Chapter 47: Detours and Plans

Friday, November 22, 1985

Fortunately, my only exam today was in Business Law, and I was in no danger of that being a problem. None of us were, but I was the only one who’d had a date last night.

Once past that, I just enjoyed my day and counted down the hours until my date with Darla. If both Amy and Darla continued to progress as they were, things might get quite interesting before long.

I still thought Darla was mostly temporary, though. No set time limit, but she was using me to get back on the horse and build up her dating skills. I was perfectly fine with being used that way. Even if she decided she was ready for a home run, though, we would only have so many of those. I wasn’t ‘the one,’ and both of us knew that very well. Darla would want to get out there on the hunt for ‘the one’ pretty quickly after she felt like she had this whole dating thing down.

Amy, though, was entirely different. I had no idea what she wanted out of this. She knew the rules — I was certain Jas had filled her in, and it was obvious nothing was dislodging Jas from being the center of my world, nor was Amy someone I could even imagine trying to make a play to change that — but she ... also knew the rules. There was no rule requiring an expiration date, and I could count on Amy to know that and factor it in. She had shown no sign of particularly wanting to date anyone else thus far. Perhaps she did, and was also using me to learn how to do it.

If there was a parallel, it might be Sue. She hadn’t known what she was doing, either. She had definitely wanted a life partner, though, and had very much wanted passion and romance. It took some work, but she made that happen.

Amethyst, though? She might (or might not) have passion and romance in her soul aplenty right now. I knew little of her inner life thus far. Hopefully, she would reveal more of it to me. The end of our last date, though, said she wanted some passion, anyway. Strongly, too!

Keeping my expectations minimal and my thoughts wide open was wise where Amethyst was concerned. Even expecting her to be ‘Amy’ or ‘Amethyst’ was putting a box around her that might not fit. Who was she, really? Did she even know? Was that set in stone, or written in sand?

So many unknowns, and it would be a delight figuring them out.

I headed home right after my last class to change, stopping only briefly at Hullabaloo to say hello to Amethyst. She was doing great and was quite happy to see me, though most people might not have realized that given her tone. I was doing ever better at reading her, thankfully.

Jas arrived not long after and started changing as well. When she was naked (and I was nearly so), I said, wiggling my eyebrows at her, “Remind me why we’re doing this again? Considering...”

She giggled and said, “Because it’s fun, and because we can do this anytime we want. Including tomorrow night.”

“You have a point there.”

“And you don’t, which is you being polite, since I know you could have one right away if needed.”

I chuckled at that.

“No points for you tonight.”

“There are toys,” she said, grinning.

“Perhaps, then, point taken.”

“Monique is definitely fun,” she said. “And ... I mean, I really like her. I think ... more than Katy. Almost certainly nothing long-term, but maybe for a while?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Where are you on Darla and Amy?”

“Funny you should ask,” I said. “I was just thinking about that. Darla is going to want to go look for Mr. Right eventually. I think ... she wants to figure out whether a home run is okay first. Probably because, if it is, she knows I’ll give it my best...”

“And she’s heard tales of your best,” Jas said, smirking.

“But, if the lasting memory is ‘I gave my virginity to someone other than my guy,’ that’s bad. She has to decide.”

Jas nodded, and said, “Yeah. And as much as I think that’s a silly standard, it’s her standard, and I totally get that it matters. Heck ... you and Jess dating was a risk. Yes, she knew she wanted it to be with you, but now it’s with someone who will probably be in her life for the very long term, even if you’re not ‘the one.’ Which ... jury’s out. Because, maybe she only needs a limited sort of ‘the one.’ Lifelong single woman, perhaps, with a constant guy in her life but only occasionally physically present.”

“That seems possible. So does her marrying someone. Hopefully, someone who can share, but...”

“Yeah. So, anyway, that’s Darla. Amy? Or Amethyst. Whichever.”

“Amethyst is damn complicated, and I’m not all that clear about what she’s thinking or where her plans are. She and Darla are maybe similar in that their dating experiences outside of me have mostly been lousy, but the reasons are very different. I don’t know what Amy thinks about sex, except ... I mean, there are some pretty clear signals that it’s on the table. And they’re completely her signals. Darla and I are really clear that I’m chasing and things will happen if she lets me catch her. Until Amy started hinting at being interested, I had no idea if there would ever be any chasing. She could have been asexual, for all I knew,” I said.

“Even you are using both names.”

“The name probably matters, at least somewhat, and we’re very unclear on how it matters, when it matters — all of that. She’s both, for now. ‘Amy’ is shorter, as she said, but if I let myself only think of her as ‘Amy,’ that might miss something. I ping-pong between them fairly often. Like I said, damn complicated.”

“So ... wide open?” she asked.

“Wide open. Which is ... I don’t think anyone has been like this since Jess. She wasn’t like this until well into our dating.”

“Heck, Jess was ‘the enemy’ for a little while. At least for me, I mean.”

“Water so far under the bridge it’s ridiculous, now,” I said.

“Thank God for that!”

“Absolutely!”

We both finished dressing, her in a red and gold blouse and flowing black skirt, me in a dark blue shirt and black slacks.

We met in a hug and kiss.

“Go forth and conquer!” she said, grinning.

“Medical restrictions.”

She giggled.

“Even with medical restrictions, you can still do a lot of conquering.”

“I think that’s actually doing us a world of good right now. Darla can ‘give in’ to a lot, knowing the biggest thing is off the table. That goes away after this date, but that gives her a couple of weeks — including a weekend around Clara — to figure out her next move.”

“Makes sense,” she said. “That week off will be good right now, I think. Both Amethyst and Darla need to figure out what they want next.”

“Definitely. Whether they will...”

She giggled and said, “Darla has been trying to figure that out for years! Still ... she’s much closer now. There is hope!”

“Hopefully!”

That got me a playful elbow to the ribs. Well worth it, in my opinion at least.

I arrived at Darla’s dorm room just after six. Our plan was to go out for dinner, then to the movie at the student center, and then ... who knows? The car seemed like the most likely answer, but it certainly was not the only answer.

She was ready when I arrived, as I’d expected. I was pretty sure Darla knew the ‘five more minutes’ dating game, and might play it with the next guy she dated, but she was past it with me.

Her outfit tonight was a green and black patterned blouse and a gray skirt, with her usual jewelry, flats (sexy flats, but still), glasses, and either stockings or pantyhose. I felt fairly certain it was the first. Pantyhose are pretty awkward when one wishes to take them off in a hurry and annoyingly hard to put back on (especially in a car, for instance). Darla didn’t feel like the ‘just rip them!’ sort of girl, though that would solve both problems.

I might be wrong about that, though.

She had her hair back in a ponytail, as she often did. If I had to describe her outfit tonight, it was ‘sexy tomboy.’ I was entirely in favor of that.

We met in a kiss right away, and then she took my hand for the walk to the car. We chatted about classes and Thanksgiving plans along the way. Darla was staying for the game, just like us. In fact, she would probably accompany us, thus hopefully sharing some more kisses. Clara was not entirely thrilled about having to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday, but accepted it.

I suspected this would be a problem for the rest of our time at A&M. Perhaps we might skip the game if A&M was having a truly lousy season, but even then I doubted it. Rivalry games — and this was a quintessential rivalry game — are known for upsets. Last year’s game was definitely an example! And, in the eyes of many students (and former students), any season in which A&M beat t.u. was a winning season, even if that was the only win all year.

We kept on safe subjects until we were settled at the restaurant. This time, we were having Chinese buffet. We didn’t have a ton of time to eat and get back for the movie, and we wanted to be there for the whole thing.

After a bit, Darla sighed and said, “Okay. So. Before we dance around it any longer: I had a wonderful time last time, I am really looking forward to tonight, and ... it hasn’t answered the big question, but it answered a fair number of questions.”

“The Big Bad Wolf is fairly eager to continue helping with those questions,” I said, wiggling my eyebrows.

She giggled, blushing slightly, and nodded.

“I like Mister Wolf. He’s a very ... polite ... wolf, all things considered. Honestly...”

She sighed again, worried at her lower lip a bit, then said, “I thought about it. A lot! And ... I need Mister Wolf. You know why, but I do. It’s not just that it’s fun, it’s that ... I need a nudge, and I trust you completely. Obviously, I’m not telling Mom any of this over Thanksgiving, but ... there’ll be some conversations. Vague ones, ones where I pretend I’m not dating anyone, but conversations about what it might be like if I was. The thing is ... Mom would not approve of us dating. At all. Her romance novels don’t help. Well, or at least I’ve never heard of them featuring a guy who already has a serious relationship but is perfectly free to sweep the heroine off her feet.”

“I’m guessing that would only appeal to a niche audience,” I said, chuckling.

“You said it! Mom would thoroughly approve of you, in a vacuum, but not with Jas in the picture. And, with Jas having been in the picture, Mom would mostly disapprove of you unless she was out of the picture for a good reason.”

“So she knows nothing.”

“Absolutely nothing! Which ... is also good for me. I need to set those lines. And, I mean, I need to, for me. No matter where things go from here, this is already helping me enormously,” she said.

“I’m very glad.”

We shifted back to lighter topics and continued in that fashion for the drive to the MSC. After that, it was all ‘Ghostbusters’.

That is, until about two-thirds of the way through the movie, when Darla excused herself to run to the restroom. She returned fairly quickly, but was gone again ten minutes later. When she returned, she looked a bit pale and had a bit of sweat on her forehead.

She made it through the rest of the movie, but excused herself during the credits. This time, when she returned, it was to say, growling a bit, “I am sick.”

“I guessed.”

She sighed.

“I don’t think it was dinner, so don’t kick yourself. This feels like something else. I’m suddenly all congested and achy, not just having some stomach upset.”

“That sucks. I’m sorry.”

“Well...” she said, then sighed loudly. “I had a much better plan for after the movie, but I think it’ll be best if you take me to the oh-so-romantic Health Center.”

“I’ll be happy to.”

“I won’t be happy at all, but ... happier with you there, so I guess that’s some level of happy.”

“It counts,” I said.

She waited on a bench while I fetched the car, and I had her to the health center within ten minutes. After a half-hour wait, a nurse took her back. An hour after that, she returned with a diagnosis of the flu. She was highly apologetic about exposing me to it, but I said I would have been exposed anyway, since it was likely going around.

Hers really was the flu, at least. They had ruled out appendicitis along the way.

They sent her with a supply of over-the-counter remedies and suggested she rest as much as possible. That sounded like the wisest course to me as well.

She apologized several more times along the drive. I did my best to make it clear she didn’t need to apologize, but I understood it. If the circumstances were reversed, I would apologize repeatedly as well.

We held out the possibility of a date on Wednesday night, if she felt well enough to make it worthwhile. Amy would be gone by Wednesday night and Jas would be fine if I went on a date.

Wednesday would be complicated, though, because Bonfire was on Wednesday and none of us wanted to miss it. Darla would go to Bonfire no matter what, but whether it was just ‘Bonfire’ or ‘a date’ depended a great deal on her health.

We would see. For now, I got her tucked into bed. Louise had the conflicting instructions of doing her best to take care of Darla while also trying to avoid catching the flu from her.

With the long delay at the health center, I didn’t get home much later than I would have anyway. Even so, the door to our room was closed and had a red ribbon on the door, a sign that Jas wasn’t alone.

I wound up playing poker with Angie, Paige, Cammie, and Mel in the basement for an hour or so. Of the five of us, I was pretty clearly the weakest player. The others were practicing more than I was, and it showed.

When I went upstairs, the ribbon was gone. I headed into the bedroom to find Jas just coming out of the bathroom.

“How was your date?” I said.

“Really good! All around, too. Dinner was good, and dessert was even better,” she said, grinning.

“I’m glad.”

“How about yours?”

“Dinner was good, the first two-thirds of the movie was fun, and then we wrapped things up with Darla needing to visit the Health Center,” I said.

“Oh, no! What’s wrong? Food poisoning?”

“Thankfully not. Or, maybe, unfortunately not. Food poisoning would be on me, at least in theory. She has the flu.”

“Sucks! I hope you don’t get it,” she said.

“Darla apologized for exposing me to it about a dozen times. We’re at college. If it’s going around, I’ll be exposed repeatedly.”

“True enough!”

“It’s fine. We might get together next Wednesday if she’s feeling better.”

“I hope you can,” Jas said. “I think ... it’ll be better for her if she gets another chance before going home.”