walked into the office she saw Aaron rubbing his cheek with a wry smile. As she turned, she came face-to-face with Karen who slapped her hard across the face.

"You bitch!" she said, then turned and stomped away before attracting too much attention.

'I guess I don't have to worry about when Karen will find out,' she thought, as she went to her desk to start catching up on the work that piled up while she was at class.

Sally and Karen weren't around at coffee break, so Emily sat by herself, only to be joined by Aaron.

"Looks like we're both in the same boat," he said with a silly grin.

"How can you be so happy when everything is so fucked up? I've lost one of my best friends, you've lost your girlfriend and I almost cheated on my boyfriend!"

"Oh, Karen was never really my girlfriend. She was just someone to have some fun with till the real thing came along."

"That's not very nice. SHE certainly thought that she was really your girlfriend. I've got the sore jaw to prove it," Emily said as she rubbed her jaw.

Aaron almost spit out his drink laughing.