Frank came back from a pickup basketball game just as I was starting to get ready to go out. "So, where were you last night?", he asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." No, he really wouldn't!
"Come on, give! You looked like you'd been sleeping in the gutter."
"Not quite."
"Give!"
I smiled at him. "Okay, you want to know? Here's the God's honest truth." He looked at me all ears. "Last night I was over at the Kegs party and met this girl. Absolutely gorgeous. She hung on me all night long. I fought a duel over her, to protect her from a drunk. Afterwards, she spent the night with me, and this morning I took her out to breakfast and now I'm going to take her to dinner."
"Bullshit! What'd you really do?", he said with a laugh.
"Frank, I told you that you wouldn't believe me. Every single word I just said is the God's honest truth."
"Bullshit!"
"Fine, go find me a Bible. I'll swear on it.", I said, grinning.
"You fought a duel?" I just nodded. "How?"
"Frank, Frank, details aren't important. Suffice it to say I survived and won, and was declared the winner by the witnesses."
"Bullshit!"
"You know Joe Bradley?" Joe lived downstairs at the other end of the building. "Ask him, he was my second."
"You're fucking nuts. And she slept with you afterwards?"
"All night long, in my ever loving arms. Then this morning we went out to breakfast."
"Yeah, right."
"Frank, are you telling me you don't take the women you sleep with to breakfast the next morning? Or are you telling me you don't sleep with women yet?"
"Fuck you, Buckman!", he said with a laugh.
"I was awfully hungry. That duel, and afterwards, really took it out of me!", I told him. He flipped me the bird.
I went and took another shower, and this time shaved, and then went back to the room to dress for dinner. Frank was still there and tried to wheedle some more information from me, all of which I ducked, citing discretion as the reason. By this time, he had told a couple of guys from next door the story, and they demanded information. I simply recited my story, and reiterated they needed to talk to my second for confirmation. They actually went off to find Joe Bradley, but he wasn't around. I laughed at them and went off on my date. Tonight I was wearing fresh khakis, a dark blue dress shirt open at the collar, a navy blue blazer, dark blue socks, and black dress loafers. Over that I had on my trench coat, and my fedora, which I had cleaned up from where it had been laying on the floor.
After leaving, I drove first to Price Chopper and picked Marilyn up a nice bouquet of flowers, and set them carefully on the floor of the Galaxie as I drove over. The weather had turned, and snow was staring to fall, which sucked. The Galaxie, like all cars from the late Sixties, was rear wheel drive, which simply didn't handle as well in the snow as I would have liked. Still, if you're careful, you'll do fine. I kept my speed down.
I parked near the entrance I had dropped Marilyn off at this morning, and grabbed the flowers and headed inside. There was actually a small booth near the door where you had to stop and ask for your party. While Saint Rose was coed, it was mostly girls, and the dorms were not coed. They didn't allow Y chromosomes inside. I asked for Marilyn and a call was made. They actually had room phones.
Marilyn came down a couple of minutes later, followed closely by a pair of giggling girls who must have been roommates or friends. Marilyn was wearing a pair of dressy slacks which looked like they had been painted on, and a crisp white blouse, with two inch heels and her hair tied back with a ribbon. She was carrying the same coat she had worn last night, a truly hideous down filled parka. She smiled when she saw me, and then her breath caught as she saw the flowers.
"They're not as pretty as you.", I said, handing them to her.
She blushed at that, and sniffed them. "Thank you. You shouldn't have." Marilyn's friends stayed a few feet back and giggled at this.
I leaned in and whispered, "It was the least I could do, considering you slept with me last night." Marilyn turned beet red and swatted at me with her free hand, and I just laughed. "Maybe you should get one of your friends to take these upstairs?"
The two girls giggled some more, but came up. One took the flowers, and the other said, "You're cute. Any more like you where you come from?"
"Sorry, darling, but after I was born, the nurses took one look at me and decided to break the mold!" That got some more giggles, especially after Marilyn swatted me again. I held her coat and helped her into it, and then escorted her to the car. As I expected, she simply marched up to the passenger side door and went to open it. I had to unlock it for her, and then let her in. "Allow me.", I told her, before going around and climbing into the driver's side. I remembered that Marilyn didn't have much experience with dating or guys, and didn't know we were supposed to open doors for girls. The only guys she really had experience with at this point were her brothers back home.
It brought back to me that it was simply an amazing fluke we had ever met to begin with. I never quite figured out why Marilyn ever came to that party in the first place. She was never a big party-goer, and didn't have much experience with boys in general or frats. I don't know whatever possessed her to come to Kegs in the first place, but it must have been with some girls from Saint Rose. That they left her there at the end of the night always indicated to me that they weren't close friends. Maybe she simply got swept up when we were loading the meat wagon. Anyway, that's how we met, and if it was pure luck, it was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me.
I looked at her sitting across from me in the car. "I didn't say it inside, but you look really nice tonight."
"Thank you. I wasn't expecting my roommates to come downstairs with me."
"Well, don't complain, they got to take your flowers back to the room."
She chuckled at that, and we got moving. It was easier to head back out to 787 and take 90 over to the Northway, then head out Central Avenue. That would take us forever with the lights. Once we got on the highway, I asked, "Did you have anything particular in mind tonight?"
"No, not really. The only times I've been out to dinner here have been when my parents have been picking me up or dropping me off.", she answered.
"They're not much for anything fancy?"
Marilyn shook her head. "Howard Johnson's is fancy for them."
"I was thinking a step or two above that, if that's all right with you." I smiled as I said this. I already knew far more about her folks then I ever wanted to know.
"That's all right. They're just not real fancy people. Did you have a place you wanted to go?"
I shrugged. "Not really. I would bet my bottom dollar, though, we can find a steak place over on Wolf Road. Care for some surf and turf?"
Marilyn's eyes lit up at that, as I knew they would. "That sounds nice."
"I bet we can even find a place where they have silly little drinks with umbrellas for you.", I replied teasingly.
We talked about what we told our roommates as we drove west. Marilyn admitted she was too embarrassed to tell them what I told her, but just said she fell asleep on the couch and got a lift back this morning. When she asked what I had said, I laughed and told her the story I had told Frank. She was both horrified and laughing as I described it.