Cassie regarded her skeptically. “Thanks.” She studied Penelope a bit longer before turning back towards the mirror. “Do you think Jake’s going to like it?”
Penelope and Julie both nodded. Penelope said, “I think he’s going to swallow his tongue.”
Cassie spread her hands down the front of her skirt, her gaze catching on the sparkle of her engagement ring. “I can’t believe this is actually going to happen in two weeks.”
Penelope immediately started sniffling again.
“Okay, enough of that. Cassie, you look gorgeous.” She shoved Penelope’s full champagne glass into Cassie’s hand and pushed Penelope toward a different changing room. “I’m going to take sniffles here to try on her bridesmaid dress.”
* * *
An hour later and all three girls were in their normal everyday clothes and headed into a local wine bar. It had been a rough day, but Julie had almost made it to the end. To celebrate, she took three long gulps of her wine. Probably not the best idea since her stomach had been too nervous all day to eat, but the idea of a little bit of numbing was alluring. She drank more.
Her head felt floaty as she listened to Cassie and Penelope discuss the merits of honeymooning in a beach locale versus a mountain hideaway. Since she hadn’t had sex in fourteen months, she couldn’t add much to the conversation. Fourteen months since she’d had an orgasm. That was a depressing number. Chris. Twenty-four hours with him and now she knew what she was missing. She missed hot orgasms.
She’d never had the courage or trust to go there with Aaron. Besides her own monumental sexual issues, even when Chris was “dead”, it felt like a betrayal for her to have sex with someone besides him. She’d never been ready.
She continued to drink her wine, making the appropriate sounds in the girls’ conversation although she wasn’t really paying attention.
Chris. Those orgasms he’d given her had been amazing. Would a battery-operated-boyfriend compare? Maybe she should ask Penelope. She knew about these things.
Damn, her wine glass was already empty. She needed more so she flagged down their waiter.
In her wine-induced haze, she’d lost track of their conversation, but there was a lull, so she jumped in. “Pen, what BOB do you recommend?” She took another deep drink of wine. Liquid courage, it was a good thing. She glanced back up at her two friends to find them staring at her with their mouths hanging open. That was a little offensive.
“Hey, that’s not fair. No judging. I like orgasms as much as the next girl and it’s been fourteen months. I need help.”
“Wait, what? Fourteen months?” Penelope voice reverberated with shock, carrying out over the bar, before Cassie shushed her.
Damn, she really hadn’t meant to let that slip.
Pen continued in a quieter tone. “How is that even possible? Aaron was gorgeous. You can’t tell me he was that bad in bed that you never had an orgasm.”
Julie felt the blood rush to her face as she rubbed the stem of her wine glass. She’d never planned to tell them, to tell anyone what an awful girlfriend she was, but she couldn’t hold this in anymore. She hadn’t loved Aaron enough to sleep with him and it had been so unfair to him. “I wouldn’t know. I never had sex with him,” she mumbled.
Before, there had been gasps and stuttered exclamations of shock, but now both her friends had gone deathly silent.
Oh God, she probably shouldn’t have drunk anything tonight, or else done it alone where she couldn’t blurt out her secrets to her friends. Tears filled her eyes.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.” She couldn’t meet their pitying gazes as she stood to stand. “Ignore me. I’ll just leave.”
But it was Cassie who grabbed her arm and wouldn’t let go. “You’ll do no such thing,” she hissed as she pulled Julie back down into her chair. “Okay, you can’t just drop that bombshell and leave. Come on, Julie. We’re your friends. Explain to us what happened.”
Julie finally found the courage to look at her friends again. Curiosity and confusion filled their gazes. They were her friends. Maybe it would help if she talked about it. Maybe if she got it off her chest, some of this crippling guilt would ease. She took a deep breath before answering. “I thought we had time. I was dealing with something and Aaron was so amazing about it. He kept telling me he was fine with waiting. We had all the