On our third date, after the movie, we took the street car back to the hospital grounds, but instead of going to the nurse's quarters as I expected, she took my hand and led me to a park bench overlooking Elliot Bay. At night, the bench was in the shadow of some shrubbery and out of view from the windows of her quarters.
I expected we'd cuddle and neck as we had done on our earlier dates, but Kathy was ready to go further. "It's about time we got to know each other better," she said, after we had suitably warmed ourselves with open mouthed kisses and a good bit of tongue sucking. "Just where did you get hurt?"
"Well, you remember; I was on crutches out at the Naval hospital." I saw her nod in the moonlight. "I got hit in my upper right thigh, almost too close to my genitals."
"Where? Can I see?"
I would have opened my pants to show her, but my damned cock was already engorged and embarrassingly erect, so I tried to stall her. "Some other time," I said.
"OK." She reached up and pulled my head down to meet her lips. I was trying to will my cock to subside while concentrating on the way her wicked tongue was tickling the corners of my mouth when I felt her hand brush the front of my pants.
I was mortified. "I'm sorry, Kathy. I can't help it when we sit down and neck."
"Do I always have that effect on you?" she asked.
I squirmed uncomfortably. Oh, God! She's more innocent than I thought! Actually, Kathy was playing with my head, but I was much too self-conscious at the time to consider that possibility.
"Yes, just about," I said.
"Does it happen with other girls, too?"
Now I was really in a dilemma! I certainly wasn't going to confess that Bonnie and I had reached a stage where she let me play with her bare breasts while she held my cock and jacked me off, or that I had actually fucked Shelly. On the other hand, I didn't want to appear entirely naive, either.
"What makes you think there are other girls?"
"Aren't there always other girls?"
I didn't know how to answer that, so I countered with "What about other men?"
Again, she surprised me because this was an era when virginity in single women was expected and valued. "Yes," she said slowly, "there have been other men. But right now, you're the only one."
She had withdrawn her hand, and now sat silently while she waited to see how I would receive this bit of news. As I later came to realize, this candor was entirely characteristic of her. If you wanted to know something, all you had to do was ask. You might not like it, but you'd get an honest answer. She never pulled her punches.
I didn't fully understand the significance of her remark until later, but I had sense enough, as I read her body language, to realize something important had just taken place. There was only one possible response. Silently, I gathered her in my arms, and tenderly kissed her mouth, her eyelids, and the tip of her nose. I was surprised to find that her eyelids were moist and her cheeks were wet. I kissed her again, and softly stroked her hair.
"Just you and me," I whispered. "That sounds good."
The nurses who lived in the quarters had to conform to a midnight curfew because that's when the door was locked. It was time for her to sign in. I took her to the door, and kissed her goodnight. Without fully realizing it, Kathy and I had taken a huge step.
Kathy carried a bulky package on our next date. When I asked about it, she smiled and said, "You'll see." I suggested a movie after dinner, but she had other ideas. "I have a surprise for you," she said.
Mystified, I followed her to a street car stop where we boarded a car going in the opposite direction from the hospital. We were near the edge of downtown Seattle when she reached up and pulled the stop cord.