MIXED MARRIAGE free porn video

“I met a guy,” Ella said. “A really great guy.”

“Did you now?” Elizabeth said. “That’s news. It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”

“Yes it has. But the moment we were introduced, it just felt right. Instant connection.”

“What’s his name?”

“Max.”

“And how did you meet Max?”

“I met him at a friend’s house. We clicked immediately, we talked for hours that first night.”

“And when was this?”

“A week-and-a-half ago. Then the next day he called to ask me out and we talked for a few more hours. Everyday since. I’ve never felt so close to someone this fast. It seems so natural, it’s scary.”

Elizabeth had been Ella’s therapist for a number of years. The sessions began after Ella lost her mother, to whom she was very close, as a teenager. The sessions helped her through her grief. Then several years later her father got remarried to a much younger woman, which was another major adjustment, and then less than two years after that he dropped dead of a heart attack. Ella had leaned on Elizabeth through all of it.

“So,” Elizabeth continued. “Go on.”

“We’ve talked constantly. I’ve never been able to talk to a man like this. It’s like a drug, something I didn’t think was possible. We’ve only had one real date since we first met.”

“So it was a good date?”

“Oh yes, very good.”

“How so?”

“I went to bed with him. We fucked our brains out.”

“Wow, Ella, that’s a surprise. That was pretty quick, wasn’t it?”

“I know. We didn’t plan on it. It kind of happened by accident. We were having a good time, it felt natural, we just went with it.”

“Have you talked to Hannah about this?”

“Yes, I saw her Saturday night. Told her everything. She’s cool.”

“She’s cool? You’re sure about that?”

“Yeah, we knew this time would come at some point. She’s going to meet him this weekend.”

----

Max and Ella met at a party at the home of a mutual friend. When they were introduced and their eyes first met, things changed for both of them, and they both sensed it. Their reactors ignited, their rods heated up and the chain reaction was underway.

Ella had the look Max was often drawn to: Shoulder-length brown bob surrounding her high cheekbones, smooth creamy face, and a lean, toned body. And she felt the same, was immediately attracted to him, his blond hair, warm smile and tall, athletic frame.

But it was their conversation that was the glue. They spent the rest of the party together, talking for several hours about anything and everything, in a province of their own making, ignoring the guests coming and going around them, until the party started breaking up. Max walked Ella to her car. They talked another twenty minutes standing there, exchanged phone numbers. He said he’d call her the next day and kissed her goodnight. They felt like they’d found magic in a bottle.

When Max called her, the stream-of-consciousness conversation picked up right where it had left off. They talked for two hours before he asked her out to dinner for Saturday night. Ella said she would love to, but would Friday be okay instead? She and her stepmother had tickets to the theater Saturday night. They agreed that Friday would be fine.

Both were happy and anxious when Friday evening arrived. Max picked her up and thought she looked stunning in her silky, brown leopard jumpsuit with her tanned arms and shoulders exposed. He took her to a popular seafood restaurant and they were seated on the deck overlooking the town dock. They drank beer from a pitcher and munched on an appetizer while they talked and watched the boaters come and go.

Dinner was served, broiled platters, along with another pitcher, and the nonstop conversation continued as the sun went down. They ordered after-dinner drinks.

A couple from a nearby table asked them if they would mind taking their picture. Ella obliged, hopped up and snapped a couple shots with their smart phone. Then Max held out his own phone and asked if they would return the favor, which of course they did.

They looked at their photo together. It wasn’t too bad for an impromptu moment on a first date.

“Well, would you look at this handsome couple,” Max said. “The woman is a knockout!”

Ella smiled shyly. “Yes, not bad. The guy’s pretty damn cute, too.”

“I don’t know what made me ask them to do that,” he said. “I’m usually camera-shy. I don’t photograph very well.”

“I know what you mean. I’m rarely happy with pictures taken of me. But often the best ones are the ones you aren’t expecting. Spur-of-the-moment, like this one.”

“Right. Whenever I pose for a photo, it always looks phony. Say cheese, and all that crap.”

“Yes. Like school portraits. Or your driver’s license.”

“Oh yeah” Max said. “What worse setting is there for a photo-op than the Department of Motor Vehicles?”

After a short pause, Ella said, “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

“Show what?”

“Our driver’s licenses.” She started digging in her purse.

“Okay.”

Max took his wallet out of his pocket and removed his license. He handed it to Ella, and she handed over hers.

“You look pretty good here, Max, you handsome devil. Wore a tie and everything.”

“I went there on the way to work.” He looked at Ella’s face on the license. It looked fine to him. “Your mugshot is beautiful, I must say,” he added.

“Oh, please,” she said.

Ella scanned over the data on Max’s license: Address, age, height, weight, organ donor. Then she saw his date-of-birth.

“Max!” she barked, and turned to look at him with twisted lips. “Today’s your birthday!”

“Yup. Guilty as charged. Twenty-nine and holding,” he said with a cringe, and raised his drink. “A toast! To my extreme good fortune to share my day with such a smart, beautiful lady!” They clinked glasses.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It wasn’t important. I wanted to be with you. And I wanted you to be with me. But I didn’t want you to feel any obligation. Not that you would…”

“But to be out with you on your birthday. I should do something. We should celebrate.”

“I am celebrating! I’m with you.”

“But I should give you a gift or something.”

“No, Ella. This is why I first asked you out for tomorrow night, so my birthday would be over with. I never thought we would scrutinize our driver’s licenses.”

“I’m getting you a gift tomorrow.”

“No, you won’t.”

“I’ll pay for dinner.”

“No.”

“But, I want to, uh, I should do something.”

“No, you shouldn’t.”

They bantered back and forth for another minute or two in avid disagreement.

“Are we going to have our first argument?” she pouted.

“Not if I can help it,” he replied.

“Good. Now what?” she said.

Some couples can be together for weeks or months and not be much farther along than the first or second date. Other couples can be together a few hours and feel like they’ve known each other their whole lives. Max had already put himself and Ella in the latter category. And he was feeling frisky, so he took a shot.

“Okay,” he said. “If it will prevent our first argument, you can give me a gift, and it won’t cost a cent.”

“Really? What is it?”

“An I.O.U.”

“An I.O.U.? An I.O.U. for what?”

“For a B.J.”

Ella looked at him with mock shock, her mouth agape and eyes like hypnotic hoops.

Max got scared. He’d gone too far too fast.

“Ella, I’m so sorry,” he said plaintively. “That was a joke. I didn’t mean that, it’s the beer talking. Please forgive me, I don’t know…”

“No. It’s okay,” she said, cutting him off. “I’ll do it. We’d get around to that sooner or later anyway.”

She dug into her purse again and pulled out a Bic pen and a dry-cleaning receipt. On the back of the receipt she wrote: ‘Happy Birthday Max, I O U one blowjob’. She signed it, dated it and handed it to him.

They laughed. They kissed. They shook hands and shook their heads. Max paid the check. They walked out of the restaurant snickering. Max had Ella’s hand in his, and the I.O.U. in his pocket. He cashed it in that same night.

----

Not that he really needed it. Ella had put their relationship in the same category Max had. She wanted him and he wanted her.

Max took her home to his place, a small townhouse in an older neighborhood. They were barely inside the front door when she came into his arms and kissed him deeply.

“I’ve never done this before,” she said, as she began unbuttoning his shirt.

“What?”

His shirt came off.

“Had sex on the first date.”

She unhooked his pants and started on the zipper.

“Ella, if you’re uncomfortable, we don’t have to. I was only kidding when I said…”

“No you weren’t. You’re ready, so am I.”

His trousers dropped to his ankles. She put her hand in his crotch and felt his stiffened cock through his skivvies.

“I know I’ve only known you a week, but I feel like we’re past due,” she said.

“I know what you mean,” Max rasped, kicking off his shoes and pants. He took her hand and led her up the stairs toward his bedroom.

Halfway up Ella stopped and Max turned to her.

“Sit,” she said, pushing him back onto his butt. “Ever had your dick sucked on the steps?”

Max shook his head.

“I’ll be the first.”

Ella pulled off his shorts and watched his cock pop out and point at the ceiling. Beautiful, she thought, long and hard and ready. She held it in her hand and felt its heat as she and Max kissed. Then she moved down a step onto her knees and took it into her mouth.

It had been a long time since she’d been with a man, but she hadn’t forgotten how to suck cock. Max leaned back on his elbows and watched in ecstasy as she sucked it, licked it, kissed it and held his fleshy balls in the palm of her hand. He rocked his groin gently with her movements and his fingers played in her hair.

Quite a birthday, he thought. Such an unexpected pleasure to be sitting there watching his cock slide in and out of this foxy lady’s mouth. His balls tightened in her hand as he swung his shaft into her, coaxing his cum to rise up through it.

He tried to make it last and defer his eruption, but he couldn’t; it felt too good and he wanted it too much. Before long it was imminent. His body quivered and he groaned aloud when his ejaculation unleashed. Ella groaned too but she kept her lips gripped around his thick, engorged penis, and felt the surges of his semen dart into her mouth. After five or six vibrations of Max’s torso with her mouth still clamped around his meat, he watched her head back off and his cock slide out of her mouth.

“That’s a lot of cum,” she said, as she swallowed.

“It’s been a while for me,” he said.

“Me too.”

“That was wonderful, Ella. You’re amazing.”

He pulled her into his arms and plunged his tongue into her mouth, sticky with his cum. He had one hand on her ass and the other between her legs.

They climbed the rest of the stairs and walked a few more steps into his bedroom, where they embraced and kissed again. He slipped his thumbs under the shoulder straps of her jumpsuit and the leopard skin fell to the floor. All that was left was her skimpy, black panties. They fell as one into his bed.

“This is where I’ve been jerking off all week thinking about you,” he said softly.

“You don’t have to jerk off tonight,” she said.

They kissed again, a long one. He traced his fingers lightly over her smooth breasts and perky nipples. Then his mouth inched its way along her neck and shoulders to those breasts as his hand slipped into her panties and his fingers entered her dampened, open snatch.

“Ooh,” she cooed, and her crotch squirmed with his touch; his fingers delved deeper inside her.

After several minutes of tit-sucking and finger-fucking, Ella’s nipples felt like crushed stone and her pussy was a soaked sponge.

“Now it’s your turn to come,” Max said.

He maneuvered onto his knees between her thighs and Ella raised her legs as he pulled off her moistened panties. He spread her legs and dove his lips into her bare, pink, wet cunt. She moaned with delight. He licked her lips, tasted her sweaty brine and she mashed her muff against him. He dug his face into her crotch like it was a hot towel, his tongue craned into her marshy depth, tasted her hungry funk, and Ella squealed as his hands squeezed her buttocks in time. Her body squiggled as her pussy french-kissed his face, and she mooed like an unmilked cow when his lips encircled her clit and sucked it into his mouth.

“Oh yes!” she hissed.

Max took that as encouragement. He alternated sucks and licks, and her meaty member puffed in his mouth. His fingertips joined firmly in the crack of her ass as he deep-massaged her butt. He decided he was going to take his time tasting her, make sure she came and came big, before he moved up, stuck his dick into her and took his time fucking her.

He kneaded her hot button with his rubbery lips. He tongue-fucked her soaked tunnel and teased her asshole, licking his own fingers in the process. Ella exhaled breathy grunts over and over until they grew in volume and her body spasmed right and left and her body unleashed.

With a sharp scream, Ella’s cuntwater flowed with a tremulous force into Max’s face. When she’d fully released and her shakes had reduced to tics, Max licked up her cum from her thighs. Then he went back to what he had been doing before: sucking her clit, tonguing her vagina, and digging his fingertips into her ass. And he kept at it, and kept on keeping at it, and Ella sang along with moans of pleasure.

Ella had never had a man go down on her like this, and stay down this long. Her crotch was tossing and turning and her pussy was now hypersensitive to his touch. It was almost too much, like her cunt was a compact car sitting at a red light idling at 6000 RPM, ready to peel out. She knew she was going to come again so she locked her fingers into Max’s hair and held his head firmly, swung her groin into him, scissored his head with her legs, fucked and sucked his stretched tongue.

Then the light turned green. Ella screamed again, then she creamed again, wetting the bed and her thighs and the happy face between them. When her body finally settled Max sucked it up like nectar.

“Oh My God!” Ella said, and pulled Max’s face up to hers.

They kissed long and hard and deep, their tongues probed their mouths and their hands jitterbugged over their bodies.

“You are so beautiful,” he said. He sucked a nipple into his mouth.

“God, what a climax! Two of them!” she replied. He kissed her neck.

By now, Max’s dick felt like an inflamed missile, locked and loaded. Ella pulled on it like she wanted to suck it again, but it was time to put his meatloaf in the oven. He rolled atop her and his cock made a beeline for her saturated slot. He slid in balls-deep in one sweet stroke.

To Ella, his cock felt like hot gold inside her. Her flesh tingled when she secured her vaginal walls snugly around it; it was a lightning rod radiating heat. She was wet as a flooded marsh and Max’s big cock started slipping and sliding into her hard and fast. She scrunched her cunt around it and the new friction created new heat and she slung it at him, increasing his depth inside her, and then faster, and sweat soon broke out on both of their bodies.

They slowed to a lover’s pace, gentle, easy, Max’s cock digging deep, as their tongues swirl-fucked in their mouths and their fingers dug into their flush, clammy flesh. They took their time, patient lovers willing to wait for the joy that was to come.

Max bleated loudly and his body shivered in uncontrolled release when he came. His semen sprinted up through his shaft and did pole vaults on the way out. His body shook on top of her, and he felt the burn in the tip of his cock, during and after his expulsion.

Ella never left that night, and in the morning they woke with big smiles and did it all again.

----

Just like that, they were a couple. Lovers. Smitten. Proud. Each wanted to show off the other to their family and friends.

Max introduced Ella to his parents and his sister. That went well, especially with his sister Carly. Carly was twenty-seven, just a year older than Ella, and they hit it off right away.

Ella’s stepmother Hannah had them both over for dinner to get acquainted and that came off just as well. Any unease was eliminated right away. Max was surprised not only by how warm and witty Hannah was, but how hot and young she looked. He hadn’t had any specific expectation, but he hadn’t expected this either: attractive, blond hair brushing her shoulders, a slim, fit, toned body, and much younger than he’d thought she’d be. She looked only a few years older than he.

Hannah served up a big pan of lasagna and a Caesar salad and there were bottles of beer and wine. She wore snug black jeans that hugged her shapely rump, and a red cotton top that clung here and there to her curvy breasts. Max watched her movements closely.

The conversation flowed easily, as did the drinks. Near the end of the evening, Hannah asked Ella to come with her to the kitchen, said she wanted to pack up some leftovers for them to take home. They left Max in the living room and went to the kitchen and dished lasagna into a plastic container.

“He seems wonderful,” Hannah said. “Good-looking, smart, courteous, respectful, good job, what’s not to like?”

“I know. It seems too good to be true, you know?” Ella said.

“I know what you mean, Honey,” Hannah said. “I felt the same way when I met your father. You have my permission to marry him. Not that you need my permission, of course. But I’m happy for you, you know that.”

“Thank you. Your opinion means so much to me.” Then, after a short pause, she added, “I love you.”

They stood there looking at each other for a moment. Then they hugged, held each other for another moment or two. As they broke the embrace, Ella kissed her. Hannah’s lips parted instinctively and her mouth opened to receive her, and they kissed like lovers, holding tight, their tongues slow-dancing, playing a sexy, familiar duet.

“Sorry,” Ella said.

“No, it’s okay,” Hanna replied, straightening her blouse.

When they said their goodbyes at the door, their eyes glistened in the soft light. Hannah and Ella both seemed surprised at how they had ended the evening. It had been quite a while since they’d kissed like that.

----

When Ella’s father died, she and Hannah were devastated. It was so sudden. He was healthy, doing fine, and then poof, he was dead.

In the years after her mother died, Ella had become very close to her father. They got through it together and formed a deep bond. She was in her early twenties when her Dad met Hannah and they soon became serious. This was another hurdle for her. Not only because she had to get used to the idea of another mother figure in her life, but also because Hannah was much younger than her father, and only nine years older than she.

When Hannah and her father married, Ella gave them their space. They would all see each other on birthdays and major holidays, and that was about it. And of course, a funeral.

Her father died a few days before what would have been their second wedding anniversary. He was sitting in his recliner watching a ballgame when his heart gave out. He was dead when Hannah found him.

Hannah and Ella’s lives were turned upside-down. They made their way through the whole ordeal together. All plans and decisions were made together. They helped each other cope and mourn and stay strong.

Over the ensuing months they grew closer and closer and spent more and more time together. When one got down, the other lifted her up. They talked and watched movies and ate meals together. They held each other. Then one night, surprising them both, their hugs became kisses. Their tongues danced and their hands pranced and their clothes came off and they made love.

Neither had had a sexual relationship with a woman before, but it had happened so gradually and naturally there was no holding back. They became ravenous, curious lovers, and their bed became their playground, and they shared that playground for the next eleven months.

Some friends and relatives suspected how their relationship had progressed, but it was never discussed. They ended it, not because they wanted to, but because they thought they should. Because of guilt, confusion, fear. Was it wrong, was it right, was it taboo, was it healthy? Or was it just a pain-killer?

----

“So, how was your week, Ella?” Elizabeth asked.

“Good.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that. How’s Max?”

“He’s good too. It’s been a good week. I think he’s going to tell me he loves me.”

“And how do you feel about that?”

“I don’t know. Is it too early to say ‘I love you’?”

“I don’t know if there are any rules about that, Ella. That’s a very personal thing. I think it would come down to what is comfortable for the person. Everyone is different.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Ella said. “It gets hard to separate sometimes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Love and sex.”

“Ah,” Elizabeth said. “A universal question. Do you love Max?”

“I don’t know. I think so. I know I could love him, but I don’t know that I’m ready to say that yet. I feel it, I just don’t know if I trust it, you know what I mean? I love talking to him. We connect on so many levels. And the sex… It’s incredible. My orgasms, Oh My God. So intense! I mean, I haven’t had orgasms like these, since, uh…”

“Since when?”

“Since Hannah,” Ella said softly.

Elizabeth wrote some notes onto her tablet. Ella continued as she was writing.

“We had dinner at Hannah’s house last weekend.”

“And how did that go?”

“Very well. She liked him. She told me it’s okay to marry him,” Ella laughed.

“How did that make you feel?”

“Good. But I was pretty sure she’d like him. He’s the real deal.”

“And Max liked Hannah too, I take it.”

“He did,” Ella said, sipping from a bottle of water. “We kissed.”

“You kissed? Who…”

“Me and Hannah. We kissed, and it wasn’t a peck, either. It was hot, I’m telling you, just like the old days. It just happened out of nowhere, surprised us both, but we were into it. I got tingles.”

“What did Max…”

“He didn’t see it, he was in another room. I don’t know if he’d understand. I’m not sure that I understand.”

----

Over the next few months, Ella and Max’s relationship kicked into overdrive. They spent most nights together, exchanged I-love-yous, and much of the time they spent socializing with friends. Ella’s friends got to know Max, and Max’s friends got to know Ella. They moved in together, into a one-story, single family home. More and more of their time was spent with Hannah and Max’s sister Carly, and they all became better acquainted and very comfortable together.

----

One day Max got word that his cousin Vanessa was getting married. This surprised him a little, as Vanessa was a few years younger and had always been a wild child, and never seemed to go with one guy exclusively very often, or for very long. But evidently she’d met the right guy and had settled down some. Carly would be a bridesmaid. Max would be taking Ella to the wedding as his guest.

The wedding day came and it rained like hell. All day long. Thankfully the roofs didn’t leak and the church and the reception hall weren’t far apart. The wedding itself was short and sweet, maybe twenty-five minutes. Vanessa and her new hubby were skinny Goth chic, pierced and made-up and tattooed to the max, and the minister appeared anxious to expedite the proceedings. Despite the weather--a blessed, holy downpour of God’s love, according to the reverend--everyone had a great time. The happy newlyweds set the tone for everyone else and the reception was a blast. Everybody danced with everybody else. Max cut a rug with Ella a number of times, slow and fast, as well as most of the bridesmaids, including Carly.

Afterward, Max and Ella talked about the wedding and reception, how much fun it had been for everyone, and the things they liked and the things they would have changed. Before long they realized they were talking about their own wedding, and how they would do things. Max found himself down on one knee and proposed. Ella accepted. He carried her up the stairs to his bedroom, over their makeshift threshold, laid her down on the bed and gave her a serious fucking. He had no ring for her, but she didn’t mind, he took care of that the next week.

Friends and relatives were ecstatic when they heard the news.

----

Max and Ella were now wedding planners. They booked the same church and the same hall that Vanessa had used, and chose a date four months down the road. They had discussed it so much after Vanessa’s wedding, before he proposed, that most decisions came quick and easy. They had a clear vision of what they wanted. They divvied up responsibilities and one-by-one, things got done. Church, reception hall, catering, music, photography, flowers, logistics, you name it.

Max had buddies that would serve as ushers and best man. Ella chose her stepmother as her matron of honor, and Carly as one of her bridesmaids. As the date neared and they tallied up RSVPs, they realized there would be a total of 182 people, almost twice as many as they’d thought when they started. Oh, what the hell, let’s party, they said.

They planned the wedding for three p.m. on a Saturday, with the reception immediately after. The wedding rehearsal and dinner would be the night before. On Sunday they would leave on their honeymoon, a week on the Riviera Maya on the east coast of Mexico.

----

Throughout the planning process, sex had become crazier and more adventurous and daring for Ella and Max, as if all the marriage talk had created a deeper bond between them and had lifted a barrier neither knew was there. They experimented with a hundred different positions. They tied each other up and got rough sometimes. They watched all kinds of porn and found new ways to get off. They often talked about the possibilities if they brought another person into bed with them, even discussed candidates, but they didn’t act upon it.

Finally, the big weekend arrived. The Friday night rehearsal was nothing more than a quick run-through of what would be a fairly simple procedure, and it was over in a half-hour. Then the group was off to a nearby restaurant where Max had reserved a room for dinner. The dinner went well, there were plenty of laughs and drinks and toasts wishing Max and Ella all the best.

The bridesmaids cooked up a plan to throw a last-minute bachelorette party for Ella that night. They knew a place they could go where they could send her off to married life in style. Max had no objection. His own bachelor party had been the weekend before, and keeping with tradition, he would kiss her goodnight and they wouldn’t see each other again until she walked down the aisle at the church the next day. Ella was to spend the night at Carly’s place, and they all would assemble at Hannah’s house on Saturday to primp and preen and dress for the wedding.

Hannah begged off going to the bachelorette party. The other girls were all roughly the same age, a good eight to ten years younger. She watched from the restaurant entrance as the girls got into their cars and pulled out of the lot. As they were driving, one of the bridesmaids made a call from her cell phone to verify an earlier conversation. Yes, we are on, yes, at my place, the address I gave you, she said. Yes, it is confirmed, she was told. He will be there in one hour.

“So, what are you doing the rest of the night, Max?” Hannah said.

“Nothing much,” he said. “Rest up for tomorrow, I guess.”

“That doesn’t sound right. You shouldn’t be all alone on the night before your wedding.”

“It’s no biggie.”

“Look. Why don’t you to come over to the house? We can have a nightcap, talk, relax.”

Max was glad she had offered. The ceremony wasn’t till late afternoon the next day, so he didn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn or anything. Why not?



“Sure,” he said. “I’d like that.”

They got into their cars and Max followed her home.

Unknowingly, Max and Ella had just entered into a night that would have a profound effect on all of their married days to follow.

----

Max followed Hannah home and parked his car in the driveway while she drove hers into the garage. He walked into the garage and followed her into the house as the overhead door closed behind them.

“Have a seat on the sofa while I fix drinks,” Hannah said, putting her purse and keys on a table. “Put some music on if you like.”

The living room was huge, with a large leather sofa and love seat and comfortable chairs, a stone fireplace and entertainment center. The stereo was ancient, an old component system, probably from Ella’s father’s college days, he guessed. An audiophile. Big Marantz receiver, high-end speakers, CD player, a turntable. Max didn’t feel like screwing around with records or CDs, so he found a jazzy music channel on the cable.

Max walked to the kitchen where Hannah was standing at the counter slicing lemons.

“What are you whipping up?” Max asked.

“Here, stir this,” Hannah said, touching the glass pitcher on the counter.

It was full of a fizzy champagne-tinted liquid and had a long glass swizzle stick in it.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Sherry Spritzers,” she said. “Light and breezy and damn good.”

She squeezed several lemon and orange wedges into the pitcher as he stirred, and then tossed them into the mix. She filled two tall highball glasses with ice, put it all on a tray and carried it into the living room. She placed it on the table in front of the sofa and they sat down. She poured their drinks.

“Another toast!” Hannah said, holding up her glass. “To my handsome, new son-in-law. Or stepson-in-law, or something like that. I’m so happy for Ella. And proud to have you in the family.”

They tapped glasses and drank.

“You’re right,” Max said. “This stuff is good.”

“There’s plenty more where that came from, Honey, so enjoy. Let’s celebrate.”

They didn’t say anything for a minute and listened to a smoky tenor solo on ‘Cry Me A River’.

“Thank you for saying that,” Max said.

“What?”

“That you’re proud to have me in the family.”

“Aw, Honey,” Hannah said, and put her drink on the table. She scooted a bit closer, put her arms around him and hugged him. He hugged her back, too, smelled her hair and felt her breasts press against his chest.

“You don’t have to thank me, Max,” she continued. “You’re a good man, and just right for Ella. The first night I met you, I knew.”

“Knew what?”

Hannah picked up her glass, took a swig and put it back down on the table.

“I knew you were the one. And I told Ella that. I told her it was okay to marry you. Not that she needed my okay, she’s twenty-six years old, she’s an adult and can make her own decisions. But we are close and I knew she would like my approval, so I gave it. She hadn’t been with a man for quite a while after her Dad died. Then she introduced me to you, I met you, and liked you immediately. You had the look and the qualities that I would want in a man. I thought if you’re good enough for me, you’re good enough for Ella.”

----

The bachelorette party was being held at the house that one of the bridesmaids shared with a couple roommates. There was a large, open great room and the bar had been well-stocked. The roommates had invited a few other friends too, so the room was also well-stocked with boisterous, half-lit women. Most of the gals were into their second or third drink when the doorbell rang. The entertainment had arrived.

A male stripper had been hired for the occasion. In strode a good-looking, light-skinned black guy, probably no older than nineteen or twenty. He set a boom box on a table and didn’t waste any time. He turned it on. A tight, funky groove kicked in and he went into his act.

“Who’s getting married?” he shouted.

Everybody pointed at Ella. He shuffled over to her.

The guy was athletic. He moved with smooth precision, his knees, hips and ass locked into the pocket of the beat. He was dressed in a red silk shirt, a navy blue tie, and white jeans. Red, white and blue. His body writhed and his groin was about a foot in front of Ella’s face. He moved around the room as the girls giggled and hollered.

First the necktie came off, and he swiped it through his crotch a few times, educing more whoops, before tossing it into his bag. He made the rounds and a couple of the girls unbuttoned his shirt. The shirt came off, revealing a tank top underneath. He teased them a couple more minutes before he pulled that off, and elicited more whoops and hollers and oohs and aahs when it revealed what was underneath.

The dude was ripped. His stomach was hard with well-defined abs. There was not an ounce of fat on the guy. He moved around, his muscled body contorting to the rhythms, and soon he was being unzipped by an enthusiastic bridesmaid. First the fly, and then the zippers all the way down the outsides of both legs. He stepped out of his pants in a heartbeat and was down to his skintight briefs.

His briefs were the American flag, and chock-full of meat, quite a massy bulge, and judging by their gleeful reaction, the girls noticed. When he thumbed his briefs off, there was one last obstacle: he had on the flimsiest, skimpiest thong, an even tinier American flag, and the stars and stripes were struggling to contain the bulk behind it. It looked like a poorly-wrapped pound of tenderloin at the meat market.

He sauntered over to Ella so she could take it off for him. She shook her head. The girls shouted encouragement. Take it off. Touch it. Suck it. She reached for it, felt it briefly, pulled her hand away and shook her head again.

“Go ahead!” Carly said, who was seated beside her.

He pivoted in front of Carly, and she did the honors. Everybody cheered when she sniffed the thong and then held it up to Ella’s nose before tossing it to another girl. Then she touched his cock, felt its weight.

It was massive. It was limp, but hung four or five inches. His balls were loose and hung down, one slightly lower than the other. He made his way through his audience one-by-one, and one-by-one they touched it and felt it, and it grew before their eyes. Soon it was hard and long, a good nine fat inches, and the girls took turns touching it and feeling it and holding it, and finally one kissed it, then sucked it, and before you knew it they were all getting into the act. A can of whipped cream materialized and soon the girls were licking and sucking it off of his chest and his stomach, his dick and his thighs, and his balls and his ass.

Ella watched in disbelief, but was enjoying herself. The guy worked his way back toward her, whipped cream in hand. He covered the head of his cock with the sweet, white foam.

Carly didn’t hold back. She bent forward with an anxious thrust and licked the cream off. Then she took the big black cock into her mouth. Ella watched in amazement as his long dark member slipped in and out from between Carly’s lips. Carly was into it; her hands gripped his butt as she forced as much dick into her mouth as she could handle.

Carly took his cock out of her mouth and the Reddi-Wip out of his hand. She squirted an ample white mound on that beautiful black cock and turned to Ella.

“Your turn,” she said.

Ella was by now so wet she didn’t care. Fluid was dripping out of her. She slurped the cream off in no time and wrapped her mouth around that hard dark meat. The girls chanted, ‘Go, Go, Go, Go’ as she sucked him. With the encouragement, he slung it into her harder and harder. The music pumped, the stripper humped, and the ladies jumped up and down watching. Ella heard the yells. That propelled her on for a while, but soon her achy jaws tired. This was the biggest, fattest thing she’d ever had in her mouth. She withdrew.

She had barely removed her mouth from the cock when he ejaculated his semen into the open air, onto her blouse and Carly’s pants. The stripper shuffled away and his penis was soon in the hands of another willing party girl.

“Shit, what have I done?” Ella said.

“Nothing,” Carly said. “Having fun. Let’s get a drink”

They got up and went over to the bar. Carly fixed them a couple stiff ones.

“I can’t believe we did that,” Ella said.

“Forget about it. It’s our secret.”

“But the others…”

“They did it too.”

They sat by the bar, drank their drinks and watched the action. They saw five different girls get fucked by the Black Stallion before the party broke up.

----

Back at Hannah’s house, the conversation between she and Max had made its way into very personal territory. As the spritzers went down, so did their inhibitions. They were into the second pitcher and sitting closer together on the couch. There was an occasional touch on their arms and legs.

“You know a couple things that surprised me,” Max said. “About you and Ella?”

“What?” she asked. She removed her earrings and put them on the table beside her glass.

“First off, was how close you two are. I’ve known a number of people with step-parents, but their relationships were always kind of stiff. Distant. But you two aren’t. You’re like best friends.”

“Yeah, well, I lost a husband, and she lost a father to whom she was very close. We suffered through it together and bonded as we did. So yes, we grew very close.”

“I think that’s good. It certainly made it easier for us. And for me.”

“How so?” she asked, taking a drink.

“It was important to us that you like me. Especially to Ella, I could tell. And with you two being so comfortable together, I could just be myself. I didn’t have to try too hard. It was so natural. Did you two hit it off right away, when you first met?”

“Uh, not really. I didn’t see a lot of her at first. She had her own place, her own life. Hasn’t Ella told you all this?”

“Pieces here and there. She’s been kind of vague.” He drank.

“It was a difficult transition and can be hard to talk about sometimes.”

“I’m sorry, Hannah…”

“No, it’s okay. She’s going to be your wife, you have a right to know.” Pause. “You said there were a couple things that surprised you about us. What was the second?”

“Your age,” Max said without hesitation.

“My age?”

“Yeah, your age. And your looks, your body, and everything else about you. You’re not what I expected, that’s for sure.”

Flattered, Hannah asked, “And what did you expect?”

“Older, like her Dad. Maybe fifty. Maybe frumpy with a big butt and wide hips. I don’t know. But not you. Hell, you don’t look that much older than me.”

Hannah refilled their glasses and they drank.

“How old do you think I am, Max?”

“Hard to say. Thirty-two or thirty-three.”

“I’ll be thirty-seven in three months. What do you think about that?”

Max drained his half-filled glass.

“I think you look younger. I think you look fabulous,” he said, and took a deep breath. “And I think that if I had met you first, I, uh, I don’t know…”

“What?”

“I think that I might be having this same conversation with Ella right about now.”

There was a moment of awkward silence. Hannah looked down at her hands, then back at Max’s face.

He leaned his head to kiss her but she stiffened, so he aborted the effort. What was he doing? Hannah sat still with a blank, confused look on her face. Max gripped his hand around hers but her hand stayed still. He’d gone too far, he could tell. On the eve of his wedding.

“I’m sorry, Hannah,” he said with a rasp, squeezing her hand before he let go. “I’ve said too much. I better go.” He rose from the sofa, and started toward the door. “Thanks for the drinks and a nice evening. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m sorry.”

She sat trancelike, shaking her head. He let himself out.

“No!” she called, as the door latched shut.

She rose and hurried to the door and reopened it, flipping on the porch light at the same time. Max was in the driveway, almost to his car.

“Max, no!” Hannah called. “Please come back.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, keys in hand.

“Yes. Don’t go.”

She held the door open as he walked back up to the house. He bounded up onto the porch and she went inside and he followed. She flipped off the light and locked the door. He’s not going anywhere tonight, she thought.

“Thank you for staying,” she said, and squeezed his hand in delayed reciprocation. “I wouldn’t want you to leave like that.”

“I’m sorry. I talk too much sometimes, and…”

“Sssh,” she said, putting her finger to his lips. “It’s okay.”

For a frozen moment they were silent. Their brains clicked off and their hearts took over.

Their lips met and parted, mouths welcoming tongues, and they were instantly kissing with unbridled passion. They wrapped their arms around each other and pulled tight, pressing the contours of their bodies together. Hannah’s fingers roamed Max’s lower back and the flesh of his neck. He felt the cushioned firmness of her breasts pressing against him, and she didn’t miss his growing erection abutting her abdomen.

The lights stayed on, the music played on and the drinks were left on the table. They made their way down the hall and into Hannah’s bedroom, where they started tearing at each others’ clothing. Piece by piece it all came off, shoes, socks, tops, bottoms, underwear, until they were down to the watch on his wrist and the rings on her fingers. Then they were horizontal on the bed. Max’s lips left her mouth and covered her with kisses on her neck and her shoulders and her breasts, and she squealed with delight when he sucked a hard, plump nipple into his mouth.

He put his hand between her legs, felt her trim, humid bush and slipped two fingers into her ready gash. She clasped her hand around his cock and felt its length and hot hardness. She had not had sex with a man for a long time and she was more than ready. She had this man in her bed and his cock in her hand, and she wanted it inside her. She had known this time would come, and that when the time was right she would know it. But she’d never dreamed, even now as Max sucked on her tits she could hardly believe it, that the man would be her soon-to-be son-in-law.

Max’s mouth alternated titties, back and forth with licks and sucks and nibbles, and her nipples were like swollen bullets. She lost her grip on his cock when his head moved downward. She squirmed when he swirled his tongue around her flat tummy, licked her navel and kissed his way down to her crotch. She felt his fingers vacate her pussy and get replaced by his tongue.

“Oh fuck!” she groaned.

She held his head and mashed her groin against his face. His fingers splayed across the cheeks of her ass and pinched her tingled flesh. His nose whiffed her stockpiled spunk, his tongue tasted it, and his lips pecked at her plump, juiced clitoris. He kept at it, his fingers, lips and tongue in tandem, and drove her to the edge.

He pushed his face into her harder, his tongue deeper. He squeezed her ass like he was making lemonade.

She pushed back, harder yet. She felt like a slut, but God, it felt good, and she thought Ella could forgive her. She emitted a high-pitched scream when she came.

Her body trembled as her pussy drenched his face. He lapped it up like a hound dog, then moved his body up atop hers. He kissed her deeply with his flooded tongue and soggy lips. She could feel her wet cum on his cheeks and chin. She put her hand between his legs and felt for it. It was hot and hard and heavy.

“Fuck me,” she sibilated, and guided his cock to her wet, starved pussy.

It entered that cunt like a warm knife into soft butter. Max slipped his hands back under her butt and started his finger exercises. He started jamming his dick into her nice and slow, but Hannah wanted a higher gear, so in no time they were fast-fucking. Her pelvis seesawed up and down, taking in as much cock as she could on the upswing, and slamming her ass into his tightened hands on the backswing. The bed was screeching along with Hannah.

“Hmmm…yessss…” she murmured, when she felt a finger climb into her asshole. She fucked harder.

Now she was getting reamed front and back, to and fro, and a little more of Max’s middle finger was embedded with each push. When she knew it was all the way in to the third knuckle, she used every ounce of strength in her sphincter to tighten down and hold it, and while his dick pounded her from above she did the same thing with every muscle in her cunt, and tried to suck another orgasm out of the ether.

With his cock and finger on lockdown and their bodies on vibrate, Max’s cum was boiling in his balls. His eruption was near.

Hannah heard Max start to groan. She relaxed her muscles, and tightened them again as hard as she could, then repeated several times. She was about to explode again.

“I’m gonna come,” Max hissed.

“Good. Me too,” she whispered breathlessly.

They humped and they dumped. They kissed for some time, and finally Max removed his appendages from inside Hannah and lay beside her. He held her and their mixed cum seeped out of her and puddled on the bed.

----

After the bachelorette party, Ella and Carly were back at Carly’s place. And like Hannah and Max back at Hannah’s house, they talked about some private, personal, unexpected things.

“I still can’t believe what we did,” Ella said.

“Forget it. Just some wild, crazy fun. It doesn’t mean anything,” Carly said.

“I don’t know. It’s weird. It’s like it wasn’t even me doing it. It just happened.”

“Our secret.”

They were sitting on the wicker sofa on the back porch having a glass of wine, which they both knew they probably didn’t need.

“Should I call off the wedding?” Ella asked.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous! You’d piss off a lot of people if you did that.”

“But I cheated.”

“Come on, Ella. If everybody who got a little something at their bachelor or bachelorette parties called off their weddings, nobody’d ever get married.”

“Really? You think so?”

“Sure. You ever watch porn?”

“Yeah. We watch it sometimes.”

“Do you talk about it? Fantasize?”

“Yeah.”

“So, think of it as virtual porn. You sucked a cock. So what? It doesn’t change how you feel about Max, does it?”

“No.”

Carly poured more wine for both of them. She sipped and held her glass up in salute, then put it down.

“I don’t want to make another toast, there have been enough of those tonight,” she said. “But, can I show you something?”

“Sure,” Ella said.

“Okay, good. Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Ella chuckled and shrugged, then closed her eyes. Carly slid a little closer, took a deep breath, and pressed her lips against Ella’s and kissed her, and held it for a long moment. Ella opened her eyes in surprise but Carly’s were closed. They parted, but only for second. Carly went back for another, and Ella was ready. This second kiss was longer, deeper, and open-mouthed. When they separated Carly had a smile on her face.

“Wow.” Ella said. “Where did that come from?”

“I’ve wanted to do that since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. I wanted to, and I thought you’d like to too, but I wasn’t sure.”

“I liked.”

“I could tell. Can I be completely honest with you?”

“Sure,” Ella said.

“When Max first introduced you to my family, to me, I knew he’d hit the jackpot. I knew you were a thoroughbred and a class act, were attractive and would be good for him. I think I loved you right away. We all did.”

“Thank you, Carly, that’s so…”

“Shh,” Carly said. “Let me finish.” She took another gulp of wine. “What I want you to know is, that I was also very jealous.”

“Jealous? Why? Because I was taking your brother away…”

“No!” Carly barked. She took Ella’s hand in hers. “That’s not why. I was jealous because he was fucking you, and I wasn’t.”

Their eyes were moist globes, locked in. Then, after a few seconds of dead air, it was Ella who initiated the kiss. She opened her arms and Carly was immediately inside them. Their lips met and opened and they were suddenly sucking tongues. They made out like teen lovers, wet and hot and sloppy, and their hands probed over each other, and soon buttons were unbuttoned and zippers unzipped, and despite the fact that in about sixteen hours Ella would be marrying Carly’s brother, tonight would be Ladies Night.

“God, I want you so bad,” Carly croaked.

“Me too,” Ella said. It had been a long time since she’d had a taste of pussy, but she would be eating Carly’s tonight.

They made their way to Carly’s bedroom, undressed each other, and fell naked together onto the bed.

They lay there kissing for a long time while their hands wandered over every reachable nook and cranny of their bodies. Carly’s lips found Ella’s aroused breasts and her fingers slipped inside her soppy gash. She moved downward.

“I’ve dreamed about eating your pussy for a long time,” she said, licking her fingers.

“Wait,” Ella said.

She pivoted her naked body around so they pointed in opposite directions and they both had a head between their legs. Their first sex would be a sixty-nine.They didn’t hesitate. Both buried their faces into wet cunt.

The slurpfest that followed took time as they zealously, and not quietly, licked lips and kissed clits. They moaned and groaned as their assholes were rimmed and finger-fucked.

When they came, only seconds apart, it was an overdue explosion that drowned their tongues, doused their faces and dribbled onto the sheets. After, they stayed in the same position, kissing pussies and thighs, and licking up what they could, tasting the residue of their sex. Then they were back up side-by-side, holding each other, kissing, half-drunk with wine and each other, and did so until they fell asleep.

They woke up a little later than they wanted in the morning. For each, their first vision in the morning was a face smiling back at them.

“Are you okay?” Carly asked.

“I’m wonderful,” Ella said. “Loose as a goose. Another secret to keep.”

“Right. I was just wondering. You know…”

“Yes, I know. But it’s okay, I think. You’re Max’s sister. We’re going to be family.”

They kissed. They kissed again, longer and deeper. Within thirty seconds their nude bodies were enwrapped like a soft pretzel and they did everything they’d done the night before, and more, and they took their time, until both had come.

Carly looked at her watch.

“Oh God, we have to get up,” she said. “Or we’ll be late. We have to be over to your step-mom’s by eleven.”

They dragged their drained, bare bodies into the bathroom and stood side-by-side as they brushed the taste of pussy out of their mouths. Then they got into the shower together.

----

Across town, Max was awakened by Ella’s stepmother going down on him. He always awoke with a huge, hard, stretched, semi-painful boner, and Hannah had awakened first, had seen the big old thing lying there and couldn’t resist. She sucked him until he ejaculated, a massive morning blast, and then kissed him with a mouthful of cum.

“Good morning,” she said. “Consider this an early wedding present.”

Max laughed and said thanks, took her in his arms and rolled on top of her. He kissed her lips and sucked her neck and licked her tits and ate her pussy until she came. Then, with his dick again armed and ready, he rose up and inserted it into her wet snatch, rammed a finger up her ass, and they fucked until they both came again.

“I’d like to stick something else up here,” Max said, wiggling his finger inside her asshole.

“Some other time,” she said. “We have to get up and you have to leave. The girls are due here at eleven, and will likely be early. It’s a pretty big day, you know. We don’t want them finding you here.”

“I know,” he said. He picked up his various pieces of clothing from the floor and started putting them on.

“Hey, are you okay?” Hannah asked.

“Me? Are you kidding. Never better. I had an incredible night.”

“So did I. God knows, I needed it. But…”

“What?”

“Ella.”

“I know.” He pulled on his shoes and sat beside her. “Look,” he said, “It’s going be alright. I think this was bound to happen, and Ella knows it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Max took her hands in his and stared into her eyes.

“Ella and I, well, we have a great sex life. But, uh, we… I probably shouldn’t tell you this. We have talked about having other partners, um, in our bed. Threesomes. But only with somebody we were both a hundred percent comfortable with. We’ve not done it as of yet, but, you were the first person we both agreed on. If she never mentioned it, it’s because we’re not there yet.”

“Really.”

“Yes. So it doesn’t even that feel wrong to me. But if you want to tell her when she gets over here, go ahead, do it. I’m fine with that. Or if you want me to call off the wedding, I will.”

“Like hell you will,” she said. “You do that and you’ll have a pissed-off crowd, a pissed-off wife and a pissed-off mother-in-law.”

Max laughed, kissed her and thanked her for saying that.

----

The female wedding party straggled over to Hannah’s house, one was on time, the rest were thirty to forty minutes late, and most giddily hungover. But that didn’t stop them from having a couple pops of cheap champagne as they dolled up. They were all in a merry mood, which would transfer over to the festivities, and thereby infect all of the guests. The weather was good, clear and warm.

The wedding went well, another short and sweet ceremony for the preacher, although there were coy smiles and subtle eye contact between Max and Hannah, and between Ella and Carly, which they all hoped nobody noticed.

The reception was a blast. Ella was beautiful, and all of the rituals took place smoothly and without a hitch. Max stole a couple dances with his new mother-in-law, the second one a slow number. He navigated them to the center of the dancing crowd so they would blend in. He held her close.

As they slow-danced, Hannah asked Max if he was looking forward to his honeymoon.

“I have a hard-on, you know,” he said into her ear, and pressed it against her. “Can you feel it?”

“You’re young. You have to learn to control yourself.”

“I can’t. It’s because of you.”

“Oh, please,” she said. “You’re about to go on your honeymoon. A week in paradise. You and Ella will be fucking like rabbits.”

“I miss you already. I want to see you when I get back.”

“We’ll see.”

“Hey, you can’t shut me out. Not after last night. It was good for you too, wasn’t it?”

“It was. Like I said, we’ll see. We can talk when you get back. Maybe I’ll give you an I.O.U. Not in writing, of course.” She laughed.

Max backed away and looked at her as the song ended.

“So, Ella told you about the I.O.U. on our first date,” he said.

“She’s told me lots of things. You knew we were close.”

“Did she tell you anything about maybe having a threesome?”

Hannah flicked a few strands of her blond hair out of her eyes. She smiled coyly.

“No comment,” she said with a wink.

----

Hannah had been right about one thing. Ella and Max were like sex-crazed maniacs on their honeymoon. Maybe it was the tropical heat, maybe it was relief that the wedding was behind them and they were now husband and wife, or maybe it was guilt from their premarital strays, but whatever it was, they sure as hell knocked the sexy shit out of each other.

They’d lie by the pool, fondle one another, and go back to the room and fuck. They’d be eating breakfast and Ella would peel a banana and seductively slide most of it into her mouth, and they’d go back and she’d suck his cock. They went on a bus trip, snorkeling and some Mayan ruins, but they just wanted to get back to the hotel and fuck. They went to a bullfight, but that was not a good experience for them; they were appalled when they watched the matador stab the bull over and over until it was dead. But when they got back to their room, Max stabbed Ella over and over with his stiletto penis with about the same amount of force.

Max would see a woman that resembled Hannah, and it would make him think of her, and make him want her, and he’d think about getting back home so he could have her again. Then, as if it were overcompensation to cover up his secret, he’d seduce his wife back to the room and bang the bottom out of her.

Ella had similar thoughts. She’d spot a gal around the pool that reminded her of Carly, take glance at her wet bikini-wrapped cameltoe, and imagine her face down there, between Carly’s legs, and she’d get wet, and horny, and she’d lead her husband back to the room where she would be eaten and fucked.

The honeymoon was an amazing, hot success by any measurement. But when the week ended and they flew home, their thoughts drifted back to the reality of their lives. The flight was smooth and on time, and by the end of the day they both had contacted their secret lovers.

----

“So, Ella, it’s been almost three weeks since our last meeting,” Elizabeth said. “You haven’t told me about your wedding and honeymoon.”

They were in the therapist’s office, well into their session. It was the Wednesday evening after Ella had returned from Mexico.

“The wedding was beautiful. The weather was good, and the reception was a lot of fun. Everybody said they had a wonderful time. And the honeymoon was really good, and relaxing. A whole week at this luxury resort right on the Caribbean. We did a little sight-seeing, but mostly all we did was eat, drink and have sex.”

“That sounds like what an ideal honeymoon should be. Are you both now back into the routine of daily life?”

“Uh, I guess so. Back to the real world. Or bizarre-o world.”

“What do you mean? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, things are okay. Just… I don’t know. It’s not quite what I expected a few weeks ago.”

Elizabeth waited in silence. Then: “Go on.”

“Well,” Ella said, and sipped water. “It’s complicated.”

“How is it complicated?”

Ella took a deep breath, and said, “I’m kind of having an affair.”

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped. “An affair? Already? When did this affair begin?”

“The night before the wedding. At the bachelorette party. Or, actually it was after the bachelorette party.”

“How did happen?”

“That’s a good question. I don’t know how it happened, it just did. She was one of my bridesmaids. Her name is Carly. I went home with her. She kissed me, I kissed her. We went to bed. It was incredible. I hadn’t had sex with a woman since Hannah and it felt so good. I saw her again yesterday after work. We were naked in about thirty seconds.”

“Hmm, this is a new twist,” Elizabeth said. “I see how it could be a complication.”

“That’s not all,” Ella said, and took another drink of water. “Carly is Max’s sister.”

Elizabeth almost dropped her pen. She jotted down a quick note as she tried to figure out where to go next.

“Ella, let me ask you. Do