Romance:From Fat To Fatale(28)

I couldn't let this moment pass and pretend that nothing had happened. Never mind about my brother Miclav's orange-suited confrontation with the other inmates in the county jail who'd taken bets on how long he'd survive in solitary before someone sliced off his cajones and made him wear them as a matching pair of slightly shriveled gypsy earrings. I wanted to know why Larry had turned down a personal invitation to spend a wild night of passion at the sorority gig. I wanted to know what he'd meant when he'd called me his girlfriend. He shrugged as he leaned across the table, his broadening shoulders relaxing as he looked into my eyes and he smiled as he spoke. It was really simple. He just didn't have any of that particular brand of experience around women. It probably sounded pretty weird in this day and age but he was only supposed to date girls from his community and there weren't too many to choose from. And even fewer pretty ones.

So he'd never been in a position to find out what all the fuss was about. And he'd always been kind of shy. And I was the closest thing he'd ever had to a real girlfriend so he hoped I hadn't been offended when he'd used the word. Offended? I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. He talked about the frustrations of his teen years, of being nudged towards dates with buck-toothed girls who were, in all likelihood, direct blood relations. He'd reluctantly been out on a date - a short stroll in the park with both sets of parents about ten feet behind them - and it had felt as if he was walking and talking with someone who could've been his sister. We left the cafeteria and I suggested we should celebrate the great Bulgari victories by going for a drink. Nothing too heavy. A glass of wine perhaps. Holy wine? he asked. Communion wine to celebrate our communication? Why not? We were headed off for a drink. No ulterior motives this time. Just a quiet drink with a friend.

I knew a little bar next to the college grounds where students sometimes went for a drink and where questions were rarely asked. It was known locally as the Launch Pad because a lot of kids got high on its premises and, after a couple of drinks, most kids felt convinced they could fly. It was also the favourite starting point for a night of carousing and partying. The bar wasn't too busy when we slipped inside and we ordered a couple of glasses of Merlot from the waiter to toast each other's health and happiness in the dim lighting. We drank little sips to the Bulgari clan. We drank more generously to the Hershkowitzes, both the local branch and the distantly-related, Baltimore varieties. We drank to friendship and we drank to our dreams and that required a second glass. And halfway through that warm and richly fragrant wine, Larry leaned a little closer and kissed me.

It was so gentle, the lightest touch of his lips briefly brushing the outline of my mouth, a hesitant butterfly kiss that barely landed on my skin before lifting up again, hovering for a moment before descending to stroke the corner of my mouth and move away again.

His eyes were closed as he moved a little closer and I placed my hands gently around his head and drew him into my kiss. If you've ever known a moment in eternity that held that total certainty when everything felt so right, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I kissed him and his mouth opened a little, the tip of his tongue tracing the contours of my lips, stroking the edges of my lips, a melting moment of exploration that led us headfirst off the edge of the known world.

I had lost track of time. I wasn't even too sure where we were anymore. It felt like the Laws of Physics were melting around us. All I knew was that I was tumbling slowly in orbit around Larry and that I never wanted to return to terra firma again. A space opened up for a heartbeat as the empty wine glasses stood silently between us, tacit conspirators to our moment of knowing, and we stood up from our table and walked out into the night, arms around each other's waists and strolled back towards my room on the far side of the campus. It was dark as we seemed to glide from one pool of amber light to the next, moving in and out of the shadows, and I could feel his warmth against my side, fire in my veins and his kiss still playing like an electrical storm on my lips. He stopped once to hold me in his arms in the depth of a shadow, my head nestled on his shoulder and his chest pressed close to mine.

He took my earlobe gently between his teeth and I felt an electric thrill shoot down my spine that I'd never known before. I gasped as he teased my ear for a second and then he lifted his head and smiled at me and we turned back to the pathway and the light of the street lamps, my knees feeling suddenly weak and, as the night air closed around us, we climbed the short flight of steps to my room and I opened the door.

We didn't switch on the lights. The room was bathed in a gentle orange glow from the sodium lamps outside. I knew Larry was shy and I certainly wasn't over-confident about my body. I was trembling. Partly from the adrenaline. Partly from the fear. Maybe a little from the wine.

Mostly from the currents of energy flowing between us. This was something new for me and I knew it was a totally new experience for Larry. What I hadn't expected, what shocked, amazed and frankly thrilled me, was that this beautiful young man possessed a natural and untutored gift for the arts of love that would more than take my breath away. Larry was in a class of his own and this extraordinary, irresistible man would effectively spoil me for the rest of my life.

Despite his apparent inexperience, Larry began to undress me in the half-light, slowly, unhurried, pausing to kiss my shoulders, stroke the side of my neck with his lips and tongue tip, chasing the soft petals of my earlobes and smoothing the ridges of tension around my shoulder blades with his fingertips. His hands moved to my waist and I could feel his fingers slipping inside the waistband of my pants, joining together to make perfect, decreasing circles at the base of my spine, easing the coils of pressure in the bunched muscles, sending ripples of pleasure along the length of my back.