Chapter 6

Okay, we got into a new routine. No, not an "I'm bored" routine, but rather an "I can't wait to get home to connect with my soulmate" routine. Yes, the afternoon swims were part of the routine. The exercise kept us both fit, and at forty, it would have been too easy to spread out, as many of my contemporaries and co-workers had done. Besides, I had a hundred and twenty pounds of incentive.

Another part of the routine was the homework. I took an active part in Tina's education as I noted it usually took her longer to write her assignments than it did to derive answers.

Meals were another routine. Some mornings found us eating cold cereal in the trailer, and other mornings we ended up at the diner up the road in the direction of my project. We usually sat at a corner table. The waitresses knew us as regulars, and often, we were joined by one or more of my co-workers. Everybody was indeed getting used to Alan 'n' Tina.

Our weekends ... Sometimes we took off on Friday. Sometimes we waited until Saturday morning, but most weekends we were on the road, laughing, talking, and searching parks and concerts and culture. And we found it. On the advice of Mizz Lillian, we went to a bluegrass festival and Tina found pure acoustic folk music to be something that meshed with our love of classical music, and heaven knows, Tennessee has a lot of bluegrass.

But Mizz Lillian. She saw the Alan 'n' Tina thing real quick. "You two look like you belong together," she'd told Tina one afternoon.

Tina related that conversation to me that evening, and the next day, when I stopped in to retrieve my sweetie, she was sitting in her chair in her customary spot. There was nobody else in the place, me, Tina, Mizz Lillian. Almost two months of visiting every day had me and Mizz Lillian as more than passing acquaintances. We'd shared gossip and laughter about some of the stories from her years of managing this RV park, and I guess she thought we were at a point where she could get a little personal with us.

I guess that's why I didn't hit the floor when she suggested that just maybe, Tina and I were a couple in the more traditional sense. "So the truth, Alan Addison, and don't bullshit an old lady. I have eyes, you know..."

Tina's the one who answered. "Yes ma'am. We are. And the day I turn eighteen, I'm marrying him!"

Lillian laughed. "Good for you, darlin'," she said. She looked at me. "Alan, I know what you were thinkin' but this is Tennessee and we've got a history of girls marryin' young. Even to older men. I've seen stranger stuff than you an' her. At least she ain't pregnant. And you have a good job. An' she's in school. That's a lot of "right". And I can't see much wrong." She grinned at me. "But if I was you, I'd buy her a ring."

That got a giggle from Tina. And got me to thinking. Tina and I headed out the door to our separate cars and we drove to the trailer ... Ring? If she wore a ring and I wore a ring, we'd have US happy, but what would it be to others around us?

She'd been thinking, too, when we walked in the trailer. The door locked behind her, she was already stripping, preparatory to putting on her bathing suit for our afternoon swim. She got down to the "completely naked" part and stopped, waiting for me to get to the same state.

The naked embrace was wonderful. As were the kisses and the fondles. They didn't last, though, as we knew that sunlight was waning. Back out the door we went, towels in hand, holding hands. Alan 'n' Tina. "So what do YOU think? The ring thing?"

"I dunno, babe. Part of me says 'yeah, right NOW!' But then I think about what we talked about the other day, about having to live in a world where the people we want to accept us might need a little time to get used to Alan 'n' Tina."

"The ring's already around my heart, Alan. I'd love to wear your ring. And I will. But right now, in school? That might open up a lot of trouble." She smiled.

"I know," I said. "Just as long as you know how I feel..."

"But," she said, "what about when we're NOT at work or at school?" Cool blue eyes. "Our weekends 'n' stuff..."

"You know," I said, laughing, "there you go being right again..."

"You know you were thinking it, too..." Giggle. "I mean, you want to..."

I laughed. "That's our goal for the weekend. Go find us rings..."

We continued our walk to the pool, waving, saying hello to the regulars, laughing. It was indeed Alan 'n' Tina. At the pool, the towels went on two adjacent lounges and we splashed in, making our laps for the evening, ending up our exercise cooling off, hanging on the side of the pool. After a cool-down we moved to the lounges and were joined by a sixty-something couple from Ohio. They were regulars, having been at the park when Tina and I moved in. We chatted about work (mine) and retirement (theirs) and school (Tina's and their grandkid's) for a while and then they slipped into the pool and Tina and I headed back to the trailer for homework and pasta carbonara.

The homework was just about over when the carbonara hit the table. We ate, talking about her school experiences. "I'm old news," she announced. "Susan's still my friend, and there're a few kids I talk to, but now people just walk past me in the hall instead of stopping and staring."

"Yeah," I said, "that's pretty much human nature, babe. Something new and exciting will attract their attention. Another shiny object. And life's back to normal."

"Oh, I love this normal," she cooed. "I love being loved." Giggled, too. "And I love our life together. How about a game of rummy?"

And that was usually preparatory to me getting a good workout at cards. I flipped through the steno pad we used to keep score and over that last month we were tied for winning the most games. And it was, after we became intimate, a bedtime thing. She was dressed in one of my t-shirts and panties, and I was in a t-shirt and drawers, and I don't know if that get-up did anything to her, but her in a simple t-shirt, those delightful nipples poking against the cotton fabric were visual candy. We played to five hundred points, a number she reached about a hundred points ahead of me. I put the cards and scorepad up and she turned back the covers on OUR bed.

In five minutes we were naked in the soft glow of a little night light; enough light to make out her face, her eyebrows, the way her hair framed her face, the soft curve of her waist. Loving her was pure joy, sometimes soft and tender, sometimes fast, hard, wet, but always exciting. Tonight loving Tina was the perfect cap to the day, easing from consciousness to ecstasy to blissful sleep. And wonderful sleep it was, rolling over in the night, regaining semi-consciousness to find a sweet, soft female form in the dark bed beside me.