Author's Note:
The story's Preface and Chapter 1 (Lifestyle Ch. 01: A Geek Beginning) describes this young couple meeting in high school, and shows why they behave as they do. Chapter 2 has some background experiences when they were apart which are referenced in this story.
As always, constructive criticism and comments are appreciated.
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After I graduated with my 4-year degree in Computer Science, I returned to the rural town, and moved back in with my parents. My former boss from last summer offered me my old job back as a construction helper, and within the first week of construction work it was beginning to feel familiar and not as tiring by the end of the day.
I wondered how my former high school girlfriend was doing, since that phone call in November saying she was moving in with a guy. But I didn't know where they lived and didn't want to contact her parents to find out.
I finished work the first Friday back and decided to stop at the diner where she worked on my way home. There were few customers in the diner, and I took a seat at the counter, instead of the booths or tables.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" Jan said with a smile as she came up behind me.
"Hey! I know what that means. Based on the way you're looking at me, you're being sarcastic, right?"
Seeing her again stirred something in me, which I had suppressed since the Brenda incident. And it didn't help I even missed our friendly chat times together. Something was wrong with me.
"How have you been, fuck-buddy?" Jan asked.
"I thought you had a new fuck-buddy."
"Not anymore. Ray split a few months ago when he got a job offer in another state. I wasn't planning to leave here, so we parted on good terms. A lot like we split when you left to go back to school."
"And you haven't found a replacement yet?"
"No. Things change as we get older. It's tougher meeting new friends once you're out of school. And new experiences with those you do meet teach us a lot."
"I know the feeling. How long has it been now for you?"
She smiled seductively and said, "A while!"
"Same place, same time?" I asked hopefully, remembering last summer and our favorite secluded picnic spot in the park.
"Saturday at six. Bring an extra bottle of wine, just in case. It's been one of those years," she replied. "More customers came in. I need to get back to work."
I picked Jan up, and we drove to the park. I think we both felt awkward due to the way we left things with the breakup phone call in November, and the very short meeting in the diner. We didn't talk much as we walked down the familiar path and stopped at the rock marking the start of our side trip into the mountain laurel. Glancing around to see no one was following, we quickly ducked through the first shrub branches, and she giggled.
"Thinking of something funny?" I asked quietly.
"No. Something familiar. We're in our twenty's now and acting like horny teenagers."
We picked our way through the tall bushes to our small clearing and settled down on the picnic blanket in our secluded spot. It seemed like we were creatures of habit, and again relaxing to enjoy the casual feel of our routines together.
I handed her a tumbler of wine, and she took a sip. She held her tumbler up to look at it, her eyebrows tilted in a curious expression. She then looked around at the bushes surrounding our private space on the blanket. "I like this," she said as if talking to herself.
"It's not Boones Farm. But the wine's nothing special, just something I grabbed at the ABC store."
"No. I mean this... our place... together..." She sounded lost in her thoughts. Then her curious look disappeared, and her tone changed back to neutral, saying "So, who goes first on catching up?"
"I thought I had a rough year. But I don't think mine was a two-bottle bad. And after our last phone call about you moving in with Ray?... I think you should start."
"Yea, there is that. Ray and I were having fun. You know me. And you and I both like our sex together. Well, I had that same feeling of 'this is fun' with Ray. I don't know if it would have turned into something permanent with him. He gave me a key to his place, and I felt I owed you the advanced notice."
"It would have been inconvenient if I came home, and the three of us ran into each other."
"Just inconvenient? Thanks," she said sarcastically.
"Well... more than that. I did miss you and our times together. Even when we're only talking like this. But it's still your turn. Go on. What happened with you and Ray?"
"As I was saying, he and I seemed to click together. The sex was great, adventurous, and as often as I wanted. Two months after I called you, the company he worked for gave him a new position out of state. He was planning to move, and he asked me to move with him. It wasn't a proposal or anything permanent. And with me having no other reason to move, it wasn't feeling right. So, as with you, we parted as friends."
"Are you two staying in touch?"
"Yes. I received a few letters from him. The last one said he's found someone serious, as in 'thinking of a ring' serious. So, that hurt."
"Are you over it now?"
"My best friend, Marlene came up with a plan to get over it. She and I took time off work, drove to Florida, and went on a week-long partying binge."
"I've never been, but I heard some stories at school from others. Did you have fun?"
"It wasn't so much fun, as drinking and partying to try feeling better. It just didn't work out that way. One morning, I woke up in our motel room bed, with a guy next to me, whose name I couldn't remember."
"Did he drug you?"
"No. It wasn't drugs or anything that bad. I had a few too many drinks. I remembered taking him to our room and fucking him. It was the fact I didn't know anything about him and couldn't remember if he even told me his name, that hit me later."
"After he left, Marlene and I got dressed and went out for breakfast. That's when we passed the police cordoning off an alley and saw the ambulance with a stretcher taking a girl's body out. It hit me:
'That could have been me!'
So, we stopped drinking, packed up, and drove home. I haven't dated since."
"Wow. I thought it was the Ray thing."
"Your turn. 'Rough end to the year', but not a two-bottle rough?"
"Right. After your call about Ray, I guess I grabbed the next girl who came along... and held on for too long. Brenda was fun. It turned out she was even more fun with a lot of other guys at the same time. After the clinic cured me with penicillin, I stopped dating, too."
"She was into gangbangs?"
"Not with me. I just didn't know about them."