Chapter 6

As he dried himself, he felt the stirrings of arousal. He decided to go commando under his jeans. It made him feel more manly, and he knew he filled the jeans well. They weren’t that tight, but if you were looking, you could see. Derby believed that girls who looked at him carefully would see that he had something they might want. What the hell, he thought, when you go fishing, make sure you have good bait.

He left the dorm and walked, taking in the sights. There were a few more girls that he hadn’t seen yesterday that might suit his needs – cute, young, and walking with their eyes downcast, as though they had no self-confidence. He almost stopped to chat up a few of them, but stopped himself. He needed to focus on his mission, which was to get in Melissa’s pants. In, and out. Fuck her, and move on. Yeah, he liked that idea. No chance of getting bored. No chance of getting complacent. No chance of getting involved. All of which meant, no chance of getting hurt.

He pulled out his phone and called Melissa’s number. A man answered. Derby almost hung up, but realized that his number would show on her call log, so he said, “I may have the wrong number, sir. Is Melissa there?”

“My daughter should be back here in a minute. Who is this?”

“Oh, hi Mr. Jamison, it’s Derby, the guy who helped you unload her stuff yesterday.”

“Oh yes, Derby. I really appreciated your help, and my wife and Melissa were glad you volunteered to be their pack mule, too. I honestly don’t know why one girl needs so much stuff.”

“I know what you mean, sir. I have twin sisters. They almost need to rent storage units just to house all their junk. I guess it’s part of being female.”

“Here’s Melissa, Derby,” her father said, laughing.

Melissa got on the phone. “Hi, Derby!”

“Hey, Melissa. Are you settled in?”

“I’m getting there. Mom and Dad stayed in the motel across from campus last night. We just came back from buying some shelf and cabinet kits. Now we’re going to assemble them so I can put the rest of my things away. There’s just not enough storage space in these rooms.”

Derby said, “How about if I come over and lend a hand? My whole bedroom at home was filled with that kind of furniture. I had fun assembling it. I’d love to help you guys.”

“Great. Come on over,” Melissa said. Then she lowered her voice. “Dad has no idea what he’s doing.”

In a few minutes, Derby was knocking on Melissa’s open door. She had a single room, with no roommate. He could see pieces of furniture kits scattered everywhere, parts bags, instruction sheets, and packaging materials strewn like the wreckage from a tornado.

“Derby, come in,” Melissa said, stepping carefully through the debris field. Hmmm, she looked good. A college logo t-shirt, fresh from the campus store, thin enough that he could see the outline of her bra, athletic shorts which looked great above those amazingly long and shapely legs, and sneakers were all she wore. Her wavy red hair was pulled back in a sloppy pony tail, loose tendrils straying out at the sides to frame her face.

Her Dad smiled a greeting from the far end of the floor. He looked relieved to see Derby. “This girl’s going to be the death of me yet,” he said. “I damn near broke my back hauling these boxes up here, and now I’m going to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how to put this stuff together. I don’t even know if all the parts are here. ‘Insert tab on panel B into slot on panel A and fasten with clip #1.’ What the hell does that even mean?”

Derby surveyed the mess. Apparently, they had unpacked all the boxes at once and had mixed up the components. No wonder her Dad was confused. “Want some help?” he asked.

“Sure. The faster I can get this stuff together, the faster we can get on the road. It’s about a 5-hour drive to get home,” Melissa’s Dad said. “I think we’ve made a mess of this. We shouldn’t have opened all the cartons at once. I didn’t know that all these parts would look so similar.”

“May I make a suggestion, sir?” Derby asked, flashing his best impress-the-parents smile.

“I think I could use one.”

“Let’s gather everything and stack it in neat piles. We’ll check each piece and put it with identical pieces. We’ll separate and sort all this stuff into neat piles and clear as much floor space as we can. Then we’ll take one of those instruction sheets, identify the parts and fasteners, and assemble one item. When we go to the next one, it should be easier because there will be less parts to choose from. If we tackle this logically, it should get easier as we go.”

Melissa’s Dad smiled. “Logic is not my strong suit. I write music for movie and TV soundtracks. It’s not fine art, but it pays the bills. Your idea sounds good. You hum the melody, my boy. I’ll try to fill in some harmony after a few bars.”

They laughed together and set to work.

Soon, there was open floor space and some neat piles of parts. Derby was pulling pieces from the piles and making a new stack near the center of the room as Melissa’s Dad read aloud from the parts list. The women watched the men work, and things began to take shape. When the first piece of furniture was done, Melissa’s Dad said, “One down, two to go.”

“I’ll start on the next piece while you guys rest,” Derby said. “In fact, I bet Melissa and I can finish the rest of it if you want to hit the road. A five-hour drive is a task in itself. What do you think, Melissa? We can do this, right?”