Chapter 66: All You Need Is Love

Thursday, February 21, 1985

The reason for yesterday’s conversation became clear just before dinner. Jas and I were in our bedroom, and she said, “What do you think about Claire?”

“She’s cool,” I said. “I like her.”

“What do you think about taking her to the movie tonight?”

“Like ... a date?” I said, blinking.

“If you’re open to it. I didn’t promise anything, but...”

I thought about it. It took all of a couple of seconds.

“I’m open to it.”

“Good!” she said. “I like her, and it felt like fun. Plus, it’s not ... it doesn’t feel like Becca to me, and I wanted to see if I had that right.”

“You do. Claire’s nothing like Becca, and I mean, as a relationship, not as a person.”

“Yay! So, since you are taking her, go change into something a bit nicer!” she said, grinning.

I looked down and said, “This is nice.”

She giggled for a few seconds, then said, “Well, yes. It is nice, actually! But you clean up nicer than that without it taking you much of an effort. Imagine ... mmm ... imagine that it’s a Jess date early on.”

“That high a bar?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay, not that high. But, still.”

I got out a nice green button-down and some gray slacks.

“Yes!” Jas said. “Very good choice! Girlfriend approved!”

“Most girlfriends wouldn’t approve of me dressing up for a date with another girl,” I said, changing.

“Sucks for those guys!” she said, giggling.

“So,” I said, buttoning the new shirt, “How did this happen?”

“Claire was lamenting not having a guy taking her out to anything. I guess she dated a fair bit in high school, but the two dates she’s been on here have kinda sucked, so she raised her standards. No one meeting her standards has asked her out.”

“And I do?”

“If you don’t, she’s crazy!” Jas said, grinning. “Seriously, we talked about it. I knew you’d do it, and she’d love it. It’s not serious, though. I mean ... you know, if things go well...”

“Then things go well,” I said, nodding. “I’m not taking her out to dinner, though?”

“Nah! Just a movie date, this time. We’ll sit separately. Ang and Paige will be fine with my being a third wheel.”

“Fifth wheel?”

“Nah. We’re going to sit a bit apart from Cammie and Mel. Let them have their own date this time,” she said, grinning.

“Works for me, of course!”

“Yes, we checked. Mel and Cammie thought it was cool. They’re still a bit leery about being too ‘out,’ but this splits the difference well enough.”

“Cool!”

I wasn’t a complete fool. I got Claire’s number from our study group list and called her at her dorm room, asking if she would give me the pleasure of her company at the movie.

She giggled quite a bit, but said yes immediately.

It’s not really a date unless you actually ask the girl out. And call it a date. Laura, and Lynn, taught me that if nothing else did.

I got some good-natured teasing about my outfit during dinner. There was hardly anything surprising about that, of course, and I liked it.

Once we’d eaten, Jas gave me Claire’s dorm address, on the fourth floor of Mosher Hall. It’d be my first time in Mosher, or any girls’ dorm at A&M. She assured me that guys were welcome there until curfew at ten, when all guys had to be out.

That didn’t actually happen every time, of course, but as long as no one made obviously masculine noises and no roommates were upset, what happened in someone’s dorm room stayed in their dorm room. I’m sure more than a few guys had snuck out of (and sometimes been snuck into) the dorms over the years.

I left a bit earlier than the others so I could go by Mosher. That was Katie and Becca’s dorm, too, but my odds of running into them were fairly low, most likely. Even if I did, it probably wouldn’t be awkward. In the worst case, they might be confused about why I was taking Claire out, but probably not in a bad way.

When I got there, I spent a bit of time just looking around. It connected to the Commons complex, where we’d eaten quite a few times. Once I entered Mosher itself I saw only girls. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by a guy in their presence, though.

My first impression was that Jester, my dorm at UT, had been nicer in some ways, but this might actually be a better place to live. Jester had a bit better aesthetics, but Mosher seemed to have larger rooms, at least if my 40-year-old memories meant anything.

Glancing into some of the open doors, the furniture looked very utilitarian, and people had obviously rearranged it in various interesting ways. Beds stacked on top of dressers and desks seemed to be very common, and some girls had gotten ladders or stepladders to help get up to their bed. The beds looked much too heavy to make into effective bunks, though.

I was very glad not to be living in one of the dorms, but it wouldn’t have been awful, at least not on a physical basis. Having a random roommate would have been as good, or as awful, as the person I got. None of them would have been remotely as appealing as Jasmine, though!

I headed up the stairs to the fourth (and top) floor. Still no guys, but the girls seemed friendly.

Claire’s room wasn’t far from the stairs. When I knocked, the door opened right away. It wasn’t her, though, but a cute, fairly short brunette who gave me a bright smile.

“You must be Steve!” she said.

“That’s me,” I said, smiling back.

“Claire’s in there,” she said, nodding to the bathroom door. Every two rooms shared a bathroom, which wasn’t too bad. I’d lived with worse (but, hopefully, wouldn’t do that again).

“I’m Kay,” she said. “She’ll be out soon. You can come in if you want.”

“Thanks,” I said, coming in and looking around. They had a small TV, a mini-fridge, and a stereo. Not that much different from my first-life dorm room.

“So,” Kay said, “How do you know Claire? I mean, she said you’re in her psych class, but that’s about it.”

“My sister and some friends are in the same class, and we invited Claire and a couple of other people to study with us.”

“I’d probably kill myself if my sister was in the same class as I was!” she said, chuckling.

“We’re unusually close. She didn’t join our family until we were both 13. She’s also my cousin. My parents adopted her after my uncle passed away. So, none of that early sibling rivalry stuff.”

“That’s cool, if a little sad,” she said. “Anyway, cool! Claire can use some more friends. Especially handsome ones!”

I chuckled at that, and might have blushed, too.

Claire saved me from further interrogation by picking that moment to come out of the bathroom. She was wearing a rather nice green blouse (which worked well with her brown eyes and dirty blonde hair) and a tan skirt, which matched my slightly upscale look.

“Hey!” she said. “Glad you made it! Any trouble running the gauntlet outside?”

“Nah,” I said. “The few people that said anything were nice.”

“They’re falling down on the job! We’re supposed to make guys nervous about entering our territory!” Claire said.

“If they do that too much, no one gets dates,” Kay said.

“We could meet them downstairs,” Claire said. “And, before you say it, this is better.”

“Lots of help at short notice if you scream,” Kay said, grinning.

“I’m ready,” Claire said, getting her purse from one of the desks (hers, presumably).

I offered my arm and she took it.

Kay tittered a bit.

“Wow! A real gentleman!” she said. “I thought those were extinct!”

“Lots of girls in my life,” I said. “They’ve trained me well!”

“I can see that!” she said.

“See you in a few hours!” Claire said.

“I’ll be down in the TV room like usual,” Kay said. “The late-night shows are more fun with people around.”

“Works for me!” Claire said.

I walked Claire to the stairs, and we switched to holding hands while walking downstairs.

“This is a bit weird,” Claire said. “I mean, knowing that you have a girlfriend. And that I’ll be seeing her while on a date with you!”

“If that wasn’t fine...” I started.

“Nah,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s why it’s only a little weird. It’d be a lot weird if you were hiding it from her and I knew.”

“Never,” I said. “I mean, technically I don’t need to tell her, but I can’t be hiding things. That would be bad.”

“The rational part of my brain — and I think I’m a pretty left-brain sort of girl — says this all makes total sense. Part of me, though, thinks it’s weird.”

We headed out the door and started towards the MSC, still holding hands.

“We’re programmed to accept jealousy as normal, and ‘forsaking all others’ as the one true way to do things. Now, jealousy is normal. Basic psych, right? Feel what you feel, and get help if what you feel is bad for you. But if you’re less jealous and more open to things, which both Jas and I are, then why buy into a system that says you can’t spend time with other people?”

She nodded.

“Left brain says, ‘Yes, that makes sense.’ Right brain worries about a sudden fit of jealousy.”

“There are extremes all over the place. Some people get practically homicidal if their partner even looks at someone else. Others have no jealousy at all, not even the little we might occasionally have. Heck, some people prefer their partner to go out and have all the fun in the world. It takes all kinds.”

“I’m glad I get to ‘borrow’ you, anyway,” she said, holding my hand. “Not just because, you know, you’re cute and all...”

I probably blushed again, but the darkness likely covered it.

“ ... but also ... well, okay, this is also because you’re cute, but having a date kinda seems to be the best way of getting more dates. Like, ‘Okay, she was interested in him, so maybe she’d be interested in me.’ The ice queens never get any dates.”

“Jess said some things like that. As the head cheerleader, dating some of the higher-profile athletes was kinda ‘part of the job,’ but even they were intimidated, and the ‘mere mortals’ would never ask her out. I was the only ‘mere mortal’ that went out with her, really, and that was ... well, very lucky for both of us, but we didn’t know that at the start.”

“I get that it was lucky for you,” she said, chuckling. “Since I can’t ask her, what was her side of it?”

“She needed someone to talk to who’d be honest with her. The ‘open relationship’ thing cuts both ways. If I was a jerk to Jess, not only would she destroy me socially and sic some big, tough guys on me, but Jas would stomp on what was left. The flip side of that is that, metaphorically speaking, we all knew I was going to ‘go home to’ Jas. I wasn’t trying to pin Jess down or push her any further than she wanted to be pushed, and friendship was much more important than ‘more.’ Everyone wanted something from her up to that point. I just wanted to be her friend.”

“That’s ... surprisingly sweet. Also, perceptive. How’d you manage it? I think about the kids at my school at that age and ... no. Just no!”

I chuckled, and said, “I’m not sure. Good parents? I give a lot of credit to Angie. Having a sister I was really close to, and who taught me a lot about how girls see the world, really helped. She joked that if I learned too much she’d have to kill me...”

Claire laughed at that.

“ ... but with an appropriate amount of information, plus a girlfriend I adore, it was easier to stick to the right path.”