The drive from Marta's home office back to my apartment took only about half an hour. Fortunately, traffic was light.
By the time I pulled into my parking space at the apartment, I was feeling surprisingly invigorated. Marta had found no plagiarism concerns in my thesis, and then in an effort to help explain both my 'gift' and the reason for Emily's aggressive sexual behavior toward me on Lorraine's front porch days earlier, she had given me a very personal introduction to the ancient Asian sexual practice of shifuku. It left me drained, then wrung out. And yet, walking from the parking lot toward my apartment, I felt remarkably refreshed.
Walking past the apartment complex's mailboxes, I stopped to check my snailmail. Only one envelope β from Sharon Madison. I opened it and saw the two concert tickets she had promised to send. There was also a note from her. All it said was, "I hope you and Bethany have a good time at the concert and an even better time afterwards ;>). -S-" The note brought a smile to my face. And just the mention of Bethany's name put a twitch in my trousers as well.
Once inside my apartment, I set the tickets on my table next to the computer.
I knew I needed to shower, but my first thought was to call Jamie and share Marta's comments about my thesis. Jamie had reviewed it for content, so she was entitled to be the first to hear the good news about what Marta said.
"Hello. This is Jamie Devlin. Please leave your name and number and I'll return your call."
I glanced at the digital clock on my cell phone. It read 6:19 p.m. Dinner time for many people. Then I remembered that Jamie had said this entire week was going to be hectic because of a new Department of Defense project she had contracted to complete. She probably ducked out to grab something to go to bring back to her prosthetics design laboratory and fabrication facility.
I decided to take advantage of the time to take a quick shower. I shed my clothes and tossed them in the hamper. Twenty minutes later, I stepped out of the shower, refreshed and clean. Even though the early evening was cool outdoors, my apartment remained warm from the unseasonably hot day. Rather than get dressed while still warm from the shower, I just wrapped the towel around my waist.
Wearing only the towel, I picked up my cell phone from the vanity, walked out of the bathroom, and straight to the front window to close the vertical blinds. With the sliding window closed, there was no danger of a breeze blowing the blinds open so passers-by could see in. My complete privacy assured, I removed the damp towel, wadded it up, and tossed it back into the bathroom and onto the floor. I don't make it a regular practice of being nude in my apartment, but during the hot months it helps cool me down after a shower. Now the lingering daytime warmth of the apartment felt just right on my unclothed body.
I went toward the kitchen to find something to eat as a light dinner. Just as I reached for the fridge handle, my cell phone rang.
"Hello, this is Tom."
"Hi, Tom, it's Jamie returning your call. I took a break from my project and dashed out to get some Vietnamese take-out when you called. What's going on?"
"I met with Marta Cruz this afternoon to go over the results of her plagiarism testing on my thesis. I thought you might want to hear what she said."
"Thank you for being so thoughtful, Tom. But I'll bet I already have a good idea what she found β or more likely, didn't find."
"Yeah, you were right all along, Jamie. She came to the same conclusion you had. There weren't any concerns. But it was still interesting learning how her software works. And again, I appreciate your and Marta's willingness to help me out by checking my work."
"Oh, you're more than welcome, Tom. And after this new DoD project is done, I'll expect you to show your gratitude with some of your special handling."
I chuckled at her reference to 'special handling'. When Jamie and I started having sex, I wasn't surprised to find that her manually masturbating me to orgasm was remarkably satisfying to me. What did surprise me was that my pleasure and her's was enhanced by my skillfully stroking her cock at the same time. We had come to refer to it as 'special handling' time.
"So, how is your DoD project going?"
"It's interesting to say the least. Completely unclassified, by the way. It has to do with looking at present management of military wounds. Everything from pain management in the field to eventual prosthetic design and application during rehab. As you might guess, the area they want my input on is the latter.
It's more of a think-tank type project than a physical device one. They're finally beginning to recognize that initial treatment on the battlefield can contribute to not only saving a life or limb or function but also toward helping a wounded warrior adjust physically and emotionally to a prosthetic. That's the focus of my input for this project."
"If you can tell me this, I'm curious. Do you see your prosthetic phallus project here having any application in what DoD is doing now?"
"I'm glad you asked, Tom. As you might expect, the prosthetic side of military wound management has focused on extremities amputations and deformities. But with advances in various sensors and processing their output, DoD wants to look at more prosthetic device possibilities for a wider range of injuries. They see what they call quality of life prosthetics as significantly restoring emotional health to ward off the devastating emotional effects of TBI and PTSD.
To answer your question directly, Tom, yes, I do. But let me remind you that it is our project, not just mine. Before I talk to any outsiders specifically about it, you and I need to sit down and meet as a group with Kim, Lorraine, Amanda, Marta, and Emily to discuss it. With our schedules as busy as they are, getting everyone together in one room will be challenging."
"Incidentally, Jamie, one of the things Marta told me was that Emily is over at the state capitol taking some required continuing legal education classes. On their own, Emily and Lorraine decided it would be a good opportunity for Lorraine to bring her prosthetic phallus and join Emily there. I think Marta said they should return Wednesday β tomorrow."
"Yes, Kim and Marta had told me that was happening, too. I'm going to hold off on the color and temperature revisions on Kim's phallus until after we've talked with Lorraine and Emily. We'll also postpone further design on Amanda's phallus until we get their comments.
Isn't Friday the day you plan on turning in the pre-publication final drafts of your thesis to your committee?"
"Yes. Since you and Marta didn't suggest any revisions, I'll take an original to The Copy Store tomorrow."
"Tom, you might want to do something that will sound like more work but will pay big dividends. Your thesis committee probably gave you a written instruction prescribing every detail of your thesis' presentation copies. You know, type of paper and its size, type font and size, margins, final binding, stuff like that."
"Yeah, they did."