Chapter 31: A Bump in the Night, A Collision in the Morning

Tuesday, October 15, 1985

The second set of pictures was mostly better than the first. Reviewing the photos let us narrow down the settings considerably. One more roll of film with some different exposure settings would probably do it. As before, we would take a few at each setting, then switch. The whole thing was a fairly laborious process, since the enclosure made it hard to change settings once the camera was mounted and ready.

We definitely had a plan, though, and knew it would work. Mel was now working on permanent IR sensor placement. Within a day or two, we would be ready for our miscreant, whoever he was.

Around nine-thirty, as we were starting to get ready for bed (and after Cammie and Mel had gone upstairs, something I’d been waiting for), I intercepted Paige. Taking her hand, I said, “Might you be interested in spending more of our evening together, Ms. Seiler?”

Paige looked startled for a second, then blushed, giggled, and nodded quickly.

“Indeed I would, Mr. Marshall!”

Jas clapped a little, while Angie came over and hugged Paige from behind.

“Have fun,” she said, her mouth close to Paige’s ear.

“I plan to!” Paige said, grinning. “You, too!”

“I definitely intend to!” Jas said. “Which means she’d better have fun!”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Angie said.

Paige headed upstairs to fetch a few things from her room. When she came back downstairs, we kissed our girlfriends goodnight, then held hands as we headed into the bedroom.

Paige giggled.

“Not complaining, but it’s a surprise!”

“So was Edinburgh.”

“True!”

I wrapped my arms around her and looked into her eyes.

“Like we said then, scheduling this would be silly, but we should find time to get together, and ... not infrequently.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck, nodding, and said, “We should, I agree. It’s special, and I’d really like that.”

I kissed her softly. It stayed soft for a bit, too, but we took it up several notches before breaking to get a breath.

“Apparently I really like the idea!” Paige said, giggling.

“I do, just as much,” I said.

I scooped her into my arms, which got her giggling even more, and then gently tossed her onto the bed.

“Silly! I still need to get undressed!” she said.

“True!”

She got up, and then, without saying anything, we decided that undressing each other was much more fun. We traded turns removing pieces of clothing, plus many kisses along the way.

Once we were both naked, she grinned.

“Re-do?” she said.

I picked up and tossed her a bit more aggressively, though still carefully. She bounced a little, and then — somehow — wound up with her legs fairly wide.

“Oh, my!” she said, giggling. “Whatever will I do?”

“Be a midnight snack,” I said, before scooting between her legs and giving her a quick lick.

“Ohhh fuck!” she moaned as I kept licking. “Yes! Not ... like I ... don’t get ... this ... fairly ... often ... but ... it’s ... it’s still ... different.”

I chuckled, then nibbled on her lips a bit. That got me a growly moan and a hand on the back of my head pulling my face into her. I kept going until she’d peaked twice, then moved over her and slid my cock into her, taking her more slowly than I think she expected.

“Oh ... oh fuck, that’s good!” she moaned out. “I ... am... so glad Angie and Jas approve of us skipping the condoms!”

“Me, too,” I said, sliding in and out.

“One ... day ... this will ... be for real...” she said, looking me in the eye.

Something in her voice gave me an idea, and I said, “You could pretend that’s tonight.”

“Fuckkkk!” she groaned, squirming harder.

“Me taking you ... thrusting ... you knowing that any second I might drive in and explode in you. In your very fertile ... unprotected ... waiting ... eager body.”

“Oh my fucking God!” she cried out, then went off, shaking and groaning under me. It was all I could possibly do to keep from cumming right there and then, but I wanted her to really feel it, and right now she wasn’t feeling anything but pleasure.

When she came down, she panted out, “How ... the fuck ... are you still... going?!”

“Because I wanted you to look into my eyes, really feel me filling you, and think about what it could be doing.”

“Oh ... fuck ... I ... gah!” she said. “You ... that ... almost...”

I pressed in and let go, exploding inside her.

“Fuckkkk!” she cried, looking deep into my eyes. “I ... feel ... itttttt!”

That was it. She lost herself to another orgasm, while I lost myself in her eyes, which remained open.

When we finally came down, we snuggled for a bit, then — still wordlessly — headed to the bathroom to clean up. Once we were ready for bed, we settled back, snuggled very close.

After a minute or so, and blushing just a bit, Paige said, “I didn’t even know I had that fantasy! Oh, God, do I! That was ... intense.”

I stroked her back and said, “Could it be because it’s something you know you want, one day? Where, before...?”

She nodded quickly.

“Before you ... before Angie, before ... all of this ... getting knocked up was the last thing I would have wanted! And I don’t really want it now, either. Though ... I mean, birth control fails. If I wind up preggers, we’re having a gorgeous kid. Jas and I have even talked about it. She wants to be the first to get pregnant with you, and that’s really awesome and I want that for her. But, if it does happen despite the birth control, we all agree it was meant to be and we’ll enjoy every second of it.”

“News to me,” I said, chuckling. “But that’s fine. I would be thrilled! The timing would be iffy, but ... eh. We can triumph over timing.”

“Yes, we can!”

She sighed, kissed me softly, and then said, “Do you remember when...?”

She stopped there. It took me a second to guess, but then I said, “The party, when you were wondering if...”

“Yes!” she said. “That! I ... I really liked you. And it felt like we’d somehow missed our chance. Fucked things up. I’m so incredibly grateful we didn’t, because ... well. I think you and I probably never work, exactly — I mean, not as the couple — but we’re so close to working, and we work so well like this.”

“Me, too,” I said. “To all of it, I mean. Angie is...”

“She’s head over heels and more,” Paige said, giggling. “Even after these years! And ... I am, too!”

She sighed, shifted, and said, “This is ... I totally get it, now! I mean, back when you and Jas started saying things like wanting a marriage like your parents have. And mine, too! It’s not about giving anything up, or at least nothing I don’t want to give up. It’s about finding that person you want to go through life with and can see yourself adoring even more years from now.”

I started to say something, but she laid a finger across my lips and said, “Before you say anything ... the thing is, well. It’s ... not only do I get that, but I also get to see myself in your life, and Jasmine’s life, all those years from now. And ... both of you are like that. People I think I’ll adore even more then than I do now.”

I nodded.

“Me, too.”

She smiled softly.

“We might be apart for a while — graduate school, for instance — but ... I don’t love the idea. I hope we don’t have to. I know ... well. Angie and I want to be Momma 1 and Momma 2 for our little ones, but we both want you to be ... more than just Uncle Steve. They’ll need a guy in their lives and we want that to be you, and that means we need to be close.”

I hugged her tightly.

“I’d love that,” I said. “Raising kids was ... it was a challenge, but also ... it’s so rewarding! If there’s a trick, it’s to go into it with your eyes wide open. They’ll only be each age for a while, and your job is to help them grow and develop into the best people they can be. Them leaving home kinda sucks, but it’s also the big reward.”

She nodded a bit.

“I think ... oh, heck! I know that’ll be something we all benefit from. It’s not like anyone else gets to have kids with someone in their twenties who’s already raised kids to adulthood.”

I patted her tummy and said, “Or in their teens, if we...”

Paige giggled, then growled and said, “Dammit! We just cleaned up! Don’t get me going again!”

Then she giggled a lot more and added, “Even if it would be fun!”

“I’ll do my best,” I said.

“That’s what I’m afraid of!”

I chuckled, then gave her a warm kiss, one that did its best to convey love, not lust. It seemed to work, from the happy sighs she was making.

“I love you,” she said, once we broke the kiss.

“I love you, too,” I said.

“How did I get this lucky?” she said. “Angie ... you ... Jasmine ... I mean, even that is beating the odds in a huge way! Then add in the way you and Angie are just... special ... and it’s ... I mean...”

“You got this lucky because ... well, you were lucky,” I said, smiling. “Or because the universe likes you. God likes you. The Gods like you. We don’t know! I’ve asked myself hundreds of times how I got this lucky. How I went from being a moderately depressed, overweight, not in the best of health fifty-five-year-old to having one of the best high school experiences anyone could have, finding the girl of ... no, the girl better than the girl of my dreams, because I wouldn’t have dared dream of what we have now. Not to mention a sister! How insane is that?! And then, you! Plus, there’s Cammie, and Mel, who aren’t ... you know...”

She giggled and nodded.

“But they’re part of our family. Maybe more like sisters, maybe more like in-laws, but ... whatever. It’s just ... yeah. I have no idea how I got so lucky, but I don’t need to know to appreciate it.”

We kissed again, and then both yawned.

“We should sleep,” she said. “I’m tired! Something about that wore me right out.”

“It was when I suggested...”

“Nooooo!” she said, bopping me with a pillow. “Don’t, or we’re not sleeping for an hour or two!”

We opted for sleep. There would be time enough for a little fantasizing later. Or ... well. Perhaps plenty of fantasizing!

Wednesday, October 16, 1985

We thought we had everything carefully timed. It seemed right, and we felt pretty certain it was all good.

We ... did not. Paige found that out when she opened the door, stepped out, and wound up literally running headlong into Cammie.

“Oops, Jas, I...” Cammie said.

Then her brain caught up with the news that the girl she’d run into was taller, somewhat more solidly built, and very definitely not Vietnamese.

“Um ... Paige?” she said, blushing.

Paige was red, too.

“Yeah, that’s ... me.”

Cammie flicked a glance at me.

“This is ... um. Not new, but ... unexpected,” she said.

“We maybe should have said something,” I said.

Paige, meanwhile, giggled a bit, nodding.

“It ... might have helped,” Cammie said, snorting. “I mean, we knew last year. And ... seriously, it’s none of my business. Obviously Angie and Jas know ... and are probably ... um...”

She stopped, slapping a hand over her mouth.

“Okay, Cammie, no thinking about that!” she said, then giggled.

“Thinking is fine,” Mel said, coming over from the kitchen and hugging Cammie from behind. “I’m less surprised than you are, I think. Oh ... I didn’t know they were ... you know ... but...”

Paige nodded, smiling.

I said, “We should talk about this. Tonight. Hopefully Candice and Sherry won’t visit or don’t stay too long.”

“They usually don’t,” Mel said. “I really like having them here — even more than I expected to! — but, yeah, sometimes we need our own space.”

“Usually when people are doing something that normal people don’t do,” Cammie said, giggling now. “Which I count myself in! None of us are normal by now.”

“And we wouldn’t have it any other way!” Mel said.

“No! No, we wouldn’t!” Paige said.

By unspoken popular vote, breakfast was very normal, with no mention of bedroom-swapping shenanigans or anything else. I let Jas know what was up, Paige did the same for Angie, but otherwise we had a normal breakfast.

After leaving the house, though, and separating from Cammie and Mel, we talked plenty about it. The consensus was: they understood, it wasn’t new — but hadn’t happened, to their knowledge, for quite a while — and they would like and appreciate the explanation. And, yes, we should have done this a while ago. But, really, the four of us were still feeling things out a bit. It might have felt premature to explain things.

Once I had a chance to share without Paige hearing, I told Jas about Paige’s fantasy. Jas reacted exactly the way I thought she would, with a lot of ‘aww’ and ‘that’s adorable!’ and ‘you two will have the cutest kids — except for ours!’

If I’d thought for a second that she would really tease Paige, I would have put things a different way. I knew better, though. There might be some teasing, but it would be warm and loving.

And ... well. Something in Jasmine’s reaction told me that Paige might not be the only girl who might enjoy a bit of baby making teasing on occasion. We had quipped often about practicing the things we needed to do to make that happen. Perhaps turning it up a notch might be very well-received.

Not right away, though. That would be too much, and unfair to both Paige and Jas. When the timing was right, though...

Well. We would see.

I stopped at the Hullabaloo Cafe on my way home. Amy, who was helping another customer, spotted me and gave me a cute little smile. I’m not sure if most people would have called it that, but I was getting more in touch with her facial expressions. When she was being herself, they were often subtle and easy to miss, but they were there.

More importantly, it meant she wasn’t backing out. I had thought that might be a real possibility. Thankfully not.

I waited for my turn, then stepped up and said, “Hi, Amy.”

“Hello, Steve,” she said.

“Just so we’re clear ... would it be still fine with you if I picked you up at your room in Mosher at six-thirty?”

The look on her face was ... unusual. If you imagine Wednesday Addams doing a very subtle cat-that-ate-the-canary face while trying not to, that’s about the best description. She was, to my eye, clearly surprised and pleased, but trying not to let on about either.