Scenes from an Italian Restaurant Ch. 01

"Are we going to make love," Eddie asked with only slightly more savoir faire than a child asking to open Christmas presents early?

The silence stretched to an eternity.

"It's OK if we don't," Eddie confessed.

At that moment, they heard a key in the door lock. Brenda dove under the covers at the same moment Eddie made a similar attempt. Unfortunately, Brenda's motion pulled the comforter so far that none remained for Eddie's modesty.

Carol stared from the threshold into the room. "Scarf! Use the scarf!" Carol backed out of the room, but she left the door open a crack large enough to peek in.

Eddie awkwardly retrieved his briefs from the floor and hopped on one foot trying to get a leg through the leg hole. Brenda couldn't help chuckling. It was a ridiculous performance punctuated by the bob and weave of Eddie's erection.

In truth, the entire scenario from key in the lock to Eddie standing sheepishly dressed only in prominently tented briefs took 20 seconds. Those seconds dilated to become seared into memory for eternity.

Carol let herself fully into the room and closed the door behind her. "I won't stay. I just need my Cell Biology book to study. I'll be out of your hair in a minute.

While Carol sifted through her mess to find the book half under her bed, Eddie somewhat gracefully finished dressing. Brenda remained nude under the comforter and held the hem in a white knuckled grasp at her neck.

Eddie, out of the blue, said, "Can you see anything with that telescope?"

"What do you mean," Carol wearily turned to face him?

"I mean, with all the light pollution, can you see any stars?"

"Only a few?" Somehow, Carol made that answer sound like a question. "What brought that up," she continued."

"Nothing", Eddie answered. "It just popped into my scattered mind as a way to make things less awkward. I guess that didn't work."

Carol put her telescope away in a closet. Then she shook her head and grabbed the red scarf off her bed post. "Here. I'll tie it on for you." She followed through with her promise in moments and closed the door as she fled.

Pregnant silence descended as the sound of the door closing echoed.

Eddie started snickering. It was cute. It was silly. In moments, Brenda and Eddied laughed out loud. They embraced when Eddie sat on the bed. Brenda let the comforter drop to expose her firm breasts. Eddie didn't even pretend not to stare.

"I don't want to ever forget you just this way," Eddie crooned.

"I will never forget what I saw," Brenda echoed.

Eddie said, "I'm going back to my dorm to take a cold shower," but it sounded like a question.

When Brenda didn't reply, he tilted her head back by gently placing a finger below her chin. He kissed her with a hint of tongue brushing her lips. He slowly backed away, but at the last moment, his hand darted out and squeezed one of Brenda's breasts. Brenda could almost hear the unvocalized "Honk" sound as he did it like an oaf stealing a forbidden grope.

"Do you have to go now?"

With surprising conviction, Eddie answered, "Yah. I'm dead tired, and I probably stink."

"OK, You do stink a little."

"Great." Eddie sounded somewhere between mortified and embarrassed. "Will you escort me out?"

--- ~ ---

Brenda waved to Eddie's back as he walked down the steps way from her dorm taking two steps at a time. When she got back to her room, the red scarf was still tied to the handle. She was about to untie it when she hesitated. Her head turned to glance both ways down the deserted hallway. Then she slipped into the room whispering to herself, "The room is a mess."

When Brenda finally remembered to remove the scarf, she felt much better. In fact, she felt better three times, and that was a record for her.

When Carol returned after dinner, the room looked the same as it had that morning. Brenda was napping topless with the comforter and blankets twisted and bunched around her. Carol had casually seen Brenda in various states of undress. It was unavoidable among roommates unless they accepted the inconvenience of always dressing a in a shower cubicle or something equally ridiculous. Nevertheless, Carol stared for a moment. Brenda displayed a healthy flush, and her shallow breathing seemed so content.

Carol took the opportunity to retrieve her telescope and take a quick glance. She murmured, "A lot of starts are out tonight."

A while later, Carol lay on her stomach on her bed. With one hand, she turned the page of a paperback. The other hand was trapped beneath her stroking slow circles inside her panties. She had masturbated fully clothed in that pose many times, and nobody ever knew what she was doing. She couldn't even remember the first time, but it was a long time ago. She had given herself orgasms with everyone around her assuming she was just an antisocial book worm.

Brenda studied across the room. All Brenda heard was a soft sight. It must be a good book.

--- ~ ---

Brenda and Eddie rode the bus a few dozen blocks into the city center for a special date night at Eddie's favorite authentic family Italian restaurant. They lingered for an hour after they finished eating to chat and look into each other's eyes like the young lovers they were. They underestimated the cost and had to dig for loose change in Brenda's hand bag. Eddie said he felt bad that he couldn't leave a better tip. He wanted to find an ATM that worked with his bank so he could get more money, but it was late, and the neighborhood was not completely safe after dark. Brenda talked him out of it by saying he should leave a double tip the next time.

In the month since the couple had come closest to gong all the way, they restricted themselves to petting. Eddie tried to give Brenda an orgasm by rubbing her with his hand down her pants. She let him try for a little while. She was curious herself, but his fingers were always too rough or in the wrong place or too fast. A couple of times, she closed her eyes and savored the sensations, but Eddie had an unfortunate tendency to try and slip a finger or two inside her vagina. For some reason, that always spoiled the mood for Brenda.

A more experienced or more mature couple might have talked about how to please each other openly. Brenda and Eddied fumbled around and mostly produced frustration. Eddie once asked Brenda to give him a blow job, but she said she wasn't ready for that. Eddie tried to go down on Brenda, but she felt uncomfortable with his face down there. She stopped him every time he started in that direction. Things were not as natural and spontaneous as they had been that night in her room.

Brenda chatted with some of the slightly more worldly women on her floor. She didn't get into specifics, but she hinted around the topic enough for them to guess what she wanted to know. One floor mate recounted, "Cosmo says all women are an enigma to men, and we have to show them exactly what we want. Even then, we have to remind them to keep doing exactly what feels right, or they'll forget and change at the wrong time and spoil everything."

"So, basically, Med are idiots." another one said.

"What if I don't know what feels right," yet another floor-mate asked to Brenda's surprise. Brenda had assumed the that girl was very experienced.

"Men are simple minded about sex."

"No, they just don't get much experience with the equipment, so of course they suck at it."

"It would be better if they did suck it."

Everyone laughed. The banter continued like that for a few more minutes until the group started speculating why guys think cars are such a big deal.

Brenda tried to imagine a discussion where she would tell Eddie what she needed, and she couldn't come up with the words.

Her fantasies drifted to elaborate scenarios with older men who did everything just right. She told herself she needed a more mature lover to guide her through her first intercourse. Of course, the fantasy also frightened her.

When Brenda and Eddie eventually returned to the Italian restaurant, they found they didn't have much to say to each other. Longing gazes had turned into surreptitious glances. The bus schedule for the return trip turned out to be the most engaging conversation that night. A few days later, Brenda and Eddie agreed to part as the best of friends. "We're both too young to be so serious," they agreed.

--- ~ ---

Meanwhile, Carol had worked herself into an erotic frenzy. Between the telescopic panorama of the men's showers, Brenda's not very discreet blossoming sexuality, and Carol's lack of a sexual partner, arousal dominated all thought. Her favorite masturbation fantasies relived the incidents with Eddie in her dorm room. She had watched a blurry VHS promo out of curiosity once. Apart from that, every adult penis she'd ever seen was through the antiseptic lens of her telescope - until Eddie's delightful exhibitions.

If he had known, Eddie would have appreciated the irony that his almost lover felt unable to show him what she desired, but Carol, a woman he hardly knew, secretly longed to teach him what gives her pleasure. Carol didn't exactly fixate on Eddie. Probably any of her secret stable of shower studs could satisfy her curiosity, but whenever she felt inclined to imagine a scenario, it was always Eddie she pictured. She rationalized that it was because he was the only guy she had ever seen naked in the same room with her - as opposed to through steamy windows fifty yards down the hill.

--- ~ ---

Carol was bored playing Dungeons and Dragons with her acquaintance, Ray, and his buddies. When Ray invited her, she convinced herself she should make efforts to be more social. She regretted the decision seconds after she arrived at Ray's dorm room full of sweaty guys rolling dice. She would have left immediately, but Brenda had come with her for moral support, and Brenda wanted to stay.

"Do you know those guys," Carol asked while craning her neck to see into the hallway?

Ray glanced out his open door. "Yah, they're some guys from my floor." he said before resuming, "As you approach the portal, a pair of High Elf guards in shining mail armor cross their halberds to bar you way."

"Why are they covered in mud?"

Ray paused. "They said something about flag football a while ago." He resumed, "The guards chant in unison, 'State your business in the realm of the Mystic King.'"

The men in the hall were laughing and roughhousing and infinitely more diverting than imaginary High Elves. Then, Carol spotted Eddie. She almost didn't recognize him with his hair caked in mud.

"Let me get my clothes out of your room so I can take a quick shower before dinner." Eddie was talking to someone out of Carol's view.

A response came. "Take the keys," and Eddie snatched a ring of thrown keys out of the air.

"Thanks for the loaner clothes," Eddie said over his shoulder.

"No problem man. Wash 'em before you return 'em. I've been waring them so long, I'm surprised they haven't walked to the laundry on their own."

"Gross," Eddie said with a comical grimace. Someone else out of view said, "It's too late to wash them. Burn them." Eddie said, "Only if they don't spontaneously combust first."

The ruckus moved further down the hallway, and Carol heard Eddie ask, "You got a towel I can borrow?"

"All I got is a hand towel."

Amidst the loud laughing and unrelated banter, Eddie replied, "Whatever. Thanks."

"I'll get something in a few minutes and toss it to you in the shower."

"Great."

When things quieted down in the hallway, Ray poked Carol in the shoulder with the long nail at the end of his index finger. "What do you want to do? Accept the challenge, back away, are attack right now?"

Before Carol could answer, Brenda announced, "I call them smelly elf dogs, say their mothers were goblins, and their balls are shriveled raisins."

"The guards immediately assume a battle stance each with one hand on a halberd and the other drawing a ceremonial dagger of soul destruction."

Carol said, "I've got to pee."

Ray replied, "What? Now when the guards are about to impale you?"

"No. I mean I don't want to leave a puddle on your floor. Will one of you check the bathroom to make sure the coast is clear."

"Right now?" Brenda complained.

"If you don't see anyone naked blocking the door, just go in. We'll assume you are playing dead so the guards will focus one the rest of your party who will be hard pressed to survive this encounter without your Magic Missiles."

Carol levered herself up from her uncomfortable patch of hard tile floor being careful not to flash too much skin under her short pleated skirt.

Carol knocked on the bathroom door and called, "Anybody there?" Without waiting for a response, she cracked open the door to see one man zipping up in front of a urinal. That guy scowled a her as he pushed past her out the door, but he didn't say anything. Carol inaudibly mumbled, "Eww. Wash your hands."

Nobody else was in view, but she could hear a shower running around the corner inside the bathroom. Carol slipped into a stall across from the occupied shower, but she didn't even consider actually peeing in there. She waited with her heart pounding and her breath shallow. She heard someone come it and say, "Here's the towel." When the footsteps receded and Carol heard the door to the hall close again, she peeked out of her stall.

The towel really did look like a hand towel. It was half thrown over the shower stall wall just above head height. Carol could see Eddie's bare feet through the gap in the barrier near the floor. How could he not wear flip-flops in this place?

On impulse, Carol pulled the towed off the wall. She looked both ways. Flush with the heat of the mist coming from the shower and her own emotions, Carol slid the shower curtain a bit to the side. She couldn't see any more of Eddie because the shower cubicle had two parts: A dressing area with a bench inside the first curtain. Then, another curtain was closed between the shower and the dressing area.

Disappointed by the view, Carol grabbed Eddie's clothes. She took both the borrowed pile of muddy athletic ware and the neatly folded fresh clothes that Eddie must have planned to wear back to his own dormitory. Thrilled by her mischief, Carol sprinted for the exit door and back to Ray's room where she tossed the clothes into a corner. "Need my missiles yet," she asked?

"You're too late," Ray announced. "The others barely survived dragging your inert body and the gnome's corps out of the palace. Roll one D-20 to see if your skull was crushed when they dragged you feet first down the stone steps."

As the party set out on the journey to find a resurrection potion for the gnome, or barring that, turn him into a zombie who can still fight, Carrol heard a sound that was music to her ears.

"Hey, guys. Give me back my clothes." Eddie called from the cracked open bathroom door.

When there was no answer, Carol shifted to peer around Ray's door frame and look down the hall.

Eddie only hesitated for a moment. He opened the door from the bathroom to the hallway and boldly stepped out. He was stark naked and dripping wet. "It's not funny guys."

Eddie had already completed several paces toward Carol when he noticed her peering at him. He immediately cupped his cock and balls in both hands in an awkward hunch and started backing away. "Ah, sorry. I didn't know there were any women on the floor." He blushed.

Carol scrambled up and walked toward hime slightly faster than he backed away. "It's not like I haven't see it all before," she claimed with a smirk.

'What?"

"It's me, Carol. Benda's roommate."

Brenda followed into the hallway and said, "What the hell Eddie?"

"Someone stole my clothes and towel," Eddie stammered.

"You're incorrigible," Brenda scolded. Neither Eddie nor Carol was sure who she scolded.

Carol ducked back into Ray's room, and a moment later, Carol tossed the hand towed to Eddie. Without thinking or maybe by reflex, Eddie used both hands to catch the towel out of the air. In spite of the effort and renewed exposure, the towel fell short. Eddie had to stumble forward and crouch to retrieve the scrap of cloth.

Brenda rolled her eyes and returned to the campaign saying, "Strap the gnome to the barbarians back so we can move faster."

"Thanks," Eddie said. He shook the towel to unfurl it in front of his groin like bull fighter waving a flag to taunt the animals.

"Don't thank me. I didn't give you the towel. I just enjoyed the view."

"Are my clothes in there too?" Eddie tilted his head toward Ray's door.

"Could be," Carol agreed, "but you'll have to get past me first. Will you flaunt you twig and berries to everyone in the room so you can cover your ass, or do I get to ogle your fine derrière again?"

Eddie stood with his mouth open. Carol could see conflicting emotions warring on his face. She thought he might be angry and about to yell at her, but instead, he walked right toward her holding the hand towel to obscure her view. As he passed almost brushing into her, he bent over. He mooned her. "My clothes in there" he called to nobody in particular?

"God damn dude," one of Ray's buddies exclaimed when Eddie crouched to collect the mess of clothes from the dusty corner behind Ray's door. "Get your ass out of my face."

"Don't pretend you don't love it," Ray retorted.

"Shut up, Ray"

Carol didn't hear the rest of the argument because Eddie closed Ray's door as he exited. He practically bowled Carol over when he passed. With his back to her, waved the tiny towel tauntingly over his shoulder. "Thanks again for the towel."

Carol waited outside Ray's door until Eddie reemerged from the bathroom fully clothed. She sheepishly looked at her feet as Eddie approached.

"You want to grab dinner with me?" Eddie asked.

"What? In the cafeteria," Carol asked?

"Not the one here. Let's eat at Webber Hall."

"Let's just grab some food from the canteen and take it up to my room."

"Are you sure," Eddie replied?

"Well. Only if you want to." Carol wondered where her wits had gone. She was gibbering like - well, like the infatuated sex obsessed woman she was.

"Let's make a deal," Eddie proposed. "You provide the quarters for the washing machine, and we'll use my meal ticket to buy the food." He held the muddy rags out for emphasis.

--- ~ ---

A week later, Brenda talked around her toothbrush and then spit into the sink. "So, are you and Eddie a thing now?"

"I don't think so," Carol admitted after some consideration. "Would you be mad if I went after him?"

"It is weird," Brenda observed. "What do boys call it? Eskimo Brothers - When they have both slept with the same woman? Would we be Eskimo Sisters?"

"You never actually slept with him unless there's something you're confessing now."

"You're right. I guess I don't mind if you have him around. I'm over him, and we've both been mature about it."

"It probably won't come up anyway," Carol assured. "I can't tell if he likes me?"

"If it comes up, he likes you." Brenda stuck out her tongue.

Carol shook her head in mock disgust.

--- ~ ---

A week later, while Carol conspired with some women down the hall to help sneak Eddie out, Eddie lingered behind and peered through the telescope. The image that appeared to be mere feet from his eyes made his jaw hang open. The telescope focussed on the head and shoulders of a naked man. He was a man Eddie knew. Carol's window provided the perfect vantage for peeping through the windows of the men's showers. The shower room windows were clear, but they were high above head height. From inside, nobody would realize the opportunity provided to someone up the hill with a telescope.

Eddie adjusted the telescope and noted that the view would be even more revealing into other floors. The angle from Carol's window to the ground floor of Eddies dorm was so steep that she could see the drain on the shower floor. Anybody in those showers would have no secrets. Eddie shivered. He lived on the ground floor.