Chapter 3: She Did It Again, Part III

June 1981, Milford, Ohio

“I don’t know yet,” I replied. “What I won’t do is to do anything on the rebound. That would be foolish. I’m just going to take some time to come to terms with it and make sure I’m not running on emotions.”

“He’s not with Jennifer anymore, Joyce! You can have him now!” Kara giggled.

“And you would be OK with that? Or are you looking to share?” Joyce teased.

“Share? Like both date him?” Kara asked.

“No, I mean you and I take him over to that bed and fuck him until he forgets Jennifer!” Joyce teased.

“He would love that, wouldn’t he?” Kara blushed. “But I don’t think I could ever do something like that! It’s so naughty!”

I put my hand on Joyce’s arm and shook my head slightly to tell her to back off. Kara was too tipsy for this kind of conversation.

“He would love it,” Joyce agreed. “But not when he’s still dealing with Jennifer’s revelation and NOT when you’ve been drinking, Kara.”

“I feel fine!” Kara pouted.

I bet she did. A few sips of wine in the past and two glasses in less than an hour? I bet she was feeling REALLY fine!

“Thanks, Joyce,” I replied. “Just give me some time to work things out.” I paused, then added, with a smirk, “Then you can fuck me until I forget Jennifer!”

“You really should talk to her, Steve,” Joyce said. “At least let her tell you why, even if it’s a lame excuse. It’ll tell you a lot.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said, hoping that would convince her to back off.

“That means you won’t. You need to do it. You owe it to her. You owe it to yourself. And more importantly, you owe it to Kara.”

“What?! To Kara?” I said, noticing that Kara seemed puzzled by the comment as well.

“Yes, to Kara. If you don’t talk to Jennifer, it’ll eat you up. Eventually you’ll want to know. You’ll want closure. That’s who you are, Steve Adams. And until you get closure, it’ll affect every single thing you do and say. Despite my teasing before, having sex with you would be a VERY bad idea until you sort that out. So, if you ever want this amazing body again, in every way, like at my Prom,” she smirked, “you need to talk to Jennifer.”

Joyce’s comment wasn’t lost on Kara.

“Every way?” Kara gasped. “Not you too?!” she whined, slumping back in her chair.

I shot Joyce another look. She was enjoying this, but I was really worried about Kara.

“Joyce, I’ll think about it,” I said, hoping Kara would simply let the question go unanswered.

I helped Joyce clean up, letting Kara sit at the table. We did the dishes and packed the leftovers in the cooler. When we finished, I carried the cooler down to her car, then came back upstairs. Kara and Joyce were standing by the door.

“I’m going to head out now,” Joyce said. “See you next week?”

“Yes! Let me walk you out.”

“Oh, kiss her right here Steve, it’s fine,” Kara giggled. “I told you that before!”

I shrugged, and Joyce and I exchanged a searing French kiss that clearly showed our desire was still there.

My eyes sought Kara’s, and found her watching us, flushed, her chest heaving, biting her lip, as if trying to contain a desire she didn’t feel she could act on.

“If you want to,” Joyce whispered as she turned and walked out the door.

I closed the door and saw that Kara had gone to sit on the couch.

“If you want to!” she giggled.

“Kara Blanchard, you are drunk!” I said firmly.

“I am not!”

“You had two glasses of wine. At the very least, you’re tipsy. There is no way I’m doing anything with you at this point.”

“You won’t even kiss me?” she pouted.

“No, because you know exactly where that will lead. I am not going to let you break your own rule when you’ve had too much wine to drink.”

“Would you at least cuddle me?” she asked.

“If you promise to behave!”

She nodded, with a little pout, and I went to sit with her on the couch. We sat cuddling without speaking for nearly an hour. Kara’s breathing was slow and steady, almost like she was asleep.

“Steve?” Kara said, finally stirring. “Did I really say the ‘F’ word at dinner in front of Joyce?”

“Yes, you did,” I chuckled.

“Oh no! I can’t believe I did that!” she exclaimed, burying her face in her hands.

“Not only that, but you and Joyce even joked about a threesome.”

“Oh no!” she wailed, “What is she going to think about me?”

“Nothing. Not a darn thing. She was teasing and joking with you. She won’t think less of you. Heck, I think she’d have gone through with it if you’d have been sober! She’s not one of your evangelical friends, Kara. The fact that you had sex with me makes you a potential ally, in the end.”

“Ally? How?”

“Shifting alliances. I’ve seen girls pair up and try to eliminate the rest of the competition. It’s like you and Bethany — you each think you’ll win, but it’s in both of your best interests to keep anyone else out of the picture. Even my sister does it. She allied with Jennifer a long time ago.”

“But she’s been working with me and Bethany, Steve.”

“Has she? Or has she been involved to protect Jennifer’s position? Think about it.”

Kara thought for a minute, then said, “She’s been pro-Jennifer the whole time, hasn’t she?”

“Yes, she has. That’s why she’s freaked-out now. She and Jennifer had a special relationship.”

“What do you mean by that?” she asked, puzzled.

I couldn’t reveal THAT confidence, but I could explain it in another way.

“They were very, very close. Stephanie was devastated when she thought Jennifer and I had broken up a year ago. She’s not showing it outwardly right now, but she is totally conflicted about what to do. She’s upset with Jennifer, but she’s more upset that my relationship with Jennifer is over.”

“You have a very complicated life,” Kara said.

“That’s exactly what I told my dad. He agrees. And he’s hoping I get back together with you.”

“But what about you?”

I sighed, “Let’s just keep dating for now. We’ll sort it out soon.”

“I think Joyce is right,” Kara said.

I decided it was safe to tease her a bit at this point.

“I think so, too,” I smirked. “The two of you SHOULD have taken me to bed and fucked me until I forgot about Jennifer!”

“That is NOT what I meant, Steve Adams!” she giggled, lightly jabbing me with her elbow. “I meant that you should call Jennifer.”

“I know, but I had to tease,” I said gently.

“But do you want that, Steve?” she asked, blushing and looking down. “What Joyce said?”

I turned her chin so we could look at each other in the eyes. She gazed deeply into mine and the corners of her mouth turned up in a small, nervous smile.

“I told you, Kara, if you want to experiment, you have to ask. Joyce was out of line. She shouldn’t tease like that with you around.”

“Why not? She did have a point, I think. It’s a little fuzzy, but she did say if I was fucking you, then teasing about it wasn’t a big deal.”

“She did. But we’re not intimate now, Kara,” I said.

“What’s wrong Steve? You can’t use that word now?” she giggled.

I sighed, “You use that word more than I do, Kara! I rarely use it. You know that.”

“I find that funny, actually. I use it to be naughty, even though I’m not particularly naughty. You are very naughty and yet you don’t use that word.”

“Naughty? That sounds like I’m a toddler and you’re going to send me to bed without supper!”

“You know what I mean!” she protested.

I realized that despite her evangelical upbringing, Kara was a typical teenager. It was a time when we were growing up and becoming adults, but in many ways, we were still kids. Our views on things changed rapidly, and we changed rapidly. I had been lucky that my core group of friends had stuck together so far, even after graduation. Well, all except Jennifer. Kara’s seeming contradictions were really quite normal.

“You are quite the set of contradictions. At times, you come across as a worldly woman, and at other times, a little girl. Sometimes you are very prim and proper, and other times you are like a wanton harlot. You play a ‘good girl’ in public, but in private you can be almost as ‘naughty’ as I am!”

“I’m still as confused as I was back in September,” Kara sighed. “I’m still trying to make sense of everything. I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what I believe. And trying to decide what’s right and what’s wrong.”

“Those are good things. I spent a lot of time thinking about those kinds of things, and I still do. In the end, only you can decide. You can listen to other people, but when push comes to shove, you need to be comfortable with who you are and what you believe.”

“My life has been nothing but turmoil since I met you!”

“And?”

“And I wouldn’t trade my Junior year for anything. I can’t imagine not being with you. Even after everything, I would marry you right now if you asked, and you know my dad would give his blessing.”

“And yet, you changed our relationship when you had me to yourself.”

“That’s not even close to being true. I never had you to myself. Jennifer always had you. Always! I knew that from the beginning. My goal of marrying you depended on you deciding that, in the end, she wasn’t the right girl for you.”

“We’re there now.”

“No, we are not! YOU didn’t decide that, Steve. Jennifer did. SHE decided. Joyce was right. Until you decide, Jennifer will loom large in any relationship you have. If I asked you to take me to bed right now, and we ended up engaged and then married, some day you would run into Jennifer and it would be Becky all over again. No, Steve. If you want me, you have to talk to Jennifer first. Only then can we talk about any kind of future relationship.”

Every single one of the important girls in my life was telling me that I needed to talk to Jennifer. Kara, Bethany, Joyce and Stephanie. I knew that if I talked to Melanie and Larry, they’d say the same thing, and so would Doctor Mercer. I was being stubborn because she hurt me, and because I was afraid she’d hurt me even more with whatever bullshit excuse she came up with.

I sighed, resigning myself that, really, I would have to call Jennifer and find out. “Fine. I’ll talk to her.”

“Good. Once you talk to her, then we can talk about us, about how we’re going to handle you being in Chicago, and,” she had a twinkle in her eye, “if Joyce and I should fuck you until you forget Jennifer.”

“Now you’re just teasing me, Kara!” I chuckled.

“Until you talk to Jennifer, you’ll never know!” she said with an enticing smile.

“Be careful — I might think you’re serious and take you up on that!” I chuckled.

“Call Jennifer, Steve.”

I was absolutely sure she was teasing. Kara wasn’t interested in sex without a monogamous commitment, and that did not include a threesome. I wondered if the wine was still affecting her, even though it had been nearly two hours since she finished her second glass. Unless, of course, she had more than that and I didn’t realize it.

“I said I would talk to her.”

“When you do, then you and Bethany and I can talk.”

“And Joyce?” I smirked.

She giggled, “You are easy to tease, Steve. You know that, right?”

“I do. You OK for me to take you home?”

“Yes. I’m not tipsy. I probably shouldn’t have had the three glasses of wine!”

“Three? I only saw two. No wonder! You need to take it easier, Kara. I only had one, but that’s because I’m driving. But even so, I don’t ever drink more than two glasses and I outweigh you by quite a bit.”

“I never drank alcohol before I got together with you and Joyce. My parents don’t drink.”

“Just another way I’m corrupting you, Kara!” I teased.

“You haven’t asked me to do anything that I haven’t wanted to do. I LIKE what we do. All of it. Even the teasing.”

I smiled, and she turned her head and we kissed softly.

“Do that again after you talk to Jennifer, Steve,” she whispered.

I nodded, and we got up off the couch and went out to the car. I dropped Kara at her house and she gave me a brief hug and kiss on the cheek and then I headed home. I found Stephanie in her room and went in and shut the door.

“I’m going to call Jennifer, Squirt.”

“Finally! I guess Joyce and Kara ganged up on you?”

“You could say that. They both pretty much implied they’d screw me silly once I talked to Jennifer,” I smirked.

“Kara and Joyce? Together?” she giggled. “Now THAT would be crazy, even for you. Kara in a threesome?”

“Slow down! They both joked about it, but you know darn well Kara would never do anything like that. She’s getting good at teasing, though she still blushes quite a bit.”

“So, go call Jennifer, Steve. I’m sure she’ll talk to you. Just keep your emotions in check.”

I went to my room and shut the door. I picked up the receiver and stared at the touch-tone buttons for a moment, then took a deep breath, let it out and dialed the Blocks’ number. Jennifer’s mom answered on the second ring.

“Hi, Mrs. Block, it’s Steve Adams. Do you think Jennifer will speak to me?”

“Of course she will! She’s been hoping you would call. She’s pretty upset.”

“She’s not the only one,” I said, my ire showing through.

“I know it’s tough. She’s beaten herself up about this. Her dad and I thought she had told you back in January. If we had known, we would have done something about it. Her father was pretty rough on her when he found out that she’d done it again. Let me get her.”

I heard her put the phone down and heard footsteps retreating. About thirty seconds later, I heard footsteps and then the receiver being picked-up. I took a deep breath and let it out.

“Hello,” Jennifer said, softly.

“Hi, Jennifer,” I said as evenly as I could, because I was still seething.

She began sobbing, “I’m sorry, Steve. I’m so sorry. I should have told you! I should have talked to you about it!”

There was no way I was letting her off easily. Not this time. Not after six months of deception.

“Yes, you should have. I can’t believe you did this to me again! It’s even worse than last time! Last time, you didn’t have a choice about moving! But this time, this time is all on you. It was your decision all the way. You hurt me, Jennifer! You hurt me very badly!”

“I know! I made a huge mistake! I was afraid to tell you. I was afraid of what you would do and say!”

“And that would have been worse than this? We could have talked about it. We might have come up with alternate plans. The only reason I can imagine that you didn’t tell me is that you didn’t WANT to make alternate plans. That you didn’t WANT me with you.”