David, for his part, wanted to phone her as soon as he got back to his one-bedroom off-campus apartment that Sunday afternoon, but he knew he had to wait for a few days to avoid scaring her off. He lasted all of forty-eight hours.
Heart ricocheting off his ribcage, and hoping one of her folks wouldn’t answer, David heard the lilting voice he’d hoped to hear – which sounded so sexy without trying that it almost derailed his train of thought. “Hi, Deanna? This is David. How are you? Busy, huh? Yeah, I’ve got a couple of midterms coming up myself. Say, I was wondering if you were free this Friday night. I thought maybe we could go grab a bite to eat and talk some more. You are? Great. Can you meet me at my apartment complex? We can go from there. Do you need directions? No? Okay, great. See you then. Bye.”
“EEEEEEEYYYYYAAAAHHHHHOOOOOO!” he shouted. “Truly the just shall live by faith!” He had a by-God date with the by-God woman of his dreams.
Yes, that was a flagrant exaggeration; Deanna was really little more than a barely casual acquaintance. Anything romantic was probably months away if it was in the cards at all. Intellectually David knew this, but he also knew what he wanted. He’d never been a “playing the field” kind of guy. “Find `em, feel `em, fuck `em, forget `em” had never been and could never be his mindset. He was a hopeless romantic, and every interest he’d ever had in a girl was devoted toward a long-term relationship. He was in fact the antithesis of the stereotypical modern guy who was terrified of commitment. And, ironically, this was why he had had so little success with women. The intensity of his feelings and desire for commitment would scare them away, and they’d tell him they only “wanted to be friends.” Even though his heart was shoving him in that same direction with Deanna, he resolved to be patient and take things one step at a time.
Never had three days dragged like the next three, but finally it was Friday, and after spending a full hour in the bathroom scrubbing and primping and deodorizing and shaving and combing and brushing, he was clothed in deceptively casual duds. And there she was, right on time! And looking as hygienized and casually clad as did he.
They went to a smorgasbord where he tried to rein in his legendary prowess for overeating. This did not prove difficult for David, who ended up doing most of the talking. Deanna was a good listener, but she was also difficult to draw out. She either didn’t want to talk about herself or else there wasn’t much about herself to tell. But heck, David thought on the way home, it’s just the first date. There’s plenty of time.
Walking him to his door, Deanna wondered fearfully if David expected her to kiss him. All throughout their meal, she had been possessed by conflicting impulses. Being a private person, and still quite shy, she was reluctant to tell this stranger very much about herself, but on the other hand, she was so flattered by the attention he was lavishing upon her that she felt almost swept off her feet.
“Thank you for a wonderful evening,” David said gently. “Will I see you on Sunday?”
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
“Okay. Maybe we can sit together.”
“I’d like that.”
“See you then.”
And that was it. Deanna returned to her car in relief, but also with a warm feeling in her tummy that wasn’t connected with the King’s Table. A guy wanted her, but was willing to go at her pace. Maybe this was going to go someplace after all.
David carried out his vow to be patient, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be persistent. He took her out twice more, at no regard for the cost, and when he proposed a fourth outing, she countered with an offer to cook him dinner – at her parents’ house. That touched him so much that his feelings for Deanna began to grow despite his best efforts to control them. Ditto her folks’ warm welcome and hospitality.
The next week the two took a picnic lunch and climbed a nearby butte. The view from the top was breathtaking, but it was the view of her, cheeks flushed with the exertion of their hiking, that had David spellbound. The conversation seemed to make itself as she began opening up to him. And the more he learned about her, the closer to her he felt. It was as if they were soul-mates.
He was falling in love with her. And yet he couldn’t tell her that, for fear of bursting this bubble.
This was a contradiction of such absurdity that not even a romantic loser like he could remain inhibited by it for long.
Walking back to his apartment building from church one Sunday, David slipped his hand into hers, and the backed-up feelings began pouring out. “These last couple of months have been the best time of my life, Dee. And I’m really going to miss you over Thanksgiving break. Heck, I never thought I’d be reluctant to leave this hole to go home for a week. I wish I could stay.”
Deanna felt herself tightening up. She had grown accustomed to the casual, “just friends” relationship that she and David had developed, even though deep down she wanted it to be more. Now he was moving outside that box, and her natural demurring instincts took over.
Turning to face him at his door, she replied, “You’ve been a good friend to me, David, but you really do need to go home. I think the time apart will do us some good.”
She hadn’t kicked him in the nuts, but she might as well have. “A good friend.” Well, that was a buzz-killer. “I’ll always be your friend, Dee,” David gamely managed, “But I hope maybe we can be more.”
“I’ve got to get going, David. I’ll see you when you get back.”
Impulsively leaning his face down to kiss her, she turned her cheek, and then hurried off to her waiting car in the parking lot.
“Shit” he cursed to himself. All that patience and time invested, and she just “wants to be friends.” He didn’t know if he could settle for that. And so he drove home, with that unrequited romantic pall hanging over the American tradition of gastrointestinal excess and a marathon of bad football.
The following Saturday, the day before his return to school, the phone rang. “Hello,” his mother answered. “Oh, hi, Deanna. Yes, David’s right here. Hold on just a minute.”
David beelined for the phone like yellowjackets to a trash dumpster. “Hi, Dee.”
“I’m sorry, David,” came her lyrical reply. “I shouldn’t have brushed you off like that. I was just…well, overwhelmed. I’ve never had a guy pay this much attention to me before. I guess part of me thought that it was too good to be true and didn’t really believe that you were interested in me. And then when you took my hand and started talking about the last few months and your feelings, well, I suppose I panicked a little bit. I’d gotten comfortable with you being at arm’s length and didn’t know what to do when you started closing the distance. Can you forgive me?”
David’s eyes were coated with tears. “Sure, Deanna. I just want you to be happy.” And he meant it, too.
The following weekend he took her to a movie, anticipating some serious lip-locking. And when she let him put his arm around her, and saw her applying some breath spray as the lights went low, his pulse raced and his cock stiffened.
But…nothing happened. Periodically he looked over at her, but her attention was wrapped up in the flick. She appeared content just to cuddle with him and nothing more.
Patience, he reminded himself, patience.
When they returned to his car, he decided to take the bull by the horns. “Dee, since the windows are already steamed up, would you mind if I kissed you?”
Once again, Deanna panicked. “Um, yes, I would. I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
DAMN it, David thought, more at her reticence than at his pushing too hard. She let me get a little closer, and now she’s shoving me away again.
There aren’t many places to go after that kind of rejection. So he drove her home in silence, and then returned to his apartment for some serious jerking off.
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