Chapter 10 — Only What's On The Menu

_January 2, 2003, Chicago, Illinois_

🎤 Ashley {br}

"I hear you have a guest tonight, Dad," I said with a smirk as we walked home from the dojo on Thursday evening.

"Listen, you little scamp…" Dad growled.

"Excuse me," I said, "but all complaints about the operation of this unit must be referred to the manufacturer! The unit cannot take any complaints directly!"

Kara Mom, Mom, Suzanne, Birgit, and Stephie all burst out laughing.

"Well played, young lady," Dad chuckled. "Well played."

I saw Birgit frown, obviously unhappy _she_ hadn't thought of it, and Stephie rolled her eyes despite having laughed with everyone else. Those were precisely the responses I expected from them!

"In all seriousness, Cinderella," Dad said, "you're pushing the limits."

I was, but he'd also made a point of not teasing in front of people outside the family.

"You said it was OK to tease when it was just family!" I said. "Only your wives and daughters are here!"

"She has a point, Tiger," Mom said mirthfully.

"And we know _exactly_ where she gets it!" Dad declared. "It's a factory-installed option! I provided only the tiniest bit of raw material and had nothing to do with the manufacturing process!"

"Given Birgit and Jessie are both serious smart alecks, I'd say it comes from that raw material you provided, Tiger!"

"It's possible," Dad chuckled.

————— {br}
🎤 Steve {br}

"Ashley is a real pistol," I said to my wives as we relaxed in the Indian room while waiting for Amy to arrive.

"And whose fault is that?" Kara teased. "You're just as bad as the kids, or maybe they're just as bad as you!"

"In the immortal words of Empress Birgit the First of Kenwood — What-ever!"

"Did you ask any of the girls about Amy?" Jessica inquired.

"No. All I know about her is that she works with them at Starbucks, lives at home, plays the saxophone, is hoping to attend Cincinnati Conservatory in the Fall, has a clean STI test, and wants to fuck. I will ask her who provided the referral."

"Do you have a suspect?" Suzanne asked.

"At first, I thought Danielle, but the more I thought about it, the more I suspect it was Hope, mainly because of the 'play date' request. I'm not upset, mind you, but I will discourage whoever it was from marketing my services."

"We could make a fortune from stressed medical students!" Jessica declared. "I'll just hand out flyers offering stress relief and a price list! 'Need to forget?' 'Have your brains fucked out!'; 'Need to relax? 'Cunnilingus in the sauna!'"

"Because that won't land us all in jail and have you fired!" I chuckled.

"Jess, don't forget 'Special discount for virgins!'" Kara said mirthfully.

"And the 'Combo discount packages'," Suzanne suggested "

The doorbell rang just then, and I stood up.

"Saved by the bell!" I chuckled.

I left the Indian room and went to the foyer to open the door and greet Amy. I helped her remove her coat, then led her to my study, where I indicated one of the leather wingback chairs. She sat down, and I sat next to her.

"Is something wrong?" Amy asked.

"No," I replied. "Whoever gave you the referral didn't say I'd talk to you first?"

"Referral? I'm not sure what you mean."

"Referral. You clearly knew it was OK to ask me, and you had an STI test, so it was obvious to me that one of the girls provided a reference, as it were, and sent you to me."

"I take it that's happened before?"

"More than you might imagine."

"I have a pretty good imagination! But that's not what happened. The five of us were talking one morning about guys and sex and first times, and I had the impression that all four girls had been with the same guy for their first time. In the conversation, they mentioned the guy had a rule about STI tests and one of them, and I won't say which, said she would never have expected to have her first time with a married guy.

"Later on, I asked Hope if my impression was true, and she confirmed that all four of them had been with the same guy their first time and weren't exaggerating about how great it was. A few days later, she invited me to the party, saying the other girls would also be there. She said nothing that linked you to the guy they were discussing. Then, when I saw you dance with so many girls, and some of them very, very close, I deduced you had to be the guy. Learning you had three wives confirmed it."

"And how did you know you might need permission?"

"After I figured it out, I decided I wanted exactly what they'd all described, so I asked Hope directly. She reluctantly confirmed it and suggested I might need permission. I figured if I was going to come right out and ask you to fuck, then asking for permission from your wives was no big deal."

"OK, but you used a very specific phrase when you asked."

"Hope told me you were allowed to have 'play dates' when I asked the question about you. Honestly, she didn't volunteer anything specific until I concluded you'd been each of the girl's first, and I specifically asked her about it. I can tell you're suspicious by the questions you're asking."

"Sorry, but the 'referral' thing has gotten out of hand more than once in my life. I apologize for the assumption and won't concern myself about what the girls said. I do have a pair of questions for you, which you don't have to answer — why now? why me?"

"Why now? Because, like every other teenage girl on the planet, I've thought about it since I had my first period. I had expected to be in college by now, and I thought college was the time and place it would most likely happen. Obviously, college was delayed because of what I described while we were dancing. My decision to have sex was more about being an adult than anything.

"As for why you? I didn't date much in High School, but I went to pretty much every dance starting in eighth grade. I did go on a few one-on-one dates, but the guys weren't really worth my time. I've dated a bit since I graduated, but none of the guys made me feel the way you did just being in the same room with you, and certainly never like I felt when we danced."

"Not to overanalyze," I replied, "but I think the vibe was very likely, or at least partially, due to what you'd heard the girls say. You weren't, as it were, playing roulette and hoping you hit your number. Your expectations were set, and when you were at least somewhat attracted to me, that closed the deal in your mind."

"More than 'somewhat'," Amy said. "You're handsome, in great shape, have killer bedroom eyes, and word on the street is you're fantastic in bed. So, how about it? Do you want to fuck?"

"Indubitably!"

She pulled a folded paper from her pocket and handed it to me, revealing a clean STI test when I unfolded it. I folded it and handed it back.

"I started taking the pill when I turned eighteen back in May when I was still hoping to start school in August," Amy said.

Which was consistent with her narrative.

"I had a vasectomy," I replied. "So, no worries there. Did you have something specific in mind?"

"You're allegedly the expert, so I think I'll leave that to you!"

"Allegedly?" I asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Allegedly! Would you state something like that to be true without first-hand knowledge?"

"I would not. Let me rephrase the question – is there anything you _don't_ want to do?"

"I'll just tell you 'no' if there's something I don't want to do."

"OK. Shall we repair to the boudoir?"

Amy laughed, "'Boudoir'? 'Indubitably'? I love your quirky style."

I took her hand and led her to the Playroom, past Ashley, who was having a snack in the kitchen. I strongly suspected her timing was strategic, given the smirk on her face.

————— {br}
🎤 Birgit {br}

"My sister is a pain in the butt!" I lamented to Kjell in Swedish as we sat in the sauna with the 'Privacy Please' sign on the door.

"I thought Stephie had mellowed," Kjell said.

"Not her; Ashley!"

"Seriously? She's cute and sweet!"

"You have _no_ idea!" I retorted. "She's a total smart aleck!"

"As if you have room to talk!" Kjell declared. "I think you're jealous because you aren't the only one like that! Well, Jesse, but guys are different."

"Talk about the understatement of the century!" I giggled.

"Oh, right, because girls aren't different, too? Seriously, besides anatomy, you and Jesse are a lot alike! I bet that's what bugs you about Ashley, too!"

"What-ever!" I protested.

"You know, the sauna is supposed to be relaxing!"

He had a point, though Ashley was annoying, especially with her claim that she knew something about Dad that had affected his decision.

"Sorry," I said. "She just gets on my nerves."

"I could help with that," Kjell offered.

"Possibly! Before we do that, was there anything special you wanted to do before you go home on Saturday?"

"Not really," Kjell replied. "Well, unless you want to invite a friend…"

I laughed softly, "Every boy's fantasy! Two girls at once!"

"You can't blame a guy for asking!" Kjell exclaimed. "I'm cool with just hanging out. We probably won't see each other during the Summer, right?"

"Right. I'm going to Japan and also to Vermont."

"I know you visit your friend in Vermont, but what are you doing in Japan?"

"Jesse is going to visit a girl who was an exchange student here, and I'm going to spend time with Yuriko. I'll also visit the karate school where our overall master teaches, but I won't be able to train there."

"Why?"

"No girls allowed!" I replied.

"Seriously? And you're OK with it?"

"It's «Shihan» Hideki's school, and that's the tradition in Japan. He has no problem with me being 1st Dan, nor with Sensei Molly running her own school, but he has to honor Japanese tradition."

"I think it's wrong," Kjell said.

"As Dad likes to say, the Japanese people get to run their country as they see fit, just as we get to run ours, and we're hardly in a position to make moral objections to things in other countries until we fix our glaring problems."

"That would be an argument against stopping Hitler!"

"Godwin!" I giggled.

"Huh?"

"The rule is that every discussion, no matter what, eventually leads to a reference to Hitler or the Nazis! As Dad says, the first person to reference Hitler or the Nazis to make a point about something completely unrelated concedes they've lost the argument!"

"OK, but my point is the same. At some point, you do intervene."

"I agree, but the US and Sweden both segregate sports teams by gender, from what you call football, to tennis, to golf, to ice hockey, to almost anything else you can name. If 'all boys' is wrong, then 'all girls' is equally wrong. You can't pick and choose."

"You won't accept them saying it's different with sports, will you?"

"No, because you could call karate a sport. In our competitions, we have four classes — open, women's, under eighteen, and senior. I always compete in the 'open' class because that's the one that determines the overall champion. But some girls and women don't want to spar with boys and men. I do, and beating a boy is awesome because it means I won, but also because I beat a boy!"

"Of course," Kjell chuckled.

"Let's use the whirlpool," I suggested.

Kjell, not being a «jävla idiot», quickly agreed.

————— {br}
🎤 Steve {br}

"What time do you have to leave?" I asked.

"So long as I'm home by midnight, nobody will ask any questions," Amy replied. "It's only a twelve-minute walk, so to be safe, let's say out the door at 11:30."

"That gives us about three hours," I said as I turned on the shelf stereo, which was tuned to WXRT. "May I propose a course of action in advance?"

"Sure."

"I'll give you the absolute best possible first time I know how, then we sixty-nine to get me hard again, you ride me, but then, right before I cum, we switch to sixty-nine, and I cum in your mouth, and you swallow. We continue until I'm hard again, then fuck hard. The fourth time is your option. Then a blowjob in the shower."

Amy laughed, "Over the top much?"

"We could also do it once, and then you could go home if that's what you prefer."

"I think I signed up for 'over-the-top' when I asked you to fuck!"

"Then why are you still dressed?" I asked with a grin.

Amy laughed and began removing her clothes, and I followed suit, taking note of her perfect 'Steve type' body — athletic with small, firm breasts and flat stomach — and, as was a growing trend, a smoothly shaved mons.

"Should I be offended?" she asked, looking at my groin.

I chuckled, "No. I don't need it ready for action just yet!"

I stepped over to Amy and held out my arms. She melted into them, and we exchanged a soft French kiss. I broke it a minute later, pulled the duvet down on the bed, and helped Amy into it. I followed my usual pattern of sucking on each of her nipples before kissing my way down to her mons, then pressing my tongue into her and bringing her off twice. After her second orgasm, I moved up, grasped my now fully erect shaft, rubbed my glans along her slick labia, and positioned myself.

"Fuck me," Amy pleaded breathlessly.

I nodded, then pushed slowly forward.

"Yeah," Amy breathed. "Yeah."

Two more gentle thrusts were all it took to fully embed myself in her tight tunnel and bring my pubic hair into contact with her smooth mons. Amy took a deep breath, let it out, then wrapped her arms and legs around me. I ground against her a bit, then began moving slowly. I lowered my lips to her, and our tongues tangled as we started a slow, gentle screw that lasted twenty minutes before I came. As I so often did, I pulled out, slid down, and pleasured her with my tongue until she had another orgasm.

"I came to the right place!" Amy declared contentedly as I moved up next to her.

"And I'll make sure you cum a lot more!" I chuckled.

————— {br}
🎤 Jesse {br}

I was checking hockey scores when my IM chimed, and I saw a message from Akiko.

{block}{tt}安希子: Hi! How are you? {br}
MightyDuck: Great! You? {br}
安希子: Also great! I'm looking forward to August! {br}
MightyDuck: Me, too! Is it Saturday there? {br}
安希子: Yes! Just after 10:00am! Please provide your flight information. I want to meet you at Narita. {br}
MightyDuck: We arrive on August 4th at 10:00am Japan time. {br}
安希子: OK. What will Birgit do? {br}
MightyDuck: Yuriko will travel to Tokyo to meet her. {br}
安希子: Good. If she wanted to visit Hiroshima, she could spend a day or two with us at the end of the trip. If you wanted. {br}
MightyDuck: I'll ask her. {br}
安希子: Dad and Mom said it would be OK for her to visit. {br}
MightyDuck: Excellent! No school today? {br}
安希子: No. You start again on Monday, right? {br}
MightyDuck: Yes. {br}
安希子: And the hockey tournament starts in a week? {br}
MightyDuck: Yes. {br}
安希子: I wish I could see you play! Good luck! {br}
MightyDuck: Thanks. {br}
安希子: I will let you go. I miss you a lot! I can't wait until we can share my futon! {br}
MightyDuck: I'm looking forward to that! {br}
安希子: Let me know what Birgit decides. {br}
MightyDuck: I will. {br}
安希子: Silly! I will IM you next weekend! {br}
MightyDuck: OK! {br}
安希子: Yes! Bye! {br}
MightyDuck: Bye! {/tt}{/block}

I minimized the IM client, finished checking hockey scores, and then went down to the Duck's Nest to relax until bedtime.

————— {br}
🎤 Birgit {br}

After Kjell and I finished in the sauna, we showered and then went to get a snack. I saw the door to what my moms called 'the Playroom' was closed and locked, which meant Dad was entertaining. Once we finished our snack, I excused myself and went to Dad's study, which I was allowed to do, and made a phone call.

"Libby speaking!" she said when she answered the phone.

"It's Birgit!" I exclaimed.

"Calling from your dad's phone, according to Caller ID!"

"You remember what we did with Tomás yesterday?"

"How could I forget! You're calling to set up another assignation?"

I giggled, "Yes, but not with Tomás. What do you think of Kjell?"

"Tall, blond, blue eyes, hunky, and Swedish? What's not to like?"

"Interested in giving him an experience he'll never forget tomorrow before he goes home on Saturday?"

Libby laughed, "You are a wild woman, Birgit Adams!"

"Right, because you are so tame and conventional! Show up around 1:00pm. I'll have Kjell in my room, just sitting on the loveseat. You just come in and start undressing!"

"I take it back! You're nuts!"

"We're teenagers! We're supposed to be incurably horny and having fun! I'm not ready for boring married sex yet!"

"Because your dad's sex life is boring!"

"I was teasing! See you tomorrow at 1:00pm!"

"See you!"

We said 'goodbye', I hung up, then went to the great room. I took Kjell's hand, and we went up to my room.

————— {br}
🎤 Steve {br}

"When I cum, don't swallow; stand up and French kiss me," I said to Amy as she moved to her knees in the shower.

"No joke?"

"No joke! Think of it as an incentive!"

"Actually, now that I think a bit more about it, you stuck your tongue in my pussy after you came in it."

"And you kissed me willingly with your pussy juice on my tongue, lips, and face."

"Weird at first, but yeah!"

She grasped me, took me into her mouth, and sucked gently as she swirled her tongue around my glans. She'd had some practice as we'd engaged in sixty-nine, so the shower blowjob was very enjoyable. Amy bobbed, stroked, licked, and sucked until I blasted cum into her soft, warm mouth, then stood up and fiercely French kissed me.

"There's only one problem," she said as I began to lather her body after she finally broke the kiss.

"What's that?"

"Finding someone to do this with regularly!"

"Just make sure you are religious about your birth control pills, and you insist any partner you're with be tested."

"Kailey explained exactly why that's so important during that discussion."

"Good. When will you know if you can start school in the Fall?"

"March or April. Once I'm sure my parents' finances are in decent shape, I'll call the Registrar at the Conservatory."

"I have friends and family in Cincinnati. If you decide you want to work part-time, let me know, and I'll make a call or two."

"Thanks! I'll need some spending money because obviously I haven't been able to save anything for the past fifteen months, and what I'd saved before I gave to my parents."

"What's your long-term goal?"

"To be a rock star!" Amy said with a laugh. "I mean, it worked for Clarence Clemmons!"

"True! And your fallback?"

"A symphony chair or maybe just a jazz musician. We'll see when I graduate."

"I should put you in touch with my wife's half-sister, who is First Chair violin in the New York Symphony."

"What's her name?"

"Fawn Barton, professionally. Her married name is Haas. She attended Julliard."

"I tried but wasn't accepted."

"Cincinnati Conservatory is not a second-rate school by any stretch!"

"I know!"

I finished lathering Amy and helped her rinse off before she took the soap to return the favor.

"Did I meet your expectations?" I asked.

"Absolutely! You certainly seemed to enjoy yourself!"

"I most assuredly did!"

————— {br}
_January 3, 2003, Chicago, Illinois_

🎤 Steve {br}

I had an early meeting on Friday at 550 West Jackson, so I parked next to Union Station. I considered stopping in the station and using a payphone to call Theo to let him know about the visit I'd had from the FBI, but I quickly rejected that idea, as if any phones were tapped, they'd be the phones at the union offices. As I walked, I considered my options and decided there were no good ones. Even having Kimmy schedule a meeting would attract unwanted attention.

Sending him an email wouldn't work, as NIKA archived literally every message for an extended time, and once I sent the email, I had no control over what happened to it. I hadn't ever used any spy craft with Theo, so there were no arranged chalk marks to indicate a meeting was necessary and no planned dead drop locations. Using the mail was out, as was any regular delivery service. What I really needed was a completely unrelated third party to carry the message.

It dawned on me that I had _exactly_ that! I knew someone who could contact Theo, and the chances that it would be traced back to me were infinitesimal. I had enough time, so I doubled back to the station, went to the pay phones in the great hall, and dropped in a quarter.

"Alfonso Gallucci," my contact said when he answered the phone.

"Alfonso, it's Steve Adams."

"Hey, Kid! Long time no hear! How are things."

"Very good. You?"

"Great! I'm a senior foreman now. I hear you're in business with Anthony."

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!" I declared.

He laughed, "What do I owe the honor of the call, Don Stephen?"

"I need you to quietly and in person let Theo Lipari know that the Feds are snooping and his name came up. I strongly suspect his phones are tapped, and mine might be as well, so I'm calling from a payphone in Union Station."

"I can do that. Anything other than the Feds are snooping?"

"No. Given the circumstances, I don't think we should meet, so just let him know I'm still a stand-up guy. If you need to get in touch with me, just come down to the construction site and have someone let me know you're there."

"Got it."

We said 'goodbye', I hung up, then hurried on my way to 550 West Jackson for the project meeting with Alonzo.

————— {br}
🎤 Jesse {br}

As I had planned, I met Simone at the café on Hyde Park at 11:30am.

"Did you think more about the Valentine's Day party?" Simone asked once we had our food.

"Yes, and I'm not sure it will work, even acting on Luna's suggestion about inviting people to the Hangout."

"Why?"

"Because Illinois set the age of consent at seventeen," I replied. "One-on-one, I wouldn't worry about it, but a group fooling around, even if we didn't go all the way, could get us in serious trouble because Luna, Desiree, and Jack are all eighteen, and you're only fifteen."

"But we were all naked in the sauna together, and a bunch of the guys and girls were Sophomores, so they weren't seventeen."

"And that would be defensible because literally nothing happened, not even a kiss. OK, sure, some parents could complain, but we didn't do anything illegal. If we have a party where we play naked _Twister_, or whatever, that's a totally different thing."

"Nobody will narc on us!"

"Nobody has to narc," I countered. "All it would take is someone saying something to a friend. I just read an article in the newspaper about a fifteen-year-old guy who was sleeping with his teacher. A girl who liked him somehow found out and complained. They arrested the teacher, who was hot, by the way."

"There is no way a Sophomore is going to feel abused by banging his hot teacher!"

"No kidding! But his parents are all over the news about how their poor baby was abused and robbed of his childhood and every other thing you can think of to play him as the victim."

"Why are grownups so dumb?" Simone complained.

"Ubiquitous birth control," I replied. "When having sex meant a significant risk of pregnancy, it put a natural damper on things because girls wouldn't risk it. Once the Pill was generally available, and you could buy rubbers anywhere, and abortion was made legal everywhere, those limits were off. That meant teens could screw as much as they wanted without much risk, so long as they used birth control.

"AIDS put a damper on that and also scared ignorant people who don't understand 'Safe Sex' or who object to ANY mention of it, though those sets of people overlap significantly. Also, people began viewing teenagers as little children, something that is an entirely new phenomenon that started around 1975 and intensified in the 1980s and is getting worse every day.

"My grandpa on my dad's side is twenty years older than my grandma, and they married when she was twenty-five. Nowadays, people flip out at that age difference. Not that long ago, a twenty-five-year-old guy marrying an eighteen-year-old girl would be considered not just OK but normal. Now you hear about 'a man wanting to marry a teenager', which implies that eighteen is still a kid."

"Where did you learn all that stuff?"

"At the Compound! My moms, my dad, and the rest of my family and friends talk about stuff like that, plus I read, too. The bottom line is, we could have a party, but it can't be like you want unless everyone is at least seventeen, or nobody is older than seventeen. I'm not sure my dad would be comfortable with a sex party for people under seventeen."

"I thought he was cool!"

"He _is_ cool, but he has to be concerned about what the police and DCFS might say if they got wind of it somehow. My advice is to wait until you and your friends can meet in your college dorm. So long as everyone is eighteen, nothing too bad can happen to anyone."

"What do you mean 'too bad'."

"A university could kick you out if you broke some rule by doing that."

"The world is full of control freaks!"

"Yes, it is."

————— {br}
🎤 Steve {br}

"Want to get lunch at West Loop Café?" Penny asked when we left the three-hour project meeting.

"Sure, though, after meetings like that, I need a double whisky!"

"I was ready to nod off after thirty minutes!" Penny declared. "Can't you put a stop to that?"

"You can complain to Dave, but I suspect he won't force a change given this was a project kickoff meeting for _NIKA Legal 2004_."

"I suppose the consolation is we've gone to a two-year major release cycle, so these meetings only happen once a year between the medical and legal software."

"True. And the two-year cycle makes sense, as customers were delaying upgrades because they came every year. Cindi also extended maintenance for previous releases to five years, so in theory, someone could skip two releases. And firms that want the leading edge can use the hosted system, which receives continual updates and doesn't require any local changes in their offices."

"I'm not sure I'd trust having all my data hosted," Penny observed as we walked into West Loop Café."

"Me, either," I replied as we sat down. "But plenty of small firms prefer it because they don't have to have local computer support except a PC guy they call when hardware breaks or somebody opens a virus. The solution is way less expensive for them than on-premise servers and licensing. The ones who pay through the nose are the ones who want all Windows gear, including servers."

"Serves 'em right! Now, if we could only get rid of _IE_ and _MS Office_! _WordPerfect_ is SO much better for law firms, but Microsoft has basically murdered it."

"Sadly."

A cute redheaded waitress came over to the table and took our drink orders.

"She was giving you the eye," Penny smirked. "Go for it!"

"Right, so you can give me grief about refusing YOUR advances?"

"If you weren't such a dope, you'd take me up on it!"

"It's precisely because I'm _NOT_ a dope that I don't! You and Terry had enough trouble in the past that having an affair is the last thing you need."

"He'd give me a hall pass for you if I gave him one!"

"A bad idea, Pretty Penny."

"You're just no fun at all!"

"Uh-huh," I chuckled.

We perused the menus, and when the waitress returned, she put our drinks in front of us and flashed me a smile.

"What can I get you?"

"The Italian beef sandwich with chili fries," Penny said.

"And you?" she asked me.

"I don't see it on the menu, but you used to offer a chef's salad."

"Sorry, they changed the menu, so you can only get what's on the new menu."

I decided to tease Penny by flirting with the waitress, so I leaned down and put the menu on the floor next to her.

"Take a step to your left," I said with a grin.

The waitress laughed and, to my surprise, stepped onto the menu. She wrote on a fresh page on her pad, tore it off, and handed it to me. Penny rolled her eyes, and I folded the paper on which the waitress had written her name and number and put it in my pocket.

"I think I'll go with the pulled Cajun chicken sandwich and a side salad."

"No fries?" Shay, the waitress, asked.

"No thanks."

"I'll go put your orders in!"

She took Penny's menu, stepped back, picked up the menu from the floor, and went towards the kitchen.

"Unbelievable!" Penny said with a laugh. "Only you could get away with something that corny! Are you going to call her?"

"Red hair, green eyes, cute as a button? What do you think?"

"I think I wish I were your big toe; that's what I think!"

"My big toe?" I asked.

"So you could bang me on all the furniture!" Penny declared.

I laughed hard, attracting attention from the other tables.

"Cute, Penelope, cute!" I said when I finally stopped laughing.

"So, how about it?"

"You know the answer and why," I replied.

"You're just no fun, Steve! No fun at all!"

————— {br}
🎤 Birgit {br}

As planned, Kjell and I were cuddled on the loveseat in my room.

"Did you enjoy your visit?" I asked.

"Absolutely! I'm really looking forward to seeing you in Sweden. You have to come to Stockholm regularly!"

"That's the plan!"

"And I don't just mean to have sex because there's a lot to do. And if your host family is OK with it, maybe I could come to Göteborg because there's a lot to do there I haven't done."

"I'm positive Suzana will be OK with that. She was my dad's host sister when he was in Sweden, and Dad says she's totally cool. She and her husband, Karl, have a son, Henrik, who is ten, and a daughter, Lena, who is seven, and they have a nice house in Västra Frölunda. I want to skate at the rink where my dad skated and met Katt Sundström."

"You said you plan to go to the same «gymnasiet». Which one?"

"Schillerska," I replied. "The headmaster is one of my dad's old teachers, so I'm sure they'll accept me into N1a, the same course my dad was in."

I saw the clock change to 1:00pm, which meant Libby would arrive any second, and I totally wasn't surprised when, about fifteen seconds later, she walked into the room, locked the door, and began undressing.

Kjell looked shell-shocked, and his surprise only increased when I jumped up and began taking off my clothes.

"For real?" he asked.

"For real," I said. "Get undressed, and we'll give you a wonderful going away present!"

I'd never seen any boy undress so fast in my life!

————— {br}
🎤 Jesse {br}

"Are you going to be at the Hangout on the 19th?" I asked Simone as we left the café.

"Yes, though my main reason for showing up is basically shot."

"There's no reason we can't have a party, but the line would have to be drawn at keeping our clothes on except in the sauna and no fooling around in there. And games would need to be no more than R-rated."

"I am absolutely sure I'm not going to college in Chicago!" Simone declared. "Florida State, here I come!"

I laughed, "The premier party school in the country, and in Florida to boot!"

"You're going to UW Madison, right?"

"That's the plan," I replied. "I'll take the SAT in March and the ACT in April. I want to apply and go for early acceptance because it's my number one school. Am I walking you home?"

"Can we hang out at your house until dinner?"

"Yes," I said, and we began walking in that direction.

"What if some other school offers you a scholarship?"

"I doubt I'll take it," I replied. "Honestly, as good as I am in the Chicago High School League, I don't think I can count on making the NHL, and I'd hate to spend a decade in the minors only never to have a chance. I aim to get a job in the front office or as a scout. I'll play club hockey at UW and see if I can help coach goalies for the NCAA team. I'm actually coaching this year at Summer hockey camp in Minnesota."

Saying that made me think about Scarlett and wonder how that might play out if she wasn't speaking to me. I wondered if she'd even take the job and suspected she might just go home instead. I wouldn't be bothered by being around her, but girls tended not to want anything to do with guys with whom they had broken up.

"How'd you land that?"

"I attended the camp last Summer, and they asked me to help coach the younger kids. I'll go for my two weeks, then hang out with some family friends for a weekend, and then spend two weeks coaching elementary school kids."

"Boys? Or boys and girls?"

"Mostly boys, but some girls. My best friend's girlfriend plays on her school team, and we had a girl on our team when I was a Freshman."

"But guys are so much bigger and stronger."

"Nicole is the fastest skater in the entire league, which really helps her, and Mia, who played when I was a Freshman, was tall and pretty strong. And they don't allow checking in our league, so it's not as big a deal as it would be in the NHL."

"Do you think girls should be allowed to play in the NHL?"

"If they're good enough to make the team, sure, but I doubt the insurance companies would go for it, given what you said about strength, which really is about body mass more than anything. That said, there's no reason a girl couldn't play goalie. Back in the late 90s, the Islanders invited Cammi Granato to training camp, but she turned them down. She was certainly good enough to play goalie in the NHL. Where it really would work is baseball, where there is no contact, and a fast singles-hitting female would have a great chance as a leadoff batter."

"I'm surprised you say that. My dad and brother are complete sexist pigs about stuff like that."

"I have two moms, a sister with a black belt, and two sisters with brown belts! I don't think I'd live long as a sexist pig!"

We reached the coach house, went around to the back door, which I unlocked, then went inside.

"Nobody's home?" Simone asked once we took off our coats, hats, gloves, and shoes.

"No. My moms are both at work. We can go downstairs to the rec room if you want."

"I'd rather we went to your bedroom!"

"That can only happen if you have an STI test."

Simone smiled, opened her purse, and then handed me an envelope. I opened it, saw that it was clean, and handed it back. I took her hand and led her towards the stairs.

"I'm on the Pill," she said.

That was music to my ears because I really, really preferred not to have to use rubbers.