Chapter 15

The couple contented themselves with an enthusiastic 69 because both were too aroused to start their day without something. Then Hailey shared a shower with a guy for the first time in her life. She actually found herself purring when Phil washed her hair and ran his fingers through her tresses to spread her conditioner. The whole time she could feel his erect cock nestled at the top of her ass. They stayed under the water until it turned cold and then laughed as they toweled each other off.

“I hope it’s OK but I want to spend the afternoon at the dorm,” Hailey told him. “I need to talk to my friends and clear some things up. I know that things can’t be the same as they were – not only in the things we shared but in the way we acted. Do you mind?”

“I don’t own you,” Phil said with a smile to lessen what could be misconstrued. “You don’t need to ask my permission for anything – and certainly not for anything as important as the discussion you plan to have with your friends. I’m not sure I ever want to let you out of my sight again but I fully understand. I support your decisions – even the ones I wish were different.”

“You have a bank of replies in your head, don’t you?” Hailey said. “You always know just what to say. I’m sure of it.”

“You’re going to be disappointed if you really think that,” Phil told her.

“You’ve known what to say to me so far,” she said with a smile. “Give me a kiss before I go?”

“I can drive you,” Phil offered.

Hailey shook her head before she lowered her lips to his for a gentle goodbye.

“If you do that I’m going to invite you up,” she said. “You’ll say yes and I won’t do what I need to do.”

“OK,” Phil said. “I’ve got some things to do.”

“Call me later?” Hailey urged.

“Why don’t you call me if you have time,” he suggested. “I don’t want to interrupt anything important.”

He stood and walked her to the door where she kissed him again. He stood in the doorway and watched her walk away. Just before she was out of sight she turned and waved as if she knew he was there the entire time.

Phil waited until after noon to phone his parents. It was the only day they slept in and he didn’t want to risk waking them. As always, his mother answered on the first ring.

“You’re two minutes late,” Beth told him. “What was the hold up?”

“Your clock must be fast,” Phil replied. “You might want to have it checked.”

“How was your week?” Beth provided the opening question as always.

“Amazing, wonderful, unexpected,” Phil began, “I could probably list 20 adjectives and not fully describe how my week was.”

“You aced your exam,” Beth said with authority, “and got together with Hailey.”

“How do you do that?” Phil asked in amazement. “Do you have a spy here?”

“I’m a mother,” Beth said. “We know things.”

“I’m serious!” Phil said. “The exam, yeah, I can see that. The other surprised even me. I think it was last Friday when I referred to her a ‘blazing two-faced bitch!’ You could not have put that together from a phone call about an internship.”

“Oh, please,” Beth replied. “I saw the way she looked when she asked if you were at the banquet. She asked before she even knew who I was. I could see she was interested and I could also see that she is used to getting what she wants.”

“Well so am I,” Phil said.

“My point exactly,” Beth laughed. “She has huge boobs and a sweet butt – at least according to your father – and I know what you like.”

“I think I’m offended,” Phil said. “Emily Rayford has nice boobs and a cute butt too. I wouldn’t pee on her if she caught fire.”

“Yes, well, I think we can all agree that Emily Rayford is not a very nice person,” Beth said.

“I thought we all agreed that Hailey Warren wasn’t a very nice person either,” Phil replied.

“You thought that and I believe you convinced your father of that,” his mother said. “Perhaps because I’m a woman I had a different perspective. I saw a very unhappy young woman who couldn’t figure out how to change that fact. Once I understood who her mother was I realized that she had been raised by perhaps the worst example of motherhood that you could find. The more I learn about Hannah Kramer the happier I am that she no longer works for Barton Group. The woman has the personality of a rattlesnake and the morals of an alley cat. I am absolutely amazed that Hailey isn’t turning tricks by this point in her life.”

“She sort of was,” Phil said.

“I do not believe that,” Beth insisted.

“She admitted it to me,” Phil told his mother. “It wasn’t a currency transaction; instead it was exchanging access to her body for an increase in popularity or a higher class of friend or a better grade in a class.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Beth admitted, “and I suppose it’s prostitution no matter what is exchanged. Still, I saw that she wanted more out of life than she’d found. I’m not surprised she found happiness in you. I know that your father and I always have. So you think she’s changed?”

“It’s actually sort of amazing,” he answered. “I think in the back of her mind she always knew what she needed to do. She just needed someone to stand beside her as she did it. I’m not disappointed that’s it me.”

“So you’ve been intimate?” Beth asked, wondering how to broach the subject of STDs and other sexual diseases.

“We’ve been intimate but we haven’t had sex,” Phil answered. “I mean, we’ve fooled around but we haven’t actually had intercourse. I think it was the intimacy that Hailey missed the most.”

“There is lot to be said for closeness,” Beth agreed.

“It’s more than that, Mom,” Phil insisted. “We only really moved to anything sexual in the past couple of days. We spent most of the week talking. I got asked out by another girl on Tuesday – right after I talked to you, in fact. She is this super-cute Irish girl. I mean she’s from Ireland and she fit every stereotype you can image. She has dark red hair and freckles and the most amazing smile you’ll ever see.”

“What happened to her?” Beth asked, perplexed at the way the conversation was going.

“She got asked out by her long-term crush the next afternoon,” Phil said. “She thought she could go out with both us and no one would be the wiser. It didn’t really work out that way. The guy turned out to be a jerk – let’s just say she wound up standing alone in a bad part of town while she waited for her cousin to pick her up. I ended up going to a party with Hailey on Friday while Molly went out with this guy. Do you remember Bobby Prohl?”

“Bobby Prohl did not leave a girl on the side of the road!” Beth said. “His father works for us.”

“Well, no he didn’t,” Phil said. “But just because someone works for us doesn’t mean his kids aren’t assholes. Remember, Hannah worked for us, too.”

“Point taken,” Beth conceded. “So how did Bobby enter into the story?”

“I ran into him at the party,” Phil explained. “He’s on the baseball team here. He wanted me to try out.”

“Will you?” Beth asked. She had wondered why Phil had given up the sport when he went to college. She thought he was good enough to play and he had offers from a few smaller schools to play for them.

“No,” Phil said. “As I told Bob, that part of my life is over.”

“Well, I think you should,” Beth interrupted. “I know you want to rush through college and get out in two-and-a-half years. I think you should stay and enjoy it. Philip, I’ve never really told you this so I’m going to tell you something and I hope you take it as a fact: This is the best time of your life. Live it fully and do everything you’ve ever wanted. This is when you can make mistakes without much of a penalty. I’m not talking about driving drunk or robbing a bank, of course. I’m talking about taking a pottery class because you think the teaching assistant is hot or getting falling down drunk and passing out at a friend’s house.”

“And waking up covered in permanent marker?” Phil cut in with a laugh. “By the way, nice ‘granny panties, ‘ Mom.”

“You were never supposed to see that picture, Philip,” Beth said. “Now you’re changing subjects too quickly for me to catch up. What happened to the girl who asked you out?”

“I went out with her last night,” Phil said.

“Wait!” Beth said. “You have really lost me. You were with Hailey on Friday and you went out with, what was her name?”

“Molly,” Phil answered, trying to hide his smile. It was rare for him to confuse his mother and he was relishing the fact. “Molly Kelly.”

“Definitely Irish,” Beth laughed. “So you went out with Molly last night – after you started to date Hailey and after this Molly went out with another guy? Do I have it straight?”

“Yep,” Phil answered.

“Why in the world would you do that to Hailey?” Beth asked. “It’s obvious that she’d opened herself up to you – metaphorically, Philip, get your mind out of the gutter. That is not how you were raised to treat people.”

“She made me!” Phil said. “That’s what I mean. Molly had decided that she was going to break our date but Hailey convinced her to keep it. Hailey was sort of unplanned. I mean, it was but it wasn’t. I knew by the afternoon before the party that we had something but I was leery, you know. I worried she was gaming me. So, anyway, Hailey didn’t want me to think she’d stolen me away from Molly or was missing something, whatever. She told me to go out with her. It was dinner with her cousins and a movie while she babysat. I’d already made up my mind but she wanted me to be certain.”

“She must have abiding faith in herself,” Beth said.

“I’m not sure that was it,” he replied. “I’m almost positive that she would have been OK if I had decided Molly was the way I wanted to go. Of course she was waiting on my steps when I got home last night so maybe not. I do know that she called Molly and offered to have the guy publicly castrated if Molly wanted it that way. Molly’s cousin is married to a campus cop so he’s going to handle it that way. He took some liberties that could be construed as sexual assault.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t track him down last night,” Beth said. “I recall Milt McCartney. He still walks with a limp.”

“You knew about that?” Phil asked incredulously.

“Of course I did,” Beth said. “I knew about it and, and this might surprise you, I approved. I’m not entirely sure I would have stopped at a shattered kneecap but it served the purpose. I don’t believe he will ever beat up his girlfriend again. I’ve always wondered what you hit him with, though.”

“Dad’s Callaway driver that went missing,” Phil admitted. “I replaced it as soon as I could talk you two into letting me have some of my money.”

“I should have guessed,” Beth replied. “So, Hailey encouraged you to date other women. Do I have that right?”

“She encouraged me to have a single date with Molly before I decided,” Phil corrected. “I believe that offer is off the table now.”

“Good,” Beth said. “May I assume you have the same arrangement with Hailey?”

“Nah,” Phil said. “She can date Molly more than once if she wants.”

“You goof!” Beth said. “I meant in regard to other men. You can’t be too careful, Philip.”

“No, you can’t,” he agreed. “We haven’t had a discussion about exclusivity. Still, I will not date her if she goes out with someone else. I also will not date anyone else while I am with her.”

“Is she there with you?” Beth asked.

“She’s at her dorm,” Phil told her. “She’s spent the night here the last two nights but she had some things she needed to discuss with her friends. There are some, uh, intricacies to those relationships that need to be sorted.”

“Intricacies?” Beth pushed.

“Let’s leave it at that,” Phil told her. “The situation with her closest friends must change before I can be truly comfortable dating her long-term.”

“I’m not sure I like the way you make that sound,” Beth informed him. “It sounds like you’re trying to make decisions for her. That can never work for anything more than briefly. Hailey has a strong personality. So do you. I know you didn’t ask for my advice but that’s never stopped me before. You and she, in a sense, remind me of your father and me. We share responsibilities and decisions.”

“I know all that,” Phil interrupted. “And I agree – at least with the gist. I’m not sure how much like you and Dad we are. It takes years of love and acceptance to build the sort of relationship you have. We’ve considered this for two days. The problem with her friends is the dynamic she’s created. I’m not comfortable with how she lords over them – and some of the, uh, arrangements they have regarding her boyfriends, I’m not willing to participate in.”

“You’re right,” Beth said. “I should have let it be. I am positive I do not want to discuss those arrangements.”

“No, you don’t,” Phil said. “To be blunt, I didn’t want to hear about them either. So we’ll have to see how things work out. It might be over by this point and I just haven’t been informed. I’ll be OK if it turns out that way. I’ve had to face the way I reacted to her rejection and I’ve found I’m as much to blame as she is. I’ve been turned down for dates before but not in that manner. Instead of laughing it off and moving on, I took six months to lick my wounds and it cost me. I won’t do that again so don’t worry. I like Hailey – and I can see myself loving her at some point – but I’m OK with who I am as a person. If I accepted some of the previous arrangements, I wouldn’t be OK with who I was.”