Chapter 94: A Goodbye Surprise

Saturday, May 11, 1985

Everyone slept late. Confident or not, knowledgeable or not, finals (not to mention nearly four hours on the road, plus seeing our friends) took a lot out of us. It was nothing like my first-life freshman year, but we still needed some time to unwind and decompress.

Part of that was spent in physical labor. We got both gates built and installed by early afternoon. With that, the fence was complete. Cammie and Mel now had their secure backyard oasis for the summer.

I planned to visit a store and pick up some new outdoor furniture before leaving town. Cammie and Mel wouldn’t, or they would pick up some very cheap stuff that could work but would also be poor choices. They might get one of those vinyl loungers that adhere to you like glue and take a bunch of work to get up from, pinch your fingers, or something equally awful.

We didn’t need anything amazing, but I wanted stuff that would work for a nice backyard party when we got back. Not only that, but some of Cammie and Mel’s friends were grad students or summer students. They might have a party of their own.

Much of the rest was spent on the phone, checking in with parents and friends. All the parents wanted to hear about our finals. Most of our grades weren’t back yet. Logic had been posted, and we’d all gotten A’s, with Mel at the top, followed by a three-way tie: me, Angie, and Cammie. One other guy and girl were next, followed by Jas and Paige. The difference in scores was so trivial that Paige had nothing at all to be embarrassed about, nor was she.

We’d also gotten our Chem grades back. Paige had edged me out on the final. We both had A’s for the course.

The rest of my grades were still pending. Ang had a couple of A’s in math classes, Mel and Cammie had gotten A’s in Physics, and Jas had blown away the class in her Data Processing class. No surprise there, with me tutoring her!

Laura had one more week to go and was busy with last-minute studying. Jess and Marshall still had two weeks before their finals. The guys in the Northeast mostly had three weeks left — their finals would be after Memorial Day. So would Janet and Lizzie’s.

We were fairly vague on visiting any of them. Laura was going to be in Champaign taking summer classes, so she might get a visit either before or after our Chicago trip. No guarantees, though!

We got the second half of the PROMISE update today. The PO Box had, so far, received over four hundred pieces of mail. Twenty were considered serious enough threats to make the lawyer decide they needed to be reported to law enforcement.

On the other hand, the mail they’d received was eight to one favorable. Anne, as the face of the organization, had been invited to speak at thirty different gay rights events over the next six months. She wouldn’t, of course (very few were local or offered to pay her travel costs, and she had to deal with starting college), but she might attend some of them.

Jas cleared her throat while I was changing for my date with Claire, and said, “Before you go...”

“Yes?” I said.

“Claire and I talked.”

I just nodded. Not the place for a smart-ass remark, but I had no idea where she was going.

“She ... has an ... unusual ... idea,” Jas said. “It’s her idea. She might back off from it or something, but ... well, if she hasn’t, I’m good with it.”

“And I’ll know it’s the same idea you’re thinking of because...?”

“You’ll know,” she said, giggling. “Don’t worry.”

This all sounded very interesting, and perhaps a bit mysterious. A bunch of thoughts ran through my head. Between them all, one or another was probably right, but there was no sense committing to any of them. Letting it stay mostly a surprise seemed like it was for the best.

“I’ll wait and see, then,” I said.

“Sounds very much like you, my love,” she said, smiling and wrapping her arms around me. “One more of the many things about you I love.”

“Laying it on a bit thick?” I said, chuckling.

“Nah,” she said. “I was made for you, and you were made for me. Not literally — that would be creepy! — but figuratively. We fit perfectly, and that’s all that matters.”

“It is, indeed,” I said, giving her a kiss.

Kay was gone when I arrived at Claire’s room. Not gone gone — I figured she was leaving tomorrow or Monday — but out. Both of them had a bunch of stuff boxed up, ready to move. Parents would be all over this place for the next two days helping people move.

We offered to let Claire (and Kay) store some things at our house — we had a whole vacant apartment, after all — but they declined. They wanted their things with them over the summer. That, and it might be easier than explaining the situation to their parents. Perhaps they would change their minds next year.

I’d ‘been there and done that’ with summer moves, and I was thrilled not to have to do it again. There were many nice things about the house, but knowing it would be home until we were ready to move on was definitely one of them! I loved Mom and Dad, but I never, ever wanted to move back in with them, not on an ongoing basis. A week or two would be enough.

In my first life, I’d never had to become an adult caregiver for them, and I very much doubted I would have to in this one. Not because I paid someone else to do it, either — or even because they did. They’d both been capable of living on their own right up until the last few months of Dad’s life, when he’d needed to be hospitalized.

We would almost certainly see each other far more often than first-life me had, too, but the summers I’d lived at home during college were a thing of the past.

It occurred to me I might slip on that point. I could easily reference not wanting to move out of a dorm again, failing to remember that I’d never lived in a dorm as an adult. I could always reference summer programs, but that was a different thing.

In any case, I wasn’t here for that. I was here for a date and needed to focus on Claire, not the vagaries of college summers.

She was wearing a pretty blue dress that I quite liked. I would also quite like it off of her, later, assuming that was the plan.

“Ready?” she said, grinning.

“I should be asking you that,” I said. “Considering I’m the one who’s interrupting you!”

She giggled, took my arm, and closed the door.

“Not much of an interruption. I was just packing and cleaning up.”

“Important tasks, to be sure.”

“And ones I can finish tomorrow,” she said, grinning.

I walked her down to the car.

“So,” she said. “Where are we going?”

“A pretty nice date location,” I said.

“Breaking out the big guns?” she said, chuckling.

“Nah. Maybe yes, too, but ... well. You’ll see. It’s not that fancy, just ... nice. It would have been packed last weekend, what with the graduating seniors and their parents. I imagine summer is hard on local restaurants, though.”

“Thirty-five thousand fewer young adults, most of whom have at least a moderate amount of disposable income? I imagine it’s harder on everything!”

“Gotta be,” I said.

We chatted a bit about the previous semester as I drove. Claire looked increasingly curious once I passed the mall and headed on down the road, apparently heading out into the country.

“This looks weird,” she said. “There are nice date locations out here?”

“There are,” I said.

“That don’t involve picnic lunches? And cows?”

“No picnic lunch. Cows depend on what you order.”

She giggled at that while trying to pretend to be offended. It didn’t work, but was pretty cute. After a bit, she gave up and said, “I’ll defer to your expertise.”

About ten minutes later, I pulled up to Jose’s and parked. The parking lot was fairly busy, but not as bad as I’d seen it.

“Cow joke revoked,” she said. “This place looks nice.”

“I think you’ll like it,” I said. “We’ve been here a few times now.”

Busy or not, they’d held the table I’d reserved, so we had a great view. Claire really appreciated that, and loved Jose’s food. And the margaritas, too! We only had one each, fairly early in the meal. I had a fairly long drive back, after all, and I was pretty sure we had plans.

I wasn’t sure what they were, though. By unspoken mutual agreement, we didn’t discuss tonight’s plans, nor did we spend much time on summer plans, the fall, or anything like that. Whatever ‘bittersweet’ things happened, it would be later.

It wasn’t until we’d gotten in sight of the campus that Claire finally talked about tonight.

“So,” she said, smiling, but also looking a bit shy. “I um ... there’s a ... plan, or, kinda a plan. If you like it.”

“I’m curious,” I said.

“Um ... so,” she said, getting a bit redder.

I let it hang out there. After a bit, she gathered herself and said, “I’ve, um ... I’ve only seen a dirty movie, like, once, and not much of it. It’s ... um...”

I could already see roughly where this was going, but figured I’d let her continue. Trying to save her from embarrassment might only make things worse.

She drew in a deep breath, let it out, and then said, in a rush, “I want to watch you and Jasmine together and she says it’s fine and I hope you like it and don’t think I’m too weird or that it’s too weird or...”

I squeezed her leg, and she quieted almost immediately.

“It’s not too weird, at all. Not that I think of ‘weird’ as being bad by itself, but if that’s good for you, it sounds fun to me.”

“That’s ... um ... it wouldn’t be just that,” she said, giggling and blushing a bit. “I’m definitely not done with you!”

“We’ll have time tonight. We can also meet up tomorrow if we want.”

She blew out another breath.

“Maybe? Let’s see how tonight goes. I may want that, but ... um ... let’s just see.”

“Waiting and seeing is always good,” I said.

“You’re so ... calm ... about that,” she said. “I’m used to it, but then I think about it and it feels ... weird. Most guys, you dangle sex in front of them and it’s ‘go go go’ all the time.”

“I think, for me, it’s really internalizing consent.”

“What do you mean?” she said.

“You can’t really consent to sex in advance,” I said. “Meaning you can’t even say ‘When we get to the house, you’ll have sex with Jasmine.’ Sure, it seems reasonable to think Jas and I do that...”

She gave me a playful shove.

“That’s taking the ‘I don’t talk about other girls’ thing a bit far!” she said, giggling. “I respect it, but Jas has been very clear, which I’ve already mentioned.”

“That’s her prerogative. Anyway, no matter how many times a couple has had sex, the consent is ‘new’ every time, and anyone can always say, at any point, ‘Um, no, we’re not doing this now’ and that’s that, we’re not. Anything else is assault. It might be a case where everyone forgives the assault later, or whatever, but it is. There’s no irrevocable consent.”

She nodded slowly.

“Okay ... that ... yeah. This is like when I said, ‘You can’t tell me when things end’ and you reminded me that if you said that it would be all sorts of wrong. You’re right, I mean. I feel like, if you promise sex, it’s a promise, but I see your point. It’s not an enforceable promise.”

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s what I meant.”

“So...” she said, nodding some more. “What you mean is, kinda, ‘tomorrow is always tomorrow.’ If I say, ‘We’ll do more tomorrow,’ and then tomorrow I don’t want to, we won’t, and you have to be ready for that.”

“Exactly,” I said.

“So ... how does that work in a marriage or something?” she said.

“A marriage is a promise ... of a different kind, but it is a promise. Breaking a promise to have sex may have all sorts of consequences, but those consequences are relationship damage and the like, not being forced to have sex.”

“‘May have?’ Seems like it’d always be iffy.”

“Imagine you promised me a hot night and then had a splitting headache or broke your arm or ... anything, really.”

“Got it! Sometimes it’s entirely understandable to break a promise.”

She giggled after a second.

“This is good! I’m still learning from you even now. That’s pretty awesome! I really don’t know that I could do the ‘open relationship’ thing, but I get it so much more. Even if I don’t, though, the whole way I see relationships is different, now.”

“As long as it works for you and whoever you’re with, that’s the key element. Well, and anyone the two of you affect.”

“Definitely!”

I parked at the house and pondered how to do this. Jas had said it worked for her, but she likely wouldn’t be waiting in the basement. On the other hand, going in and finding her would be like waving a flag in front of the other girls that Jas, Claire, and I were doing something together.

Jas solved the whole thing a second later by waving to us from our bedroom window and gesturing toward the back. Presumably, she’d seen the headlights.

When I waved back and nodded, she gestured again and gave me a thumbs-up. I returned it, and she scooted out of view.

By the time we were heading into the basement apartment, Jas had come into the apartment from the house.

“I guess it’s a go?” she said, giggling.

“It’s a go,” I said, hugging and kissing her.

“Yay!” Claire said. I hugged and kissed her, too.

After that, Jas surprised both of us (and got Claire to make a little ‘Eep!’ sound) by hugging and kissing Claire, too.

Claire giggled a bit, red-faced, after that.

“I’m um ... not sure what ... um...”

Jas giggled.

“It felt like the right thing to do,” she said.

“It wasn’t bad, just...” Claire said.

Then she paused, shook her head, and said, “Okay, fine! It was good, just ... surprising.”

“It might be a night for surprises,” I said, “Considering the path we’re on, I mean.”

“I am not going to be surprised to find out you two have sex and are good at it!” Claire said.

Jas giggled and nodded.

“He wouldn’t admit it in the car!” Claire said, giggling now.

“He’s a gentleman through and through,” Jas said. “Though he has told me about you two.”

“Part of the agreement,” Claire said, still giggling. She wasn’t blushing, either. “I’ve told you about Steve and me!”

“So you have!” Jas said, grinning.

“So...?” I said.

Jas looked at Claire, who looked back at Jas.

“I think we get him naked first,” Jas said.

“Yes!” Claire said, giving Jas a high five.

They did, too. Both of them were pretty determined, and it seemed like a very good idea to me, so I wound up undressed in near-record time.

“Um...” Claire said, blushing. “I’m...”

“We can both, if you’re okay with that,” Jas said. “You don’t have to...”

Claire was already starting to strip, though.