PRELUDE: SPRING
"You're so adorable with your glasses," Caryn sighed between moans as she humped Dave with delightful abandon in his narrow bed.
"I feel silly wearing them when I'm not wearing anything else!" Dave replied.
"Oh, you know you love seeing these as well as you can feel them!" Caryn placed both her hands over his hands, which were massaging her large breasts expertly. "You're brilliant at that, by the way!"
"Can't believe you were ashamed of them!"
"Can't believe you were ashamed of being able to see!"
They both dissolved into laughter at the joyful memory of how their miserable hang-ups -- hers about her bra size, his about his glasses -- had brought them together in the sweetest way. For all her consternation about her breasts -- and she still didn't like them very much, except at a moment like this -- she loved how Dave paid them so much attention when they made love. His gentle hands all over them felt far better than letting them bounce around as her rocking grew intense every time she was close to coming.
She was close to coming for the second time that afternoon -- and he for the first -- when the garage door opener began rumbling. All at once Caryn came to a stop and they looked at one another in horror, their pleasure forgotten even as she still had him clenched tightly inside her. "Shit, my dad!" Dave exclaimed. "His bowling team must've canceled!"
Caryn pulled off him and stumbled off to the side of the bed, where all their clothes lay in a heap. She pulled her jeans and top on without bothering with her underwear, and he followed just a beat behind. Still zipping up his pants, Dave rushed to the bedroom door and opened it just in time to hear the door from the garage opening.
To both their surprise, it wasn't Dave's father who called out to them. It was his girlfriend, Francine, and she seemed as surprised to see them as they were to see her. "Dave?!"
"Hi, Francine," Dave said, and Caryn appeared at his side a moment too late to hide her presence; she smiled hello nervously as well.
"Caryn, hi!" she said. "I thought you two would be at the library."
"We were having trouble concentrating there," Dave lied. "We just got back and we were about to go study in the kitchen." Even he could hear the lie in his voice, Caryn was sure of that, and she was quite sure she could see in Francine's eyes that she knew the truth.
But she smiled through any suspicions she may have had. "I'm sorry if I startled you," she said. "I just wanted to pop in before your father got home, to..." Francine looked a bit flustered, and just as uncomfortable as Caryn felt. "Oh, Dave, congratulations on Vassar! That's a great school."
"Thanks," said Dave. "I'm still pretty surprised I got in."
"No one else is," Caryn said. "Have you noticed that, Francine? Everyone knows what a brain he is, but he doesn't?"
"I'm afraid I have," Francine said. "How do you feel about him going to a school with mostly girls, by the way?"
"I hear they're mostly gay anyway," Caryn joked, kissing Dave's cheek to apologize for the joke all his friends had been tormenting them both with ever since he'd been accepted. Dave, to his credit, only laughed this time.
"And you're going to California, Caryn?" Francine asked.
"Got into Davis, wait-listed at Berkeley," she said. "I'm hoping I can transfer next year if I don't get it this time."
"Good for you!" Francine said with a wistful smile. Caryn felt like kissing her for passing over in silence the fact that it meant she and Dave would be a continent apart come August -- another thing everyone had been reminding them of. She was determined to enjoy the precious months they had left.
"Well, I guess we should get to studying?" Dave said to Caryn. "Unless we'll be in your way in the kitchen, Francine?"
"Not at all!" Francine said. "Just...no need to cook tonight, okay?"
"Are you cooking?" Dave asked over his shoulder from back inside the bedroom, where he'd gone to retrieve his books. Caryn followed suit.
"No," Francine said. "I'd like to...well, I'm hoping we'll all have reason to go out and celebrate. And you too, Caryn, if you want to come along."
"Celebrate what?" Dave asked, and then he noticed for the first time the shiny department store bag clutched in Francine's hand. All at once he put two and two together. "Wait, you're going to propose to Dad?!"
"He's never going to ask me, is he?" Francine said with a wry smile. "Once bitten, you know?"
"Oh, man!" Dave threw his arms around Francine. "That's wonderful!"
"It is if he says yes," Francine agreed as she hugged him back. "I'm certainly glad to see you approve. I know I'll never be your mother, Dave, but..."
"Never mind that!" Dave said. "She broke his heart and you put it back together. Congratulations."
"Save that for if he says yes!" Francine warned.
"He will. He's afraid to ask you himself, but he will."
Caryn, to her shame, had no choice but to also hug Francine, meaning there was no way she could avoid revealing to her that she wasn't wearing a bra. She contented herself with the assumption that, given what Francine had just revealed, their secret was safe with her.
"She knows!" Caryn hissed a few minutes later when they had settled themselves at the kitchen table, with Francine now busy getting the bedroom ready for the big moment. "She must!"
"She won't tell Dad," Dave said. "Not after what she just told us."
"Still, so embarrassing!" Caryn said. "And that reminds me..." She stood up. "I'd better at least get my bra back on before your dad gets home!"
"Aren't you glad to know you can go without it? At least for a few minutes?" Dave couldn't help laughing.
"It's a good thing I already love you, you jerk," Caryn smacked his head playfully. Then, remembering how he'd told her he'd once been afraid of her, she leaned over and kissed him on the lips and let him play with her dangling breasts for a few wonderful seconds.
"She must've known!" Caryn groused on the phone to Audrey later that night, after the very festive dinner.
"So what?" Audrey asked. "Do you think they don't know you're doing it?"
"They must," Caryn conceded. "But I can't imagine they're too happy knowing we did it in their house!"
"Where else are you supposed to do it?" Audrey asked. "In a car? Outside?"
"Good point," Caryn said. "I just -- I figure they'd like to at least pretend we don't do it, and we made that impossible today. Francine must've noticed I wasn't wearing a bra, and of course she'd know why."
"There's the smell, too," Audrey pointed out. "Once you know that just-had-sex smell, you can't miss it."
"I hadn't even thought of that!" Caryn said. "I hope Dave doesn't get punished."
"Mr. McCarter's probably much too happy now to bother with that," Audrey said. "Oh, wait -- he did say yes, didn't he?"
"Of course he did!" Only now did Caryn realize she hadn't even mentioned anything that had happened after Francine got home. "He did, and then he took us all out to dinner, just like Francine wanted. Not a word about what Dave and I'd been up to. So there is that. Oh my God, you know what else?!"
"He let you and Dave drink champagne?" Audrey asked hopefully.
