Friends and Lovers Ch. 02

"Jake are you seriously trying to convince me that had the young woman in either of those cases been some you didn't know you would have just stood back and watched?

"No, you're right. I would have intervened in both cases."

"She hasn't had a chance to properly thank-you but I know Gina is grateful you did what you did, including backing off when she told you too."

They walked in silence for a bit both lost in thought.

Kate broke the silence with, "Jake you need to fuck both Gina and Astrid and brag about it."

"WHAT???"

"If the men can see there are tangible benefits to being like you it would give a real boost to the program."

The was a short pause, then she said, " Never mind if you did that every dick at the university would be looking for a blow job every time he opened a door for a girl."

They were only a few yards from Jack's apartment building so he stepped forward opened the door and in mock sincerity said, "One blowjob please."

She responded, "I had something far more entertaining in mind, but if that's all you want I guess it's okay."

The door had no sooner closed behind them when Kate turned to give Jack a deep, passionate kiss. The then reached for his hand and led him into the bedroom. While he quickly took off the miner's belt and unzipped his coveralls she bent over on the bed and said "Pull my tail."

When he did he found it cleverly hid the pull tab for the zippers of the costume. He pulled the bottom one first to full extent and found Kate hadn't worn panties and her naked ass was his to view in its entire splendor. He started caressing the firm globes before him. Separated the cheeks and with his index finger tickled her anal bud. Kate quipped "Seems we have found a type of asshole Jake Crawford does like," she followed with, "I'm game."

Jack reached into the drawer of his bedside grabbed the lube then squirted some on her anus and the fingers of his right hand. As he was slowly working his right index finger into her butt his left hand was open the zipper that ran up her back. When he undid the clasp at the top the whole upper part of the bunny costume fell away so he reached in and played with her nipples. He leaned over starting light butterfly kisses to the back of her neck.

While Kate was enjoying the sensations from the different areas of her body he slipped a second finger into her rectum. After a couple of minutes Kate moaned, "Now Jake now!" He released her nipple, slipped in behind her and slid his now throbbing erection into her willing rectum. Jack was so aroused that he immediate started pounding into her ass. She moaned loudly, followed by, "That's it Jake hammer my ass, Oh yeah Jackhammer Jake the cock driving man."

Hearing the last bit, he said, "Smart ass," then cupped his hand and gave her right cheek a smack.

That elicited another moan with, "Do it again Jake, smack my smart ass again. On the third smack Kate loudly moaned yesssssssss! Jack felt her anus squeeze his cock hard, causing him to erupt into her rectum. They stayed in that position resting until Jack softened and his penis slipped out of her.

When that happened he looked at the mirrored door of his closet then started to chuckle. "What's so funny? She asked. He pointed to the mirror and said "Look".

When she turned her head and saw their image in the mirror she started to laugh. What she saw was herself naked but for the bunny ears with her butt in the air and standing behind her Jake, still wearing his miner's helmet, black all over his face, his coveralls puddle around his work boots which he still had on.

They also started to notice the smell, a combination of stale beer, sweat and sex.

Jack finished undressing, reached out his hand helping Kate off the bed and led her to the shower they were so tired by this point all they did was wash each other eschewing the erotic possibilities, dried each other and walked back to his bedroom. Jack tossed the smelly clothing out the bedroom door and they climbed into bed still naked and almost immediately fell fast asleep.

Kate awoke first the next morning when the sun's rays hit her face. She lay in bed just enjoying the morning when a horrible thought struck her. She jumped out of bed found Jake's phone and, checking it wasn't too early, she called her flat.

Thankfully Gina answered the phone, saying, "I was expecting you to be calling when you realized you had nothing but a bunny costume to wear this morning. Although it would be a walk of shame of legendary proportions, it would be worse if all you had to wear was MY bunny costume. Anyway your dignity is safe. Vi and Asti got up early and went for a run so there will be no questions when I leave here with a bag full of your clothes.

Kate gave her directions on how to get to Jake's apartment and when she had finished Gina told her she would be there in about twenty minutes.

She then looked through Jake's closet, found a Polo Shirt to wear until Gina arrived and woke up Jake.

"Time to get up lazy bones Gina's going to be here soon and then we're heading to the Lazy Cow for breakfast, so you better get dressed."

Gina arrived and Kate ducked into the bathroom to get changed. While they were waiting Jack asked Gina how Astrid was that morning.

"She was bubbling over with self-confidence. I don't think we could have planned it better for her to see she could handle herself in dealing with that type of emotional situation. She is aware that she had back up, but none the less she handled it and she is proud of herself.

I pointed out the possibility of violence from the frustrated male. She told me she had realized that possibility and in the future she thought she would be able to see it coming and would brush off the jerk before it reached that point.

I was surprised when you didn't come charging in to the rescue."

"That was Kate's doing. I was about to when she held me back essentially predicting what you just told me."

Kate then entered the room and asked, "What cha guys talking about?

Jack answered, "I was just telling Gina how you stopped me from interfering last night."

"I have to admit Jack I was only a little surprised you listened to me. When we first met we, Gina and I, thought you were going to turn out to be some sort of chauvinistic red neck peckerwood. But that quickly changed at the dinner when you kept Roscoe from turning it into a disaster. Then at the bar when Greg showed up I was impressed when you did as Gina asked,"

Jack interrupted, "I believe the correct term is told"

"Okay when Gina indicated she didn't require your assistance. Astrid is an extraordinarily beautiful young woman and she is going to get hit on a lot. With the three of us keeping an eye on her, giving womanly advice..."

"I am supposed to give her womanly advice?" Jack asked with a smile, interrupting her again.

"I meant Vi, not you, and you know it."

Kate then turned to Gina and said, "We're going to have to break this boy of his habit of interrupting when we are trying to educate him."

"Boy? I'm older than either of you so the right term is man."

"See what I mean." Kate said to Gina

"To continue what I was saying, with the three of us giving her womanly advice and your presence looming in the background by the time she is ready to date she will be able to handle herself.

Enough of this, I'm hungry. I burned a lot of calories last night and need something to eat." Kate finished with a smirk on her face.

They started walking and Jack quickly found himself with a woman on either side holding his hand.

When they arrived at the Lazy cow they saw Kevin stand up and wave them over to the booth where he, Liz and Dave were sitting.

The conversation was lively with everyone contributing funny anecdotes from the previous evening.

As they were getting ready to leave Gina told Kate she was going to walk back with the others and would see her later at the flat.

When Jack and Kate arrived at his apartment, Jack put his arms around Kate and tried to kiss her. He was surprised when she turned her head and he kissed her cheek instead of her lips.

She pushed him away and asked, "Jake, are you seeing anyone else?"

"Seeing?" He responded.

"God, you are so thick sometimes. Are you fucking anyone else?"

"No"

"Why not? You know we have no future together."

Kate continued, "Good Lord man most of the third year women feel the way I do about getting involved in a romance and I am sure you are number one on the list of men they want to fuck. Hell I know for a fact that Gina would almost drop her pants in the middle of the street if you indicated an interest."

Jack mumbled some about morals.

"Morals have nothing to do with it. Most of these women want relief with a man they know they can trust and knows they cannot afford romantic complications. The friends with benefits situation, sex with someone who they know well enough to trust but with enough emotional separation that it won't get complicated. The fact that the only one you've fucked since you've been here is me makes you even more attractive as the can see you are not taking advantage of your somewhat unique situation of being the only man older than them that is not in our class."

"What do you mean I'm not in your class, I happen to think I'm a very classy individual." he said trying to lighten the mood.

Unfortunately it had the opposite effect on Kate. "God damn it Jack I'm serious!" she came close to shouting at him, "Look at it this way, until I hear from a reliable source that you have been intimate with someone else these legs remain crossed to you. And just so you understand I'll rephrase it. You ain't getting any."

Seeing the stunned look on his face she softened her tone, "Jake I love you dearly as a friend, but I told you I can't let it go farther than that."

She gave him a proper kiss then left, leaving him standing speechless.

He spent the rest of the day ruminating over what Kate had said. Her argument made sense in a way but the idea just didn't sit well with him. One night stands and seeing more than one woman at the same time was something he had always equated with sleazy players. Although he could see the difference it just wasn't the way he saw himself. He was, to his mind, a one man one woman type, not one man one woman her friend and her classmates. That he was going to lose his cherished time with Kate if he didn't go along with it irritated him.

He was still irritated Monday morning when he went to class. Astrid could see something was wrong and asked him about but he said it was nothing. To his mind Astrid would be the last person he wanted to talk with about his sex life.

His irritation finally reached the point where he couldn't hold it in anymore during his Tuesday Contracts class. They were told to read a case, Peters et al v. Consolidated Industries Inc. A judgment of the Alberta Court of Appeal the reasons delivered by Justice Hugh Crawford, the associate chief justice. The case was about synonyms and how the effected the meaning of an agreement.

The breaking point came after listening to a blowhard tell the class how each synonym had a slightly different meaning thus changing the way the contract was interpreted. This particular classmate was one who was forever insinuating that because he father was senior partner of the largest Law firm in Toronto he was superior to the rest of the class.

Jack stood up and said, "With a due respect to my friend", using the terminology they had be taught that lawyers used with each of even if they had no respect for, and hated the guts of the other Lawyer, "I called Uncle Hugh last night and asked him about this decision and he said his point was that a deal is a deal and the use of synonyms did not change that one bit."

Both the class and his teacher, Professor Thompson, were stunned by this very un-Jack like outburst. It was right at the end of the class so Jack picked up his books turned around and walked out of the class when he finished his tirade.

Astrid quickly grabbed her books and ran to catch up to him. When she did she asked, "Is Justice Crawford really your Uncle? I thought you said you were the first in your family to go to University?"

Jack replied, "He's not and I am."

"Jack you know Professor Thompson made it clear that he wanted our opinions and would dock us if he thought we were parroting some family member, what possessed you?"

"I just couldn't take listening to that smug idiot anymore so I thought I would take him down a peg. Even if I get docked it was worth it to see the look on his face when poor oddball Jack turned out to have heavy weight family connections."

Astrid shook her head in wonderment at the new side of Jack she had just seen.

Professor George Thompson was as stunned as the rest of those present at Jack's outburst. He was particularly puzzled as he considered Jack to be one of his star pupils and capable of coming to the conclusion he did without asking for help.

After considering what happened for a bit he went to his office picked up the phone and dialed an Alberta number. When the phone was picked up the answerer said tersely, "Hugh Crawford."

"Hi Hugh, George Thompson here."

"Hi George it's good to hear your voice again but I'm afraid it's bad timing as I have to be on the bench, well right now."

"Okay I'll make it quick. Do you have a nephew John Alexander, known as Jack, Crawford and has anyone called you in the past couple of weeks to talk about Peters and Consolidated Industries."

"That's easy no and no. You'll have to explain this to me at the summer Canadian Bar Association meeting but right now I have to run."

Professor Thompson was relieved to find out Jack had not broken the rules, but it did provide the perfect opportunity to bring home his point to the class in a way that they would never forget. The only question he had was why Jack had done it.

The answer came when there was a knock on his office door. He said, "Come in." then seeing who it was continued, "Ah Ms. Alfredson what can I do for you."

"It's about Jack Crawford sir, I spoke to him after class and he isn't related to Justice Crawford and no one helped him with his analysis of the case."

"You will be relieved to know I had already come to that conclusion. That doesn't explain why he did it though."

"He meant no disrespect sir. What he told me was he was tired of listening Billings, who he referred as that smug idiot, and decided to take him down a peg by pretending he had impressive legal connections as well."

"Thank you very much for telling me. Mr. Crawford is lucky to have a loyal friend like you."

The next Contracts class was Thursday. When they had all taken seats the anticipation of the shit hitting the fan at Jack was almost palatable. When Professor Thompson entered the room there was dead silence as he started the class with the statement they were all expecting.

"At the beginning of this class I told all of you I wanted your opinions, not those of family members and if I ever hear someone quoting a family member again they will get no better than a B regardless of how well they do the rest of the year."

"Mr. Billings," the professor addressed the student who had so irritated Jack the previous class, "I heard your father spout the exact same claptrap at a conference two years ago. You now known the consequences if I hear his words from your mouth again."

"Mr. Crawford congratulations. That was a very succinct encapsulation of Justice Crawford's ruling."

Then to the class he said, "In case you are wondering why Mr. Crawford is not receiving the same censure as Mr. Billings, I know that he is in no way related to Justice Crawford and his reference to him as his uncle was just a joke, albeit in poor taste."

"Now, moving on to Beswick v. Beswick."

***

After class Asti walked with Jack for a bit and risking his ire asked, "Jack what's bothering you? You're still not yourself."

He replied, "Don't worry about it Asti, I just have to come to grips with something Kate said to me."

As they moved into November the social aspects tapered off as the most of the second and third year courses where only a semester in length so those students had final exams to study for and the first years had mid-term course exams which, although not as important, were their still first law exams and they wanted to do as well as they could on them.

Jack's extracurricular activities consisted mainly of meeting with the study group. Either by luck or some innate sense, the group Astrid had assembled had at least one person strong in each subject so everyone contributed.

The exams ended on the 18th of December. That evening the group that had gone to together on Halloween reassembled to go out to celebrate the end of exams.

Jack was not enjoying himself at all. Every time he tried to get Kate alone for a minute she would somehow anticipate him and maneuver away.

He finally caught her alone outside the washrooms. In as casual a manner as he could muster he asked, "So Kate when are you flying out?"

"The twentieth." She replied, then added, "I Know what you're thinking Jack and the answer is no."

Caught, he quickly changed was he was going to say, to, "I was going to ask if you wanted a lift to the airport but I'm leaving on the 20th as well. What time is your flight? Maybe we could share a cab to the airport? "

As it turned out they were on the same flight on Air Chaos, as a friend of Jack's had nicknamed the airline years ago.

"Sharing a cab sounds like a good plan to me. Be at our flat with your luggage by 11:00 a.m. and the answer to the question you were going to ask is still no."

Jack spent the next day cleaning his apartment and packing for the trip home.

On the twentieth he planned his walk to the girl's flat so that he arrived at exactly eleven.

When he got there he was surprised that not only was Kate waiting for him but Astrid was there with her luggage as well. When he asked her about it she told him that Winnipeg was only a stopover and the planes final destination was Calgary so all three were on the same flight.

When they checked in at the airport Astrid, at her charming best convinced, the airline clerk to put them all in the same row. If that wasn't bad enough for Jack, she had the clerk arrange the seating assignment so that Kate had the window seat and Jack had the aisle seat with Astrid in between them. Her logic was Kate being the smallest would fit the best by the window and Jack being the tallest would benefit from being able to stretch his legs into the aisle if he felt cramped.

While the logic was flawless he couldn't help but feel that the real reason was to keep Kate and him apart.

When the fasten seatbelt sign was turned off Asti shifted in her seat so her back was half turned towards Jack and starting talking with Kate about their plans for the Christmas break, effectively cutting Jack out of the conversation. He didn't think Asti meant anything by it, but although he wouldn't admit it, he felt a little unloved and sulked a bit.

He had spent a restless night and being excluded, he soon fell asleep. He awoke for the in-flight meal and was asked about his plans for the holidays. Since he had none other than seeing his family and maybe visiting with a few of his old friends the conversation soon ground to a halt.

Asti once again turned towards Kate having decided whatever was causing Jack's funk was none of her business and resumed her conversation. This time Jack didn't even bother trying to listen in, he just shut his eyes and went back to his nap.

He awoke to the pinging of the fasten seatbelt alarm. Before he really caught his bearings Astrid said if slightly apprehensive tone of voice, "Jack wake up." Followed by, "Quick change seats with me."