Author: Erato
Title: The Book of Azan
Universe: Azan
Keywords: MF, Msolo, F1st, cons
Language: English
Part: Chapter 1 of 11

CHAPTER 1

Katie came to my house one night.

"Anne isn't in," I said, referring to my wife. Anne and I had been
married for a couple of years. Anne's an emergency department nurse
and had gone out for a drink with a few of her friends from work.

Katie, Anne and I had all first met about six years ago at the
start of University. Anne was training to be a nurse, Katie was
studying politics, and I was reading computer science. We'd all had
plenty of other friends of course, but a small group of about eight
of us had remained close friends after we'd all left University and
gone on to pursue our different careers.

Anne and I had left London after we'd got married and bought a
small house in a village in Hampshire. Although between us we made
enough money, she as a nurse and myself as a freelance IT security
consultant, to live comfortably in London, mortgage companies were
very wary about lending us money due to my self-employed status.
This necessitated the move out of the capital, to a place where we
could afford to buy with a smaller mortgage.

"Aren't you going to offer me a drink?" asked Katie, gesturing
towards my glass of Sancerre. Katie doesn't normally drink. For
most of the last two millennia, alcohol hasn't been a part of Asian
culture in the same way it was in Europe, therefore the ability to
metabolise it slowly and steadily hasn't been what is called in
evolutionary biology a "selective pressure". So like most
South-East Asians, Katie doesn't handle her drink very well. After
she'd shown me her train ticket, so I was sure that she wasn't
planning on driving home, I went to the kitchen to fetch another
glass.

As we had our drinks, we talked about Katie's career. She's always
been interested in politics. Her parents came to the UK from Hong
Kong before she was born because of politics. In 1997, Hong Kong
was due to become part of China and from the early 1980s, large
numbers of people from the colony left in masses to the UK because
of the uncertainty over Hong Kong's future. Katie's parents were
one of the first wave.

At high school, Katie had been elected as student representative
two years in a row. Perhaps in the first election, her looks had
helped her. Although only five foot two (157 cm), she was a
devastating beauty. She had long, shiny black hair, pale brown
skin, pearl white teeth, dark brown eyes and a small, slightly
upturned nose. A keen swimmer, she was in great shape - slim, but
not skinny; toned, but not like one of those scary female body
builders with bulging muscles. Like many Asians, she had not been
blessed in the cleavage department, but her small breasts were a
nice shape. Of course, back in school she'd had a bit of an acne
problem, but so did all the competition. She got pretty much all
the male vote automatically, and as she was well-liked, if not
exactly popular with the girls at her school, she ended up with a
large majority.

Her record as student representative was impressive. She'd managed
to get the different departments at her school to co-ordinate their
homework schedules so that the previously common situation where a
student would have several big, important assignments due on the
same day was eliminated. Assignments were staggered, students were
less stressed, and reputedly their grades raised enough for
Westminster to take notice. When it came time for her re-election
the next year, she increased her majority.

In University, Katie had taken less of an active role in student
politics, preferring to concentrate on her studies in political
science and, of course, her swimming. She'd joined a political
party and occasionally went on rallies against such-and-such a
policy. She'd even taken Anne and I along to a couple.

"So they're asking me to stand in this by-election at Hartsbridge,"
Katie said while sipping on her wine. Hartsbridge is a constituency
just a few miles from my house; the local MP there, a popular
fellow by all accounts, had recently died, leaving a vacant
parliamentary seat. "The Prime Minister reckons that I have a good
chance of winning."

"Aren't you a bit young to be standing as an MP already? Don't most
politicians try to get a few local council seats under their belt
before standing for parliament?" I asked, and refill her glass.

But Katie assured me that there have been plenty of other
24-year-olds elected to parliament before, and some even younger.
"And the lack of council experience could count as an asset. A lot
of candidates have stories of financial scandals dredged up when
they're campaigning. I'm innocent and new!" Katie laughed.

Then Katie became silent. I wondered if she was feeling OK - she'd
gotten through that first glass of wine pretty quickly and was
already half-way through another large glass. Her face was flushed
and pink and she didn't look her normal, confident self. Like she
was nervous about something. I asked if she was alright. "Fine,
fine. Don't worry. So, what's been going on with you and Anne?"

As I recounted the mundane day-to-day details of what had been
happening in our lives over the past few weeks since we'd seen
Katie, I watched as she fidgeted and drummed her slender fingers.
As she passed me her glass for another refill, her hands were
trembling.

She sat silently, sipping at her wine while I tried to make
small-talk. She didn't seem to really be listening. Katie and I
normally get along well, but this conversation was becoming very
awkward. I began to wish that Anne would come back to help diffuse
the tension.

"It's about that," Katie interrupted. "That innocent thing. I'm a
virgin you know?"

I didn't know. But I'd always suspected it. Although beautiful,
Katie had never had a boyfriend the whole time we'd known her. On
the few occasions that we'd met her pre-university friends, they'd
suggested that she'd never had a serious relationship in high
school either. Of course, you can lose your virginity without
having a "boyfriend" per se, but casual sex didn't really seem to
be Katie's sort of thing. It seemed a damn shame, that then men of
the world should have missed out on such a treat was unfair. With
her tight little athletic body and exotic looks, a night with Katie
would be a night most men would want to remember for the rest of
their lives.

"I want you to fix that," Katie blurted out. "I'm 25 next month,
and I don't still want to be a virgin on my next birthday. I'm fed
up with waiting. I was always waiting for the right guy to come
along, but I don't see why this has to be a big deal. I should just
get it out of the way, and then I can start dating men like a
normal person - I won't need to agonise over whether each man is
good enough to be 'the one'."

"Look," I started, "I'm a married man. And by the way, thanks for
making it clear that I could never be the 'right guy'. You and Anne
are friends. This could never happen."

"That's not what I meant. What I mean is that I want to get on with
my life, with my career, without this pressure weighing me down. I
need someone to 'fix me' and I wouldn't want to choose anyone else
but you, my friend. I know you're married, but that just makes you
even better qualified. It means you probably have a good idea of
what you're doing in the bedroom department. And I know how much
you love Anne, which means you're not going to want to get into a
'relationship' afterwards."

Just then, we heard a key turn in the lock. Anne came into the
room. "Katie, what a surprise," she said. She turned to me and
asked, "aren't you going to pour me a glass?"

As we sat, and Anne and Katie went over all the things that Anne
and I had been doing over the past few weeks, with Katie paying a
bit more attention this time. I watched Katie; she seemed more
relaxed now that she'd gotten that question off her chest. I
thought about what she'd proposed. I could see that this was an
issue that was weighing down on her mind, and I really wanted to
help her as a friend.

But I loved Anne, the beautiful red-headed Anne, who was sitting
across the room from her on the arm chair. I couldn't betray Anne.

As Katie spoke, she played with her hair. She normally tied it back
in a pony tail, but she was wearing her hair loose that night.
Glimpses of light reflected off the silky strands as she twirled it
around her fingers. She was a vision of oriental beauty. I began
imagining her long black hair draped over her slender shoulders,
caressing her pert little breasts. Imagining stroking my hand down
her hair, over her flat, toned stomach and down towards her tight
virgin cunt. Was it hairy or just a little fuzzy? I didn't know. I
could find out. I swallowed.

No, it could never happen. I sat up straight. I'd not really been
listening to the conversation, but it seemed that Katie was
preparing to leave now. Anne and I walked her to the door. The door
closed behind her.

I opened it. She was half way down the path. "That thing we were
talking about", I called to her, "How about next weekend?"