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- position. That was nice to hear, but I really had no idea what I was
- going to do after graduation the following May. Especially with a
- degree in history.
- Then, the first week in August 1965 -- the first Saturday: that's
- important -- I was in the Barker Center digging through some archival
- materials (one of the privileges of being an R.A.), when I heard the
- muffled thud of books toppling off a loaded book truck a few aisles
- over. This was followed by a subdued female voice indulging in some
- unladylike language. I went around the end stack to see what had
- happened and found a young woman kneeling on the dusty floor, gathering
- up an armload of bound journals; it looked like she had turned the
- corner too quickly and the truck had overbalanced.
- From above and behind, all I saw was very dark brown hair, almost
- black, above rather wide shoulders, and the back of a denim skirt and
- western-style shirt. She was muttering under her breath.
- "Can I help you with this?" I asked.
- She looked up a bit startled. Her eyes were large and soft brown and
- her lips were sensual. She had the kind of creamy complexion that
- appears in magazine cosmetics ads. Pretty but not gorgeous, no extra
- weight but not slender, either. Somehow very competent-seeming, despite
- her present chore.
- more [q=quit] I didn't wait for an answer but hunkered down beside her and started
- gathering up the rest of the volumes and putting them rapidly in order.
- She laughed and said "You've done this before." Her voice was
- melodious but sort of no-nonsense.
- "I've been working in libraries, on and off, since junior high." I
- smiled back at her. "You wouldn't believe how many book trucks I've
- crashed." We both stood up and dusted off our hands. "Your knees," I
- said with a nod.
- "What?" She looked down at the two gray patches on the front of her
- skirt. "Oh, rats. I gotta get an apron if they keep me up here. I've
- been clerking part-time in Technical Services over in the main library.
- They lent me out as a page for the last part of the summer and I'm still
- getting the hang of it."
- "Well, I'm around here a lot. Feel free to ask an old library hand."
- I don't why, but I hesitated. "I'm Mike, by the way."
- "Jean," she said and flashed me a smile so brilliant, I blinked.
- Then I went back to my carrel and she went back to her shelving.
- The Barker closed early on weekends in the summer and when they
- chased me out that evening I ran into Jean again on the outside steps.
- We both said "Hi" ... and then one of those rare events occurred that
- make you seriously consider the existence of fate, or predestination, or
- more [q=quit] guardian angels. Without thinking about what I was doing, I said "Can I
- give you a lift?"
- She smiled but said "No, that's okay" I'm just over in Jester."
- "Doesn't sound very exciting in the summer..."
- "No, but it's *quiet*. Lots of vacant room and no waiting for a
- washer." Jester Center is the largest single dormitory in the country;
- nowadays, it has its own ZIP code and includes *two* voting precincts.
- It's also overcrowded most of the time.
- She sighed a bit theatrically and added "I just have to round up some
- friends to go out for a hamburger."
- Yes -- I'd forgotten. The dorm cafeterias didn't operate on weekends
- in the summer, either. If you weren't headed home, or out on a date,
- you had to find your own meals. We walked another few yards toward the
- parking lot; Jester stood two blocks beyond. I made up my mind very
- fast.
- "Listen,... I usually only eat one meal on Saturday, and I was
- planning on going over to the Colorado Cafe for a chicken-fried steak.
- Would you like to join me?"
- An air of caution descended. "I, uh-- I'm afraid I don't go on
- dates on the spur of the moment, with guys I've just met." She seemed
- tempted, though.
- more [q=quit] "Well, we can do it Dutch, if you'd rather. Then it wouldn't be a
- date. And I don't like eating alone." That was a bare-faced lie. Give
- me a plate of food and a book and I didn't care if I was in the middle
- of the Gobi. I could sense the struggle in her mind.
- "Uh, well,... Sure, okay -- but I pay my own way!"
- "Fine. You can buy *me* supper if you want." And I grinned like an
- idiot and she grinned back. It was only the second or third time in my
- life that I had even tried to pick up a girl.
- I unlocked the passenger side of my little faded-red VW and did some
- more fast thinking as I went around to the driver's side. As I climbed
- in, I said "Would you mind if we stopped at my place?" Her eyebrows
- rose a fraction. "I mean, just for a moment," I added hastily. "If you
- wouldn't mind waiting." I indicated the three shoeboxes of note cards
- in the back seat. "It's more than my life's worth if I lost all the
- citation cards to Dr. Gardner's book! I don't want to leave them in the
- car." She nodded and seemed appeased. I was relieved she hadn't
- thought I was trying to lure her up to see my etchings. And then I
- wondered why it seemed to matter so much.
- I parked at the curb outside our building, hopped out, and pushed the
- seat forward so I could grab the card boxes. "Be right back," I said
- and hurried inside. I dumped the boxes on my bed and hollered "Gary?
- more [q=quit] Ed?"
- Gary voice came from the kitchen. "Yeah?" I skidded around the
- corner and he stopped trying to unstick the ice tray in the freezer
- compartment and sort of stared at me.
- "Man, am I glad you're here! Have you got $10 you can spare until I
- can write a check on Monday?" That was the real reason I had to run by
- the apartment: I only had a dollar and change in my pocket.
- "Well, yeah..." He started digging his wallet out of his pocket.
- "What happened? Your car break down?"
- "No! I got a date! Unexpectedly! No money!" That bounced his
- eyebrows *way* up. He extracted his last two fives and stuck them in my
- shirt pocket with a broad smile.
- "As long as it's in a good cause...." And I was out the door again.
- It was the most pleasant meal I'd had in months. Neither of us had
- to get back anywhere in a hurry so we took our time, enjoyed the food,
- nursed our iced tea, and got acquainted. I learned that Jean was also a
- senior, that she came from Sherman (which explained why she preferred to
- stay in Austin for the summer), that she was a biochem major with
- medical ambitions, and that she was the oldest of three kids.
- She also made it known, subtly, that she wasnt seeing anyone in
- particular. In fact, she turned out to be something of a loner who
- more [q=quit] didn't date much at all. That part sounded familiar.
- Over the last four years, I had learned how to be a good listener;
- for one thing, it kept me from having to explain myself. But Jean was
- -- or seemed -- genuinely interested in whatever I had to say. After a
- while, I was startled to find myself pouring all my personal problems
- with girls into her sympathetic ear. At that realization I stopped and
- apologized, but she waved that away and asked a couple of perceptive and
- leading questions and got me started again. Jean would have made a good
- shrink.
- When it was finally time to leave, I asked if she would please let me
- pick up the check. She gave in gracefully. It seemed she had decided
- we were on a date after all.
- Taking Jean back to the dorm, I drove more slowly than usual because
- I enjoyed her company (and her sympathy) enormously and I was reluctant
- for the evening to end. But we got there and I parked and walked her
- into the lobby. I was torn between wanting to kiss her goodnight (would
- she expect me to?) and wanting to avoid the stupidities for which, in my
- own mind, I was infamous.
- But there was no problem after all. Jean climbed the first step of
- the stairs, which put us on about the same level, and laid one hand on
- my shoulder. And we flowed into a graceful, warm, quiet kiss as easily
- more [q=quit] as breathing. It was friendly, in a way, rather than passionate;
- undemanding rather than urgent. It made me feel so good about myself,
- about us, I actually had to tell her so.
- "That was nice," I said softly, touching my forehead to hers.
- "Yes," she whispered. "It was. And it's been a wonderful evening.
- Mike, I'd like to see you again, soon. I hope you'll call me."
- "I'll call, I promise." There was an itch behind my eyeballs ... my
- imprisoned emotions trying to escape. I stood at the foot of the stairs
- and watched until Jean reached the switchback landing, where she paused
- and gave me a little wave.
- My friends tell me I think about things too much. It's probably
- true. All the old cautions echoed in my mind on the drive home. My
- feelings for Mary had centered on romantic passions -- the "fire that
- burns twice as hot." It was still painful to think about Mary and I
- tried to avoid that corner of my memories. With Rose, it had been
- mostly bad timing. I regretted acting like an immature fool with her,
- but she was a nice person and there was no guilt attached,... or not
- much.
- Jean was completely unlike the other two women in my life. She was
- calm and unflappable, not a blazing sex bomb. She inspired emotional
- intimacy and trust, not Romeo-and-Juliet passions. I had no idea
- more [q=quit] whether the seed we seemed to have planted would germinate, but I
- discovered I really wanted to explore the possibilities. From past
- experience alone, that realization should have set off alarm bells of
- anxiety, but I felt only a relaxed optimism. Good, very good.
- I took Jean to the movies, and out to Lake Travis, and to
- Fredericksburg for Texas German food. We held hands when we walked and
- as the summer wound down we kissed more frequently and spontaneously.
- There was no sense of pressure in any of it, no promises or declarations
- or demands. I never felt the need to impress her. It was as if each of
- us was the missing piece in the other's jigsaw puzzle.
- I knew I was gradually falling in love and I welcomed it with an open
- heart. That also surprised me. Nevertheless, I was reluctant to say
- anything overt to Jean because I didn't want to tempt fate again.
- Labor Day came and went and Jean and I saw a little less of each
- other as classwork piled up. She was wading through advanced cytology
- and I was sorting out the Peace Party Convention of 1864. Probably a
- good thing because it slowed the pace of what was becoming a courtship
- and it gave us more time to find out about each other.
- The remarkable thing was how little sexual contact we actually had.
- We necked like teenagers in high school, dueling with our tongues,
- stroking cheeks, breathing warmly into an available ear. A few times, I
- more [q=quit] gently squeezed her breast during a lengthy kiss or ran my hand over her
- flared hips and across her firm ass, but it was always a caress, not
- foreplay. So we moved slowly, but we kept moving.
- By the end of October, my inner thoughts about Jean had shifted from
- "if we..." to "when we..." and I knew it was time to find out how she
- really felt about me before I got in any deeper. Naturally, she beat me
- to it.
-
-
- It was the first Friday of December and thousands of fall term papers
- had just been turned in. Jean and I had agreed, regretfully, that
- school work took priority -- especially this late in the game. For two
- weeks, we had seen each other only briefly each day, and then it was off
- to the library or back home to a hot typewriter. It seemed like a very
- long time just then. Finals would be coming up shortly, but we were
- both doing well and we had set this weekend aside for ourselves.
- It was a little unsettling to discover just how much I *had* missed
- her, so I invited her over for a big, homemade Saturday morning
- breakfast, complete with biscuits and gravy. She turned up about 10:00.
- She inhaled deeply as she came in and dropped her purse on the couch.
- (Breakfast is one of the things I do best.) "Mmmmmmm... One of the few
- more [q=quit] things I miss about living at home!" she said and smacked her lips. We
- kept busy for an hour with eggs and sausage patties and hash browns and
- real biscuits and buckets of cream gravy.
- "If you're going to feed me like this all the time, I'd better start
- letting out my seams!" she said as I refilled her coffee cup.
- We stacked all the dishes and skillets in the sink for later and
- moved into the living room. "I just realized I haven't a peep from your
- roommates," Jean said. "Still asleep?"
- "No, Gary-and-Sherry drove up to Fort Worth yesterday after classes,
- and Ed is off in the Hill Country somewhere for the weekend." Which was
- why I had suggested she come over, of course.
- Jean caught me off guard, though. "There's something I want to ask
- your advice about, Mike. Uh, we're friends, aren't we?"
- Friends? Yeah, at least. She sat in the more reputable of our two
- armchairs and I sprawled on the couch. "Of course we are. What's the
- problem?"
- "Well,..." She was studying her nails and glancing at me out of the
- corner of her eye. "I've met this guy who I like a lot..."
- Oh, God. Now what? The breakfast began to congeal in my gut.
- "He's very nice," she went on, not meeting my eye at all, now. "In
- fact,... I think I'm in love with him." I felt cold. "But he hasn't
- more [q=quit] said how he feels about me. How do you think I should approach him?"
- My stomach was filled with hardening clay but I looked down at my own
- hands and said "Just ask him, I guess." Why did this keep happening to
- me? I was desperately in love with this girl, a fact that was only now
- sinking in. I was so shocked by the abruptness of events, I didn't
- realize for a moment that Jean had gotten up and moved to the arm of the
- couch. Then I felt her warm hand curl around the back of my neck.
- "Michael," she asked softly, "do you love me? Or what?"
- I looked up at her with my mouth open. Then I grabbed her around the
- waist and pulled her onto my lap. I hugged her so tightly she wheezed
- and I buried my face in her neck.
- "Sweetheart, I could *kill* you for doing that to me,... if I didn't
- love you so much!"
- I hung onto her and she clung to me and neither of us moved very much
- for several minutes. Then I loosened my hold just enough to be able to
- kiss her, and it was a demanding, aggressive kiss -- not like me at all.
- But she responded just as insistently until our mouths felt bruised.
- When we came up for air, she said "I'm sorry I had to do that, Mike,
- but I didn't know how else to ask. And I love *you* so much!" And we
- disappeared into another smoldering kiss. She was stretched out
- crosswise across my lap, convenient to my wandering hands which were
- more [q=quit] making up for lost time.
- She was wearing light wool slacks and a plaid cotton shirt with
- buttons down the front. I undid the first few buttons before she pushed
- my hand out of the way and nearly ripped the rest of them off getting
- her shirt open and pushed back. She was almost frantic, fumbling her
- arms out of the sleeves, and her unmistakable passion quickened my
- pulse. Then the front closure of her bra popped open, and it was off
- and on the floor.
- Then she was up and sitting astride my knees, back arched, her
- breasts on display to my hungry gaze. Jean's tits were a little larger
- than average but were balanced by her broader-than-usual shoulders;
- otherwise, they were unremarkable ... but they were *hers* and I adored
- them. I massaged and squeezed them for a few minutes and her
- respiration increased. When I rolled her lengthening nipples between
- thumb and forefinger, she hissed in between her teeth and moaned "Oh,
- God-- Suck on them, please! Mike, suck on my tits! Put your mouth on
- them!"
- When I pulled her closer and inhaled her breast, she locked her hands
- behind my head and tried to draw me into her. Small tremors traveled up
- and down her body and my own arousal increased.
- Then she was off my lap again and hurriedly unhooking her slacks and
- more [q=quit] pushing them to the floor. Her socks and panties followed. She stood
- naked before me, eyes glowing. I was still completely dressed and my
- newly-confirmed love was displaying her body for my viewing pleasure.
- Again, her figure was trim, her complexion beautifully smooth and clear,
- but I couldn't objectively say she was a traffic-stopper. But she was
- *Jean* and that made her the most desirable woman I could conceive of.
- "There's something else I should tell you," she said as she slipped
- back across my thighs. "I went on The Pill six weeks ago because I
- suspected we'd be in bed by now. I want you to make love to me,
- Michael. In fact, I'm not leaving here until I fuck you!"
- Her knees were spread and the aroma of her drifted upward and fired
- my own furnace. My hands slid up and down her thighs and moved around
- to measure her ass. She groaned a little and leaned against me. I
- slipped one hand between her legs from behind and brushed my fingertips
- against her moist labia. She had another fit of trembling.
- Then she was on her feet again, pulling me up. "Come on, come on,
- get your clothes off! I *want* you!" I unfastened and unzipped and she
- quickly knelt and hauled my trousers down. Her feverish hurry was
- blinding me with lust. My cock sprang out, hard and rigid, and her
- mouth instantly fastened on it.
- What she lacked in polished technique, Jean made up for in ardor.
- more [q=quit] Like me, she was an enthusiastic amateur at sex -- and, also like me,
- she'd obviously had relatively little experience. I found that
- reassuring, even if it meant the blind leading the blind.
- She tried to take in all of my quivering cock and nearly choked when
- it hit her throat. I eased her head back a bit and she concentrated on
- washing my penis with her tongue and manipulating my balls. The
- sensation was like nothing I had experienced before. I had engaged in
- oral sex, of course, but only for recreation. This was a woman with
- whom I had fallen in love and who loved me. And I wasn't seventeen any
- longer.
- I could feel the pressure building in my groin but I didn't want to
- climax. I gently retrieved my cock and pulled her to her feet. Jean
- was several inches shorter than me and when we wrapped ourselves up in
- each other, standing there in the living room, she nuzzled under my chin
- and nibbled at my throat.
- My cock was sandwiched between us, and when it twitched Jean wrapped
- her hand around it and pulled and squeezed as we kissed. I bent one
- knee and she closed her thighs on it and humped a little. She was so
- unrestrained in her lust, now that we had declared ourselves, she was
- producing more than the expected reaction in me.
- I trailed my fingers up and down her back and she shivered and
- more [q=quit] laughed under her breath. "C'mon," I whispered, "we gotta find a bed --
- fast!"
- Making sure the door was locked (the first opportunity I'd had to see
- to that), I turned to find Jean already disappearing into my room. When
- I hurried in after her, she was arranging herself on the bed for me,
- knees spread, arms reaching, and a wanton grin on her face. But things
- were going so well I chose to take my time -- our time -- in this
- delightful morning lovemaking.
- I went to the foot of the bed and started up toward Jean on my hands
- and knees. She leaned her head back and spread her legs wider,
- expecting me to aim my cock straight at the target. But I ambushed her,
- dropping flat and covering her open pussy with my open mouth. She
- jumped a bit and squeaked in surprise, but she liked it.
- I spread her labia apart with my fingers and stuck my tongue into her
- cunt like a spoon in a pot of jam, plowing through her juices from
- bottom to top. Her clitoris protruded from its hood and I moved my
- tongue all around it and then sucked it in between my teeth. Jean
- jammed her hands under the pillow behind her head; her eyes went out of
- focus and she was breathing in gulps. Her candid reactions to my
- advances were stimulating but I also felt completely at home, as though
- we were old lovers rather than new ones.
- more [q=quit] She also had my cock as hard and stiff as an iron pipe, and after a
- few minutes of teasing her pussy with my tongue I climbed farther up her
- body. When I eased myself into her, she gave a loud, ragged gasp and
- hung onto my neck as if we were about to be launched.
- Jean wasn't a screamer, a thrasher, or a talker, but there was no
- doubt whatever that she loved what we were doing and was totally caught
- up in it. Sarah Bernhardt couldn't have faked a sexual experience so
- intensely. I was under no illusions that this terrific girl might be an
- unfulfilled virgin, but I knew instinctively that her experience was at
- least as limited as my own. Maybe she reacted this way *every* time she
- got laid; I didn't know and I didn't care. The fact that *I* was able
- to put her into orbit was more than enough.
- I moved in her erratically, unpredictably, and was rewarded with
- little mews and gasps and catches in her breathing. Her sexual flush
- became bright scarlet. Her hands clutched at my back and arms and I was
- glad she wasn't a believer in long nails; she'd have drawn blood. When
- I settled into a galloping rhythm, she moved her legs higher, locking
- her ankles so I could penetrate deeper.
- We reached the peak almost together and the release of my orgasm was
- exquisite. Jean held tightly to me for perhaps half a minute as she
- shuddered through her own climax. Then she relaxed and gave me a hug
- more [q=quit] filled with satisfaction and love. And it dawned on me, quite suddenly,
- that we had both been in control of events the entire time. Every move
- we had made had been an unspoken but mutual decision. No pressure, no
- anxiety, no worries about inadequacy. Jean might not be a sex goddess,
- but I wasn't exactly a hunk, either.
- I leaned back and studied her face, and saw only happiness, love, and
- pride in one's partner -- exactly what I was feeling.
- As my cock shrank I slowly pulled out of her cunt,... and I found a
- quiet pleasure in the momentary look of loss that appeared in her eyes.
- She really wanted me. Me!
- I rolled off her and propped my head up on one elbow as she stretched
- her legs and back muscles. "Still love me?" I asked quietly and with a
- smile.
- She seemed to examine my face minutely and then reached up to touch
- my cheek. "Oh, yes..." No declamation, no poetry: Just "yes." A
- simple affirmation. It sounded real and believable and truthful. It
- sounded wonderful.
-
-
- The next six months passed more quickly than I could believe. Jean
- came over to the apartment for at least an hour or two almost every
- more [q=quit] evening. Any more than that and we were concerned that our grades might
- suffer. We were head over heels in love, but we were both still too
- pragmatic to allow *that* to happen.
- Gary and Sherry and Ed took one look at the two of us together after
- that weekend and smirked at each other -- our feelings were that obvious.
- We had sex only a couple of times a week; we knew we'd be together a long
- time and so we tortured ourselves pleasurably with semi-denial. Jean
- didn't sleep over, though, for the same reason Sherry didn't: It would
- have been an imposition on the other two guys in the apartment. And, not
- surprisingly, Jean and Sherry became good friends, even though their other
- interests were so different.
-
-
- ...Such good friends, in fact, that Sherry was delighted to be Jean's
- maid-of-honor when we were married in June, two weeks after graduation
- and ten weeks before I began work on my M.A.
-
- * * * * *
-
- It's been 26 years now, and Jean and I are as much in love as we were
- then. It hasn't all been smooth sailing -- no real marriage ever is --
- more [q=quit] but our spats have never been serious and are usually resolved by a
- competition to be the first to apologize.
- I'm a tenured full professor in American history and I love it. We'll
- never be wealthy but we're comfortable, and the life of the mind (and the
- classroom) suits me. Jean spent several years as a medical lab
- technician,... and then as a supervisor when she discovered a talent for
- scientific administration; now, she's in charge of the technical side of
- the largest commercial medical lab in Texas -- earns more than I do, in
- fact, and deserves every cent of it.
- Two of our three children are married and the youngest is engaged,
- though she swears she'll wait until she graduates from UT to be married.
-
-
- Now that we have the house to ourselves again most evenings, we've
- found time to reenact our first lovemaking on that old apartment couch;
- the only difference is newer furniture. We know each other so well
- after a quarter-century, you'd think it would be difficult for either of
- us to arouse the other as we used to. But Jean still excites me ...
- though I get winded more easily.
-
-
- more [q=quit]
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Copyright 1993 by Michael K. Smith. Copies may be made and posted
- elsewhere for personal enjoyment, but all commercial rights are reserved.
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-
-
-
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Michael Kalen Smith / Dallas, TX
- Internet: mksmith@taproot.win.net / CompuServe: 73177,366
- *** It doesn't TAKE all kinds; we just HAVE all kinds ***
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- [RET] 15245-15380, Q)uit: