The Baby-Sitter Diaries Ch. 05

It had been five years between my first sexual encounters with the baby-sitter and my next. She was a college graduate with a bachelors in economics and now she was in graduate school. Yesterday she had come into my office and asked me for a job as a teaching assistant. Since I had known her all of her life as well as her mother and father and brother, I didn't have any problem with her as my teaching assistant. When she was eighteen, we had a thirty hour affair that started as a drunken fling at the golf course and ended with a three-way with my wife. And since that time, though we were in each other's company for most holidays and birthdays, we hadn't done more than exchange a smile and maybe a look or two with more meaning than met that eye.

I also have suspected that my wife of twenty-five years and my baby-sitter have been having sex for the last five years. No that can't be true. Not the last five years. It was Patty my wife that put Rebecca up to seducing me in the first place, with her blessing. How could I have been so blind? I wasn't the first person in my marriage to have sex with the baby-sitter: Patty was!

Now here I sit in my office on a beautiful Spring morning considering the fact that Rebecca and I had had sex the evening before and coming to the epiphany that not only had my wife been having affair with the baby-sitter since I first had sex with her, she had had an affair with her since BEFORE. How could I have been so obtuse? I mean, I am a learned man. I have a doctorate in economics from one of the most prestigious ivy league schools to allow football players to study economics. I have had sex on numerous occasions, though with only a few partners. I have read books, literature, internet stories, seen movies, read Penthouse Forum Letters, and I never really put it together.

How stupid I was. How utterly without a clue. I sat there, staring at the volumes on the shelves above my desk, fingers interlaced, hands behind my head, and chuckled at my own ignorance. I was smiling for no particular reason when I heard a knock at the door. It was odd, I thought at the time, that someone would knock on the door since it was standing wide open, but I realized that I must look like the perfect simpleton, staring at nothing and laughing about whatever it was I was seeing.

"Dawn! Good morning," I smiled and offered her a chair. "I'm afraid I have bad news. Your examination grade wasn't impressive. C minus in fact. But you will be allowed to take the makeup examination. Do you remember the conditions?"

Dawn Maschmann sat at my desk, hands folded in her lap, knees tightly together. She had agreed the previous afternoon to accept certain conditions if allowed her to retake the midterm exam. She had a trip to Cancun during Spring Break if she could manage B's or better on her mid semester grades. The conditions were simple, she could not cram for the exam, she must accept a letter grade lower than she earned, meaning she would need an A to get a B, and finally she must answer each question thoroughly, demonstrating her breadth and depth of knowledge of the subject matter. I knew she was really bright enough to get an A. She had answered a somewhat complex question about market economics concerning Cuba the afternoon before, I knew she had the ability. I knew she lacked the confidence. Still she nodded the affirmative. "You CAN do better. I know it," I assured her, making my point by using my pencil like a gavel on the corner of the desk. "Answer each question thoroughly, take your time." I could sense that she was still tense, so I reached out and lightly touched her shoulder, attempting to reassure her. She moved like I had zapped her with a static shock. I jerked my hand back, afraid that I had done more harm than good. My attempt to be reassuring and fatherly had been misinterpreted, I was almost certain.

"I will have you leave your book bag here. Bring three pencils and come with me." I stood up and squeezed by her, careful not to touch her again. We crossed the hall to my lecture hall which would remain empty until my graduate seminar that evening. I pointed at the desk in the front of the room. "Sit there. I will leave the door to my office open and the door to this room open. If you have any questions, you may come to my office and ask them. I will be able to work while proctoring your examination. Okay?"

"Thank you Professor Daniels. This is really more than I should have expected. I promise to hurry."

"No Dawn, don't hurry. I want you to be thorough. Take as long as is necessary. You must get an A to receive a B, remember?" I reminded her.

"Yes, I remember. Thank you again."

I only smiled and indicated the seat, took note of the time, ten past eight, and walked back to my office. I spent the remainder of the morning reviewing the tests that Rebecca had graded the night before. I was as pleased with her grading style that morning as I was the night before. But checking the exams was only a pretext. I really spent the morning pondering my earlier Eureka! Finally I could take it no longer, I closed my door halfway and picked up the telephone. I didn't consciously dial my home number, but my wife answered the phone after my fingers worked from muscle memory.

"Hello," answered my wife.

"Hello my darling wife, my wise companion, my significant other, my confidant, my muse, my dear...."

"What on earth has gotten into you David?"

"Just the realization that you are married to one of the most brilliant men in the entire Pacific Northwest and he has been oblivious to what you have been up to these past five or six years." I was chortling. She could tell.

"Really?" She asked amused by my mood and the mystery of its origin. "And just what is it that I have been up to that you have been oblivious to these past five or six years, that you have just now realized and it has put you into such a giddy mood?"

I paused.

"Well?" she asked.

I waited.

"Come on David, are you going to be like this for long? I have laundry to do and shopping to get done. I don't have time for this."

Finally I could take it no more.

"Rebecca." Now it was her turn to go silent. Then I could hear laughter. It wasn't just my wife's voice either.

"Oh my God! She's there NOW isn't she?"

"Yes she is. Would you like to speak to her?"

Again I found myself at the disadvantage. Just when I thought I had it figured out, my life threw me another curve ball. I took a long second to gather my wits.

"Sure."

"Hello David," came a voice that I recognized immediately. "How are you this morning."

"Apparently I am still running behind the pack. Just when were you two planning on telling me?"

"Tell you? We thought you KNEW!" They both broke down into hysterics. I hung up without saying good-bye. I remembered the student across the hall and I opened my office door fully again. Dawn was in the lecture hall, seated at my other desk, head down and concentrating. I gave her my full attention. 'She could be quite pretty if she had a tan and dressed a little more....' I was thinking when I caught myself considering her as more than just a student. I averted my gaze and considered what was happening in my house that very moment. My wife and the only extramarital affair I had ever had were likely naked, intertwined, having hot monkey sex, and I was here, proctoring a make-up test. Suddenly my beautiful spring day was not quite so crisp. I was jealous.

It took Dawn until a little after noon to complete the makeup exam. She came into my office and took her seat next to my desk and handed me the papers. Her hands went back to her lap, and she sat upright on the edge of the seat. Very proper.

It took me less than a paragraph to realize that this was superior to her previous efforts. Quite superior. "This looks very good," I assured her, when I finished with her first answer. "If the remainder of the test is as good as the first answer, you will be pleased with the results." I set the test aside, face down on the pile of completed exams, intending to go home and get some lunch and then go play golf. I would come back in the afternoon and grade it, teach my graduate seminar, and then go home and make passionate love to my wife. After making her confess to her affair in sordid details of course If I couldn't have the affair, at least I could live vicariously through hers.

"Please Professor Daniels," Dawn beseeched me. Her hand was on my arm and she was pleading. "If it's not too much trouble, could you grade the exam now? My father knew I was taking the test yesterday and I need to know. I wouldn't ask except I really want to go to Cancun with all my girlfriends. Could I impose on you to grade it now?" Her hand was small, the fingers long and delicate, like a pianists. Her hands were smooth and cool. She gripped my forearm, not with power, just sincerity. To sweeten the pot she added, "If you grade it now, I will buy you lunch in the Commons."

I laughed. "The Commons? Not even the cockroaches eat there. That sounds more like a stick than a carrot. I'll tell you what, I will go ahead and grade the exam and if you get a B, I will buy you lunch at the country club. I plan on playing golf anyway. Is that a deal?"

"Anything you say, Professor. Anything at all, I just need to get my grade." The way she said 'anything at all' seemed a little out of character for her. Did I imagine that she had just propositioned me? I gave her a good hard look, and her look back neither confirmed nor denied what I had imagined.

I turned my attention to her examination. I had only quickly read her first answer, I made a more thorough reading of the answer, pausing now and again to circle part of a sentence and make a notation in the margin. I use a sky blue pencil to correct exams and students have a long standing joke about getting 'blue-marked' by Professor Daniels. Students who get a great deal of blue on their exams either do quite well on those exams or the exact opposite. This exam had a great deal of blue-marking. It took me twenty minutes to mark up her exam. I reread my notes and observations, did some mental calculations, and wrote her grade on the front, circling the final mark with the blue pencil.

"Are you sure you want to see this? After all, I did subtract a full letter grade from your actual mark." I held the paper so she couldn't see the grade. She thought for a moment, studying her hands which were clasped firmly together on her knees.

"Yes I'm sure," she replied. I held the paper out to her, careful to keep the letter grade on the side away from her gaze. She reached out slowly, almost afraid to touch it, lest it carry terrible news. She held it in her hand, closed her eyes and turned it around so she could see it. Then she opened her eyes. She shrieked and jumped back in her chair, startling me in mine.

"A B+! I GOT A B+! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she gushed and crowed and leapt over the corner of the desk and grabbed me by the neck. I know she didn't realize it but she kissed me on the cheek, not once but five times, once after each thank-you. Then she stood up, barely able to stay earth bound, she flitted like only a college girl can flit. "I get to go to Cancun, I get to go to Cancun." She was fairly singing. She sat back down. "A B PLUS! Can you believe it?"

"Yes I can, as a matter of fact. Yours would have been the top mark in the class if I hadn't deducted a full letter grade as per our agreement." That reminder seemed to catch her by even greater surprise.

"Do you mean that I actually got an A+?" she asked, incredulous to the notion that she could be bright. I nodded.

"You show a significant understanding of the field of economics and world politics. What is your major?"

"Well, I'm, well...."

"You are studying for your Bachelors in Undecided, aren't you?"

"It's that obvious," she admitted. "Isn't it?"

"You should consider Political Science, World Policies, or Economics. You have an aptitude."

"Me? I have an aptitude?"

"Yes you do. But you can consider that in Cancun on Spring Break. Try to work it in between margaritas and cabana boys." She blushed at my insinuation. Again I thought I had gone to far. "Anyway, you don't need to think about that now. I'm so hungry my belly thinks my throat's been cut. Let's go get some lunch." I stood up, grabbed my coat and held the door for her. "A deal is a deal."

We drove to the country club in my convertible. It was nearby and it would be no trouble at all to run her back into campus after lunch and before my tee time, which was rather fluid anyway. We sat in the lounge and had Shrimp and Crab Louie and iced tea. Dawn was fairly talkative over lunch, I suppose from the good news she had received. We talked about her family in southern Oregon. She was from an old established lumber tradition. I got the impression that she was only in college to obtain an Mrs. degree and return back to southern Oregon with the heir apparent to the old established lumber tradition. Somehow the conversation got shifted around to more personal matters and she asked if I was married.

"I've been married twenty-five years to my college sweetheart," I answered, gladly filling in all the details about my boys. "How about you? Is there a special someone in your life?"

"Oh," she admitted. "There is someone I have kind of a thing for. He's a little older and he is involved with someone else. I've had this kind of crush on him since I first met him. He just doesn't seem to notice me, Professor Daniels. He just looks through me."

"Call me David. All my friends call me David. Do you mind if I offer a bit of 'fatherly' advice?"

"You can say anything you like... David," she replied, test driving my name to see if it fit.

"You are an attractive young woman. But you have the potential to be simply stunning. You have excellent posture, a comely build, and enticing features. But you wear clothes that don't flatter you at all. You let your hair cover your face too much and though you don't need much make-up, a little bit of color will certainly catch his eye." Again the look on her face gave me the impression that I had gone too far.

"It's time I got you back to campus. Are you finished?" I tried to move quickly to another subject, desperate not to do any harm to the confidence I had hoped I was building. She arose without a word and we left in silence. Every so often I could feel her look over at me, I could feel her eyes studying my face. A couple of times I think she meant to speak, but when I turned toward her to listen, she quickly looked away.

"Where should I drop you, Miss Maschmann?"

"Oh shoot! I left my book bag in your office. It has my room keys and my student ID in it."

"That's no problem, we can simply go and get it."

I pulled into the faculty lot and into my assigned space and we walked together into my office. I unlocked the door and opened it for her. She entered and picked up her bag. She turned around and spoke.

"David, I have something to ask you. Could you please come in and close the door?" I stepped in and shut the door behind me. When I turned back to face her, she was right there in front of me. She reached up and put her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her. She kissed me on the mouth, catching me by complete surprise. I jerked back in shock. For the fourth time that day I did the wrong thing. She turned bright red and pushed past me, opening the door and rushing out the hallway and down the stairs. I felt terrible. I was simply not that adept at understanding women of any age.

"Well she certainly left in a hurry," said a familiar voice from the hallway. "Did you get a little fresh?" Rebecca was giving me a wicked little grin. "Well boss man, what work do you have for your indentured servant for today?"

"I am heading to the golf course. I have time for a quick nine before dinner and my seminar tonight. But now that I have a TA, maybe I should let HER teach that seminar."

"Don't you think your TA should be more than a semester ahead of the class she is teaching?" she asked.

"Why? I'm usually only a lecture ahead. Would you like to join me for a round? My foursome has probably left without me."

"I thought you'd never ask." Rebecca came with me out to the course, riding beside me, head back, face toward the sun, eyes closed. She looked so beautiful riding there. I could hardly take my eyes from her. We separated in the lobby. She went to change into golf attire and so did I. The bag attendants already had our clubs on a cart when we came out within a few seconds of each other.

"Which nine?" I asked Henry, the starter who knew which side of the course would be more open and conducive to a fast moving twosome.

"Better play the back. There's a couple of gaggles on the front. I don't know if they are golfing or grazing." Henry referred to older, heavier women foursomes in several disparaging ways. We took his advice and headed for the 10th tee. Rebecca is a very good golfer. She played competitive golf in college, though not good enough to warrant a stint on the LPGA. I was still a hack and my skills were diminishing. After six holes, I was three stroke behind her. I don't know if my lack of ball striking skills had anything to do with her, her looks, or her appearances in my fantasies with her and my wife, but I could scarcely concentrate.

"Let's play the last three holes for something worthwhile," she suggested.

"What do you have in mind?"

"The winner can decide."

"Agreed." That was the extent of the wager negotiations.

I won the first hole by sticking a five iron from 225 to eight feet and two putting. She won the last two holes easily. On the tee at seventeen, she bent over in front of me on purpose, allowing me a full view of her ass and legs from behind. I was shaking when I finally addressed my ball, slicing it badly. On eighteen, I was bent over my three foot putt for a tie when she walked up, ran her nails down my right arm, blew gently into my right ear and said "If you miss, I am going to fuck your brains out." I missed badly.

"I'll meet you in the sauna," she exclaimed happily. "You can settle your bet there."

Our country club has a Jack and Jill sauna. You can enter it from either the men's or ladies locker rooms through doors on either side. Each door comes with a lock, and when men use the sauna, they lock the women's side and vice versa. I stripped naked, slipped a towel around my waist and entered from my side. The hot cedar smell was wonderful. I have loved saunas since I was a teenager. I locked the door behind me. A minute later, Rebecca entered from the women's side and she locked the door behind her. I was already beginning to perspire.

"You aren't in such bad shape for an old man," she joked, taking a seat on the bench next to me. Her towel slipped off, revealing that she had nothing at all on to keep her modest. "Tell me about that little student girl who came out of your office this afternoon."

"Dawn Maschmann? What's to tell? She took a makeup exam this morning and wanted to thank me. I think she got a little carried away and might be embarrassed. It will pass. Why don't you tell me why you and my wife have been having an affair for more than five years and you never said a word to me."

"Honestly David, I thought you knew. I figured that Patty would tell you. You sleep with her every night."

"I don't ever recall her having a lesbian affair with you ever came up."

"Really? What DID come up between you then?" Her hand crossed my lap and tugged at my towel, revealing the beginnings of a nice erection. "Is this what you discussed? I'm jealous that Patty has had this all to herself for the last five years."

"You're jealous? I'm the one who ought to be jealous. After all, you have been having an affair with each other and I haven't been involved. That doesn't seem fair."