Getting Settled, Exploration, and Discovery
~~~~~~~~
It was a warm summer in late July. Katrina and I were about to celebrate our joint birthdays. I would turn 26 while she was turning 22. We had gotten reasonably-well settled in after Katrina's folks sent out her clothes and belongings.
We'd agreed to get married in early August, and have a short honeymoon before classes were scheduled to start in September right after Labor Day.
Our days were spent in our offices at school. And in getting our student assistants organized and scheduled, for helping around the pool.
One day, I overheard Katrina telling her female staff that certain limits would be enforced at the pool and in the athletic facilities. "Nobody wants any scandals around here." She told them. "And the sexual harassment statutes had to be strictly enforced, so the university could maintain its certification for competition."
She also told them carefully, though in no uncertain terms, that I was taken and off limits. "Anybody crossing that line . . . " She joked, "was in for a lot of unpleasant extra work."
The message was received loud and clear. No one wanted to spend their college career bagging up dirty socks and smelly, wet clothes for the laundry.
After dinner, we spent the evenings working out. I'd hit the weight room for my standard strength and flexibility training, with Katrina training along beside me and helping me with some of my workout.
We'd then go to the pool and swim laps. I still tried to put in my standard mile swim while she'd swim past me over and over.
She probably put in about three times the distance I did, though she didn't keep track any more and just swam for fun. I could see the satisfaction in her face every time she hit one of her turns perfectly.
The joy in her that was expressed by her swimming was remarkable. Other staff members commented on it, too. She was easily the most quickly accepted new member of the staff, even though she'd been here the shortest time.
Our nights were spent making love in every position we could accomplish. Often laughing and grinning as we tried to couple ourselves in outrageous new ways.
We really seemed to be soul-mates as well as lovers. We frequently would orgasm together, in intensively satisfying matings.
True to her word, Katrina was becoming a quieter partner. Her orgasms would make her gasp and hold her breath. And give her whole upper body a beautiful reddish blush. Other than a long 'aaah', 'mmmm', 'oooh' or a quick gasp, her climaxes were becoming very quiet. But they were highly visually entertaining.
Her head would usually be thrown back. Her breasts were thrust toward me. Her back was arched. Her arms and legs were thrown outward, sometimes quivering and shaking randomly as she gave herself to her pleasure. Her entire upper body would quiver as she came, her muscles rippling gently with her orgasm.
As she finished, she would wrap her arms around me, pull me down gently and kiss me sweetly. Unless she'd finished me, which she was quite capable of doing with her incredible internal muscle control, I would start up pumping after she'd settled until we would eventually arrive at a mutually-satisfying climax.
Our past lives were behind us and nearly forgotten. We didn't even joke about the past very often. Life was very good, and the future never looked brighter.
We planned a quiet birthday party for the coming weekend. John and Sara insisted they were going to give one for us. Katrina and I weren't really sure why.
Our marriage was scheduled to take place just a couple of weeks later. We both wanted a small wedding, with just our parents and a few close friends attending.
None of my former roommates could make it out here. So, the only person I invited was John Douglas.
Katrina invited Ruth, who surprised us both by accepting, and Sara Douglas. We offered to pay the air fare and hotel costs for Ruth and her current boyfriend to come to our wedding. And she agreed.
With such a small group, we didn't plan for any formal reception after the wedding. We all planned to dine together. Then, spend a quiet evening in a small suite we rented in the hotel, relaxing and getting to know each other better.
We rented the same small suite, for our birthday party since we only planned to invite John and Sara to help us celebrate. John because he'd been so nice to both of us. And Sara because she'd been responsible for getting us together again.
But John had insisted that he be allowed to make all the other arrangements, and Katrina and I had agreed. We'd just rent the room and give John the key.
The evening of our birthday party, we went down to the hotel to await our guests. We planned to meet them in the lobby and then were going to take them up to the room we'd rented for the night.
We'd gotten there somewhat early, so, I went and got a key from the desk. I went up to check out the room while Katrina waited down in the lobby to corral both of our guests. I just opened the door and briefly looked inside.
The room looked like a birthday party for royalty was going to occur, and I began to worry about the expense. John and Sara had insisted they would pay for everything. But it looked like they went overboard.
I returned to the lobby with Katrina and told her about the room. She started to ask me something, just as John and Sara walked in the door.
"Hi, Don. Hi, Katrina. How are you two this evening? Happy Birthday to you both!" John boomed and smiled widely.
"Yes, Happy Birthday, you two! How did you happen to end up with the same birthday anyway, Katrina? Does that help or hurt your zodiac chances?" Sara asked laughing.
"Thanks! Both of you! We're both Leos. So, I guess we're expected to fight. And that just makes the making up more fun." Katrina said grinning.
"Yes, thanks, John and Sara. John, I took a look at the room upstairs. I hope you didn't go broke, setting up our little party." I said seriously.
"Don't worry about the expense, Don. A long time ago one of our geologists, Ben Fuller, who's a good friend of mine, told me to buy stock in Standard Oil, back when it was cheap. I did, and forgot about it for years. When I checked up on it years later, I found I'd gotten rich. That's unusual for a university professor." John said laughing.
"Well, okay. I just thought the layout looked awfully nice, for just the four of us. But I won't worry about the cost any more. I'll just try to enjoy the evening and let Standard Oil pay the bill." I joked. We all laughed and headed to the elevator.
Arriving at the room, John and Sara asked to be able to enter first. "Just a little sort of surprise," John said.
I figured he had some gift or something hidden in a bedroom that he wanted to get out. So, we waited for a minute in the hall.
When he called through the door to come in, we entered to see a room teeming with people. Several voices called out together, "Surprise!"
Katrina was more stunned than I was. She stood there looking over at her parents while I looked over at mine. How had they gotten here so fast? We planned to invite them for the wedding. But that was still a couple of weeks off.
We went on in. Katrina went over and hugged her mother while I did the same to mine. I shook hands with my dad. Then I went and introduced him and my mother to Katrina's parents. They shook hands like old friends, which relieved me a lot since we come from different ends of town.
Ruth was there with her new boyfriend, who she introduced to Katrina after she finished hugging her. She introduced him to me, too. He seemed to fit with Ruth quite well. I saw them staring at each others' eyes several times over the course of the evening.
I walked over to a small athletic-looking girl, who seemed to be standing by herself. "You have to be Judy." I told her smiling.
"Yeah. I'm Katrina's roommate from the trials. We've talked over the phone. But I'm happy to meet you in person. I love seeing Katrina and you together. Looks like you took my advice! And did as well as you could! Happy Birthday to you two, too!" she said, giggling and grinning.
Katrina walked up then and hugged her. "How's the co-conspirator doing this fine evening?" She said and giggled.
Judy laughed and said, "From the news I've received lately, it seems like the conspiracy went well. And this participant feels just fine."
She turned to me and said, "You look like the results did you pretty well, too!" She grinned.
"They did! Over and over again, they did! Judy, I'm going to let you and Katrina get caught up and go see whom all John invited to our 'quiet little party'. He, maybe with Sara's help, is apparently the one responsible for everybody being here tonight." I said and joked, "Katrina. You, Judy, Sara and John could go into business together, planning various operations and schemes. You'd all get rich!" They both laughed as I left them talking.
I walked over to where John was talking to the football coach and his wife. His wife was slender, tall, and blonde. The coach said she had degrees in English Literature and was on the staff, too. Several of the older coaches were attending with their wives. When Katrina rejoined me, John introduced both of us to all of them.
I went to talk to my mom and dad again, unsure how they were planning to pay for two trips to the city. With hotels and air fares it would be expensive.
Dad said they were staying, for the next two weeks, courtesy of the university. John had called him and asked him if he'd be willing to give a talk on current real estate investment prospects, dad's specialty. And dad said he would.
John told him the university offered to pay a seminar fee and full expenses for outside speakers. So, the whole trip would be free for them.
I later found out he did the same thing for Katrina's parents. They could afford to pay for the trip themselves. But it was still a nice gesture.
During the evening, Katrina and I were talking alone to Ruth and Sara, who obviously knew each other. It turned out that Katrina was right about how Sara knew she'd want the job out here. So, that cleared up one mystery that I'd been thinking about.
Ruth was obviously very pleased that Katrina and I had gotten back together. Ruth and I were the only two people, whoever referred to Katrina as T-Kat, and then only in private.
She told us she'd cried for two days after we'd separated. She said she'd lost a lot of sleep trying to think of some way to bring us back together.
