Chapter 69: Small, Incremental Change

January 7, 1988, McKinley, Ohio

“I was afraid you might freak out and say no,” Michelle said in response to me telling her what Lexie had revealed.

We were sitting in the great room with Rachel on the floor next to me, trying her best to sit up, but not quite able to stay steady.

“Freak out because you were a virgin?”

“The sum total of my experience with guys is limited to a night of ecstasy with a medical student!”

“You never dated in High School?”

“No. I spent all my free time with my Apple II, and then my Macintosh. The guys in the Two Bit Computer Club were bigger nerds than I was, and no other guys at school would even talk to me.”

“And after you started at Taft?”

“I just did what I’ve always done — go to class, spend time in the computer lab, and mess with my own computer. I was at your concert and thought you were awesome, and I was at the party later when Lexie hooked up with you. I think you know we’re roommates, and I asked her about it the next morning. She was effusive about how great good sex felt and how awesome you were.

“I told her I was a virgin, and had zero experience with guys, but that I had urges after hearing you sing and hearing about what you and Lexie did together. Lexie laughed and said that if I was horny, you’d be a perfect guy for my first time, because you were that good. And I have to say, she was right!”

“I wouldn’t have freaked out if I had known.”

As soon as the words passed my lips, I realized I actually might have at least hesitated, based on what had happened with Kari. Perhaps it was a good thing Michelle hadn’t told me.

“I didn’t want to take the risk,” Michelle said. “And I was pretty sure I knew how it all worked, so I figured that at worst I’d just seem somewhat inexperienced.”

“It is pretty obvious once you actually think about it.”

“It is! Though it feels WAY better than anyone said in health class!”

“The last thing they want to do is admit that sex is fun and natural,” I replied.

“No kidding!” Michelle declared. “Your daughter is really cute. I was surprised to hear what had happened to her mom. It’s really sad, and I’m so sorry you had to go through losing your wife.”

“Thanks.”

Rachel stopped moving around and put her head down, obviously ready to go to sleep, so I scooped her up and took her to her crib. Once I had her settled, I went back down to the great room.

“How long before she wakes up again?” Michelle asked.

“About three hours,” I replied. “You’re welcome to stay for dinner if you don’t mind leftovers. I have to leave for the hospital at 9:30pm. Rachel’s godparents will be here around 9:00pm to stay the night with her.”

“I’ll stay until 8:30pm,” if that’s OK.”

“It is,” I agreed. “May I ask your intent?”

Michelle laughed softly, “More of what I got on New Year’s Day! But you mean, like, do I want to be your girlfriend?”

“That does get to the core of my question.”

“If that’s what I wanted, I probably would have taken a different approach. It was just sex, right?”

Her tone made it clear that she thought so, which was a good thing.

“Yes,” I confirmed.

“I liked it and I’ll do it with you as much as you want for as long as you want. Can I play with your joystick now?”

“Yes!”

“Lexie gave me some other advice.”

“Oh?”

“Would you like a blowjob?”

“I don’t think there’s a guy over the age of thirteen who would say ‘no’ to that question!”

“I’ve never given one, obviously, but I know the basic idea and I’m pretty smart!”

“1590 SAT, 35 ACT is better than my 1560 and 34! And I was third in my class while you were first!”

Michelle laughed, “And that’s why guys weren’t interested! I’m curious, did you get laid in High School?”

“No, though not for lack of trying. I had difficulty getting dates.”

“How’d you do at Taft?”

“I learned to play the guitar!” I smirked. “How do you think I did?”

“I meant grades!” Michelle replied with a laugh.

“4.0, taking honors courses. I graduated summa cum laude and valedictorian.”

“Today the question is if I can make someone cum loudly!” she smirked.

I laughed, “Cute play on words! And what would you like in return?”

“Lick me and screw me twice, same as you did on New Year’s Day! Then I’ll give you a second blowjob in the shower!”

I smiled, took Michelle’s hand, and led her upstairs to the bedroom. We undressed, got into bed, and she wasted no time in starting her first ever blowjob. She showed how smart she was, or at least that she had done her research, as she was really good. Really, really good. It was also obvious she really wanted to do it and was enjoying having me in her mouth. She had no trouble making me cum, and I groaned loudly as I shot into her mouth, answering her question.

“That was fun!” she exclaimed after we shared a sexy French kiss.

“And it was awesome!”

“I’m ready to be licked and screwed! Twice!”

And I was ready to do that as well. When we finished, we went to the shower and Michelle gave me a second fantastic blowjob. We exchanged another sexy French kiss, then washed each other, then dried each other. We dressed, and Rachel demonstrated perfect timing by waking up just as we left the bedroom.

“I’ll be down shortly,” I said to Michelle.

She went downstairs, and I went to change Rachel’s diaper.

“Papa is very happy you slept as long as you did!” I said, picking her up once she had on a clean diaper and onesie.

I took her downstairs and put the leftovers in the oven to warm, and made Rachel her bottle.

“She likes me to rock her,” I said to Michelle. “You can join us in the study if you want.”

“Sure. It’s weird seeing a guy caring for a baby this way.”

“It’s weird being a guy and caring for a baby this way.”

We went to the study, and I sat down in the rocking chair while Michelle sat on the love seat against the one wall which didn’t have bookshelves.

“I think you’re ready to move to the next level,” I said.

“What’s left to do?” she asked.

I chuckled, “I didn’t mean ‘what’, I meant ‘who’. That said, trust me, you’d be surprised at what’s left to do! You’ve barely scratched the surface.”

“Who?”

“A boyfriend,” I said. “Not that I wouldn’t be happy being with you again, but if you can ask me to go to bed with you, you can certainly get a date! As for what’s left to do, well, I believe you’re smart enough to do the necessary research! You certainly figured out how to give a great blowjob!”

Michelle smiled, “Now you have me totally curious!”

“I think you might have spent too much time with your computers and not enough with guys!”

“So it would seem!”

“Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to ask a guy to have coffee in the next week.”

“Coffee? Forget that! There’s something WAY more interesting to do!”

I chuckled, “That is one approach, though you can do that after you have coffee and get to know the guy a bit. That’s my advice, though you could always go Lexie’s route.”

“I only really know computer science majors.”

“YOU are a computer science major! Male geeks are just as horny as you are, and won’t be intimidated by your superior intelligence!”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Being a guy, I know we’re dense and can be pretty dumb at times, but I suspect there has to be one guy you know who won’t be intimidated. Think about it, decide on one, then blow his mind.”

“Or blow something else!” Michelle declared.

“You seem to have changed from ‘shy nerdy girl’ to ‘sex maniac’ in a week!”

“And whose fault is that?” she asked lightly.

“Yours!” I chuckled. “The sexual being was in there all along, you just had to let her loose. I was simply the instrument of liberation!”

“And a very nice instrument it is!”

I finished feeding Rachel, and we went back to the kitchen, where I put her in her high chair and got the leftover fried chicken and biscuits from the oven, then used the microwave oven to heat the mashed potatoes and gravy. Finally, I got the coleslaw and two bottles of Sprite from the fridge. I said a blessing, and we began to eat.

“Wow! Did you make this?”

“No way! It was one of the girls from church. They’re taking very good care of me.”

“I’ll say! This is awesome! That prayer you said, I’ve never heard it before.”

“I’m Russian Orthodox.”

“I wondered about that heavy cross you wear. And that you didn’t take it off.”

“We’re supposed to never remove our baptismal crosses. That’s why Rachel has hers pinned to her onesie. I do have to remove mine when I’m in the operating room, but otherwise I always wear it. As for the cross, it’s called the Soldier’s Cross, and on the back, in Slavonic, it says ‘Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered’.”

“Slavonic is Old Russian, right? Like Shakespeare is to Modern English.”

“I Melt with You is one of my favorite songs.”

Michelle laughed, “Cute! But you know what I meant!”

“I do, and it’s a decent analogy. How do you know about Slavonic?”

“I read voraciously before I got into computers. I started with volume ‘A’ of the World Book Encyclopedia when I was six and read through volume ‘Z’ before I was ten.”

“Then the only question I have is why 1590 and not 1600?”

“I have no idea! I don’t think I missed any questions, and I know there have been grading problems in the past, and questions with incorrect answers on the key. It wasn’t worth doing anything about it.”

“What’s your long-term goal?”

“To get my PhD and work for a company in California.”

“Then I should put you in touch with my friend Katy from church. She’s finishing her Master’s at Stanford and is going to get a job in Silicon Valley.”

“That would be cool!”

We finished eating, cleaned up, then spent time with Rachel, who seemed to be ready to skip her nap. I was fairly sure Michelle was interested in playing with my joystick again, but Rachel’s coöperation in that regard had ended when she woke up from her earlier nap.

“Good luck on your mission!” I said just before 8:30pm when I walked Michelle to the door.

“Thanks! Can I have your phone number?”

I wrote it out for her.

“I’ll call you next week, so you have time to talk to your friend. And maybe we can get together again.”

I smiled, we exchanged a kiss, then she left to walk back to campus.

About twenty minutes later, Serafima and Elias arrived.

“Lara will be here at 7:00am,” Serafima said.

“Cool. Rachel skipped her after-dinner nap, so I’m not sure when she’s going to want to eat or go to sleep. She slept almost seven hours last night. She’s also trying her best to sit up, but she’s not quite steady enough.”

“Leave it to you to have an overachieving kid!” Elias said. “She’ll be spouting theology in no time!”

I laughed, “That would be par for the course for any kid of mine! But I think crawling is next on the agenda!”

“Do you need any help before Sunday evening?” Serafima asked. “Well, besides Susana being here on Saturday?”

“No. I’ll take Rachel to my in-laws on Friday afternoon and they’ll keep her until I finish my Saturday morning in the medical office. I think we’re all set.”

A few minutes later, I kissed Rachel and headed to the hospital for my shift.

January 8, 1988, McKinley, Ohio

“Did you have a good shift, Petrovich?” Clarissa asked when she arrived on Friday morning.

“I managed four hours of sleep last night. Only one consult for a broken finger.”

We attended the handover, then I headed home, where Lara was waiting with Rachel.

“She’s sleeping,” Lara said. “She had her usual active time this morning. She woke up about 6:00am according to Serafima.”

“Cool.”

“The clinic called, and we’re both negative, as you expected.”

“That’s good.”

“Did you decide what to do about rubbers?”

“No,” I replied.

I’d been thinking about it, and the only real risk, now that the results were clear, was if Michelle hooked up with someone, and I felt I could gently rebuff her without harming the relationship. I was positive Kari and Lara would not be with anyone until our relationships changed so that we weren’t physically intimate, so they weren’t a risk. It was unlikely Sheila and I would get together again, by her own admission. That left Annette, and with her, I could straight up ask, and I felt she’d get an STD test if I requested her to have one.

That left the girls from church, and of them, only Irina and I had been together, though Sara had made it clear she wanted to go to bed together, and Oksana was clearly ready. I didn’t feel there was much risk with them, as I was reasonably confident they were virgins. There certainly was none with Dani or Maryam, as with either of them, if it were to happen, it would be on our wedding night, and that meant effectively zero risk.

I would, on the other hand, if Lexie did ask for an encore, either have to use a rubber or request she have a full-spectrum STD test, which, as I thought about it, made perfect sense to suggest, given her long history of casual sexual encounters.

“What’s going on in that brain of yours, Mike?” Lara asked.

“Just thinking more about your question. The risk is fairly low, though I did take a big chance with Lexie and Michelle because I had sex with them the first time I met them and knew almost nothing about them.”

“You trust girls when they say they’re on the Pill, right?”

“How many college Freshmen do you think want to get pregnant?”

“Asymptotically approaching zero!” Lara declared.

I laughed, “And the math major appears!”

“Of course!”

“Anyway, even with the girls who have expressed interest, I’d trust them because lying in that way would ruin a relationship.”

“You wouldn’t marry?”

“If it were truly an accident, I would feel equal responsibility and discuss the most appropriate course of action. If it were intentional and the result of deception, that would be a disaster, and I seriously doubt anything could come of it.”

“And if I were to get pregnant, despite being on the Pill?”

“We’d sit down, talk it through, and most likely marry, knowing exactly where our struggles would be. Neither of us would be going into it with our eyes closed. Or do you think differently?”

“That’s probably what would happen, but I’m religious about taking my birth control, and you and I have discussed the things which might reduce its effectiveness, and I don’t do any of those things. If I had to take antibiotics, we’d have to use rubbers or limit ourselves to alternate activities!”

“Nice euphemism!”

“And speaking of ‘activities’, did you get any sleep last night?”

“About four hours, so I think what I’ll do is nap after lunch if that works for you.”

“Of course! Want some company to help you sleep?”

“Having a naked girl in my bed usually results in less sleep!”

“So add thirty minutes for me, and then you can sleep four hours. Rachel won’t mind!”

“That sounds good. We do have ninety minutes before she’s likely to wake up if you’d like to have a bubble bath.”

“That sounds fantastic!” Lara declared.

Ten minutes later we were in the tub, which was rapidly filling with warm, sudsy water.

“What body type do you prefer?” Lara asked.

“Not being a complete idiot, I like any body type I can see, touch, and feel naked next to me!”

Lara laughed, “Similar to your comments about boobs — if seeing, touching, or tasting them is on offer, they’re perfect! But you have to have a preference, and I bet it’s not flat-chested girls who would look like they were twelve if they shaved their pubic hair.”

“Honestly, and I mean this, I don’t think I have a type. You’ve seen the various girls I’ve dated, and they range from you to Janey, though the majority are closer to you than to Janey. I never really made a distinction that way. Why are you asking?”

“Just curious. I know you aren’t most guys, but most guys like big boobs.”

“Most of the girls I dated were average or smaller,” I replied. “But that was never a criterion. And I can’t be more precise because even though Elizaveta explained how bra and cup sizes work, I don’t carry a tape measure to check! You didn’t bring one with you when you thanked me for saving your life!”

“Did anyone?”

“Emmy,” I chuckled. “The Summer after I graduated from High School.”

“She actually measured it?”

“Yes. And your estimate the other day when teasing about Kylie was basically spot on. What brought on your question about body type?”

“Just me handicapping the competition! Well, not against me, but you know what I mean.”

“Clarissa has a clear idea, but she won’t give her opinion.”

“Wise.”

“It’s also the case that neither of you know the longshot, ‘dark horse’ candidate.”

“How is that even possible?” Lara asked, turning so she could look at me.

“My grandmother let me know that one of her friends in Columbus had an eighteen-year-old granddaughter who needed a husband. I met the granddaughter on Wednesday, and we’re going to have lunch after Liturgy a week from Sunday. This week I’m going to Saint George in Loveland, after that, to the Cathedral until the end of the month, at least.”

“Does this girl have a name?”

“Everyone has a name!” I chuckled. “Hers is Danijela, but she goes by Dani. She’s a receptionist for a pediatrician. I suggested she speak with him about the demands and rigors of medical training before our lunch date.”

“Well, that throws a spanner into the works!” Lara teased.

“When I spoke with the bishop, he asked me about using British English for some phrases and I blamed Monty Python and The Lancet.”

“I spend enough time in Europe that I’ve picked up some British English and that just sounds better than ‘wrench’. Is this girl a real contender?”

“Define ‘real contender’,” I countered.

“A girl with whom you’ll wait to have sex at least until you’re engaged.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not nearly as dense or clueless as you are, Mike!” Lara teased. “I bet anything you care to wager, and I mean anything, that the girls with the best chance are the ones you haven’t slept with.”

She actually had a very good point — Maryam, Oksana, and obviously Dani, but also Sara. While Kari wasn’t completely out of the running, she did not, because of the spirituality gap, have what Lara had referred to as a ‘best chance’.

“I hadn’t thought about that,” I replied. “But a quick mental review says you’re onto something.”

“Well, I will be when we get out of the tub!” she teased. “But I like you holding me this way and I don’t want to interrupt a good conversation.”

“Talking rather than sex?” I asked.

“No, of course not! I mean, it’s not like you won’t fuck my brains out on request!”

“Not something I expected you to say!”

“And not something I would say in earshot of anyone else, not even Clarissa. But given at some point in the near future you’re going to put it in my butt, we’re going to have a threesome, we’re going to tie each other up, and I’m going to peg you, I think ‘fuck my brains out’ is kind of fitting!”