Chapter 21
The Marathon Man: Finished?
Note: The descriptions and accounts in these stories are fictional and do not portray any actual people or events.
Wednesday marked the start of the last three days of class for this semester, and then there would be two official 'no class days' before final exams kicked off next Wednesday. Oiler, who was developing a nasty habit of forwarding supposedly humorous emails to a 'recipients undisclosed' distribution list that included me and other unfortunates, sent one this morning saying that in College Station, every day was a no class day!
Suzanne and I would run today at lunchtime, a full fifteen miles with a longer sprinting finish according to the official Pliskin Pre-Marathon Physical Training Plan that she had developed for me. I tanked up at breakfast, as always, anticipating no lunch and doing the run instead. As I had diligently since Saskia gave it to me, I entered everything into the exercise and food diary app on my phone. It found the physiology department servers via Wi-Fi or a cell site wherever I was and kept them instantly updated. It was easy to use, and had drop down lists with all the dorm food and almost all commercially available foods built in. My classes were all review for the exams, but in Rhetoric and Composition there was no exam and I had already turned in my final paper. Sarah was there: she smiled at me vacantly but said nothing. I kept having the feeling that I had forgotten something important, but I checked my do to list and all my class prep notes and didn't find anything left hanging. Still, there was that vague feeling.
In Engineering 101, Professor Lillehammer led a brief review of the entire course, which in his mind also covered the entirety of engineering thought and the history of man, and then did ten minutes on choosing an engineering discipline for those that had not yet done so, with a few pointed looks at me. After he dismissed class he asked me to stay for a moment and reminded me that I needed to turn in the paperwork for the 'distributed engineering education' program by the last day of class. I told him that I already had. He also said that with the program's normal schedule that meant I would work this summer and then I would also have to work rather than attend school next spring semester and then do summer school, and that scheduling all my required classes became more difficult because of pre-requisite requirements and fewer course offerings in the summer, so finalizing my major soon was even more imperative.
I went up and quickly changed clothes, wearing my cold weather running gear even at mid-day because it was pretty chilly out. Suzanne looked ravishing in her all white with stockings running outfit, and we started toward the track. "Let's do the Town Lake Loop instead, my Animal, because the track is a little bit boring by comparison."
"Nothing is boring when I am with you, Suzanne."
"Oh, my! Cold weather must make you extra charming." She affected an exaggerated southern belle accent. "Be still my heart. My heavens, this smooth talking gentleman may make me swoon!" We went south on Lavaca, weaving our way through the traffic on the street and sidewalk.
"And then he will have his way with me! I will be a just another poor defenseless young girl, forced to give in to his animal nature and unnatural desires!" This outburst got us a few sideways glances from other people near us.
"I'm pretty sure most of my desires are pretty natural, beautiful, but I'm not so sure about yours." We crossed First Street and turned east, taking the little ramp down and then running under the 'bat bridge'. All the bats were in Mexico, and I was beginning to wish I was too. I glanced over, and she had a smug and satisfied look on her face like I had just walked into her trap.
"So let's review, my Animal. It's perfectly natural for you to want and to have two or three girls at once, as I have seen you do enthusiastically several times, but it's unnatural for me to want to try having two guys even once? I have to admit you do it pretty well, so I really can't fault your performance in such a situation. But I like to think I would be good at it, too! In fact, I think I would be very, very good at it!'
I didn't doubt that either, damn her eyes, but I really didn't want to think about it.
We plodded along in near silence for a while, until we got onto Longhorn damn and headed south across it. There was a fire and police department training center nearby, and a gaggle of twenty or so burly young candidates was just finishing an apparently taxing training run, pulling up to a walk with red faces, soaked sweat shirts, and expressions of incredulity as Suzanne jogged by in the other direction six feet away. Nobody noticed me at all. They were like a living gallery of cartoon figures, staring open mouthed and slack jawed at the Amazing Pliskin moving in their midst. It looked like a series of those cartoons where the reader is supposed to supply the caption below each image. In my mind's eye, they almost wrote themselves: from the relatively polite looking male face that said 'That's what I want to protect and serve' to the frankly predatory 'Slice me off a piece of that' their prurient interest was obvious.
Was that the kind of attention what she craved? "You might have a chance right there, beautiful, but it looks like more than a dozen to me." She snorted.
"That's not my style, Robbie. I would want to play with them for weeks and build up the suspense, so to speak. You can't do that anonymously or on the spur of the moment. It has to be someone you know, and I only want two guys, or maybe three." She held her tongue up to her upper lip and leered at me. Damn her.
"You really taught me something about myself, too, Robbie, and you started this whole journey of exploration for me. When you lured me into helping you get Lara excited, I had thought about being with another woman, and been propositioned by some of the soccer girls, but I never really seriously considered actually doing it. Then you made it seem almost safe and sound. I thought I could dominate some little bitch to get myself off, and if I didn't like it just forget about her and even you if it didn't work out."
That brought me up short. Had I been that close to losing her?