CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
“Gabe, how did you pull that off!?” Krystal demanded the moment they were in the car.
He chuckled, starting it up. “Luck, mostly.”
“Tell me! Now!”
He pulled out of the parking lot and began driving them home.
“So, Liz told me how much you liked the band after you chose this place for our date. I started doing some research. I knew I wanted to propose to you at the rave, but as I was planning all this, it suddenly just popped into my head: what if I could propose to you up on stage? In front of one of your favorite bands? I almost passed it out of hand, but then I did some research on them and found some of their social media. I decided ‘fuck it’ and just sent them a message explaining the situation.”
“And they responded, and said yes,” she whispered. “That’s so fucking insane...it was that easy!?”
“Yeah, although I think it was more right time, right place? I think I got lucky.”
“Holy shit, I’m like actually shaking. Gabe, that was perfect! How the fuck do you do this!? It’s like fucking four for four now!”
“I guess planning, effort, and luck. And knowing you all,” he replied. “I take it you like the ring?”
“Yes! It’s so fucking cool! Liz must have told you I think rubies are pretty sick,” she murmured, studying it.
“She did not, actually. I didn’t really tell her anything. I was worried she’d leak the info on accident.”
“Well...she probably wouldn’t have, but yeah, she might have. Oh my God, Gabe! I want to have sex with you so bad and fucking right now!”
“We can’t exactly do that.”
“No, we can’t but...I can totally fucking blow you while you drive us home.”
“You can do that.”
She laughed and leaned down. He felt her fingers start undoing his pants.
“When we get home, I am going to do something amazing for you,” she muttered as she unzipped him.
“What exactly?”
“Well I’m not telling you, husband!”
He chuckled. “I’m glad we’re all together on the terminology.”
“Yes, now the only ones you have left to wife are Liz and Kim. And maybe Sadie.”
“I suppose we don’t actually know what the future holds...ah shit…” he muttered, trailing off and forcing himself to focus as he felt her lips against his head.
She let out a muffled little laugh and began bobbing her head.
Okay, had to get them home. And not crash. He was always worried about that whenever one of them did this, which was surprisingly often. A part of him always asked: why not refuse if you’re so worried about it?
The rest of him pointed out the fact that an incredibly attractive woman was sucking his dick, and that kind of took priority.
Krystal began moaning as she bobbed her head, slow, then fast, then slow again, always pausing to focus pleasure on his head. Hot, wet, rapturous pleasure. And that moaning was really getting him going. She was trying to get him off as fast as she could, going for the throat.
Then he felt her hand settle beneath his balls, which she had freed dexterously from his pants. She cradled them, adding even more heated pleasure as she began to gently massage them.
He lasted about eight seconds once that began.
“Fuck...Krystal!” he cried as he started letting off in her mouth.
She moaned, long and loud. It was exaggerated, yet somehow completely authentic, not ridiculous at all.
Probably because he was actively coming in her mouth.
She sucked him dry, then kept sucking for a little bit after that. And then, once he’d softened, she put him away and zipped him back up.
“Fuck,” he managed.
“That is just, like, one percent of the thank you you are going to fucking get for tonight, Gabe! It was beyond perfect! Jesus fuck, man!”
“Glad I nailed it.”
“You beyond nailed it. God, how much longer!? Wait, don’t answer,” she muttered, going into her purse and fishing out her phone. She immediately began rapidly texting. He laughed softly and kept on driving.
Ten minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot.
Krystal had been texting the entire time, her eyes wide.
She’d started crying at some point. It had been so silent, what must have been no more than tears quietly falling down her face, he hadn’t realized.
From the way in which she hadn’t even tried to wipe them seemed to indicate she hadn’t realized it either.
“Oh shit,” she muttered, blinking a few times and sniffing. “I’m crying? Shit, uh...holy shit, I’m so distracted...uh…” She looked around in a dazed kind of way and found some tissues. She wiped her face and blew her nose, then laughed. “Man, I am already stoned apparently.”
“Overblown happiness chemicals will do that to you.”
“These chemicals are not overblown, I can assure you. Now come the fuck on!”
He laughed and killed the engine. They got out and hurried inside. As soon as he had the door shut behind them, Krystal let out an honest-to-God shriek.
“GIRLS!” she yelled.
She was met by a chorus of honest-to-God shrieks in return from all over the house.
And then there was thunder as four separate women all but sprinted for the front door.
Liz appeared from the basement, Ellen and Chloe appeared from upstairs, Holly appeared from the living room. They mobbed them all at once.
“Look!” Krystal cried, literally jumping up and down as she showed them the ring.
They all immediately began asking her questions about it. Ellen was fanning her face. Gabe felt like he’d briefly stepped into some strange parallel universe where everything was like a movie. This felt almost like a parody.
And yet, at the same time, it was all so authentic. Krystal was just so obviously falling-down overjoyed by how the proposal had gone that she could hardly control herself. It was almost like a good version of a panic attack.
And the others, all of them, were just as authentically happy for her.
It was this rare, unique, shared experience that was greater because it was shared.
It was a fundamental part of the human condition and the human experience: sharing joy with other people you liked.
It was so basic and yet so primal, so core, so crucially important.
He hesitated briefly as he looked at Liz.
Shit. Had he just shown her up? But no, she looked just as deliriously happy as the others. If anything, she actually looked happier.
Suddenly, Liz looked dead at him. Then she hurried over.
“Gabe,” she said, briefly wiping at her eyes, then taking his hand.
“You clearly fucking did it. I’m so glad you pulled it off.
And,” she leaned in suddenly and kissed him firmly on the mouth, “this jacked tomboy is going to show you precisely how glad she is. Go upstairs, take off your clothes, lie in bed, and wait for us.”
“Yeah, go!” Krystal added when he glanced her way.
He laughed. “All right, sounds like a plan to me.”
Kicking off his shoes, he paused briefly to kiss Chloe, Ellen, and Holly on the mouth.
This was still such an absolutely surreal experience.
Then he was up the stairs, in his bedroom, taking his clothes off.
He closed the door behind him so that he wouldn’t spoil the surprise.
He was seriously curious as to what they were going to do.
Gabe felt a wave of lethargy slip over him as he took his clothes off. He yawned and climbed into bed, naked now. Halfway through. He was almost halfway through. As much as he was enjoying all this and as well as it was going, he had to admit it was beginning to exhaust him.
He felt kind of weak. With the exception of Liz...and the sex, he hadn’t actually been doing anything exhausting. Just walking around, driving around, sitting around. But he knew it was more than that. He knew it was the social aspect of it.
Gabe was not a man who was built to be social all the time.
He was meant to spend days in his room, writing. Meant to hang out in the basement or the living room, gaming, watching movies, eating dinner, whatever.
Well, given how he was living his life, it seemed like a problem that was going to correct itself eventually. He’d at some point settle into a better equilibrium, where his tolerance of social activity was naturally higher.
Hopefully.
Gabe pulled Krystal’s present from its hiding place and set it on the headboard, then laid down in the middle of the bed and began waiting with his hands behind his head. Worn out or not, there was no denying that if this was not winning at life, then nothing was.
He was actually beginning to doze when Krystal and Liz finally appeared. He raised his head as the door opened up and they walked in. Sauntered in, really.
“Goddamn,” he said as he got an eyeful of them.
Krystal had touched up her makeup a bit and was now wearing nothing but fishnet stockings along her arms and legs. She looked incredibly erotic and seductive, and the grin on her face was bordering on insane.
Liz…
Was wearing the outfit that he’d bought her.
It was ironic: it was actually covering most of her. It even came with an army cap, and she was wearing it. And yet it might be the most he’d been turned on by her. At least top five. It looked reminiscent of desert camo and it sat so very well on her frame.
“You’re really in for it now,” Liz said as they began walking forward.
They didn’t close the door.
Sure enough, as they advanced, he saw Chloe appear with an intensely aroused smile. She silently slipped in and sat down on the dresser as the two women came to stand at the foot of the bed.
“Am I now?” he replied.
Ellen slipped in as well. Then Holly. They must have seen the pair walking through the house dressed like this.
“Yes,” Krystal replied firmly. “You are going to lay there and allow us to administer your reward for putting together such a fucking awesome proposal!”
“This uniform you got me,” Liz said, looking very pleased with herself, “is adjustable.”