She thinks about my arguments for a few minutes before commenting. “You make some significant points, Tina, but I’m still worried for your safety. Let me talk to a few people about this.”

“So, you’ll let me continue?” I hopefully inquire.

“Yes,” she sighs, “for now. Just make sure you keep your ‘practice’ sessions with Andy under control.”

“Ah–” I smile back, “that might be the hardest part––”

Chapter 38: A Quiet Evening

I’m in the middle of slipping into yet another dress as my cell phone starts moaning. I’ve got to get rid of the stupid sick moose ringtone.

Digging into my purse I find the offensive cell phone and answer the call, “Hello?”

“Hey, Tina,” Andy’s voice purrs in my ear. A wave of excitement surges through my body as my world focuses on that wonderful male voice. I really need to work on some self-control!

“Andy!” I squeal excitedly.  ‘Keep it under control, girl,’ I remind myself.

“What ya’ doin’?” He asks.

What I consider replying is: I’m in a changing booth standing here in nothing but my underwear, but figure that might be a little too graphic. What comes out is: “I’m at a new clothing shop in Dublin with Laurie and Amy. How about you?”

“I just got off work and wondered if you’d like to go do something, but you sound busy.” I can hear the disappointment in his voice and it tugs at my heart-strings.

“Actually, we’re just about done,” I reply hurriedly to give him hope. Actually we’re not, but I’ll make sure the other girls get moving. “I’d really like to see you again. I think we’ll be home in about an hour then I have a couple of chores to take care of.  I could be ready, let’s say, about six thirty. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure,” he replies. I sense his hope returning. “I can wait until then. I’ll pick you up at your Aunt’s house then we can grab something to eat on our way to hang out at this cool local park–it’s called Shadow Cliffs–and maybe swim a little.”

“I’d love to,” I reply with a happy chirp in my voice. “I’ll be ready at six thirty!”

“How’d your race go?” he asked. How like him to think of me. I wonder if I was ever this thoughtful with Laurie.

“Pretty good, considering how much sleep I didn’t get last night,” I laugh, “I’ll tell you all about it tonight. Right now I’ve got to go help the other girls. I’ll be waiting for you at six thirty.”

With that, we say our goodbyes. I can’t resist making a kissing noise into the phone before hanging up.

“So you have another date tonight?” Laurie comments from the next stall over. There’s not much privacy in the dressing rooms.

“Oh, yeah,” I exclaim happily.

“Don’t you just hate new love?” Amy remarks to Laurie from where she’s examining a top in front of the mirror. “The happiness is overwhelmingly depressing. Somebody needs to dump some cold water on that girl. She’s been antsy all afternoon.”

I guess I may have mentioned Andy and our date once or twice in the course of the afternoon and my favorite phrase when looking at clothes is do you think Andy would like this?

“She reminds me of you, Laurie, when you fell for Chris,” Amy continues. “It’s disgusting.”

“Kinda’ like when you had a crush on that geek in our freshman year?” Laurie reminds her, “You know, Gerald, or whatever his name was.”

“Don’t remind me,” Amy moans while rolling her eyes, “It was Jerry and he turned out to be such a loser.”

Breaking into the conversation as I step out of the booth–with clothes on I might add–I ask, “Are we about done here, girls. I’ve some place to be.”

I duck quickly with a squeal as both girls throw hangers at me.

In the end I only purchase one baby doll style top with a square neckline.  I’m beginning to really like this style of top.  They are cute, feminine and modest as they extend down to crotch level–no bare midriff. I think I’ll wear it tonight.

Both my fellow shoppers appear to delight in my anguish as they meander through the store as if they have all day. My efforts to speed up the process only cause them to go slower. They seem to be taking pleasure in my suffering.

Finally, we arrive home about five o’clock and I rush up to my room to get ready.  I boot up my computer as I strip down to change my clothes. I’ve decided to wear my swim suit under a pair of shorts and my new top.  After a brief moment of indecision, the tankini top gets left in the drawer in favor of my bikini top. I hope Andy will enjoy the view.

Into my large beach bag go a pair of panties and a bra to change into later along with a towel and sunscreen.

By now the computer is up and I take some time to do my belated weekly check on Chris’s email.  Yep, there’s the usual batch from my parents and sisters. I’ve also got one from Laurie and another from Dan.

The one from Laurie is pretty soppy. She sounds as if she really misses Chris. Some of the things she wrote she hasn’t mentioned to me as Tina. There’s quite a bit of anguish and longing in her writing. Keep it up, girl, I think to myself.  There’s hope that she’ll be happy to have me back as Chris. She also gives her view of her cousin’s budding romance. She seems happy for Tina though it reminds her of what she’s missing.

Wait a minute here. I think I’m really becoming schizophrenic. On the one hand I’m Chris, madly in love with Laurie. On the other hand I’m Tina in the process of falling for Andy. This doesn’t seem to be a problem for Brain Central. It’s like I’m two totally different people. I wonder briefly if this is going to be a problem at the end of the summer.

Dan’s email goes on about some of the things he’s doing in his summer job for the local parks and recreation department. He spends most of his time mowing lawns and trimming vegetation. He mentions a date he had with Suzie on Friday night. It seems as if things are back to normal there. His Tina update is fairly benign this week. He does mention that it is uncanny how Tina acts a lot like Chris using Monday’s run as an example.

“It’s freaky, dude,” he writes, “how she know all your favorite runs and high fives me after each one, just like you used to do. It’s like you turned into a girl, dude.  How strange is that?”  If you only knew, buddy.

I’m hammering out the last of my replies when the doorbell rings. I haven’t even gotten as far as checking on Tina’s Alaska fan club yet.

Laurie pokes her head in my door, “Lover boy’s here, Tina. Don’t stay out too late, we need to talk tonight.”

“Tell him that I’ll be right there,” I answer, “We’ll be back early, I promise.”

I add some basic makeup to the other supplies in my bag and slip on some sandals.  Glancing in the mirror, I decide to leave my hair down so I take a few quick brush strokes to get it under control then clip it back on the sides to keep it out of my face. Another hair style I saw in Seventeen. I think it looks cute.  Adding some mascara and lip gloss finishes my preparations.

Rushing into the living room, I find Aunt Jen quizzing my date. He seems to be patiently answering her questions but I’m sure he’d like to be elsewhere. I remember the experience from the first time I dated Laurie–you know, the normal protective parent thing.  Aunt Jen didn’t get the chance last night so she’s making up for it now. I’m just in time to hear her drop the comment about how tough my father is and how it’d not be good to get on his bad list by treating his daughter poorly.  I just roll my eyes and rescue the poor boy before it gets any heavier.

Andy is looking much more casual tonight. He’s wearing some long swim trunks, a T-shirt, and sandals–typical California casual. Even though he’s not dressed up, my heart flutters at the sight of him.

“That was intense,” he comments once we’re away from the front door.

“Yeah,” I agree, “I think it’s in the job description for a girl’s parents to scare the daylights out of any boy who comes near. I’ve seen it before. And Aunt Jen’s right, my father’s a Major in the Army and you really don’t want to get on his bad side.”

“Thanks a lot,” he sighs as he hold the car door for me, “nothing like pressure! Oh, by the way, you look very pretty this evening.”  Which comment earns him a quick kiss.

I talk Andy into swinging by McDonalds as Caitlin should be getting near the end of her shift. On the way there, Andy asks more about my race this morning and I give him the play by play details.  He seems impressed with my win.

Caitlin is still working the counter as we walk hand-in-hand in the door. I’m not real sure why I want to come here. Maybe it’s to show Andy off. Whatever the reason, here we are. I watch Caitlin serve several customers before we get to the head of her line. I have to say, she looks a lot more comfortable than she did the first time I met her here a few weeks ago. She seemed to take a genuine interest in serving her customers. At least she’s being very professional about it.  She really looks like she knows what she’s doing. A real change.

“Hey, girl friend,” she greets us with a smile as she prepares to take our order, “And hello to you too, big guy. What can I get for the lovely couple?”

After taking our orders and getting them ready, she asks, “Tina, where’re you two off to tonight?”

“We thought we’d go to some park called Shadow Cliffs and do a little swimming or hang out on the beach,” I tell her.

“Um, sounds romantic,” she winks at me. “You’ll like Shadow Cliffs. Give me a call later tonight when you get home, girl friend.”

We arrive at the park fifteen minutes later to find it moderately busy. We have no difficulty in finding a shady tree away from the main beach area and all its people.  It’s the perfect place for a private picnic with our McDonalds’ meals. We sit close to each other as we eat and talk. It’s still quite warm–almost hot–even though the temperature is dropping as the sun reaches out for the horizon. The shade feels nice.

Chatting with Andy seems like the most natural thing in the world. Initially we are both a bit nervous about how we should act, but we soon realize we just like being around one another. We talk about everything and nothing at all. As the conversation slips by I’m feeling myself enjoying being in his presence more and more–if that’s possible. The smile on my face must have communicated this to him.

“Tina,” he says, “you’re really cool. I really like being with you. I hope we can do this more often.”

“Me too,” I tell him. “You’re an amazing guy. I get a really good feeling when you’re around. You know what I like best?”

“What’s that?” he asks.

“I liked it when you held me last night,” I drop the hint.

“You mean like this?” he asks as he puts his arm around me and pulls me close so that we’re sitting snuggled up together side by side on the grass.

“Yeah,” I tell him as I snuggle in, put my head on his broad shoulder and inhale a deep breath of his manly smell, “Like that.”

We sit snuggled together just enjoying the feel of each other in silence for several minutes.

“Tina,” he gets my attention.

“Umm–” I purr contentedly in reply to let him know that I’m listening.

“Where are we going with this?” he asks idly.

I just snuggle in closer–if that’s possible–before replying, “I don’t know. Where do you want it to go?”

“Honestly,” he replies, “This is new territory for me. I’ve never viewed myself as having a girlfriend before. I just want you to know that you’ve turned my world upside down. I think I like it but I’m confused right now. Can we take this slow? I’d hate to do something stupid which we’ll both regret later.”

Pulling away just enough to look into his beautiful hazel eyes, I give him a soft kiss before replying.

“I agree with you,” I reply sincerely. “I just want to enjoy the moment. But we really shouldn’t get carried away. Slow sounds right. And, like, what do you mean I’ve turned your world upside down?”

He blushes slightly and evasively says, “Let’s just say for now that I thought I knew what I wanted in some aspects of life, but now I’m not so sure. Let’s leave it at that for now.”

With that, we spend the rest of our evening cuddling on the grass quietly talking about our pasts–with some modification on my part–and hopes for the future–also somewhat modified in regards to me–and enjoying the occasional kiss. His little secret is in the background and starts to tickle my curiosity but I leave it alone. Often the conversation lulls but we’re just contented to be together and enjoy the feeling. I know I should be trying to learn more about his father’s activities but reason that I can do that later. For now we dwell on happy thoughts and memories and strengthen our ties. Nothing that my handlers will find interesting when they listen to the recording my cell phone is making.

Somewhere along the line, I must have dozed off as I find myself being awakened by a gentle kiss. “Hey, good lookin’, we need to get you home. You had a short night and a long day.”

“Ummm–” is all I say as I try snuggling closer.

“Come on, sleepy head,” he laughs. “As much as I enjoy holding you, they’re about to close the park and we don’t want to get stuck here all night.”

“Speak for yourself, buddy,” I grump, “I like where I am just fine. Being stuck here sounds great. You’re so warm and comfortable.”

“Ah,” he jokingly says as he tickles my sides, “I’m just your big teddy bear. Now I see what I’m good for.”

“Hey! Watch it buddy.” I squeal as I wiggle out from under his arm to avoid his annoying fingers.

As we walk back to his car holding hands. He points out, “You know, we never went swimming.”

“That’s okay,” I reply, “I enjoyed what we did.”

“I guess we’ll have to try again sometime,” he says obviously working up to another date. “How about tomorrow evening?”

We do have running practice tomorrow I find myself thinking. Caitlin I’m sure wants to get together, but that can wait another day. I also start thinking about the mission. I wish those thoughts would go away. I need to get integrated into his household.

“You know,” I suggest, “I’d like to learn some more about web pages. Would it be alright if we spent the evening at your house doing that?”

He frowns at that, “I suppose we could. My parents will be home and it could get a bit unpleasant.  While Dad thinks it’s great that I have a girlfriend, he doesn’t really want me seeing you. He still thinks you’re some kind of spy out to get him.”

“Well,” I inform him, “I can’t change his opinion of me with getting to know him. I’ll try to be nice and sweet instead of my usual nasty self.”

He laughs, “I don’t think you could do nasty if your life depended on it. I’ll check with my folks when I get home and let you know.”

When we get to my summer abode, he escorts me to the door. I wrap my arms around him and give him a long deep kiss. I can feel the passion building on both sides. If this keeps up I’ll end up dragging him into the bushes. These hormones are hard to control. Breaking the kiss, I say, “I really enjoyed the evening. But, I think we need to take it easy with the making out or we might do something we both will regret.”

“I agree,” he says as he tries to cool his hormones down. “When we kiss like that it’s all I can do keep my hands where they belong. It’s also hard to stop.”

Glancing at him discreetly, I become aware of his excitement in other areas as well. Believe me, I understand his control problems. Been there, done that. I’m also starting to understand the control problems from the female side. It’s not all that different.

“Same here,” I tell him. “I’m already looking forward to tomorrow.”

“Me too,” he says giving me another kiss before letting me walk through the door.

Laurie and Aunt Jen are watching the end of some TV show as I wander into the living room.

“Ah–” Aunt Jen observes with a smile, “Another successful date I see by the silly grin on your face.”

“You look awful dry for someone who’s just been swimming,” Laurie observes. “What did you two do?”

“Actually, we just sat and talked,” I answer. “Hey, I’ve got to make a couple of phone calls. Why don’t you guys finish your show. Laurie, can we talk when you get done?”

Wandering into my room I try to decide who to call first. I’m sure Mom Polly is dying to hear about my dates as is Caitlin. Both calls could be long ones. Pulling my cell phone out of my bag, I call Alaska first.

“Hello, Princess,” the Major answers the phone.

“Hi, Daddy,” I reply.

“Uh oh… there’s that ‘Hi, Daddy’ thing again,” he says, “what’s up?”

“Oh, nothing,” I reply airily. “I just had the most wonderful date.”

“With Andy, I take it?” he suggests.

“Yes,” I confirm his supposition. “And don’t worry, we didn’t do anything inappropriate. You can put it on speaker phone if you want to hear the details. If not, I’d like to speak to Mom as I know she does.”

“We’ve heard a lot about your date last night from your Aunt,” he tells me as he turns on speaker phone so Mom Polly can join in. “how’d your race go? You didn’t get much sleep last night, I hear.”

“Hello, Sweetheart,” Mom Polly greets me.

Dang!  I’d forgotten about the race. My priorities really are screwed up.

“Hi, Mom,” I return the greeting before answering the Major’s question. “I guess the race went well. I could have gone faster, I suppose. But I did win my age group.”

We spend a few minutes discussing the race before Mom Polly gets to the topic she’s most interested in.

“It sounds like you had a great date last night, for the most part,” she says. “I take it you two went out again today?”

We spend the next quarter hour talking about the dates. I let Mom know how wonderful Andy makes me feel and she seems to understand. The Major quickly tires of the girl conversation but lets me know that we need to talk on the other line sometime soon. At some point, Laurie wanders into my room and joins the conversation. I switch my phone to speaker.

Realizing I still need to talk with Caitlin, we keep the call short–you know, like under half an hour.

Calling Caitlin, I tell her I don’t have too much time, but just had to give her the basic details of tonight’s date.

“You guys just sat there and talked?” she squeals incredulously. “Didn’t he, like, try to do anything? I mean, he didn’t try to feel you up or get into your panties?”

“I told you,” I remind her, “Andy’s a gentleman. In fact he suggested we take it slow. Neither of us wants to do anything stupid.”

“Wow,” she can’t seem to get her mind around the concept. “You mean, like, you didn’t try to jump his bones or anything?”

“Caitlin!” I exclaim indignantly. “I most certainly did not. I’m not ready to make a big mess of my life right now, Miss Nosey.”

“You can’t tell me that you didn’t get a least a little turned on, girl,” she challenges me. “I saw how you looked at each other at the store.”

Laurie–sitting across from me on the bed–looks very interested in the reply.

“Well,” I admit, blushing, “maybe a little.”

“Come on, girl,” she cajoles me, “I bet it was a lot more than ‘a little’.”

What is it with this girl? It seems being sexually excited is the most important thing in life after getting a boyfriend.

“Oh, Caitlin,” Laurie says, “I think it must have been more than ‘a little’ judging from Tina’s blush.”

“Come on, you guys,” I say in exasperation, “You’re making this into more that it really is.  Let’s just say, I really enjoyed just snuggling with him. It felt very nice to just have him hold me and talk. It made me feel warm and fuzzy. It was not the hot passion you seem to think. Anyway, you know what? Warm and fuzzy’s just fine with me.”

“I know the feeling,” Laurie chimes in, “It’s the way I feel when I’m being held by Chris. God, I miss that feeling. It’s addictive and I hate going through withdrawals.”

“You two are so lucky,” Caitlin sighs, “I’ve never gone out with a guy willing to just cuddle and talk. Where do you find these guys?”

Just at this moment, my call waiting started going off.

“Hey, Caitlin,” I say excitedly, “Andy’s trying to call me. Can you hold for a minute?”

Without waiting for her reply, I pick up Andy’s call while indicating to Laurie that she should be quiet.

“Hello,” I answer the call.

“Hey, Tina,” Andy’s wonderful voice makes me feel warm all over again–even over the phone. “I had a talk with my folks and they’re cool with you coming over. Mom wants to know if you can join us for dinner. We don’t eat until seven since Mom and I will be working at the store until six.”

“I’d love to,” I reply enthusiastically. “What time should I come over?”

“Why don’t I pick you up when I get off work?” he asks.

“Cool,” I reply, “I’ll be ready.”

With that he says goodnight and I switch back to Caitlin. Laurie’s been suppressing a giggle throughout this short conversation. She lets it out after Andy is gone.

“Are you still there?” I ask Caitlin as I glare at my cousin with annoyance.

“Yeah,” Caitlin replies, “what’s Laurie giggling about?”

“The lovers are sooo cute,” Laurie says with another giggle.

“What happened?” Caitlin asks eagerly.

“Would you believe they’re going to date three nights in a row?” Laurie informs her.

“No way!” Caitlin exclaims, “What about running practice, Tina? If you quit coming so will everyone else. Catching a boyfriend is cool and everything, like, but let’s not go overboard here, girl. You’ve got obligations to the team.”

“It’s just one workout,” I explain, “I’m sure the whole team won’t fall apart just because I miss one practice.”

“What about last week?” she asks, “You missed a practice last week because of this guy too. I see a trend happening here.”

“It’s fine,” I tell her, “Just think of it as an opportunity to get better than me. Maybe you’ll be beating me by the end of the summer. It’ll just be this one night–I promise. I’ll be there Tuesday.”

Laurie just gives me that I don’t think so look.

“And what’s this about having obligations to the team,” I ask, “I don’t even go to your school.”

“Everyone knows that the guys only come because of you,” she explains. “You’re a guy magnet.  The girls come to pick up your leftovers. If you quit coming, the guys quit coming, then the girls quit coming and, like, then there’s nothing left.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I dismiss her argument being less than convinced.

After some more details of my evening with Andy, we say good night and hang up.

The little nap I took earlier was rejuvenating, but I realize the long day is catching up with me as I try to suppress a yawn.

“Well, Miss Social, do you have time to talk now?” Laurie asks.

I nod yes, but pointing at the cell phone, I say, “I’m bushed. Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“I guess,” she sighs as she reluctantly gets up off my bed. “Good night, Tina.”

As we hug good night, I whisper in her ear, “Meet you on the patio in fifteen minutes.”

Fifteen minutes later we are sitting close to each other on the bench at the picnic table in pajamas.  Our electronic devices are in the house. Nevertheless, we whisper just in case someone is listening.

“While you were out last night with Andy,” she begins, “I told Mom about what I’ve heard concerning Dr. Sommers and his issues with Mrs. Harrison. She checked her list of Mr. Rana’s clients and found that Mr. Rana has had a lot of contact with a Ms. Rachel Conners, the woman who accused Dr. Sommers of harassment a few years ago. I’ve met her a few times at the office. She’s a chemical engineer and extremely bright. She’s also not the happiest person you’ve ever met–she’s always complaining about something. She’s got a few friends but most people don’t go out of their way to be around her.

“We talked about it a lot and decided to approach Dr. Sommers about helping us with planting misleading data like you’ve been doing. Mom can make the contact and he doesn’t need to know that I’ll be the one ‘stealing’ the information. She’ll call him into the Director’s office for an ‘meeting’ with the Director tomorrow and lay out the plan then. In the mean time, I’ll try to get to know Ms. Conners better.”

“Have you talked with Mrs. Harrison about this?” I ask.

“Not yet,” she replies. “Mom is going to do that tomorrow before she calls in Dr. Sommers.”

“This is so cool,” I tell her. “It looks as if we’re finally getting somewhere. I’m just worried that the rest of the security team will figure out something is up and blow the cover off our new little group.”

“Mom and Mrs. Harrison mentioned the same thing Saturday night,” she tells me. “This whole thing is getting a bit more complicated than anyone expected.  We have overlap between the four of us and the Security Committee. Then Mom is obviously using some outside source to help with her investigations and I get the sense that you’ve involved some people that you’re not telling me about either.  This dispersed organization could be a problem.  There are just too many quasi-independent investigations going on. And if we do figure out the spy organization, who do we tell about it?”

“I think we can trust your Mom and Mrs. Harrison,” I reply. “I’m sure they have a plan for apprehending the spies when we expose them. For now, let’s concentrate on getting evidence on the bad guys. Did I tell you that Mrs. Harrison almost pulled me off the job? She wanted to transfer me to another division and to have me quit seeing Andy.”

“Why would she do that?” Laurie asks with a confused look on her face.

“Apparently Mr. Rana might not be a harmless lawyer,” I tell her,–wondering if such a thing as a harmless lawyer exists–? “Anyway, he seems to be around when bad things happen. She’s not sure what will happen, but we know that he’s suspicious of me and also wants me to stay away from the Langs. I convinced her that pulling me out all of a sudden so soon after the warning he gave me would pretty much be an admission that he’s right. It would also expose enough of our effort that we might as well quit.”

“Maybe you should back off,” she suggests with genuine concern in her voice and a worried expression on her face. “I’d really hate to see something bad happen to you.”

“Yeah, well,” I agree with her, “I’d hate for something bad to happen to me too. But, hey, I didn’t become a girl this summer just for the clothes, you know. Not only that, but while I’m like this, I don’t think I can stay away from Andy. I really like being with him.”

Laurie gives a quiet laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I ask.

“This was supposed to be an easy summer job,” she reminds me. “Just collect data and let the big folks do the analysis and all the hard work. Things have sure changed.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “Maybe we should ask for a raise––”

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It's good to be back. It's good to have Gabi's help too.