Emil has "Special Needs" Ch. 08

Again, Readers, there are no hot and heavy sex scenes in this chapter, not to say that there won't be in the future...

*****

"Why can't he just talk to her on the phone? Or maybe Skype with her?" Mr. Beauchamp asked, half-offering a suggestion to help bridge the apparently unbearable distance between Emil and Lara, "This is 2019, the kids can use their imaginations here, not to mention the modern conveniences available, what we didn't have when we were their age."

"Cheri, you know your son. He's never been especially verbal. And visual, well that's even a stretch, too. Remember what one of his teachers said when he was still in elementary school? He's tactile; when he TOUCHES things is when he gets the most out of a concept... or an experience... or..." Kate searched for more examples.

"Or a girl", Mr. Beauchamp nodded understandingly, albeit reluctantly.

"Besides, it's been a while since I visited Mike at school, so I don't mind driving down, not at all. Nothing like a trip to the University to pep up a slow weekend", Kate assured her husband, who was wearing his usual skeptic's smirk.

*****

Across state, Karen started having second thoughts about her Machiavelli-inspired plan, but she didn't dare tell Lara. Truth be told, ideas were constantly popping into Karen's head, and she sometimes ended up regretting voicing these ideas prematurely to her friends. But alas, she was never one to flake out on people, especially on a friend who expressly asked for her help. Karen was as determined as ever to finish what she had started; especially now with her latest plan.

Still, she asked herself, what if Mike was indeed in love with her, then what? What could truly come of it? As with Jeff and Ben, Mike had never enjoyed a second thought in her mind, at least not romantically. After all, Karen was friendly enough with these 'boy' classmates, but that's exactly what they were to her, boys.

For quite some time now, Karen's stunning looks with brains to match had gotten her pursued endlessly by countless rich suitors. These men, mostly older, had introduced her to the finer things in life, like dinners at five-star restaurants, midnight cruises to high-end resorts, not to mention extravagant gifts in the name of Hermes and Dior.

Karen scratched those suitors out of her head for the moment, and concentrated instead on her friend, Lara, who was currently faced with the dilemma of maintaining a long distance relationship with a hot suitor of her own.

Karen was genuinely concerned for her friend's welfare and happiness, and prided herself in being able to help solve anybody's dicey relationship problems.

*****

Friday evening at his studio apartment, Michael, Lara, Emil, and Kate were using his coffee table and throw pillows as a makeshift dining table, to munch on some Subway sandwiches. While chomping away, Lara decided to reveal to Kate the girls' plans for a double date with the boys. What's more, Karen had arranged for it to be at a fancy restaurant.

Learning that the date was planned for Saturday evening, Kate wasted no time in insisting that her older son lend his baby brother nice clothes for the special event.

Peering through Michael's somewhat messy closet, Kate spotted the navy blue blazer she had given him a few Christmases ago. She put it on her younger son, and it ended up looking tailor-made for Emil. Michael had apparently gotten too muscular for the jacket, which had been languishing on the vine (in his closet gathering dust) for a while.

Kate also picked out some black slacks, a light blue dress shirt, dark brown shoes, and Ralph Lauren sporty cologne, all for her baby boy to wear out on his fancy date with Lara.

*****

The double date slated for Saturday night approached, as Michael swiftly pulled into the driveway of Karen's apartment building. When he buzzed her intercom, he was greeted with a stern, "You're twenty minutes late."

Click.

Buzz.

He took out his phone and glanced at the time. Shit, he hadn't wanted to start off his dream date on a sour note, but hey, come on, he was only a few minutes late, and the dinner reservation wasn't until 8 pm, which gave them plenty of time to get to the restaurant. Twenty minutes was no big deal. Women...

"Strike One", Karen made a mental note. Apparently, she had become quite the discerning young woman, automatically keeping score on her dates' faux pas, and triumphs alike.

Michael walked up towards Karen's spacious apartment, and saw her door was left ajar. He opened it and greeted his brother, mother, and Karen, whom he noticed looking especially hot, even though she had a disapproving look on her face.

Sour face notwithstanding, Karen was still quite a dish. Her sexy outfit for the evening showed off all her curves, all in the right places! Christ, more than ever, she looked like a god damned Victoria's Secret model!

After bidding his mother a hasty farewell, leaving her to her own devices at Karen's apartment, Michael walked Karen and Emil out to his car.

Admiring Karen's scantily clad body from behind, he was thanking his stars for finally getting the chance to take his goddess out on a proper date, even if it also included his brother and his classmate.

Well accustomed to men's gallantry, Karen waited expectantly for Michael to open the car door for her. He was all too happy to oblige, as she looked fucking gorgeous in her tight red dress and spikey heels. Her amazingly feminine figure and long legs were all he needed to get his motor running.

"Fuck! I'm a lucky bastard tonight!" he muttered to himself, as blood flowed to his groin.

Driving to Lara's apartment a few minutes later, Michael felt no need to get out of his car to retrieve her, so he texted, "We're outside". In a flash, Lara appeared, looking hot in her own right.

Emil remembered what his mom told him earlier that evening, before the group headed out, "Cheri, the man always opens the door for the woman, and pulls out her chair, and stands up when she leaves the table, and also when she comes back to the table, and pays for her meal..."

Emil quickly opened the car door, stepped out, and gave his special girl a big hug, savoring the feel of her soft, sensual body. He then held the door open, patiently waiting for her to get settled inside. Following her in, he then closed the door so they could get a move on to the restaurant.

To Emil's delight (and Michael's), Lara wore a low-cut silky hot pink blouse and a tight black leather skirt that slit up her thigh. She also sported fierce black stilettos. All clothing items were borrowed from Karen's fully stocked "designer label" closet, even the intricately knitted wrap around Lara's arms. Exceptions, however, were Lara's perfume and sparkly necklace, which were compliments of her man.

Karen sat up in front, and as she crossed her long legs seductively, getting comfortable, Michael was hoping she didn't notice his dick tenting out his pants.

The two young lovebirds in the backseat got busy getting close, almost giving the term "canoodling", a whole new meaning.

"Honey, I'm glad you came down this weekend, since I'm so bogged down with work." She sniffed his neck, and noticed how dapper he looked, "Mm... I don't know how I'll make it through dinner tonight with you right next to me, looking so handsome and smelling so good, baby..."

The way Emil was dressed reminded Lara of the movie, "Fifty Shades of Grey"; how the lead actor appeared in the date scenes, casually elegant in a crisp dress shirt with a couple of buttons open to reveal just a hint of chest.

In fact, Lara felt like she had felt the night she first met him, in the kitchen of his parents' huge Tudor-style house. Again, she found herself inside the biggest candy store ever...

"You smell good, too, Lara", Emil spoke up, wholeheartedly taking in her sweet scent by nuzzling his face in the softness of her neck. He began to tenderly stroke her hair.

Lara looked into Emil's eyes intensely. "I'm going to spoil you crazy tonight, honey. I've been missing you awful the whole day. At work, I could think of nothing and no one but you."

At the first sign of mushy talk from the back, Michael was plenty prepared to turn up his radio. In no time, it was blasting the Bruno Mars hit, "24K Magic". Karen, the quintessential "female collegiate baller'", immediately got her groove on with the catchy, high-energy anthem for millennials like herself.

In the backseat, Emil took Lara's hand and gently placed it on his crotch, letting her know how turned on he was, upon which she let out a slight shudder.

To a stranger passing by their open car window, Emil looked like a handsome young investment banker, ready to paint the town red with his hot girlfriend.

*****

The restaurant only offered valet parking, so on the off chance that his car would get robbed, Michael opted to do his own parking that night, a few blocks down the street from the restaurant.

The girls' stiletto heels dug into patches of muddy grass as they were walking from the car to the restaurant. This would undoubtedly leave a mark on the red lacquered soles of Karen's expensive shoes, but Lara didn't mind, as they weren't hers to begin with. Besides, she could never see herself spending good money on footwear like that, even though women like her mother and Karen found those particular shoes their wardrobe essentials.

"Strike Two", Karen made another mental note.

As the group walked in and were greeted by the maître d, the two brothers and their dates cut a handsome figure at the front of the posh restaurant. Since Karen had made reservations for them well ahead of time, the foursome was immediately led to a table in a somewhat secluded, cozy corner of the dimly lit establishment.

Emil and Lara chose to sit at the leather booth with their backs against the wall, while Michael and Karen would place themselves across the table in immaculately upholstered chairs. There were mirrors everywhere, most placed strategically above the booths and tables.

As the maître d anxiously pulled out her chair, Karen flashed him a flirty smile and whispered, "Thank you".

"Your server will be with you shortly", the host indicated in a thick French accent, and was off to tend to another party.

Now comfortably seated next to Emil, Lara started, "So honey, since we didn't get to talk about it last night, I'm dying to know what working at your dad's company was like! Tell me everything!"

"You sound like Mom", Emil stated.

"Well, I'm curious. What's your job like, honey?"

"I help carry stuff, deliver things, and clean up", he said simply.

"Is it hard?" she asked.

"No."

"Well, I'm proud of you. I know you took the job because of me. You're my hero, Emil", Lara declared with a sweet smile on her glossed up lips. Michael didn't see Lara grab Emil's knee under the table, but he knew that's exactly what she was doing. He had seen her do it countless times at his parents' house.

When they opened their menus, Michael blinked twice at the items that he couldn't pronounce, let alone understand; this along with the fact the prices were ridiculous. How would he get through tonight?

Lara spoke up. "Let's share a dish, Emil. I'm still a little full from lunch at the deli, so I don't think I can finish a full serving by myself", she lied.

"Really, Lara? Girlfriend, didn't I tell you the food here would be incredible, and that you shouldn't load up beforehand?" Karen asked, puzzled and somewhat frustrated at her friend's actions.

"Yeah, but I got hungry and couldn't help myself. Besides, we got some great new salmon in recently, and I couldn't resist..." Lara shrugged, offering her friend a childish pout, hoping to absolve herself of any blame. Michael noted Lara looked sexy as hell when she did her 'little girl' pout.

Karen replied, "Ok, then, but I insist you try their 'Cheese Selection'. It's the best I've ever had."

"Ok, the cheese I'll try", Lara agreed, appeasing her friend.

When the waiter came by, he asked the group which wine they desired for the table. After Michael, Emil, and Lara hesitated for a few seconds, Karen piped up to order a bottle of such and such, using her best French accent.

The waiter's eyes lit up, and he immediately began ranting at a hundred miles an hour, presumably full of compliments for Karen, "Mademoiselle, vous avez fait un excellent choix... votre francais est impeccable, une jeune femme si belle et si charmante. Ce jeune homme a vraiment de la chance!" The waiter gestured towards Michael.

Truth be told, Karen didn't understand everything the friendly waiter said in his rushed excitement, but she caught just enough to get the gist, thanks to her high school French. She gave the server a coquettish look, and simply replied, "Merci".

Michael was almost blindsided by Karen's dazzling worldly sophistication, but in the back of his mind, he hoped the wine she ordered wasn't going to burn too big a hole in his pocket.

When the wine arrived, all parties drank up, with the exception of Lara, who was content with a bottle of Perrier.

Not surprisingly, Karen had the waiter smitten before their table even ordered any food, so when the middle-aged server came over again, trying at first to direct his questions at the whole table, he ended up looking almost exclusively at Karen.

"Avez-vous decide de vos apertifs, les jeunes? Personnellement, je peux recommander le..."

Karen hesitated, smiling, at this point having the waiter hang on her every movement.

"Oui oui", she eventually answered, whereupon the waiter wrote down the appetizer he had just recommended. Before he could take the table's entrée orders, the maître d signaled for him to go to the front to answer a question. He excused himself from the group and vowed to return momentarily.

Michael leaned over to Karen. "What did you just order for us? What did Pierre write down?" he was curious to know.

"I have no idea", she replied with a silly girlish giggle.

Michael cursed to himself, "Shit, she's going to bleed me dry before the evening's over."

"Mike, you're the one with the French background, you should know more French than me", Karen claimed.

"My parents never spoke it to us, except only a handful of words. And besides, they say Canadian French is different from what is spoken in France, like the stuff Pierre was rattling off at lightning speed."

"Oh well..." was all Karen came back with. Then she turned to Lara, who was sitting diagonally across the table, looking admiringly at her fiancé.

"Hey, I'm going to the ladies' room, care to join me?" Karen asked.

"Sure, you know we girls always go to the ladies' room together!" Lara answered back, getting up from her chair. As she did this, she leaned in towards the table a bit, giving Michael a special view of her ample cleavage.

Remembering what his Mama taught him about proper manners, Emil immediately stood up and waited for Lara and Karen to walk away from the table.

When the girls were safely out of their dates' earshot, making their way towards the restroom, Karen whispered, "Wow, Lar, you've got yourself a gentleman there. He got up out of his seat the second you stood up from the table."

Karen opened the door to the ladies lounge.

"Yeah, you can't say chivalry is dead. It's alive and kicking from where I'm standing", Lara called back to Karen, who had just stepped into a stall.

"Speaking of 'alive and kicking', you are taking care of yourself in that department, right? I mean... you're not taking chances, are you?" Karen inquired in a serious tone from inside her stall.

Lara rolled her eyes a little, but grinned. "No, Mom, I'm not taking any chances. In fact, I've been on the pill since I was thirteen years old, to regulate my periods. So in that department, you don't have to worry." Lara paused before continuing, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh I just want to make sure you're being smart, because you don't want to get knocked up", Karen voiced concern for her friend.

"Well, you can rest easy, Karen, because I am being smart. Besides, I'm extra careful about that stuff, because if I got pregnant, I would NEVER get rid of it, under any circumstances... By the way, are you on the pill, too?"

Karen emerged from the stall to wash her hands.

"Never say 'never', girlfriend...", she said facetiously before she went on, "... and no, I'm not on the pill, because I don't have a steady guy, not like you do", Karen remarked with a twinkle in her eye.

"So you use condoms?" Lara asked.

"Yeah, condoms are the way to go, for someone like me", Karen replied, with a slight melancholy to her voice.

Just as predicted, when the two young ladies walked back to their table, both Beauchamp brothers politely rose, only to sit back down after the girls settled into their seats.

*****

When the foursome finished their meal, the waiter presented the bill to Michael, whose eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw the damage. Fortunately, however, being the low-key dude he was, Michael didn't let on to his astonishment, and very nonchalantly paid the bill with his credit card. As he motioned for the waiter to come back to their table, Emil reached inside his pocket for the cash he had received from his dad other day, part of his pay from the workweek.

Michael took the five $20 bills from his kid brother, counted them, and then returned one back to him.

While waiting for the waiter to bring back the bill to sign, Michael did some calculations in his head; he cut the total amount in half, figuring that's how much it would have been if he had taken his blond goddess out for a nice date, just the two of them. However, after dividing the sum by two, it still seemed like an exorbitant amount, to his way of thinking at least.

At that instant, Michael recalled that Karen herself recommended this restaurant, so it was probably what she usually expected from her dates, on a regular basis, no less. He reasoned that if he were ever lucky enough to be her boyfriend, he'd end up broke after a month or two.

Mike had always prided himself on being wise (some would say frugal, while others would say tight) with his money. Since his parents insisted he concentrate on his studies and forego working for the time being, Mike could always count on them to generously provide for him during college. As such, like clockwork, Mr. Beauchamp deposited a sufficient sum into Michael's checking account every month, carefully calculated to cover his housing, school, food, car, and entertainment expenses.

Well, if he were fortunate enough to win Karen's heart and become her man, he figured he'd have to eventually get a job, against his parents' wishes. There would be no way around it, because he couldn't see himself asking his father for 'hot girlfriend' money in addition to what he was already providing him.

Never mind, Michael said to himself, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. But boy, were women an expensive hobby! What ever happened to equal rights?

*****

When the group was ready to leave the restaurant, Karen suggested they take a stroll through the village and check out some of the quaint shops nearby. Everybody agreed, and so they headed out.

Michael remarked to himself, "Well, whatever she takes a fancy to, she's going to have to cough up the money herself, because I'm all tapped out tonight, even after Junior's help."

The group walked pleasantly down the trendy street, passed a few shops, and then came upon an art gallery, which offered original paintings in watercolor and acrylics. Many of the subjects were 'still-lifes', but a handful of the works were emotion-filled portraits.

"Look, Emil, those portraits remind me of the one you drew for me. But to be honest, yours beats all of them, hands down", Lara commented affectionately.