Chapter 66: A Very Happy New Year!

January 1, 1988, New Year’s, McKinley, Ohio

As I led Michelle towards the stairs, I saw Lara who winked and Clarissa who smirked and rolled her eyes, and I reminded myself that the one thing I couldn’t do was wear myself out. We went up the stairs to my room, I turned on the light, then closed and locked the door behind us. I went to the table and turned on the dimmable lamp, turned on the radio, and finally turned off the overhead light.

I moved over to where Michelle was standing and held out my arms. She melted into them and we exchanged a pair of soft kisses before she parted her lips and our tongues began a slow dance. Michelle moaned softly and squeezed her arms tighter. I felt her tug at my shirt, which led to a mad scramble to remove each other’s clothes.

We were quickly naked, and I pulled her soft body against mine, her breasts and my erection mashed between us. Our lips and tongues met, Michelle moaned, and ground against me, her soft pubic hair tickling my shaft, our hands roaming over each other’s backs and butts. I broke the kiss and led Michelle to the bed, and carefully removed her glasses.

I sat on the edge of the bed and helped Michelle into my lap, facing me, with her legs wrapped around me. Michelle ground against me as we kissed, and I could feel heat and dampness as she rubbed her labia along my shaft. It was obvious she wanted me inside her, and she seemed more than wet enough, so there was no reason to delay.

“Lift up,” I encouraged, putting one hand under her butt.

Michelle rose up, I grasped my shaft, rubbed my glans along her dripping labia, then positioned it at her opening. Our lips and tongues met again, and as our tongues danced, and Michelle moaned softly as she slid slowly down my shaft, engulfing me in her warm, wet tunnel.

When I was fully inside her, Michelle began flexing her hips and grinding against me. We kissed for another few minutes, then she put her head on my shoulder. She continued to grind, panting and moaning, until she brought herself off, groaning deeply, and I felt delicious ripples along my shaft.

I didn’t want to overdo things with Michelle and interfere with my time with Clarissa and Tessa, so a few minutes later, after Michelle had a second orgasm, I had her lift off, then helped her into the bed. I moved between her legs, positioning my head near her chest, then sucked gently on each of her nipples before kissing my way down her body.

Michelle’s musky scent was strong and her legs spread wide, so I wasted no time pushing my tongue into her pussy. I swirled it around, then closed my mouth around her clit and teased it with my tongue. Michelle bucked her hips and, just a few seconds later, groaned softly as she had her third orgasm of the evening. I gave her one more before moving on top of her, kissing her, and slowly pushing into her once more.

Michelle wrapped her arms and legs around me and we began moving together, slowly increasing the forcefulness of our motions. The break while I’d pleasured her orally had dampened my urgency such that I knew I could go a long time. Michelle was so wet that I had no concerns about lubrication, which allowed us to screw for another fifteen minutes, with Michelle having three more orgasms, before I groaned, pushed deeply into her, and came hard.

After the last spurt of cum, I gently pulled out, slid down, and once again latched my mouth onto Michelle’s labia, and teased her clit with my tongue. It didn’t take long for her to have another orgasm, and when it had passed, I moved up and we exchanged a gentle French kiss. We kissed for a minute or so, then I moved next to Michelle and pulled her to me.

We lay quietly for about ten minutes, then Michelle raised her head and asked, “Again?”

I was happy to oblige, and spent several minutes kissing, licking, and sucking her nipples before moving down to bring her off with my mouth. Once she’d cum, I moved up, entered her, and we began moving. Fifteen minutes later, after two good orgasms for Michelle, I came hard, bringing her off for the third time. As I had before, I moved down and licked her to an additional orgasm, then got up, took her hand, and led her to the shower.

We washed each other, dried each other, then dressed. Having seen José with his two new friends, I suspected he might want the room, so I asked Michelle to help me change the sheets. When we finished, we exchanged a last kiss, and then went downstairs. I saw José, made eye contact, and nodded towards the stairs. He grinned, then headed that way with Maria and Sierra.

Michelle went to where Lexie was standing, and I went over to where Clarissa, Tessa, and Lara were standing and asked Clarissa to dance.

“Have fun, Petrovich?” she asked.

“I did! But I made sure not to wear myself out!”

“Tessa would be very disappointed!”

“But you wouldn’t?”

“If all we did was cuddle naked, I’d be OK. But I know you want to make love, and I do, too.”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

Clarissa smiled, “Yes, I’m sure. With you? Absolutely, because you want to and how much it means to you. And don’t give me that look, Petrovich. It’s emotional and spiritual, and you inside me is what you need for a deep connection.”

“Deep?” I teased.

“You are a nut! But you know what I need.”

“I do,” I agreed.

“Tessa, on the other hand, wants to fuck! She hasn’t been with a guy since we started dating, so I hope you’ll survive!”

“I’m making a good breakfast! Waffles, sausage, bacon, eggs, and juice! Plenty of energy food! And I don’t have to be at the hospital until 8:00pm on Saturday, so you two are welcome to spend the night.”

“Sleeping with you is something I’ve looked forward to,” Clarissa sighed. “And I don’t mean euphemistically. I really missed that, though I totally understand why we couldn’t after you and Elizaveta began seeing each other.”

I squeezed my arms more tightly around her in response, and we danced quietly until the end of the song. When it finished, I saw Michelle watching, and now that she’d had a chance to ‘report’ to Lexie, I asked her to dance.

“I really enjoyed touching you!” I said as we slow danced.

“You were awesome,” Michelle whispered. “And you made me feel really, really good!”

“The feeling is mutual!”

We finished our dance and Lexie made eye contact, so I invited her to dance.

“You made Michelle very happy!” Lexie said.

“I figured she’d report!”

“A dozen orgasms?” Lexie said. “Her first time appears to have been as good as my first time!”

“First time?” I asked, incredulous.

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No, and I didn’t ask.”

“She’s a total nerd and smarter than anyone I know. Valedictorian at her High School, President of the Computer Club, 1590 SAT, 35 ACT.”

“Why isn’t she at someplace like Stanford or MIT?” I asked, reflexively asking the question I’d been asked about where I attended medical school.

“She’s very shy and from a small town in the next county that has fewer than two hundred people. Even coming to Taft was tough for her.”

“She didn’t seem shy!” I protested.

Lexie laughed, “Hormones will do that to you! She knew that you and I had been together after the concert, and I suggested you’d be a good choice to ‘solve her problem’. And I was right!”

“I’m sometimes dense, but...”

“But what? Nerdy girls who wear glasses and spend every free second in the computer lab can’t be horny?”

“Obviously, they can.”

“Then don’t freak out!”

“Sorry, I wasn’t freaking out, I was just surprised.”

“With the right guy, a girl with no experience can easily get away with not letting on. I knew you were the right guy, though I expected her to tell you.”

“Should you have told me?”

“Maybe not, but I can’t un-ring that bell now.”

We finished our dance, and I went to get something to drink, and considered what had happened. In a way, I was glad I hadn’t known, because it might have spoiled the moment for Michelle, as I’d done with Kari. But something was gnawing at me and I wasn’t sure what it was.

“I’d sneak upstairs with you,” Anicka said quietly, coming up beside me.

“We agreed it had to be only once,” I replied equally quietly. “Well, one encounter! It was WAY more than once!”

Anicka laughed softly, “And a glorious encounter it was! I’m glad to see you’re out of your funk and enjoying the pleasures the world has to offer!”

“I’m not over losing Elizaveta,” I replied.

“And you’ll never be, not completely. But you’re out of the doldrums you were in and are living your life. Your daughter needs you to do that.”

“Rachel needs me to get laid?” I teased.

Anicka laughed, “I wouldn’t have put it quite that way, but actually, yes, she does. She needs a father who is fully alive, not one who retreats into solitude and depression. I suspect you’re struggling with any number of things, including your faith. My advice, at least for the short term, is to live life to its fullest, enjoy it, and be a good dad. You have plenty of people to help care for Rachel, so there’s no need to rush into anything.”

“You’re not wrong,” I replied.

“I rarely am!” Anicka declared with a soft laugh. “Wisdom comes with age, and I certainly have plenty of wisdom!”

“You are drop-dead gorgeous!” I declared, meaning it, because she was.

“Flattery will get you everywhere!” Anicka teased. “Thank you.”

“Do you have a moment to speak in private?”

“Of course. Let’s go to the kitchen. Nobody except Milena, Joel, or Derek would possibly come in there.”

We walked into the kitchen and stood at the furthest spot from the door.

“I want to ask a question about Kari,” I said. “And I’ll understand if you refuse to answer.”

“Go ahead.”

“Actually, how much do you know?”

Anicka smiled, “She knows the same things I know about your skills as a lover!”

“OK, yes, but that’s not the important part. I mean, it is, but it isn’t.”

“She’s struggling with the tremendous challenges a life with you would present. We’ve discussed it, but I can’t reveal the details.”

“Which I understand. My actual question for you is whether your goal was for Kari and me to become a couple and marry, or if you felt there was something lacking in her interior life that a relationship with me would fulfill.”

Anicka smiled, “You aren’t quite as dense as the girls would have everyone believe!”

“Oh yes I am!” I retorted. “But I get your point.”

“What triggered your question?” Anicka asked.

“Long talks with Clarissa and Lara.”

“The two women who are your confidantes, but neither of whom is a good match for you.”

“I can’t let that go without asking why you think that’s the case.”

“Besides the obvious reason with Clarissa, neither of them have the same spirituality as you do, and all things being equal, that’s the most important factor. Think about what you told me that night when we were together, about how Elizaveta supported and encouraged you to fight for your faith, your Church, and what you knew was right. What would Lara or Clarissa have suggested?”

“That I walk away, which was my inclination.”

“But you were wrong, weren’t you?”

“Yes. Going through that spiritual struggle led to Bishop JOHN being enthroned, and he is the best thing that has happened to our diocese in my entire life. Going to the gates of Hell and back, spiritually, was worth it. Your observation has an implication for Kari.”

“Yes, it does. And she knows it, too. May I suggest a course of action?”

“You may.”

“Let things develop naturally until she tells you she can’t do it. You should be in no rush to commit to anyone soon, and you are very good for Kari. I mean that in every way — lover, friend, mentor, confidant, and spiritual guide. She’ll be a much better person for having had this experience with you. And that is why I encouraged her.”

“All good advice,” I replied. “I’ll need to think about it, but I suspect I’ll follow it.”

“I have a request from Doctor Stanton that I need to convey. He wonders if you could make a few hours a week available to mentor pre-med students?”

“My schedule is a mess, as you know, but I probably could. I did promise him I’d be involved, and I haven’t done anything for over two years.”

“He was actually reluctant to ask because of everything that happened, but I felt if I asked, you’d feel free to speak your mind and give a truly honest answer, rather than feel obligated, which is one of your personality traits.”

I nodded, “As was pointed out with regard to my ordination and other stuff at church.”

“It’s a good trait, so long as you don’t allow people to take unfair advantage of you. Call Doctor Stanton next week and let him know your schedule.”

“I will.”

“And Mike?”

“Yes?”

“There’s nothing wrong with a virile young man enjoying the company of willing young women.”

I smiled and nodded, as it was clear Anicka knew my inner conflict. Or actually, at the moment, non-conflict, because I was ‘enjoying life’ as she’d put it. There was something, though, nagging me in the back of my mind, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

“Thanks,” I said, then smirked. “Would you like a proper New Year’s greeting?”

“I would!”

We came together in a tight hug and shared a soft, sweet kiss.

“Thank you,” Anicka said with a content smile.

We left the kitchen, and I asked Lara to dance, and after our dance, we decided to head home so I could get a few hours of sleep.

“Another satisfied customer?” Lara teased as we walked arm-in-arm west towards my house.

“A result of Lexie’s marketing skills! But something is bugging me, and I can’t quite place it.”

“Guilt?”

I shook my head, “No. You know where I am, and why, and frankly, this is what I want to do. You also know that I will be unwaveringly faithful when the time comes.”

“You are never going to cheat, Mike,” Lara said firmly. “Doctor Mercer’s concern about that was dead wrong. What you had with Clarissa was not emotional cheating. Your heart belonged to Elizaveta, and there was never an iota of chance that you would even have an emotional affair, let alone a real one. I’d lay heavy odds that alcohol would have been your vice, given how easily you can get it, and given how much Russian men drink!”

“I always thought that was impossible, but given my complete aversion to drugs, I suspect you’re right.”

“Surgeons call internal medicine doctors ‘pill pushers’, right?”

“Yes, and also say ‘it takes steel to heal’. Of course, they’re accused of having a ‘cut first, ask questions later’ approach to medicine.”

“Just stick to your limits on alcohol, Mike.”

“I’ll expect you and Clarissa to hold me accountable.”

“Where did you and Doctor Blahnik disappear to?” Lara asked, her voice implying a tryst.

“The kitchen, where I gave her the ‘Aunt Jemima treatment’!”

Lara laughed, “Stripes was hilarious! And explains why ‘Monk Michael’ didn’t happen!”

I laughed, “Bill Murray’s comment about never having seen a monk wildly fucked by a bunch of teenage girls?”

“Yes! So, seriously?”

“We had a chat about Kari, though at the end we did have a proper New Year’s hug and kiss, though relatively chaste.”

“No tongue?” Lara teased.

“Exactly.”

“What did she say?”

“The same thing you said, and which I concluded after you and I had our conversation.”

“The chasm of incompatible spirituality.”

“Yes. Anicka gave that analysis without any special prompting from me, and confirmed that Kari needed a relationship with me to grow up, in effect. That’s quite the change for me, as usually I was the one who needed to grow up, and you girls had to beat me about the head and shoulders and rub my nose in it when I peed on the carpet.”

Lara laughed, “It is kind of like housebreaking a puppy! That’s why I like cats. They just naturally use a litter box and never ‘accidentally’ crap all over the floor! Of course, they also use furniture for scratching posts, so there is that! What are you going to do?”

“Follow Anicka’s advice and allow things to progress until Kari acknowledges that she can’t bridge the chasm, or can’t accept the challenges a typical nineteen-year-old would have with walking into my situation with zero common life experiences beyond the generic ones of growing up in the area.”

“You’ve heard the same basic thing from your three closest confidantes now, and reached the conclusion yourself, so I think that settles the matter completely.”

“Are you really OK with this result?”

“Yes. It was the one I expected, because even after you were laïcized, my spirituality is so unlike yours that one of us would have to compromise to a point that would create discomfort for a long time, perhaps forever, and there would be a constant struggle, perhaps under the surface, to shift things to where one of us was comfortable.

“You are, and I mean this in a loving manner, too rigorous for me and I’m too lax for you. It’s not a matter of faith, because I believe my faith is every bit as strong as yours. It’s how it plays out in real life. It’s like you and Katy — compatible in every way except that one. If you were compatible there, you might actually consider Matching at Stanford with the hope that eventually Katy could get a good job in Columbus or Cincinnati and you could work in Rutherford or McKinley.”

“I’d say that’s accurate. We both expressed it as a desire for different futures, but, in the end, I could have compromised without compromising, if that makes sense.”

“It does. Where you train is not as important as where you eventually practice, and with eight or nine years of Residency, a lot would change in Ohio and there likely would be good jobs in computers such that Katy could compromise there. I don’t know all the details, but I think, in the end, it was the spirituality gap that caused you to end most of your other relationships, though I’d point out two exceptions — Angie and Kimiko.”

I nodded, “I agree. The one that would surprise most people is that Tasha and I had a spirituality gap, but nobody would be surprised that I had one with Janey. I don’t think you ever met her, but she was from Holy Transfiguration. And you’re right about Kimiko, though the cultural differences were insurmountable unless I was willing to move to Japan, and that would likely have meant giving up medicine.”

“Which would never happen. Medicine is your mistress, and you’ll never break off that affair. Your challenge is ensuring your wife receives enough of your attention because your mistress is a jealous, uncaring, demanding bitch. And she’ll happily ruin every other relationship and laugh if you complain.”

“Sad, but true. And I don’t think there’s much we can do about that, though we might be able to fix things around the edges. A wholesale reform is necessary, but that’s unlikely to happen because the system, warts and all, works.”

Saying that triggered a thought, and I figured out what had been nagging me.

“I need to have an STD test,” I said.

“What?!” Lara gasped.

“Sorry, not because I believe I have one, but I’ve been with quite a few girls and rubbers haven’t been necessary.”

“Care to share?” Lara asked.

“You know some, and that’s sufficient. I can’t violate the girls’ privacy.”

“Except with Clarissa.”

“Even she doesn’t know,” I replied. “It’s not that I’m hiding things from her, or you, which ought to be obvious from Lexie and Michelle, but I can’t violate confidences.”

“You’re right; I shouldn’t have asked. Do you think I should get a test?”

“If I’m negative, it’s most likely you’re negative, but it can’t hurt to get tested. We can go on Monday when I get home from my shift and before we go see Liz.”