Edited by Barney R

I am sitting in the living room of my empty house.

My name is Carter Adams Renfro. I am 34, 6’2” tall and in almost athletic shape. I run about 4 miles a day, at least 5 days a week. I am an extremely successful stock trader, and I am in the process of putting my life back together.

I met Alice Waters when I was a 20 and a junior in college. I was going into one of my classes when I noticed her. She was a person I had never noticed before. She had probably been there all along, but when I am trying to figure something out I have mental blinders on. The class was in the psychology of investing, and I finally understood where the class was heading.

Alice was seated in the center of a row when I took my seat in the front row of the lecture hall. Just before the lecture was supposed to start, the young lady came and sat beside me.

She leaned over and whispered; “Please don’t make a fuss, there was a jerk up there that kept changing seats to be next to me. He scares me.”

I whispered back; “No problem, I just need two forms of picture ID, your telephone number and the promise of a date Friday.” She smiled and we listened to the class. When class was over, and she was closing her laptop, I said; “Fair Damsel; I am Sir Carter Renfro, protector of the innocent and not so innocent. Wouldst thou do me the honor of accompanying me to the yon coffee shop for a caffeinated beverage? My treat.”

She laughed and said sure. We walked toward the door and she nodded in the direction of the BMOC quarterback of the university football team. I stopped and look him in the eyes.

He stiffened.

I loudly said; “Look, dork, just because you can play a game and make money for the school does not give you the right to frighten girls, or stalk girls, or rape girls. If I hear of you harassing any coed, all athletic tutoring will stop. Then yours and a lot of your jock friend’s little pea brains will become ineligible and you won’t get a big NFL contract. Do I make myself clear?”

He nodded.

“Good, we understand each other. Get lost.”

He exited stage right.

We made our introductions as we walked to the coffee shop. She told me her name and that she was 19 and a sophomore and taking this class and business ethics as electives for her psychology degree. She told me her goal was to become a licensed psychologist. I explained that I was majoring in personal financial planning and economics with the goal of becoming a stockbroker/financial planner.

We ended up talking for about an hour and exchanged phone numbers. We made plans to study together and go to dinner coming Friday.

I was done with classes for the day, and Alice had a later lab for one of her classes. I drove to my family’s home and got a hug from my mother and I teased her again about her height. Mom was 5’4” and dad was 5’ 9”. When we want to mess with mom we ask who my father is. I have black hair; mom is blonde and dad is brown-haired. My sister was 14, and 5’ 7” and still growing, she too has black hair. So either mom had something going on the side for a few years, or the genes skipped a generation. My mother’s father was 6’ 4” and my dad’s father was 6’ 1” and had they both had jet black hair.

On Friday, Alice and I went to a nice mom and pop Italian restaurant that was on the edge of campus. We ate and talked for nearly two hours. I found out that she was able to go to school on an academic scholarship. She found out that I had been a legacy student and had a trust from a relative I did not even know that was paying for my school. Neither one of us would have large amounts of student loans to repay.

We studied together and dated for the rest of my college career. We did not get intimate while I was in college. Alice knew that I am not a one and done type of guy and that I took sex as a manifestation of a long term commitment.

She told me she was not a virgin, but the few times she had had sex, she did not enjoy it. By the time summer rolled around, I had an internship to complete, and she was going back to her family home and attempt to earn some spending money for the next year.

We both promised to keep in touch. I called at least three times a week during the week and every day on the weekends. We managed to get together for the Fourth as it was on a Thursday, and we both had four day weekends. We tried to make up for the lost time, and Alice asked me to make love to her.

I was surprised, willing, but surprised. “You do understand that I feel that sex is a part of a long term commitment? If you do not see us together after you graduate, I will not do this. Will you marry me when we graduate?”

“I ... I don’t know, but I know I love you. I want you so bad I ache. I know what I want, and yes I want to marry you, but that is at least two years away. I want you now.” She was almost shaking she was quivering so hard.

We did not have full-blown intercourse, but we enjoyed a satisfactory session of mutual oral sex. She swallowed and was surprised when I kissed her afterward.

“None of the boys I had sex with would eat me, but they all wanted blow jobs, and when I got them off, they would not kiss me. I really had an enjoyable time making love with you, I had a real honest to god orgasm form that. We need to do that some more soon.”

I told her that I felt that she deserved a kiss for making me feel wonderful. I asked her if she was on some kind of birth control, and she said she had a five-year implant.

We talked a lot but did not get a chance to get back together until the week before classes started up again.

We were attached at the hip for the entire school year. When I graduated I was offered a broker’s desk with the local branch of a national trading firm. My job was to talk to investors and get them to check out our products and services. We provided financial planning, wealth management, and stock trading.

Alice went back home for the summer, but now that I had regular hours, I drove to her town every Friday night and stayed until late Sunday afternoon. We had some interesting and satisfying episodes of ‘Afternoon Delight’ in my hotel room. We also managed to have her stay with me for two different weekends. We were very compatible, and just before school resumed for Alice we made it official that we would marry the next summer.

Alice wanted me to have a prenuptial agreement so I had my lawyer prepare one. Alice went with me and just about dictated draconian conditions on her if we divorced. She would get $10,000 per year, and if there were children $400 per month per child. Otherwise, she wanted nothing out of the marriage.

We signed it.

The wedding was in late June. Alice was a beautiful bride. We spent our honeymoon in Niagara Falls, Canada, and Toronto, Canada. We had a great time.

We came back from Canada and settled into our home. In spite of her protests, I paid for Alice’s post-grad studies. She protested, but I told her that she needed the Ph.D. to open a psychologist’s office. I did not want her to take out loans, and I had the money so let me use it.

After three more years of study, I was a proud husband as Alice Waters-Renfro, BA, MA, Ph.D. walked off of the campus for the last time. She told me that she would work for at least two years in an established practice before she struck out on her own.

She found a place in an office with five others. As she was the newest person, she did not have the choice of cases and patients. The others in the office pushed the children’s cases on to her. She had wanted to specialize in child psychology. The office did not realize that they were making Alice a very satisfied lady.

In that same time frame, I left the national firm and with a few select clients, opened my own office.

Married life was very exciting and very satisfying. Two years in and Alice came home from work with a huge smile. When I asked what she was so happy about.

“The rabbit died, daddy.”

“Really? When? How?” Then I sat down on the couch.

“Yes really; you must have done it at some time about a month ago, and it was in the normal way unless it was one of the times you tied me to the bed and messed with the feathers. Sir Knight, would you join me in the last glass of wine I am going to have for the next 7 or 8 months?”

I picked her up, slung her over my shoulder and carried a giggling lady into the bedroom. I lightly tossed her onto the bed and laid down next to her. “I love you, my dear, I will fetch your libation, my princess, I cannot allow someone in your delicate condition to carry so heavy a burden as a wine bottle”

I got a swat on the arm. “Fetch my wine slave, you then need to bathe me, dry me, and satisfy my urges, or I will have you sent to the arena.” Then a big smile and “I love you so much you big goof.”

Jennifer Alice Renfro entered into the world kicking and screaming. She definitely did not lack lung development. Once cleaned and diapered, she was presented to me and given to momma to feed.

The doctor asked me to step outside to talk to me. “Your wife is ok, but during the afterbirth and cleanup, we discovered that there was a cyst on her uterine wall. We removed it, but it is an aggressive non-cancerous growth. We will talk with you and your wife, but my recommendation is a complete hysterectomy.” Then she said; “Even if we do not do the procedure, your wife will be incapable of producing any more children. The damage the cyst did and the tissue needed to ensure that there is a chance of getting it all, there is no way a fertilized egg will produce a viable fetus. The egg just will not attach to the wall.”