"Right. I think I'll finish my breakfast first. Why don't you spend the time thinking about what parts of the diet plan you'd like me to emphasize with you. Be specific." That turned her face beet red, and I had to laugh some more.
She sputtered a moment, and said, "See if we work off any more calories!" I just kept laughing. Eventually I was banished back to the room to grab our straw hats, and Marilyn stayed down below so she wouldn't be tempted into losing any calories.
The weather was beautiful again, so we strolled leisurely down to the Boardwalk and started doing some window shopping. Again I pointed out several swimsuits and outfits I would be happy to purchase for her, all of which would assist us in the quest for fewer calories. Marilyn wasn't too terribly shocked by my suggestions and tended to giggle when I told her how it easy it would be to burn off calories while she wore them. She also told me she had several more sundresses in our room that she had bought and hadn't gotten around to showing me yet, so maybe I should wait until I saw them. That sounded very promising, so I simply tabled the notion.
After about a mile of walking, I spotted a place that I had missed while running. It was small and had a very psychedelic sort of front. I tugged Marilyn's hand and said, "Let's look in here."
"Okay."
Marilyn followed me inside. It was a small shop, narrow and deep, and had all sorts of odd stuff inside. I had immediately recognized it as a head shop, but Marilyn was very much a goody-two-shoes in that regard. As we slowly wandered through, I explained some of what was there - bongs, brass or blown glass pipes, rolling papers, a variety of drug and rock music related posters. This was all a new experience for her. Towards the back of the store I found a section that in future days would be known as 'adult oriented.' In 1974 you just didn't have stores like this; they were always in the back of head shops or Spencer's Gifts or other counterculture sorts of places.
I picked up a copy of an illustrated Kama Sutra. "Think of this as sort of an exercise guide."
Marilyn looked at me curiously and took the book from my hands. She flipped it open randomly, stared at the page, and slammed it shut. "Oh my God!" She thrust it back at me.
"Beats the hell out of Jack LaLanne, doesn't it?"
"That's ... that's a book on...", she lowered her voice to a whisper, "sex!"
I whispered to her, "Yes, I know. Why are we whispering?"
"Well, what if someone hears us?", she whispered back.
I looked around the store theatrically. "Well, nobody's here except us and the clerk, and I think he knows this stuff is here, since he sells it." I looked around some more, and found a small box and handed it to her. "Here, open this."
Marilyn opened it gingerly, not knowing what was about to happen, and she was so startled by the contents she managed to drop it on the floor. It was a dildo. We both had to scramble to pick it up and stuff it back in the box, and we were laughing quite guiltily as we did so. "You have to be kidding me!?", she said.
"For those times I'm not there to help you out with that diet.", I explained.
"Keep up with the diet cracks and I'll end the diet!" was the reply. That earned a few more laughs.
"So you don't want me buying you a belated birthday present?" Marilyn's birthday is in June, so she was actually five months older than I am. She was already 19.
"God, no!"
"Maybe I'll get that for you for Christmas. I can't wait to see you open that up under the Christmas tree."
"That's not even funny!" If it wasn't funny, why was she laughing? I just waggled my eyebrows lewdly and got her to laughing even more.
I put the dildo back on the shelf, and we headed back towards the door. I, however, had grabbed the Kama Sutra and I stopped at the cash register. Marilyn's face was beet red as I paid for it, and she quickly hurried out of there without ever looking the clerk in the eye. "I can't believe you bought that!"
"Hey, if there is a single guy on the planet who believes in education and books more than me, you find him."
She glanced back at the store. "You seem to know an awful lot about the other stuff in there."
I looked at her curiously. "What, you mean the bongs and pipes and stuff?" She nodded and I shrugged in response. "I never really thought about it. It's for drugs. I've seen pot on the school bus since I was in junior high. Nobody smoked it there, but it got bought and sold."
This really shocked her. I didn't want to push it and tell her that it was a guarantee that it went on at UCA, too. "Have you ever..."
"What? Done drugs?" I shrugged again. "Yeah, I have. I've smoked pot. I don't do it very often, but I have done it. Hash, too, but that's another cannabinoid anyway. Nothing else. Other stuff - heroin, coke, speed, acid - that shit scares the hell out of me. But yeah, I've smoked pot."
It took Marilyn a second to digest that. "I don't know what all that stuff you said is. Do you smoke pot much?"
"Not particularly. Maybe every other weekend back at the frat. To be fair, I drink a lot more than I smoke."
"Did you bring any here?"
"God no! I make no promises about what might happen when I get back to Kegs, though."
She thought about it, and then looked at me curiously. "What's it like?"
I laughed. "I'll let you try it someday. I can tell you one thing, though."
"What?"
I lowered my lips to her ear and whispered. "It really makes girls horny!"
Marilyn blushed at that and stared at me. I just gave her my innocent and truthful look and she quickly looked away. That set me to laughing.
Later that day, after lunch, we changed into our swimsuits and headed back down to the beach. I took the Kama Sutra and tucked it into the duffel bag. "Light reading, for the beach.", I told her. I put my book in there as well, a well worn copy of Alexander Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. You just can't beat the classics.
I teased her into pulling it out of the bag later that afternoon, although she covered it with a towel. She glanced through it, and I explained its source as an Indian holy book. "It probably starts out as a beginner's section, then moves on into intermediate and advanced sections."
She gave me a prim look. "And just where are you in the book?"
"Are you kidding me? I teach the advanced classes. I'm listed in the section marked Professional Training Required, Do Not Attempt At Home!"
"You are so full of shit!"
"Tell you what. You start at the beginning, I'll start at the end, and we'll work our way to the middle." That got Marilyn to stick her tongue out at me. I simply said, "I think the tongue thing starts on page 47." She quickly sucked her tongue back in.
Marilyn kept looking through the book, and eventually started asking me if I had ever done this or that. I would glance over her shoulder and comment on them, and I promised to help her with some of them later on. After a bit she got sort of quiet and I looked over at her. She saw me and looked at me a bit sheepishly. "Is this something you like?", she asked.