The Trackletes

Laura put down the phone and was thrilled. Sports Illustrated had gotten in touch, wanting her for the cover. She had landed several sponsors over the years, but winning the Silver in the Long Jump at the Olympics last year finally pushed her into the spotlight. She had done a few commercials and some ads as part of the USA Olympics team last year and four years ago. Laura knew she needed this to pivot on her career, as she was feeling the strain in her joints, and while she thought she could still compete, probably even in the next Olympics, she wasn’t sure if she would make it to the one after that. So she was trying to pick up enough modeling work that she could make a name for herself, and maybe get into acting or make enough connections to get a job as an agent for other athletic young women. She knew this was a risk pursuing being a professional athlete instead of a career in structural engineering, for which she got her bachelor’s degree. She supposed in theory she could fall back on that, but with how long since she graduated and not working in the field, she feared no one would hire her for that role, and even if they did, it would be for an entry-level position. She didn’t regret her choice, though she loved competing and excelling in her sport, and she lived for the endorphins from exercise. It also didn’t hurt being around a bunch of incredibly fit young men and women who often wore very little. That orgy with a bunch of other people on the various track teams looking to celebrate various victories of their teammates was a hell of a lot of fun. In fact, she found that she could almost always find some young stud for a casual hookup at her track meets, and boy, was it great. With the adrenaline from landing a spot on the cover of the magazine flowing through her, she got dressed in a pair of running tights and a sports bra to begin her training for the day. She got in the elevator to take her down to the first floor of her apartment complex when the power went out.

Chloe sat down outside at a cafe, enjoying the sights and sounds of Paris. While she was here on a business trip finalizing approval of a new weight loss ****, one that actually worked mind you, she wanted to also take in the sights and when she learned her friend Aubrey would also be here for a Chemistry conference she just had to meet up with her, after all it had been so long, since she had seen her Little from her sorority in person. They had agreed to meet up at this cafe and then go be tourists for the day, seeing some of the most iconic spots in Paris. Alas, either she had gotten the time wrong or Aubrey was once again running late.

Aubrey was running late and was lost with her high school French lessons being of little help in figuring out where she was and how to get to the cafe she had agreed to meet Chloe at; It didn’t help that her phone was also dead as she forgot to plug it in the night before. Finally, she managed to flag down a local who was able to give her directions to where she wanted to go. Walking up to the cafe, she saw Chloe already at a table outside, and walked up behind her and in a playful tone said, “Well, who do we have here? Chloe, it has been forever.” As she opened her arms for a hug.

“Aubrey,” Chloe said while standing to embrace her friend, “it has been too long. How is the conference?” They sat down and placed an order for a light breakfast and coffee.

“Oh, you know bunch of hyper-specific and technical papers plus the occasional ‘Behold the new miracle compound’ with only preliminary data, but is OH SO Promising,” Aubrey said in a mocking tone. “So you know a typical conference. Also, I keep getting constantly hit on. As of the end of day three of the conference, I am up to either 23 or 24 times, depending upon whether that grad student from Oxford was hitting on me or not when she complimented my outfit. How have things been for you?”

“Fantastic, we are about to launch our new product, pending final approval of course, but I have heard through the grapevine that the FDA has all but approved it, and we have just a few more hoops to jump through to start sales here in the EU as well. So I should be getting one fat bonus when all this is done, not quite retirement money but enough that I shouldn’t need to worry about being able to retire before I am 50.”

“I am jealous, sometimes, I wish I had just gone into industry instead of taking the academic path.”

“Aubrey, don’t be like that. This was definitely the better path for you. You love learning and teaching, and frankly, it can be quite exhausting, as I think I have worked 60-hour weeks for the past 4 months on this project, and I know that wasn’t ever what you wanted. Plus, I have hardly had time for any kind of social life, which I know finding someone to start a family with was very much a dream of yours. Speaking of that, how are things going on that front? As you are clearly getting attention?”

“Poorly, a lot of it is either from: undergrads whom I TA for, pigs who think I owe them something because they looked my way, or asshole cheaters.”

“Ouch, I assume your now ex cheated on you?”

“No, somewhat worse, he took my work and tried to pass it off as his own. If I didn’t have detailed video logs that backed up my claims that it was my work, I could have been in real trouble, probably even expelled from my program. Which is what happened to that bastard.”

“Oof, is it going to affect your graduation at all?”

“Yeah, unfortunately, things had to be put on hold for an investigation. It also kind of blew up my friend group at the school. I just want to defend my thesis and then move on to a postdoc elsewhere, preferably far away from most of the people there. Well enough about depressing topics, shall we go tour Paris?”

“Sure, let me just pay the bill.”

“Fine, but only if you let me get the taxi to the Louvre.” Aubrey and Chloe flagged down a taxi to take them to the museum. As they sat down in the backseat. A Short blonde woman asked.

“Alright, where to?” After telling her where they wanted to go, she replied, “No problem, I will get you to where you need to be in no time.” As she began to drive off, Aubrey and Chloe drifted off into unconsciousness, leaning up against one another.

Laura, Aubrey, and Chloe suddenly found themselves standing in the middle of a stage with the seats in the audience being eerily empty, but encircled by seven women and one man.

“Hey, where are we and… wait a second, you are the cab driver,” Aubrey said as she pointed at the short blonde woman sitting off to the side next to the unknown man. “Did you **** us?”

“Very observant of you, yes, I was the cab driver, so sorry you never got to go to the Louvre, but I did say I would get you to where you needed to go, not where you wanted to go.”

“And where exactly is that, pray tell?” Chloe demanded with a hint of exasperation in her voice. Though with a hint of confusion as well, since she definitely recognized several of the women present, and she thought the guy too, but wasn’t sure.

“I would like to know that too.” Added Laura, “Also, Hi Chloe, long time no see, and Aubrey, right?” Aubrey nodded in response to the question.

“Well, I was getting to that, so don’t get your knickers twisted. My name is Cassandra. As for where you are, you are on the stage of HAREM HOTEL: Missed Encounters, you can think of it like the bachelor, where you are all competing to win the affection of a guy, except in this case, you are competing for a spot in his harem of beauties.” Cassandra waved her hand to prevent what she knew was coming. “Now I am going to stop the three of you before you start yelling, with a little magic. Why don’t you take a seat, and we can finish introductions and then go over the rules for the competition. Why don’t you start, Laura?” The three women sat down and felt dizzy as they gained memories of the other people present giving their introductions just moments before.

“Hi, I am Laura Elliot. I know Mark as he was part of the track and cross country teams in his freshman year of college, but then he quit despite his talent. We weren't really that close, and he was a year behind me, so I mostly heard of him through word of mouth, but he always seemed respectful. I am a professional athlete, having won the Silver medal for Long Jump in the Olympics last year, though I am transitioning toward a post-athletic career at this point. I am 34 years old, 5”9’, my measurements are 34A-26-34, 130lbs. I am pansexual. My last sexual encounter was a few weeks ago after a qualifying competition. I hooked up with two of the other competitors, both individually and then at the same time, having proposed the three-way myself.” Laura was slightly annoyed at having revealed so much, even though she was open about her sexuality and had no problem discussing sex in general, it didn’t mean they had a right to details about her sex life she didn’t want to give. Though she realized she literally couldn’t speak in protest as Chloe began to speak.

“Hi, my name is Chloe Stapleton. I also know Mark, as he was part of the track and cross country teams in his freshman year of college, though we also had a lot of mutual friends and saw each other at parties as well. I thought he was funny but rather reserved, and that he didn’t really know how to act around women. I currently work for a pharmaceutical company in the R&D department. I am 32 years old, 6”0’, my measurements are 32D-22-34, 135lbs. I am generally straight, but have secretly crushed on Aubrey for a while, but never decided to pursue that feeling because I didn’t want it to affect our friendship, and knew she wanted to have children of her own, which I couldn’t give her. My last sexual encounter was probably a few years ago with a guy I had been dating for a few months. It wasn't particularly great.” Chloe went beet red. How could she have said that about Aubrey? She never wanted to voice that. She glanced to her side toward Aubrey, who had a shocked look on her face, which quickly changed to match Chloe’s beet-red face as she made eye contact briefly and then looked toward the ground as quickly as she could. At least until Aubrey felt her head **** up and began to introduce herself as well.

“Hi, my name is Aubrey Martini. I know Mark from college, though I know him from the community service organization we were a part of. He was two years my senior, so I didn’t interact with him a bunch, but as he was in the leadership of the organization, I knew him from various meetings and planning sessions. He was honestly kind of intimidating, but that might just be because he was in charge of keeping meetings on task and making sure people were staying on topic. I am currently working on my PhD in Chemistry research, addiction recovery from a chemical dependency viewpoint. I am 30 years old, 5”8’, my measurements are 36DD-24-34, 145 lbs. I guess I would say I am straight, as I haven’t really ever thought about women in that way, even if I can admire their forms. My last sexual encounter was giving my now ex-boyfriend a blowjob, and then him eating me out in return.”

“Thank you so much, you three. And there you have it, folks, the last of the contestants. Next time, we will go over the rules of the competition. And if we have time, we might even get to opening the best girl poll and transformation polls, so stay tuned.”