Lagoon of Dreams

Chapter 2-2

Word got around campus that Justin and I had had a falling out, and Gary, another senior—an older man of twenty-two—strolled up to me one afternoon. “Come dancing with me, Davey.”

“My name is David.”

“All right. Come dancing with me, David.” Gary was everything Justin wasn’t: assured, uncaring what others thought of him, and willing to be seen with me in public. “There are places where men like us can be together.”

Then again, perhaps not. I snapped, “No.”

He laughed in spite of the brusque way I’d shut him down. “Why not?”

Because I didn’t trust him. He had a reputation as a heartbreaker, and my heart was still in tatters. “You’ve never shown interest in me before. Why are you now?”

“Because you’re cute and you’re no longer tied to that four-eyed worm.”

“Disparaging my taste in—” I could hardly call Justin my boyfriend. Even though Buckout College was in a fairly liberal community—something my father decried—homosexual activity was frowned upon. “—in friends is hardly likely to win my companionship.”

“I’ve always loved a challenge.” Gary aimed what he must have considered a playful punch to my chin. “I’ll ask again.”

I doubted he would and was pleasantly surprised when he actually did, this time asking me to go for a drive. I refused a second time, and he said, “I’ll ask again.”

And no matter how many times I turned him down, he always said, “I’ll ask again.” And he did.

Quite frankly, his pursuit soothed my battered heart, and finally I consented to go on a date with him. But I warned him, “I’m through with love, Gary. Don’t fall for me.”

“You don’t have to warn me. I never do.”

“Don’t even talk to me in words of love.”

“I won’t, I promise. I just want to screw you.” He laughed when I raised an eyebrow at his frank words. “Have I shocked you?”

He had, since Justin and I had been so circumspect, but I was hardly about to admit it. “Is that what you wanted to do?”

“I just like to lay my cards on the table.”

“And so you have. And if I tell you that won’t be in the cards?”

“I’m a patient man. I’m willing to wait.”

“I won’t love you,” I warned him. “That would be a mistake.”

He smiled. “Ah, but the mistakes we regret the most in our lives are the ones we didn’t commit when we had the chance.”

“Are you quoting Helen Rowland to me?”

He laughed again and draped an arm over my shoulders. “Let’s go to the malt shop. I’ll buy you an ice cream soda. What’s your flavor of choice?”

“I prefer to see what’s offered.”

“You sexy little devil.” He gave my shoulder a squeeze and urged me toward the hotrod he’d rebuilt himself back in high school.

At that time of day, the malt shop was filled with kids who were there to catch up on the school gossip, share a soda, or snack on burgers and fries, so it wasn’t really surprising we ran into Justin.

He was with a girl, pretty and petite with dark hair and honey-brown eyes, and if I’d wanted to be snide, I’d have said she looked enough like me to be my female twin. When he saw me his eyes lit up until he remembered he was in public. And when he realized I wasn’t alone, his expression fell, and he bolted from the shop.

The girl stared at me in wide-eyed confusion for a moment before she hurried after him.

“What was that about?” Gary asked.

“What was what about?”

“Four-eyes running out of here as soon as he saw you. It was like the hounds of hell were after him.”

That was hardly flattering to me, but I wouldn’t mention that to my date. “How could I possibly know? I don’t even know who he is.” For a minute, I felt like Peter denying Jesus.

A mutual acquaintance overheard my words, and she stared at me in shock. I turned away from her, and slid an arm through Gary’s.

“You promised me an ice cream soda, I believe?”

He escorted me to an empty table, raised a hand to summon a waitress, and began to chat about The Enchanted Cottage, the Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire motion picture which had been released the week before, shortly after Valentine’s Day. “We’ll go see it, shall we?”

I tilted my head. “I think I’d like to.”

He lowered his voice. “And perhaps we’ll sit in the balcony.”

“Perhaps we will.”