Chapter 16
Marcie had decided to stay for dinner, but she was happy to give Sam a lift over to Gina's house. It seemed that neither Gina's father nor her stepmother were home yet, but Sam saw the curtains move in the window of Gina's room as he got out of the red Miata and waved his thanks to Marcie.

Gina opened the door and dragged him inside before he could knock. Sam rocked back against the door as she leaned into him, pressing her body against him in a passionate kiss.

"Hi," Sam said when they eventually came up for air.

"Hi. Lover," Gina said, as if trying the word out. "How'd the test go with Mrs. Gray?"

"One hundred percent," Sam said. "Thanks to your expert help."

"Ha!" Gina said, then kissed him again. "As I recall, we spent a lot of that study time fucking like rabbits."

"Well, yeah," Sam said between kisses. "But really, really smart rabbits."

"Mmm. You say the sweetest things."

Gina had practically climbed Sam's body, his hands under her ass to support her while her arms and legs wrapped around him. Sam reflected that there was a lot to be said for dating a gymnast.

"So...what time do your folks get home?" he asked after a while.

Gina looked over her shoulder at the clock and groaned. "Too soon. Why didn't you get here earlier?"

"Sorry," Sam apologized. "I got distracted.

"I'll bet," Gina said. She dropped back down to the floor and took Sam's hand, tugging him gently towards the stairs. "Let's go to my room. Whose car was that, anyway?"

"Joan's friend, Marcie's," Sam said, letting himself be guided.

"So...is she one of your...?"

"Yep," Sam said.

Gina gave a surprising little shiver. "Oh. You know, I thought I'd be jealous at thinking of you with other women, but I'm not. In fact..."

"Yes?" Sam prompted when she hesitated.

"Well...in fact, it's kind of hot. I think of you with Joan, or now with Marcie, and it makes me feel kind of..." she shrugged, then grinned.

"Hmm. How do you feel when you think of me with Joan and Marcie?"

"Oh, Lord." Gina practically dragged Sam into her room. "Come in here."

Gina's room was rather like a feminine version of Sam's: a desk piled with schoolbooks and a large bookcase crammed with paperbacks, with a row of gymnastics trophies on the top. Posters of great gymnasts were tacked up on the walls, and a little huddle of stuffed animals watched from the nightstand. Sam had been there many times before, but he paused to look around appreciatively.

"This room," he said, "is like you."

"Yeah," Gina said, "a total mess!"

Sam turned and swept her up into his arms, provoking a squeak of surprise.

"Careful!" Gina said, clinging to him. "Don't drop me."

"Not a chance," Sam said. He laid her down gently onto the bed, then paused to kick his shoes off before joining her there.

"I meant," he said between kisses, "it's warm, and friendly, and full of interesting stuff."

"Mmmm," Gina sighed against his lips. "It's a lot more interesting with you in it."

The two of them were making out when they heard the sound of the garage door opening. A few seconds later, the door into the house banged open.

"Gina?" came the voice of Gina's stepmother from downstairs.

Gina sighed, and sat up. "We're up here, Angie!" she called, refastening her bra and pulling her shirt back down. "In my room!"

When Angie poked her head into the bedroom, Sam was sitting on the desk chair and Gina was propped up on the bed, both looking quite innocent. Angie smiled vaguely at Sam, then said to Gina, "So, I haven't really planned anything for dinner. I thought we might order a pizza."

"OK," Gina said, and Sam added "Sounds great, Mrs. diCosta."

"Your dad'll be home soon," Angie added, withdrawing into the hallway and continuing to her bedroom. "Maybe you should go downstairs."

Gina was the baby of her family; she had two older brothers, both already graduated from college and living in other cities. She had once told Sam that she thought her birth had been an attempt by her parents to save their marriage. If so, it had been only temporarily successful. The diCostas had split up when Gina was seven, an event that Sam remembered vividly, since it had reduced his normally unshakeable friend to unpredictable fits of tears. Gina's father had remarried a few years later to a much younger woman: Angie was only a year older than Mr. diCosta's oldest son, which had led Sam's mother to quietly comment about men trading in for newer models. Despite this, their marriage seemed fairly happy. Angie was a pretty, passive woman, affectionate in a vague way, not especially bright but good-natured, and she got along reasonably well with Gina, largely because she made no attempt whatsoever to act like a mother to a girl only twelve years younger than herself and considerably smarter.

Sam and Gina went downstairs to sit chastely in the livingroom, waiting for Gina's father to get home, while Angie changed clothes in her room.

"So, how does this work?" Gina asked Sam after a bit.

"I haven't the faintest idea," he admitted. "I don't even know if it will work. Let's just keep our eyes on your Dad and Stepmom and see how they act."

The sound of the garage door came again at this point. "Looks like we're about to get the chance," Gina said. She sounded a bit nervous. "I'll follow your lead."

Sam gave Gina's hand a squeeze. "It'll be fine," he said, once again feeling a sensation of inner confidence. "Trust me."

Roberto diCosta was in his fifties, but he remained very fit. He was a big man with graying hair and a booming voice. He kissed his daughter vigorously on the cheek, wrung Sam's hand and clapped him on the shoulder with enough force to knock down an ox. Since this was his usual greeting, Sam took no notice of it, other than to discreetly rub his shoulder when Mr. diCosta looked away for a moment. Gina grinned at him.

"So," Mr. diCosta boomed, "was the late-night studying a success? How was the test?"

"I got a hundred percent," Sam said. "Thanks to Gina."

"Not hardly," Gina contradicted. "Sam is really smart."

"Well, you're both beyond me. Math. Was never any good at it." Mr. diCosta shook his head, not seeming particularly upset at this lack. "Hey, Angie!" he called up the stairs. "What's for dinner?"

Angie wandered downstairs a brief time later, presenting her cheek to be kissed, which her husband did heartily. She explained her plan to order pizza, received his approval, and wandered off to make the phone call. Mr. diCosta sat in a chair, opposite the couch where Sam and Gina sat not quite touching, and engaged them in a running interrogation about school, sports, and the weather, interrupting himself from time to time to call suggestions of toppings out to Angie in the other room. Eventually Angie returned, to sit demurely in another armchair and contribute occasional monosyllables to the conversation.

At first, there was no indication of any influence at work. Mr. diCosta tended to dominate conversations, but Sam was used to that; and his interests and comments seemed much the same as usual. Then, during a pause in the discussion of which sports teams had a chance, Angie suddenly piped up.

"So -- how old are you now, Sam?" she asked.

"Umm, sixteen. Same as Gina," Sam answered.

"So, do you go out at nights?"

Sam blinked a little. "Well, yeah. Sometimes."

Angie explained, "We've been talking about whether Gina should be allowed to date, if she wants to."

"Who's `we'? " Gina asked. "Nobody's said anything to me."

"Me and your father," Angie said. "I told him that I went out on dates when I was sixteen. He's just old-fashioned."

"No, I'm not," Mr. diCosta protested. "I just don't want her to go out with anyone untrustworthy. You never know what boys are thinking."

Angie actually grinned a little. "I have a pretty good idea what boys are thinking," she said. "Weren't you ever sixteen?"

Mr. diCosta actually blushed a little, and Sam interceded. "Well, a lot of kids in our class are dating, and some of them go steady. You know, have a regular girlfriend or boyfriend."

"What about you?" Angie asked him. "Do you have a girlfriend."

Sam hesitated a second, but it seemed like an opening. "Well...Gina's my best friend. And I think she's very pretty. But we've never been out, or anything." Stayed in, yes. Gone out, no.

Gina colored a little at this compliment, but her father boomed his agreement. "Yes, gorgeous little thing, my Gina. Aren't you, sweetheart?"

"Daddy!" she protested, blushing further.

"She is very pretty," Angie agreed. "Especially when she lets her hair down, like now. What about you, Gina? Do you like Sam?"

Gina glanced at Sam for guidance, but he just shrugged. "I like Sam a lot," she answered obliquely.

"You'd make a handsome couple," said Angie, who was becoming positively chatty.

The doorbell rang, and Mr. diCosta heaved himself to his feet. "That must be the pizza," he said. "I'll go pay. Why don't you get some plates?"

Sam and Gina fetched plates and set the table in the dining room. The diCostas did not eat in the kitchen, something Mr. diCosta seemed to think rather uncivilized. Mr. diCosta appeared with a stack of pizza boxes, and they all set to, continuing the conversation from the living room while they ate.

Sam was now sure that whatever influence he had was at work. He could hear the distant roaring in his head, and watched with interest the slowly changing attitudes around the table. Gina, who of course knew what was happening, was aware of the changes too; several times she met Sam's eyes with looks of amazement as Roberto and Angie gradually shifted their opinions.

From having questioned whether Gina should be allowed to date at all, the dinner talk quickly took it as assumed that Sam and Gina were actually dating. Mr. diCosta set out some ground rules for Sam.

"I expect her to be in by eleven. No going anywhere where they serve alcohol, or where people are taking drugs."

"Dad," Gina said, in a tone of exasperation, "Sam wouldn't take me somewhere like that."

"Well, I like to have these things out in the open," her father said. "I want to be able to trust your boyfriend to treat you right."

"I'll do my best," Sam said.

Angie gave him a little smile. "There are lots of ways of treating a woman right," she said with a wink.

"Angie!" Roberto said. "You don't need to give them ideas."

"They're sixteen," Angie said. "Practically adults. I'm sure they already have plenty of ideas."

After this the conversation veered off onto other subjects for a while, as Roberto asked Sam his opinion of the chances his favorite sports teams had. Since Sam took little interest in sports, outside of boxing, he politely agreed with all of Mr. diCosta's declarations. Politely, but a bit absently, since Gina had started rubbing her foot up and down against his calf, and keep shooting him glances suggestive of what she would like to do if her parents weren't there. Angie brought the topic back to dating by reminiscing about school athletes she'd dated in her teens.

"I dated Max Clark," she said, sighing. "I was a cheerleader then, and he was a linebacker." Angie looked down at herself a little sadly. "I doubt I could even fit into my cheerleading uniform anymore," she said.

"You're as cute as ever," Roberto said stoutly. "And as sexy."

"I've put on weight."

"But in all the right places," Roberto said.

"You're sweet," Angie said, sighing again. "Max thought I was the sexiest thing. Of course, we were only teenagers; he'd probably have thought Mother Teresa was sexy if she'd been willing to put out for him. I thought he was handsome. Not his face, particularly. He'd played without his helmet a few too many times, and his face was kind of squashed. But he was big and muscular. Not especially well-equipped," she added, "but then, I didn't know that, then. No basis for comparison. Later I used to joke about it -- said he should have been named Min."

"That's another thing," Roberto said, turning to frown at Sam. "Any boyfriend of my Gina had better be able to make her happy."

"Gina's happiness is very important to me," Sam said.

"It better be. You'd better be able to keep her satisfied."

Gina laughed at that. She was now rubbing her whole leg against Sam's under the table. "Sam makes me very happy," she said. "And I don't think satisfaction will be a problem."

"Well, good," Mr. diCosta said, beaming. "Always thought he was a likely lad."

"Yeah," Angie agreed. "Sam's really good-looking. Not big, like Max, but solid. And his face isn't squashed, either." Angie gave him a speculative look. "What about his...?" she asked Gina.

"It's up to standards," Gina said. "Or, I think so, anyway. Not much basis for comparison. But I've got no complaints."

By the time dinner was over it was accepted by the diCostas that Sam and Gina were sleeping together, and that they were free to spend the night together any time they liked at either of their houses. Whatever his influence was, Sam was astonished at its effectiveness. If he'd decided to screw Gina right then and there on the dining table, he doubted that Roberto and Angie would have objected.

Sam and Gina cleared away the dishes, while Angie wrapped up the leftover pizza and Roberto went out to the livingroom to see what was on ESPN. Gina gave Sam a quick kiss and grinned.

"That went pretty well," she said.

"Yeah," Sam agreed. "Amazingly well."

"So, what should we do now?"

"I don't know," Sam said. "It may be that the longer we spend with them, the stronger the influence will be."

"All right," Gina said. "Maybe we can hang out for a while longer."

Sam was thinking about what they should do when Angie came back in and suggested that they all play Trivial Pursuits -- the young people against the parents. Exchanging a quick glance with Sam, Gina agreed, and went to fetch the game.

The game ended up being a lot of fun. Sam and Gina were more widely read than Roberto and Angie; but Roberto was enough older that he remembered old movies and news stories that the others had never heard of, so the two teams were fairly evenly matched. After playing for a while, Gina decided that she would be more comfortable sitting on Sam's lap. Far from objecting, the other team responded by Angie sitting on Roberto's lap. Sam found having his arms full of beautiful girl a bit of a distraction, especially when Gina took to nibbling on his ears while he read questions, and kissing him passionately every time they answered correctly. If anything, though, Roberto and Angie were even worse off; they soon began having to have the questions repeated several times, since Angie was having trouble keeping her hands off her husband long enough to listen.

Eventually, after a couple of hours of play, the participants decided to call it a tie with five pieces each. Gina paused in kissing Sam's neck long enough to say, "If it's OK, I think we'll turn in kind of early."

"Er, yes, that's fine," Roberto said around Angie, who was clinging to him so closely that she seemed to be burrowing into his chest. "I think we will as well. Good night!"
