Peggy & I Ch. 01

"Guess what I've got on under my dress?" she asked.

"Don't go there," I said. "Tell me any more and I'll walk into the restaurant looking like I shoplifted wrenches from Sears in my pants."

She laughed.

"Okay, no sex talk. I've been wondering about something. My college loans are gone. What about yours?"

"Don't have any."

"Did your parents pay your entire university cost?"

"Nope."

"Did you work?"

"Yeah, summers. But I still have most of that in the bank. Mom and Dad gave me enough for rent. I didn't need much more than that."

"How . . ."

"High school math club."

"Okay, I'll bite."

"Most of the friends I had in high school were in either the math club or the sound booth."

"You worked sound booth? I was on the lighting crew."

"Two best places for geeks."

"Yeah. So how did the math club help with university expenses?"

"One of the guys bought one of those 'how to apply for free money' books that specialized in scholarships. We looked at every scholarship for which we qualified. We even did those DNA tests that take a mouth swab and tell you what percentage of each ethnicity you are.

"We calculated the chances of getting each scholarship, based on past applicant numbers and awards given. We entered every private, foundation, college and government scholarship and grant into a database and generated a probable outcomes list.

I applied for one hundred and sixty seven scholarships and grants. Engineering, ethnic, general, GPA-based, you name it. It turns out that some scholarships go un-awarded, simply because no one applies. Lots of ethnic ones from the Sons-of-this-country-or-that-country. I have five proven countries of ancestry that are significant enough to qualify for application to Irish, French, Polish, Italian and Lithuanian organizations.

"I applied to every engineering and industrial organization and every government agency that offered grants and scholarships."

"Where did you find the time? You said you had a 4.0 GPA. That took a lot of studying."

"When girls won't even look at you, you have all the time you would have spent dating, driven by all the pent-up energy you would have released by dating."

"Been there. So how many of the one-sixty-seven did you get?"

"Math is beautiful. When we analyzed all of the available scholarships and narrowed them down to the ones with the highest mathematical probability, the enriched pool was amazing!"

"I got it. Big brain. How many?"

"Fifty two."

"Fifty two?!?!"

"Yup. Some were only a few hundred bucks, but most were for thousands. Some were for tuition, room-and-board or books only, and some were outright grants I could use for anything. Not dating for almost four years saved me a lot of money, so I still have about three or four thousand of the total."

"God, that's brilliant! So why did you work during the summers?"

"Experience. My first summer I got a menial job at Furdlinger Manufacturing in New Hampshire. Working the production line. I made some contacts, and got internships for the next two summers working with the assembly-line design engineers. Mostly 'gopher' jobs, but I learned a lot."

"Isn't Furdlinger one of Whittenstone's major competitors?"

I grinned, "Yes they are. Professional staff there has to sign non-disclosure agreements, but college drones don't for some reason. Probably because the actual hiring is done through the university intern office and they figure that interns won't actually learn anything, anyway. Loophole. When I applied to Whittenstone, my CV included a 3.8 GPA in college, three summers at Furdlinger as an intern, and fifty two scholarships. My interview disclosed, by design, that I had no non-disclosure clauses with Furdlinger.

"I got a call for the interview the day after we met at the job fair. The recruiter was drooling when I left."

"Honey, I don't impress easily, but that is the third most impressive thing I have ever heard."

"What were the first two?"

"Hearing you brush off Goldie in order to talk to me alone, and yesterday on the boat when you proposed."

My reaction was instantaneous, but was interrupted by Ed and Leni.

"Hey you two," Leni laughed. "Not in a public place. Get a room, Sweetie."

We broke our embrace and walked with them to the Cheesecake Factory. Everyone else was there within a few minutes, and we went in for an early dinner.

Peg had a few favorites, and she decided on one, the Asian chicken salad, spiced up a bit. The food was great as always, and the portions huge. I expected our server to come by and take desert orders, but she didn't. When the busboy cleared our plates, our server came to the table with a cherry cheesecake with a big heart drawn on top and two strawberries.

Leni winked at me as the server said, "Here's to the happy couple. Congratulations!"

Mom and Leni stood up and Mom said, "Alex, show Peggy what your fathers gave you two."

I made a big thing about pulling out the gift cards and Peg made a big thing about being surprised. We thanked them all.

The cheesecake there is fantastic, and comes in more than a dozen flavors. Cherry is still Peg's favorite.

After the meal, it was time for Mom and Dad to hit the road for home. Dad hugged Peg and me and Mom cried again.

"I've always hoped for a daughter-in-law as wonderful as you," she said to Peg. "As soon as the two of you settle in and decide on dates, let me know, and Leni and I will start planning with you for the big day. I love you!"

She and Peg hugged again, and they were off.

Ed drove everyone back to Boston, and instead of just dropping the two of us off at my apartment, he said he wanted to come inside for a minute "just to see where I lived."

He looked around the living room, and dining room/kitchen, and then asked if he could see my room. I showed it to him, and I could see a practiced eye take in everything.

Before we went to join the others, I said, "blink?"

Ed stopped in his tracks and looked at me with surprise.

I said, "You read blink by Malcolm Caldwell, too? It was recommended reading for a class on production line design. You can time-slice images of production workers and find flaws in the design of the line without even knowing what they are producing.

"Caldwell also showed that a group of randomly-chosen evaluators could tell more about someone by looking at his dorm room than a similar group could tell from a face-to-face interview.

"I'm assuming that you use the technique when evaluating witnesses and other parties involved in trials or litigation? Meet them at their homes and have them pegged before the interview starts? Probably ask to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water in the kitchen and evaluate the terrain between the front door and the bathroom or kitchen."

"Yeah. Something like . . . you got that all from . . .whew!"

"Ed, I like what I'm going to be doing. I read at least an hour a day. That's beyond course work, too. Books, professional journals. I didn't go to college to party. I came to learn about what I love to do. Until Peg, I didn't even date.

"So from the perspective of blink, did I pass?"

He looked at me seriously and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Son, and I'll be proud to call you that, you sure did. Your roommates, though . . . I wouldn't trust them to guard a toxic waste dump. They appear to have moved out, but the mess they left behind . . ."

"Thanks. That really means a lot to me. Uh . . . the first part that is, not the toxic dump part. Yeah, they moved out this afternoon. They sublet to the same group of interns that my sublet is in. I have a cleaning service coming in a few days from now 'cause their rooms are toxic waste dumps."

He laughed.

"I hope they paid for the service."

"Their share, though I'll probably have to pay for the hazmat suits and respirators."

We laughed again. The rest of the group had migrated over to us by then.

Ed said, "We're going to the MFA tomorrow. Care to join us?"

Peg said, "We may do that. What time?"

"About 10."

"I'll give you a call in the morning."

"Sounds good."

Peg took Leni aside for a moment, and they spoke. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but Leni looked concerned for a moment, and then relieved. She took Peg by both shoulders and looked at her for a minute. She lightly brushed Peg's hair with her hand, thought for a minute and kissed her on the cheek.

Both had tears in their eyes, and they talked for another minute, dried their eyes and rejoined the rest of the party.

Ed asked Leni, "Problem?"

Leni replied, "No, no problem. It's good. I'll tell you later."

A round of hugs, and Leni said to me, "I know you'll take good care of my little girl"

I kissed her cheek and said, "Better than anyone else could."

"Thank you, Al, thank you."

A minute later, we were alone.

When they were gone, I asked Peg if she could tell me what she and her mother had said.

"Mom was getting nervous about our . . . our living arrangements now that I was leaving the dorm. I told her that I wanted to be with you. She was upset for a moment. I told her about our agreement not to have intercourse until we were married. I said that I wanted to live with you if you would have me, but I would remain a virgin until we were married.

"She knows we are doing other stuff, but the thought that we weren't going to fuck until we were married seems to be enough for her to accept. She'll make it okay with Dad, too. She was relieved to hear that after four years of college I was still a virgin. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was partly because I couldn't get a date.

"So is it okay? Do you think we can live together and not fuck?"

"Peg, this is a relief. I wanted to ask you to move in with me, but I was afraid that you would think I really just wanted more chances to . . . uh . . ."

"Fuck? It's okay to say it with me in private. We're going to be married. Married people fuck. Our parents didn't crochet us."

"I love it when you're being open and honest with me. But it's so new. I never . . ."

"Me either. That's one of the things I love about you. You understand my past."

"So, yes, I think we can pull it off. You have so many other ways of pleasing me."

I held up her hands and said, "I should insure these for a million bucks, for instance."

She laughed and ran one of her hands down my torso to my crotch. It only took a few seconds for me to respond.

"Sir," she said with a voice of mock-authority. "Store security. I think you are trying to sneak wrenches out of the store in your pants. I'm going to have to strip search you. Come with me."

"Yes, ma'am."

She led me to the bedroom and slowly took my clothes off. Shirt unbuttoned one button at a time between kisses on my chest. Belt undone slowly. Pants closure unhooked. Zipper pulled down while the palm of her hand ran over my penis. Pants and undershorts pulled down to my thighs.

She led me to the bed and sat me down. She removed my shoes and socks and then pulled my pants down. She kissed me deeply as her warm hands rubbed all over my torso.

Her right hand brushed against the head of my penis, and I gasped.

She laid me back and started to rub on it. She teased it and got so close I could feel her breath on it. I wanted her to take it into her mouth, but we had promised not to do that until we were married, too.

After a minute, she took my hand and moved it to my cock.

"Can I watch you?" she said as she unzipped her dress and pulled it over her head.

She was wearing the slip and bra from Free People.

"Mm-hmm," I answered.

She started rubbing her hands all over her body, lifting and playing with her breasts. She pulled the fabric tight, and I could see her nipples. They were hard.

She reached up under the slip and took her white cotton panties by the waist and slowly pulled them down.

"I want to see you cum."

She stared to rub on her pussy.

"I'm so hot watching you rub your cock. Your eyes say that you want your cock up inside me here."

She had a finger inside herself now.

"I want you to think about how good it will be in a few months when I can lay on that bed and you can . . . fuck me . . . fuck me with that big prick of yours. I want to feel you inside me . . ."

I was grabbing for a tissue then, and was just in time to catch the first spurts as I came. I watched her eyes express satisfaction with the performance she had just put on for me.

She was still masturbating while watching my cock. I got up and threw her down on the bed.

She squealed, "Eeeee," as I threw her down and lay next to her.

"You want my cock in here?" I asked as my fingers entered her. She was really wet.

"Oh, yesss. I want my . . . husband . . . to fuck me!"

"I'm going to fuck you on our wedding day, and you are going to feel a cock inside you then."

I was fingering her with two fingers, and she was rubbing hard now.

"Oh, I want that, Oh yesss, Oh yesss, OH YESSS!"

She pulsed on my fingers as she came, and I watched her face strain and grimace as she pulled every contraction she could get from the climax. Her mouth pursed under that pert little nose, surrounded by those cute freckles. She strained for another few seconds and then relaxed.

I lay next to her.

"Honey, that was a spectacular twenty minutes. If you do that to me until we are married, I think I can hold off fucking and oral sex till then. You have a way of taking my mind off the subject."

"Buster," she said, "you ain't seen nothin' yet. I have twenty-two years worth of unfulfilled fantasies to unleash on you."

"God, I love you!"

We snuggled under the covers and kissed for a bit, then took a nap.

When she woke me, dusk was just beginning.

"I need to get my stuff out of my dorm room," she said. "We can do it tomorrow, or we can go the MFA with my folks.

"Can we do it tonight? We can use my car. Two or three trips should do it."

"Let's get going, then!"

It took four trips because of all the books she had. She kept quite a number of textbooks to use as reference books for her new job, and she had a lot of scientific reference books she had gotten on her own. Combined with the fiction and nonfiction that wasn't related to chemistry, there were a lot of books.

Her personal items were minimal, and her wardrobe was small.

While we were in the process of moving, she asked me what her father and I had talked about in my room.

"You know the book blink by Caldwell?"

"The guy that wrote The Tipping Point, right?"

"Yeah. Well your dad . . ."

"No! He did the dorm-room-inventory thing? That little sneak. What happened?

"I saw what he was doing and simply said 'blink?' I caught him completely off guard. Stopped him in his tracks when I called him on it."

"Daddy told me he uses that to evaluate people in their homes!"

"Yeah, I asked him if he used it on witnesses and clients. He seemed impressed."

"You one-upped Daddy? No one one-ups Daddy! He must have been shocked."

"A little bit."

"What did he say?"

"He said I passed."

"Oh, Honey, you can carve a notch on your pistol grip for that one. You just took down big game! He'll remember that and respect you for it."

We took small loads and took our time. When we were finished moving, we felt like having a snack. The meal at the Cheesecake Factory had been huge, but we had been working for quite a while.

We walked over to a Mexican restaurant that stayed open late and shared a plate of nachos.

Peg said, "You know, this is the first meal on our own as an engaged couple."

"Engaged couple. Wow. I guess we are. Two weeks from now we start real, adult jobs. We have to find an apartment, pick out towels, dishes, a bed!"

"Whittenstone is in Plaistow, New Hampshire, just over the border from Haverhill, Mass, Right."

"Right, but it's 'Hayv'r'l' not 'Hahverhill' Sweets. If we're going to live there, you had better get the 'How to Talk Yankee' book out and start practicing."

"Yes sir! It's Gloster, not Glouchester, Whuster, not Worchester, Bilrikka, not Bill-erica. Blend. I'll learn to blend," she laughed.

"Anyway," she continued, "we're going to be working just north of the border, and that's not far from here. After my parents leave day after tomorrow, can we take a drive up and look for a place for us to live?"

"Yeah. A place for us to live sounds really good!"

"A place with my Sweetie. Wow. Hey Alex?"

"What?" I asked expecting her to say something romantic.

"Can you get another side of jalapenos? I ate all of them off the top of the nachos already."

"Sure, Sweetie. Hot peppers for my hot honey."

That night we shared my bed . . . now our bed . . . for the first time as a couple that lived together. We didn't have sex. We didn't need to. We just held each other and went to sleep blissfully.

The next morning when I woke, I thought to myself, "This is the first time I'm going to see Peggy in the morning."

I turned to look at her sleeping next to me. Tousled hair, no makeup, a little dried tear on her left eye. Hint of drool on the corner of her mouth. Yup. Still cute as a button.

I went to the bathroom, used the toilet and brushed my teeth. I got back into bed and shook Peg gently.

"Sweetie, time to get up."

Her eyes opened and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Mmmm. Wasn't dreaming. You're actually here."

She reached out and pulled me to her. She kissed me. Her breath smelled a bit like stale nachos, but it wasn't dragon breath.

"Mmmm. Nice. Wha' time?"

"Eight-thirty. Go use the bathroom. I already did. We have enough time to eat something and call your folks."

"Mmmm. Yeah. Okay," she said stretching and yawning.

She had unpacked a bit last night, and she was wearing a very worn cotton print nightie.

I looked at her with a curious look on my face. She stopped mid-yawn.

"What's wrong?"

"Not a single thing. I was just looking at you in that old worn out nightie."

She started to say something, but I put my finger to her lips.

"And I was thinking how beautiful you are. If that's the worst you ever look, I'm the luckiest man in the world!"

The stale-nacho-flavored kiss that followed was good.

She was awake now, and she hopped out of bed and into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, I heard, "Honey, can you come here for a minute?"

When I went into the bathroom, she was in the shower.

"Wash my back?" she said invitingly.

Ever since I discovered girls looked good, I had dreamed about getting into a warm shower with one. I didn't waste time. My shorts were off in a flash, and I was in the shower, washcloth in hand.

I started on her back with a soapy cloth.

"Mmmm that feels good."

I did her back for several minutes and then knelt behind her and washed one leg at a time. She was leaning with both hands against the shower wall, with her legs slightly apart. She moaned when I washed her thighs.

I stood up and put soap on my hands. I reached around her and started to lather her breasts. The warm water and the soap felt good, as she started to moan again. She took one hand off the wall and ran it down to her crotch.

As I massaged her breasts and kissed her neck, I could feel her arm moving rapidly, and I knew she was masturbating.

I whispered in her ear.

"In a few months, we're going to be in the shower with you bent over, and my dick is going to be in your pussy. Can you feel it behind you now? I'm hard thinking about how beautiful you are. Your soft, creamy skin against mine. Your beautiful perky little breasts in my hands. Or maybe I'll kneel in front of you with your back against the wall while I lick your clit . . ."

That did it.

"Uhhhhh ughhhh AHHHHHHH YESSS!"

Her body spasmed for a while I held her upright. When she had composed herself, my little pixy turned around and grabbed my erection. She soaped her hand, and slid it over me.