Chapter 8: Partings

Sunday at dinner Helen asked Connie out to a restaurant that coming Thursday. “Why sure,” she said, “but it’s your birthday.”

“The company of my daughter is present enough. Leave at 6:30, reservation for 7:00?”

“Great.”

After their date Monday night, Joe asked, “Thursday?”

“Ouch. That’s my mom’s birthday, and I said I’d eat with her.”

“I understand.”

“Do we really have to eat?”

“No. We’ll find another day.”

“I’ll get back early; Helen doesn’t eat late. Want to come by after?”

“Are you serious?”

“9:00?”

“Sure.”

Thursday was her last driving lesson. “Do you think I’ll pass the test?” she asked her instructor.

“Sure, gal,” he said. “Just keep cool. Don’t panic; don’t freeze up. You know the rules; all you have to worry about is blowing it through nerves.”

That evening, she and Helen got back to the house almost on the dot of 9:00. Joe was waiting. “Mom,” Connie said, “Joe Morgan. Joe, Helen Steffano.”

They spoke politely for a minute or two. Joe wished Helen a happy birthday. “29th?”

“Sure, and I had Connie at what age?”

“You’re right, eleven doesn’t sound reasonable.” Helen, bless her soul for once, didn’t correct his arithmetic.

“We didn’t say where we’d go,” Joe said when they were in the car.

“What’s wrong with the usual spot?”

“I think I’m in love.”

If he thought so, it was a mistake; but he was in lust, and Connie reciprocated. He brought her to such a height, she could hardly wait to get home and up to the privacy of her room. This time “creaming her jeans,” if still an exaggeration, was less of one. On their parting kiss, she hugged him as tightly as he hugged her. Preparing for her date with Ted Friday night, she felt a little guilty. Ted was a nice boy. He was gentler; she’d known him longer; she enjoyed a social life with him aside from the parking; she generally enjoyed the movies while she could eat better at home than at the places Joe took her. He stopped when she told him to; he even excited her. He just didn’t excite her as much as Joe did. So, when she dressed for her date with Ted, she left off the bra. He couldn’t tell by looking, Connie despaired that anyone would ever be able to tell by looking. In the theater, however, he put his arm around her and touched her boob. She could feel him go rigid for a moment. Throughout the film, he stroked the side of her boob. When he stroked over the nipple, Connie was the one who went rigid. She moved his hand further back.

In the back of his car later she said, “The blouse stays buttoned.”

“Yes, ma’am.” And it stayed buttoned. He kissed her and held her boobs through the blouse. When he brought her back to the door a little after 11:30, their kiss was passionate, if brief.

Andre took her to the driving test Saturday. Having considered the advice he’d given her the last time and -- after all -- having abandoned her driving-school face, she wore her typing- class makeup. She passed the test and got a real license.

Fair was fair. So when she went out with Joe on Monday, she left the bra behind as she had done for Ted. They went to a different burger place, and Joe didn’t kiss her until they were parked. “Wouldn’t the back seat be more comfortable?” he asked. After all, she got in the back seat with Ted, and the front seat of Ted’s car was -- if anything -- more comfortable than Joe’s. Besides, she had to establish a rule.

“I’ll get in the back with you tonight, but the blouse stays buttoned.”

“Certainly.” When he touched her boobs through the blouse, he said, “Oh, Connie!” Then he went back to kissing her, tickling her, teasing her. Her nipples were harder than they had ever been, harder even than when Joan or Michelle had kissed them. His tongue became insistent in its thrust into her mouth, but this didn’t annoy -- it excited her further.

She spiraled, went higher, but she couldn’t go over when she was fully dressed. When he broke off and climbed into the driver’s seat she was torn. She wanted to go on kissing him; she wanted to go home and bring herself off.

He held her buns during their final kiss, kneading them and using them to pull her against his erection. “Thursday?” he asked as he let her go.

“Thursday.” She let herself inside and staggered up to her room. Her panties were more than damp this time; they were soaked. She dropped them and her jeans on the floor. She tossed her blouse down with them and lay on the bed to bring herself off. No teasing this time, no delay. Joe had provided all of that. She pulled the sheet up and dropped off.

Alarm or no, waking Tuesday was harder than it had been the first day of summer school. It was also hard to concentrate in class, every time she looked to her left, she saw Joe and blushed. She bought lunch, not having taken the time to fix some at home. They said hardly anything to each other, but they sat together so long that Joe was late to his next class.

After Joe took her out for hamburgers Thursday, they got in the back seat. Joe’s kisses were as exciting as ever, so were his strokes through the blouse. When she felt his hand warm against her boob, she didn’t object. His mouth there, though, shocked her. But it thrilled her more. He licked one boob and sucked it, licked the other and sucked it, returned to the first boob. Finally, she pushed him away. “You said you wouldn’t unbutton this.”

“That was the last date. You only said that was for one date.”

“That wasn’t what I said.”

Joe didn’t act like she’d caught him in a wrong. He didn’t look abashed as Kent had when she’d caught him. He stood his ground and argued with her. “Look,” she finally said, “take me home.”

He did and walked her to the door. She was determined to refuse him a kiss, but he didn’t even try. She considered bringing herself off, but she’d completely lost the mood.

Friday, she went to school willing to make peace, but Joe wasn’t in class. She already knew how to type well enough for themes; she was wasting her time and Andre’s money.

The date with Ted didn’t do a hell of a lot for her mood. He kept within the rules, but he didn’t bring her to nearly the peak that Joe had. Sunday, she almost didn’t go to church. It wasn’t the sort of problem she was prepared to pray about. Ted invited her out the next Friday on her ride home.

Joe was back in class, Monday. “We have to talk,” he said at the end of class. “Did you bring your lunch?” She nodded. “Eat outdoors?”

“Good idea.” The community college not having much of a campus, they walked two blocks to a park and chose an empty bench.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I understood you to have specified one date only. I won’t do anything you don’t like.”

“I’m sorry,” she replied. “I don’t think that’s what I said, and I can’t imagine what I would say to make you think that.”

“May have been wishful thinking on my part.”

“It isn’t a matter of doing things I don’t like. It’s doing things I like too, too, much.”

He grinned. “Sorry. Still, it’s better to hear that I turn you on when you don’t want to be turned on than that I turn you off. But you want to draw a line. Just make clear what that line is, and I’ll respect it. Do you want to draw the line at your waist?”

“You’d do that?”

“Sure. I won’t lie. Tell me you’d go all the way, and I’d try to scrounge up the money for a motel. Still, I’m not a rapist. Tell me to stop, and I will.”

“I think my waist is a good line.”

“And is it too late to ask you out tonight?”

“No. Let me think.” She didn’t want to go out for more hamburgers. “I’m cooking for my dad tonight, late dinner. Want to come by about nine?”

“Where would we go?”

“Same place. I’ll have had dinner.”

“Connie, you’re wonderful. You’re going away to college, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“The end of this month.”

“Not much time. Mondays and Thursdays don’t look like enough, suddenly.”

They didn’t look like enough when he was going to get more petting? Didn’t look like enough when he didn’t have to spring for dinners? Not great dinners, either. Had he just realized that they would soon lack the time together after class? “Two ships that pass in the night. We’ll have to enjoy what we get.”

“And class ends this week.”

“That’s right.” Everything was drawing to a close.

They sat for a while in silence. A silence more comfortable than much of their conversation their last two times together. When his class was about to start, they kissed. It was gentle, then fierce. He gripped her buns, pulling her against his erection.

When she left, she went home. There was nowhere else to go. Andre and Helen each drove to work. Anyway, she’d told Joe that she was fixing Andre’s dinner; why not actually do so? She decided on chicken, prepared it, and set it in the refrigerator. She cooked the chicken, as well as rice and broccoli, after Helen had eaten. Andre mixed the salad; he mixed good salads. “Special occasion, Princess?” he asked.

“Just realized I would be going away soon. That, and I didn’t have anything to do this afternoon; driving is finished. Thanks, by the way.”

“I’m happy. Feel like an adult now that you have a license?”

“Yes. It’s a little disappointing, though. I don’t want to tell either Ted or Joe. I don’t think either one of them knows how old -- how young -- I am.”

“You just may...” Andre stopped to rap on the tabletop. “ ... finish a second summer having balanced two boys. I don’t know, Princess.”

“Anyway, Joe’s coming by later this evening.”

“Well, as I said, I made enough mistakes at your age. I’ll shut up and let you make your own. Made your reservations yet? Plane schedules might be tricky that close to Labor Day.”

“I was thinking of going by bus.”

“You’re young, Princess, but halfway across the country is too far by bus. Make air reservations, and I’ll pay for them.”

A few minutes later, Joe showed up. He parked in their usual place. “Stay here for a minute,” she said as she got out. She got in the backseat and removed her blouse and bra. “Okay. You can come back now.” He got in the seat beside her and kissed her, his hands only on her head. She pushed him back. “I want you to promise, not only for tonight, but for the rest of our time together, that you won’t open any of my clothing.”

“I promise.”

“I was with Andre until you came. I didn’t have time to remove my bra.”

“I promise. May I kiss you?”

She nodded. His mouth was exciting on hers and his hands were exciting on her breasts. Then his mouth was exciting on her breasts. He kissed all over both before concentrating on her nipple. She needed more stimulation, more direct stimulation; and she couldn’t get it while he was near her. He returned to her mouth for another kiss. His tongue didn’t tease hers this time, it wrestled hers. His nails trailed lightly across her belly, making her shiver. She went higher and higher, but she couldn’t go over. Finally, she pushed him away.

She looked at her watch. Nearly midnight. “You’d better get in front,” she said. “Give me a couple of minutes back here.”

She dressed while he got back in the driver’s seat and started the car. She felt very self-conscious standing outside the car and undoing her jeans to tuck her blouse in. Then she got into the seat beside him and buckled her seat belt.

His kiss at her door was every bit as passionate as the ones in the backseat. Upstairs, undressed, she relived his last kiss. Then she brought herself off, as satisfying an experience as any she’d had at the cabin.

The next morning she had difficulty concentrating on typing while Joe was sitting beside her. Afterwards, they ate in the cafeteria. “I’m going to miss you,” Joe said.

“And I’ll miss you, too.”

“Thursday?”

“Definitely.” They said almost nothing else, but Joe didn’t leave until after his class had already started.

Then she had the whole day to herself. She brought some of Andre’s books up to her room. She relived the previous night, read some of the better poems, thought of the night while playing with her nipples. After she brought herself off, she took the books back before taking a shower.

It was too late to cook for Helen. And she had a date with Joe Thursday. She really preferred to treat Andre and Helen equally, but this time she couldn’t.

She took careful note of the time for their lunch Wednesday. Minutes before it was time for Joe’s next class, she got up. “I’ll walk you to class.” Halfway there, they came to an empty patch of hall. He kissed her, holding her buns. They didn’t break until some kid going past whistled at them.

When she got home, she called the airlines to find what was her most direct route. She could get from Hartford to Milwaukee via Boston, New York, or Chicago. Nobody flew to Springfield except from Milwaukee. She settled on going through Chicago and leaving Saturday afternoon. She spent the rest of the day like she had the previous one.

Thursday, after leaving Joe in his classroom, she decided to make dinner for Helen after all. She didn’t join her, though. She’d had lots of time to plan. When Joe parked after the meal, she said, “Stay here a minute, will you?” She got in the backseat by herself and removed her blouse and bra. Since she had planned on this, she hadn’t seen the use of leaving it behind. “Okay,” she said.

He got out and in the backseat with her. His kisses were as exciting as always, and they went everywhere: her mouth first, the rest of her face after that, her breasts, and then down her abdomen. She tensed as he got near her belt, but he left it closed and returned to her breasts.

He licked and sucked her nipples, stroked her back, returned to her mouth, tickled her ear outrageously with his tongue. He repeated each caress and repeated it again. When they broke, it was after midnight. While she put herself back together, he got into the front seat. Her panties were soaked, so soaked she worried that he could smell them. If he could, he didn’t say a word.

Instead, when she joined him in the front seat, he said, “I could stay home instead of going to work tomorrow.”

“Don’t. And Monday...”

“What time should I pick you up?”

“You’ve been feeding me long enough.”

“Huh?”

“Would you like to come to my house for lunch Monday?”

“I would love it. What should I bring?”

“Yourself, an appetite. Don’t bring wine, I get high enough just from you.”

“You say the sweetest things.”

“Noon?”

“I’ll be there.”

Friday was the test. She managed to concentrate on it rather than on Joe sitting at the next typewriter. She hoped he could do the same.

After she got back home, she thought about her situation. Ted and Kent hadn’t been any problem; nor had Joe and Ted in the beginning. Now, though, she was beginning to actually care for Joe. Did he care for her? Did Ted? The last was more probable. Ted, after all, had broken up with Jennifer as soon as Connie reappeared. He’d feel hurt if he learned about Joe. Even more, she didn’t want Joe learning about Ted. Even when the boys didn’t know about each other, Connie’s sense of fairness made her give one what the other got. Anyway, she was going off to college. She wouldn’t see either one much longer.

That evening, Ted came by for his date. He tickled her boob during the entire movie. When he had parked, she said, “Stay here for a minute, will you?” She got in back and removed her blouse, laying it on the back of the seat she’d occupied a moment before. “Okay. You can come back now.”

When he sat beside her, he looked at her naked boobs and said “Wow!” They weren’t ‘wow’ boobs.

“You know what you did on the last date of last summer?”

“What?”

“I don’t want you getting my blouse wet. This is the last date.”

“Oh, Connie. Not next week?”

He kissed her and hugged her close. When he drew a little back, he didn’t break the kiss. Instead, he felt all over both boobs. When he did break the kiss, he took one deep breath before kissing her left nipple.

He didn’t kiss the rest of the boob before concentrating on her nipple, and she had to move his face to the right boob when the left nipple got a little sore.

When the right nipple started to get sore, as well, she pulled his face up for a deep kiss. She looked at her watch after this was done. 11:40, and it would take ten minutes to drive back and walk to the door. She knew nobody would enforce the curfew, but this evening was over; this relationship was over. Helen had known something after all when she told Connie to let the boys think she was bound by a curfew.

“This is goodbye,” she said. “I’m going to miss you.” Strangely enough, it was true. Ted was a friend. When her friends had talked about kids they’d grown up with, they meant years and years, but she’d grown up with Ted over these past two summers.

“Church day after tomorrow? Youth group Tuesday?”

“I’ll be rushed. Doubt if I’ll have the time.” She’d miss church. Her one purpose for attending youth group, on the other hand, had been to meet kids. She didn’t want to meet any new ones; she sure didn’t want to meet Ted again.

“Oh Connie.” He took her hand in his and pressed it firmly against the front of his pants. “Oh Connie!”

She took her hand away. He’d spoiled it all. Kissing her boob as the last thing the precious summer had been a much better gesture. “The date’s over. Leave me back here for a minute, would you?”

“But Connie.”