Chapter 7

I showered and shaved and pulled on the fresh pair of boxers I brought in with me. Refreshed in body as well as mind, I went back to our room. Paul was just dragging out of bed.

“Paul, are you going to make it? Karen and I are meeting for breakfast.”

He mumbled. “Yeah, I’ll be there in a short. Save me a seat.”

“That’s never a problem for breakfast.” I left grinning.

As I left the room and walked out, I called Karen. “Good morning, my love. I’m headed your way on foot.”

“Great. I’ll be downstairs by the time you get here. Melissa is pretty rocky.” She chuckled. “Kiss you in a moment. Bye.”

I walked into the common room and she was waiting dressed just like she had been Friday night. I didn’t have the tie but did have slacks and my blazer. I almost regretted not having worn the tie. My eyes brightened and I smiled widely when I saw her. She is so gorgeous in that outfit! I walked up to her and kissed her softly but long with lots of body. When we broke apart, we were both breathless. I smiled some more. “Let’s go eat.” She took my hand and we walked to the cafeteria.

As we walked, I said, “I have something to show you. I pulled my phone out and flipped it open. I showed her the picture of Melissa and Paul.

She looked amused and chuckled. “When did you take this?”

“On the way to my room last night. It was at least two hours later when Paul got in. He’s not doing too well this morning either.”

“I guess the kidding is over from them.”

“Paul says that he didn’t do anything.”

“Brad, look at where his hand is!”

“Oh! He’s palming Melissa’s breast.” I chuckled. “She wasn’t wearing a bra either but she’s not as firm as you either.”

“Don’t tell her that. It would hurt her feelings.”

“I won’t. She’s good people.” We grabbed trays and selected food. No eggs today but pancakes are good. I grabbed a bunch with plenty of sausages. Karen put some fruit on my tray in a cup. We grabbed coffees and picked a table. There were less people this morning than Saturday morning. Right after we sat down and before we started eating, we reached across the table for each other’s hand. I prayed and we said, “amen,” together. We smiled at each other and began to eat. I ate everything on the tray, even the fruit. I felt good and basked in the looks of guys when they walked by us.

“Brad, you’ve said something about guys looking at you and being jealous because I’m with you. Did you ever think that particular street runs both ways. That’s the second girl who has passed this table looking daggers at me. I don’t even know her.”

I looked up and saw Melissa and Paul walking in holding hands. I whispered, “You won’t believe this! Melissa and Paul are holding hands!”

A few moments later, they came over with their trays of food and coffee. They both took big gulps of coffee. I said, “Paul, I guess you won’t be kidding me. I beat you back to our room by a couple of hours.”

He looked over at me. “I was just sleeping on that couch. Nothing happened. You two are still the hot ones.”

“We aren’t the only hot ones. We saw you two holding hands when you walked in.”

Karen looked at Melissa. “Holding hands in public! I wonder what they’re doing in private.” She chuckled.

Melissa started to object to her statement. Then she started to deny what was happening. She wisely settled on silence. Paul, on the other hand, had never learned or practiced discretion. This morning was no exception. He said, “Nothing has happened or is going on.”

“Paul, you are caught in a little untruth about last night. You might try the truth.”

Melissa got into the fray. She didn’t see Karen grinning at her wickedly. “He’s telling the truth.”

Karen said, “Were you holding his hand this morning?”

“Well, yes.”

“Why?”

“We found that we liked each other while sitting on the couch and talking.”

“That’s what you call it.”

“Of course, nothing was going on.”

Karen bored in. “No authorized touching was happening?”

“No!”

“Brad, show her!” I pulled my phone and pulled up the picture. I let Melissa and Paul both see it. I then enlarged one part to show where his hand was. Melissa and Paul looked at that. They then looked at each other and blushed a deep red. Karen said, “I heard you go to your room about fifteen minutes after Brad left. I thought you would come talk to me but you had company! Then Brad told me this morning that Paul didn’t get to their room until after two. I know that Patty was gone for the weekend.”

Melissa blushed even deeper red. Karen finished it off. “I can add one and one and get two as well as anyone. It may be that we need to chaperon you and Paul.”

Melissa and Paul looked at each other with sort of ironic smiles. Melissa said, “Okay, Karen, we’re an item, too.”

“Thank you! It’s nice to know that we can all look at each other honestly.”

Paul didn’t say anything. He just grinned. I said, “Eat up. We have to leave in fifteen minutes to be on time.” We finished eating and cleared our trays. Melissa and Paul were now a going concern with coffee and food powering them through their exhaustion from the night before.

We went to church in my car making it in time for our Sunday school class. The church wasn’t large but had a nice college age class since it was the closest Methodist church to the college. Missus and Mister Draper, Gladys and Pete, were our teachers. They were good people and genuinely seemed to like us. The class was popular and sizable considering the relative size of the church. The four of us came in holding hands with our partners. Karen and I made Melissa and Paul go first.

Pete saw them first and said, “Well, well, it looks like Paul has someone with him. Please, Paul, introduce us to your young lady.”

Paul was nervous. I don’t think he had ever introduced a girl before anywhere. “Class, this is my very good friend, Melissa Gordon. She is a student with me at the college.”

Pete said, “You have great taste. She is a very good-looking lady. I guess she takes pity on poor, lonely students. Melissa, you are quite welcome here. Thank you for coming.”

They moved out of the way and Karen and I walked in. There was a collective gasp from everyone which included a couple of quiet “wow’s” from the guys. Pete said, “Brad, I see you have a young lady with you, too. Would you please introduce her to the class.”

“Pete, it is my pleasure. Class, please meet Miss Karen Mason, my future fiancé. I’ve just got to catch her in a weak moment after I get a ring.” Karen grabbed me and kissed me soundly.

There was some laughter. Pete said, “It looks like you have her in that weak moment. Try to keep her that way until you can get a ring.” Everyone laughed happily and we blushed.

Gladys said, “Good news should be shared and that looks like good news to me.” We blushed some more while the class laughed with good humor. We sat down and Gladys taught the class. My mind was whirling because what I said was just now sinking in. The more I thought about it though, the more I wanted it to happen.

The class ended with fifteen minutes before church started as usual. Karen grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the classroom and the building. Her eyes were shining but she said, “Talk!”

I went to one knee. “Karen Mason, my wonderful, beautiful, intelligent love, will you give me the honor of agreeing to marry me?”

“Of course you big lug! Now, get up before you get your pants dirty and kiss me.” I stood back up and kissed her soundly pulling her to me and holding her tightly. “Brad, I’m gonna get you. Catching me in a weak moment is a weird way to ask a girl to marry you. I love you.” She began to laugh and we held onto each other to keep from falling. Melissa and Paul had followed us out along with most of the class to watch the blood flow or whatever may happen. I had a happy grin on my face. My only recurring thought was that she said “yes!”

After a few more moments, Paul said, “Break it up, you two. We have to go into church.” We went into the sanctuary with our arms around each other. We sat down with Melissa next to Karen and Paul next to Melissa.