I went over to Julia's house at least twice or three times a week. She couldn't seem to get enough of me! Maybe it was just because of her long drought: the moment she understood that she could have a guy in her bed on a regular basis, she jumped at the chance, like a kid in candy store. I was happy to oblige. Over the weeks I started to like her quite a lot, and she became much friendlier, even acting like a sort of kittenish coed at times. And she eventually got to like butt sex!
I got to the point of lounging around in the mornings, being in no rush to go home. There wasn't much for me to do at home anyway, now that my mom's body was off-limits to me. So that's what I was doing one Saturday morning in late August, only a week or so before my junior year would start at college, when something strange happened.
The front door opened. Someone clearly had a key.
The person who walked in was a girl. I won't say she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen--but she was pretty sensational! Quite petite (five foot two, I'd say), with a slender figure but with nice, soft curves all over, and a face that was both really lovely but also suggested a lot of brains. And yet, it also seemed so utterly innocent.
She stopped short when she saw me sitting on the sofa in the living room. Obviously, she didn't expect anyone to be there except Julia.
Looking at me wide-eyed, she said, "Who are you?"
What could I say? I didn't even know who she was, but I was getting a feeling . . . And the thought shot through my mind:
Why didn't Julia tell me she had a daughter?
If that was who this girl was, I certainly couldn't say:
Oh, I just banged your mom all night, and I'm just taking it easy now.
Luckily, I was fully dressed. There were times when I would mosey around the house just in my underwear, or even entirely naked. That would have been awkward!
As the girl continued to stare at me, I stammered, "Well, I, um, I do stuff for Julia."
"What stuff?" she asked sharply.
"Oh, you know, just stuff around the house."
At that moment Julia came downstairs. She was wearing only a robe over a nightgown. She stumbled a bit on the stairs as she saw the girl, and a weird little sound came out from deep in her throat.
"Mom, who's this?" the girl asked.
Julia swallowed hard. "He, um, his name is Todd."
"He says he does stuff around the house. What possible stuff could you need him to do?"
"Oh, gardening, things like that."
"Gardening? You've never done any gardening!"
"That's why he's doing it, dear." Julia smiled, as if to say:
That was a smart thing to say, wasn't it?
"Todd, meet Ashley, my daughter."
"Hi, Ashley," I said, walking up to her and holding out my hand.
"Hi," she said, still looking as if I shouldn't even be here. Turning her attention back to her mom, she said, "He doesn't seem to be doing much right now."
"Oh," Julia said, "he's done pretty much what he's come to do." That was no lie: I sure had! "Todd, I think the garbage needs to be taken out, so why don't you do that?"
"Sure, ma'am," I said.
Now here was the thing: where the hell did she keep her garbage? I assumed she was referring to a garbage bin in the kitchen; and since I didn't see one lying out in the open, I figured it had to be under the sink, where a lot of people keep it. It would be pretty embarrassing if I didn't know where it was! My cover would be blown--you know what I mean? Fortunately, the garbage bin
was
there, and I took it up (it was only about half full), went outside to the big container in the backyard, and emptied it.
When I brought the bin back, Ashley was looking at me again, watching my every move.
"I've seen you around campus," she said.
"Yeah, I think I've seen you around too," I said. I don't think I ever took any classes with her--I'm sure I would have remembered that--but I may have seen her walking around here and there.
"She's going to be a junior, just like you," Julia put in. "Why are you here anyway, dear?"
"I just wanted to pick up some stuff for my place before the term starts," Ashley said.
"Hey, I can help you!" I burst out. "I mean, I can give you a lift back to your place. Or do you have your own car?"
"I walked over here," Ashley said. "But thanks--I could use a lift back. Maybe I'll get a bit more stuff than I'd planned."
And she did. She ended up loading up my car with all manner of things--clothes, little items of furniture, and such--that she would never have been able to carry on foot. So I felt I was being helpful. And the strange thing was that, as we were sitting in the car, we felt a kind of closeness that usually doesn't happen for people who've only been acquainted for about an hour. The mere fact that I "knew" her mother made Ashley think of me as a kind of family friend. Of course, she wasn't aware that I "knew" Julia the way Adam "knew" Eve in the Bible! And there's no way I'd ever tell her.
When we got to her place--a tiny apartment a few blocks from campus--I unloaded most of the stuff. I guess that's what guys are supposed to do. And doing that made
me
feel closer to
her:
holding a big heap of her clothes in my arms--some of which, I thought (it may have been my imagination), had something of her body-scent still on them--caused me to think of her as a kind of little sister. Well, not exactly: first, we were almost exactly the same age (she'd turned twenty a few weeks after I did)--and the thoughts rolling through my mind were definitely not the thoughts a brother thinks of about her sister!
Yeah, I admit it: I wanted to take Ashley to bed right then and there. But I realized that would be a scummy thing to do. With a girl like her, you have to win her over--court her, woo her. And that's exactly what I wanted to do.
Without knowing it, she helped by offering make dinner for me. I would have been happy to go out somewhere and get a pizza or something--but she said, "Oh, I can whip up something here. I'm not the greatest cook in the world, but I'd like to get a little more practice. Hope you're willing to be my guinea pig!"
Of course I was. And I felt she was being too modest. In fact, the meal she prepared--spaghetti and meatballs with a little salad on the side, and even some homemade garlic bread--was fabulous, and I ate every bit of it. All through the dinner I took in her loveliness (I didn't stare, of course--that would have been rude), but I also got a sense of the kind of person she was. She seemed super-smart (way smarter than most of the kids at our college), but, like a lot of smart people, not really comfortable with folks on an emotional level. Had she even had a boyfriend before? I couldn't tell.
After dinner, she asked if I wanted to watch one of her DVDs on her little TV. I couldn't tell if she really meant it, or just felt obliged to make the offer out of courtesy. If I said, "No, I'd better be getting home," would she take that as a brush-off? I certainly didn't want her to think so--but I also didn't want her to think that I took the offer as basically an invitation to spend the night in her bed. So I said, "Sure--but I'll have to go home right afterwards." That was a neat solution, wasn't it?
So we sat and watched the movie. I was kind of afraid it would be some silly "chick flick," but she surprised me by putting on an old film noir from the 1940s what was really cool. Glorious black and white! It was riveting, and we both loved it. And yes, she eventually allowed me to put an arm gently around her shoulders as we drew closer and closer to each other on the couch.
After it was over, I was true to my word and got up to leave. At the door I looked down at her (I was, like, six inches taller than her), bent down, took her chin in my hand, and gave her just the quickest little kiss on the mouth. Just a peck, really. But even that was surprising to her: she looked at me with wide eyes that had just a bit of fear in them. That made me sad, because I didn't want to frighten her. But then she said:
"How about another? I wasn't ready for that one. And make it longer this time."
I'm yours to command, ma'am! So this time I actually held her in my arms, and kissed her firmly but still gently. I knew that with a girl like her you had to go slow. Rushing things would just end up offending her or making her angry. So I just gave her this kiss that lasted for about five seconds, and then I let her go. Her lips fluttered against my own, kind of like a butterfly's wings, and she kept them tightly closed: maybe she was afraid I'd stick my tongue into her mouth. Of course I'd never do that--not right then. Maybe later!
Then I let her go and left the place. I think I made it clear that I wanted more--and I'm pretty sure she did too.
So that's how we began dating. We saw each other a bunch of times, and each time we got just a little bit more intimate. But still, it wasn't all that much. I know what people say: if you haven't slept with a girl on the third or fourth date, you never will. And college kids are ready to jump into bed with each other at the least opportunity. Most of them are on their own and away from Mom and Dad, with all these people of the opposite sex around them all the time. But I knew that with Ashley I couldn't expect to do that. And I didn't want to.
Her apartment was a lot nicer than my crappy rooming house, so we spent most of our time there. One evening we were listening to some music, sitting on a little loveseat in the living room, and she ended up sitting on my lap. It was early in the new semester, and the weather was still pretty warm, so she was just wearing a tank top and a bra underneath, with a thin wraparound skirt. Her chest came right to the level of my face. I'm sure she knew that would happen, and she was too smart not to realize that I'd get excited by that.
Now I have to tell you something: she didn't have the biggest breasts in the world. Mom had pretty huge breasts, and Julia had a nice pair--but Ashley's were quite small. I could tell that even without seeing them uncovered. But that's okay! Sometimes small is good. Right now, as she sat on my lap, I just rested my head on her bare skin, just under her chin. There was just a bit of cleavage showing, but what really got to me was the heavenly aroma radiating from her body. It was intoxicating! Meanwhile she was holding my head with both of her hands. Sometimes she kissed me on the top of my head.