Colton Stories - Gus and Adi Ch. 02

"Thank you, Gus," he grinned. "Come on. I can already feel the daggers my wife and daughter are staring at me for keeping you out here like this."

__________________________________________________________

They walked inside and joined the rest of the family, only to find the VP of College Advancement waiting for them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Glass, I'm Tom Ringenberg, VP of Advancement for the college - at least I was before the dynamic duo here showed me for a piker," he smiled at Gus and Adriana. "I wanted to thank the two of you personally for helping out last night. That was a record night of fundraising for the college, and the work you did was a big part of that," he paused.

"Dr. Moses tells me the two of you will be attending Judge Carlson and Andrew DeGroat's event in Boston in August. As a thank you, we've authorized $10,000 for the both of you for wardrobe and other necessities for that evening. Whatever you don't spend, you'll get to split; but Ellen DeGroat assured me the $10K should set you up sufficiently. My guess would be that buying off the rack is a non-starter for both of you. By the way, she also offered her assistance, should you require it."

Gus saw six grinning faces looking at him.

"Wow. Thank you. That's very generous of the college. We appreciate it very much," Gus said self-effacingly.

"It's the least we can do. You actually saved us $90K on our usual administrative fees, but I have a feeling Dr. Moses will see that your respective teams get a swag upgrade courtesy of our friends at Adidas," he grinned. "So, I suspect it will be a wash."

"Dude," interjected Jacob, "you gotta score the Yeezy's. The Yeezy's are amazing."

"Please know that we will ask the two of you to be available again that evening," continued Dr. Ringenberg. "There will be plenty of Colton alums at that event, and we need to make hay while it's daylight. The past 5 years have been rough from a fundraising standpoint, and as of last night, the two of you are probably the best duo I can roll out. I plan on leveraging that, so please know there are some strings attached," he said kindly.

"We'd be glad to help out," Adriana said quickly. "I think we both enjoyed our maiden voyage at fundraising."

Gus nodded dumbly. This girl was about 19 different kinds of awesome, and that fact put a smile a mile wide on his face.

"Well, thank you again. I'll be reaching out before that evening, so expect to hear from me. Now, I've taken enough of your time. Please enjoy your breakfast," he smiled and shook their hands.

Again, grinning faces were looking at Gus and Adi.

"Will you give us a couple of minutes?" asked Adriana. "We'll meet you downstairs."

Her family nodded and headed down to the cafeteria. She grabbed Gus's hand and pulled him into an empty conference room. Once the door was closed, and she was sure they were alone, she kissed him passionately. Gus met her passion, and soon the new couple were enmeshed in one another.

"Odin-son," she said breathlessly as soon as the kiss was over. "That was amazing! Did you see the look on my dad's face? We kick ass!" she said giggling madly.

"You kick ass," replied a smiling Gus. "I'm just your wing man."

She frowned at him. "If by that you mean you make your tall girlfriend feel beautiful, and safe, and valued? Then yes. If you think you're just along for the ride, then not at all," she said firmly. "Gus, I've never done anything like last night in my life. If you weren't by my side, I would have just stood there silently slouching."

She kissed him softly.

"You bring really good things out of me Gus," she smiled. "And I don't just mean orgasms."

"Well, if my presence helps my amazing girlfriend realize who she is, I'm in," he said as he returned her smile. "You know you're all those things without me, right?"

She nodded. "Perhaps. But with you they just come bubbling to the surface. Admit it, Bub; we make a great team, and we make one another better by half."

"I wouldn't dream of denying such a thing," he said chuckling. "I doubt if I could deny you much of anything," he admitted.

"I will hold you to that," she said coyly.

"We should get downstairs; I think Mjolnir will behave himself," he added sheepishly.

_________________________________________________________

The grinning couple made their way down to the cafeteria, only to encounter another pleasant surprise.

"Gustav and Adriana, I'm Rachel Russell; the new director of sports nutrition. I've got some rough workups for the two of you this morning. We're doing this for all varsity athletes now. Today is an educated guess at your nutritional needs. We'll get better macros for you when we test your body compositions and get some feedback from your respective coaches, as well as Coach Donovan on the strength and conditioning side. I hope it's OK if I walk the two of you through the line this first time?" she asked smiling.

"Yeah, that would be great," said a somewhat confused Gus.

Rachel nodded. "Now, I understand the two of you are a couple?" she asked hesitantly.

Adriana smiled broadly and nodded.

"OK, please know we work off your weight, as well as your height. So, I can keep that mum if you'd like," she paused.

"She knows I'm a beanpole, so go right ahead," grinned Gus. "I really don't care what Adi weighs, but I'm a clueless dude."

Adi nodded again.

"OK. You two are going to be easy to work with, I can already tell," smiled Rachel. "Gus, you're 6'5" and weigh roughly 200 lbs.?"

Gus nodded.

"So, we'd like to put about 10 pounds of good weight on you before the spring. Caloric maintenance for crew athletes is a tall task, so I hope you're hungry," she smiled. "We're going to start you at 5000 calories, and work from there."

"Adriana is 6'3" and 150 lbs." she said softly. "We need to put 10 pounds on you, as well. But your time frame is more condensed. We're going to put you at 3500 calories."

"Yes!" exclaimed an excited Adriana. "I can finally eat, and not have anyone look at me like I'm some sort of freak." She hugged Gus.

He smiled at her, and they made their way through the food line with Rachel alongside making caloric and macronutrient recommendations as they went through the line. It was a good thing Gus was famished, because the pile of food necessary to hit 2000 quality calories was quite impressive. Rachel walked them through the line, and then excused herself to help a pair of soccer players with their food choices.

As they were getting their beverages, Adi turned to Gus with a glare.

"OK, so no more beanpole comments, OK?"

Gus saw the fire in her eyes and was more than a little confused by her passion and spunk.

"Sure," he said diffidently, as he turned to face her.

"I mean it," she said resolutely. Adi leaned in and whispered to him. "The man I'm going to give myself to is no beanpole. Sure, he's tall and lean. But he's also amazing and handsome and turns me on in ways I hadn't even imagined," she smiled coyly. "I love the arms that held me last night, and the chest I laid my head on is very nice."

"OK, but this is a quid pro quo. No more disparaging comments about your chest," he whispered with equal fire and candor. "I just about made another mess last night when I saw your girls for the first time," he grinned. "We have a deal, Miss Prince?"

She kissed his nose, and giggled. "We do." She paused. "Thank you, Odin-son. I mean, I've seen Gianna's Instagram feed. She's way bustier than. . ."

"Nope. There's no comparison. We don't play that game," he interjected abruptly.

She nodded.

"Care to make a wager on who can gain their 10 lbs. first?" he asked while grinning. "I mean, unless you're scared of getting your delightful little ass kicked?"

"And just what did you have in mind?"

Adriana's grin barely contained the excitement she felt. Her family was insanely competitive. Every task, game, or chore was a winner-take-all battle royale. Throw in the Rick Flair-esque smack talk that accompanied such family bonding, and it quickly became an experience that would scare most guys off. But here was her man throwing down the gauntlet before she could suggest it. Her desire for him was now reaching ridiculous, almost thermo-nuclear levels.

"The loser has to wear a ballcap of the winner's team for one week. Practice, sleeping and showering are the only exceptions. The loser may pick the cap they have to wear, and the winner has to pay for the privilege of seeing the loser in said apparel," he said with an even larger grin on his face.

She leaned into him and whispered seductively, "So I'll get to ride Mjolnir while you're wearing a BoSox hat? Sign me up, Bub."

When she giggled at him, Gus could only groan.

Their moment was interrupted by Jacob's voice, "Hey dumbasses! I'm starving, and mom is making us wait until we're all at the table to start eating. You mind moving this along?"

As the smiling couple sat with the Glass family, Julianna spoke excited Portuguese to her daughter. Jacob chuckled at the conversation, and Jack Glass rolled his eyes.

"Daddy! It's fine. Gus's mom speaks Norwegian to them all the time," protested Adriana.

He looked at Gus. "It's true. She does. And then my dad gets even by turning his Glaswegian accent up to '11,'" he grinned. "My mom can't understand a word he says when he does that."

"I thought they spoke English in Glasgow," mused Haylee.

"They do, but my dad grew up in the Easterhouse scheme, which is probably the roughest part of what's already a rough city. If you can imagine listening to Shrek when he's drunk and mumbling," he smiled, "that's my dad's accent when he wants to lay it on thick. Eowyn and I grew up with it, so we can understand him. But my mom is totally lost."

"No way it can be that bad," opined Jacob.

"Well sonny Jim, you ken that while you're with your lassie I'll nae make you look like a git. You're a right Geezer, you ken? I mean this Geezer is a real Geezer." said Gus in a very animated Glaswegian accent.

The table burst into laughter.

"I caught 'lassie,'" offered Jack Glass, "but I wouldn't swear to it."

"It's funny, my parents both have strong accents, so Eowyn and I just thought that was how people talked. My first day of kindergarten was a nightmare. I had no idea why all the kids in my class had such boring voices. It took me half a day to catch what my teacher was saying," Gus explained.

"I am very much looking forward to meeting them," smiled Julianna. "Gustav, not to offend you, but we say grace as a family before we eat. We won't say it out loud in public, but we do pause to offer thanks," said Julianna kindly.

Gus smiled and nodded. He watched and bowed his head when the others did so. He smiled when he felt Adi take his hand, and watched with admiration as she crossed herself after giving thanks.

As the family tucked into their breakfast, Jack offered some explanation, "So Gus, I'm afraid you've fallen in with some 'Mackerel snappers,'" he smiled. "Julianna and I both grew up Catholic, so while we're not fanatical, we are observant."

"I went to Lourdes High School," said a smiling Gus between bites of scrambled eggs. "Father Simonson was a very patient, and very thoughtful theology teacher for a kid whose parents grew up in two of the most irreligious places on earth. He turned me on to Dorothy Sayers and G.K. Chesterton, so he was very wise in that way."

"How so?" asked a now more-than-intrigued Julianna.

"I loved the detective stories both wrote. Father Simonson taught us worldview - for lack of a better term - by drawing our attention to what both Sayers and Chesterton were presupposing about the world around Lord Peter and Father Brown. By the time we read Sayers' essay on "Dogma as Drama," I was pretty well hooked. I read Chesterton's Orthodoxy on my own. The hard part is finding a parish where the priest holds to that same brand of Catholicism," he explained.

"Gus and I went to Mass a handful of times last spring," offered Jacob. "The parish we both like is on the far side of Portland, however. It's St. Bartholomew's in Cape Elizabeth. Once he got into crew season, it was hard to make it to Mass."

Adriana turned suddenly to her boyfriend, "So you're Catholic?"

"Not officially. I've not been baptized, so I'm not a communing member. But I have served as a lectionary reader. I guess I've just been waiting to find the right parish, and the right priest. I'm not much on some of the more progressive schools of thought within the Church. I love the Catholic tradition of moral and natural law. And I am a Chesterton junkie," he admitted with a smile on his face.

"All I know is that we'd ride back from Mass, and Gus was explaining some of the homily to me," offered Jacob.

"Studying with these two for Western Civ. was an interesting experience," mused Haylee. "I learned more listening to their conversations than I did from the class lectures. And, I'm afraid Gus converted me to Chesterton as well. He's a great read. I needed some Father Brown as a way to decompress from my Organic Chemistry class."

"And here I just thought you were only studying Jacob," teased Gus.

Haylee stuck her tongue out at him. "Oh, I was. But a girl can multi-task, you know," she said blushing and smiling.

The good-natured conversation continued through breakfast, and Gus and Adriana were both content to sit and relish how natural the entire meal felt. At one point, Gus noticed his new girlfriend and her mother talking in rather hushed and giggled tones. He looked at Jacob, who motioned to his friend.

"I need to borrow Gus for a minute," he announced. Without further comment, he stood up and walked away quickly. They pair went upstairs to the waiting area of the Dining Commons, and found a deserted corner.

"OK, so here's the deal. I'm not sure if you know this, but you're totally crushing it. I knew you would, and now my mom is totally on the Team Gus and Adi bus. That's what all the whispering in Portuguese is about. My dad is freaking smiling like a chick, and that shit never happens," he exhaled loudly. "So, Gus - like seriously - I hope you like my sister. If not, I will kick your ass. Dude, you can't show out like that with a girl's family and then be like, 'Hey, let's just hang out.'"

Gus held up his hand. "Jacob, you're a good friend. I'm so into your sister right now, it's not even funny. If I wasn't still a bit gun-shy after the whole thing with Gianna, I would probably be saying things to you that would freak you out. Let's just say I'm down with breakfast with your family being a permanent thing," he said grinning. "That's where my head is at related to your freaking awesome sister."

Jacob's smile put Gus at ease. He began nodding his head, and could only repeat, "Damn. I mean just damn."

"Jake, I'm serious as a heart attack here," protested Gus.

They were interrupted by a more than a little peeved Haylee.

"Jakey, you cannot do this to you sister! She's freaking out, and your parents are not your biggest fans at the moment," she explained lovingly.

"It's OK, Haylee," offered Gus. "Jacob is just being a good older brother. I'd do the same thing for Eowyn."

"Well, just know you're about to get the third degree," she countered.

The trio returned to the table, and as they were seated, Gus could not miss the cold glares Jacob was receiving. Knowing that his friend was at a loss for words, Gus decided to go all in. He cleared his throat.

"If I may, I'd like to let all of you know that I'm not a 'casual dating' kind of guy. I know we're early in this relationship, but I've been blown away at how much I enjoy being around Adi. Jacob asking me to step away was a really stand-up thing for an older brother to do for his younger sister. I'd like to think I'd do the same thing for my sister. I want to be clear that my intentions toward Adriana are noble, and I sincerely hope this family will be seeing lots of me in the future," he said with quiet resolution.

He looked at Jack Glass. "Mr. Glass, you've got an amazing family. Jacob is one of my best friends, and he's a great guy. Whatever questions you want to ask me moving forward, I'll gladly answer. I know Adriana is worth that. I also know that hearing about me from other people will only go so far. I'm sure that I'd want to know what kind of young man was dating my daughter."

Jack considered the younger man carefully. He had put himself out there for his youngest daughter in a very straightforward way. Jack had to smile, for he vividly remembered flying to Sao Paulo to have a similar conversation with Pablo and Maria Costa. As he looked about the table, he could not miss the way his wife and daughter were looking at this young man. Both had looks of loving admiration in their eyes. He'd seen that look before, and he was no fool.

"Thank you, Gus, for your honesty. I can only hope my son is pursuing Haylee in an equally honorable and straightforward manner. I also see that John and Andrew were correct in their assessment of you. Jules and I are very thankful that a young man like yourself is pursuing Adriana in this way."

The gravity of what he'd just done was now hitting Gus in the face. In the absence of words, he could only nod.

Turning to his youngest child, Jack said, "I hope you realize that a young man is putting himself out there for you in a very intentional way."

Adriana tearfully nodded to her father.

"I do daddy. Believe me, I do," she said honestly. Jack noted that as she answered him, she never looked away from Gus.

"He has," interjected Haylee. "Jacob has absolutely pursued me the same way. My mom has the same look on her face," she said, grinning madly. "I guess getting Andy'd happens faster than we thought."

"I have no idea what that means," offered Jack, "but Gus and Adi, if you're done with breakfast, we'd like to have a few moments with Jacob and Haylee if you don't mind."

The couple nodded, grabbed their trays and exited the cafeteria.

As they got to the top of the stairs, Gus again found himself being dragged into a vacant conference room. Adriana kissed him passionately as soon as the door was shut.

"If you don't tell me that you love me, I will absolutely kick your ass," she said breathlessly once the kiss was over.

He pulled his face back, and smirked madly.

"You know I do," he said softly.

She nodded and smiled contentedly.

"I'll make you a deal," he offered. "The first time I tell you I love you; I'll be on one knee with a ring in my hand," he paused. "Until then I'll do all I can to show you. How does that sound?"

"I'd like that very much," she said smiling.

Gus nodded, and kissed his beloved on the nose.

After a bit, he spoke again.

"I need to warn you about something: there are two great loves in my life now. Judge Carlson's boat is freaking awesome. I love sailing, Adi; so, if I kinda lose my mind on the Miss Helen, please don't take it personally."

"I won't," she giggled. "If the Miss Helen is your mistress, I'm totally OK with that."

"Gustav, would you care for a cigar?"

Judge Carlson's question jarred Gus from his euphoric state. The Miss Helen had set sail with 14 human passengers, and one canine crew member. Marty Moses had insisted that Padme be included in the voyage, and his father agreed once the Judge gave his OK. They'd been out to sea for about half an hour, and Ralph offered Gus the wheel. He marveled at how this majestic craft felt in hand, and the responsiveness of this ship was a thing of beauty. Adi stood behind him, with her head on his shoulder as she leaned into him.

Gus chuckled in response to the Judge's offer.

"Thanks, but no," he said amusedly. "I think I'll pass on smoking a cigar in front of my girlfriend's father, and the AD of my college," he grinned.

"Admiral Ackbar?" asked a smiling Andy.