To the gentle reader: The tale of these characters is told in a series of stories, which you can find in my Literotica profile—(a) We’re All Friends Here Right?, (b) April Rain, May Blossoms, (c) The Seduction of Sara, and (d) Bonfire Fairytales. Each installment can stand alone, but dedicated readers should find prior acquaintance with the characters to be rewarding.

* * * PART I (in Sara’s voice) * * *

It was a warm, late-summer night when I settled onto a bar stool at my favorite DC tap house. My roommate, Heather, poured me a Midori sour as soon as she saw me arrive. She had begun waitressing at the bar earlier that summer, and I had quickly become one of her regulars.

It had been a lonely summer ever since my boyfriend and I split up, and Heather was insistent that I come spend my Saturday nights at the bar rather than sit at home sulking. After a few weeks of bringing my sulking to the bar, I began to brush the chip off my shoulder and finally let Heather try to hook me up with some of her attractive customers.

“Hey Sara, did you check out the blond guy at the end of the bar?” Heather asked me as she set my drink on a coaster.

“Aren’t you starting at this a little early!” I shot back, jokingly. “Let me get a little liquor in me before you try to get me laid!”

Heather smiled, tucking her short blond hair behind her ears. She leaned in and insisted, “Come on, just check him out.”

I leaned out from the bar to get a good look at him. He was kind of cute, but he was dressed like he had just gotten out of work at 9 PM on a Saturday!

“Eh, not really my type,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Are you sure? He’s a Senator’s aid. And I already got the dish—he’s on the rebound.”

“Ugh, then he’s definitely not my type!” I replied, laughing.

Heather smiled and shook her head at me. “Guys like that used to have you melting in the palm of their hand. You’re just being stubborn.”

“I don’t know, babe, I think my tastes have changed lately. These workaholic, DC politicos are getting pretty tired. I think I need to check out a new crowd.”

Heather rolled her eyes at me. “You’re hopeless, sweetie,” she teased.

I was starting think she was right. I hadn’t been laid since my breakup because I kept finding petty reasons to drop each guy before things even got started. But I just couldn’t get excited about any of them. Nobody had what I wanted.

“I promise I’ll give someone a chance tonight. Just not that guy!” I assured her.

Heather shot me a disbelieving smile as she drew away from the bar to tend to her customers. Mr. Senator’s Aid blatantly molested her with his eyes as she walked past his stool. Heather made great tips every weekend because she still had the body of twenty-two year old co-ed but five more years of experience in how to work it. And she wasn’t shy about working it!

Tonight she wore a black, pleated mini-skirt that left just enough to the imagination. No man’s eyes could resist the magnetic pull of her legs: bare, with the sculpted curves of a former soccer champ, and stretching from the pleats of her skirt to the tips of her black heeled pumps. I’d kill for a set of legs like that! And if that weren’t enough, she had the chest to go with it. Snugly contained in a black tank top, Heather flaunted her modest but ample cleavage as she leaned in to take each order. She got a kick out of seeing how ‘persuasively’ she could move the more expensive beers and martinis, and the bar got rich off of her!

Every Saturday night I watched her work her magic, and we’d sit around the apartment on Sunday afternoons joking at the expense of the guys who couldn’t help but empty their wallets just to get her to stop by their table again. No wonder I couldn’t make a connection with any guys at the bar: they had already been put under her spell! Heather, of course, would hear none of my self-deprecation. According to her, I was the one who was making blood flow south in that bar. But lately I had no confidence in my feminine powers.

I began to sulk, envying Heather’s uninhibited flirtatiousness—the kind of playful exuberance that I myself had possessed not too long ago. I rested an elbow on the bar and sipped my Midori as I sunk deeper into self-pity.

The bar began to get more crowded as I sat, isolated in my own thoughts. I felt the press of the crowd fill in around me as people elbowed their way to the bar. The din of a hundred voices filled me with disdain for a world in which I simply no longer felt at home. But then one voice broke through.

“Sara?”

I lifted my chin from the hand that propped it up and glanced around, struggling to emerge from the cave of my self-loathing. Then, a moment of recognition. Next to me I found a familiar face—familiar, but not well-known, as if I had it had appeared to me in a recurring dream.

“Julie!” I blurted, not sure how long I had taken to respond. For a moment, I couldn’t be sure that this wasn’t a recurring dream. I had met Julie only once, and it had been here in this pendik escort very bar. But the events of our meeting had been cycling through my mind ever since. Julie’s face lit up when she saw that I recognized her, and she immediately threw her arms around my neck as if we were long lost friends!

Her friendliness snapped me right out of my funk. We had met just once before. Once! And yet I felt like we had been friends for years. I wrapped my arms around her in return, relieved to have some human contact. I was in one of those moods where all you really do need is a hug, and I probably squeezed Julie tighter than she had expected. Still, she held me just as tightly until I released her.

Julie leaned against the bar next to me and beamed with a delighted smile. She was just as I remembered her, but tonight she looked especially stunning. She wore a strapless red dress that hugged her body tightly but flowed loosely around her legs. Its diagonal hemline revealed one leg up to the thigh while the other was veiled to the shin with the flowing red cloth. The dress hugged tightly around her bosom, and I was struck for the first time by how full and round her chest was.

She looked absolutely gorgeous with her raven hair neatly pinned up behind her head, and her eyes sparkled like the silver earrings dangling from her ears. Julie looked as elegant as a bridesmaid, and yet I envied how she managed to make it look casual. If she were anyone else, her very appearance would have made me feel tawdry by comparison, but there was something about Julie that put her entirely beyond my jealousy and reproach. As I was getting over my awe, she spoke.

“How on earth have you been? I was wondering if I would ever run into you again!”

Given the circumstances of our last encounter, this could have been an uncomfortable situation. But Julie was so comforting and so genuinely friendly that her attitude was contagious.

“You know, I’ve been better,” I replied honestly. “But running into you has already made tonight so much better!” I added, perhaps too honestly.

Julie smiled kindly, realizing that she had found me in somewhat low spirits. “What’s wrong? Is your boyfriend here tonight?”

I glanced down at the floor as the memories of my ex-boyfriend resurfaced. After all, my memories of Julie were intertwined with memories of him. I lifted my eyes again.

“Well, actually, that’s why I’ve had a rough time this summer. We broke up.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” consoled Julie. “What…” she paused, catching herself. “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

I was ready to spill my guts to her. But I stopped myself. I didn’t want to spoil both of our moods by drudging up old feelings. “Oh, I’ll tell you the whole story some other time. But don’t be too sorry. We just were on different wavelengths. I wanted things out of a relationship that he didn’t want.”

“Age old story, isn’t it?” Julie replied.

“Well…” I started. There was a lot more to it than perhaps she suspected. The differences that broke us up were not conventional differences.

Julie rested her hand on my thigh. “I understand,” she interjected, absolving me of the need to explain further. This was no trite condolence. Somehow, I think she really did understand how unsettling my break-up had been.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I’m over him. I mean, the break-up still hurts, but not because I want him back. What I really need is someone completely new and different. The trouble has been finding him!”

Julie laughed. “Well you’re not going to find him by staring into the bottom of that drink! Why don’t you come join us at our table? I just need to order a couple of drinks first.”

My stomach leapt as she said the word ‘us.’ Were they the same friends who were here with Julie and her boyfriend when we first met? I suddenly became very embarrassed, and my first instinct was to get out of the whole situation.

Julie sensed my panic. “Relax,” she said, placing a hand on my bare arm. “It’s okay.” Julie spoke the word ‘okay’ with such empathy that my fears began to slip away.

She continued, “Besides, we’re all good friends, right?”

Her consolation was exactly what I had been needing to hear all summer. I had been beating myself up over whether I had made a fool out of myself at our last encounter—and really, it had been the beginning of the end with my boyfriend. To hear Julie tell me that I had no reason to be embarrassed felt like a judgment had been lifted.

“Okay,” I said, finally smiling back at her. “I’d like that. But don’t worry about ordering drinks here. My friend is a waitress here. I’ll make sure she comes to our table.”

* * * PART II (in Drew’s voice) * * *

There must have been a long line at the ladies room because Julie was taking a while to return. I sat with Lily and Steve at our table as we scoped out the scene around the bar. It was crowded tonight, and we had yet to even see a waitress come by our table. This place must have become üsküdar escort a more popular spot since the last time we were here. It was strange coming back here with Lily and Steve—this was, after all, where our sexual journey together had begun five months ago.

I glanced over toward the table where the four of us had sat on that April evening, and merely the familiarity of the surroundings was starting to get me aroused. As I gazed off into the surroundings, I noticed the vibrant red of Julie’s dress winding its way through the crowd of strangers. As she came closer, I noticed that she seemed to be leading someone else to our table.

Julie stepped up to the table, putting her hand on my shoulder and leaning her body against me. She waited for her guest to squeeze her way through the crowd before introducing her… but to me, she was immediately familiar. It was like a flashback to five months ago when this woman had sat across from our table in this very same bar.

“Everyone, this is my friend, Sara,” Julie announced as Sara joined her next to our table. Her light-brown hair was tied back in a ponytail with stray wisps tucked behind her ears. Her pretty face and piercing green-gray eyes were unforgettable, as were the long, slim lines of her figure. Smooth and sculpted, her long legs stretched down from the hem of her knee-length dress, which flowed in sky-blue waves over her hips. I followed the azure hue up the front of her body to find the V of her low-cut neckline revealing just a hint of her clearly ample cleavage, which seemed to be held aloft by the sky blue straps that tied behind her neck. Sara smiled warmly, though with a hint of temerity, as Julie introduced us to her.

“It really nice to meet all of you,” Sara said sincerely. She seemed to be searching our faces for some sign of recognition. Although Lily and Steve had been there last April, given the extremely peculiar circumstances of our encounter, I was fairly certain that neither of them would have recognized Sara. I, however, couldn’t possibly forget her. I smiled warmly at her, assuring her that I remembered her but that she needn’t feel ashamed.

Sara seemed to accept my welcome and smiled to herself as she glanced down toward the floor. “Have a seat,” I offered. “We can make room for all five of us.”

Steve and Lily were sitting on one side of the cushioned booth, and I on the other. I pushed down toward the wall, letting Julie squeeze in next to me with Sara comfortably on the end. Steve struck up a conversation with Sara.

“Funny that Julie should bump into you here. Do you come here a lot?”

“Actually, I’ve sort of made this place my hang-out this summer because my roommate has been working here,” Sara replied.

“Oh,” Steve perked up, anxious to find out how to get our first round of drinks faster. “As a bartender?”

“Well, a waitress. Actually, I told the bartender to send her over our way.”

“Ha!” Lily exclaimed. “I’m liking you already.”

Sara chuckled, seeming relieved to find Steve and Lily so friendly. I was dreading the inevitable question of how Julie and I came to know Sara, and I was sure Sara was dreading it, too. She pushed the conversation forward in hopes that it wouldn’t come up.

“How about you?” Sara directed the question to all of us, but ended up looking in my direction. “Do you come…” She paused. She seemed to be trying to find another way to word the question, but at a loss for words, she reluctantly repeated her original question. “Do you come here often?”

Her face turned bright red, and Julie and I bit our tongues as Sara struggled to regain her composure. Between the three of us, the question sounded like an inside joke. Lily and Steve seemed perplexed, but I leapt in with an answer.

“Actually,” I replied, “it’s been about five months.” I smirked subtly at Sara as I answered her.

“Oh,” she replied, realizing that our last visit here was precisely the one that had been making her so uncomfortable—precisely the event that marked a pivotal moment in all of our lives.

“Anyway,” I continued, “we really like the bar. We just haven’t been out this way in a while. Is it always this crowded?”

Sara seemed relieved to be moving the conversation along. “Oh, yeah. In the past few months it seems to have gotten pretty popular. My roommate has been making good money working these busy weekend nights.”

Just then, a young blonde woman approached the table dressed in all black—but not much of it! Tracing her figure with my eyes, from the bare skin of her knock-out legs up to the tight curves of her bosom, I suddenly realized that her face, too, was familiar. This was uncanny. This was the very same waitress who had served us that night in April! Her hot, rock-solid body and memorable face was etched into my mind along with every other memory of that amazing night.

“Heather!” Sara exclaimed as the cute blonde stepped up to our table.

“Hey!” Heather responded, seeming happy to find Sara here. “John told anadolu yakası escort me you had gone to sit at this table.”

“Yeah,” Sara replied. “I ran into my friend Julie.” Sara introduced the rest of us. “Everyone, this is my best friend, Heather. We’ve been roommates for… gosh, four years now.”

As Sara introduced her, she placed her hand on the back of Heather’s thigh. Just seeing Sara just touch those amazing legs so casually sent tingles through my body.

“Well, you guys must be thirsty,” Heather cut in. “I’m really sorry if you’ve been waiting a while. Tonight is even crazier than usual. I’ll get you some drinks right away. What do you want?”

We ordered some beers and mixed drinks, and then Heather excused herself so that she could get back to work. “I’ll be right back with those,” she said, smiling at Sara as she walked away.

Julie glanced at me when Heather left. We smirked at each other, having both recognized Heather as the same cute waitress from five months ago. In fact, I think I mentioned to Julie that night how attracted I was to both Heather and Sara (though I didn’t really know their names before now). As a couple, we like to flirt with people who turn us on, and in one case—with Lily and Steve—this had gone far beyond flirting.

Lily heard one of her favorite songs come over the bar’s sound system, and the conversation turned into a discussion about music and favorite bands. Before we knew it, Heather returned with our drinks. She leaned in to set each drink on the table, and every eye struggled not to gawk at her cleavage. My whole experience of this bar was so infused with sex that I couldn’t help but think dirty thoughts about each of the four gorgeous women around me. Catching me, Heather smiled subtly and then hurried off, assuring us that she would be back around to refill our glasses throughout the night.

“Isn’t she hot?” Sara asked the rest of us as Heather left the table.

“Smoking!” replied Julie immediately. We all laughed and nodded in agreement.

“It’s no wonder this place has become so popular,” Lily added. “I bet half the guys keep coming here just to have her take their orders!”

Sara simply smiled and tapped her nose with her finger. I laughed.

“On the nose, is right!” I replied. “And she seems to know exactly what she’s doing!”

Sara giggled. “Let’s just say she has an acute sense of the male psyche.”

The conversation was really loosening up, and I was so glad to see Sara relaxing. I have to admit that I had been hoping that we would run into her tonight, but I didn’t for a second think that it would actually happen! The five of us began to feel like long-time friends, and with the alcohol flowing, our friendship became even more intimate.

* * * PART III (in Sara’s voice) * * *

After several drinks, I was starting to feel pretty cozy, and the tension of meeting Julie’s friends face-to-face dissipating. These were my kind of people—honest, genuine, unpretentious. We weren’t trying to impress each other, and none of us seemed to have anything to hide. In fact, the four of them seemed to be so intimate with each other that I wasn’t sure if Lily and Steve didn’t already know all the details of our last meeting. In any case, I was no longer terrified of the whole thing coming to light—in a sense, it would be a burden lifted from my shoulders. In fact, once the conversation took an unabashedly casual turn to the topic of sex, I somehow doubted that Lily and Steve would be too shocked to find out about our tryst anyhow.

“Tired already?” Julie teased as Lily fought off a gaping yawn. We had gone through several rounds of drinks, and early crowd was starting to clear out, but it wasn’t even 1 AM. Julie and her friends seemed like night-owls, so I shared her surprise to find Lily yawning already.

Lily shook off the yawn and immediately snapped back, “Well if someone hadn’t kept us up last night…”

Steve chuckled, and I noticed Julie smirking at her boyfriend.

“Yeah, you know what I’m talking about,” Lily went on, now clearly baiting them. Lily’s insistence on bringing up the subject, had the four of them giggling, and as if I needed some explanation, Lily turned to me and protested, “If you’re going to starting fucking at three o’clock in the morning, at least make it a quickie, right?”

She shot the question at me point-blank, and I fumbled around to find a tactful way to answer. Julie smirked at me, realizing that I had just been put on the spot. I opened my mouth to try to form an answer, but Lily continued.

“Well, okay, if the apartment is empty that’s one thing. But if you know your roommate is trying to sleep next door, you’d at least try to keep it down, right?”

I sat there thinking that I should be embarrassed, but for whatever reason, I wasn’t at all. No one else seemed to care that Lily was airing their dirty laundry. In fact, it almost seemed like they were egging her on. Again, I mouthed an answer only to be interrupted.

“So loud, these two! You’d think they were fucking right next to you in your own bed! I mean, our walls are thin, but it literally sounds like someone is screaming an orgasm directly into your ear! ‘Ahhh! Ahhhhh!’,” Lily imitated so loudly that several people around our table spun their heads around to see what was going on!