[This is a continuation of the "job interview" role-play game with the two City College of New York students described in Chapter 1. The time period is September / October 1975. Just to be clear, the narrator had overlapping relationships with the two girls mentioned in the story, Michelle and Andrea.]
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Prologue: A Midweek Date with Michelle
I did have a date during the week, but it was with the real Michelle. She knew I liked her alter-ego Erica so she arrived with her hair bun, most of the make-up and the black-rimmed glasses. Instead of a causal student look she had a blazer and a pair of slacks that would have fit the office job Erica had.
When we got back to her apartment in Queens I told her a story about my virginal freshman year. We were sitting on her couch as I said, "You remember my friend Paul, the 'other Paul,' as I call him?" She nodded.
I said, "Ok, since last year he's been up at Boston University. He has a girlfriend named Lisa who was in high school with us. Last spring I was traveling up there on Amtrak to visit him; Lisa and my friend Mark were with me. We're in the front section of one of those TurboTrains."
"Yeah? I've never caught one of those."
"So Lisa contrives somehow - it's somehow necessary for her to sit on my lap for a few minutes. Which is, like . . ."
"Oh I get it, I completely get it."
"Then she needs to sit on Mark's lap for a while. I actually said, 'Would you sit on my lap again?' and she did for a little while."
"Paul, she was really playing you. Maybe she didn't quite know what she was doing, but I doubt that. And it really isn't nice, it isn't proper for a lady to place her hindquarters on a gentleman's lap unless she's truly serious about it all. So what is she like?"
"She's on the short side, dark hair, nothing really unusual about her. She grew up in the same Bronx neighborhood where I'm living now."
Michelle asked, "Was she just sitting there or did she did she really grind it in?"
"She was just sitting, making small talk."
"So how stiff were you?"
"Sit on my lap and find out."
"I see, you've got to get this Lisa out of your system."
"Do we have anything here that resembles an Amtrak seat?"
"Probably this sofa would do. Was she wearing pants or a skirt?"
"Blue jeans, I remember."
"I've got slacks on, that should work."
She moved over and sat down on my lap; I put my arms around her waist.
"Did you hold her like this?"
"I don't think so. I wanted to show I was, proper?"
She leaned over and pretended to talk to another passenger. "Excuse me, do you have a timetable I could look at?"
Then she started moving around on me while singing, "You leave the Pennsylvania Station at a quarter to four, read a magazine and you're in MetroPark . . ."
"It's Baltimore."
"Yes but the trains are much slower now. Anyway, I'm getting the Lisa perspective on this. I can feel your erection right against my ass."
That was my perspective on the train ride too.
She said, "You should have called her bluff on that. She was really being a tease."
"How would I do that?"
"Just say, 'Lisa, you have a really nice behind.' Low-key, off the cuff."
"What if she got insulted?"
"She was the one who went to you. I'm curious, what did she say about all this?"
"Not much. And in the aftermath I forgot."
She started moving more vigorously on me, " 'Paul, I really can't find a seat in the appropriate location for me. This damn Amtrak! You don't mind if I plant my shapely little Bronx girl buttocks on your crotch, do you?' And then, 'you're not a gentleman! You've got a boner!' "
"Michelle, I would ride anywhere with you like this."
"So where are we now?"
"Ah, New London, Connecticut?"
"Are we going to or from Boston?"
"I don't know and I really don't care."
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Erica Again
We worked out the role-play scenario so that her character Erica would phone me to confirm the Sunday appointment. On Saturday I answered the phone and heard a voice that was familiar yet different.