Poolside Ch. 04, Pt. 4

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Fortunately Evie and Lori kept my easily-around lust from distracting me from my major, and I was reading and writing on my Ph.D. proposal for my advisor. I put in sixty- to eighty-hour weeks at the university, restoring my emotional energy by weekend threesomes (or twosomes) with the two women. I carried a heavy load of courses and research, and I doubt I could have concentrated on finishing my doctorate as quickly as I did without those sexual activities.

Late in the spring semester after my New Year's celebration with Katrina, I read that her university team would be competing less than a hundred miles away. Of course I'd been following her progress by reading stories in newspapers and magazines! I decided to go so and watch her complete, but I didn't want her to know that I was there.

Frankly I was afraid she might not do well if I distracted her, and I had no idea if she was still thinking about me. I believed that she was sleeping with at least one other guy, and it was quite possible that she no longer had romantic feelings for me.

After New Year's I'd allowed my beard to grow out until it was bushy and full, but it made me look too much the same as when I'd last seen Katrina. So I shaved it back and trimmed it until it was only a thin, short mustache and goatee. With my hair combed straight back from my forehead, I thought I looked like a complete stranger. I drove to the swim meet wearing a nondescript sweatshirt and Bermuda shorts.

I waited until most of the spectators had found seats in the stands around the pool before I entered. I found a place behind a group of students about three-quarters of the way to the top of the stands. Their mild curiosity about my sitting near them disappeared as soon as the competition began, and I believed I could conceal myself behind them and go unnoticed by Katrina.

I kept my head down, barely watching, until Katrina's first event, the two-hundred-meter freestyle, was called. As the women moved to their starting platforms, my chest felt tight and I felt my pulse speed up when I saw her preparing to swim in the third lane. Her racing suit couldn't completely conceal her shapely figure, and I had flashbacks of her swimming naked. Her breasts were covered and flattened by her suit, but they were clearly a nice size, and her nipples were visible as they pressed against the material. My sudden erection was not really a surprise.

Katrina turned her head in my direction, so I quickly looked down again. I only lifted my head when I heard the announcement for the swimmers to take their marks. Katrina looked poised and professional and incredibly beautiful as she concentrated on the start. I felt a flash of so much love for her I almost called out to her as the starter prepared to fire his pistol.

Unexpectedly Katrina lifted her head and looked around at the spectators. She was staring directly at me when the pistol fired, and it was most of a second later before she left her platform. It was perhaps the worst racing dive I'd ever seen her make, and she was at least nine or ten feet behind the back of the pack as she began to swim.

Omigod! She'd seen me and I'd probably cost her the race! I had trouble breathing as she swam down the pool. She finished the first length in last place, but her turn was so smooth she caught up and passed one woman. She gradually caught up to the others as each length was completed. After the final turn she was in second place, with her head trailing perhaps a foot behind the leader's head.

Every spectator was standing and screaming! I cannot describe the joy I felt as Katrina caught up, then passed, the leader before they'd gone halfway down the pool. She'd done the same thing to me when I foolishly thought I could out-swim her, and I knew how powerful her final kick truly was!

Katrina touched first, with the second-place woman almost a body-length behind. It had been a great race, and I screamed and yelled with everyone else. Once again I kept my head down when the cheering ended and the spectators were mostly seated. My heart was racing and I felt faint, almost dizzy. I wanted to lift my head and watch her, but I was afraid she'd see me again.

So I looked down and remained concealed behind the people in front of me until the results were official and Katrina's name was announced as the winner - in a time of barely more than two minutes and less than a half-second slower than her personal best! If her entry had been better, she would have easily beaten that time! I looked up at last and my breath caught in my throat. Katrina was staring directly at me!

She was smiling her special Katrina smile, and I couldn't help smiling back at her. She nodded her head, waved her hand in my direction, then turned her attention to her teammates who were swarming around her. As soon as she left the immediate area around the pool, I slipped away. She was scheduled to complete in one of the relays, but I couldn't risk causing her additional distraction.

It took me two-and-a-half hours to drive back to the university. Throughout the drive I mentally kicked myself for what I'd done. How could I have risked Katrina's race - and possibly her Olympic chances - simply because I selfishly wanted to see her again? How could my behavior be considered, by any reasonable standard, to be loving?

I had only been back in my apartment for about twenty minutes when the telephone rang. I picked the phone up and answered it, then almost dropped it!

"Did you really think I wouldn't recognize you?" Katrina asked. "And how come you didn't stay for the rest of the events?"

"God, T-Kat! I didn't want to distract you any more than I did! I almost cost you the two-hundred!"

"Well, seeing you was a little distracting, I admit," Katrina replied, then she laughed. "I gotta admit that my entry was so bad I was so embarrassed! That really motivated me to push myself to the limit! Did you hear that I set a personal best in my leg of the relay?"

I hadn't known that, and I said so to Katrina. "How'd you know I was there, anyway? I thought you wouldn't see me! And if you did, you wouldn't know it was me!"

"I knew we weren't far from your university, so I thought - well, hoped - you'd be there. But it was kind of strange! Just after the starter called Set!' I somehow KNEW you were there, watching. So I looked around . . . and there you were, grinning at me! Then bang went the gun and I almost fell into the pool!"

"But my hair! And the strange beard! How'd you spot me so fast?"

"I recognized the look in your eyes! And your smile! Nobody else looks at me the way you do!" Katrina paused. "That look says you love me, Don," she said so softly it was barely audible. We'd made love, but never actually told each other how we felt.

I think my heart skipped several beats before I replied, my words completely unexpected. "I do love you, T-Kat! And I miss you more than anyone could believe!" In the midst of our passionate sexual activities I'd never told her that, but now the words just burst out!

"I love you too, Don. But as wonderful as it feels, it's a huge problem for us, too, isn't it?"

We talked about our feelings and things happening in our separate lives for a few minutes, but then she said she had to end the call. "I wasn't going to call you, but after seeing you today I couldn't resist. Is it okay if I call again sometime? Just to stay in touch? Find out how you're doing? And tell you what's up with me?"

I was so happy to talk to her that the possibility of talking to her again almost overwhelmed me. I cannot remember exactly what I said, but I do remember our final words. "I'll really look forward to your next call, T-Kat!"

"Just so you know . . . I've thought a lot about it . . . you know, pretending to be Mrs. Jarvis." Katrina giggled before continuing. "So it won't be too long before I call again. Goodbye for now, Elevator Don! I Love you!"

"So long, T-Kat, my love! I won't show up again unless I let you know first!" There was silence for several seconds.

"Bye for now, my love!" Katrina whispered, and I heard her sob just before she hung up. Our expressing that we loved each other complicated her life to the point that she was crying! I couldn't decide if that made me happy or sad. I felt tears running down my cheeks, so I was equally affected.

Since I didn't know how to reach Katrina, there was no way I could tell her in advance of my intention to watch her swim, again. For a few minutes I wondered how she'd gotten my telephone number, but then I thought of several possibilities. In any case, what was important was the fact that she'd actually called me! And we'd finally declared our mutual love for each other!

The next two weekends I called Evie and Lori and cancelled our usual activities. I simply wasn't in the mood. By the third weekend I realized that my world had abruptly changed because Katrina and I had actually declared our love for each other. I ended the threesomes after explaining the reason to Evie and Lori. I turned down their offer of a final get-together.

It wasn't that I felt guilty about fucking those two, but rather that I no longer had any interest in being intimate with anyone other than Katrina. I decided that was probably a solid indication that my feelings for Katrina were powerful enough to stand up to life's challenges if we ever had an opportunity, simply telling each other that we loved each other made me want to do so. Unexpectedly, I resumed masturbating whenever sexual tensions built up, and Katrina was always my imagined partner. Now that was enough to satisfy me, even though it previously hadn't been. I also no longer limited my fantasies to remembered couplings, and purely imaginary sex with Katrina proved to be even better!

It was strange how simply expressing our love to each other affected my behavior. I'd believed that we loved each other, so saying the words really didn't change anything. But yet those few words caused me to forgo readily-available and satisfying sex! I briefly wondered if I'd always be an emotional cripple, unable to love another woman if Katrina and I never got back together. That thought was so painful I suppressed it! My life was complicated enough without that worry added to it!

~~~~~~~

Katrina called several times after that, but I could never anticipate when. Once it was several months between calls, and another time only about three weeks. She told me news about many of the people I'd encountered during my last summer at the pool, news I would not otherwise have heard about because it was about the high-and- mighty, not people my parents and my friends knew.

As pleased as I was to talk to Katrina when she called, the kind of news she often related also made me melancholy. I was clinging to the hope that someday we'd get back together as lovers, but her calls served to emphasize the fact that we had grown up in different worlds. I had not been impressed with the ethics and power-hunger of the older members of the country club that I'd met. I didn't doubt the strength of our love, but would it be enough to carry us over the chasm between our backgrounds?

On the other hand, in one call Katrina told me that she'd told her parents about dating me - her choice of words! - at the end of the summer, and that she'd celebrated New Year's with me, too. She'd omitted the passionate details, of course, but I was still surprised that she'd been so open with her parents. That was obviously a change in her behavior since, at her request, I'd stayed away when they picked her up from her summer apartment. My own folks had wisely not inquired about my exploits over that summer!

Even more surprising was the supportive way Katrina's parents had reacted to the news that she and I had been romantically involved, albeit only briefly. In fact I knew nothing negative about either of her parents. I'd had frequent discussions with her mother when Katrina had first taken swimming lessons from us, and I liked her.

Once it was clear that Katrina was born to swim, I had several long discussions with both her father and mother when we realized that Katrina needed more swimming instruction than I, as the best swimming teacher among the lifeguards, could provide. Until Katrina told me, I hadn't known how much that honest assessment of the limitations of my abilities had impressed both of her parents.

Katrina laughed when she told me that her mother had asked her if I was any good in bed! I thought she'd only told her mother that we'd dated! "What did you tell her?" I asked, not really sure I wanted to know her answer.

Katrina laughed again. "I said you showed promise! And that you'd curled my toes a couple of times!"

"Couple of times?" I almost yelled, again hearing Katrina laugh. "How about more than a hundred times in less than a month!"

"C'mon, Don! What would you tell your parents if they asked the same question? Would you tell them how loud we were? Or about my volcano orgasm? Would you tell them about Ruth watching us? And walking around in front of her naked with your cock still covered with pussy juice - and with your cum running down my legs from my well- fucked pussy? Would you?"

This time I laughed. "Good point, T-Kat! At least you didn't tell her that I couldn't get it up!"

Katrina ignored that comment. "Mom told me that she was happy that I'd gotten involved with you because you obviously were honest and had good character. Dad agreed with that, too, but I don't think he knew we'd slept together, even though Mom did. Of course I didn't tell her that you'd done your best to stick your cock in me every chance you got! And that you kept me naked all the time so that you had easy access!"

"T-Kat, you can't put all of that on me! I seem to recall a certain young woman swimming nude laps in order to get a certain lifeguard's cock to get hard!"

"Okay, okay! And Ruth sure was impressed with us, wasn't she? What'd she say? We were like rabbits - only worse?" Katrina laughed for several seconds. "I think about her watching us make love in my bed when I'm, like, a little down. It makes me feel . . . well, sort of relaxed and satisfied in a special kind of way! It's hard to put into words, isn't it?"

That call was more full of intimate memories than any of the others, but it restored a little of my optimism that someday we might have a future together. But first I needed to finish my Ph.D., and Katrina was still working her heart out to make the Olympic swimming team. Until both of those were completed, we had no common future - and there was no guarantee we would have a future then, anyway. After all, we were both changing as we pursued our separate goals.

Katrina's calls helped me to rededicate myself to completing my graduate work. I took as many credits as I could persuade my advisor to approve, and combined with my credit for research work, it was not many months before I had finished all of my course work and was editing my dissertation.

With the end in sight, I began applying for jobs. I had a couple of nibbles, but no bites. The job I thought I'd like the best was in athletic administration at a major Midwestern university featuring outstanding swimming and diving teams. They seemed interested in me, but for some reason they weren't making me an offer. I realized there was probably another, better-qualified candidate for their job, and I'd only have a chance if he or she turned it down.

~~~~~~~

Katrina called me while I was correcting some errors in my dissertation mere days before my doctoral defense. I also was waiting to see what jobs might eventually come through. I was under a lot of stress, but talking to her helped me to relax. But when I inquired about how she was doing, she displayed an uncharacteristic and unexpected lack of confidence about making the Olympic team.

Our conversation was tempered by each of our uncertainties, and most of the news from our hometown that she told me about concerned the public disclosure of illegal activities by people I'd met while lifeguarding. My concerns about our two different worlds once again flickered into the back of my mind.

After that call ended, I thought about it for almost two hours. Once again we'd told each other that we loved each other which was truly uplifting, but the future looked extremely uncertain for us.

When would we talk again? Would she make the team? Would I get the job I really wanted? Would our paths cross again? Or would our love simply be a wonderful memory and nothing more? My Ph.D. was almost certainly going to be awarded in June, but what would that mean if I didn't get a job? What would it mean if I had to begin a life without Katrina?

Katrina had promised to call me again after the Olympic trials were over. I was really looking forward to that call regardless of the outcome of her quest, as much as I was hoping to get the job I most wanted. Each of us had devoted ourselves to achieving our separate, individual goals. Would the results of those efforts help us to come together to further develop and expand our love? Or would those results forever send our lives spiraling off in different directions?

For the time being there was nothing more to do except wait - and hope - and remember the intensity of the love we'd so briefly shared.

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Continued in Poolside, Ch. 5

I hope that you, the reader, will not be disappointed but Chapter 5 will not appear among my submissions. Allow me to explain why!

I am NOT a professional writer, and writing is not an easy activity for me. But I enjoy it, anyway! However, probably in part because of my lack of confidence about my writing, I do my own editing. (I've probably forgotten more about grammar and punctuation than what my dedicated English teachers attempted to impart to me. Thankfully helpful advice and corrections from Literotica readers have straightened out some of my more obvious errors!) Anyway, I take a long time to get something into a form that's good enough, according to my limited standards at least, to submit.

Even though I had originally attempted to make Poolside Chapter 4 Part 3 the conclusion to my Poolside series, immediately upon its appearance I received a surprising number of emails requesting more stories about the star-crossed lovers, Katrina and Don. Did Katrina make it to the Olympics? Did Katrina and Don ever get back together? So I began writing a Chapter 5 (and more than two dozen other stories unrelated to Poolside).

At that time my personal circumstances allowed me to be unusually productive in my writing, and I usually managed to produce a couple of dozen pages a day. I would write on one story for a few days, then switch to another. Poolside Chapter 5 got at least half of my time and attention, and I reached the point where I was editing it for the seventh or eighth (and hopefully final) time.

Unfortunately I got careless about backing up my work. At first I copied everything onto removable drives at least once a week, but that devolved into once every two weeks, then once a month, and then only sporadically.

A hard disk crash wiped out months of writing, and it hit me hard. I had more than thirty good plot-lines going by that time, with more than ten - including Poolside Ch. 5 - preliminarily edited and almost ready to submit to Literotica. But then they were gone, leaving only earlier, unedited, incomplete versions. My writing slowed down to a crawl after that, although subsequently I did carefully save backup copies of everything I worked on.

Poolside Ch. 5 was among the stories I worked to resurrect, but rewriting it proved to be particularly difficult. Katrina and Don are among my favorite characters, and relating the intricate details of their lives required lots and lots of rewriting, editing, and reediting. I was making slow, intermittent progress, but I had long way to go. Then I heard from someone who was impatient to read my unfinished Poolside continuation.