"Stop Alex!" Dinah whispered in the dark as she removed his hand from her breast.
"Oh, come on Di." Alex sat up and exhaled deeply. "It’s not like I won’t respect you in the morning."
"No, I'm not doing that before we get married! Besides your parents are sleeping in the next room." Dinah sat up on the couch straightening her sweater.
They had returned from the Grotto and found that the Koenig apartment was quiet and dark. Alex had found a note from Helena advising that Richard and Emma were spending the night with Alan. Alex saw this as his opportunity to push his relationship with Dinah to another level. Before escorting Dinah to the couch he checked to see that the door to his parent's bedroom was securely shut.
"Dinah, this is silly, we’ve been going steady for six months now. You know I'm crazy about you." Alex reached over and took her hand.
"I know," she admitted "and I'm crazy about you. It's just... well most of the elders, my parents included, think it's wrong to do that kind of stuff before you are married."
Alex got up and paced around the room frustrated. "I wonder if they waited." Dinah shot him a dirty look as he walked by her. "How do they know when we are ready for sex? They want us to work like adults but they treat us like ...like children! Alex threw his hands up in the air in frustration. "All these rules, who’s making them up? "
He looked down at Dinah as she sat on the couch. It wasn't her fault she was just doing what she'd always been told was the right thing.
"I'm sorry, I'm not mad at you or anything." He smiled at her in the darkness. She reached up and took his hand. Together they stretched out on the couch and Alex flipped on the Com post. Alex held her against him as they watched some old music videos.
To be on the safe side, Dinah held Alex hands to keep them from roaming.
"Di?" Alex asked as the videos were ending. He looked over at her and smiled. She was sleeping. Alex smiled in the darkness. Slowly, he disengaged his hand from hers. Then he carefully moved it up to her breast, touching it very gently so as not to wake her. He felt her nipple harden under his hand. Her unconscious reaction brought an immediate response from him. He pressed his body next to hers rubbing it very gently against the back of her thighs. Even with no further stimulation the climax came upon him so quickly that he would have been unable to wake her up fast enough to do anything. Suddenly he felt as tingly as if he had grabbed a hot electrical wire, but instead of feeling bad, it felt so wonderful he didn’t want it to end. It was certainly unlike any experience he’d had before. As quickly as it began, the feeling subsided, leaving him breathless and feeling as if he’d just played and won the most important soccer tournament of his life. He was exhausted and elated all at once. He wondered if he should go clean himself up, but he didn’t want to move, didn’t want to quit touching her. Alex knew Dinah would kill him if she woke up and found his hand there so he didn't press his luck and go any further. At this point there was no need. He just closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of holding her breast. "Wow," he murmured softly, slipping into dreams of a time when they could do this every night.
It was 1:30 a.m. when John's slate rang. He rolled over in the darkness pulling the bed sheets off his sleeping wife and activated his slate. He was surprised to see Bill Fraser. "Bill, something wrong?"
"Sorry to wake you, John but Dinah's not home and she's not answering her slate. She had a date with Alex, is he there?"
"Hang on and I'll check." As John grabbed his robe and pulled the covers back over Helena.
He entered the dark family room and saw two figures sleeping on the couch. When he turned on a dim light he could tell that the two figures were those of Alex and Dinah. They were sleeping so soundly he hated to wake them. John reached for a nearby blanket and as he covered them he noticed Alex's hand on Dinah's breast. He smiled to himself remembering his own youth. The first time he’d gotten to second base he was about sixteen, the same age as Alex.
He returned to the bedroom and informed Bill that Dinah was there safe and sound asleep. Bill agreed to let her sleep and the two men said their goodnights.
As John crawled back into bed, Helena stirred beside him. "What was that all about?" she said through a yawn.
"Alex and Dinah fell asleep on the couch and Bill was concerned." He lay down on the pillow smiling.
"What's so funny?" Helena propped up on one elbow on the pillow next to John.
John turned to her in darkness. "Well, it seems that our son is--how can I say this--a breast man?"
"What?"
"When I went in to check on them, they were sound asleep on the couch and Alex's hand was resting on Dinah's--"
"Breast?"
John chuckled. "Yes."
"What did you do?" Helena sat up alarmed.
"Nothing."
"Are you crazy? You should wake him up and make him move it."
"Why?"
"Because Bill and Annette are devoted Catholics and very much against any type of pre-marriage...anything. Don’t you remember that’s why they got married so young. Besides, the children are too young for that and it could lead to other things--things aren't as acceptable as they once were."
"You mean sex? It's okay to say the word Helena. You know I don't understand where all these tenets are coming from. Probably most of the people on the base had sex before they were married. I know we certainly did."
"John, Bill is your friend and you know he’d be adamantly opposed to it. Certain people on this base aren’t as liberal as we are. And now that we’ve found a new home and had families things have changed. Our future is different now. We are now teaching our children like our parents taught us. Besides, I’m not sure that I’m as liberal as I used to be when it comes to the children."
John reached over and pushed her hair from her eyes. She had always been so protective of their children. It was one of her most endearing characteristics. "I know," he conceded.
"If that was Emma out there with Davey or Josh or someone? Would you want their hand on Emma like that? Do you want your fifteen year old daughter having sex?"
John sat up shocked by her words. "Certainly not!"
Helena reached over and touched his hand. "So, you are saying it’s okay for Alex but not for Emma? That’s a terrible double standard John."
"Honey, Emma is my daughter---my baby."
"And that’s exactly the same way Bill feels."
He looked at her and smiled. "You’re right. I'll go wake Alex."
John reluctantly returned to the living room. He tried to rouse Dinah first after diplomatically moving Alex’s hand.
"Papa?"
"No, Dinah, It’s John."
"Unca John?" she asked sleepily.
John tugged at her and helped her sit up. She wasn’t awake at all. "Come on Dinah. Why don’t you go sleep in Emma’s bed tonight."
She let him lead her to Emma’s room and settle her in bed. She rolled over and murmured "G’night," with a soft sigh.
He returned to the living room for Alex who immediately reached out and called for Dinah as soon as he was roused.
"She’s sleeping in Emma’s room, Alex. Let’s get you to bed too." John led his son to his room.
As he sat Alex down on the bed, the boy seemed to wake up a little more. "Dad, we weren’t doing anything. Her parents don’t believe in that stuff."
John settled Alex in bed as he had done when Alex was a little boy. "I know that you weren’t doing anything Alex."
"Dinah wants to wait until we’re married," he said reluctantly with a yawn.
"Do you love her Alex?" John asked, not particularly surprised by his son’s revelation. Alex and Dinah had been inseparable for ages but John had never heard Alex mention any permanent plans. Still, they seemed so young.
"Yeah," Alex drawled sleepily a smile spreading across his face. "But I don’t know if I can wait until we get married." John smiled and turned to leave, but Alex called to him. "Daddy?"
Alex hadn’t called him anything but Dad in years. "Yes, son."
"Did you wait? When you were my age?"
It was a question John had been dreading for years. He sat down slowly and looked into his son’s blue eyes, so much like his own. "Well, I didn’t have anyone special asking me to wait."
"The girl you married before Mom?"
"I didn’t meet Jean until we were nearly out of college—in our twenties," he added to explain. "But I’ll tell you this—"
Alex yawned but was still watching him attentively.
"I waited until your mother was ready, and would have waited for her all my life if she asked me to."
"You really love her a lot don’t you?" Alex asked.
"More than I could ever say."
Alex smiled. "I know how you feel." His eyes blinked and he turned over. "Night, Dad."
"Goodnight, son."
John sat there for a moment and watched his son sleep. The boy had grown up so fast.
After several minutes John returned to his own bedroom. He looked at the clock as he crawled back into bed.
"Well, Dinah is in Emma's room and Alex is in his room." He kissed Helena on the cheek
"Thank you, John." Helena moved next to him. He stroked her bare back in the darkness of their room.
"Helena, how old do you think the kids should be before they are allowed adult privileges?"
"What adult privileges do you have in mind?"
"What's our legal drinking age? At what age to our children become adult enough to drink, to engage in sex, to vote?"
Helena yawned and shifted against John. " I don't know. That's something to consider. I just don't know."
"I think I'm going to bring it up at the next staff meeting."
Helena smiled. "You’ll have as many different opinions as you have people in the room."
"I think we need to give the kids some official guidelines."
"That’s not the attitude you left the room with."
"Alex is in love."
Helena smiled and snuggled against her husband’s chest. "That’s not exactly a news flash. You can see it in their eyes."
"He says he loves her enough to wait if that’s what she wants."
"Then why worry about rules?"
"I thought you were the one that wanted them."
"I just didn’t want Alex sleeping with his hand on Dinah’s breast yet."
"Yet?" John chuckled.
"It’ll happen—when the time is right."
"Yes, but when is that?"
She didn’t answer. She was asleep again, and John was left wide awake without an answer to his question.
Maureen J. Long
January, 2000