Chapter 3

Larry brought around Jake’s assignment Monday morning. By noon, he was deep into it. They ate in the break room, but none of them went home until late.

By Thursday, his vision was blurring and his ass was aching. He went to the john, got coffee in the break room, and consulted his cell. It was shortly after 8. He went into the hall and called Cheryl.

“Jake?” she answered. “Where are you?”

“At work. At work for hours yet. Is it too late?”

“Not at all.”

“I love you,” he said. “I’m not sure that I could describe this job at the best of times, and I don’t even want to think about it now. I need to hear your voice. Tell me something.”

“Well, I love you, too. You just want to hear my voice?”

“Well, I want a hell of a lot more. What’s available is the sound of your voice.”

“Okay,” she said. “There was some sort of slow-down on the L coming home. Police had been called to the Montrose stop, and nobody was moving north until they were done. Since people kept coming into the stations, they crowded onto the car, when we began moving. I had a seat, and I stayed in it when they said we’d run express to Loyola. I changed at Morse and rode back south.”

“Probably the best. Sorry to hear that. Then what happened?”

“Mom cooked meat loaf, mashed, and beets. She keeps saying that I’ll get over my dislike for beets. Never happen, but moms are moms.

“I cleared and washed, talked with Lori, and now I’m in my robe about to go take a shower.”

“Just as well you skipped the parts you did,” he said. “I shall, however, spend my next break imagining you in the shower.”

She was chuckling when she ended the call. He did have to adjust himself before he returned to his cubicle.

By a week after the call, Cheryl was getting impatient. Jake had called several times, and they’d even seen each other briefly on Sunday. He was unfailingly considerate of her schedule, never calling when she was at work, asleep, or even on her way home. Since she rode the CTA, she wouldn’t have minded the last at all. It was late when she called Jake.

“Let me get out to the hall,” was his answer. Then, “What’s up?”

“I didn’t hear you come in.”

“That’s ‘cause I didn’t. We’re deep into it now. I don’t know when I’ll be back. I warned you.”

“That you did. I was just worried about you. Now I know, I’ll let you go. Bye.”

“Love you. Bye.” Now he said it. The phone clicked off before she could reply, though. She lay back down in bed. She really should go to sleep if Jake was busy at work. Soon, though, she heard noise in the bathroom. Mom and Dad were going to bed. She waited another half hour, not feeling sleepy at all. She looked in the hall. Seeing that there was no light under their door, she went back into her room and dressed quickly. She wore jeans and a fairly heavy blouse. She didn’t think she’d meet anybody on the stairs, but she didn’t want them to see her in her night clothes if she did. In flip-flops she snuck out of the apartment. She carried the key ring and her cell.

She met nobody on the stairs, and the key worked easily in Jake’s door. He didn’t keep his apartment very neat, and he certainly wasn’t expecting her. He had, however, told her that she could go in anytime she wanted. She straightened the bed. The night stand was where he kept his condoms, and she opened the drawer and got one out. He’d put them under his pillow, and she put one there for when he would need it.

Opening that drawer, however, had tweaked her curiosity. She did a quick search of his room. He had a woman’s bath robe hanging in the closet. It looked new and, in fact, still had the price tag attached. She decided that she should give him a chance to say it was for her before she got jealous. He only owned one suit, as she had suspected. He did, however, seem to have a large selection of khakis. His stash of dirty magazines was utterly repulsive. The food in his pantry was mostly cans. The guy didn’t eat at all well, but there were frozen vegetables in his freezer. He had four bottles of beer in the ‘fridge and white bread and margarine instead of something interesting -- rye, multi-grain, or whole wheat at least -- and butter. His room was hot, and she turned up the air conditioner.

Well, if he wasn’t getting back soon, she should get her rest first. She closed the bedroom door, stripped off her clothes and got into bed. She took some time getting to sleep, but she could smell him on the pillow as she did.

Jake got home a little before one. He paused on the first landing to blow a kiss towards Cheryl. Then he climbed the rest of the way as silently as he could. He stopped briefly in the john before heading to the bedroom. For some reason the bedroom door was closed. Had he thought he might bring Cheryl up here? Unless there were guests, he kept the inside doors open. He opened the door quietly and flicked on the overhead light.

Cheryl woke to a bright light shining in her eyes. She had no idea where she was.

“What the fuck?” Jake said. Oh! Now she remembered. She was in Jake’s room, and he had got home late.

“Turn down the light,” she said. He snapped it off, and the only light came from the kitchen. “Surprise.”

“And, despite my first reaction, quite a pleasant surprise. Sorry about that. I must say, it’s nice to come home to find a beautiful girl in my bed. Can you stay for the night? The rest of the night, I mean.”

“No. Mom and Dad have no idea.”

“Well,” he said, “we have to make the most of the time we have, then.” He started stripping. When he was naked, he ducked into the kitchen again to turn off the light. She could barely see him when he climbed into bed beside her.

“Just a minute,” she said. It was about one, and she set her cell alarm for three. When she turned back towards him, he kissed her forehead. He moved towards her mouth, and then he stopped.

“I didn’t shave or brush,” he said.

“I’m not really awake yet. Maybe you should.” When he left her for the john, she figured she should use it, too. She stopped outside the bathroom door. She heard the toilet flush and then many sounds from the sink. He had the beginnings of an erection when he came out.

She used the toilet and washed her hands wishing she had brought a tooth brush with her.

He was waiting when she came out. A bedside lamp was lit, and he gestured her towards the bed. She couldn’t see his eyes, but somehow she knew that they were focused on her butt the entire three yards of her trip. She lifted the sheet, rolled in, and pulled it up to her neck.

Jake was sporting a full erection when he followed her in. He snapped off the lamp.

When they kissed, he tasted of toothpaste, and she remembered that she didn’t. The pelt on his chest tickled her left breast. She felt one hairy leg between her two.

He kissed down from her mouth to her neck. Before he got to her breast, he pulled his leg from between hers. He replaced it with a hand. He stroked her slickly. Just as his tongue reached her nipple, his finger reached her clit. She gasped.

He thrust a finger into her and moved it in and out while his kisses trailed from one breast to the other. His chest hair was already tickling her right nipple before his lips reached her left one.

Then he was sucking and licking while he stroked her gently but insistently. She stiffened.

“Yes, sweet,” he said. “Yes, Cheryl ... Yes!”

And the yes burst out of the pit of her stomach and shook her entire body. She moaned.

“Darling,” he said. He turned away from her to scrabble in the drawer. It was under the pillow, but she didn’t have the energy to tell him.

Then he was over her and between her legs. She felt his hand part her lips.

“Darling!” he said.

“Yes,”

He pushed into her and filled her. He pulled her left leg until they were lying sort of sideways with his hand on her breast. He clasped her butt cheek in his large hand. Then he was driving into her and out.

Every stroke raised the fire within her. She locked her ankles behind his legs and pulled with them when he was driving in.

“Oh, darling,” he said. “So warm ... So welcoming ... oh ... oh!”

She couldn’t say anything. She felt so hot, so close. Every muscle in her body tensed.

Then lightning shot through her. She shook, and she could feel herself tightening around Jake’s cock driving through her.

“Darling,” he said, “I can’t!” Whatever he couldn’t do, he could do the important things. He could keep pounding into her. He could squeeze her butt cheek and pull her tighter against him.

Jake had never felt so aroused. He was in Cheryl’s sweet, welcoming cunt, and it was clutching around him. He was on the verge, had been on the verge forever. He could not, however, go over.

He drove though her spasms. Then he drove through her relaxation. He was too aroused to stop, and he was just short of the point of orgasm.

“Darling,” he groaned.

“Yes,” she sighed. She slipped one hand around his waist and down to his pumping ass cheek.

He slowed his pace slightly, and he concentrated on the feel of her smoothness around the head of his cock and the tightness of her entry around the shaft.

After an eternity on the brink, he felt her stiffen again. The darling was going to come again. Breathing a silent prayer that this would finally take him over, he increased the pace and the strength of his thrusts.

She clutched around him, and he drew back to her entryway. She stabbed his ass with her fingernails just when he was driving in already. He drove forward hard through her tightness.

Pressing deep into her, he felt himself pulse, and pulse, and pulse.

He woke to her hand pushing his shoulder up. With the last of his strength, with strength that he really didn’t have, he rolled over onto his back.

Cheryl woke to her alarm. Even pressed against Jake, she was cold. The air conditioner was too high, and she was mostly uncovered. Jake had most of the sheet.

He didn’t seem to notice her rising. She took her cell and clothes out through the kitchen and into the john. This was a little warmer, Se used the facilities. When she wiped herself, she discovered the contraceptive was still in her. She flushed it down the toilet, washed, and dressed.

Back in her own bed, she fell back asleep.

Waking was unpleasant and incomplete. By the time she got to work, though, she was ready to perform. She’d been wearing her interview dress and two others that she thought suitable for work. She went shopping after work and got home when the rush-hour traffic had partially dissipated.

She had a late supper and dealt with her own dishes. Soon after, Jake called.

“Now, I’m going to be the one to ask you to wait,” she said. She walked to her room, shut the door, and lay on the side of the bed that was farthest from the door. “Okay,”

“I’m thankful,” he said, “and I’m sorry.”

“Well, next time I push you off me, I’ll grab the sheets first. Actually, I’m the one who turned up the air conditioner. Was that a mistake?”

“When I get home so late, it’s not necessary. Then, too, we had the bedroom door closed, and it’s for the whole apartment. You must think me an animal; I couldn’t stop.”

Now she knew what he was apologizing for.

“Well, I might call you a magnificent animal, maybe a tiger. I gather that most women don’t get sex for that long. Well, I’m not complaining. I might consider my sleep schedule, though, the next time I’m tempted to sneak into your room.”

“You’re adorable.” And, with that, they ended another not-quite-phone-sex conversation. She was serious about her sleep deficit, and she went to bed soon after.

The next day, Chris took her home with him to see Monica (and Marie). Going home with the boss was probably on the paralegal’s no-no list, but Monica was adorable. Marie doted on her daughter, but she was obviously ready for some adult conversation.

Chris took her to the Jefferson park station, but it was still a long ride home. For the second night in a row, she had supper from the ‘fridge. Her period would probably start that night, and she inserted a tampon before crawling into bed. Still, that meant that she would be starting her pills in a few days, That made her think of Jake, and she called.

“Cheryl!” he answered. “Let me shut a few things down ... Okay, I’m on my way to the hall. What’s new?”

“I went home with my boss tonight.”

“You’re calling from there?” Craig did not sound happy. Good. First, they had some sort of relationship – she had gone to his bed, for God’s sake – but they didn’t have any sort of _state relationship. Second, she had thought of that joke when leaving the Loop in Chris’s car and she hadn’t been able to tell it to anyone until now.

“Marie was there, and she let me hold her baby.”

“You’re awfully brave when I can’t reach you.”

“What would you do if I were there?” she asked. “What claim do you have on me?”

“Well, if you were here – If I were there, rather; this is the hall of an office building – I would kiss you. I thought I was your guy. You’re definitely my only gal. I don’t even have enough time for you.”

“Jake, there’s all the difference in the world between being the only woman who’s convenient and having a commitment.”

“Okay,” he said. “What commitment do you want from me? I’m damned-well not going to propose over the phone.”

Cheryl was shocked. She hadn’t asked for a proposal; he didn’t need to say that she wouldn’t get one. Queen Victoria was dead; sleeping with a guy didn’t mean that he had to propose. It did call for something. Well, really, Jake had offered something, if something unspecific.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Going steady is so high-school.”

Jake thought that was just like a woman. She complained that he hadn’t stated their formal relationship, and then – when asked to state it – she could only name one that she thought was unsatisfactory.

That got him thinking, though. He wanted more than going steady with Cheryl; he’d gone steady with Eve, and he had never had sex with her. He’d been quite serious about the engagement. Marriage – however much he had enjoyed coming home to find Cheryl in his bed – was out of the question while he was working these hours.

He’d taken a job with these hellacious hours to pay off his student loans, and his next annual bonus would pay them off. Cheryl was certain to have more debt than he’d had, though; she hadn’t started with a bunch of tuition help from the Army. He wanted to start a marriage fairly clear of debt.

More than anything else, he wanted a marriage with Cheryl, but -- with her a student and him working these hours -- they’d be ships passing in the night. He was willing to wait until they could be a reasonable couple.

These thoughts were still in the back of his mind when he went into the break room the next evening. Larry was showing some photos his wife had just sent to his cell.

“You’re participating as much in this phase of LJ’s life as I am,” he told the guys looking at his cell. “The kid’s asleep when I leave in the morning, and asleep when I get back at night. We wanted to buy the house, and we wanted Sandy to be a stay-at-home mother, but the combination leaves me a stay-at-work dad.”

Larry was the boss, if not a suit. He was telling them to be careful of the deal they were making.

Saturday night, he shut down early. He got back just after midnight. He again blew a kiss towards Cheryl’s room. This time, when he got to his bed, it was empty. Just as well; he killed the alarm and crashed.

By the time he’d risen, showered, shaved, eaten, and dressed, it was after one. A glance out the window told him it was drizzling. He called Cheryl.

“Jake!”

“This is maybe not the best weather for a drive. I’d like to talk face-to-face, though. Think you could come out with me without your parents taking out commitment papers for one or both of us?”

“Sure.”

“Your door in ten?”

“Don’t hurry.”

When he got to her door, she was dressed more for a date than for getting rained on. She took a parka and an umbrella, though. Still, he had her wait in the doorway until he’d got the car and pulled up.

“Look,” he began, “if going steady sounds too much like high school, what does going steady mean?”

“It’s an exclusive. You don’t date anyone else.”

“It’s at least two other things. You’re not in the market. You’re not saying that I’m the best offer you’ve had recently; you’re saying I’m the only offer you’ll consider. That’s one.”

“Okay,” she said. He couldn’t tell whether she was agreeing to not consider anybody else or she was agreeing with him that this was what it meant.

“The other thing is a public announcement. Maybe objectively very few people know, but everybody who matters to the two of you know. I think that this public statement is what you mean by high-school.”

“Maybe it was.”

“So how about this?” he asked. “We make a personal agreement, just between the two of us and absolutely reciprocal. You don’t date another guy unless you’ve already told me that it’s off, and you don’t wait ‘til the guy asks to tell me. I don’t ask another girl for a date, I don’t date her, make out with her, or have sex with her, until you say that it’s off between us. We don’t tell others.”