Chapter 9: Summer Heat

Alex was getting pretty familiar with the sports center. He swam in the morning or used the indoor track a few times per week, practiced with the judo club on Wednesday evenings, and from time to time used their resistance machines. The week before finals was quiet; a lot of the regulars were spending their time with books instead of the weight machines.

Because of that, Alex braved the machines earlier than normal. As he expected, most of the machines were empty, but his eye was drawn to a tall, very nicely shaped girl doing leg presses. Over the next thirty minutes he had a chance to first surreptitiously, and then openly, examine her. For her part, after catching him a few times, the girl stared at him back, grinning occasionally.

While clearly having a sense of humor, the girl was serious about working out. She had a notepad, and had clearly defined muscles. When she stood up, Alex thought she was close to six feet tall. Her hair, darkened by sweat, was held by a band, and showed her to be a blond. She was gorgeous.

Finally, when they were both between machines, the girl said, "So, do you like what you see, handsome?"

"Pardon me, Miss. I am Alex Driscoll, and while I apologize if I offended you, I won't say I am sorry — you are very nice to look at. I may come at this time more often if this is your regular exercise slot."

"Emily Anderson. And I will forgive you if you forgive me for staring at you." She licked her lips. Alex didn't think they were dry. "I enjoy being admired, although it's always a plus when I get something to look at, too.

"I fence. What do you do?"

Alex was at a loss for a moment. Fence? Like the musketeers? "Er, do you mean like foil? Or sabre?"

"Foil. I tried epée and saber, but ended up with foil. So, you look in too good a shape for casual exercise, and not heavy enough for weight lifting. Track?"

"No, judo and jujitsu. I only get here about once a week; I usually swim or run in the morning."

"Good for you. I like swimming, but lately have little time for it. Between fencing and the conditioning work for fencing — which is what I am doing here ― and my course work, I don't get enough time or energy for more activities."

They talked for a few more minutes before parting. Alex did note that Emily generally came here at the same time three times a week.

Alex found out what Rachel meant by that "hmm."

In April, Rachel got brave enough to get Alex to introduce her to Denise. Alex was not sure it was a good idea, but surprisingly, after the first awkward minute, Rachel and Denise were talking freely. Maybe too freely. When conversation turned sexual, Alex felt his ears burning. They were soon describing what they liked about his performance, and what to do to make sex more enjoyable.

"I like your girlfriend, Alex," said Denise, smiling at Rachel. She was charmed by Rachel's open-eyed, eager curiosity. She absorbed Denise's advice like a sponge, and was almost bouncing with eagerness to try things. "You got lucky, boy. Treat her right."

"Oh, he is wonderful to me! I almost faint after he gets done. And that's the problem: I like it so much, but we rarely get enough time. Is there any way we could borrow your room sometimes? Maybe when you are at class? I will bring blankets and sheets for the floor, and make sure your room is aired and clean afterwards. I could clean your room and bathroom as compensation."

Alex was stunned and speechless. What happened to his shy virginal girlfriend? Now Rachel was negotiating with his, well, mistress, for the rent of her room for sex.

To Alex's amazement, the girls came to an agreement, after a few minutes. But the most interesting moment came at the end. Denise said, probably joking, "Maybe I won't always be at class. Part of my payment may be remaining here and watching." Denise was smirking at Rachel and Alex. Rachel blushed, but said, "Okay. That could be exciting."

Denise was taken aback, but not for long. Her smirk turned from a dare to anticipation. Alex thought he had entered the twilight zone. He could believe that Denise had some voyeur tendencies. But Rachel being an exhibitionist? His mind boggled. Which didn't prevent his dick from getting embarrassingly hard in his loose shorts. Luckily, the girls were more concerned with glancing at each other than observing Alex's shorts.

They had borrowed Denise's room several times. Denise hadn't followed up on her threat to stay and watch, and Alex was not foolish enough to bring it up himself. Besides, he was ecstatically happy with Rachel, both in bed and out.

As Rachel got comfortable with her body, she started wearing more revealing clothes. She was, indeed, hot, and other boys were noticing. Alex was sometimes scared that Rachel's newfound ease with social interaction and confident physical attitude would lead her to try other guys. He suppressed his fears. It was easy to do when he was with Rachel, as she doted on him.

As Alex was fighting his fears, he found that Rachel had her own. "Why am I fighting so hard for good grades," she asked him. Alex was about to joke that perhaps she should save some time from course work and spend it in bed, but a look at her worried face silenced him in time.

"I want to discover new treatments, but you are so brilliant, anything I could find in ten years you will discover next month. And you will always be much smarter than I, so what's the use? When I was in high school, I knew I was smart, and could contribute more to human knowledge than any of the social butterflies that mocked me.

"When I got to college, I found I was a very small frog in a very large pond. There were many brilliant students, and I had to work hard just to stay in place. This semester I finally found that I can work even harder. I can actually be the best in my class, and get into graduate school and make a difference. I found I could understand the material better after meeting you. Not just your help with problems, but your encouragement made me more confident, and I found I could cover the course material ahead of the class, instead of racing to catch up.

"But now, I am not sure about the point of it all. I'm a bright student only compared to the average sophomore. But I'm actually slow and dim compared to you, and I don't think I can ever work hard enough to match your learning speed, much less catch up to you. But I don't know what to do. If I can't study biochemistry, my best subject, what shall I do with my life? Become a housewife and have you support me?"

Alex felt a surge of surprise and delight when he heard Rachel's unthinking assumption that they would be married. But he couldn't appreciate it properly and dissect his own feelings; he had to deal with a truly upset girlfriend.

"Rachel, my dear, surely you don't believe in the Great Man Theory of science? Every great discovery is the work of many people. When Einstein published his paper on Special Relativity he relied on an enormous amount of work done before, from published observations and measurements, to the math tools he used to create his model, to the very paper and ink that he used to write down his drafts. Even with my reading speed, it's ludicrous to suppose I could research even one-tenth of the topics in current biochemistry. Or one one-hundredth. And that is not counting my work in computer science, economics, math and psychology. There are thousands of papers being published every year, and they will continue to be published whether or not I delve into a topic or not. Some of these papers represent brilliant, original research; some will be no more that groundwork for others to advance research further. My love, there have been, and always will be a huge amount of things we don't know. Your brilliance will be appreciated in any field you care to work in. It's both humbling and reassuring that you, I, and every other bright and hopeful future scientist in the world can work for our lifetimes and leave with more questions than when we started."