Author's note:
This is, in all its seven parts and their many chapters, one very,
very
long story. If long stories bother you, I suggest you read something else.
No part of this story is written so as to stand on its own. I strongly suggest that you start with
the beginning of Part 1
and read sequentiallyâgiving up at any point you choose, of course.
All sexual activity portrayed anywhere in this story involves only people at least eighteen years old.
In fact, nowhere in Part 6 is there any explicit sexual activity. (This should surprise no one who has read Part 5.)
This entire story is posted only on literotica.com. Any other public posting without my permission in writing is a violation of my copyright.
Friday morning the alarm dragged me out from a deep sleep. It seemed to take a long time, but then I hurried for the bathroom. When I got back, Ellen was in her robe and ready to go off, with running clothes in hand. I got dressed while she was in the bathroom, then went back in and shaved after she emerged. That part was much simpler when we could shave and get dressed in the same rooms. One more thing to look forward to in half a yearânot really all that important, though.
We got to the gym a little before they actually unlocked the doors. It was cold enough out that this was not a good thing, but it wasn't long enough to be a big problem. We ran, separately but together, for a reasonably normal amount of time. I tried to push my speed a little more than I had been with Kellyâbut then again, I'd probably lost some while we were with Ellen's family. We spent time with weights, too.
Even so, we got home and got our showers before my parents put in an appearance. I considered, checked for ingredients, and went with a cinnamon coffee cake. I did check Mom's cookbook for recipes, just to verify that I wasn't forgetting anything, and for proportions. This wasn't something I had made often enough to remember all the details for sure. Ellen made coffee while I did that. With all the beating, it was kind of a labor-intensive, and then it took a while to bake. Ellen and I just sat while it was in the oven. I used a cake pan rather than bothering with a bundt pan.
Mom and Dad appeared, looking sleepy and tousled, shortly before the coffee cake came out. Well, there had been a few sounds from the direction of their room, a while earlier. Anyway, when I served the coffeecake, I said, "Mom, this took most of your sour cream. If you had it on hand for something specific, I need to go get you more."
She went into the fridge and looked. "There's enough left, I think, but I'm glad you mentioned it. I'll get some more." Then, when she had taken a few bites, she said, "Phil, this is really good. I didn't know you were up to something like this."
Ellen looked really surprised. "Mrs. Morris, I was taken aback to find out how well Phil cooks. Way, way better than I can. He's giving me lessons, and a friend too. For this he used your cookbook, but I think he changed the amounts some." I nodded and shrugged. "But I've seen him produce really, really delicious dinners from scratch, quickly, without referring to anything, lots of times. Sooner or later, I'm going to have to cook for us because he won't have time, and I've got to learn better before then."
I said, "I didn't have any occasion to cook when you were home, but from very early, Grandmom made me help her in the kitchen, most days. She told me what to do, but she showed me the recipes and said why things were the way they were, and why she made changes. I'm no gourmet, but I got used to really good food, and I did learn from her. I forgot a lot in four years, though."
"You're a good cook, Julie, but you know Mom was outstanding," Dad said. "I think she was too busy with kids to try to teach us much, the boys anyway. But if she really taught Phil, he's lucky. Most guys fresh out of high school just go for survivalâor dorm food, which sometimes is good and sometimes is just survival food."
I said, "I had four years of dorm food without once having to cook anything, not even to boil water for tea. Chem lab was about the closest I got to cooking. And the food at school was really pretty good, but for the most part I like cooking, and I think I'm pretty good."
Ellen put in, "I wish having Phil teach me didn't take as much of his time as just doing himself would, or more. With taekwondo and some other things, he's shorter on study time than I am, and that's going to get worse. So he studies while I cook, but I have to interrupt him for help or advice, way too often. On the other hand, there are a few things I can make about as well as he can, so I can cook sometimes now as well as trying to learn. Over the rest of the year, that will help a lot."
Dad said, "Why are you doing taekwondo?"
I looked at Ellen, and decided to bend the truth a little. "Something happened at school, which we'll be telling you about, about three weeks after the last thing we told you about last night. Though it was a couple of weeks more before it became public knowledge. Someone attacked one of the staff members with a knife, and the man defended himself with some kind of martial arts throw. Ellen has it in her head that I may need to be able to defend myself against a serious attack of some kind, someday, and she's afraid of it, enough that I agreed to learn something like that. A friend introduced me to a student martial arts club, and people's recommendations for what I wantedâself-defense, not exhibition stuffâwere either karate or taekwondo,"