Chapter 20: Couplings

July 1978

I awoke Sunday morning having slept well. That was a good thing, considering what I thought Jennifer had planned. But I did have my own ideas of how we should handle our first lovemaking since we broke up.

I swam, showered, and ate breakfast, then did my chores and wrote in my journal. I was still missing Birgit, even though the feelings were not as stark as they had been. It seemed each passing day I was having more positive thoughts about her and less emotional pain. As much as I hated the idea, I felt that I was getting over her death and getting on with life.

My mom and siblings arrived home from church and after we all ate lunch, Stephanie and I played pool. Jeff was out with friends, and Mom and Dad were outside on the deck. We had a good time playing and chatting.

“So, today’s the big day?”

“Yes, Squirt, Jennifer and I will be officially back together today.”

“Did you hear about Mom and Dad’s trip to Myrtle Beach next month?”

“Yeah,” I said.

Jeff asked to go, and they said ‘yes’. Then they asked me and I said I didn’t want to, but they need to ask you first since I can’t stay alone. And Mom’s opposed to me staying at all. Well, until I pointed out you would be home all alone at that point. Then she didn’t object. I guess she thought you might have girls over. So it was kind of a choice between the bad influence or letting you have sex in the house.”

“Too funny! But I certainly don’t want to go if Jeff’s there, Squirt;besides, I have to work.”

“Cool. Dad will let me stay if you’re here. And it could solve another problem.”

“What’s that, Steph?”

“I talked to Vickie. She wants to spend the night soon. I could have her come when Mom and Dad are gone. They’d say yes since it’s our cousin, and then I’d have someone who was fifteen with me during the day for a couple of days.”

“Tell her ‘yes’.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, sure. Why not? It was fun.”

I called Joyce, and we confirmed our date for the coming Friday. I’d have to remember to check that the apartment was free that morning. Worst case, she could cook at my house, but that would put a real crimp in our other planned activity.

My last call before being picked-up was to Mary. I was still uncomfortable with doing anything with her because of Ben and wanted to talk to her before Jennifer and Melanie tried to actually make plans. She laughed when I told her about my concern.

“When I told Ben, he told me to go for it, so long as I’m willing to do the same for him sometime. I told him I would, but I did have veto over the other girl,” she said, and continued, “You know, I really like Melanie and Jennifer and I was really surprised when Jennifer agreed.”

“You weren’t the only one!” I chuckled. “But this is a one-time thing, OK? I’m really pushing the edge of what I think is OK given you and Ben.”

“You’re more worried about me and Ben than me and Ben are!” Mary observed.

“I saw what happened with Melanie and Pete. I don’t want to be involved in something like that again. So, one time, Mary. After that, so long as you’re with Ben, you’ll be off limits.”

“OK. I wish you were a bit more flexible on that point, but OK.”

Now I could tell Jennifer to discuss things with Melanie and decide what they wanted to do. I wondered once again if I’d survive.

Jennifer and her mom showed up around 3:00pm to pick me up. I had permission to stay out until 11:00pm because I was going to be at Jennifer’s house. Leave it to my mom to ask Mrs. Block if they were going to be home all night. Still trying to interfere. Well, fortunately, the Blocks, like the Spencers and the van Hoeks, were very different from my mom. Of course, only the Spencers were truly OK with the situation. The others acquiesced to daughters who would not be denied.

When we arrived at Jennifer’s house, we walked in and greeted her dad.

“Mom, Dad, excuse us. I need to take my boyfriend to my room and have him make passionate love to me.”

“Jennifer!” I spluttered.

“Jennifer Lynn Block!” her dad said quite forcefully.

“Dear, you knew that’s what she was going to do.”

“Yes, but announcing it to everyone in the room?”

“Honey, look at Steve. He looks like a deer caught in headlights.”

I was sure I did.

Mr. Block shook his head, “Go on, Jennifer. I can’t stop you.”

She grabbed my hand and pulled me with her. We went to her room, and she closed and locked the door.

“Jennifer,” I said, “I can’t believe you did that!”

“Well, I didn’t want you being your nice, polite self and talking to them when you should be up here making love to me!”

“You’re bad, Jennifer.”

“You have no idea...”

She just left that hanging. Teasing, I thought. But it was another sign of the new Jennifer.

“Jennifer, can I ask one favor? Just one, I promise.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s just make love today, nothing fancy, nothing wild. I just want to love you, OK?”

“Yes. No more talking!”

We quickly fumbled with each other’s clothes, pulling off t-shirts and shorts and socks and underwear.

“With no sex for two weeks, and no masturbation, will you be OK?”

“I think so. It might just be shorter the first time! And I really don’t want oral sex. I want to make love to you!”

“Good! ‘Cause I’ve been going nuts for the past week! Now, take me to bed and love me!”

She pulled down the spread on her bed, turned down the covers and we climbed in. She pulled the covers up over us and she snuggled close.

“Steve, I’m so happy we’re back together. It was killing me!”

“Me too, Jennifer, me too.”

I pulled her on top of me and kissed her. She ground her pussy onto my dick, which was mashed between us. I ran my hands down her back and cupped her butt, and pulled her hard into me. Our tongues were exploring each other’s mouths, and she was gripping my shoulders, pulling me close.

She changed how she was tugging on my shoulders, and I knew what she wanted. She rolled on her back and spread her legs. I positioned myself over her, propped on my hands with my dick resting against her labia.

“Please make love to me,” she whispered urgently.

She was so wet that when I pressed forward, I slipped in easily and slowly filled her. She groaned slightly when our pelvises met and I was completely engulfed. The heat was incredible, the feel silky smooth, and her pussy gently squeezed me. I realized just how much I had missed this.

I lowered myself so that I was flat on top of her. She put her heels on my calves and we began slowly moving together. We exchanged constant small kisses interspersed with gentle French kisses. I occasionally ground against her clit, which caused her to moan.

This was an expression of pure love. Months of unfulfilled desire drove us upward, and I felt her first small orgasm wash over her. Moments later, she had another, slightly bigger than the first. I knew I couldn’t last much longer, so I slightly increased the pace of my thrusts. Jennifer met every one of them, grinding herself into me often. Like the two previous times, we moved as one without any verbal communication.

She was panting and started whispering, “Yes, yes, yes,” over and over. We moved slightly faster, and I knew I could no longer control it. I pressed deeply into her and fired jet after jet of cum deep in her pussy. She ground her clit hard into me and she groaned loudly as a massive orgasm crashed over her. I felt the spasms in her pussy and it sucked the remaining cum out of me.

Once my orgasm was past, I began gently moving again, building her up to a series of three small orgasms before I felt my erection starting to subside. We lay there, not moving, just breathing hard, skin to skin as my dick deflated and slipped from her.

“I love you, Steve.”

“I love you too, Jennifer.”

I moved next to her, and she turned to me to take our usual cuddling position. I pulled her tight, and she sighed as she nestled in.

“I wish you could stay the night.”

“Me too, but my mom will never allow it. We’ll have to figure something out, OK? Find a way. I promise we’ll find a way before I go away next Summer.”

“I’d like that.”

We both dozed, never moving from the cuddling position. A soft knocking at the door woke us and her mom said, “Dinner in fifteen minutes, kids.”

Jennifer released me and got up, saying, “Come on, let’s take a quick shower.”

She put on a robe and handed me one, saying, “Dad’s spare,” and led me to the bathroom across the hall. She turned on the water, and we stepped into the combination shower and tub. We took turns soaping and rinsing ourselves, but there was repeated contact between our wet, slippery bodies.

Jennifer turned off the water and turned to pull me into a full body embrace that we held for a couple of minutes. We then quickly dried off and went back to her room to dress. I didn’t think she was game for Melanie-style antics, and I was sure that her parents would not approve. We made our way downstairs.

Dinner was Jennifer’s favorite — fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob. We ate and talked with her parents. Fortunately, she behaved and there were no awkward comments. I was relieved that I didn’t sense any hostility from her dad. Although she had said he had come to terms with it, I knew from my experience with Mr. van Hoek that acquiescence was not approval.

When dinner was finished and we were eating ice cream, Mr. and Mrs. Block asked us about our relationship.

“Well, Mom, he said he’d give me a promise ring any time I wanted. I guess that tells you where we are.”

“Aren’t you guys a little young for that step?”

“Allison, they’re sleeping together. I’d be quite happy if they made a commitment like that,” her dad said.

“Dad, I told him ‘no’. Well, actually, I told him ‘not yet’. We’ll discuss it when he comes back from Sweden and we’re Seniors. A lot can happen between now and then.”

“Steve, I hope you’ll be my son-in-law some day. It would save me a lot of anguish over the next ten years or so!”

“Dad!” from Jennifer.

“Robert!” from her mom.

“Am I the only one who can’t say what they want here?” her dad asked.

“Yes!” Jennifer and her mom said together.

Her dad and I exchanged looks that said everything. The women knew they were in charge.

After dinner, her parents said they would clean up and Jennifer tried to pull me up the stairs. I directed her to the couch, and we sat down.

“What’s going on?”

“Jennifer, the right thing to do is cuddle and talk with your parents. Trust me. I need to build trust and respect with your dad. He’s totally not happy with what you’re doing, but knows he can’t stop you. This is one area I’m smarter than all my girls about, OK?”

“But I want to do it again!” she whined.

“Unless we’re both way off base, we have the rest of our lives to make love. In fact, I think we’ve known that since the very first time.”

“But what about Birgit?”

“I can’t say for sure, of course, but what I felt with you was so different, so intense, that guess I knew, deep down, even then, that we were probably destined to be together.”

“What?”

“Yes, when I left here that day, my head was spinning. I still loved Birgit, but the experience with you, just that one time, changed my thinking. I never let on, and even tried to deny it to myself. But it’s true.”

“Wow. I thought I was the only one. That’s why I was so eager to change the relationship. I felt it. I knew it in my heart. But I knew it could never happen. And then I pushed you to Becky when I couldn’t have what I wanted.”

“Jennifer, we’re done with all that. It’s in the past. Let’s just move on, OK? We both made major mistakes. We’re working on not making them again.”

She cuddled close to me.

We spent the rest of the evening talking to her parents, watching TV, and eating popcorn. I knew Jennifer wanted to drag me to her room, but I knew that would only bug her dad more. If he saw that I cared about things other than sex, he might just come around. It wasn’t that he was hostile, but I could tell he wasn’t comfortable or happy.

The same strategy had worked very well with Mr. van Hoek, though Jennifer was not a daddy’s girl in the way Becky was. I was pretty sure things would work out OK. It might take some time, but I was reasonably sure we’d be able to use Jennifer’s house instead of the apartment going forward.

Jennifer rode along when her mom took me home. She walked me to the door, and we kissed.

“Can I set things up with Melanie?” she asked.

“Yes. And with Mary if you want.”

“Really?”

“Yes. This one time. Then she’s off-limits as long as she’s with Ben.”

“OK. I’ll let you know.”

“One more thing — there are ground rules. The three of us need to get together somewhere where there is no chance of having sex so I can lay them out.”

“OK. Will you tell me now?”

“No, I don’t know all of them yet.”

“Can you come over on Wednesday after work?”

I sighed theatrically and said, “That’s all you want, isn’t it? Fine. I can be a sex object, I guess, if I have to.”

She hit me hard on the shoulder, but was giggling while she did it.

“Love you, Jen.”

“Love you, Steve. You never called me Jen before.”

“It just seemed right.”

“Call me whatever you want!”

“Really?” I said, arching an eyebrow.

“Yeah, you won’t use certain words, so I’m not at too much risk!”

We both laughed and then I went inside.

I wrote in my journal about the joy I felt in reconnecting with Jennifer. I did honestly feel that if I was only able to ever make love to one person for the rest of my life, it would be her.

The next week went well. Jennifer joined me every day for lunch. I enjoyed working with Kim and was happy that she had taken over my year-long relationship with the broom. I made my usual rounds and Andreas had me preparing invoices for orders which involved using an old adding machine in his office. I wondered if I could write a program that could do that faster.

I’d have to think about that more. I was also responsible for filling out order forms. I noticed that Andreas was gone more often now, and I was left in charge. Kim was a hard worker like I was, and didn’t need any direction, so I really wasn’t in charge of anything except making sure customers were served. I got a raise as well, to $3.00 an hour. And my extra cash was increased to $75 a week.

Stephanie had worked out with Vickie that she’d stay for two nights while my parents were gone. I also heard from Anna, but her sister had taken up with a new guy. I asked her if her parents could bring her to Milford so we could spend time together. I figured that was relatively safe because they’d always said ‘no’ before. She said she’d ask and let me know later in the week.

I talked to Bethany, and we agreed on another date. This one would be Frisch’s and Graeter’s, plus roller skating. I told her I really looked forward to that.

Wednesday after work, I pedaled my bike to Jennifer’s house, and we made passionate love. It was slow and sweet, and totally satisfying. I told her I really preferred this for now. We’d have plenty of time for wild.

“Speaking of wild,” she said. “I talked to Melanie and Mary. Next weekend, Melanie’s parents are going to the lake. Melanie told them she didn’t want to go. She’ll pick up you and Mary around 10:00am on Sunday morning.”

“What about the ground rules meeting?”

“We’ll all come by for lunch on Saturday.”

“OK,” I said. “I leave this in your hands. Just remember I have to pass my mom’s review when I get home, so no obvious bite marks!”

She laughed.

“One more thing about Melanie.”

“What?”

“Don’t make this a regular thing. I can be as crazy as you want with you, but Melanie needs to find her own guy. I’d rather she went back with Pete, but I don’t want her fixated on me. OK?”

“OK. But how about occasionally? That is, if she doesn’t have a boyfriend?”

“Occasionally, and I do mean that. Also, I shouldn’t do anything with her alone.”

I asked her about seeing Anna.

“I thought that was done.”

“I was hoping it was, but she’s trying to arrange to see me. I really don’t want to look like I just wanted to bag her and then blow her off.”

“That’s certainly not you. Go ahead and see her, twice if necessary, but end it since that’s what you said you wanted to do.”

“I did. And I will.”

“You seem to be cutting back on your options. Why?”

“Because I love you. Other than Joyce, I don’t want anyone else regular right now, and Joyce and I will probably only see each other once every three weeks or so. I could even see ending that one at some point.”

“Are you really going to be exclusive with me like that?”

“Well, with your permission, I may have the odd dalliance here and there. My cousin Vickie is coming to visit and wants a repeat. Unless you object, I’ll show her a good time. And of course, at some point, Bethany is going to ask for more.”

“That’s fine — both Vickie and Bethany. An occasional dalliance is fine, of course. We discussed that. And like I said, Joyce is fine as well. And you still have to ask Kathy Will on a date and see if you can get into those cheerleader panties.”

“You know I still hate you for that, right?”

“For all you know, she’s lousy in bed. And did you consider that maybe Bethany will knock your socks off?”

“Oh sure, ruin two years worth of fantasies!”

“Says the guy who is about to have three girls at once! You know, you’ve really changed.”

“I guess I have. Of course, I think you and I both know I’ll have quite a few ‘opportunities’ in Sweden.”

“Not to mention at least three girls in our class who have asked me about you. And no, before you ask, I’m not telling you who. You’ll find out in due time.”

I just shook my head. I kissed her and pedaled home.

On Thursday, Anna called and said she had talked her parents into bringing her. I was glad I had checked with Jennifer. I ask her if Saturday or Sunday would work. She checked and said Sunday. Her mom would drop her off at Frisch’s and they’d pick her up from Graeter’s around 10:00pm. She told them we planned to bowl, play mini-golf and go skating.

On Friday morning, I checked the apartment before work and adjusted the envelope. I figured I should let Andreas know. I didn’t want to ruin a good thing. I told him and he nodded. He said that he’d make arrangements to see that I had free use of the place. He said by next weekend I wouldn’t have to worry about the envelope. He also said that I’d need it in the Fall, but he wasn’t telling me why just yet what that would be. I figured there was more money involved, and I had pretty much committed to getting in deeper.

On Friday afternoon, I saw Stacey Nelson again at the house. She came over.

“Sorry, you’re still too young!”

“Forget it Stacey, I have access to so much sex that I turn it down on occasion! Why would I pay?”

“You are so full of crap! You’re only fifteen!”

“Yeah, and I’ve had sex with a dozen girls. And there are more beating down my door. Want a list?”

“Wait, you’re serious.”

“As a heart attack.”

She just shook her head.

“Stacey, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Are there any other Milford High girls that work here?”

She paused, but nodded, “A couple.”

“Thanks.”

I wasn’t going to push the issue further now. I’d get that information in due time. I made my pickup and headed back to do the count and package up the collections.

Joyce picked me up from work at 4:00pm and we went to the apartment. She was wearing tight white shorts, a red blouse, sunglasses, and sandals. For dinner, she made pork chops, thick and on the bone, squash, and a pasta salad. It was excellent. When we had finished eating, we went to sit on the couch with glasses of wine.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“Pretty good,” I replied. “Things are coming together. I’ve more or less narrowed the field to you and Jennifer. It’s not that I’m swearing off sex with anyone else, but I need things to be simpler. You know about her, she knows about you and you both know that any formal commitment is far down the road.

“It’s interesting. The two relationships are very different, but both very fulfilling. I’m really glad that neither of you are trying to force me to pick. Both of you are helping me cope with all the crap that’s happened in my life, especially losing Birgit. I’m starting to feel happy far more than I am sad or angry. I guess that’s a good sign.”

“Are you planning to work for my grandfather?”

“You mean like permanently? I have no idea. But I am getting more involved. Why?”

“Well, you need to think about how that’s going to affect you and your future. I’m more or less in that world and I understand and accept it. Other people might not.”

“Are you making an argument that you’re a better choice down the road?”

“I guess I am. And you certainly don’t want to be in a situation where you have to decide between grandfather and your wife, since that could turn out badly either way.”

She was sending me a message. I wondered if someone put her up to this.

“Joyce, are you speaking for yourself or are you delivering a message?”

“Both, I guess. Mom said I should warn you before you got in too deep. Not because she thinks you should stay out, but because you might not be aware of what you’re getting into. I know you’re not Italian so there’s only so far you can go, but I know grandfather likes you a lot. You’re one of the few people ever to beat him at bocce!”

“Are you telling me I need to marry into the family?”

“No. But it would be a big advantage. Just something to think about before you make any decisions down the road.”

Whoa! I was being sent a clear message. In or out. And if I was in, Jennifer could be an impediment if she wasn’t on board. But I didn’t think I had to decide now.

“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, OK? Or are you saying something about our relationship?”

“No, I’m not saying that you have to decide now or that me seeing you depends on you making a decision one way or the other. I like you a lot and don’t want to see you get hurt. But just remember that I’m in the family and understand how things work and what you might be called on to do. I’ve seen it with my uncles and a couple of cousins. Granted, they’re Italian, so it’s a little different, but I know. And I don’t have a problem with it.”