She stared at me. "What did you say?"
"I said I love you. I didn't think you'd be so unhappy as to cry about that." I smiled and continued holding her hand.
"Oh, God!" She started to blubber, and I just lifted her hand and kissed her palm.
I also reached into my pocket and handed her my handkerchief. "I love you.", I repeated quietly.
Marilyn had happy tears in her eyes, and she grabbed my hankie and started wiping her eyes. Of course then she had to honk her nose into it, so I decided to let her keep it as a souvenir.
"Now, stop worrying so much. This is not the end and we are going to keep seeing each other and we're going to talk about that tonight. What? Were you worried I was going to break up with you tonight?", I asked, smiling.
"Well..."
"Honey, if I was going to break up with you I wouldn't do it at these prices. I'd take you to a HoJo's and go Dutch!"
Marilyn blushed. "So what's that?", she asked, pointing at the box.
"Here, it's for you." I handed her the gift.
She tore the wrapping paper off the box. Inside was a Polaroid SX-70 instant camera, a state-of-the-art (at the time) instant camera with a single lens reflex action. You took a picture and within seconds the film pack spit out a picture that would develop in your hands inside of five minutes. "What ... why...", she asked curiously.
I handed her another couple of film packs from a pocket. "I am going to take pictures of you tonight before we split up, and keep them with me over the summer. That way I won't forget you."
She smiled at me. "You want take pictures of me? Like what?"
"Well, high heels at one end, and a smile at the other. The middle is kind of optional."
"Carling!", she said with a blushing smile.
"Oh, all right. A fellow can dream, can't he?"
I simply waggled my eyebrows at her, and she blushed some more. I opened the box up and showed her how to load a film pack, and then I took a quick picture of her, and showed her how it developed. The flash attracted some attention, which embarrassed her a touch, but nobody seemed to mind a boyfriend taking pictures of a pretty girl. I folded it back up and put it back in the box to the side. "I'll take a few more after dinner. Then later, when you get back to the dorm, you go upstairs and put on a bikini and come down..."
"CARL!"
"It was worth a try!"
The waiter brought our drinks, and we looked over the menu and I reviewed the wine list. I decided to splurge on a nice bottle of Pouilly Fuisse. In just a few days I was going to be dining with some people a whole lot less decorative than Marilyn.
"I still can't believe you're going across the country next week.", she told me.
"It'll be fun. You should come along!"
"No way! I think you're just going to chase girls and drink and smoke pot.", she said, smiling.
"No on one, yes on two and three.", I said with a shrug.
"I'm not sure I believe you."
"This is my only chance to do this. My next two summers I'll be camping with the Army." I told her.
"I still can't believe you're going into the Army."
I shrugged. "It's not like I have a choice. Uncle Sam is paying for college for me, and he's looking for some payback. If my father could do it during World War II and my grandfather could do it during World War I, I guess I can survive it now. At least nobody's shooting at us at the moment."
We talked some more about my joining the army, and how ROTC worked, and also about my family's military tradition. This took us through a fair bit of dinner, and I took this as an opportunity to toss a new idea into the mix. "After I get back, let's go to Maryland. I can take you to see my folks for a few days, and then we can go to the beach."
"The beach? You live near the beach?"
I shook my head. "No. Several hours away, in fact. Here's my suggestion. I'll get two rooms at a place in Ocean City. You'll have your own room. I know you well enough for that." Marilyn looked relieved at that. "We'll start at my folks for a few days and then drive to the beach. Take a week or two at the beach and then come back up to New York for the fall."
Marilyn was looking intrigued, so I told her all the positive ideas about meeting my parents and family, which are always important to a woman. I also stressed the idea of sun and sand and warm, warm water. You just don't get that in Utica. By the time dessert arrived she had agreed.
I'd warn her about Hamilton some other time, like after she got to Lutherville. I would put up with him for a few days for Marilyn's sake, so my family could meet her. Besides, she'd never believe my stories about my family without meeting them first.
After dinner I had her pose a bit in the lobby and I took a few more pictures. When we got back to the dorm, I asked her again to change into a bikini, but she declined again. I grabbed my shots of her and tucked them in a pocket, and gave her the camera, and then I gave her a big kiss and left.
The next day I spent the morning on the phone long distance to the Hilton Hotel in Ocean City, Maryland. My parents preferred to visit Rehoboth Beach, which is in southern Delaware, about half an hour north of Ocean City. Rehoboth is a smaller and quieter town than Ocean City. Me, I preferred a little glitz and glamour on my vacations. The Hilton is near the Boardwalk, and I could afford it. Although the economy wasn't too happy about it, I had ridden the oil shock up and down, and was now invested in some stocks that did well under these conditions. I was worth about a million and a half now, plus the $2.47 my atoms were supposed to be worth. I was able to reserve a large suite with two bedrooms (I did tell her she would have her own room, just not what type of room) for two weeks starting a week after I got back. I also specified that I would probably show up late in the first week, but I wasn't sure when, and let them bill it to my American Express card, which they were quite happy to do.
After that, it was just necessary to wait a couple of days for Ricky and Marty to finish with the semester. Both guys were juniors and had to finish finals, but after that, they were free for the summer. Marty never went home anyway, but stayed at school and lived in the house. Ricky, on the other hand, was in ROTC, and would normally have gone to do his second summer at training, but he had deferred it until after graduation. He had the summer free, too. They were planning a road trip across the country. When I asked them what they were up to, they invited me along. I was planning on living at the house and goofing off. I jumped at the chance to join them!
The general plan was that we would travel across the country, spending the nights at various Kegs chapter houses around the country. Kappa Gamma Sigma was a national fraternity, with dozens of chapters all across the US. It was not at all unheard of for brothers to show up at another house, out of the blue. Every year we would get a few people passing through from other colleges, who would be invited in for anywhere from a night to a few days. We'd let them sleep in their sleeping bags in the formal room, mooch some meals with us, share some beer and weed, and otherwise goof off. Why anybody in their right mind would visit Troy was an entirely different question. The usual answer was they were on their way through to somewhere a whole lot more interesting.
Marty, Ricky, and I were going to return the favor. We all tossed sleeping bags and duffel bags into the trunk of Marty's 1970 Buick LeSabre. That thing was just a beast of a car! I think it was bigger than my Galaxie, with a bigger engine, and generally roomier. Of course, while the Galaxie needed an oil well in the back yard to feed it, this thing needed two!