The Lab Assistant (13 page)

She stopped pumping on my cock and shook it, like a finger, toward me. Her mouth was curled up into a wide, playful grin. "You complaining, Coop?"

I shook my head quickly, eyes still closed. "Oh, no."

"And neither am I." She licked my glans again now, from the urethra down to the frenulum, around the sulcus of the head, and back up to the urethra. That caress made my legs shiver helplessly. "So, I'm thinking everything's A-OK."

"Yeah," I said, happily.

"What's this all about, Cooper? Should I be worried?"

"No, no, God no," I said quickly, stumbling over the words. "Sonia, no, not at all. I... I just don't want to ruin this. I don't want something to happen. I don't want to burn it out or use it up. I don't know. I sound like an idiot, I know. I... it's just that I've never been in a relationship like this before. I've never
loved
anyone before. I don't think I have. Not like this. I don't want to ruin it."

"You're not ruining anything, honey. Don't worry so much. And you don't sound like an idiot. You sound sweet. If you want to analyze it, I'd say we're in the Romantic or Enchantment phase of a new relationship. This is what we're supposed to be doing. We're supposed to be fucking like bunnies. And I'm totally happy with it. That's what they say on TV, anyways." With that, as if the last word on the subject had been spoken, she sank my cock back into her mouth and sucked me down into her throat.

"But... " I said halfheartedly.

She mouthed
No
around my cock and closed her eyes, concentrating on what she was doing.

Closing my eyes, I leaned back into the pillows, forcing my head into the soft down. I felt much better, inside, yet it took a long time for me to release both my anxiety and what I had finally decided was fear of the unknown. Things would be okay. Things would be different now. Things would never be the same, but they would be okay.

"Angel," I moaned, and slowly began to thrust my hips up off of the mattress to meet Sonia's every downward swallow.

Stretching slightly across her, I finally retrieved the clitoral vibrator from last night, which had gotten lost at some point in the heavy folds of the comforter.

"Here, angel, scoot over a bit."

Smiling even though my manhood still thrust into her mouth, she shuffled herself around to face me. Her sodden vagina came within my reach.

"I'm happy with it," she repeated, speaking around the glistening head of my sex. "I'm happy with us."

"Me, too," I said as I brought the vibrating device to the hood of her engorged clitoris.

I didn't expect this reaction of myself. Nor did I expect that I'd be so devoid of embarrassment or self-consciousness at it.

I sat high in the stands of the Castor Dome, our basketball arena, lost in a cheering sea of green and gold students, faculty, and family. Large tears streamed down my face. I didn't think I could remember the last time I'd felt such pride. Far down below me, a mere speck amidst several dozen rows of black-capped and black-gowned antlike forms, Sonia was scanning the anonymous crowd to find me. She must be radiating pride, I thought.

She would be walking soon, called up to march across the stage, shake hands with the President of the University, take her diploma folder in hand, and pose for the requisite graduation stage photo. The College of Arts and Sciences, of which Sonia was a member, was walking first. This was good. What was not so good was the sheer volume of students in the college. This whole exercise would take two to three hours.

I looked around the stands as I waited for the graduation speaker--some local neurosurgeon with an apparently interesting quirk of some kind--to begin. There were groups of college-aged kids--friends of the graduates--clustered together. There were parents, siblings, and clans that included grandparents and what appeared to be aunts and uncles, and maybe nieces and nephews. Some groups wore matching t-shirts. Others dispensed with the uniforms and simply wore street clothes. But, all around me, I saw people together--people here to lend physical support of their son's or daughter's academic accomplishment: to mark the rite. All around me, there was this domestic warmth. But, for Sonia, there was just me. And that made me sad.

I cycled among these disparate emotions for a long time as we all waited: pride, sadness, happiness that I was here for Sonia, that I could share this time with her, that I could be her family now.

Sonia's mother was too poor to travel, she'd told me. I'd offered to fly her mother down, but both Sonia and her mother had refused--they didn't want a handout, no matter how much I argued that it wouldn't have been one. Her father was dead, taken by a heart attack when Sonia was still in high school. Her only other family, her older brother, was in the Air Force, stationed in Misawa, Japan. He had offered to fly in, although it would have been a hardship, but Sonia had refused that as well. So this milestone was something that she and I would share together, alone. That she would allow me such an honor and responsibility warmed my heart even more.

When I graduated for the first time, earning my baccalaureate, the whole Corbis order had filed down to the auditorium. I was the first of the brood to graduate, and it had been a pretty substantial deal. There was a posting in the town newspaper back home. There were parties. All manner of kinfolk, old friends and neighbors completely unknown to me had paid their compliments and shared in the glow (and gloating) of my family. It was all a bit melodramatic to me, and my world had far outgrown our small town by this point. But I realized what it all meant to my parents. It perhaps meant even more to my grandparents, so I just went along with it.

By the time I'd dispensed with my Master's degree, I'd convinced everyone in the family that I didn't need to walk, that it would all be a bit anticlimactic, if not hugely inconvenient for everyone. It took some work, but I finally won out, and elected to simply have my diploma mailed to me. For the doctorate, though, there was no denying the troupe once more. I was not only the first doctor in the family, I was the first Ph.D. in the entire town, and probably the first in the entire county.

Sitting amongst all of these families and groups of friends, musing on these memories, I felt an odd emptiness in the pit of my stomach. For all the pomp, I was all Sonia had with whom to share the experience. Could I possibly measure up? When all of her family by rights should have been here, could I possibly do her justice and leave her with a worthy memory of the experience?

Sighing, I glanced around the dome. I felt intensely lonely, even though I shared the space with about ten thousand people, and I felt embarrassed for feeling this way.

It wasn't long before my thoughts were broken by the first chords of the national anthem. We all stood in a collective action and faced the flag. Standing formed a welcome change to being wedged inside my plastic stadium seat. Before long, the anthem died away, and the Dean of the College spoke his words of encouragement and of the future. The neurosurgeon admonished all of us to work harder for our goals and to refrain from the easy, immediate path. It was all well and good, but I was beginning to grow a bit weary of the experience. I chuckled to myself that at least I was enjoying Sonia's ceremonies more than I'd enjoyed my own.

Next, the hoods were conferred upon the newly-minted Ph.D.s, who thankfully constituted a relatively small group this semester. This was followed by the official presentation of the Master's degree candidates, a short address from a student speaker and, finally,
Dear God, finally
, the presentations of the baccalaureate candidates.

After an hour and a half, I at last found myself standing and clapping and screaming as Sonia Simmons walked across the stage to take her bow and receive her degree. She looked like an angel. Her long gown dragged behind her. Her face was alight with the widest grin I'd ever seen, and she waved and pumped her fist into the air. I screamed and cheered for her, only settling down when a university policeman gave me a subtle 'come on, settle down' gesture.

Grudgingly, I took my seat and glowed for the rest of the ceremony.

The change in air pressure and the throng of departing spectators pushed me with a heavy hand out of the revolving doors of the Castor Dome. I found myself outside, elbowed and jostled and generally forced downstream. Standing in a fissure in the crowd, finding myself some fifty feet from the Dome, I craned my neck and peered around for Sonia. She wouldn't be here yet, I knew, but I wanted to be sure. I didn't want to miss her.

I looked at my watch; it was a quarter past nine. She would be here soon. In the distance, I could make out the first black squares of mortarboards. I tapped my feet impatiently and could actually feel my palms dampen with sweat. It was as if I were a teenager again, waiting for my date. Such an odd feeling, but I'd given up trying to predict or explain the numerous emotions Sonia created in me. As many times as we'd been together, as much as we'd shared, my heart still throbbed nervously in my chest, and the tickle of butterflies filled my gut. I was impatient. I wanted to see her now. She had me feeling like a kid again.

"Dr. Corbis!" The voice was distant, but vaguely familiar. A few moments later, it was closer, almost on my shoulder. "Hey, Dr. Corbis."

I turned to face the voice. It was Debbie Lauda, one of my former students, dressed in her cap and gown. I stretched out my hand to shake hers, but fell back slightly as she lunged into me and wrapped me tightly in her arms.

"Hi, Debbie."

"Oh, my God," she squealed. "I so hoped I'd be able to catch you!"

"Well, here I am," I said, smiling.

"I'm leaving the day after tomorrow, so I didn't know if I'd be able to catch you. I knew you'd be here for Sonia, and I just had to see you."

"Leaving?" I asked. "Where to?"

"I got accepted to Hawaii, the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. It's the marine biology specialization program. I'm gonna be doing research on sharks, tigers mostly, migratory patterns and such. Anyways, I'm leaving for Manoa on Sunday."

"That's incredible, Debbie." I eased away from her embrace but stood close to her, my hand on her shoulder. "Congratulations."

"Oh, thank you," she said. "Seriously, I needed to see you. I wanted to say thanks."

"Thanks?" I asked.

"Debbie!" A second voice pierced the air, coming up behind us. It was another student from the department, Johanna Burns. The two girls embraced wildly and then spun into me in a mad, giggling group hug.

"Hi, Johanna," I managed. "Congratulations tonight."

"Thanks, Dr. Corbis." Her face looked radiant, and a sense of accomplishment and freedom emanated in beaming shafts from her every pore. She turned to Debbie. "Congrats, sister!"

"Congrats to you, honey," Debbie responded. "Did you hear?"

"No, what?" Johanna asked.

"I'm going to UH!"

"Oh, you fucking slut," she said, then held her mouth. "God, I'm sorry, Dr. Corbis."

"What?" I laughed. "I'm not a priest."

"Yeah, but I sounded like such trash. I'm sorry." She gave me another small hug and then slapped Debbie on the shoulder. "I can't believe it! I'm so jealous. You got into the zoology program, the marine biology thing?"

A wide grin overspreading her face, Debbie nodded. "I'm so excited! I'm leaving on Sunday. I'm flying to L.A. first, and then on Monday I'm flying to Hawaii."

"Well, we've gotta celebrate!" Johanna announced in a tone implying the statement was an obvious, foregone conclusion.

"Dr. Corbis?" Debbie asked. "What are you doing tonight?"

I shrugged and looked around. There were a large number of graduates milling around now--a veritable sea of black caps and gowns--but I still could not see Sonia. "I don't know, to be honest. I'm waiting for someone."

"Sonia!" Debbie and Johanna exclaimed in near unison, the name quickly followed by a stream of unapologetic giggles. "Sonia Simmons."

"Well, yes," I said, suddenly self-conscious. "She's my lab assistant. I thought I'd come and show her my support."

"Yeah," Johanna said. "It's all good, Dr. Corbis. It's cool."

"It really is okay," Debbie added with an air of authority.

"Well, thank you both for your understanding and your consent. But I'm just here supporting a student, a potential future colleague. Nothing more. I would do the same for either of you."

"You'd do us the same, huh, Dr. Corbis?" Debbie laughed, subtly gesturing her hips and her ass in my direction. "So, anyway, do you know if Sonia's gonna be making the party rounds tonight?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, really. I'll give her your message when I see her, if you'd like."

The two girls eyed me suspiciously while I stood there, trying not to look guilty or obvious. Their smiles betrayed them, though, and in a fit of overconfidence it occurred to me that they might actually wish they were in Sonia's shoes. I felt virile and powerful then, watching them watching me. And I suddenly became very, very horny. I felt like a stud.

As if she were able to read my mind, Debbie smiled and, I could have sworn, licked her lips. "K, Dr. Corbis. I've gotta get going. I hope we can run into each other again before I go. Oh, and I meant 'thank you' for getting me on track. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life until I took your Biological Diversity course. You literally opened up a whole new world for me." Leaning in close, she whispered 'thank you' and hugged me hard. "Really, Dr. Corbis, thank you."

I didn't know quite what to say. "You're welcome, Debbie. Shit, you're going to make me cry." I laughed, for lack of anything better to do.

"You're an amazing teacher," Johanna agreed.

Debbie smiled an uneasy, roughly sad smile. "Well, I've gotta run, guys. I hope I can see you later?"

"Okay, Debbie," I agreed. "Good luck in Hawaii, if I don't see you. Have a safe trip."

"Bye, Debbie," Johanna called out. Then she turned to me, taking my hand. "I should go, too. My mom's around here someplace hunting me down, I'm sure. She'll kill me if I don't do the meet and greet with the fam, you know?"