The Ex-Mermaid, chapter 2
This story begins immediately after "The Ex-Mermaid."
~~~
Cathy smiled sweetly at us. "Not every time, though. Any couple needs their own time, whatever else they might be into." She stood and dressed, then left after giving us each a little kiss on the forehead.
I was dreamy with post-orgasmic hormones. I just snuggled tighter to Mike and closed my eyes. Mike, too, was tired.
~~~~~~
I blinked. It must have been a couple hours later, from the way the sunlight was slanting low through the west-facing window in my bathroom. After I'd peed and flushed, I washed up and went and got dressed. Since my purple panties had been worn for only a few minutes this morning, I slid them on and finished dressing. My boyfriend (was that the right word? Lover? Significant other?) was sitting up groggily. I walked over and stood before him. He leaned over and hugged my waist as I stroked his hair.
"Now what?"
"Oh, Mike. I have no idea. I just know I want to be with you. I've never had a real boyfriend, obviously, and we did get off to a very fast start. But it feels right to me. You fit places in my mind and in my heart. And you sure fit great other places too." I winked and stroked his idle penis, lying there in his lap.
"That needs to rest up some before we try to do anything. It's had quite the workout."
"Well, put it away for now and get recharged. We still have eleven condoms left and we're going to use all of them." I was pretty hungry, having walked out of breakfast early.
"Can I use your shower? I'm feeling a little skunky." He lifted an arm and sniffed his pit. Yeah, maybe his delightful smell was getting a little strong.
"Of course, feel free." He was going to be there again, I hoped, many times. I figured I would like to join him some of those times. This time, though, we'd already had sex, barely knew each other, and it was fine to give him the space. I couldn't believe that I first set eyes on him less than twenty-four hours earlier, and now I was fantasizing about screwing him in the shower.
While he was washing up, I made the bed and tidied up some. Cathy had left wearing my sweats, and had borrowed a hoodie instead of her soaked T-shirt. She'd also taken the blanket that had been her costume. I picked the last few fish-scale sequins off my mermaid skirt and decided I'd better hand-wash it to get the costume adhesive off. It said "Machine Washable" but I figured it had to survive the abuse if I was ever going to wear it again, and I didn't want stray sequins clogging the machine anyway.
Mike emerged wearing yesterday's clothes and toweling his hair. "I want to go home and brush my teeth, get into some clean clothes. Is it OK if I come back after?"
"Please. I really enjoy having you around. Bill is over at a friend's watching the football game with Abby. He said they'd be back home sometime after it was over, but probably not hungry."
"Want me to bring some Vietnamese? I have a craving for Phong's egg rolls."
"That is the best idea you've had ... well, since we woke up. Can you get some of the curry beef, too?"
"You got it. No food issues, allergies, gluten, anything?"
"Michael O'Connor, you are the sweetest guy I have ever met. No allergies or anything. As an omnivore, I will eat anything and everything. Thank you for checking."
"Great, I didn't want to order something you couldn't share. Anything else I should pick up?"
"Two things. Your toothbrush and a change of clothes. You won't be needing pajamas." Yesterday, Normal Maria would not have said any such thing. Horny Maria might have said it, but today was different. After the magic of last night and this morning, Normal Maria had merged with Horny Maria and Brave Maria. And Unified Maria was simply stating facts. I could have made it sound like a flirty invitation, but that wasn't me. Mike and I would be spending a lot of time together, and I wanted to be practical about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike walked home by autopilot, his brain churning. Maria was unlike any woman he'd ever met. College flings were different, he supposed, but even Beth, the one girl he'd dated for half of Freshman year and through sophomore year, had been somehow less interesting. From this perspective, of course. He'd been heartbroken when she dumped him for a summer fling, but before then had thought Beth was the greatest.
Somehow, he'd gone from "Abby thought you should meet her housemate" to having sex - after a mind-blowing evening that Mike would have remembered for conversation alone. He'd even hooked up with Cathy Johnson, a fantasy from his first semester at Adamson finally fulfilled. And not only that, Cathy and Maria were such good friends that they had even been in the same room, while Mike had screwed each of them with the other watching. No, correction, he had screwed with Cathy. With Maria, he had made love. The L-word fit here. He was falling in love. And he wanted to keep falling, falling into Maria's eyes, into her mind, into her arms, and yes, into her bed.
He was pretty sure Maria felt the same way. After all, her end of the conversation was equally great. She kept talking about magic. And she'd invited him back to spend the night. And she wanted to finish off the box of condoms she'd bought.
Mike was a hardcore science guy and didn't think there was any such thing as magic. But last night, wow. Something was in the air. Maybe the giddiness of infatuation, but that giddiness had begun even before he sat down on the couch next to a gorgeous mermaid. Whatever it had been, his feelings were powerful and growing.
Mike changed into fresh clothes, then stuffed another clean set into a backpack. He followed that with his travel toiletries kit and finally his laptop. He had done exactly zero work since finishing up those quizzes before the party. And he didn't feel like doing any tonight, but he wanted to be able to read up on some literature from
Astrophysical Journal
, and try to incorporate a newly published data set into his brown dwarf stellar evolution simulations.
His stomach reminded him that he'd eaten nothing since brunch. Well, nothing but Maria's amazing pussy, he grinned to himself. But that satisfied his balls, not his belly. Phong's eggroll and Hawaiian shrimp with rice noodle was calling to him. He pulled up their web ordering page on his phone and placed a pickup order, remembering an extra egg roll and the curry beef for Maria.
Twenty to thirty minutes, said the app. That was plenty of time, Phong's was ten minutes away. He drove to Phong's, and on the way stopped at a quality but expensive grocery where he bought a rose and some fancy chocolate.
Mike brought the take-out back to Maria's. She had set the table for two, with wine glasses and a candlestick. He was pretty glad he'd gotten the rose for her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After Mike went home, I sat down on the edge of my bed. My head was spinning from last night, and a warm glow spread from my nether regions. The air was no longer charged with magic, but it wasn't like it had dissipated. More like the magic had stayed around long enough to get everything started, then decided to move on after a job well done.
I was a changed person. Somehow, Normal Maria, the nervous, shy, over-analyzing virgin, had co-opted Brave Maria and Horny Maria to become New Maria. She could tell that some of her internal stresses had come from Normal Maria keeping the other Marias under control. Now that New Maria was in charge, I was confident. I was comfortable with myself and my body's desires. I was accepting of my figure as one that was beautiful, to the right eyes. And those eyes were Mike's.
I hoped that would continue for a long time. I could fall in love with Mike, maybe really live with him. Even if that didn't work out, I knew we would always be able to talk to each other. I had no idea what the relationship might turn into. I had precisely zero experience with loving relationships - Mom tolerated Dad, got along with him OK, but they were roommates more than lovers. They had "had to get married" after I was conceived. Hooray for the Pope, I guess, because they never divorced, either. But my parents were not exactly role models for love. And Mom had made it clear that sex, or its consequences anyway, had made her life miserable. I didn't doubt that they loved me, as best they could and befitting their parental obligations, but I was pretty sure they didn't love each other.
Since I had no idea what to do, I set the table for a romantic dinner for us. I put out wine glasses, but didn't pour anything yet. What goes with Vietnamese beef curry, anyway? I made sure all the flatware matched, laid out folded napkins and plates, got out some big serving spoons, and put a candlestick in the center. Whether or not we'd even sit at the table, or eat in front of the TV watching a dumb comedy, that didn't matter. It was about Mike, and about being happy together.
Not long after I'd finished, Mike returned with a loaded backpack and the sack from Phong's. He'd also bought a single red rose, which was the most romantic gesture. I snagged an empty olive jar from the recycling and rinsed it out to serve as a vase. Mike parked the take-out sack on the table and turned to receive my hug.
"It would be sappy to say I missed you, but I'm glad to be back here again."
"I'm glad you're here too. But I'm starving! Let's eat. We might need the fuel later." I winked at him.
Mike unpacked the egg rolls and their dipping sauce, my curry, and his food, which was rice noodles with shrimp and pineapple in a fusion Asian/Hawaiian dish.
"Oh, that looks pretty yummy."
"You can try some. It's my favorite order from there. I think I mentioned something about liking seafood." Mike winked.
"Well, I've heard about the reputed effects when a man eats lots of pineapple. We'll have to test that."
"For the cause of science, I shall offer myself up to your experimental work. No sacrifice is too great." His pompous expression and voice quickly fell away, and he gave me a wink and a smile. "And I bet this experiment will be great."
I loved it that we could be so flirtatious and funny about sex. That was new to me. At home, sex was shameful and dirty. Cathy, of course, loved innuendo and sexual humor. Most of that, I had sort of understood objectively. But sharing dirty jokes with a woman was way different from bantering with a man who could and would put those quips into deeds. It was practically foreplay.
We finished eating and I loaded the dishwasher while Mike put the leftovers in the fridge. Working around each other in the kitchen was awkward at first, but became almost a dance. When we'd walk by each other, a glance or a brush of hand on hip (okay, butt too) was our communication and the choreography became smooth and efficient.
