<p>This one takes a little while to get going, so I'm posting the first two parts today. Enjoy!</p><p><img data-media-id="31033070" src="/31/02/3102563e4639f840c5fabc279401de07e886e55dd9f590589428183860ae44b4.jpg"></p><p>Luke expected people to be a little more excited when he announced his intention to propose to Emily, the girl he’d been dating for the last eleven months.</p><p>Instead, most people tried to find different ways to tell him that a 24 year old shouldn’t be getting married no matter how much he loved his girlfriend.</p><p>He was particularly surprised that the women at work seemed to echo the same sentiment. Luke understood it from the guys, especially since everyone he worked closely with was around his age. He figured his female coworkers would be thrilled for him, but they weren’t. More than a few cited statistics about how getting married at such a young age more than doubles your chance of getting divorced. </p><p>Luke didn’t give any of it a second thought. He had a good job at a financial advisory firm and he was in line for the kinds of promotions that would have him making all the money he could ever want before he was 40. He was madly in love with Emily and he couldn’t see a single reason why waiting to get married would benefit them.</p><p><br></p><p>It was a windy, impossibly cold Friday in February when Luke first met Emily. He and his coworkers had rushed out of work and descended on a bar in the Chicago neighborhood where they worked. They bundled up and fought their way through the bone-chilling wind before gathering around a high top table and ordering up a pitcher of beer and shots of Malört, a horrifyingly bad-tasting liquor. Throwing down a shot of it at the end of the week had become a tradition for everyone at the financial firm.</p><p>It was just after he’d drank his shot that Luke spotted Emily sitting at the bar. She stood out because she was the only girl wearing a pink cardigan and a pair of black-rimmed glasses that looked nerdy instead of stylish.</p><p>“Somebody catch your eye?” Luke’s friend Kyle asked.</p><p>“Yeah, the girl at the bar in the glasses,” he answered.</p><p>Kyle scanned the bar and gave Luke a look of disbelief. “Her? She’s cute, man, but you’d be lucky to get a peck on the cheek from that girl. I mean, she’s got that cardigan buttoned all the way to the top, man. To each his own, I guess, but if you’re interested in any kind of action tonight you need to direct your attentions elsewhere.”</p><p>The truth was, Luke wasn’t the kind of guy to go after the girl that was clearly looking to hook up. The few times he’d done that he’d been soundly rejected. It was embarrassing enough to force him to realize he didn’t quite have the game for that sort of thing. </p><p>He wasn’t tall or exceptionally good looking and he wasn’t in great shape. Smart and funny is what he had going for him and the girls that appreciated that weren’t the ones that wanted to go home with him mere minutes after meeting, and Luke was fine with that.</p><p>When she saw Luke looking at her, Emily flashed a smile he found impossibly charming. Buoyed by the strength of the truly terrible Malört coursing through his system, Luke poured himself a glass of beer from the pitcher and sat on the bar stool next to the cute, nerdy brunette and introduced himself.</p><p>“Hey, I’m Luke,” he said.</p><p>“Emily,” the cute girl responded.</p><p>Luke smiled. The fact that she didn’t blow him off felt like a victory. “So, do you work around here?”</p><p>“Yeah,” she said, smiling as she pushed her glasses up her nose. “I work at Wellspring Associates. It’s an architecture firm.”</p><p>“You’re an architect?” Luke asked with a genuine sense of wonder in his voice.</p><p>“No,” Emily responded quickly. She ran her fingers over the long glass stem of the martini glass in front of her while looking down into the red liquid. “Not yet, at least. I trained for it and I think I’m pretty good at it, but I still have a lot to learn. It’s an entry level job, really. I do basic office stuff.”</p><p>“I get that,” Luke said. “It’s basically the same thing for me. I work at Brandt and Barnes. Financial advising. I’d love to be able to dig into people’s portfolios and give actual advice, but at this point I’m stuck doing the grunt work.”</p><p>“Maybe you could practice with me,” Emily said. She looked away the second she said it and picked up her drink to take a long sip.</p><p>Luke was certain she was flirting with her comment, but then it seemed like she was embarrassed to have said anything.</p><p>“I’d like that,” he said. It seemed like a silly thing to say since there was almost no chance she had any money to invest and he really wasn’t yet qualified to give actual financial advice, but he said it anyway.</p><p>Emily smiled as she was sipping her drink and some of it spilled onto the bar top and splashed onto her cardigan.</p><p>“Oh my God,” she said while looking for a napkin.</p><p>“Here,” Luke offered as he grabbed a pile of white cocktail napkins from behind the bar.</p><p>As he watched Emily frantically try and clean up the mess she’d made, Luke couldn’t help but smile. She was just as awkward as he was. She was perfect.</p><p>They stayed at the bar until it closed and shared a slow, tender kiss outside as the cold wind threatened to give them frostbite.</p><p>If Emily had paid closer attention before hopping into her Uber she would have noticed Luke’s erection. There was just a hint of tongue from her end that drove him crazy. It was the best first kiss he’d ever had, though there weren’t many to compare it to.</p><p>He hoped Emily felt the same way.</p><p><br></p><p>Eleven months after sharing her first kiss with Luke, Emily was daydreaming at her desk. It happened more often now that she was in love with someone for the first time in her life and constantly thinking about their future.</p><p>She imagined moving out of the small one bedroom apartment they shared and into a townhouse, though she knew they’d both need to advance quite a bit further in their careers for that to be affordable.</p><p>She hoped he was planning on proposing and wondered if he’d be willing to get married in her hometown if her parents were willing to pay for the wedding.</p><p>Emily thought about what they were going to do for their one year anniversary. Would he have a big trip planned? Should they plan something together? She thought about maybe taking him back to the bar where they met before going on a relationship journey through Chicago with stops at all the places that had meaning for them.</p><p>She wondered how she would handle planning a wedding while trying to put in the long hours required to impress her bosses.</p><p>Emily desperately wanted to move up the ranks at work. She’d picked up a little more responsibility over the past year, including working as the personal assistant to one of the partners on a big project, but she was still mostly doing clerical work while taking every opportunity to learn. That meant 60 to 70 hour weeks and it was stressing her out.</p><p>Thankfully, she’d found a handful of good friends at work that made those long hours a little more bearable.</p><p>“Hey, Emily,” Jameer, one of her coworkers, said as he popped his head around over her cubicle wall. “You’re staying late with me tonight, right?</p><p>“Yup,” she said, while pushing up her glasses. “More research for the pitch this Friday.”</p><p>“I’m gonna order food. You want something? I know you love a good salad,” Jameer said.</p><p>Emily smiled. She almost always ordered salad when they got food delivered to the office. Jameer was paying attention. “You know me well,” she said. “Yeah, order a salad. Let’s keep it simple. Mixed greens with grilled chicken and Italian dressing.”</p><p>“Will do,” Jameer said before his head disappeared.</p><p>Emily wondered if Luke would be jealous of her friendship with Jameer. In her more honest moments she wondered if maybe he had reason to be jealous.</p><p>It’s not that Emily wanted to cheat on Luke or even thought about it. It’s just that she was attracted to Jameer in a way she wasn’t with any of her other coworkers. It wasn’t a crush or anything. Jameer was the best looking guy in the office and he always oozed an irresistible kind of confidence that Emily found irresistible. So did lots of other girls though, and she knew Jameer slept with lots of those girls.</p><p>Emily told herself that Luke had nothing to worry about. She’d seen some of the girls that Jameer dated. They were almost always tall, gorgeous blondes that tended to wear exceptionally tight clothes that showed off their big, perky breasts. She was decidedly not that type of girl, so it felt safe to enjoy the occasional bit of flirting with Jameer. She told herself it was okay to enjoy it since it was a way to make the long hours at work a little more bearable. Maybe it was a crush.</p><p>“Food’s here,” Jameer announced, interrupting Emily’s introspection.</p><p>It was just the two of them in the nicely appointed break room that offered a rather impressive city view out the window.</p><p>“I’ll be honest with you, I kind of love eating in here,” Jameer said. “You really can’t beat the view.”</p><p>“I can’t argue with that,” Emily said as she looked out the floor to ceiling windows. “It’s a heck of a lot cheaper than going to a restaurant with a view like this, too.”</p><p>Jameer laughed. “They don’t pay us enough, do they?”</p><p>“They certainly don’t,” Emily said. “I mean, who do I have to blow to get a promotion?”</p><p>She instantly regretted her choice of words. They’d been to half a dozen seminars on hostile workplace behavior in the past year and she just broke one of the rules. Thankfully, Jameer was laughing when Emily looked over at him.</p><p>“I shouldn’t have said that, I’m sorry,” she said.</p><p>Once he finished laughing Jameer waved away her concern. “You don’t have to worry about that shit with me. Plus, you’d have to blow someone way higher up the food chain than me to get that promotion.” He laughed again.</p><p>It was late and Emily was feeling a little punchy, so she went along with it. “I bet it would have to be Mr. Peterson. Can you imagine what his wrinkled old dick would look like?”</p><p>“He probably can’t even find his dick anymore,” Jameer added before chuckling.</p><p>For reasons she didn’t understand, the talk of fictional blowjobs made Emily’s mind wander as she stared out the window. She’d only gone down on three guys in her life. Sometimes she felt like that wasn’t enough. Sometimes she wondered if she was any good at it. Luke seemed to enjoy it, but he didn’t seem to like it as much as other guys talked about liking it. Was that her fault? Was it because she didn’t have enough practice? Was she just not any good at giving head?</p><p>“You alright?” Jameer asked, breaking Emily out of her spell.</p><p>“Yeah, sorry.”</p><p>“It was like you just disappeared there for a second. That was crazy,” he said. “Where’d you go?”</p><p>“Oh, I can’t. It’s not the kind of thing you’re supposed to talk about at work. You know,” Emily said.</p><p>“I’ll be honest. That makes me want to hear it even more. What if we pretended that we weren’t at work and I swore that I wouldn’t report you for whatever crazy shit is happening in your brain?” Jameer said.</p><p>“How do you know it’s crazy shit?” Emily asked.</p><p>“Girl, I see you. You’re always drifting off. There must be crazy shit happening up there for you to daydream that much. Either that or you hate this job, and I know that’s not true.”</p><p>Emily was surprised Jameer paid such close attention to her. He was right, though. She did have a tendency to drift when a particularly engaging thought drifted into her head.</p><p>“Okay,” Emily said as she put down her food and turned to Jameer. “I’ll tell you, but it’s definitely not workplace appropriate.”</p><p>Emily told herself that Jameer was the most sexually experienced guy she knew and that if anyone could answer her question, at least in a larger sense, it was him.</p><p>“I’m wondering if I have enough, well, sexual experience,” she said. Jameer’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I told you it wasn’t workplace appropriate.”</p><p>“Enough experience for what?” Jameer asked.</p><p>“Well, I’ve only gone down on three guys and I honestly have no idea if I’m any good at it. I only did it once with the first two guys and it doesn’t happen all that often with Luke, either.”</p><p>“Your man doesn’t enjoy that?” Jameer said.</p><p>“I don’t know. I mean, I think I know. I think he likes it. I don’t really know though.” Emily pushed her glasses up her nose. Her hands were a little sweaty. She felt more nervous than she expected. “How do you know if you’re good at something like that?”</p><p>“Well, if we’re both okay with saying stuff that’s not workplace appropriate, I would say that you’d have a pretty good idea because your man would let you know, whether that’s Luke or the other guys you’ve been with,” Jameer said as he leaned forward.</p><p>“Like, they’d tell me?” Emily asked.</p><p>He smiled. “No, like they’d be moaning like crazy while you were doing it. Like they’d want you to be doing it all the time because it feels so damn good.”</p><p>“Oh.” Emily slumped in her chair. She felt a little defeated.</p><p>“Is he good at going down on you?” Jameer asked.</p><p>“Yeah, I think so,” she responded.</p><p>“You think so? What the fuck does that mean?” Jameer said. “Does he make your head spin? Do your toes and fingers tingle after he’s done?”</p><p>Emily thought back to the last time Luke had gone down on her. She definitely didn’t remember her toes and fingers tingling. She remembered having an orgasm and really liking it, though.</p><p>“He makes me orgasm,” Emily said.</p><p>“Look, I know it’s not my place to say, but don’t you want better than that? I mean, you want to marry this dude, right? Shouldn’t he be blowing your mind on a regular basis?” Jameer asked with genuine concern.</p><p>Suddenly Emily felt a wave of emotion rush over her. She held back the tears that were right on the brink of flowing from her eyes.</p><p>“Whoa, hey, I’m sorry,” Jameer said as he reached out and gently rubbed her shoulder.</p><p>“It’s not your fault. I don’t really know what this is. I mean, I love Luke. I really do want to marry him.” She stopped and took a deep breath before looking at Jameer. “It’s just, I’ve never been the girl that guys seem to try hard for. I’m not sure I’d say anyone has ever blown my mind, sexually speaking. I just don’t seem to inspire that in guys.”</p><p>Jameer took Emily’s hand in his and said, “Look, it’s just my opinion, but I don’t think that’s anything other than you thinking you’re not worthy of that kind of effort. You’re beautiful, smart, and way more interesting than most girls. You just have to believe you’re worthy of it. You have to demand that your man blows your mind.”</p><p>It was the last thing she wanted to be thinking in that moment, but Emily loved that Jameer was holding her hand. She knew he was just being nice, but it felt so good. So did the things he said about her. Despite herself, she felt a little bit aroused.</p><p>She leaned towards Jameer just a little and said, “Thank you,” while moving her fingers over his. For a fleeting moment she entertained the idea of trying to kiss him. Then she let his hand go and leaned back. “Really, thank you. That was very kind of you.”</p><p>“It was my pleasure, and it was all true. You have all the makings of a goddess, Emily. You just have to believe it.”</p><p>A goddess, she thought. Could she ever think of herself as a goddess? Could she go home and demand that Luke make her cum so hard that it made her fingers and toes tingle? Was Luke even capable of that sort of thing?</p><p>“I wonder if Luke’s even capable of making my fingers and toes tingle?” Emily asked before realizing she was talking out loud.</p><p>“Every man is capable of it. Trust me,” Jameer said without missing a beat. “Make that man give you a mind-blowing orgasm, Emily.”</p><p>He flashed his smile at her and Emily just about melted in her seat. She’d been trying to deny it, but there was no question she was aroused. She knew if she ran to the bathroom she’d find wetness between her legs. She refused to let the true depth of her arousal rise to the surface, but she knew it was there.</p><p>“I will,” she finally said. “I swear, I will make him give me the orgasm I deserve.” Emily believed it, too.</p>