My Fantasy Girl Ch. 03

With a big grin on her face, she looked at me and said, "Yes, I know. I heard."

I was embarrassed but it was too late to do anything about it so I went on as if nothing had happened. "Well, I wanted to get you one with a doll. I figured you could give that to Heather."

She was looking down at the box again. "No way! She's not getting to touch this doll."

What! How mean! I can't believe she would deprive her daughter of the doll. This is a side of Melissa I've never seen. The doll isn't even worth anything to speak of.

Just then, Heather, who had been taking her bath, came down the steps in her pajamas and joined us, standing next to her mother. "Oh, how pretty!" she declared.

Melissa started to remove the cellophane wrapping from the box. "Would you like a piece Heather?"

"Yes, please."

"Okay, but remember, you can't take any of this candy except when I'm here and you have to take the piece you touch first."

"I understand mommy."

Melissa opened the box and offered each of us a piece. She offered her parents a second piece, then took the box up to her bedroom before we left to go to the sea food restaurant.

All through dinner I was bothered by what Melissa had said about not giving the doll to Heather. Then, just before the end of the meal, it hit me. She wasn't denying Heather anything significant. After all, Melissa and her family might not have as much in the way of material goods as Joan and I had, but they weren't destitute. Heather's bed probably looked just like those of my daughters, crowded with dolls and stuffed animals. If she gave this cheap little doll to Heather, she might play with it for a day or so, then it would be relegated to her toy box and she would go back to playing with her favorites.

But this doll obviously meant something to Melissa. She was probably going to give it a place of honor in her bedroom, and it was significant because it was a gift from me. She's in love with me! She's REALLY in love with me! Oh, wow, this changes everything. I think I'm in love with her too.

I didn't say anything to Melissa about how I felt when she first said she wouldn't give the doll to Heather nor about how I felt now, but I was floating on air the rest of the evening.

I thought a lot about my situation before going to sleep that night. Melissa and I are really in love with each other and I know Joan is not in love with me any longer. She will be hurt when I ask for a divorce, but that's because Joan does not like having a lot of responsibility for things like family finances, not because she would miss me!

Thursday evening we went to the Downtown Hotel to eat. After we were settled in with our drinks and tiny shrimp I said "Your birthday is coming up in less than two weeks. I was planning on buying you some clothes and you would really like them. I happen to have very good taste when it comes to women's clothing."

"Well, you certainly dress very well." She interjected.

I went on. "Thanks. But I've decided to not get you clothes. I want to buy you a set of contact lenses."

She had been mostly looking down as she was peeling shrimp. Now, she looked up and with a serious look on her face she said, "Oh, no Bob. You can't. It's too much."

"You're right. In one sense it is too much. It's certainly more than I've ever spent on a gift for anyone. But it's something you really want but can't afford to buy for yourself right now, and I can. Besides, I get the pleasure of knowing that when you put them on, you will think of me every morning."

"Oh, Bob. I already do." She said this last very softly with her head still up but her eyes dipped downward. YES, she is definitely in love with me. This is perfect!

Aloud, I told her, "Call your optometrist tomorrow to find out the cost. Tell him you can pay him $100 now and the rest in three weeks. If that's okay with him, make an appointment."

I carried very little cash on me as I lived on plastic when traveling, but I kept a $100 bill tucked away in my wallet (I still do; old habits die hard) and it came in handy a few times when only cash would do.

Melissa accepted the fact that I was serious about wanting to do this for her, and then a funny thing happened. She was eating the shrimp and carrying on a conversation with me, but I could tell from the glazed look in her eyes and the expression on her face that her mind was in another world. She may have been thinking, "He's definitely in love with me!" She may also have been thinking how she would enjoy telling her parents and any friends she had who were opposed to her dating me.

The next morning (Friday -- Valentine's Day) Melissa told me she made an appointment with her optometrist for Monday. The total cost, including a year's insurance, would be $200. I told her it was wise to buy insurance when you first get contact lenses but not to buy it in the future. Being a responsible adult, Melissa would not have trouble with her lenses once she got used to caring for them. I gave her the $100 bill at lunch time.

That night we drove to Wilkes-Barre to the Italian restaurant Melissa had been to before. She didn't say how long ago she'd been there and I didn't ask, but it was vastly different than it had been. There was no longer live music and there was no dance floor. The waitress told us the same family still ran the place and the food was the same but the dance crowd had moved on to some other venue. They spread the tables further apart to take up the space where the dance floor had been and they now had soft background music played through ceiling speakers.

The food was very good. We had a large meal, complete with lots of Chianti. As we were near the end of our meal, a large group came in, about twenty or so, ranging in age from the high teens to about thirty-five. Our waitress came to our table and told us, if we wanted dessert, to give her the order now. The group was a dance lesson class which came once a month to have dessert and coffee, and dance. She explained that, although there was no dance floor, they danced between the tables. They liked to come here because they were just learning to dance and they wouldn't be embarrassed by other, good dancers.

"This is great," I told Melissa. "I'll fit right in with this group." When some of the members got up to dance, we did too. Only slow music was played so Melissa and I looked pretty good. I held her very close and, of course, I soon had an erection. "I love to dance. It's such a wonderful prelude to making love," she said as she pressed against me.

It was close to midnight when we left for the hour-plus trip to my room. As always, I opened the door for Melissa, then went around to the driver's side. When I got in, Melissa was right there against me. How wonderful, having her right beside me. I put my arm around her and she leaned back against me for the trip.

It was about 2:30 when I took Melissa home after making love to her. She told me to come in. We sat on the small sofa facing the TV set with our arms around one another and soon fell asleep. It was one of the few times in my life I slept with contact lenses on.

I woke up when I heard Heather, using a rather loud stage-whisper voice, telling her mother to wake up. It was about 7am, probably the time Heather got up every day. Melissa told me to wait a minute while she went up to the bathroom, then I could go up when she was done. We had fallen asleep in our date clothes, minus my tie, but Melissa changed to jeans before she came back down.

When I came back down the steps after using the bathroom I joined the family in the kitchen. Melissa's parents had finished their breakfast but were still drinking coffee. Heather was finishing a bowl of cereal, after which she asked to be excused. Melissa poured me some orange juice and asked me how I liked my eggs. I don't normally eat a large breakfast but I didn't have the heart to tell her I didn't want any eggs. Besides, I wouldn't get to eat lunch until at least 1:30 on the plane.

"Over with a soft yolk and a firm white, if you can do that."

"Do you want two or three and do you prefer them cooked in butter or bacon fat?"

"Two, cooked in butter, please."

I didn't know if she ever worked as a short order cook, but the eggs came out perfect. Joan was an excellent cook but she could not prepare fried eggs and get them to come out the way Melissa did.

I ate a large breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash brown potatoes and toast.

After breakfast I went back to my motel, took a shower and checked out. I went back to Melissa's house since I had about an hour to spare before leaving for Williamsport. I spent it with Melissa and Heather. Melissa was definitely in mommy-mode now. I enjoyed seeing how they related to one another.

Then, feeling sad because I wouldn't be back for three weeks, I left for the airport.

THE PROJECT WINDS DOWN

I did not return to Pennsylvania until the first week in March. Melissa and I talked frequently on the phone until then, with Melissa giving me a detailed account of how the conversion to contact lenses was going. Hard lenses required a long gradual break-in period. When I got mine it took about three months before you could wear them full time. By 1975, the process was quicker but it still took about six weeks.

When I got to the office Melissa was wearing her glasses. She was up to six hours wearing time for her contacts so she was holding off putting them on until she got ready for our date.

I think that by now everyone in the customer service department knew Melissa and I were a couple. They didn't say anything but I could feel their looks.

As before, everything with Melissa was great except for intercourse itself. I still couldn't bring myself to do or say anything to change it. And, of course, Melissa continued to be very passive. In some ways I was treating our entire relationship like a fairy tale, not wanting to do anything to upset it.

I was in Pennsylvania during the first week of April for just the third time since Valentine's Day. On Friday, April 4^th I laid out a tentative schedule for the rest of the project. I would come up next week, then twice in May and it should be over except for a final report, which I would write in Atlanta. I told Melissa I planned to come back next week but I did not discuss the rest of the project schedule with her.