She's my girl now

I help Kristina get her last-minute things pulled together, then drive her to the airport. I stay with her until she goes through the security checkpoint; she waves to me once she’s through, then turns and walks down the corridor. It seems to me she looks a little forlorn, but maybe I’m just projecting. When she’s all the way out of sight, I drive back to school.

For the several days Kristina is gone, I find myself restless. I miss her more than I expected. When I pick her up at the airport, I’m absurdly glad when she greets me by wrapping her arms tight around me and giving me a long, deep kiss. After we pick up her bag, I ask her if she’s hungry. She nods and suggests we pick up fast food on the way back to school, but I want to give her something better than that. A friend of mine recently recommended a little Lebanese place that’s only a few blocks off the direct route from the airport to school; he said it’s inexpensive, quiet, and has fantastic food. I take her there.

Over dinner, I get Kristina talking about the funeral, which sounds like it was about as good a funeral as could be expected under the circumstances. She tells me she was able to keep calm and be a source of strength for Rob’s family and the rest of his friends. His parents and sister, especially, were deeply grateful to her for her support and praised her for her strength. When they asked her how she was able to keep from melting down, she told them she has great friends at school who had allowed her to grieve and helped her let out a lot of her pain.

“I didn’t tell them who I meant, of course,” Kristina says with a small lopsided grin. “That would have been a little awkward.”

“Just a little,” I agree.

“But I knew there was more to it than what I told them.” She hesitates.

“What do you mean?” I ask, taking my cue.

“I started to realize something on the flight out,” Kristina says slowly, “and it really came home to me while I was there. I knew I’ve been lusting after your cock ever since you ate my pussy for the first time, but that’s not all. I wouldn’t admit it to myself—I wouldn’t let myself face it—but I’ve been falling in love with you. I never stopped loving Rob, but I was falling just as hard for you as I had for him. It was absolutely agonizing, losing him this way—but if everything had gone the way it was supposed to, it would have been almost as painful losing you when I graduated and moved to be with him. I put myself in a position where no matter what happened, I was going to have to deal with terrible grief. At least this way it’s clean, I guess.

“I miss him terribly, and I’m going to be missing him for a long time—but I still have the man I love with me to help me deal with my grief, and that’s an amazing blessing. Andrew, obviously I can’t ask you to make all the promises Rob had made to me—but will you be my boyfriend? I’ve thought about this, and I have no trouble with you keeping your business going—I know you can keep your cock in your pants even under **** temptation. You’ve done it for me many times,” Kristina observes with a small, wry grin. “I just ask you to keep doing it for me—I’ll keep you happy. Please, Andrew—will you be mine?”

I take a moment to think about Danni. I’ve been trying to build toward a romantic relationship with her, and I’ve been quite hopeful of my chances as I’ve been getting to know her; but there are no guarantees. Should I let what might be with her stop me from committing to Kristina? I might not know Kristina as well as I do Danni—but I’m not even sure that’s true. I’ve talked about more stuff with Danni, but I’ve been walking through the fire with Kristina, and that means a lot. As I think through this, I suddenly realize that Kristina has been growing very dear to me even before Rob’s ****, and the thought of turning her down feels quite painful.

I look up at Kristina, and before I even say anything, all the tension flows out of her face, leaving her absolutely radiant. I open my mouth, and she lays two fingers across my lips. “You don’t need to say anything,” she tells me in a low, husky voice. “I can see it in your face.” She pauses. “I love you, Andrew.”

“I love you too, Kristina,” I reply. I don’t plan to say it, but I guess my heart speaks before my mind has a chance to argue; and as I say it, I know it to be true. She leans across the table and I lean forward to meet her, and we seal our relationship with a kiss.

*******

When we arrive at Kristina’s apartment, she gives me her spare key and shows me how to get into the building. I need to keep my dorm room, but we’ve settled that I’ll move the bulk of my stuff and spend most nights with her; my room will be mostly just a base of operations on campus. (In fact, she’s thinking about moving some of her own things into my room for the convenience of it.)

When I set her bag down in her bedroom, a thought occurs to me. I turn to Kristina and say slyly, “You know, I’ve never fucked my girlfriend before.”

Her face lights up. “Really?” she asks in mock surprise. “I suggest we remedy that as soon as possible.”