It took only a month for Karen and Jim to discover that living together wasn’t for them. Unfortunately, the damage had been done by the time they’d discovered this, and the relationship was all but over on the day that Karen called Pam crying, with no other friends in Pennsylvania and no where else to stay.

Pam had offered Karen the futon in her spare room, for as long she needed it, until Karen could find another place that wasn’t a motel room, because she’s already had enough of that.

It took only a week for Karen and Pam to discover that they were better friends as roommates and rent was easier split in half and Pam didn’t really need a whole room to be her studio as long as Karen didn’t mind having to move the easel when she wanted to get to the bookshelf in the living room. And she didn’t. So it worked. And it took only a month for the futon to become a bed and the spare room to become Karen’s room and for the arrangement to become nearly permanent when Karen’s name was added to the lease.

They spent their days at work together and their nights in front of the TV together, watching lame teen dramas and mind numbing reality shows, sipping wine-from-a-box in their best glasses. And it worked.

In fact, if Karen had to name the one thing that bothered her most not having her own place, it was that she and Pam shared a wall. That was it. And it didn’t really bother her all that much, but sometimes at night, she could hear the muffled humming of something electronic and a few breathy sighs in Pam’s girlish voice, and they kept her awake a little longer than usual, but, Pam was cute so it wasn’t weird that Karen thought about it sometimes. She was an adult, and she understood about needs and desires and they’d both been single for over a month, Pam even longer.

And it wasn’t really a new experience for Karen, to sometimes try to listen a bit harder when the buzzing noise stirred her thoughts at night. (Of course, she was in college the last time she’d had feelings like that, her libido was stronger then and the girl wasn’t her roommate.) But it didn’t matter anyhow because Pam wasn’t interested in her in the way that Mary-Anne had been and nothing was to come of it, so she let it go as best she could. And it worked. For a while.

One Friday night, only two and a half months into their new arrangement, they’d both overdone it on Girls Night Out and Angela had dutifully driven them home, even though Pam’s new place was out of the way, but Pam knew that it was on the way to the a certain beet farm and she had giggled so hard at the thought, Karen had begged to be let in on the joke. Pam had only slumped against Karen’s side in the back of Angela’s car and sighed something about love and friendship.

Angela looked at them through the rearview mirror and saw Karen kiss the top of Pam’s head. Love and friendship, she’d thought to herself, and started the car even though she’d never kissed one of her girl friends like that, even when Eleanor’s best cat had died in childbirth and they lost all the kittens.

“What was that for,” Pam looked up half-heartedly, but it made her head spin so she shut her eyes again.

“Don’t know,” Karen lied, and she slipped her fingers into Pam’s open hand and smiled when she felt Pam squeeze them. She didn’t let go afterwards.

Karen unlocked the apartment door and flipped on the lights. Pam followed behind her and collapsed on the couch.

“Don’t forget to lock it,” she slurred, and Karen nodded, flicking the deadbolt and swaying on her feet.

Karen’s weight dipped the couch cushions enough that Pam was now leaning towards her. “Do you have batteries?” She asked suddenly, catching Karen’s grin. “What?” She smiled back.

“What you need them for,” Karen’s grin was toothy and knowing and Pam blushed.

“Something,” she smiled.

“I don’t know. I might have some in a drawer or something. What size?”

Pam stood up abruptly and skipped towards her bedroom. “I’ll check,” she called out behind her.

Karen rolled her eyes and stood up to follow.

She leaned in the doorway to Pam’s bedroom and watched as she opened the drawer to her nightstand and removed a long blue vibrator. It wiggled in her hands and Karen giggled, though the blood rising in her face and lowering in her belly didn’t make her want to laugh. Pam looked up startled, embarrassed, but smiled just the same.

“I’m checking,” she stated.

“I know.”

Pam slipped open the backing and dumped out two D batteries on her bedspread.

“That kind,” she pointed at them and Karen peeled herself from the doorway and wondered drunken and aroused to look closer.

“I might have some, I don’t know. How dead are these?”

“Not too bad, I guess.”

“How urgent is it that you have them?” Karen heard herself ask. Pam laughed and scooped up the batteries, putting them back in and closing the compartment.

“Pretty urgent,” Pam laughed and dropped the vibrator back in the drawer. She took her time shutting it, and Karen watched as she bent at the waist unnecessarily, stretching the fabric of her skirt tight over her ass. She heard Pam laugh before she realized that she was watching her over her shoulder. “Maybe you should get yourself one,” she smiled and stood up.

Karen bit her lip and nodded. She didn’t have anything to say, really.

“Or you could try mine sometime, if you wanted.” Karen nodded again.

Pam lips were on hers before she’d realized that she had moved. Her tongue slipped between Karen’s lips and licked at her teeth. And as soon as it had started, it was over. Pam pulled away and excused herself to the bathroom, whispering something breathily about bedtime and seeing Karen in the morning.

Karen was still awake and staring at the ceiling when the muted buzzing started up, fizzled out, and Pam cursed harshly. There were soft moans and then cries, louder than usual, not stifled by closed lips, labored breathing, maybe Karen’s name whispered in a heavy haze and then silence until morning.

When Pam woke up the next morning, Karen’s door was open and the bed was made, but she was gone. She returned home about thirty minutes later with the newspaper, donuts, a bottle of aspirin and a pack of D batteries.

Pam blushed when Karen handed her the batteries in silence. Neither spoke a word of the events of the night before until that night.

It was tradition for them to finish off a bottle of wine to Saturday Night Solution on Court TV every week and a little awkwardness wasn’t about to get in the way of a night of mocking reenactment actors.

“Think that’s what his parents imagined when he told them of his dreams of acting in Hollywood?” Pam took a gulp of her wine and pointed at the screen, though the man she was referring to was no longer on.

“Think when Dave Holmes left his MTV veejaying he knew it would be for hosting lame forensic marathons?”

“Isn’t he gay?” Pam looked pointedly at Karen.

“I have no idea,” Karen felt her face go red, though she didn’t know why.

“I think he’s gay.” Pam was still staring at her.

“Okay. So?”

“Just… don’t you think so?”

“I have no idea, Pam,” she laughed uncomfortably. “Why so obsessed?”

“I’m not obsessed. He just… I don’t know, doesn’t he look a little like Roy?”

Karen burst out laughing. “No, no. Not at all! You think Roy’s gay?”

“I didn’t say that,” Pam smiled, albeit defensively. “Roy is NOT gay.”

“I’d figured,” Karen finished off her glass and felt the wave come over her.

“But if Roy were gay, he’d be like that guy.” Pam finished off her glass as well and placed it next to Karen’s on the coffee table. “And he’d totally date guys like Jim.”

“What?!” Karen practically busted into laughter at the thought of Roy and Jim ever getting along well enough to be a couple.

“That’d be kinda hot!” Pam grinned like Cheshire Cat.

“Roy know you thought about him with other dudes?” Karen suppressed her laugher long enough to ask.

“Why shouldn’t I? It’s not like he didn’t think about me with other girls!” Pam rationalized.

“How do you know that?”

“He told me! He told me about how hot Jim’s new girl was and how hot it would be if I hooked up with Jim’s new girl.” Karen swallowed a little.

“Katy?” She recalled a conversation from long ago about the Purse Girl that Jim dated and an argument with Roy about dating versus being engaged.

“No! You, silly!”

“Me!? Roy talked about you and me hooking up?”

“Well, as long as he could watch.”

“And not any other case?” Karen wondered maybe she was drunker than she’d previously thought. That perhaps this bottle of wine had been bigger than usual.

“Well, he’s not here now. And I’m not about to call him up, so,” Karen felt Pam’s hands wander up her arms under the sleeve of her t-shirt.

“Here now?” Karen asked lamely.

“Is that okay?” Pam looked worried all of a sudden, as though she’d read everything all wrong. Karen panicked, afraid that Pam was going stop.

“Yes! Yes, I mean. Yes. More than okay,” her lips curled into a smile as she felt Pam crawl into her lap, their lips crashing together.

“I guess I’ve seen the way that you look at me sometimes,” Pam speaks between kisses. “When I get out of the shower--,”

“In only your towel,” Karen adds.

“Yeah,” Pam smiles against her lips. “And how, at night, you always seem to…come, after me. And I can hear you through the walls.”

“Your vibrator is loud,” Karen states.

“You moan loud. And once you said my name,” Pam bites Karen’s bottom lip before sucking it into her mouth.

“You heard me?”

“I heard you,” Pam smiles and pulls the t-shirt over Karen’s head. Karen shivers when the air hits her bare skin. She doesn’t often wear bras on the weekends. They aren’t always exactly necessary. Pam’s mouth closes around one of her nipples and she moans, her hips bucking upward into Pam. “See? You’re loud.”

Karen gasped again as Pam bit down roughly at the sensitive skin.

“Maybe I’m just overly sensitive,” Karen blushed at how stupid she must have sounded. It was true, but that was obvious enough. Pam had barely done more than close her lips over the sensitive bud and she more wet than she could ever remember. Now her teeth were there and Karen was trying no to lose all her focus. They were still kind of conversing.

She felt the vibrations of Pam’s laughter against her skin. “I’ll bet you’re a screamer when someone else makes you come,” Pam’s words sent more jolts between her legs. She moaned again.

“And you? When you aren’t trying to be quiet?” Karen’s breath came out in ragged bursts.

“I guess you’ll find out,” Pam smirked as she lifted her tank top over head and tossed it to the side. Karen’s hands moved to her shoulders instantly, lowering her bra straps and sliding them off her arms.

“You’re just full of surprises,” Karen smiled against her collarbone and Pam’s fingers scraped gently down along her spine when Karen’s tongue started licking the salty skin gently. Every so often, she would suck lightly, her teeth nipping, before moving on, leaving tiny red marks in her wake.

When she reached Pam’s neck, that one spot beneath her hear, she could hear Pam’s breathing increase sharply, a tiny moan caught in her throat. Pam began to roll her hips violently against Karen’s, the moans emerging like a chant.

“Sounds like that’s a good spot,” Karen whispered against her ear before sucking the lobe into her mouth and biting gently. Pam’s hips rocked over a particularly sensitive spot and Karen gasped suddenly, her eyes closing tightly, her teeth clamping down on her bottom lip.

“Wow, what was that? Sounds like you’ve got a good spot there yourself,” Pam was smiling breathlessly, unaware of the tiny purple marks stretching up her neck like ivy.

“Maybe I have a surprise or two of my own,” Karen smirked.

“Care to share?” Pam rolled her hips again, this time at a steadier pace, but Karen’s reactions remained as strong.

“You’ll know, when you see,” She managed to whimper. Pam kept up the pace until Karen grabbed her hips, stilling her. “Now, let’s not end this already,” her eyes were a dark forest green and her lips wet and swollen where she’d bitten them.

Karen’s hands trailed up from Pam’s hips, over her sides, until she was running her fingers over ribs and her bra. She held Pam still while her lips started again, over the collarbone and chest, to the skin peeking out from the tops of the bra cups. Slowly, as Karen felt her lips touching fabric and not skin, she used her hands to peel the fabric down, exposing the hardened pink nipples.

Karen looked up and met Pam’s gaze. She was nodding almost imperceptibly waiting for whatever Karen would do next.

Her lips lowered and kissed each bud, slipping it between her lips and barely touching her tongue to the tips. When she pulled away, the saliva cooled in the air and Pam felt them harden further.

“Your room,” she heard Karen whisper into her skin, her tongue running along the crevice between Pam’s breasts. They swelled with her breathing and Karen’s hands gripped her sides tightly to keep her from rocking too much.

“Yes,” Pam agreed, but neither made an attempt to move. Karen’s teeth nipped at the sides of Pam’s breasts gently.

“Let’s go,” Karen stopped her actions and kissed at the corners of Pam’s mouth.

Pam rose reluctantly and pulled Karen to her feet. As turned towards the bedroom, she felt Karen’s hand on her shoulder, stilling her, turning her back to face her. Karen’s fingers slipped down her back and unhooked the bra, dropping it on the floor.

Their lips met again and Pam started walking backwards, pulling Karen with her. She grabbed Karen’s hands from her sides and placed them on her exposed hips. They dipped immediately under the fabric, cupping her ass. Pam giggled against Karen’s lips.

When they made it (finally) to the bedroom, Pam spun them around until the backs of Karen’s knees were pressing into the mattress. She shoved her firmly on the shoulders and Karen dropped fast.

She watched, eyes wide, as Pam wiggled out of her jeans and underwear before crawling up the mattress over top of Karen.

“No pretenses then?” Karen smirked, her hands finding Pam’s ass again, kneading the flesh in her hands.

“Nope,” Pam smiled, lowering her lips again to Karen’s breasts. Karen was overwhelmingly louder than Pam had ever been, she noticed. She couldn’t wait to prove her own theory about the screaming.

Karen felt Pam slipping down her body slowly and her breath caught abruptly when she realized where this was going. Pam sat up slowly, straddling Karen’s knees. She grabbed Karen’s hands by the wrists and pressed them into the bed. She took the hint, her fingers curling into the comforter and her eyes slipping closed.

Pam’s fingers slid over Karen’s stomach and flicked open the fly on her jeans, dragging the zipper down slowly enough to make Karen squirm restlessly. She gripped the waistband of her jeans and underwear and pulled them down past Karen’s knees. Karen kicked them the rest of the way off.

“Oh my God!” Pam slipped her leg between Karen’s, forcing her knees apart. Her hands ran up the length of Karen’s inner thighs and she moved her head closer.

Karen felt Pam’s breath on the sensitive skin and lifted and lowered her hips rhythmically, begging for any kind of touch.

“When did you get this?” Pam looked up at Karen was a bemused look on her face. Her finger traced the curve of the small metal horseshoe, pressing one of the silver balls directly against Karen’s clit.

“Oh God,” Karen’s hips pumped at the direct pressure. “College,” she sighed.

“So this is your surprise?” Pam pressed her lips against the flat expanse of Karen’s stomach; her eyes flicked up and caught Karen’s smile and slight nod. “Did it hurt?” Pam’s lips moved lower and kissed directly below Karen’s bellybutton.

“Briefly. It’s more than made up for it, since then,” Pam’s lips kissed roughly atop the curls between Karen’s thighs, her chin bumping the stud. Karen moaned wildly.

“How?” Pam kissed the piercing gently, but Karen’s response was just as loud as before.

“Walking, sitting. Seams of pants,” Karen tried to catch her breath. Pam grinned at that last one.

“So your lack of skirts, not an accident?” Pam ran her tongue along Karen, bottom to top, before she could answer. The metal clinked against her front teeth and Karen shouted her name, her knuckles going white as she clung to the bunched fabric.

Pam sucked the small bud in her mouth, maneuvering the metal ball with her tongue, pressing it gently against Karen. She was thrashing so wildly Pam had to use one hand to pin her hips down to the bed, her other hand stroked at Karen’s opening before two fingers slid delicately into the searing flesh.

It wasn’t long after that Pam felt Karen’s walls start clench tightly around her fingers and the short, staccato moans Karen was making turned into a long stream of incoherent shouts. Pam could pick out her name a few times, some ‘please’s and plenty of ‘don’t stop’s. She smiled and continued.

A few moments more and she proved her earlier guess to be right.

Pam rested her head on Karen’s stomach as she waited for her breathing to calm down a little. Karen’s leg was pressed into her center and she squirmed a bit to increase the pressure.

“C’mere,” Karen chuckled when she felt the wetness on her calf. Karen pulled Pam up by the shoulders and kissed her roughly, one hand fondling the weight of her breast, the other pressing their hips together.

Pam attempted to increase the friction between them, their stomachs and legs sliding together, sweat slicking their skin. Karen bit at Pam’s lip and sucked her tongue into her mouth.

She could feel Pam’s nipple hardening against her palm and she rolled it between her fingers. Pam whimpered into her mouth and their hips collided roughly, until Karen flipped Pam onto her back so she was on top.

“Did you replace your batteries,” she whispered into the space between them. Pam groaned as Karen’s plans began to piece themselves together.

“Yes,” as the words left her mouth she heard the drawer opening slowly. As Karen reached, her knee pressed roughly against Pam’s center. “Please,” Pam ground down hard on the sturdy skin. The thought of what was to come sent a surge of wetness between her legs.

Karen sat back on her heels and watched Pam; her hair knotted wildly, lips open and panting. Her fists clenched and unclenched at her sides as her hips kept up the pace. Her eyes opened slowly and she moved her hands to Karen’s thighs, her hands pulling desperately.

“Are you… ready?” Karen moved her knee away and Pam moaned in protest, but she nodded just the same.

Then she felt the familiar warm pressure on her opening and her eyes screwed shut. Her head nodded violently words curled from her mouth, urging Karen to continue.

Karen inhaled sharply and pushed the length of the vibrator deep into Pam, who cried out loudly.

“Did that hurt?” Karen’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Nonononono,” Pam rolled her hips, begging for movement. Karen complied without hesitation. She felt the switch at her thumb and flicked it on.

The familiar buzzing began, louder when it wasn’t through a wall. Pam rocked back and forth, her forehead beaded with sweat. She reached awkwardly for Karen, who gently lay her weight across Pam’s body, keeping enough for her hand to keep up it’s in and out movements. On her way in, her thumb bumped roughly against Pam’s clit, stroking on her way out.

Pam’s hips mimicked the movements in opposite, thrusting deeper. Karen felt the wetness pool between her legs at the power of the moment. This was what it was like, to fuck a girl. She smiled to herself. She could definitely get used to this if she wasn’t careful.

Pam’s nails dug forcefully into Karen’s back and she breathed heavily into her ear.

“Karen, Karen. So good. Oh, God. Please, faster. Please, please,” Karen obliged and began to pump her hand harder. Pam moaned loudly in her ear. She wasn’t exactly the quietest person herself. “Oh, God!” Pam cried out loudly, and Karen turned her head to watch her. Pam’s eyes shut so tightly that tears gathered at the corners, she bit her lip hard and her nails dug mercilessly into Karen’s shoulder blades.

Karen switched the vibrator off, while Pam rode out her climax. When Pam relaxed her hands and dropped them to her sides and sighed heavily, Karen gently slid out the long vibrator and dropped it on the bed.

She kissed Pam gently on the cheek and curled up next to her, letting the waves of heat roll off them and into the air.

Pam broke the silence first with residual drunk laughter. “I can’t believe that’s why you never wear skirts! You’re like, getting off at your desk every day!” Karen giggled. “This is going to change so much about our work days, you know?”

“No, I don’t know,” Karen smiled. “How will this change things?”

“Well, for one, there will be lots more quickies in the bathroom.” Pam rolled over on top of Karen, deliberately bringing their centers together and watching as Karen’s eyes grew heavy-lidded again. “Dry humping in bars,” Karen groaned. Pam continued to list all the wonderful new things they'd be doing.

Karen couldn’t wait.