Chapter 25: More and Less

September, 1980, Milford, Ohio

On Sunday morning after I called Karin, I swam with Stephanie, then dressed for my breakfast date with Debbie.

“Where are you going at 8:00am on a Sunday morning, Stephen?” my mom asked.

“I’m taking Debbie V to breakfast.”

“Haven’t you corrupted enough girls? Do you really need to corrupt that sweet girl? I can’t believe her parents let her go out with you.”

“Her parents like me. The same as all the other parents of the girls I go out with.”

“Only because they don’t know what you do with their daughters!”

“You know that’s not true. You know that Becky’s and Jennifer’s parents knew what we were doing. The same was true for Birgit’s parents. As for Debbie, what she and I do is our business, not yours. If her parents are concerned, they’ll deal with it. Her mom is happy we’re going out. She wishes Debbie was my full-time girlfriend!”

“I don’t believe that, Stephen!”

“Mom, it’s true,” Stephanie said. “Mrs. Vaughn told Debbie she should do whatever it took to date Steve because he was, to quote her, ‘a real catch’.”

I chuckled. I couldn’t help it. Of course, that set Mom off.

“We’ll just see about that!” she said and abruptly turned and walked away.

“Squirt, how do you think she’ll react to Mrs. Vaughn?”

“Mom will have a stroke, Steve!” she giggled.

“Yeah, considering what Mrs. Vaughn actually said was that Debbie should seduce me! Not to mention the whole open marriage thing and wanting to have sex with me!” I chuckled.

“I doubt Mrs. Vaughn tells her that last one, but the other stuff? As I said, she’ll have a stroke.”

I hugged Stephanie and headed out to my car. I picked up Debbie at her house, fending off some fairly obvious flirting from her mom while I waited for Debbie to come downstairs. We drove about fifteen minutes to Bill Knapp’s, where we had a nice breakfast. When we finished, we got back in the car.

“Waterbed or a regular bed, Debbie?” I asked.

“Regular. My mom is horny this morning!” she giggled.

“My mom had a fit about us going to breakfast and warned me not to corrupt you!”

Debbie laughed hard, “I believe I asked you to fuck my brains out, or something close to it! And Mom wants you badly. And so does Tracy. She told Mom and Mom was not happy that you might have Tracy and not her!”

“I hope my mom does call your mom. It’ll be hilarious.” I said.

We went to the apartment and made love, then washed and dressed and I took Debbie home. We both agreed that our play date was a great idea. And we were both definitely looking forward to next Sunday.

Beth arrived as usual and we began working on the first batch of computer dating forms. She had become very quick at entering the forms and was making good progress.

“Steve, I could go faster with some encouragement!” she teased. “Remember how you encouraged me?”

“Beth, you know better. We’re business partners and you’re with Brent.”

“I thought I’d ask. You never know!” she giggled.

Our forms at Milford would go out on the Monday before the Homecoming dance and were due back by Friday of the same week. We’d be able to complete everything in a week and have the match sheets back to everyone about four weeks before the Sadie Hawkins dance. It wasn’t a formal, so that would be plenty of time.

Beth told me about a call from a friend of Doctor Grossi’s who wanted to see the programs and I told her to make the arrangements for a Thursday evening if possible, otherwise to let me know so I could make sure I could be available. She promised to set it up. Late in the afternoon, Stephanie came in to be with Beth while I drove down to the deli to set up Andreas’ new computer and install the software.

It took me a couple of hours to get everything going and I showed Kim and Andreas how to use the new register program and the inventory. When we were finished, Andreas handed me an envelope which I put in my pocket, and then the first ever check made out to AP Software! I thanked him and headed back home.

When I showed Beth the check, she jumped up and hugged me and gave me a sloppy kiss. Stephanie rolled her eyes and smirked.

“Sorry, Steve, I just was so excited!” Beth said. “Our first actual sale!”

“Yep! For now, we’ll just deposit the money in the bank. At some point, we’ll pay ourselves, but right now, I’m OK with the money I’ll be getting from the computer dating. Are you still getting that weekly money from Doctor Grossi?”

“Yes. I would have told you if I wasn’t. I figured it would stop once we started selling the programs.”

“I’ll have to talk to Doctor Grossi about that, but I suspect you’re right. If that happens, we’ll pay you from our sales.”

“What about you?”

“I still do some work for Andreas at the deli from time to time and he pays me well for it. Mostly running errands, that kind of thing.”

“Oh.”

This reminded me that I needed to report back to him. I had heard through the grapevine about one Senior girl who was really worried about paying for college but didn’t think she’d get any scholarships. I’d have to double-check that the information was correct, but then I’d give her name to Andreas.

Beth finished the data entry just after dinner and we started up the printer. I’d just need to replace the paper as it ran out and we’d have everything done for Turpin. I had noticed Anna’s answer sheet but wasn’t particularly interested in her matches because I only knew a couple of other kids at Turpin. Beth would pick up the sheets on Monday night and deliver them to Turpin.

After Beth left for the day, I made my call to Jennifer. We had a good talk and things seemed to be OK between us. I could tell Jennifer was a bit concerned about how close I was becoming with Bethany, but I quickly moved the talk to college and where we would be applying. We both agreed we’d apply to Illinois Institute of Technology as our first choice, then to the University of Illinois as our second choice. Jennifer suggested Ohio State as our backup school. I told her that I was applying to Dartmouth as an emergency fallback because my dad had gone there. Jennifer said her emergency fallback was University of Washington. We were both certain we’d get into our top choices so those emergency fallbacks wouldn’t be needed. I let Jennifer know that I was taking the ACT and SAT on Oct 4th and 11th, respectively.

After we hung up, I wrote in my journal and read until 11:00pm to make sure we got as much printing done as possible. I paused the printer, stripped off my clothes, and quickly fell asleep.

On Monday morning, as soon as I got up, I started up the printer and swam and ate breakfast. I drove Stephanie, Debbie V, and Mary to school as usual. In chemistry class, I planned to switch from bugging Kara with Bible quotes to flirting. That would likely annoy her even more than the Bible stuff. She wasn’t receptive, of course, but I’d keep it up. Nothing too forward, just subtle hints.

“Hi, Kara, you’re looking very nice today.”

“W-W-what?” she stammered.

“I said you’re looking very nice today. I like that blouse a lot.”

She just stared at me, flustered by the fact that I was being nice. I liked it!

Tuesday and Wednesday were more of the same, Kara was still flustered by me being nice and complimenting her. After physics class, I found Mr. Yockey to let him know I’d be driving to Glen Este instead of taking the bus because I had a date immediately following the chess meet.

We won the meet handily, 5 1/2 to 1 1/2, and I left as soon as the score sheets were verified to drive to Elyse’s house. She was ready when I rang the bell and we headed over to Beechmont to go to a small family-style restaurant. We enjoyed our food and conversation, then she invited me to come back to her house. She took me to the finished basement where there was a stereo, a TV, and a pool table. Elyse put on some music and we sat down together on the couch.

“Are you still OK with where we are and how we’re doing?” Elyse asked.

“Yes, I am. Is there a problem?”

“No, I’m just concerned about taking it so slow that you might get frustrated.”

“If I have to wait until we’re married, I will!” I chuckled.

“Oh, we’re getting married now, are we?” she giggled.

“You know what I meant! But I thought that was your plan, in the end!”

“No, not a plan, but a goal. There’s a big difference between those two things. I don’t plan something that long term, but I can set a goal and work towards it. That’s what we’re doing now, although very slowly.”

“I never thought of it that way,” I said. “To me, it always seemed like a plan and I had to figure out every step of the way.”

“And that’s why you obsess over things at times. Set your goals and decide each day what you need to do to achieve them. But remember, it’s mostly small steps and sometimes there isn’t anything to do except wait. It’s the waiting part that I think causes your issues. You get impatient when you can’t achieve what you want right away.”

“And what is it that we need to do today to help achieve your goal?” I said with an arched eyebrow.

“Steve Adams, you know damn well that if you get me worked up enough, I’ll want you to fuck me silly!”

“I thought we planned to make love,” I grinned.

“Boys can be stupid at times. You can do both at the same time! One is purely physical, the other is purely emotional.”

“Purely emotional? Doesn’t tab-A have to go in slot-B?”

“You are such a guy at times! Making love can be done without penetration! It’s about the emotional bond, Steve Adams. You, of all people, should know that. You can put your penis in my vagina and make it feel fantastic, but if there’s no emotional bond, it’s just fucking. On the other hand, we could lie naked on this couch and kiss and touch and make love without your penis ever entering my vagina. Put those together, and you have mind-blowing, out-of-this-world sex.”

“You’re right, of course. I call that emotional bond my connection with a girl. I’ve felt it before. In fact, when I was with you, I got a touch of it. We had some kind of emotional connection at Jennie’s wedding.”

“I think that was mostly being at the wedding. It just brought out a lot of emotion in all of us. But I will say that we’ve developed some emotional bonds. We’re working on them. If you want to make love with me rather than just fuck, then we need more time. We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet. On the other hand, if you just want to fuck, well, I’m sure there are plenty of girls who’ll do that with you.”

“Now you’ve confused me thoroughly! You said you would want me to fuck you silly, and I said I thought we would make love. Then you explained everything, and it seems like you’re agreeing with me.”

She laughed. “I remember how good you were at the wedding. When you kissed and touched me the other night, I wanted you badly. I want you right now. But we can’t make love yet. I told you, when the time comes, I’ll rock your world. And that’s because we’ll make love and fuck each other silly at the same time. Now, shut up and kiss me!”

“Hang on. I think I know exactly what you mean now. Once the emotional bond is there, any sex act can be lovemaking, even a kiss.”

“Exactly. Now, shut up and kiss me!”

I pulled her into a kiss and our tongues quickly tangled with each other. I pulled her t-shirt out of her jeans and slid my hand up over her bra-clad breast, rubbing her nipple with my fingers. Elyse moaned softly into my mouth as we continued kissing. I caressed her breast for a moment, then slid my hand around her back and deftly unhooked her bra. I slipped my hand underneath the material and squeezed her breast gently. I tweaked her nipple between my thumb and forefinger and then just held her breast while we kissed. Elyse broke the kiss and took a couple of deep breaths.

She looked over her shoulder then said, “Quick, just suck my nipple, please!”

I raised her t-shirt and pushed her bra out of the way and sucked gently on her nipple. I dropped my hand to her lap and ran my finger between her thighs, outside her jeans.

“Ungh!” she grunted and pressed my head to her chest.

I released her nipple and pulled her t-shirt back down.

“God, Steve, you made me cum so quickly! I was super excited and the combination of sucking my nipple and rubbing my clit gave me a small orgasm.”

I just smiled.

“Don’t look so smug, Buster. That was a small one.”

“Give me the chance and I’ll give you the big one!” I smirked.

“I want to say yes; I really do. I’m soaked and my pussy aches for your dick, but no, not yet.”

“You have a lot of self-control.”

“No I don’t. My parents are upstairs, so I know I can’t take you to my room! That’s why I’m careful not to be completely alone with you. But when you leave, I’m going to rub myself raw!”

“Why are you driving yourself crazy like this?”

“Because the wait is worth it if this works out. Honestly, sex is the easy part. We did that already. We know how to do that with each other. And we both know it was damn good. But we need to learn other stuff to have a successful relationship. The orgasms are nice, but if I thought we weren’t making progress, I wouldn’t even let you get to first base.”

“I’m curious, Elyse, what do you see as progress?”

“Getting to know one another, being comfortable around one another, being able to predict how the other person is going to react, what they are going to say, how they are going to feel.”

That was pretty much how things had been with Jennifer. But, in reality, she was describing my relationship with Stephanie to a T. Bethany had tried to explain it as an emotional bond, but it was more than that. It was knowing each other intimately, not in a sexual way, but having a deep knowledge of the other person, touching their soul, as it were.