Bob did stop by
Lori's room long enough for her to change from her wet bra and panties
into one of her shapeless gray outfits, which is all she had that was
clean, and ready to wear. When he opened the door to his forest
green Corvette, her eyes got huge.
"This is yours?" she asked, her voice hushed.
"Psychology can be a good living, if you spend too much time at it," said Bob, smiling.
"I don't feel so bad about you buying me things now," she said, sliding in.
"Good," he said. "Then you won't mind if I buy you another outfit or two."
"You're not doing this just because I'm going to have sex with you ... are you?" she asked, her voice high.
"What makes you think we're going to have sex?" asked Bob. "Didn't I tell you you should save your virginity?"
"Who for?" she asked, letting her hand hang out the window and float in the wind.
"Your special guy, when you meet him."
"You're special," she said.
"You have a crush on me, because I've been nice to you, and taught you things," he said. "Don't mistake that for love."
"I don't know
about crushes, or love, or any of that," she said, looking over at
him. "All I know is I like you, and I like being with you, and I
especially like it when you touch me. Everybody makes all this
furor about sex, and we didn't even have sex yet, but I still feel the
best ever. So sex must be even better, right?"
"Your mother would not approve," he said gently.
"My mother would
never approve, no matter who it was with," said Lori. "I know
that now. I think she doesn't want to know about my sex life
anyway. If I bring home a grandchild for her, and I'm married,
then she'll be happy. She won't think about how all that
happened."
"That's another good reason for us not to have sex," said Bob. "You could get pregnant."
"Yeah, I guess so," she said, uninterested. Like most young and ignorant people, she thought it couldn't happen to her.
"We definitely need to talk," said Bob. "I'm afraid I'm setting you up for failure."
"How so?" she asked.
"If you have
this cavalier attitude about sex, or have sex with whatever guy who
comes along, you'll end up not only pregnant, but pregnant and alone,
with a broken heart. Sex is serious business, Lori."
"I know that," she said, her voice scoffing.
"Well you don't act like it. Wanting to have sex with me doesn't suggest you have very good judgment."
"Stop the car!" she said.
If she had been
smoking when she said that, Bob would have thought she dropped her
cigarette, and that it was burning the carpet, or something like
that. He didn't ask questions, just pulled the powerful coupe
onto the shoulder, put it in park, and asked "What's wrong?"
She turned sideways in her seat. The look on her face was intense.
"People think
I'm stupid because I look so young, and because I have braces, and
because I haven't been very many places in my life. But I'm
not stupid. I may not have any experience with sex, or men
and all that stuff, but I know what sex does ... what it's
for. You think that just because I want to have sex
with you, that I'll have sex with anybody. That's not true.
I wouldn't even think of letting any other man I know touch me, much
less make a baby in me."
She leaned forward a little.
"And I don't
know whether I have a crush on you, or I'm in love with you. I
don't really care, actually. I like being with you, and
that's all I care about. And if you think I'm scared of
being pregnant, you're wrong about that too. Your son will be
smart, and handsome and talented, just like his father. I know
that because I've been around you. You're not taking advantage of
me. I know that. If anything, I'm taking advantage of
you. If it weren't for you, I MIGHT have accepted any old
guy, sooner or later. I've watched how some of the other men talk
to the women. They pay them compliments, and all that, because
they want to have sex with them. I know that now. I didn't
know that before I met you. I didn't pay any attention to any of
that before I met you. The first guy who decided I was ripe for
the picking would have picked me good and proper, and I'd have never
known what was happening."
Now she leaned back, before she finished.
"So don't think
that I'm doing this out of some mad dream or something. I know a
good man when I meet one, and I want to have sex with a good man - at
least the first few times. That's you, Bob. If you
won't do it, well ... you won't do it, but I'll take what I can get in
the meantime, because you are changing my life, and I like it."
It was a long
speech for a slip of a girl - the longest he'd ever heard her talk
about anything - but that wasn't what amazed Bob. What
amazed Bob was the sense she displayed, and the fact that she was not,
in fact, some ditzy young girl. He'd judged this book by the
cover, and what was inside was decidedly different than the cover
suggested.
"Why do you hide your intelligence?" he asked.
"I don't hide it," she said, turning back to the front. "People just don't look for it."
"I'm sorry," he said. "I misjudged you."
"You shouldn't have judged me at all," she said, staring straight ahead.
"Point taken," he admitted.
"Now, take me to
your big, fancy house. I'm not very happy right now, and it's
mostly your fault. I know you can fix it though. Do
you have a hot tub?"
"I do," he said smiling. "But that's not what I have planned for you."
"What do you have planned for me?" she asked, her voice high again.
"More orgasms,"
he said. "I'm not sure how I'm going to give them to you,
because you're a different girl than I thought you were when you got in
my car. But more orgasms, at a minimum."
"Ohhh goody," she said, smiling. "I like those."
"Do you want to stop and try on some clothes on the way?" he asked.
"We can't," she said.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Cause I'm not wearing any underwear," she said, looking at him. "I wanted to see what that's like."
"What do you think?" he asked.
"I can't pay attention to it," she said, looking out at the passing scenery.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Because I'm thinking so much about how I'm going to get you to have sex with me," she said.
"Oh," said Bob,
hiding his smile. Sophisticated, she wasn't, but that had nothing
to do with her intelligence. He wondered if he should tell her
he'd already decided to grant her wish.
