Chapter 5: Valentine's Day Present

The first thing I did when I returned to residence from home was to call Stephanie. Nobody answered the phone. I kept on calling every hour and before five o'clock Stephanie answered the phone. I ran over to her residence to meet her for dinner. I saw her in the lobby and we kissed for what seemed like a day before we went to dinner. Stephanie didn't invite me to her room, as Betty was there. We kissed good night and I returned back to my residence.

The next day I went to the cafeteria to meet Stephanie for lunch and saw two girls and a guy with her. She waved me over and introduced us. The cute brunette girl was Jane who was a sophomore majoring in Journalism. The pretty blonde was Tandula, a Biochemistry major sophomore who was in Stephanie's English class the previous semester. The fat black hair guy was an Engineering junior called John. I sat down next to Stephanie with my food.

"Jane is talking me into joining the student newspaper editorial team," Stephanie said. "She's Tandula's roommate."

"Well I think you should," I told Stephanie.

"Why?" Stephanie showed me her big green eyes.

"Because your writing is very good."

Stephanie chuckled, then said. "Come on. Jane is an expert here."

"Pete also said your essay was a great piece of work," I supplemented.

"Oh," Stephanie said.

"Which Pete?" Jane said.

"He's my roommate; he's six feet tall, black hair, brown eyes and a thousand times better looking than me," I rattled.

"Oh, I think I know him. Pete Fuersich, right?" Jane said.

"Yeah. You have class with him?"

"No, we come from same high school," Jane said. "He is good in many areas. He even stole the prettiest cheerleader from the quarterback." She giggled.

We all laughed.

"So you guys all on the editorial team?" I asked.

"Not me," Tandula said. She had a heavy accent.

"Not me," John said. I noticed he had been keeping his eyes on Tandula most of the time.

"Okay, Jane, I'll think about it," Stephanie said.

"So you and Juan go to same computer classes?" Tandula asked Stephanie.

"No, only Calculus and electives. He's far ahead in computer classes," Stephanie replied with a smile. "He tutors my computer courses."

"Tutor?" Tandula asked.

"You mean private tutor? Like the kind..." John asked, suggestively.

Stephanie blushed and glared at him. Jane giggled. Tandula tossed a napkin at him.

"He works at the tutoring center," Stephanie said.

"I never saw you there," Tandula said.

"You're also a tutor?" I asked.

"No, I went there for tutors. I need help in my English," Tandula said. "Jane and Stephanie had helped me a lot."

"Oh," I said and then turned to Stephanie, "I think you should consider taking up some tutoring hours there as well."

"You want to see me more, huh?" Stephanie said, smiling at me.

They laughed. I had to laugh as well or I would be too embarrassed. After a while they left. I didn't have anything to do since the tutoring center wouldn't be open for another two days.

"I think you should give both a try." I told Stephanie.

"I'm not sure if I can handle them, and I may not have that much time," Stephanie said. "I'm only in my first year and I don't have a certificate." She grinned at me.

"Well you aced your Composition II. That qualifies you to be an English tutor," I said. "And you can do as many or as few hours as fits you."

"Hmmm. Alright, I'll think about it," Stephanie said.

"Is John with Tandula?" I asked.

"Maybe in his dreams," Stephanie said and giggled. "Tandula has a boyfriend. Isn't she beautiful?"

"Yeah, not far behind you."

Stephanie blushed a bit. "Come on. I thought you're always honest with me," she said.

"I am."

Stephanie was trying to hide the smile on her face. "Tell the truth!" She demanded.

"What truth?"

"What you feel," Stephanie said.

"Truth is..."

"Is what?" Stephanie followed closely.

"Truth is... I love you."

Stephanie was caught off guard by my declaration. Her face was frozen for a second and then turned into a big smile across her entire face. She was beautiful. Nobody could beat her.

"I love you too, Juan," Stephanie said and smiled gleefully at me.

I felt my ear tweaked a bit. I knew I had a very big smile on my face.

"Don't move, don't touch," Stephanie said while looking at my face.

"What?" I asked.

Stephanie planted a quick kiss on my lips.

I had by now kissed Stephanie many times. However I still had that space travel feeling every time her lips touched me.

"Can I kiss you back?"

"No, not here, not now," Stephanie said.

"When and where?"

Stephanie poked my chest, giggling.

That evening Stephanie told me she would give a try on both the newspaper editorial and the tutoring. She couldn't spend too much time so she planned to take up only four hours a week in tutoring.

The next morning I took her to the tutoring center supervisor's office and waited outside while they talked. Stephanie got the job and went with me for the tutor meeting in the afternoon.

We spent most of our time together. We had meals together. We studied together. We went to three of our classes together. We spent weekends together. We spent Saturday nights in her room doing everything following her rules. Stephanie's bed was small and every Sunday morning at least half of her body was on top of mine. Making sure I wouldn't 'accidentally' break our last rule had become much more difficult.

I was walking Stephanie back to her residence in an early February Sunday when Stephanie talked about it.

"Juan, I think we've got to stop this Saturday night thing," Stephanie said slowly.

"Why?"

"Because it's becoming harder and harder," she said.

I knew what she meant. I had the same feeling but I didn't want to give up on what we had been doing.

"I can go back to my room to sleep."

"It's not just that, silly," Stephanie said, glancing me. "Every time I want more from you. It's the feeling that makes it hard."

"Me too," I said. "Okay, let's do the coffee shop from now on."

Stephanie was silent. She was thinking. She didn't say anything until we got to her lobby.

"Listen, Juan," Stephanie said. "We'll do it one last time this weekend. I have a solution." She then kissed me passionately and disappeared up the staircase. She wouldn't tell me what the solution would be despite me asking about it repeatedly during the week.

Friday evening I saw Pete in my room when I finished my dinner with Stephanie and her friends. He was rarely there during Friday evenings.

"How's the dinner?" Pete asked me from his bed. He always read in his bed. I guessed he just loved being in bed.

"Good. You're here early tonight," I said.

"Yep."

"Where's Macy?"

"We broke off," Pete said calmly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Pete."

"Don't worry," Pete said.

"When?"

"Today. She saw me kissing Kim," Pete said. Kim was Macy's roommate.

I knew I had to hold out but I couldn't. I laughed. Pete laughed too.

"So you've got Kim now?"

"No. That's nothing," Pete said.

"What's nothing?"

"The kiss."

"A friendly gesture?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know. I can't seem to refuse a girl when she wants to kiss me," Pete said. "But I'm not interested in Kim and they both know it."

"Well you can explain it to Macy."

"No. It's not just the kiss itself. I've seen her flirting with guys around. I don't mind her doing it," Pete said. "If she can flirt with guys what's wrong with me kissing girls. I wasn't going to have sex with Kim. I don't like Macy's attitude."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"I'm going to Dorothy's birthday party on Sunday. Maybe I will get to know some of her friends."

"Who's Dorothy?"

"Oh she is from my high school. She was on the cheerleader team," Pete said.

"Your high school cheerleader girlfriend?" I asked.

"No, not her, we're just friends," Pete smiled.

I laughed. "You do like cheerleaders, huh?" I asked.

"Sure. Their outfits get me horny," He had a lascivious smile on his face.

I laughed.

Pete seemed to remember something. "Hey, have you got the flowers?" He asked me.

"What flowers?"

Pete stared at me. "Don't you know that Sunday is Valentine's Day?" He asked.

"Shit! I'll go to the florist tomorrow," I said.

"They probably have nothing by then." Pete smiled. He got his wallet out and pulled out a small piece of folded paper. "Want mine?" He asked and handed it to me.

I took the paper. It was a florist receipt for a dozen of roses. "Cool! Wow! Forty-eight dollars!" I exclaimed.

Pete sighed. "Okay, bud. What about thirty bucks?" He offered.

I pulled out my wallet and gave him the money. I thought for a second and gave him another twenty dollars. "I can't take advantage of you. You are my friend and you've already helped me too much," I said.

Pete smiled at me while putting the money into his wallet. He pulled out his drawer and tossed me some rubbers. "Here's your change," He said.

I gave the rubbers back to him. "I don't need them."