Tammy in College Pt. 05

I asked her if she really thought her daddy would like that and she said, "No, but I would!"

"Let me plan the dinner for us and I'll make some macaroni and cheese for you as a side dish."

I found some steaks in the refrigerator along with salad fixings. I thought about cooking those, but I changed my mind.

I asked Maggie if she wanted a special kind of macaroni and cheese.

She nodded her head and asked, "What's special about it."

"It's like macaroni and cheese mixed with a hamburger."

That idea excited her. So, I started making lasagna. I figured if I made a big one tonight, Clark could eat it tomorrow too. Lasagna was one of my favorite things to cook. It's easy to make, good, healthy and if you freeze some, it will keep a long time. I also made some mac and cheese in case Maggie didn't like it.

At about 5:30, Clark came down looking like a new man. When he smelled the food cooking, he looked like a hungry man.

"What smells so good," he asked.

Maggie screamed "Daddy! Tammy and I made something special that's like mac and cheese with a hamburger inside!"

"Lasagna," I told Clark and then said to Maggie, "We have to make it sound fancy for your daddy." Maggie nodded.

"Well, it smells great."

"It will be ready in about ten minutes."

Maggie loved the macaroni and cheese with a hamburger in it. She was glad her daddy was back, but I was now her favorite babysitter. She told her daddy how I let Maggie have pizza for dinner and didn't make her brush her teeth. Maggie dominated the dinner conversation, which was fine with Clark. He still wasn't feeling well.

After dinner, I divided the lasagna into smaller pieces, put it in plastic bowls and stored it in the freezer. Then, I put the dishes in the dishwasher and cleaned the kitchen.

Clark said, "I didn't know you were so domestic."

"Neither did I.

I got Maggie ready for bed and she insisted that Daddy read her a book. I watched Clark sitting in bed reading to her and it gave me feelings. I'm not sure what those feelings were exactly but Clark looked desirable, sitting in bed reading to her. You could almost see the love surrounding them.

Clark came down and asked me if I wanted to watch a movie without mermaids in it.

"No. After watching 'The Little Mermaid' twenty times, I'm not going to stare at a TV for a while."

But we made some popcorn anyway and Clark got out a bottle of wine.

"Let's just talk. I like talking with you," I said.

"An old psychology professor like me?"

"Yes, and you're not old. I'll even let you tell me a psychology joke."

"I don't have any jokes."

"Please," I said knowing full well that he did. "You were going to a conference and didn't have a joke ready?"

"Maybe just one. I wouldn't tell this one in class."

A child walks past the parents' bedroom, looks inside, and mumbles:

And they want to send me to a psychologist for sucking my thumb.

I started laughing and could hardly stop. "That's better than most of your jokes."

"My jokes are all classics."

"In your dreams."

"Funny you should mention dreams," he said. "Do you ever have vivid dreams? One's that seem so real they couldn't have been dreams but they couldn't have happened either?"

"I guess." I was getting nervous.

"Tammy, I had the strangest dream last night. It's stuck in my head. I can't even remember how I got upstairs but I remember every detail of this dream like it really happened. Maybe I just want it to be real."

"What was it about?" I asked, slightly panicking that he didn't think it was a dream.

"Well, it's fuzzy but I dreamed she was here."

"Who?"

"Scarlett."

"But she was in Oklahoma."

Clark shook his head. "I know, but in my dream, she had come back to me. I drew the covers back on the bed and there she was, like she was waiting for me. It was dark, but I could see her outline and it was her. I knew she'd come back to me. I jumped into bed, held her in my arms and kissed her. She put her arms around me and pulled me against her. Everything was going to be OK, and she loved me again. I held her tight against me. She never spoke but I could feel her love. She turned over with her back towards me and I was spooning her. She loved me to hug her from behind so I could easily get her front clasp bra open and fondle her breasts."

"Wait, I can't talk to you like this. You're a little girl," Clark said surprised by himself.

"I am a long way from being a little girl. Nothing you say could shock me. In fact, I bet I could shock you. I know all about breasts and bras. You need to talk to somebody about your dream while you still remember it. Dreams, even vivid ones, lose their detail and leave unresolved feelings," I told him. "Think of me as a good friend."

It was making me horny to have him tell me about how he felt. I was re-living it too.

"You are a friend, and I don't have many friends I've stayed in touch with. That happens when you get married and have a baby. If I go too far, or say anything that offends you, please stop me."

Clark continued, "I unclipped her bra and I felt her breasts. When I dream, I don't usually remember what things feel like. But her breasts felt so soft and firm, and they even seemed bigger than before."

I wanted to say, "You mean like these." and push my tits out but I refrained. I could feel myself getting wet.

"Are you sure this isn't too much, Tammy." I shook my head. "I remember begging her to love me again. I won't go in to all the details, but her panties disappeared, and we had sex. I felt better than I had in a long time. That's the last thing I remember."

"It felt so real, when I woke up this morning, I could smell her favorite perfume. I don't know how that's possible."

Tammy had forgotten about the perfume she'd put on.

"You're the psychologist."

"No, I'm a behavioral psychologist. If it's not observable behavior, I don't study it. I teach that other crap in the intro class because they make me. It bores me to death."

"But you went to school for it."

"I slept through all the dream analysis parts. I guess I shouldn't tell a student that."

I said "Dreams are funny. They can seem so real. That one sounds like it was both a good dream and a bad one."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you had sex and that's almost always good, but you dreamed about Scarlett which upset you. You had seen her last night, so in a sense, she did come back. That's the first time you'd seen her in 2 months. You must have had all kinds of conflicting emotions. Love, lust, anger, and sadness."

"Maybe you're right. It just seemed so real." I could see tears in Clark's eyes.

I reached over and hugged him. "You'll get better when you decide she's not coming back."

Clark said, "It's getting late. I can call you an Uber or a cab to take you home. I don't want to wake up Maggie to drive you. Or you could stay the night if you wanted."

"I'll stay here another night. I've got all my stuff since I'd planned to be here through Sunday."

"Great. Despite my condition this morning, it made me happy to see a friendly face."

I stayed the night in the guest room. I couldn't sleep so I read some porn stories. That was a bad idea because it made me even hornier. I was sorely tempted to crawl into bed with Clark and fuck him stupid, but I didn't. Did he really believe that was a dream? Was he pleasuring himself right now thinking about the woman in bed last night, me? I slipped one hand up to grab a nipple and the other one down to my clit. It didn't take long before I came. It wasn't as good as last night, but it let me get some sleep.

The next morning, Clark and Maggie were already up and were making pancakes for us. I went downstairs to see what was going on before I realized I was in a robe that was very short. It looked good on me but was not appropriate for a family breakfast. Clark's eyes widened when he saw me.

"Great, you're cooking breakfast, I'll go change," I said and hurried back upstairs.

I was back down in five minutes, dressed, and the first pancakes were coming off the griddle.

"How many for you, Tammy."

"Three, please."

He poured three blobs of pancake batter on the griddle and two smaller blobs for ears. In a couple of minutes, he flipped them onto a plate and added a couple of sausage patties and some bacon.

"You all are chipper this morning," I said.

Maggie said, "We're going to the zoo!"

"That sounds fun for you guys," I said.

"No, you're coming too," Maggie shouted.

Clark said, "Maggie, Tammy's got other things to do today."

"Please." Maggie whined.

Clark just shrugged.

"OK, I haven't been to a zoo in a long time," I said.

"If you pack your stuff up, I can drop you off on the way back."

"Let me get my stuff."

We headed off to the zoo. It was so fun to see the zoo through Maggie's eyes. Her eyes were wide as saucers all day. I kept wanting to tell her to blink. We ate zoo junk food, and it was wonderful. Clark bought us bags of peanuts to feed the elephants. As much fun as it was to watch Maggie, it was also amazing to see Clark. He was in his element with Maggie and was having as much fun as she was. He was a born parent. It was a magical day for Maggie and for all of us. I took lots of pictures with my phone.

It got late and we closed the zoo. Maggie was hungry so we stopped for hamburgers. They finally dropped me off at the sorority house. When I got out of the car, Clark handed me an envelope with a note and a check for $1300. I told him it was way too much. He told me the going rate for an overnight babysitter was $25 per hour and that's what it worked out too. He told me it should have been more since I had to babysit Maggie and her drunk old man.

The note said, "You helped me out more than you know. Maggie and I would love to see you anytime."

I gave Maggie a hug and a kiss and wanted to do the same with her "old man." I waved goodbye as they left.

When they left, I felt kind of lonely. I had a wonderful time over the weekend, and I didn't expect that. I showed some pictures of Maggie to the girls, and I heard words like "rug rats" and "yard apes". I stopped showing them pictures. I wasn't going to let them say anything bad about my little Maggie. I made a few prints and put them up in my room. One was of Maggie and her "old man."

About a month later, Clark called me and sheepishly said he had another favor to ask. He didn't want to talk over the phone and offered to take me to lunch. The places to eat around campus would not work. It wouldn't look good for a professor to be having lunch with a beautiful, freshman woman. He picked me up on campus and we went to a restaurant downtown for lunch.

During lunch, we talked about how Maggie was doing, school, and the students in his classes this semester. We talked about everything except why we were here.

Clarke hemmed and hawed about what he wanted until I dragged it out of him.

"Clark, you didn't ask me to lunch just to catch up. What's up?" I asked.

"Scarlett wants a divorce. We met with our lawyers two days ago. She trapped me in the hall, and we talked. She laughed at me and told me about how great Todd was. She said I was a loser and I'd never find anyone that would put up with me and Maggie."

"I'm so sorry Clark. That was completely uncalled for and not even close to being true. There are so many women that would be after you and Maggie if you let anyone know you were available. I know at least a dozen women in last semesters Psychology 301 class that would go out with you. You'd just have to ask. They might he younger than you're looking for, but they certainly want you."

"That's kind of what I want to talk to you about."

"Do you want me to go beat up Scarlett? I'll do it."

"No, but thanks."

"You want me to set you up with someone?"

"No, but that's closer. There's another psychology conference in two weeks. It's outside of Denver and Scarlett is going to be there."

"You're not going, are you?"

"I have to. I agreed to be the guest speaker about six months ago and I have a new paper to present. I can't pull out this late. Besides, I need to face that bitch sometime. We're in the same field so it's unavoidable."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to invite a beautiful woman to go with me."

"Who?"

"This is where the favor comes in. Would you please go to the conference with me and pretend to be my new girlfriend?"

I almost spit out the water I was drinking.

"What? How would that work? Wouldn't she know I'm a student?"

"Not necessarily. She's never seen you. We could make you look older, and you could have graduated early with your PhD."

"How old would I be?"

"Around twenty-six or twenty-eight."

"I've got to have someone with me Tammy, or she'll humiliate me. It needs to be someone gorgeous. You'd be perfect. I don't know why she hates me so much, but she does."

"How could I look old enough?"

"Well, we can get you new clothes, hair, and makeup. We could get you some glasses. I know someone in the theater department, and he could guide us."

"I don't know Clark."

"I could pay for you time."

"That would make me a prostitute Clark!"

"Technically an escort, but I get what you're saying. I'm asking you as a friend. It's a weekend in a fancy hotel at a ski resort."

"Ski resort?" That got my attention.

"Yeah. The conference is a place about forty miles from Denver. There's skiing, drinking, big fireplaces, and hot chocolate. It's got an indoor pool and hot tub. I went there last year with..."

"Where would I stay?"

"They're putting me in a big suite. I could sleep on the couch, and you could sleep in the bed. The suite has a fireplace," Clark said.

"Can I let you know tomorrow? I need to think about it."

"Sure. I'd drive you back to campus."

"If you decide to go, it would be great if you could get out of your Friday classes so we could leave Friday afternoon. And sometime between now and then we'll need to buy you some new clothes. Can you walk in high heels? I know I couldn't."

"Yes, I can walk in heels!" I lied. "We could buy clothes in the evening or on the weekend." Clark was acting like I had already agreed. I had already decided but I didn't want it to sound too easy, like I'd do anything he asked--which I would.

When I got home, I borrowed some heels to start learning to walk in them. How the hell do people walk in those things all day?

Deciding to go wasn't that difficult a choice. I could hang around campus over that weekend, study or go to a drunken frat party. Or I could fly to a ski resort in Colorado. I could try skiing, dress in fancy clothes, hang out by a roaring fire sipping hot chocolate, take a dip in a pool and hot tub, and stay in a luxury suite. All escorted by a very sexy man who I hoped would take advantage of me. To top it off, I'd get to stickit to that bitch that didn't like Maggie.

I called Clark the next day and told him I'd love to go with him, because he was a friend.

Later that week, he called and asked If I was available for some shopping. We went into an high-end clothes store in far north Austin. His friend in the theater department had called the store manager and told him what we would be looking for. We went into a private room where he had selected some things for me to try on.

We selected a knee length black dress. It had a sweetheart neckline that displayed my generous cleavage. It didn't have a price tag on it, but I bet it was expensive. Along with that went patent leather black high heels. The men picked ridiculous five-inch heels. I insisted on more reasonable two-and-a-half-inch heels. I needed to be able to stand around in them without crippling myself or breaking an ankle. The outfit was complete with sexy underwear and a small black clutch.

I don't know if I looked any older, but I looked damn good. We continued shopping and bought another outfit for traveling. These clothes needed altering, so we had to pick them up later.

I felt a bit like a Barbie doll for men. I liked how Clark looked at me. He made me feel pretty.

We stopped by a sporting goods store and bought some après-ski clothes for hanging around the fire after an exhausting day on the slopes. He also bought me a new bikini although their selection wasn't great this time of year.

We went to the hairdresser next. I didn't get my hair done but they tried my long hair in a French braid and in a tight bun for me. Both looked most sophisticated but I'm still not sure I looked much older.

I needed glasses. With the help of an optician, I picked several styles of glasses and some of them did make me look older. I was thinking the best we could hope for was twenty-six. Clark bought a couple of frames with plain glass.

I'm now sure how much Clark spent on all this, but it was a lot. I had boxes and boxes of clothes and accessories. We dropped them off at Clark's. The girls at the sorority house would ask a lot of questions if I took them home. I got to see Maggie too and that was worth the trip.

Clarke sent me to his friend in the drama department. He gave me some tips on how to look older using my expressions and attitude as well as some makeup tips. When in doubt, look like you know that you're smarter than they are. Be dismissive. I needed snappy comebacks to say if someone commented about how young I looked. He told me not to deny it. He wanted me to say things like, "Why thank you" and "I wish I looked as old as you, it hard to have people take me seriously when I look this young." I really, really wanted to say that to Scarlett. It would crush her.

The day came to pick up the "nice" outfits. I tried the black dress with the heels on posed for them. I'd never seen Clark speechless before. You'd think he'd never seen a dress. I told the manager that it might look better with a short, waist cincher. The manager agreed we could try it. I put that on under the dress. It put the girls on display even better and gave me more of an hourglass figure. I went back out and struck the same pose. I thought Clark was going to pass out.

"Clark, do you think this will attract anyone's attention?"

"Clark?"

"Yes, I think that will get everyone's attention. You look gorgeous. I hope no one there has a heart condition."

"Should we try the glasses and the hair to see if I look old enough?"

"Clark?"

"Yes, can you put your hair into a bun by yourself?"

I pulled my hair into a quick bun and put on some big black glasses.

"Now, you look gorgeous and cute and only slightly older."

"Look serious and thoughtful. That's a little better. Do you think you could get some wrinkles by next week?"

We took the clothes back to his place again and Maggie wanted me to read her a story. How could anyone not like being her mother?

We made up a story about who I was. The big problem was going to be that Scarlett would do an internet search on me as fast as she could. We picked a name that we could find nothing about on the web. Dr. Elizabeth Feldburg, PhD in Biomechanical Engineering. We created a storyline to go with it, keeping it as simple as possible.

I left my place at 9:00 am on Friday. I told everyone in the sorority that I was going on a little weekend get away with a guy I'd met at a party. Clark had arranged for an Uber to pick me up and bring me to his place. I had a small suitcase of essentials with me.

Our flight did not leave until 3:00 but we wanted to leave his house around 12:30. We needed to get to the airport two hours before the flight to go through security. With all the beautiful clothes Clark bought me, it was going to take a little while to pack.

I hadn't told Clark, but this trip was a big deal for me. I'd never been in an airplane or been out of Texas. I'd never been to a fancy party that required dressing up this much. I was more than a little nervous.