Spirits in the Material World Pt. 10

"Tea or cocoa?"

"Nothing for me right now, Mom, thank you. I feel a cramp starting, and it's time for 'Aunt Flo' to come visit soon, so I think I'll head upstairs and wait for him up there. I love you. Have a good night. I take it we're going to church in the morning?"

"That seems to be a consistent pattern with these guys. I owe some discussion time with Maeve and Mary, most likely. Oh, here comes Alan now."

Alan appeared at the entry from the basement, and Maggie stood and walked over to him. She gave Alan, then Rose, a hug and kiss goodnight, and made her way upstairs.

"Alan, would you like a cup of tea or cocoa?" Rose asked. "I'm pouring."

Alan smirked, remembering something from his past. "Didn't that used to be 'coffee, tea, or me'? Has it now become 'cocoa, tea, or me'?"

"You've already had me, sir. And I thought it was very good."

"I thought so too, Rose. I'll just get a glass of water. Do you want to head upstairs? It's a little early, but today has been a day for emotions to run high, and I'm a bit tired tonight." He got out a tall glass, put some ice in it, and filled it from the tap. Rose poured the hot water into a coffee mug which had a teabag waiting already.

"We're going to church in the morning, right?" she inquired.

"Of course. The rule we've set for the boys is the only excuses for not going to church are if you are physically ill or incapacitated, or if you're out of town. Besides, don't you have some networking to address tomorrow?" he grinned. Rose smiled back at him.

Alan called down the stairs, "David, Rose and I are heading to bed. Church in the morning."

David replied, "Gotcha, Dad. Good night to both of you. See you in the morning."

Alan and Rose took their drinks and headed up to Alan's room.

* * * * *

David remained in the laundry area until the dryer finished and moved the wet clothes to dry and folded the newly dried clothes. While waiting for the clothes to be ready, he ruminated on the events of the day as well as his reactions. Realizing that he was not behaving in the mature fashion he wished, he acknowledged that he needed to apologize to Maggie and try to talk with her. The current dryer-load of clothes could be folded after they returned from church in the morning, so he mounted the stairs to the kitchen.

The water in the teakettle was still quite warm, so he poured himself a mug of cocoa, and proceeded upstairs after turning off all the lights and locking the front door. The bathroom was occupied, lights on and the exhaust fan running, so he figured Maggie was there. He walked down to Tom's room and the big bed and proceeded to strip down to a t-shirt and boxers for the overnight. He set the alarm on his phone for 7:30 and plugged it in to charge.

Maggie appeared in the doorway also wearing a t-shirt but she also had on shorts and a sort of sad look on her face.

"What's wrong, Magpie?" David asked.

"'Aunt Flo' has come to visit," she sighed.

"Then this can be another good test for us," David responded. "Please come here. I would like to talk with you and apologize. I must admit that I have almost no experience with ladies and their periods. Is there anything I can do?"

"Give me a sip of your cocoa?" she begged.

David smiled as he carefully handed her his mug. She took a cautious sip, then drink, and handed it back to him. "Nice," she commented. David took a big drink himself and set the mug on the nightstand and they both got into the bed a little tentatively.

"Magpie, I'm sorry I got upset with you. I had wanted some more time, just us, and you didn't seem interested. I assumed you tattled to your mom and my dad about something, and I was pissed off. So, your red hair does not lie. Well, I do not like it when somebody goes around me and avoids direct communication with me. I'm sure we'll both find other hot buttons for each other."

Maggie rolled to her right side to look at him. She stroked his face and ran her thumb over his lips, enjoying the feel of him.

"Davey, I was wrong, too. I'm not the greatest when it comes to the touchy-feely emotional parts, despite being a girl. I did not know how I could help you with your upset after the movie, so I asked Mom and your dad about it. I really don't care for your use of the word 'tattling'. It makes me sound like I'm ten years old. I don't like to feel that way."

"Where do we go from here, Mags?" David asked.

"For now, to sleep. Come spoon with me. I need to feel you close to me tonight, please."

They arranged themselves so that David was the big spoon behind Maggie's smaller one. She took his right hand which he had placed on her stomach and brought it up to her breasts and wiggled her rump into his groin. After some small adjustments, both gave a big sigh and were soon asleep.

* * * * *

After they entered Alan's room and had closed the door, Rose turned to Alan and stated, "All I want tonight is to lie in your arms, snuggle, and talk some more about the future. I hope that is all right with you."

"That is perfectly acceptable, Rose. Our gymnastics sessions have been a sharp departure from what had become my norm. Let's just get ready for bed, shall we?"

As Rose was making her way to the far side of the bed, Alan headed for his bathroom to "flush and brush". While brushing his teeth, Rose came in with her overnight bag and dragged her hand and fingernails across Alan's ass, which caused a reflexive stiffening throughout his body and garnered her a rather surprised glance in the mirror. She smiled impishly in return, then turned and sat on the toilet while Alan finished brushing his teeth. This surprised Alan further, that Rose would be so "forward" with him. Then he shrugged it off. Must be due to her comfort level with him, he thought.

Finished with teeth brushing, Alan left his bathroom and returned to his bedside. Stripping down to boxers and a t-shirt, Alan fluffed and propped his pillow against the headboard, got into the bed, and waited for his girlfriend. He thought about that: Rose Lawson was his girlfriend. How did he feel about that? Was he being disloyal to Laura's memory? Laura had wanted him to continue living after her death. As they had promised in their marriage vows, death had indeed parted them, and he needed to follow the advice from one of his favorite movies, "The Shawshank Redemption": get busy living or get busy dying. Alan decided right then to get busy living once again.

Rose emerged from the bathroom wearing the Old Goat Patrol t-shirt and pink cotton bikini panties, which she showed to Alan as she flipped up the back of her t-shirt with another impish grin. As she demurely crossed the bedroom, Alan's eyes were steadily fixed upon her, and she loved every second of her journey. Pulling back the covers, she got into bed and rolled onto her left side to face Alan, who had rolled onto his right side so they could be face-to-face. Rose sucked in her bottom lip, looking pensively at Alan. He just smiled and caressed her face with his left hand. She snuggled her cheek into his hand and he leaned in to kiss her, softly and tenderly.

"I love you, Rose Lawson. You and Maggie seem to find great pleasure in pushing the envelope a bit, and I'm good with that. I have decided to get busy living again, and I want you both to be a huge part of the rest of my life."

Sensing a bit of a sea change in Alan's attitudes, Rose's eyes misted over with tears of joy and love for him. "Oh, Alan! I love you, too! I'm sorry if I've been pushing too hard and too fast, but you seem to fill all my empty spaces and make my life full again. It's been so very long for me since I was this happy. I want nothing more than to breathe you in and to hold my breath forever.

"I am going accept the offer for the GM position and I will tell Mary in the morning at church. I think I will need to be there a little earlier than usual tomorrow. I suspect we ladies will have a lot of words to use up before the worship begins."

"I think we can accommodate your request to be there a little earlier. What are you considering about a place to live down here?"

"If it were just me, I'd ask to live here with you. But that is not the case. I need space for me and Julie and Maggie at the same time as you need space for you and Tom and David. So, I'll take your suggestion and find some place to rent. Do you have any recommendations you'd like to share?"

"Perhaps something on this side of town, so we don't have too far to go to visit each other?"

"I like where your mind's at, Alan. What else are you thinking?" she inquired with a lilt to her voice.

"In the time since I brushed my teeth, I have decided to keep on living, as Laura had wanted. She could not have foreseen my relationship with you, Rose, but she wanted for me and Tom and David to live happy lives for the rest of our time. Having you in my life will definitely make me happy.

"I'm thinking that you probably will not want to get locked into a lease longer than six months and that we both should start looking for a place to share with at least four bedrooms and three full bathrooms. I'm thinking of forever with you, Rose."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him even closer to her face. "Is that a proposal, Alan? If it is, my answer is, 'Yes!'"

"How about something very old-school from the 1950s? What do you say to us being 'engaged to become engaged'?"

"Oooh, going old-school on me, eh? Well, yes, 'engaged to become engaged' works well for me now. Would you please come spoon me and hold me and never let me go?"

With his actions providing the answer, they turned off the lights, cuddled as spoons in the silverware drawer, and fell asleep quickly, breathing in the other's essence and being contented.

* * * * *

Sunday:

Tom and Julie delighted in the larger bed and the night spent in each other's company. They gratified each other, multiple times throughout the dark hours, and by the time the sun rose, they were too sleep-short to keep any other plans. They slept nearly until noon when the housekeeping staff rapped on the door to the room. Fortunately, Julie had had the presence of mind to place the Do Not Disturb card on the outside door handle. The occupants begged for fifteen minutes to compose themselves.

Tom and Julie quickly gathered all their items, leaving the trashcan with a goodly number of wrappers and used condoms as evidence of their overnight activities. They also left a $10 tip for the housekeeping staff for their patience. As they exited the room, knowing smiles on the faces of the housekeepers followed them all the way down the hall to the elevators.

"Do you think that will hold us until Finals are done?" Tom asked.

"Not likely," Julie laughed, "but it will have to suffice. We really cannot impose much on our roommates again this semester."

"I agree," Tom concurred. "Maybe we can figure out something for the Spring semester."

Julie and Tom returned to their dorm rooms and tried very hard to focus on getting through their semester finals starting in a week. It was probably the most difficult week they had had since becoming a couple.

* * * * *

Maggie awoke to a menstrual cramp and a hot, iron-hard bar of flesh pressing against her ass through her shorts and panties. Both an unpleasant and a pleasant set of feelings. David's arm was draped over her tummy, no longer cradling her breast, and Maggie had an almost desperate need to use the plumbing. She eased his arm off of her then rolled out of the bed to head to the bathroom. Taking care of her business, she had the presence of mind to return with a warm damp washcloth, and she targeted David's morning petrified wood issue.

She gently coaxed his hard cock through the gap in his boxers, then ran her tongue down its length. His penis twitched in her grasp and she soon had the glans in her mouth, her tongue loving the sensitive edge of his head. She took great pleasure in sucking her boyfriend off, for the pleasure it gave him as well as the sense of control she derived from doing so. David awoke to Maggie's early morning blow job as a tingling was beginning to buzz around his testicles. His hands drifted on their own to entangle in her auburn tresses. His deep, guttural moaning was all the encouragement Maggie needed, and she sucked harder, trying to siphon his cum out through his cock. Her efforts achieved the desired results, and she was rewarded with a gracious load of his seed which she swallowed with little difficulty. David's eyes rolled back in his head and a huge smile spread across his face.

"Best. Girlfriend. EVER!" he avowed. David opened his eyes to look adoringly at Maggie. Lifting her chin with his hand, he looked her in the eyes. "I am so very sorry I was angry with you yesterday. I was wrong. Please forgive me and don't walk away." He allowed a few of his worries to show with that last bit.

"Why ever would you even think of that, Davey? I am so 'into' you that sometimes I can't even think straight."

"Come up here, please. I'd like to talk with you some now," he pleaded.

Maggie cuddled up to his left side and he kissed her, tasting himself on her lips and tongue. She was a little surprised he wasn't grossed out by that. Some of her friends had related how their boyfriends refused to kiss them until the jizz had been rinsed thoroughly out of the girlfriends' mouths. That simple act on David's part just embedded him even deeper in her heart.

"I'm still surprised that no one else had claimed your heart, Magpie. You are beautiful, usually quite kind, very loving, and whip-smart. You are the total package, Mags. How do I, an A-1 goof who has 'lost-his-mommy' issues even rate a second glance from one such as you? It's my fragile male ego, I know, but why? Any second I half expect a 'yeah, it's been fun but ...' message."

Maggie thought for a minute, then came back with, "Wow. You really stroked my ego there, then kinda pissed me off with your self-denigration. Stop it! Don't do that anymore! You know how you 'lost it' when Jules showed you my picture from August? Well, I about lost my cool when she showed me the picture of you three guys from the Sunday before we met. Then your soul leaped out and grabbed mine when we first set eyes on each other on Thanksgiving Day. And you claimed my heart with your paintings, of Jules, of your mother, and of me. No, you're not perfect. Neither am I. But it feels like we are right for each other."

David kissed her again. "Please just keep talking to me, Magpie. And please keep me talking to you. I love you. Absolutely. You make me want to be even better than I am."

"And I love you too, Davey," she said, trying and failing to imitate the Goliath dog character. "Yeah, I did a little research on 'Davey and Goliath' this past week. Sorry, but I can't do imitations well."

Just then the alarm on his phone went off. "7:30," he commented. "Time to get moving. Do you want some coffee first, or shower?"

"I'll shower first if you don't mind. You know how I must have my coffee, right?"

"Thoroughly polluted," he affirmed. "I'll go get it going and will put your mug in the bathroom unless you're back here by that time."

David headed down the stairs while Maggie got her shampoo and deodorant from her bag. He just about skipped down the stairs because his heart was so lightened. Being thoughtful, he got the coffeemaker going and got out four mugs and the tray from the top of the refrigerator. He filled two of the mugs with sufficient creamer for the ladies and even made four pieces of raisin toast while waiting for the coffee to brew. Mugs with coffee and a saucer with the four pieces of toast were placed on the tray, and back up the stairs he went.

Fortunately, just as he reached the top of the stairs, Maggie came out of the bathroom wearing shorts and a t-shirt again. Seeing his predicament, she scurried over and rapped on Alan's bedroom door. At the sign to enter, she opened the door and entered, followed by David.

"Come in," the voices sounded in unison.

Alan and Rose were sitting up in bed in t-shirts and underwear when Maggie and David entered bearing coffee and raisin toast. Alan had been wakened by Rose's oral ministrations to his morning erection. Her maxillary orifice was having a field day with his genitals, including some extended attention given to his testicles. This was not something that Laura had particularly enjoyed doing for him, although Laura had loved his mouth on her.

Rose was on her knees, nearly perpendicular to Alan's frame, so she could access both his cock and his balls with equal facility. It seemed rather one-sided to Alan for him just to lie back and absorb her attentions. It just went against the grain of his core beliefs of fair play, consideration for others, and the joy of cheerful service. So, he got Rose to pause her attack and remove her pink cotton panties which were saturated in her excretions and which smelled heavenly to Alan, then shift her body to straddle Alan's face before resuming her chosen pleasure of pleasing her boyfriend.

Pulling her hips down, his lips and tongue began their appreciation of Rose's very sensitive anatomy while she resumed her adoration of his. She seemed rather focused on the journey, delaying the arrival at the reward, so Alan felt obliged to redirect her focus slightly. He took her clit between his lips and gently compressed his jaw. She took note of this immediately and lifted her head to moan her appreciation without endangering Alan. Then he brought his tongue out to play, and Rose's body began to quiver and quake. Finally, for his pièce de résistance, Alan wet a thumb in her gushing juices and stroked it over her butthole and gently pressed it in. That was the moment when Rose lost it. She came, hard, all over his face, and slumped atop Alan, passed out yet again. "Challenge accepted," he thought with a huge grin.

After a couple of minutes of enjoying her weight on him, Alan gently rolled her off and made his way to the en suite bath to clean off his face and torso. He thoughtfully brushed his teeth while he was there, then returned to his bed bearing a warm, damp washcloth and a clean, dry hand towel to clean up his girlfriend. Rose had begun to come around to consciousness as he approached the bed. Alan glanced at his alarm clock which showed the time as 6:55 am. Alan walked to the far side of the bed and gently began to clean Rose's messy areas. First, her face which he then covered with kisses of his own, then her groin which he did not kiss again out of concern of making yet another mess.

Rose appreciated coming to her senses while being kissed so lovingly by Alan. There was a newfound sense of purpose stemming from her boyfriend, and that was giving her a warm, fuzzy feeling deep in her core. Alan broke away to retrieve some clean panties from her overnight bag and returned with a soft yellow pair for today. He was grinning foolishly at how good he was feeling this morning. Perhaps it was due to some recent decisions he had made.

Rose needed to use the plumbing facilities, so Alan slipped on some shorts and opened the door to head downstairs. Before he had taken one step down, he smelled coffee brewing and heard noises from both the kitchen and from the upstairs bathroom shower. Quietly, he retraced his steps, closed his bedroom door, and sat on the bed to wait for Rose. When she emerged from the bathroom, Alan asked her to take a seat on the bed with him and 'wait for it'. Within 30 seconds, a rapping sounded on the door, and Alan smiled warmly. He and Rose issued the approval for the knocking parties to enter.

So, the four of them sat on Alan's bed drinking their mugs of coffee in quiet companionship. David volunteered his slice of toast, as did Maggie, to Alan and Rose, and the younger couple soon was out the door, leaving their parents alone yet again.