Chapter 79: Something MUCH More Interesting

April 8, 1984, McKinley, Ohio

"Natalya Vasilyevna Antonova, please meet Larisa Sergeyevna Federova," I said.

I laughed as the two girls instantly switched to Russian, and I had to focus to catch everything that was said. Clarissa smirked and rolled her eyes, and I just shrugged. The gist of the conversation was hometowns, parents, churches, majors, and, to Tasha's obvious shock, Lara's age.

"Perhaps we should switch to English so Sveta isn't left out," Tasha said in English.

"Mike looked like he was really struggling to keep up," Lara said.

"He just doesn't practice enough! His mother taught him Russian, but except at my house, plus the little bit Clarissa has learned, he doesn't use it."

"My mom and I use it occasionally," Lara said. "But I pretty much only speak Russian to my dad and my step-mom."

"She's Russian as well?"

"Yes. He'd never have married someone who wasn't Russian Orthodox."

"Where are we having dinner?" Tasha asked.

"Chinese has become our meal of choice," I replied. "It's easy to get something that's very good and follows the guidelines."

"Then let's go! Shall we take my Volvo?"

"Yes," I replied.

We walked to the parking lot where, as usual, Tasha gave me her keys, and the four of us got into the car. I drove to the Chinese restaurant, where we had a very nice meal, and Tasha and Lara got better acquainted. I was very happy that they seemed to get along well, and I hoped a nice friendship would develop, which would make it easier to have Tasha and her prospective husband as close family friends, should things go the way they appeared to be going. Of course, I'd thought the same about other girls before, especially Tasha, and things hadn't worked out the way I'd expected.

When we finished dinner, we drove back to campus, where Clarissa and Lara went into the dorm, leaving me to say 'goodbye' to Tasha.

"What happened to sixteen being too young?" Tasha asked mirthfully.

"She's legally an adult," I grinned. "And I had NO idea when we first started talking. I assumed she was eighteen or nineteen like all the other Freshmen."

"I like her," Tasha said. "She went to church with you last night and this morning, which is a very good sign, though she's been away for a long, long time."

"I know. That's something for Father Nicholas to address, but to be honest, she's Orthodox, even if she hasn't been faithfully attending services. She immediately adapted to my fasting rule without any fuss, chose to go to church without me prompting, and hasn't said or done anything which gives me pause."

"And she'll only be twenty-two or so when you're ready to start a family, which isn't too late."

I chuckled, "Not everyone wants to be a mom by age twenty, Tasha!"

"And she'll have her own school to be busy with, and it doesn't seem as if she's quite so needy as I am."

"Needy?"

"What you call my desire for attention from you. My mom says I'm very needy in that regard, and I think she's right. Do you remember how I craved your phone calls? And now your body?"

I laughed, "Does your mom know about THAT craving?"

"Yes. I decided to talk to her about us so that she's prepared when my dad loses his mind. He is sure we're sleeping together, but he elects not to officially notice it because we're going to marry."

"How is Sasha?"

"She's fat!"

"Now that's just not nice!" I replied with a silly grin.

"She's doing fine, and the doctor says her baby is fine and growing properly. She should have the baby sometime in the first half of June, as we calculated last Fall."

"And Yaroslav Romanovich?" I asked.

"Has come to dinner three times and is at the house this evening. I expect he will ask for her hand so they can marry before the baby is born."

"There won't be much of a honeymoon!" I chuckled.

"You are TERRIBLE, Mishka!"

"But it's true! And they have to wait until after Pascha because neither the betrothal nor the wedding can be done during a fasting period."

"I would guess the Saturday before Ascension, which would be May 26th, two days after my graduation."

That was going to play complete havoc with the party plans and possibly Maggie's move, but there was no way I was going to miss Sasha's wedding if it happened. I would also need to attend whatever celebration was held for Tasha's graduation, which would likely occur on that Sunday following the Divine Liturgy, conflicting with the gathering at my grandparents' house for Liz.

"Just let me know," I replied. "That's going to be a hectic weekend as it is because Liz is graduating, too. But I suspect they really can't wait if they want it after graduation and before the baby is born. I take it Sasha is happy?"

"Yes."

"What about living arrangements?"

"They'll live with my parents, at least until Sasha graduates. That will let Yaroslav Romanovich save so they can buy a house and make it easier for my mom to help care for the baby while Sasha is in school and Yaroslav Romanovich is working."

I chuckled, "And your sister gets revenge on your dad by having sex in her bed in his house!"

"You are SO bad, Mishka!"

"Tell me she didn't have that thought!"

Tasha giggled, something she rarely did, "Perhaps."

"I know the Antonova girls pretty well!"

"You do. Kiss me, please, and I'll see you after Pascha."

We exchanged a soft kiss, and after Tasha drove away, I went into the dorm, where Clarissa and Lara joined me in my room.

"You and Tasha are lovers, aren't you?" Lara asked.

"And that's my cue to leave," Clarissa said. "See you at study group in twenty minutes!"

She left, closing the door behind her.

"Does Clarissa think I'm upset?" Lara asked.

I shook my head, "No, she was being silly with that bit of faux drama, but she did think we should talk about it privately."

"I get the picture there is very little which you keep private from Clarissa, if anything."

"True."

"So, explain to me why you and I are standing here talking when you have a girl like Tasha available? A smoking hot blonde who clearly loves you has obviously made herself available to you, is not only Orthodox, but faithful AND the daughter of a deacon!"

"I can't check HER boxes," I replied.

"I seriously doubt that," Lara teased.

"I didn't mean THAT way!" I protested, but I was laughing, too. "She wants a family almost immediately, and she is, as she described herself when I was speaking to her, too needy to have a husband who is absent or preoccupied with things other than her and her children. Waiting five or six years for kids is not on her agenda, nor is having a husband away from home for thirty-six-hour shifts during Residency when those kids would be born. She and I had long, long talks about this and concluded that she would be miserable, which would make me miserable, and there would be nothing either of us could do about it."

"Divorce isn't in either of your vocabularies, but you both feel that would be inevitable."

"Sadly, yes."

"Did she approve?"

I laughed hard, "You knew?"

"Mike Loucks appears to need not one, not two, but three «бабушки» (babushki) to manage his life! I've met two, and I guess I'll meet the third one at the end of the Summer after Jocelyn arrives."

"I've been a serious project for Jocelyn, Clarissa, and Tasha for the past three years, as I mentioned when we were together that afternoon at Doctor Blahnik's house."

"How slow are we going to take this?"

"As slow as necessary to make it work, if that's what we decide we both want in the end. The way I see it is we spend the next six weeks getting to know each other as well as we can, you go on your cruise, and when you return to Taft, we sit down and decide what we want to do."

"Not, 'I love you', but 'this will work for me'?"

"You seem to be even more logical and pragmatic than I am. And besides, REAL love isn't something you fall into, but something you work towards."

"Effectively an arranged marriage?"

"That was always in the cards for me, one way or the other. Tasha was my match."

"So the future doctor got the hottest, sexiest, sweetest girl in the church assigned to him, and after sampling her delights, concluded he couldn't marry her?"

"We concluded we most likely wouldn't marry before we became lovers. Once we had that conversation, it was very simple to give in to what we'd lusted to do for years."

"Give in!" Lara laughed. "Right!"

"Ask Tasha about that," I grinned. "Tasha's virtue was never safe from Tasha! She asked ME to preserve it for our wedding night, which I was faithfully doing until we realized that night might never come. Then she browbeat me into relenting on my commitment to her."

"I think I understand how Tasha's little sister got pregnant!"

"Clarissa told you?"

"Yes, walking back to the dorm while you said 'goodbye'."

"Tasha asked if you would be upset by us being lovers."

"She would because she sized me up instantly and appears to have given approval."

"Actually, it was earlier. I simply said, 'I met someone', and she knew the score. She asked about you being upset even before she'd met you."

"How can I put this? You have some loose ends to tie up, and I'm getting the picture you want the rest of the semester and the Summer to do that before we have our talk. Is that accurate?"

"Pretty much."

"I have $10 that says she has her eye on someone for when she moves here."

"You saw him at church this morning — Nikolas Dmitriyevich. He was sitting just behind you during Sunday School."

"Does he know?"

"Not yet! But once she moves here in about six weeks, she and I will reset our relationship such that she can pursue him."

"That'll be the world's shortest pursuit! I can't imagine any red-blooded guy resisting for even a microsecond!"

"Robby or Lee?" I asked with a grin.

"Any STRAIGHT, red-blooded guy, you nut!"

"I agree."

"As for tying up loose ends, I did walk into a situation with effectively zero information about any outside relationships. And clearly, if I was a jealous bitch, I wouldn't have given you the 'all clear' for Sarah. Do what you feel you need to do, Mike. I have no claims at the moment."

"And you are absolutely, positively, no question, OK with that?"

Lara smirked, "Just make sure you fuck her brains out and leave her begging for more; more she can NEVER have!"

"Didn't you just say you weren't a bitch?" I asked with a grin.

"No, I said I wasn't a 'jealous bitch'! There's a difference!"

"Noted! My turn for a question. How sure are you about this?"

"About what? Us?"

"Yes."

"Ask me at the end of the Summer when I've had time away from you to think it through. I actually think you're very wise in that regard because, despite everything you see and hear, I am only sixteen. You're basically asking me to make a commitment for the next seventy or eighty years based on our assessed compatibility. That's not an easy decision, even if YOU seem to think it is."

"Necessary, not easy," I replied.

"Yes, but you've had the best part of ten years to work this out. I've had about ten days!"

"Very true."

"And I do find your approach intriguing — you could casually fuck, and enjoy it, but once things looked as if they had potential for the future, you reset to dating and kissing."

"You aren't the first one to note that I treat girls I consider serious possibilities for the long-term differently. As you crudely but succinctly put it, a 'piece of ass' versus potential spouse."

"I'm curious, and I will not be upset, but you would have refused to fuck me if you'd thought I was a potential spouse from the get-go, right?"

"Probably. Or at least until I had a good idea where things were going."

"Why is that?"

"It's too easy to confuse sex for a true, intimate relationship, and it strikes me as a way to paper over issues that really need to be addressed before marriage."

"Do you realize just how crazy this sounds, at least from one perspective?"

"Which?"

"I'm your girlfriend or potential girlfriend, and you won't fuck me, but you WILL fuck Sarah and Tasha."

"In the twisted logic of my warped mind, that makes sense to me. Scary, right?"

"What's scarier is that it makes sense to ME!" Lara said with a soft laugh.

"Then I'd say we're on a good path."

"What about church? I think I need to receive the Eucharist at Pascha."

"Father Nicholas just needs to talk to you about confession. I'm not exactly sure how he'll handle it, but it'll likely be what amounts to a life confession. And he's really only going to care about the big things."

"And exactly how do I tell the priest that we fucked and that I enjoyed it?" she asked with a smirk. "And that I want to do it again!"

"You don't tell him that you and I had sex," I replied. "He won't want to know details. You just tell him that you've engaged in sex but that you aren't currently sexually active."

"He knows you are, though, right?"

"And he has a pretty darned good idea who it is, as well, but he truly can't say anything. When you and I start up again, he'll know that, too, because he's not an idiot."

"And he's OK with it?"

"No, of course not. But as both he and Father Herman back home have said, if they kick out any teenager or young adult who has engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior, they'd have empty churches. Father Nicholas isn't one to lecture, either. And if he believes we're going to marry and are exclusive, that paints a very different picture."

"So, license to sin?"

"Not even close," I replied. "Acknowledgment that we have weaknesses and applying spiritual remedies. To be totally honest with you, I was FAR more active a year ago. And if you hadn't come along, there was a very good chance I'd be chaste once the semester ended, possibly until I married."

"You have that kind of self-control but don't exercise it?"

"My weakness is pretty girls who want to have casual sex and with whom I want to have casual sex and who make themselves available."

"So a guy, then!" Lara laughed.

"The most important women in my life tend to use the term 'pig' when I express that opinion! Teasing, of course."

"Of course," she deadpanned but then smiled. "And if I have needs?"

"Then we talk about it, decide what's best for both of us and pursue that course. If we can't come to some kind of agreement, then I daresay we have no business considering marriage."

"A VERY good point. And now I think it's time to study, right?"

I checked my watch, "Yes. See you for breakfast?"

Lara bobbed her head up and down quickly, we hugged, exchanged a soft kiss, and I gathered my books and notebooks so I could join my study group.

April 9, 1984, McKinley, Ohio

Clarissa was waiting for me when I returned from my run on Monday morning.

"Any problems?" she asked as we went into my room, closing the door behind us.

"No," I replied.

I stripped off my running gear and got into the shower.

"No more modesty for you and me?" Clarissa asked.

"We've slept naked together for over a month and made love! What's left?"

Clarissa laughed, "You used to be careful about casually being naked, even after that night in Marietta."

"Does that bother you?" I asked.

"No. I like looking at you, and it tells me that you're as comfortable with me as any girl you might ever be with."

"Do you know what I've figured out?"

"Not unless you tell me!"

"Hmm, maybe it IS the chrism!" I teased.

"You're an idiot, Petrovich, but you're my idiot!"

"Thank you! What I figured out was that my mom was wrong. It's not Jocelyn who is the risk if I have difficulties in my marriage."

"And it's a risk for me, too," Clarissa replied. "I asked you to make love with me after Glenda and I broke up."

"As close as we intend to be, it's going to present a serious risk for both of us. I think we both need to commit to talking to someone if we feel ANY issues in either of our long-term relationships."

"It has to be Jocelyn," Clarissa replied.

"The girl my mom worried about?"

"It makes sense, given I expect her to be our closest friend. You even made the point about a new trio because your friend Dale seems like he's going to end up in Washington State."

"True. And if only she played for both teams, we might find a good solution!" I teased as I climbed out of the shower.

"Oh sure, I can see that," Clarissa smirked. "'Vladyka, I want to marry Jocelyn, and we both want to have sex with Clarissa, and I want to have kids with Clarissa.'."

"Maybe not," I chuckled, drying myself and then pulling on a clean pair of briefs.

I finished dressing, and we left the room to meet Sandy, Pete, Fran, Jason, Lara, and Sarah for breakfast.

"If the Regents pass the rule change, do you know when it takes effect?" Sandy asked.

"Melody said immediately," Fran replied, "though she hears someone is working behind the scenes to table the proposal for 'further study'."

"This must REALLY suck for you two," Sandy replied.

"We hadn't slept apart for two years!" Fran groused. "Even during breaks, we're together now."

"When's the wedding?" Lara asked.

"After Jason finishes his Master's and gets a job. Getting married now complicates student loans for his post-grad work and my medical school."

"How did you guys meet?"

Fran laughed softly, "He said he had a bottle of Jack Daniel's. Two hours and half a bottle later, we were a couple."

"And that's what you're going to tell your kids?" Sarah asked.

"With a warning about the dangers of alcohol!" Jason said, shifting to avoid the elbow that Fran attempted to jam into his side.

"What's the deal with tabling the proposal?" I asked.

"As a way to basically ignore it and let it die while being studied," Sandy replied. "But Melody said her uncle contacted the university's general counsel and let him know that tabling this would likely cause the ACLU to bring suit to prevent enforcement of the rules because they are discriminatory. That sort of forces their hand because an injunction would mean NO rules about overnight guests. And he thinks he can get one."