“I’m gay? You told your new boyfriend I’m gay?! Come on Rachel. Seriously?”

Bill couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“I had to, Bill! There was no way he was going to even go on a second date, let alone start dating me seriously if he knew my roommate was a guy!”

Rachel felt as though she had no choice. She and Bill had been roommates for a year, and they had never so much as touched each other. Although she thought he was very cute, and he was a great guy, she never expressed any romantic interest in him, and he apparently felt exactly the same. She loved talking to him, hanging out with him, and having him as a roommate. She felt safe, he respected her, and he kept to himself. Besides, he was very neat and kept the place clean. She had no desire to get rid of him, so she had to come up with some story as to why she had a male roommate. It wasn’t the first time she told a boyfriend her roommate was gay, it was just the first time that Bill found out.

“What if he knows someone who knows me? I can’t have that out there! I’ll never meet another woman with that reputation.” Bill was growing agitated.

“You’re making too much of this, Bill. Marty and I are just dating, and he lives nowhere near here. You won’t have anything to worry about.”

Rachel assured her roommate as she rinsed the plates from their lunch and filed them into the dishwasher.

“Please don’t do that again,” Bill pleaded, handing Rachel a glass.

“Bill, a good, decent man isn’t going to feel comfortable dating a woman who lives with another guy. You and I aren’t dating so…” Rachel breaks her train of thought. She laughs and shakes her head to herself.

“What the hell was that?!” Bill caught what he perceived as an overt display of disdain at the mere thought of a relationship with him.

“I’m sorry. It’s just that you and I are totally not together as couple, you know? Anyone can see that.” Rachel took a more respectful tone.

“Yeah, I know. It’s a shame they can’t see that so that I DON’T HAVE TO BE GAY!”

The two were laughing now.

“Maybe I should play it up and act the part next time Marty is over here.” Bill continued to tease.

“Honestly, Bill, he would rather spend time at his place since he lives alone. Besides, his place is really nice, so we will most likely hang out there.” Rachel shrugged her shoulders.

“Nice, huh? What does he do?” Bill sat at the bar that was part of the kitchen counter.

“He’s an account manager for Citation Bank.”

“Sounds boring.” Bill looked over his shoulder at the clock. Ten minutes ’till Star Trek.

“He seems to like it. It pays enough for him to be able to afford a large condo and new furniture. Which is why we mostly spend time there.

“You have to drive back here in the mornings before work?” Bill shook his head in disapproval. Rachel was beginning to think Bill was a little jealous, which he was.

“We’re not sleeping together so that’s not an issue. I always drive back at night when we see each other.”

Rachel was drying her hands looking at Bill as she spoke.

“Oh yeah, the five-month rule. You still doing that?”

Bill was impressed by Rachel’s “five-month rule”. She never had any sexual contact with a man until after they had been officially dating for five months. Rachel explained it last Halloween night when they were both stuck at home with the flu. It has saved her a lot of heartbreak as some men have given up on her after the first few weeks, others, after hearing about it for the first time. Her rule gave her some serious insight into a man’s character and how seriously he was about the relationship. Rachel had discipline and Bill respected that.

“Yes, I’m still doing that. It’s not a popular fad, that’s for sure. Are you still trying to get to third base on the first date?” Rachel said crossing her arms in her “I’m starting some shit” pose.

“You got that right!” Bill responded proudly, smiling.

“Still single?” Rachel smiled and walked through the living room to her bedroom down the hall.

Bill shook his head and walked over to the couch. He pressed the remote control and waited for the Star Trek re-runs to begin.

Rachel quietly closed the door halfway and lay down to read.

Rachel and Bill had been together for over a year now; and three months into their second lease together, the two had worked out most of the minor issues that roommates have when getting used to one another.

Bill rarely dated. He was one of three IT’s for a local school district so he had a decent paycheck and never brought much work home from his job. He was a classic geek, and loved his geek hobbies. Rachel teased him, but watched most his sci-fi shows with him, which made her at the very least, a geek by association. Every now and then, Bill would hook up with a woman he met online. It resulted in sex about a quarter of the time, so he felt pretty good about his sex life. Rachel always thought he was better looking than he gave himself credit for. Six feet tall, dark brown hair, brown eyes, and skinny, he could do better than he normally did. He apparently wasn’t into dating.

Rachel was about as attractive as Bill was, that is, they were both around “sevens or eights” out of ten in the commonly referred to attraction scale. Rachel had curly, light brown hair, a slender body with a round butt and full “C” cup breasts. Her mother’s family was Scottish and Danish and her father was a not-so-religious Jew who had family from the Netherlands. She had a western European look to her. Bill always admired her perfectly flawless skin. No freckles, no moles or other blemishes. Just smooth, ivory skin. She worked on a marketing team for a pharmaceutical company and loved that she also rarely had to work at home or on weekends.

An hour later and Star Trek had finished and an old episode of Star Trek Voyager was wrapping up. Bill was laying comfortably on the couch and Rachel was taking a nap with her romance novel open on her chest. Little did he realize that the scene on the episode he was watching on the Voyager series would have a lasting impact on Bill’s sexual future.

Bill’s favorite masturbation fantasy involved popular cartoon characters and pornographic versions of sci-fi characters from TV. Seven of Nine, a female cyborg character played by Jeri Ryan from Star Trek Voyager was at the top of his list for “fap” material. Her slender body and large breasts were the main reasons for his fascination with the character, but in this episode, Bill was focused, for the first time, on her legs and feet.

Her feet were sleek and perfectly formed. High arches, pronounced heels, pointed toes. This set his mind in motion. He turned the TV off and walked down the hallway to his room, passing a sleeping Rachel, he closed his door, opened his laptop and began searching for fake pictures of Seven of Nine to masturbate to. As he was looking through the photo shop images of Seven sucking a big cock and others with her tit-fucking a big dick, he came upon a one-minute video clip of an actress dressed like Seven, only half naked, getting her feet licked by a guy in a Klingon costume.

This scene caused Bill to cum almost immediately. He found it so insanely sexy, that he downloaded it and saved it to his hard drive…something he never did. He later found a longer version of the clip and managed to cum two more times as he repeatedly watched the woman get her feet licked and toes sucked by the man wearing the Klingon costume.

‘What the hell?’ He thought. He had never had an experience like that before. The appeal of the video was so intense, so powerful, that he contemplated calling in sick the next day so he could masturbate to it for a longer period of time.

He went to bed with the thought of him caressing Jeri Ryan’s feet.

After waking up with a hard-on, he managed to get to work, and he was glad he did. It was a busy day and one of the teachers in his building needed several programs re-installed, so he was needed. Still, all day, he thought about Seven’s feet and how that repulsive Klingon was having his way with them. Bill must have gotten hard four times. He began fantasizing about getting home so he could masturbate.

He arrived home later in the day.

“How was school, Bill?” Rachel usually got home around the same time as Bill. Today she had already made it home and was in her shorts and T-shirt peeling potatoes for dinner.

Rachel and Bill usually ate together, or at least cooked enough food for both of them to eat at the same time. Sometimes Bill took his in his room, it just depended on the mood.

“Good. Hey, what are you making?”

“Roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and a salad. Oh! You have to be gay tonight. Marty is going to stop by.”

“I’m not going to be here when he comes over.” Bill shook his head and turned on the oven for the chicken.

“Where are you going?” Rachel was rubbing oil all over the whole bird as she spoke.

“Nowhere, but I’m in my room, and I’m not coming out for any conversation with Marty so you can just say I’m not here.” Bill wasn’t mad, but he did speak to Rachel as though he was put out.

“Ok. Sorry, Bill.” Rachel pouted.

The two sat at the dining room table and shared the highs and lows of their day. Rachel was in a good mood and looking forward to seeing Marty in an hour.

“Dinner was delicious, thanks.” Bill was finishing a chicken breast as Rachel was clearing her plates.

Just then, something caught Bill’s eye.

A flash of red drew his eye to the source of the motion. He noticed that Rachel had long toenails with beautiful burgundy-red polish on them. It was the first time that he could remember ever noticing Rachel’s feet. This detail caught him off guard, and it alerted Rachel that something was up.

“What?” She looked at his stare, then looked at her feet.

“What, Bill? Did I drop something?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” Bill averted his eyes and again thanked Rachel for getting the dinner together.

“What is it?” She was looking all around her legs.

“It’s just, nothing.” Bill was turning red. “It’s your toenail polish. I like that color.”

“Oh. I had my toenails done yesterday after work.” Rachel looked down at her feet, flattered that Bill noticed. That kind of detail was not on most guys’ radars.

Bill cleaned the dishes with a growing erection and a strange nervousness deep within. He was excited, as if he was about to go on a blind date. It was an unusual feeling. It was a sexual feeling.

Back in his room, Bill had his laptop out and was jacking off to his new favorite video. He maximized the screen and then focused on the part that was turning him on so much, her feet. Bill discovered he was becoming incredibly aroused by the licking and sucking of her feet.

He went to a huge free porn video website and searched for “foot sex,” but didn’t get very good results. Then he typed in “foot licking.” These results were better. Page after page of video stills of women’s feet being massaged, licked, sucked, rubbed, and fondled. He nearly came in his pants.

His first orgasm was watching a woman suck the toes of another woman. The feet were perfect. Red toenail polish, white, but slightly tan feet. Both women were naked, but all they did was play with each other’s feet. He had never seen videos like these. He wondered why he had never seen any videos of foot sex, then he realized that there was a separate category in the Tags section for “Foot Fetish.” They probably didn’t get sorted with the mainstream videos.

“Is that what this is about?” He whispered to himself. “Do I have a foot fetish?”

Bill saved several videos to his account favorites. He had heard Marty come in about an hour ago and didn’t want to make any noise so he continued to silently search for foot porn.

He opened, previewed, then saved, a couple of others. There was a lot of variation in the action. It wasn’t easy to find the “good ones”, which he defined as those that were exclusively feet; where feet were the main focus of the video.

After a couple of minutes, Bill heard the front door close and he realized that Marty had gone home. It was still early, so he ventured out into the living room.

“Is it safe?” He peeked his head out in an effort at humor. He could just see Rachel in the living room.

Rachel was sitting on the couch. The condominium smelled like a strange brand of after shave. Another man had been in his house. For some reason, this didn’t sit well with Bill.

“Yes, you big dork. He’s gone.” Rachel scooted over to give Bill room to sit. It was an invitation.

“Everything okay?” Bill collapsed on the couch as he usually did. The couch was his pride and joy. It was a six- thousand dollar perfectly cushioned, dark brown, leather couch with two matching ottomans. He loved his couch. He saved up from several paychecks for it, and he and Rachel loved to watch sci-fi and old horror movies on it after work and sometimes on weekends.

“Everything’s good.” Rachel grabbed a pillow and held it to her chest. She was in shorts and had her bare feet crossed beneath her.

“Doesn’t sound too good, Rachel.” Bill picked up on her shifting eyes.

“He said he was okay about the five months, but every time we get together he makes serious passes at me that force me to repeat my boundaries. It’s really getting to be a pain in the ass. He obviously doesn’t take my five-month rule seriously.”

“Yeah, I can imagine that would get old. I can also see where he’s coming from, though. He probably thinks you will change your mind any time now, so he feels he should at least try.” Bill grabbed the remote, but didn’t turn the TV on yet.

“Bill, I’m not going to change my mind. There’s a very, very good reason why I have my rule.”

“I know. I get it. I think you need to tell him before you go out with him to respect your rule, or you guys don’t go out.”

“I should say that, and I will, but I shouldn’t have to say it more than a couple of times, you know?”

“You’re right.” Bill laid his legs out in front of him and turned on the TV.

Rachel stretched out and lay her head on the opposite arm of the couch. She bent her legs so they would fit. Her feet were now about four inches away from Bill’s right arm.

Bill caught an old movie on the Sci-fi channel. As he and Rachel settled-in to watch it, he found himself tempted to touch her feet. This temptation became a major obsession in a matter of about ten minutes.

He played out scenarios where he could touch her feet, but nothing seemed natural and every scenario seemed awkward and suspicious. He would have to work on this.

During a commercial, he began to work on a way for him to get to touch her feet.

“My feet are killing me. I was running around all day.” He figured if he introduced the subject, they may eventually get to a point where they could massage each other’s feet. It wasn’t a terrible plan.

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Rachel reached to her feet and began rubbing them. Then she offered, “Have you ever tried cracking your toes?”

She pulled on her big toe to demonstrate.

“I’ve never done that.” Bill didn’t touch his own feet, but continued to look curiously at hers.

“Here, watch.” Rachel moved her body so that she was sitting upright and her feet were in front of her- still next to Bill on the couch, now almost touching.

“Take the palm of your hand and smash all your toes down toward the bottom of your foot.” Her demonstration resulted in the “crack” sounds of her toes cracking.

“It feels really good, you should try it.” Rachel meant for Bill to try his own toes, but he used the literal suggestion to reach down and touch Rachel’s feet.

“You mean just push down like this?” Bill gently placed his left hand under Rachel’s left foot and used his right hand to force her toes down in the same motion that she just used in her demonstration. Just touching her feet brought him sexual chills.

Bill was paying very close attention to how Rachel reacted to his touching her feet for the very first time.

Rachel jumped ever so slightly, but didn’t pull away. A good sign.

“Oh! Well, okay. Yes. I meant do your own feet, but that’s no big deal.”

Bill made sure and squeezed her feet firmly to get as much out of the fleeting contact as he could.

The soles of her bare feet were as soft as anything he has ever felt. He briefly rubbed his fingers against her arch as his other hand covered her toes. He relished the entire three seconds of contact and became erect at the short encounter.

“Try your feet.” She suggested.

Bill took his socks off and repeated the action, which resulted in the familiar “pop” of his own toe knuckles cracking.

“It works!” Bill beamed. He had done this before, but played up the newness of the experience to keep the conversation on the subject of feet.

It felt very good, actually. Although, he was still trying to find a way to have contact with her feet. His plan would be to move slowly and work up to massages. If he were to bring up the subject now, she may shy away and never let her guard down.

“That’s really helpful, Rachel. My feet are killing me after work most days. That helps a little.”

“It does feel good, doesn’t it? Have you ever tried soaking your feet in Epsom salt and hot water? You should do that.”

Rachel was rubbing her feet with her hands as she spoke to him. Bill had to force himself to look at the TV and not stare too long at her perfect toes all painted burgundy-red and wiggling right in front of him.

“I think I’ll start doing that tomorrow. Maybe look into getting my feet massaged professionally.”

Bill was thinking long-term approach. He thought if he could just keep the plan going by making it a consistent topic, she may agree later on to massaging his feet, and then in an act of repayment, he would massage hers, which would be the ultimate goal.

It was a long shot, but it could work, and the risk of her becoming offended or turned off was low. He planned on soaking his feet tomorrow and asking her afterward. It would take a little planning because he didn’t know where to get these Epsom salts. He was about to ask Rachel when she interrupted his thought.

“Professionally? Don’t be silly. That’s too expensive.”

Rachel straightened her body so that she was sitting straight up in the couch. She moved her feet to the ground and put her legs together. She pat her legs three times in succession and motioned with her hand for him to place his feet in her lap.

“Come on, let me have ’em.” She smiled innocently.

“My brother and I used to give each other foot rubs all the time. He played soccer in high school and his feet were always stiff and sore.”

Bill was concerned about the full erection he was sporting in his own shorts. He could not let her know that his giving her a “foot rub” would be a sex act in his eyes, or at least that’s how he perceived the proposition. It was too good to be true, but it also made perfect sense. Family members rub each other’s feet all the time. The entire subject was a very innocent one to Rachel, that much was obvious.