Chapter 6: Back at University

Naked at Night

July 26 – August 1, 1976

Back at University; the second semester looked like it would be much the same as the first. Three subjects – physics, chemistry and math – continued on from the first semester; that’s why the mid-year exam results for those subjects were only an interim result. The same with Elec Eng 1; it was also a double credit subject; although this semester it would be concentrating on electronics. Engineering C was just a first semester subject; my result in the mid-year exam was a Distinction. A new subject; Computer Programming 1B took its place on the timetable. It was going to build on from the introductory computer programming that was covered in the first half of Elec Eng 1.

There was a slight change with the Chemistry classes, too; while the first semester was all inorganic chemistry, this semester was going to concentrate on organic chemistry. There was a different lecturer; a Doctor Bishop, who looked to be a pale, humourless guy. A pity, I really liked the lecturer we had in the first semester; Doctor Andrews. He would often get distracted in lectures and talk all about his experiences traveling around Europe during the early sixties, or other amusing anecdotes; but somehow he managed to cover all the material.

I no longer had Friday afternoons free; but I still finished by four every afternoon, and at three on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Of course, not having the long drive in from Mona Vale every day saved heaps of time; Lori and I could sleep in until after seven, have breakfast together, and I would be on my bike by eight-fifteen. The bike made getting around the campus easier; with lectures and tutorials spread out from the Science building at the upper end; Electrical Engineering in the middle, and the Old Main Building and Chemistry school at the Anzac Parade end, there was lots of walking. It was much faster on the bike.

It was amazing the difference the reduced travel time made. We both left home around the same time; me on my bike, and Lori walking to the station. Instead of an hour and a half battling the traffic; we spent more of that time talking over breakfast. In the afternoons, we both arrived home by four-thirty, plenty of time to unwind, talk about the day, and then start on dinner. Evenings would be studying together at the dining table. Since we didn’t have to get up so early in the mornings, we could stay up at night until eleven, or even later.

One thing I quickly discovered was Lori’s dislike of anything disorganized or untidy. While Cathy had a fetish about organizing everything, Lori’s approach was different. I think Cathy did that out of a liking to see everything in order; she would arrange books on shelves by their size and colour; things had to ‘look right’. Lori, on the other hand, was more concerned about efficiency and being able to lay her hand on what she wanted, when she wanted it. She said it was something she got from her father, how in the Navy everything had to be ‘squared away’; high praise from Jack were the words ‘that’s squared away well, sailor’. I learned very quickly not to just leave my clothes on the floor when I got undressed; or to just have dishes sitting on the kitchen table.

“There’s a place for everything, and everything goes in its place,” she would say.

Just sitting in the study room (the dining room) watching her at the end of each day, as she would organize her lecture notes for that day; or work on assignments was an education in itself. The big filing drawers and bookcase that she had acquired and put in our study room really came into its own; I followed her techniques for filing and structuring my papers and notes; plus having all my text books and reference material close at hand made working on assignments so much easier. I had mistakenly scoffed at her obsessiveness in categorizing and organizing everything; but it quickly became apparent that she knew what she was doing.

She had also found a small notice board that we put up on the wall in the kitchen next to the back door. It had two parts; a cork pin board, where we could put up notes and a small blackboard, which we used to make reminders – “the milk is low”, “get bread today” – so we never ran out of important items. Like my mother, she had a large diary that was on the kitchen counter. Whenever anything was scheduled; dinner with friends, future visits, major assignments; they would be recorded in the diary. With a full week to each opening, at a glance we could see what was coming that week.

We stuck to the ‘naked at night’ rule, too. I had been naked around her and others long enough not to feel any embarrassment at being undressed in front of others. But it somehow made sharing our place even more intimate. The only downside was that we were constantly aroused; seeing each other, brushing against each other; invariably that would lead to some wildly passionate love-making. I can’t believe I actually thought of that as a ‘downside’! It did make it difficult some days to leave home on time; on more than one occasion I had to ride as fast as I could to get across to Kensington in time for my first lecture; even skipping getting changed down in the sports centre before walking into the maths lecture room. Doctor Dewar gave me a stern look; at least she hadn’t started the morning lecture.

Doctor Paul Baker was teaching us Computer Programming 1B; all I can assume from the name is that the programming part of Elect Eng 1 from the first semester would become Computer Programming 1A. Lori’s desire for everything being properly organized must have started rubbing off onto me; somehow the lack of a ‘computer programming 1A’ subject felt odd. Semantics aside, it looked to be a good, challenging subject. Not only were we covering some more advanced techniques, but there was a new programming language to learn, called ‘C’. I asked him ‘I guess we can skip A and B’, only to be told that the precursor to ‘C’ was actually called ‘B’.

That was my first lesson in ‘how computer nerds name stuff’. In general, it wasn’t sufficient to give a program or computer a descriptive name; it also had to be a clever pun. Doctor Baker told us that the University’s first computer was a ‘Deuce’ computer; apparently the company that designed it; English Electric; had called their first computer ‘ACE’; an acronym for Automatic Computing Engine, designed by Alan Turing, of Enigma code breaking fame. Apparently, they came up with the name ‘Deuce’ as the successor to ‘Ace’; something that poker players would instantly relate to; and then back-constructed the name ‘Digital Electronic Universal Computing Engine’ to make the acronym acceptable.

Once Paul got started on a side track, it didn’t take much encouragement to keep him going. He then got onto one of his favourite program names, ‘DEBE’, short for ‘Does Everything But Eat’, that was on the University’s IBM 360 mainframe computer. With that, he started to talk about the various ways a user of a program can interact with it; controlling its operations. He showed some examples in C, with program arguments being passed on the command line; our first exercise was to write a program to parse these ‘argv’ and ‘argc’ values. The other new concept was that of ‘pointers’; where the value of a variable is the address of another variable.

Meanwhile, we quickly got into a routine at home; setting aside time for shopping, cleaning the house, and study. Maria from next door had taken Lori up to the local shops, and introduced her to the various shopkeepers, telling her which of the local shops were the best to deal with, who had the best quality meat and produce, and which places were the ones to avoid.

The first Wednesday of the semester was the day that Megan was coming over for dinner; the day before we had discussed the menu. We decided I would do a repeat of the beef stroganoff that I did for Garry and Jill. That afternoon, I went up the street, and bought all the ingredients; sliced the meat up and let it soak in a marinade overnight. When I got home from University on Wednesday afternoon, all I needed to do was take a shower (I was rather sweaty from the ride home), and start cooking. Lori had arrived while I was taking my shower; she joined me, and somehow we got distracted from the dinner preparations; and ended up making love on the dining room floor. At least we got to add that room to the list of rooms!

With our passions sated, at least for the immediate period, it was back to preparing dinner. We decided to eat in the kitchen, rather than move everything from the dining table; while Lori set the table, I started on the cooking. The meal was well under way when the doorbell rang; Lori went up the hall to answer it. It was Megan; I could hear Lori greeting her.

“Hi Lori ... Oh, you’re naked. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything?” I hear Megan say.

“No, I guess I forgot to mention, Will and I have a rule, when we are at home it’s ‘Naked at Night’; we don’t bother wearing clothes,” Lori explained. “You don’t have to join in, if you don’t want to. We can get dressed, if you would prefer.”

“No, don’t be silly, that sounds like fun. Where can I put my clothes?”

I heard Lori leading Megan through into our bedroom, explaining each room to her. Eventually they arrived in the kitchen; Megan had shed her clothes.

“I assume you are naked underneath that apron?” she asked, as she came over to kiss my cheek.

“Well, I don’t want anything hot to splash on certain tender parts of my body,” I said. “It’s nice to see you getting into our ‘Naked at Night’ tradition, too.”

“I like your place,” she said. “Much more room than my little dungeon; and you’ve got a back yard, and a parking space. What are you cooking? It looks and smells really nice.”

“Beef Stroganoff.”

“I have this book of music that you might like to look through,” she said. “Songs by Cole Porter; I thought we could play through some of them this evening, see what might be good for the group.”

I looked at the book ‘Cole Porter’s Great American Songbook’. I flicked through it; some of them we already had in our repertoire, others looked like they would be worthwhile adding.

“The meal is just about ready to simmer for an hour; we can go into the music room and try some of these.”

“The Music Room?” Megan asked. “I thought it was the dining room?”

“Dining room, study, music room, whatever we want to call it,” Lori replied. “Or even a sex room.”

I put a cover on the pan, turned the burner down low, and led the way into the music room. I switched on the amp and Rhodes, and sat at the keyboard. I opened the book to one of the first songs, ‘Anything Goes’.

Megan punched me playfully in the shoulder. “Come on, let’s try this one. We’ll take each line in turn.”

I played the intro; and Megan took the first verse.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
Now heaven knows, anything goes.

I followed with the second verse:

Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose. Anything goes.

We then combined to sing the chorus together. It sounded a little rough; but pretty good for our first try. Megan turned to another song, ‘I’ve got you under my skin’, and suggested I try that myself. I ran through it once, it was okay, I guess. I would need to practice the timing and breathing.

“My parents have a recording of Frank Sinatra playing that,” Lori said. “You should listen to him; get his timing and phrasing.”

We played and sang a few more; Megan did a passably good version of ‘It’s Delightful’ that we could polish up for our Saturday night performances. The session came to an end when the alarm I had set in the kitchen went off; I added the sour cream to the stroganoff; drained the noodles, and dished out the food into the serving dishes. That was another change that Lori introduced me to; how dinner was served. When I was growing up, my mother would serve the food on everyone’s plates in the kitchen, take them to the dining table, where we would sit in our places, and eat what had been served.

Lori preferred what she called ‘family style’; the food, once ready, would be put in serving dishes, and the dishes would be put in the centre of the table, and each of us would take turns in putting what we wanted on our plate. Once we had all served ourselves, we would start eating. I didn’t care either way, but since that was what she preferred, we ate that way.

As well as the noodles and stroganoff; I sliced up some crusty Italian bread (Mama Sophia’s grocery store), and put them in a basket on the table. Lori poured us all some wine, and we started on the meal. The beef tasted pretty good; but the bread was the outstanding part. When we had finished; the girls cleared things up while I prepared the dessert; a butterscotch instant pudding. That went in the oven, and would be ready in an hour.

While the dessert was cooking; we went out to the living room, sat down and started talking. Before we could really get comfortable, the phone rang. Lori answered it, and from just hearing one side, it was Maureen, our publisher. I mentioned that to Megan; she was surprised that we had a book in publication, until I reminded her that Lori and I had worked on a book together over summer and autumn.

“We can make a book signing at Dymocks Friday week, can’t we?” Lori asked. I nodded, and she told Maureen that would be fine. “I’ll tell you all the details when I’ve finished.”

“I think our book is being released for this weekend,” I told Megan.

After another minute or two, Lori hung the phone up.

“That was Maureen,” she said, “with an update on the book release. There are going to be some reviews in the weekend newspapers; apparently they are going to be great reviews; the comments praise the book highly. So much that Maureen is getting an extra ten thousand copies ordered from the printers. They go on sale this Friday; she will be having our copies delivered here tomorrow. One of the reviewers; Sarah O’Byrne from the SMH wants to interview us, too, get something in maybe ‘The Good Weekend’ issue for the weekend after this one. With the book signing at Dymocks at the end of next week, we are going to get a lot of publicity.

“Maureen reckons we are likely to sell maybe fifteen thousand copies or more; based on the reviews and pre-orders. She wants to see an outline for our next book, too.”

“What’s the book about?” Megan said. “I can recall Will telling me something about it, but that was a while ago.”

Lori and I gave her a rundown of the book; she sounded quite keen to read it when it was available.

“We will give you a signed copy, as soon as we get some,” Lori said. “After all, you were the inspiration for one of Will’s best chapters.”

“Really? Me? How?”

Lori told her how I had taken inspiration from the first time Megan and I had made love; and modified that to make what everyone has said was one of the most erotic and romantic sex scenes they had read.

“I even fitted ‘Die Moldau’ into it, and going to an Italian restaurant, to be serenaded,” I said. “I hope you don’t mind; but there’s nothing that identifies you. I’m sure that it’s only you and I that would know the background to the scene.”

“I’m flattered that you felt our first time making love was that ... significant to you to write about like that,” Megan said. “I really want to read that, as soon as possible.”

“Do you want a lift back to Mona Vale for the weekend?” Lori asked. “We can take you back, and give you your copy Friday afternoon.”

That arrangement seemed good all round. Further discussion was interrupted as the kitchen timer alarm went off; I pulled the pudding from the oven, and dished out dessert. We sat back at the table; Megan sitting opposite Lori while we ate. Just as it had been all through the evening, Lori couldn’t take her eyes off Megan’s breasts and nipples; and Megan was similarly enthralled by Lori’s puffy nipples. I wondered whether the girls were getting aroused; looking at each other’s naked bodies.

With dessert over, we cleared the table, and went back to the living room. I put some music on; and sat on one of the single seat chairs, leaving Lori and Megan to sit together. I think Lori had assumed I would have sat next to her on the sofa; when she sat down, she positioned herself in the middle of the sofa; quite close to Megan. But when I sat on the chair by myself, she didn’t move away from Megan. I think they both enjoyed sitting so close that their legs brushed against each other.

“Do you think Jillian would be into the ‘naked at night’ rule we have here?” I asked Megan.

“I reckon!” she said. “Jillian will be even more keen to be naked with you than I am, although she will be even more turned on that I am being naked with the two of you. Do you want me to warn her, that she will have to be naked inside your place?”

“No, we will leave that as a surprise for her,” Lori said.

“Look, there is this question I’ve got,” Megan said, sounding a little unsure of herself. “If you think it’s not my business to ask, then tell me; but ... well, if the two of you are going together, if you love each other, how does it work ... with someone else. Having sex with another person, I mean...”

Megan had turned a bright red.

“You mean, how is it that we are willing to sleep with, to have sex with another person, and don’t regard it as ‘being unfaithful’, or whatever?” Lori restated Megan’s question.

“Yeah, I can understand that the two of you are happy with bringing a third person into your relationship, and all that, but ... won’t it cause jealousy, or feelings of resentment, that one of you; or both, are cheating on the other? I don’t understand how it all works.”

“I had similar concerns back in the summer, when I was with Cathy, about sleeping with others,” I said.

“Yeah, but you and Cathy didn’t have a loving relationship, you were just two people that fucked each other,” Megan said, a little harshly.

I was surprised by what she said about Cathy and me; my shock must have shown in my face.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have spoken like that,” she said. “But you and Cathy didn’t have the sort of relationship that you and Lori have; not even like what you and I had.”

“Megan’s right, Will,” Lori said. “If you think about it, there are three types of ‘sexual activity’ that people can have. The first is the raw, physical fucking; all you want is just to have an orgasm; you don’t care how or with whom. The second is, for want of a better term, ‘sex’. At this level, you want to make sure all involved share in the physical pleasure. The third; and that’s what we have shared, is ‘love making’, where it’s more of an emotional connection.

“Being completely honest, Will; what you and Cathy did was mainly in the first category; maybe drifting into that second category. But what you and Megan had, and what you and I have, is the love-making; where there is a true emotional connection.”

Megan was nodding her head. I had to admit, as usual, what Lori said made a lot of sense.

“I’m not saying I know everything about love and relationships and all that, but just from what I’ve read, and seen. Anyway, now that there are those different categories of sex in relationships, the next question is what leads to the different levels of sex? I mean, what Will and I have is far more intense that any of his previous relationships; why is there that deep level of emotional attachment between us? There has to be more than just a pure physical, sexual attraction; I mean, is my cunt any nicer than then cunt that the other women he’s been with have?”

We both laughed at Lori’s last comment.

“Well, your cunt is pretty nice,” I said.

“And where does my cunt rate against all the others?” Megan asked. “Is it almost as nice as Lori’s?”

“See, that proves what I am leading to,” Lori continued. “There has to be more than just the pure sexual pleasure that makes a relationship what it is. I’m probably the least sexually experienced of all the women you’ve been with, but what we have is very special. So, if what we have is special, because we have that strong emotional connection, will having sex with someone else destroy that connection? I doubt it.”

“Okay, so if I have it worked out, what you are saying is that if you have a strong, loving relationship, then the issue of who you have sex with is immaterial?” Megan asked.

“Exactly,” Lori said. “Provided the two of you have talked it over first, and you both agree that it’s what you want to do. Will and I discussed having Jillian over for the week, and also having Janelle Ward staying with us for a week, just after that. I’m not saying that one person can just go about screwing whoever they feel like; that’s not how it works.”

Megan nodded her head, thoughtfully. She seemed to be processing all the information Lori had just told her.

“It all makes sense,” Megan said. “Talking it over first, probably making sure you both agree on limits, what is permissible. I assume you’ve told Jillian what will be allowable, too?”

“For sure, yes. We don’t want her assuming that this is going to be anything other than a casual week of fun between the three of us, that it might lead to something more permanent. I’ve yet to see a three way relationship where all three are equal partners; there’s always the main couple, and the third person as an addition to the main relationship, if that makes sense.”

“I would be happy to be an addition to your relationship, if you would like me,” Megan said, blushing. “I wouldn’t expect anything more than just casual sexual encounters with both of you.”

Lori turned to her, pulled her shoulders around, and kissed her deeply. I could see Lori’s hand move up to enclose Megan’s breast; she caressed and rubbed her fingers over her hard nipple. After a minute, Lori broke away from Megan.

“I would love you to be a part of our life here, too, Megan,” Lori said, her voice all husky. “But, there’s one condition; you have to talk it over with Bruce, and make sure he’s fully in agreement with everything. For you to get involved with us, it’s not just the three of us, but he’s a part of it, as long as you are with him. Actually, there’s another condition; even if you split up with Bruce, while Will and I are living here, you are welcome to visit us, but not to live here with us. For the next few months, we are becoming accustomed to living together as a couple; if we have a third person as a full time house-mate ... that will only complicate things between Will and me.

“That’s fine,” she said. “I’ll talk with Bruce tomorrow, and we can make plans on the way back to Mona Vale on Friday. Just to reassure you, I wasn’t intending on moving in or anything like that. I like where I live, it’s close to the Con, if I lived here, I would have to take the train in to St James, and then walk from there; I like being so close to things, and I don’t know how we would fit all of my stuff in here.”

“Besides, how would all three of us sleep in the double bed?” I added. “That might be fun all squeezing together for a few nights, or even a week, but...”

“I thought you might like having the two of us squeezed close to you?” Megan suggested. “I might have to place my hand somewhere, so things don’t get squashed.”

“I wouldn’t know who to face,” I said. “We might have to experiment, and see what sleeping arrangement works out best.”

“You are assuming that Megan and I would want you in bed with us all the time,” Lori said. “She and I might want some private time for just us two girls.”

“Um, you probably think I’m so naïve,” Megan said. “I’ve never done anything with another girl ... Just what do you do; what is it like?”

“I’m not really the right person to ask,” Lori replied. “I’ve only been with four girls in all.”

“That’s four more than me!” Megan exclaimed. “I mean, I can imagine some of the things that we; I mean, you might do, but...”

“Well, there’s no hard and fast rules about what you have to do, or can’t do. Some girls like to use strap-ons, or double ended dildos, to simulate fucking. Some just do lots of oral, while others are just into touching and kissing. It really depends on what each person wants and needs.

“I mean, just think about some of the sensations you get from sex with a guy; there’s nothing quite like that feeling when his prick first slides into you. You know what I mean, you can feel his knob spreading your vagina open, there’s something that even with a dildo, or your fingers, it just doesn’t feel the same. And when a guy comes inside you, and you can feel each spurt ... you can only get that from having a guy fucking you. At least that’s how it feels when Will and I make love.”

“I know what you mean; it was the same with Will and me, and the same with Bruce. That feeling when he first enters you ... that’s just so incredible.”

“I guess what we do all depends on what we feel like at the time. Is there anything that you don’t like doing?

“I can’t think of anything that I wouldn’t like to try. I’m open to pretty much anything new.” She laughed. “Being with another woman will be a whole new experience for me.”

“Well, new experiences are always good. All you need to do is sort things out with Bruce. But it’s probably time we got you home; classes tomorrow, and all that. If you get your clothes on, we can drop you off home.”

We all found our clothes, and started pulling them back on.

“Oh, damn! All that talk got me so wet; I’m so sorry,” Megan said.

“Don’t worry; I’m wet, too. That’s why we have the towels down. Do you want some tissues?” Lori said.

Once we were dressed, we went out the back to the car. Megan slid in the front seat next to me; while Lori opened the gate. Once I was out on the side lane, she closed the gate, and got in next to Megan. It didn’t take us long to get to East Sydney; Megan asked me to pull into the grassy area at the back of her apartment. As I stopped near her back door, she turned around and hugged me.

“Will, thanks for the lovely meal,” she said. “And when we can spend some nice time together, it will be like it was between us earlier this year.”

She gave me a deep, long kiss. Meanwhile, Lori had got out of her side of the car so Megan could get out. Megan slid across the seat, and stood next to Lori; they hugged and kissed. I saw Lori put her hand up inside Megan’s top, and she caressed her breast.

“Next time you come over, we can do a lot of that,” Lori said.

On the drive back home, Lori snuggled next to me.

“I think she’s very keen to have sex with both of us,” she said.

Back inside the house, we stacked up the dishes in the sink.

“They can wait until the morning,” Lori said. “I need to get you into bed!”

We quickly undressed, got into bed, and made love. Afterwards, as we were cuddling, Lori stroked my cheek.

“That comment Megan made about you and Cathy; you looked like it really hurt you,” she said. “You know, where she said you and Cathy didn’t really have a relationship, you were just two people that fucked.”

“Well, it was pretty harsh,” I replied.

“Harsh, maybe, but she was right. I think because you delayed things so long; the two of you really should have had sex that first summer we were all together. Instead, you kept putting things off; because you had this belief that the first time should have been something very special, almost magical.”

“Well, our first time was something pretty special,” I interrupted her.

“But you and Cathy delayed things for almost two years,” she said. “What would have gone wrong had you two had sex back in late ‘73? It’s almost like one of your computer programs, you spend so much time making sure all the conditions are right, what do you call that other part – initialization? Anyway, you procrastinated for ages; because you wanted the conditions to be perfect. So by the time you eventually got around to actually having sex; in your minds you had almost a fairy-tale image of what it should be like.

“Of course, I’m sure as nice as it was, it was just sex. Whatever relationship there might have been, the time had long past by; the opportunity was missed. Do you remember that first day we were working on the computer, that new operating system? There was the problem with the serial ports, or something, and you solved the problem.”

I nodded. “The driver initialization was setting the ports as enabled too soon.”

“Yeah, and what was happening was a terminal would send a character, causing a system interrupt, but nothing was there to handle that, and everything crashed. The other problems were that characters were getting lost, because nothing was there to handle them. You and Cathy were like that; your bodies were saying ‘yes, we are ready for sex!’, but you ignored what your bodies were telling you. And the joy, the emotional sharing and bonding were lost.”

“That sounds pretty reasonable,” I replied. “But I detected a hint; well, more than a hint, of jealousy behind Megan’s remark.”