Chapter 62: Divine Creations

September, 1984, Chicago, Illinois

"Hi, Steve," Patience (or was it Prudence?) said as she got out of the car.

"Hi, Patience!" I said, hoping I was right.

"Wrong sister!" she giggled.

"Sorry Prudence! You'll have to have patience with me while I figure out how to tell you apart!"

She laughed, "Nice double entendre there, Mr. Landlord! Could you handle it?"

I laughed, "Sorry. I didn't mean it that way! Do you need help moving in?"

"No, I think we have it. It's just clothes, records, dishes, that kind of stuff."

"Come over for dinner. I usually have a bunch of friends over on Saturday night and we hang out. Sunday is more or less an open house, too, starting at lunch until around 4:00pm. You'll have to walk the long way around until later next week. They were supposed to take the fence down and reconnect the walk, but the permits took longer than expected. It'll all be done by Friday."

"We'll come by around 5:00pm, if that's OK," Patience (I was sure this time) said.

"See you then," I said, and started walking around the block to the house so I could take Anala home.

I was a bit later than usual returning from that drive to Bridgeport because of our extra activity, so I went straight to the kitchen to make lunch. I was joined by Kara and Sofia, and a few minutes later, by Cindi.

"How's the car working out?" I asked Sofia.

"Perfect! I hate the traffic in Chicago, but it's way less stressful than having to worry about the El, the bus, or getting rides. It was different in Sweden when the bus stop was two blocks or so from my house, and when I could get anywhere by bus or tram in about an hour. And it was a lot safer in Sweden."

"Yeah, the El isn't terrible with regard to safety, but I agree, it's nothing like the «spårvagnarna» or «Tunnelbanan». And our buses are terrible compared to the ones in Sweden."

"Are you happy so far?" Cindi asked.

"Absolutely!" Sofia said. "I've wanted to come here since I first met Steve. I was lucky because my grandfather in Greece left me a lot of money. Otherwise I couldn't afford to go to school here. It's free in Sweden."

"Free? As in, you pay nothing at all?" Cindi asked, surprised.

"Yes!" Sofia exclaimed. "Completely so."

I chuckled, "Free, so long as you pay 60% income tax, plus 20% VAT, plus a host of other taxes!"

"That's not free!" Kara said.

"Exactly," I replied. "It's no cost to the student, but it's not 'free'. And I believe my friend Sofia wants to gain the benefits of being a doctor in the US."

"That's not the only benefit that she wants!" Cindi teased.

"You had your chance!" I replied. "You chose to delay it! And you better hope you can collect before I get married, because I doubt either of these two lovely ladies would let me keep our bargain!"

"Bastard!" she hissed. "You promised!"

"Clock's ticking, Cindi!" I chuckled. "Tick-tock; tick-tock!"

She rolled her eyes and laughed. We finished our lunch and got started on our homework. Our friends trickled in and found their own spots to study.

"Steve," I heard a female voice say, and looked up.

"Hi, Wen. What's up?"

"Can we work together on our accounting homework? I need a bit of help."

I chuckled, "Me too. I usually get together with Elyse, but she's busy studying for an exam. Let's see if we can figure it out together."

We went to the study room and pulled a couple of chairs to one of the desks, and opened up our books. I was actually comfortable with this part of the class. We were constructing model balance sheets and financial statements. While I thought some of the categorizations were silly, there were clear rules, and for me, that made things a bit easier.

We started going over the first worksheet, discussing where each item fit onto the balance sheet, and calculating 'customer goodwill' to account for excess valuation. To me, it was just a fudge factor to make the balance sheet actually balance, and I thought that if I tried that with my checking account, the bank manager would laugh himself into a coma.

I became aware that Wen's leg was pressing against mine and moved mine slightly to make sure she wasn't uncomfortable. I was surprised when, a minute later, I felt the contact again. I didn't move my leg this time, and continued with the first worksheet. We agreed that everything looked right and set it aside so that Elyse could review it for us, then started the financial statement worksheet.

We transferred the data from the balance sheet, and then worked on the income statement, equity statement, and cash flow statement. All the data was found by looking at previous assignments and because they'd been graded, I was sure that the data we were using was correct. We discussed the numbers as we wrote them down, and when we finished, we were confident that everything was OK.

Wen took her copies of the worksheet and copied the information from the ones that I'd completed while we worked. I sat quietly and watched, then decided to test a theory that had been percolating in my brain. I put my left hand under the desk and rested it gently on her leg, halfway between her knee and the top of her leg. Wen didn't object, so I left it there, enjoying the feel of her small, muscular leg.

I carefully looked around and everyone else in the room had their noses in their books. When Wen put her pencil down and looked up, I bent down and put my lips close to hers. She didn't move, so I moved forward and gave her a gentle, quiet kiss, then sat up straight again. She smiled and pressed her leg more firmly against me. I leaned over and put my lips close to her ear.

"Dance with me later," I whispered.

She smiled and nodded, then put away her accounting homework and I picked up my things and went to my study to work on a paper on modern Christian sects like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. I turned on the Macintosh and decided to play with MacWrite, even though I wouldn't be able to print yet — that would have to wait until Sunday when Dave and I were going to hook up the printer. We didn't want to mess with it during the week or on our study day because people would need it.

A bit of playing with MacWrite convinced me that one of those new laser printers was a must-have, once the price came down to something a bit more reasonable. I hoped that was by Summer, because being able to print things that I could create with MacPaint and MacWrite would be very, very cool, and probably something quite useful for our business. One thing I'd noticed was that businesses seemed to be standardizing on IBM PCs, and that annoyed me, because the Apple products were clearly superior and innovative.

I liked editing with MacWrite, though using the mouse would take some getting used to. I decided to write the paper on the Macintosh and print it out when we hooked up my printer. If something went horribly wrong, I could always simply retype the paper onto the Apple IIe. I finished up just before dinner and just in time for Elyse to come to my study door.

"Need me to check your accounting homework?" she asked. "Or did your Chinese friend help you?"

"We worked on it together. She's better at it than I am, but some of the ideas are confusing to both of us. Come sit with me."

She pulled one of the chairs next to the desk and I handed her the worksheets and the previous assignments that had provided the data. She looked it over, and about ten minutes later, handed it back to me.

"Looks good. Just make sure you study and review everything for your mid-term on Friday. I can spend some time with you Thursday night if you want."

"Sure," I smirked. "Accounting and sex with Elyse. At least one of them will be satisfying!"

"If you say 'accounting' you'll never ever have sex again," Elyse said feistily. "With anyone!"

"Don't worry your pretty little head," I replied. "By the way, our new renters are coming for dinner and to hang out."

"Do you EVER stop?" Elyse teased.

"First off, I was being polite. Second, you told me to get laid, didn't you?"

"I did!" she declared, then smirked, "Have you ever had twins?"

"No. I've known some twins, but never managed to get to the point of having them together."

Elyse laughed, "There's a first time for everything!"

"Well, not tonight," I replied. "I already have a date!"

"Sofia, you mean?"

"No. Wen wants a dance ... or something!" I grinned.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" Elyse laughed. "I said go out and get laid, not deflower half of Chicago!"

"I have no idea about Wen in that regard, and Staci is not 'half of Chicago'."

"You know what I meant. Remember to keep balanced. Don't go overboard!"

"Says the woman encouraging me to try to get the twins into bed!"

Elyse laughed again, "I did, didn't I? I have to say, this is the Steve I like. I didn't when I first met you, when I had a very different view of life. Now? I wouldn't have you any other way. You are MUCH happier when you have some variety to spice up your life."

"Says the woman who has become conventional and boring in bed," I teased.

"Asshole!" she growled. "I do still have that bag of toys, and that large dildo DOES fit in the harness."

"No thanks! And you aren't boring, Elyse. It's funny, but our styles seemed to have meshed almost perfectly."

Elyse smiled an evil smile.

"Marry me. You know we'd be perfect together, and I'd even let you have your girls on the side!"

"You keep coming back to that. I thought you didn't want to marry. What about variety?"

"You're the exception to the rule. I would be happy with just you for the rest of my life. Love me, take care of our kids, and I won't give two shits who else you fuck."

"You are sending me seriously mixed signals, Elyse!" I said.

"So I'm complicated. So are you. So is everyone. Well, that's not quite true. Kara is simple."

"Simple? What do you mean?"

"Love her and she'll stay with you for the rest of her life. No commitments required. Whatever you ask of her, she'll do."

"Assuming for the moment that what you say is true, is that fair to her?"

"Is it fair to Anala how you treat her?"

I sighed, "Of course, because that's what she wants. But I can't take your word for that, Elyse."

"I know. But it's true, anyway. But forget that for now. Think about it. It's a good option."

I chuckled, "I'll take it under advisement!"

"You do that! I'll help with dinner," she offered.

As usual for Saturday night, we made a meal to serve a small army, because many of our friends stayed overnight. We used one of Anala's recipes for curried chicken, made some rice, and tossed a salad. Patience and Prudence arrived while we were cooking, and I took a few minutes away to give them a quick tour and introduce them to everyone. Dinner was ready shortly after that, and as usual, everyone enjoyed the meal. Elyse reminded us all about the upcoming Halloween Party she had planned it for October 27th. She chose that day because Halloween fell in the middle of the week and we wanted everyone to be able to stay up late and have a good time.

I usually didn't spend a lot of time in the attic room dancing, but that evening I decided that I would. I was sitting on a bench along the back wall when Wen came out of the elevator and came to sit by me. She sat close enough that our shoulders and knees touched while we watched Jorge dance up a storm with Cindi.

"I don't dance that well," I said.

"Me neither!" she said.

"I'm game to try if you are," I offered.

She nodded, and I led her to the dance floor. The next song up was Footloose and we both shrugged and tried to dance. I saw Jorge smirk and shake his head. I shrugged again and simply enjoyed dancing with Wen. The music gods had mercy on me and the next song was Hello by Lionel Richie. I put my hands on Wen's waist and she put hers on my sides. She was quite short at just 5' tall, so my side was more comfortable than my shoulders for her to grasp.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jorge and Cindi dancing so close that to be any closer they'd have to be naked. He had a silly grin on his face, and I winked at him. Wen and I weren't dancing anywhere near that close, and still didn't for the next song, Every Woman in the World by Air Supply. After that came Let's Go Crazy by Prince, which we decided to sit out.

"I heard you got a new Macintosh," Wen said. "Could I see it?"

"Sure," I said, getting up.

She followed me to the steps, and we walked down to the ground floor and to my study. I sat down in my chair and motioned for her to sit and was surprised when she sat in my lap. I reached behind the Macintosh and turned in on and we waited for it to boot.

Like everyone who'd seen it, she was Messmerized by the Graphical User Interface and I fired up MacPaint. She started doodling with it, and I slipped my arms around her waist. She spent about ten minutes trying out various things and checking out the menus. She let go of the mouse and leaned back against me.

"Totally cool. What programming languages does it have?"

"BASIC and 68000 assembler, but I have to buy them. I'll do that on Tuesday after work."

She didn't say anything else, though she didn't make a move to get up from my lap. I wasn't sure what to do at that point, so I just sat contentedly with her in my arms. Five minutes passed. Then ten. I'd kissed her earlier, and she hadn't objected, and had agreed to dancing. I took a chance and slowly slid my hand from her stomach towards her small breast. When she didn't protest, I cupped it gently, she sighed, and I found, to my surprise, that she wasn't wearing a bra. Once again, we sat quietly for a time, but I didn't dare take it further without some kind of invitation. As Bethany had repeatedly reminded me, acquiescence was not consent.

"Wen," I said softly.

She shifted enough so that she could turn her head and look at me. I lowered my lips to hers and we kissed softly. Her lips parted, and I gently probed for her tongue. The touch was electric, and she moaned softly into my mouth. As we kissed, I stroked her nipple with my thumb and she shuddered and moaned again. She broke the kiss and sat straight up.

"Will you take me home?" she asked.

"Of course. Did I do something wrong?" I asked.

"No. I just, well, just take me back to the dorms, OK?"

"Sure. Let me just let someone know where I'm going. I'll meet you by the front door."

She got up from my lap and I got up to go find one of the girls. I found Kara sitting in the great room with Dave and Julia and let them know that I was going to run Wen home and that I'd be back soon. I walked to the foyer and then Wen and I walked around the block to get in my car. A couple more days and I'd be able to just walk out the back door! We got into the car; I started it and backed out of the driveway. We rode in silence to IIT, and I pulled up in front of the dorms.

"Do you want me to walk you inside?" I asked.

"No, it's OK," she said.

She quickly leaned over, kissed my cheek, and with a whispered "Thanks", hurriedly got out of the car, and walked briskly into the building. The only thing I could imagine was that she was confused, scared, and nervous. The kiss on the cheek told me that she wasn't angry with me, but also was a strong indicator to slow down. At this point, I didn't think I had any option except to be her friend and let her decide what, if anything, was going to happen. I put the car in gear and headed back to Hyde Park.