Chapter 9: Kevin

I'm falling in love with my goddess. I think she's falling in love with me also, though I don't understand why a goddess like her would love a geek like me.

I had no idea that my goddess was a virgin. I felt honored that she chose me to be her first lover. The most gorgeous girl in the world had to have dozens, if not hundreds of guys chasing after her. Paranoid that Kim might choose someone else, I decided to do everything I could to make sure that she wouldn't.

After lunch, Amy disappeared, leaving Kim and I alone in the apartment. We talked a lot that afternoon. As we sat together on the sofa, Kim explained how she and Amy planned our Valentine's Day date. "You were supposed to take both Amy and I to dinner, and Amy's job was to get you to drink a lot of beer. You weren't supposed to get drunk, just a little tipsy. Then we were going to drag you over to the Cellar for some dancing."

I nodded, "That part worked well."

"Amy was supposed to keep you off balance as much as possible, while I tried to dance all of the slow dances with you. That way, I could stay close to you and when the time was right, I would whisper in your ear, 'Please come take me home.' To which you were supposed to say yes. If you said no, Amy was there to prevent your escape."

"It sounded like a good plan to me" I said, "but leave it to Nick to mess everything up."

Kim gave me her best smile and said, "I guess he did mess things up a bit, but in the long run it insured that you and I spent the night together." Then, with a twinkle in her eyes, "and that's something I've wanted to do since the first time I met you."

"I don't know why" I commented then I paused for a moment and said, "I'm just an average geek..." Kim interrupted me with a laugh. "Okay, so maybe I'm not average," I conceded, "but I'm still a geek."

"But you're my geek," Kim responded. Then she gave me a hug and a peck on the cheek. Which I returned with a deeper kiss, a trip to Kim's bedroom, and then another shower for good measure,

While we were drying each other off, I found myself laughing. Kim asked, "What's so funny?"

"I'm just remembering how Amy played master sergeant and told us what to do the other night. Lift this breast, scrub that back. I felt like I should have given her a solute, you know what I mean?"

Kim chuckled and said, "I'm really glad that Amy was there. I was so freaked out that I probably would have forgotten the condom. I could have gotten pregnant, and that could have ruined both of our lives."

I nodded my head as I pulled on my pants, "But Amy really confuses me. Probably more than anyone else has ever managed to."

"In what way?" Kim asked, reaching for her clothes.

"Well, even though she knows that you and I really like each other, she sneaks up behind me and tickles me. Sometimes she pinches my butt or even gives me a kiss on the lips. One time she kissed me and started rubbing my penis through my pants. Fortunately she stopped before I came, but it was really close."

Kim laughed with a shrug and said, "That's Amy being Amy. She's a very touchy-feely person. She'll even give me a big hug for no particular reason. I know that Amy feels really good about bringing us together." She smiled in the mirror as she pulled her hair out of the collar of her shirt.

"Still, I can't help but feel there's something else going on." Kim looked slightly embarrassed for a moment, and then she reached over and pulled my pants down. "Here we go again..." I thought, giving in to the inevitable.

I finally made it home late Sunday afternoon. Walt was sitting in the living room on the sofa and asked me with a grin, "How was your date yesterday?"

I blushed and said, "You wouldn't believe it."

"Which one did you take out, the tall sexy one with the red hair, or the blonde with the big hooters?" Walt asked with a laugh.

I turned even redder, my face burning from the warmth of embarrassment.

"Come on, you can tell me," Walt prodded. I tried to leave, but Walt got up and blocked my way.

Walt looked me in my eyes and exclaimed, wide-eyed, "Both?"

When I didn't deny it, Walt said, "You went out with both girls!" His eyes opened even wider.

I nodded.

"Where the hell did you go?" Walt's voice was somewhere between a shout and an excited shriek. Clearly, he wanted answers.

Figuring I had no alternative but to talk, I fell onto the sofa and started explaining, "I took them to Bentleys for dinner, and then to the Cellar for dancing."

"How the hell did you do that? You need id to get into the Cellar, and I've heard the only way to get into Bentleys on Valentines Day is to make a reservation the day after Christmas. Either that, or you have know somebody with connections."

I thought back to my conversation with the manager at Bentleys and recalled that I was out of luck until I mentioned Amy's name. I vaguely remembered Amy telling me that she had worked there at one time. Then I remembered Amy's trick for sneaking me into the Cellar. I smiled at the memory of Amy flashing her cleavage, and the bouncer merely sending us in without further questioning.

"Okay, if you're not going to answer me, then fine," Walt grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. "By the way, what happened to your eye? It looks like it hurts," he said, pointing to the shiner and wincing.

"You might say Amy's ex-boyfriend ran into me."

"That must have hurt. Did Amy take care of it afterwards?" asked Walt.

"Maybe, maybe not," I said with a grin, walking past a confused Walt to the stairway to my room.

I was lying in bed Monday morning remembering everything that had happened over the weekend when I got a phone call. "Want to get some breakfast, lover boy? "

"Sure," I replied groggily.

"Good. Meet me at 8:30 in the Student Union. Don't be late. Bye." It was only after I hung up the phone that I realized it was Amy that had called, not Kim.

I looked at the clock and realized that I just had barely enough time to get dressed and make it to the Student Union. Good thing I took a lot of showers yesterday, I thought to myself with a grin as I slid into my pants.

Amy had already found a table when I got there. She was sipping on some coffee and nibbling on a bagel loaded with cream cheese. "Sorry, I'm late" I said, "But I couldn't find a place nearby to park."

"I'll forgive you this time, but next time..." Amy said with a wicked grin. "Go get some food. I don't have class until 10."

For some reason I was pretty hungry, so when I reached the front of the line, I picked out a big breakfast with pancakes, eggs, hash browns, and sausage. I grabbed a jumbo Coke, and walked back to the table where Amy was sitting.

She took one look at my plate and giggled. "Sheesh, you must have burned up some serious energy yesterday," Amy said, with a knowing look in her eye.

"Uh, I'm just hungry." I shrugged her comment off, but I could tell I was turning red at the mere recollection of my intense weekend.

"Yeah, right." Amy teased as I started shoving food into my face like there was no tomorrow. "Since your mouth is rather full," she continued, "I'll talk and you can listen. Understand?"

I nodded.

"Kim is very special to me. Hurt Kim and I'll hurt you. Got that?" Amy said with a protective edge to her voice.

I swallowed my food and nodded again, my mind unable to form any words.

Amy paused for a moment to take a deep breath. In a much calmer voice, she added "You're also special to me, and I'll make sure that Kim doesn't hurt you either. You two belong together - a perfect set of virgin geeks. Well, not so virgin any more," she grinned, "but you see what I'm saying."

While I felt relieved by Amy's acknowledgment of Kim and I as a couple, a look of sadness came over her as she spoke. And I would have sworn that I saw a tear in her eye. She bit her lower lip bravely, trying to conceal her feelings. After a few seconds, it appeared her efforts were futile.

"Excuse me," Amy apologized just before she grabbed a napkin and blew her nose. "I think I'm catching something." She sniffled a bit as if to demonstrate the presence of a cold. "Anyway," she continued with half-hearted conviction, "just remember what I said." Then Amy slid out of the booth and walked away.

I sat there holding my fork halfway between my mouth and the plate, even more confused than before.

Kim and I quickly fell into a routine. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays after networking class, Kim and I generally spent the rest of the afternoon together in the Student Union. Walt usually stopped by, and occasionally Amy would stop by, too. I used to think Walt would like to go out with Amy, but I could tell that Amy wasn't really interested in him. Of course since Walt didn't have a girlfriend, it seemed that he viewed any girl who would talk to him as a potential girlfriend. I know I would have assumed the same thing a couple of months ago.

Believe it or not, we did manage to do a lot of studying together at the Student Union. Sometimes we would work together on the networking class, while other times we would work on our other classes independently. I had taken one of Kim's classes the year before, so I was able to help her through some of the tougher parts. While the reverse wasn't necessarily true, Kim was fairly bright. Often when I had a problem I couldn't solve, I found that Kim would offer some unique insight into how I might solve the problem. I really hoped Kim would stick around long enough to get her PhD. I'd rarely met people as smart as Kim.

On the days we didn't go over to the Student Union, I usually met Kim at her place. I doubted that Kim was very comfortable at my place, since as far as I could remember, she had been the only girl to cross the threshold of the house I share with Walt and a couple of other guys. I knew that they'd try to behave themselves in front of Kim, but sometimes they still managed to embarrass me with their actions. Whether it was Walt belching or the guys leaving dirty clothes strewn all over the house, it would get downright nasty from time-to-time.

Kim and I hadn't been back to either Bentleys or the Cellar since Valentine's Day. Poor Amy was banned from the Cellar because of that incident with Nick, but Kim and I didn't care. We didn't need to go anywhere special to have fun. Since Kim and I first made love together, we spent nearly every night together in bed. I loved waking up holding her in my arms.

One of the nights Kim and I didn't spend together was the night before my birthday. I knew she was home - she called me to say goodnight - but I also suspected that she and Amy were planning something again. The mere thought of those two conspiring to surprise me made me smile

My birthday fell on a Saturday that year, and it happened to fall on one of those rare March days in Maryland where the temperature was warm enough that you could get by without wearing a coat. The sun was bright in the sky and there wasn't a single cloud as far as far as you could see.

Kim told me to meet her at the reflecting pond at four in the afternoon. Once there, we duplicated our first kiss from a few weeks ago. This time, however, the kiss was less tentative and more demanding. It made sense given how much our relationship had evolved since our first kiss. We had both invested a great deal emotionally in our budding relationship. Hand-in-hand, we walked across campus to a restaurant called Ledo's.

Ledo's restaurant looked like the interior hadn't been redecorated since the 1950's. The lights were fairly dim, especially when you walked inside after being out in the bright sun. We waited for the hostess to seat us in an old fashioned booth with worn yellow leather upholstery.

Kim told me to sit down, and then she slid into the booth next to me. The back of the seat was tall, giving the illusion of privacy. Kim waved the menus away when the waitress brought them. Instead of taking the time to browse the menu, she immediately ordered a medium pizza with ham and onions and extra cheese. She also ordered a beer for me and a Diet Coke for herself.

The waitress looked me over and asked if I had an ID. I proudly pulled out my driver's license, proving that for the first time I was 18 years old and could legally drink beer. The waitress said, "Happy birthday," and walked away to place our order.

Kim explained that while Ledo's was really an Italian restaurant, their specialty was pizza. "If you haven't had it before, you're in for a special treat," she teased with a smile.

When I asked her what we were going to do after dinner, Kim merely smiled and said mysteriously, "You'll see..."

While we waited for our dinner, Kim was very quiet. But while she didn't say much, she let me know that she enjoyed my company in other ways. Her leg was pressed against mine, and she rested her head against my shoulder. Occasionally, she even leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the cheek.

Eventually the pizza arrived. It was unlike any pizza I'd ever seen. Instead of a round pan, the pizza came in a rectangular tray. And instead of the usual doughy pizza crust, this pizza's crust was flaky and looked and tasted like pie crust. I was skeptical at first, but when I bit into one of the square slices, it was incredible. Much like the goddess sitting next to me, I thought with a contented smile...

"Most people either love Ledo's pizza or hate it," Kim said, acknowledging my smile. "I'm glad you love it." Then, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she reached over and licked a little tomato sauce from my lips with her tongue.