8 True Stories Of One-Night Stands

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Sex. Strangers. Intimacy. Awkwardness. Ecstasy. These are just a few of the sometimes-disparate ideas that come into play when we talk about one-night stands. Because the truth is, this is an experience that a lot of women share, but experience entirely differently. It's personal. Even when it's not.

Some women swear it's the purest type of sexual encounter (most famously, Erica Jong). Others find themselves feeling deflated afterward, whether or not they had level-set expectations beforehand. And others still see it as just one half of the coin of sexual experience — where physical, carnal pleasure and emotional intimacy can't co-exist.

And, while we all share the sexy, thrilling parts of these stories with our friends, we so rarely talk about the emotional ramifications (both good and bad) and the less entertaining details that add up to reality. All of which is completely worth discussing. So, we sat down with eight different women to get just that. Ahead, their takes on eight very different experiences — orgasms, disappointments, and all.

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Tracy Bloom, author of No-One Ever Has Sex On A Tuesday

"Our eyes met across a dusty dance floor. I'd last seen him over 15 years ago. He had been my first love and our relationship consisted mainly of awkward teenage fumblings in awkward locations. We skirted each other like matador and bull until alcohol and slow music led us to stumble against each other in a clumsy reunion.

"So, we went back to his place — where I discovered he'd grown into a rebel rejecting a conventional bed for a sleeping bag on nylon carpet. We lay there and reminisced about those awkward teenage fumblings until we partook of some very awkward 30-something fumblings.

"He said he'd phone. I knew he never would. Nights spent stalking the phone as a 15-year-old had at least taught me he wasn't the type to phone. But, it didn't matter. I didn't care. This one-night stand had given me closure. My first love was no longer the boy who made my heart race like no other man had, ever since. He was just a man who slept way too close to the floor, surrounded by nylon. Heart vacated, it was now available for new occupier."

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Nicole*

"I met a guy on OkCupid. We went on one date, didn't have sex, but continued to text when we were both drunk.

"One night, I was especially wasted and right around the corner from his apartment in Brooklyn. So, obviously, I gave him a call, and he told me to meet him at a bar nearby. We had a few drinks, and then decided to go back to his apartment to smoke a joint on his roof.

"So there we are at 2 a.m. on the roof of this HUGE loft-style apartment building in Brooklyn, totally stoned, and he goes in for the kiss. Things progressed pretty rapidly from there, and before I knew it, we were both naked from the waist down, and he was pulling a condom out of his pants. We had sex in the middle of the roof, in the middle of the night, in clear view of anyone and everyone who was in the apartment buildings around us.

"I spent the night (in his bed — not on the roof), and in the morning we split a huge stack of pancakes. I haven't seen him again. Not coincidentally, I also haven't fucked on a roof since."