Bookfield, Betrayal - Part 5

“How would you like to go for a swim in the Oconee?” Evan asked.

“I don’t have my suit with me.” I remarked without thinking.

“We can go skinny dipping here. I do it all the time; I never wear a suit at night.”

“Oh. Okay!" I had warmed up to the idea. A swim would be very nice.

“You do swim well, don’t you? There is a slow current, and the river is over my head in the middle.”

“Yes. I was captain of my synchronized swim team in high school. You look like you’ve done a lot of swimming.”

“Yeah. I was on my high school swim team and worked for several years as a life guard. I swim in the river all the time for exercise.” He grabbed some towels and we went out the door naked to go swimming.

I followed him closely on a narrow path between the trees and down to the river. Brandy followed us. She seemed ready for a swim too. The clearing around the river allowed enough moonlight for us to see the water pretty well. There was a shallow pool on the river’s edge that had no current. Brandy jumped right in and started to swim up river. She obviously knew the routine. I was glad she went in first because I could see where the river began to get deeper. Evan and I held hands as he led me into the water.

The river bottom was rocky firm but not too uneven. Evan followed the dog swimming upstream in the crawl stroke and I swam behind him more slowly in a synchronized crawl. The water was refreshing without being too cold and the current did not make it too tough to make progress upstream. We swam a few hundred yards or so up the river. At one point the dog swam back downstream as if to check on me. She swam right along side and brushed her coat on my shoulder under the water. Seeing that I was doing okay she swam ahead easily again.

Every now and then Evan lifted his head from swimming to check on me. One of these times, he treaded water to talk. He came up to me and said, “Okay if we swim back now? It’s much easier going down stream. We could even just float down river.” I agreed. I floated on my front, sculling just enough to keep my head up over the water, and Evan floated on his back. The lazy flow of the warm river swept all of us down it and back to Evan’s place. We got out of the water and I got cold even in the warm night air. Evan handed me a towel, and we ran back to the house to get warm together.

The evening had been idyllic. Looking at the clock in his bedroom brought me back to reality. It was eleven o’clock. “I guess I’d better go home now.” I said reluctantly. I really did not want to go back.

“You’re more than welcome to stay the night if you’d like.”

“How bad do you think it would be if I called my roommate Mary and told her I wasn’t coming home?”

“Well, it’s kind of late to be out on the road and traveling through those neighborhoods anyhow. Besides, if you stay here you will be half an hour closer to where you were selling today.”

He was right about that and it’s not like he could give me and my bicycle a ride home on his motorcycle. He handed me the phone and I dialed it. Mary answered.

“Hello Mary, it’s me. We were having such a good time and it got late so fast, I thought I would stay here for the night.” It struck me as weird to have to call for her approval, but I thought that it was important to stay on good terms.

“It’s probably best at this point. Are you sure you can’t come home?”

Obviously it had upset her a little that I had not come home. But her feelings were not enough to stop me from doing what I felt was best, and wanted to do most.

“Yeah I think its best that I stay here. Okay?”

“Yeah, so I’ll see you tomorrow night?”

“Absolutely.” I had promised. I wasn’t even thinking that far ahead to be honest. I hung up the phone.

“Is she upset that you’re staying here?” Evan asked.

“Yeah, it seems so. I’ll talk to her about it tomorrow when I see her.” Evan nodded and we turned out the light and slept.

I was in the middle of a deep sleep when I awoke suddenly to Evan’s voice. He was sitting up in bed screaming.

“Stay awake! Got to stay awake! Stop...”

“Evan, Evan.” I called soothingly. “Wake up, it was just a dream.”

He stopped talking and looked at me. I could see him come to consciousness as I watched.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry I woke you. What happened?”

“You were saying something about staying awake and stopping in your sleep.”

“I’m so sorry. I used to have a ‘76 Datsun pick up truck and last week I fell asleep at the wheel and had a wreck. I wrapped it around a telephone pole. It’s totaled, but luckily I was okay. That’s why I only have the bike now. That is, until my insurance comes through on the truck.”

“How terrible! I guess you’re having nightmares about it.”

“Guess so.”

We held each other for a while and drifted back to sleep.

The next morning I awoke at Evan’s to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. Evan was already up. I pulled on my jeans and tee shirt and went down for coffee. When I got to the bottom of the stairs Evan met me and gave me a warm hug. We sat down at his kitchen table in front of our coffees.

“Do you want me to fix you some eggs before you go out?” asked Evan.

“No thanks. I can get something on my way out to my territory.” Getting food from Mrs. Jones while selling was especially easy at meal times, easier than selling books.

We went upstairs to shower together for the first time. Showers with Evan turned out to be a sensual delight. I soaped him up, playing with the soap on his chest and pubic hair. I soaped the thickness of his groin, while he soaped me. We began kissing again. He was too thick to have sex with in the shower easily, so I soaped him until he came. We cleaned off again and he produced two clean towels.

“When can I see you again?” said Evan while we dressed.

“Well, I’d better spend tonight smoothing over Mary so that she doesn’t feel that I’ve abandoned her. Sometime later in the week would be nice.”

“I just want you to assure me that this wasn’t a one night stand.”

“It wasn’t. I can’t wait until I can see you again, but the company can fire me if I don’t play by the rules that they define.”

“You’re kidding! I would think that what you do in your personal time is your business.”

“I agree. But that’s the way it is. We’ll get together again as soon as we can. Trust me I’m really looking forward to seeing you again. I’ve got your number.”