Variation on a Theme, Book 6
Copyright© 2024 by Grey Wolf
Chapter 135: Sharing Some Thoughts
Monday, May 5, 1986
Hank and I just said hello in class this morning. He didn’t know about the earthquake Angie and Paige were about to set off under him. Soon, but not yet.
Angie talked with him a bit at the end of class. Later, she told me that wasn’t the earthquake itself. She’d told him she had some questions he might be able to help with and set him up to call her around nine tonight. It was easier for him to call her than vice versa, given how the Corps operated.
With respect to Darla, the girls figured everything out between themselves. Before I knew it, they’d set up a dinner date for Darla and me at six at the Commons cafeteria. It seemed reasonably private, and we’d had sensitive conversations there before.
I changed when I got home. I also found out that the faxes from CBS had come in. Just for me, there were three pages of questions. Jas only had two. Angie had four, while Paige had three. There were four each for Natalie and Anne, and five for Marco. They wanted them back within a week, if possible, but acknowledged that we were likely busy.
I set them aside for now and headed off for my date. This might be the most ‘non-date date’ in history, and I found that amusing. Heck, the whole thing was amusing. How many times does a guy wind up talking with the girl he’s dating about how much he can tell the guy she’s about to be dating? It seemed like an unlikely conversation for most people.
When Darla arrived, she blushed a bit, but hugged me tightly and said, “Thanks for doing this.”
“Still not sure what I’m doing, but we’ll talk about that after we get our food, I think.”
“Sounds good!” she said.
As usual, the offerings were moderately tasty and mostly healthy. It would be fine. No one died from dorm food. It just wasn’t comparable to what we could easily make at home, and routinely did.
Once we were settled, Darla took a deep breath, then said, “So. This ... really, it’s simple.”
“Is it? Because it seems pretty complicated.”
She giggled.
“Okay. Um ... fine. It’s simple for me.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. I’m ... it’s a blanket statement. Anything you think you should share about me, you can. Nothing is held back. At all,” she said, just slightly faster than she usually talked.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah,” she said, then took another deep breath. “Look ... this is going to be embarrassing no matter what I do. But I trust Angie and Paige, and I’ve met Hank. He’s handsome, and I think I like him, what little I know of him. I also ... well. You know the score as well as anyone. This — the Mister Right thing — isn’t going to be easy. Hank and I might crash and burn. The thing is, I think we will crash and burn without your help. That, or we’ll take a year to get things sorted out, and I ... I don’t feel like I have a year. I’ll go nuts. Or you’ll help me to not go nuts, but that would be cheating without there being some agreement. And, yes, that says I’m a bit of a slut, but I am a bit of a slut now! I’m spoiled! And ... it’s also being a little unreasonable. I could wait, but ... really, it’s ... well. If he can’t handle it, he can’t, and that’s true if it comes from you or me. But you can be more ... direct.”
I nodded slowly, thinking it over.
“I can go with that,” I said. “This is going to be weird, though.”
“Tell me about it! I think it’s totally weird. But I’m weird. Yes, in a very good way, but I’m weird. You’re weird. Hank, if he can do this — if he’s Mister Right — needs to be weird in the right way, too.”
“If it’ll help, I can do it. I’ll try not to get too ... embarrassing.”
She giggled and said, “Eh. Seriously, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. The thing that’s tricky is that I want him to know a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean we can just jump ahead to the fun part. I want to date first. Over the summer. Long phone calls, with phone bills that annoy someone. Maybe some actual date dates, when he can get to Houston. Kissing, probably. But nothing too much. We’ll both learn more that way. Partly because I think ... um ... I’m kinda handing him the keys to the kingdom and telling him that, if he uses them, I’m rekeying the locks. It’s not entirely fair. But it’s a way for us both to just be honest right away. I’d hate to find myself falling for someone who just plain couldn’t be Mister Right.”
She hesitated, then said, “Before you say it, you could! In the way I mean. Yes, you can’t, but that’s because of you and Jasmine, not all of the other things. It’s not even about sharing anymore. It was, but now ... now I feel ... differently.”
I nodded.
“Yeah. That’s been changing for a while now.”
“It has. So ... anyway. Green light. You figure it out. Simple for me. Probably a nightmare for you, but I have faith in you.”
“Thanks,” I said, chuckling a bit.
That was the end of the serious stuff, pretty much. We did talk about another date, and tentatively decided Friday would be good. The party would be Saturday, but that wasn’t going to be a date. Amy would get Thursday.
After that? Most likely the Friday or Saturday after finals. It depended a lot on Amy, really. If she was going home right away, either might be fine. If she stayed around until Friday, then that would be good.
I would likely see each of them over the summer, so it wasn’t the rush this might have been under other circumstances.
After dinner, we went right off to dance lessons. Those were fun, as always, and I felt like I was making solid progress.
This was the last scheduled lesson for now. Having one during Finals Week seemed silly. We were talking about one or two in June, though, if we could fit them into our schedule.
The girls would continue in the fall. They had to get ready for a wedding a year away, not a couple of months away.
Angie talked to me around nine-thirty. She’d set up a meeting between Hank and me tomorrow at seven-thirty, this time at the library, which was roughly halfway between where we lived. I wasn’t sure if we would actually talk there or somewhere nearby. This didn’t feel like a study room conversation. A semi-lit bench somewhere, though? Might be perfect.
Jas teased me a bit more about being ‘Mister Blabbermouth’ when we went to bed. I wound up silencing her (on that subject) by proving that my mouth had other, and better, uses in regard to her.
That, and her mouth could be kept busy with lots of sounds that mostly weren’t words.
Tuesday, May 6, 1986
The day somewhat dragged on, as I’d thought it might. This was going to be a really strange conversation, and there was no helping that. Maybe if I’d had an awkward conversation like this with Amit, it might have helped. Or Gene. Or Larry.
But ... no. This was entirely new ground. Interesting and strange ground. I’d promised to help Darla any way I could, though, and this would help. Or, at least, I hoped it would.
We were lucky, most likely. It drizzled a fair bit during the day, but let up mid-afternoon, letting things dry off. Sitting outside in the rain would have been silly.
Hank arrived right on time, wearing fatigues, as he did much of the time. We shook hands, and then he said, “Inside?” while gesturing to the library.
“Maybe the benches by the Pavilion?” I said, gesturing that way. It was right next door.
“That works!” he said.
We headed over and took seats, sitting at right angles to each other. That seemed better than side-to-side, and face-to-face wasn’t actually an option.
“So...” he said. “I think I’m the last to the party.”
“Probably,” I said, chuckling a bit.
“Angie told me some things, but ... she said there’s a lot. I mean, I know the basics. Blind date with Darla, only ... not so blind.”
“I guess, maybe ... tell me what you know.”
He shook his head a bit and said, “I’m not sure if I know things or just think them. Well ... I’ll take that back. I know you’ve known her for years. Friends in high school. Dated a bit in high school, which ... well. I know about you and Jas, so I know that overlaps things with her. Which is fine! Might get me in trouble under the Uniform Code of Military Justice when I go active duty, but ... really, probably not. They only care about a lot of UCMJ violations if there’s a performance or discipline issue. Keep it to yourself, and it’s not an issue.”
“Some of this will be like that, I think, based on what I know of the UCMJ.”
“Yeah. So ... at first, I thought Angie meant she was sort of ... um ... oh, and I mean Darla ... anyway, that Darla was, maybe, wanting the traditional thing. There’s that stuff about being obedient, and walking two steps behind ... all that stuff. Which ... I’m not sure I can do that. But then she kinda disabused me of that idea,” he said, chuckling.
“Good. Because ... I see the similarity, and she might like that sometimes when you’re in private, but in public — and in a lot of other ways — she’ll keep you on your toes.”
“Which I like,” he said, nodding. “I think ... I have to start out thinking we’re equals. Partners. But, within that ... I mean, my parents are partners, but they’re not identical. Mom has areas where she’s in charge. Dad has areas where he’s in charge. They can both suggest things in those areas, but there’s a lot of deferring to each other.”
“Mine, too. I think that’s nearly everyone, for people who are equals at all. People just aren’t going to be equally good at everything, and it helps to know who’s the expert on this or that.”
“Anyway, so ... equal but not. How does that work?”
I chuckled a bit and said, “This is getting into things I’m pretty uncomfortable with discussing, but have ... um ... not just permission, but encouragement, to discuss. This whole conversation is ... I’ve really never talked about any girl I’ve dated with any guy this way, ever.”