(Started Feb 2022)
DISCLAIMER: Everyone is age 19 or 20, names are randomized.
== Chapter: A Valentine's Day Party... ==
In the last year since my girlfriend's Valentines Day party, my life has gotten WAY more complicated.
So, last Valentines' day, my girlfriend Patty had a party. It wasn't technically a Valentine's Day party, but a baby shower for her long time BFF Deb.
Deb had married Ken, her high school sweetheart, and they just decided to come to CU-Boulder and pretend they were normal students like the rest of us.
Really, to them, it was just a grand adventure, being grown-ups and married, but also being college students. I think they were having more fun than we were, actually, since they were getting all the sex and romance they wanted, even to the point of having a kid!
It seemed pretty damned grown-up of them. I envied their situation, but I wasn't quite ready to pop the question at that point with Patty.
I'd grown up a few hours from Boulder in a larger city. There, marrying a high-school sweetheart was unusual, but Patty and Deb were from rural northeastern Colorado near the Wyoming border where it was more normal to marry right out of high school.
Compared to the rest of Colorado, Boulder is a liberal hotbed. It's also pretty big, so CU has both normal students and the oddly-dressed, older, married, night-class b-school execs, pregnant-or-whatever, and non-traditional students. Sprinkled in for fun are a heaping pot of "granola" Rocky-Mountain-High folk.
== Chapter: ...Is Really a Baby Shower ==
A week before this, Deb had told Patty about hearing the fast-paced heartbeat of her impending bundle-of-joy, and they 'just gushed' and Patty decided a baby shower was Quite Necessary.
At least, that's how Patty described it to me. I presume 'gushing' is something akin to saying OMG and putting palms on cheeks or something. I'm an engineer. Please please please don't ask me to define or describe this. Patty is more staid than that; I've no idea what her 'gushing' would look like.
Now, having a party takes work. And, when Patty asks me for help, it's not really an ask. It's something akin to, 'avoid at your peril'. I could have refused but Patty was way more attractive and classy than I was and I wasn't going to risk it.
Plus, my answers for this stuff was consistent anyway: What you need, I Will Do.
What can I say... I'm in love.
On the occasions when I'd needed things - like when I got the flu the previous semester, Deb had played nurse to get me back to health - doting on me with food, tea, meds, blankets, etc.
We went back to normal when I got better: focused on classes.
I loved her, she knew that; the way she helped gave me a good view into her loving me back, too.
As a 'baby shower', the party was an all-girl affair (except for yours-truly). I could complain, but really I didn't mind that much, I knew Deb pretty well, I'd hung around with Patty's friend group for almost a year at that point, and my decorating was only physical, not mental effort.
The location was our shared, rented, huge 1890's Victorian way-off-campus farmhouse. It was plenty big with high ceilings, 6 bedrooms on 3 stories, and a big farm kitchen for feeding field hands, we suspected.
The property was surrounded by scrub pastureland but without animals, had a nice big yard, barn and outbuildings, and was a great change of pace from the frequently hectic campus areas.
Since Valentine's Day was on a Thursday, the campus buzz was that everyone would skip classes Friday (and most profs weren't dicks, they allowed for this).
In attendance were all our roommates plus some other friends. The list:
(note, all the girls were really fit since half were in an IM volleyball league and the other half were otherwise into athletic stuff):
Shelly - Brown straight shoulder-length hair, med frame, trim.
Mary - Volleyball, med height, smaller chest, perky, upbeat, hispanic ROH
Sue - Goth, diff college, long dark hair, muscular, tattoo on inner arm, wicca
Dana - Wicca; light airy clothes, ultra-smart
Maddie - pre-med, smart, volleyball. Taller, thin. ROH
Abra - Jewish, black curly hair, tall, forthright.
Hoki - Japanese-American, bbrun., runner ROH
Sooni - Chinese - Shanghai Cantonese - thin, archery
Kelly - Blonde, short, runner, athletic, cook.
Kim - quiet, black hair, beautiful eyes, amazing, lithe, taller than me.
Patty - my GF, med height/weight, normally kind of shy. ROH
Me - Yeah, I was there, I'm Patty's boyfriend ROH