A Fresh Start
Copyright© 2025 by rlfj
Chapter 50: Get Me to the Church on Time
June 1978
Wedding preparations proceeded slowly on Marilyn’s end, but they did proceed. Along the way she cried, threatened, screamed, protested, and told me more than once that the wedding was off. I would let her vent over the phone and then calmly move her forward. Suzie visited over the spring break and she was much calmer than Marilyn, despite being a teenager going to her first wedding. The reception would be at Trinkaus Manor, a local landmark and banquet hall in Oriskany, just a few miles from the Lefleur place. It had been there before, too.
I bought an Army mess dress uniform, and made sure that Harlan and Joe got theirs, too. They were quite expensive, but Harlan was going career, and he might use it again. Joe found a place he could rent one. Tusker promised to get a basic black tuxedo, although basic black for Tusker might involve flashing lights. He might be the most flamboyant of any of us, including the bride and bridesmaids! Tessa promised to rein him in if necessary.
I traveled to Plattsburgh during the support cycle in April. It was just a long weekend, and didn’t chew up too much leave time, but it kept Marilyn calm, or at least calmer.
I also made many phone calls to Tusker, Harlan and Joe, sorting out the details with them. We decided to skip out on any stag party, since the only chance we would have to be together was the night before in any case, and that was when the rehearsal dinner would be.
Upstate New York in the winter was a miserable place. One thing I knew for sure. Even if I didn’t make a career of the Army, no way was I moving back to New York! I shoveled snow for 50 years before, and I was not about to repeat the process. No matter what Marilyn screamed at me, I was going to live some place a lot warmer!
Eventually we got to our summer support cycle, and I went on leave. I flew out of Fayetteville on Wednesday morning, June 28, with a flight into Syracuse that connected through Washington. The Syracuse airport was a hell of a lot closer to Utica than the Albany airport, and was larger as well, with more flights. In addition to my two trusty B4 bags, I had purchased a new hanging bag, and had in it a suit, my mess dress uniform, and a blazer. It had enough room that Marilyn could put in any formal evening gowns or dresses she was packing. Then again, Marilyn might have so much crap I’d have to go out and buy her a bag of her own, and she’d still use most of mine!
I got into the airport mid-afternoon, just a bit after two, and found a wonderful sight - Marilyn standing there at the baggage claim area! I went right up to her and wrapped her in my arms. “You have no idea how good you look to me!” I told her.
“Just hold me!” she replied, somewhat miserably.
I gave her a big hug and then asked, “What’s wrong now?”
“Can’t we just elope? Why can’t we just elope?”
“Fine by me. We’re at the airport. Want to fly out to Vegas?”
“Seriously?” she asked.
“Sure, why not? Of course, your parents will never talk to you again, and it will cost us all of our friends, but it’s up to you,” I commented.
“You’re no help!”
“You worry way too much. It’s too late to change anything anyway. Come on, let’s get my stuff and go. Where did you park?”
Marilyn said she was in the parking garage, so I sent her back to get her car and bring it around to the baggage claim area. I would collect my stuff and meet her outside. Just then the luggage carousel started moving, so off she went, and I waited for my luggage.
Thankfully, none of my luggage went on its own separate vacation. I collected my stuff and hauled it out the door to the sidewalk just in time to see Marilyn waved away by a security guard and be made to circle around a second time. When she came back I just tossed my gear into the backseat of the car. She stayed behind the wheel and I climbed into the passenger seat.
“You see? Nothing is working out! I can’t even park and wait for you!” she complained.
“Rule One - Don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule Two - It’s all small stuff,” I replied. “What happened to the Challenger?” Marilyn had picked me up in a very nondescript Chevy Malibu.
She shrugged. “It’s sort of in the shop. I was in sort of an accident.”
I looked over at her curiously. Marilyn was not the world’s greatest driver. One time she and Tammy managed to drive the Challenger up a dirt road and got it stuck on a rock with all four tires off the ground. Another time, in high school, she managed to roll a car onto its roof. “What’s a sort of accident?”
She had the good grace to look a little embarrassed. “Well, a train hit it.”
I stared at her in utter astonishment. “You hit a train?”
“No, the train hit me,” she explained.
“What, it jumped off the track and drove into you?”
“Well, no. I was at a crossing and I was a little too far forward and when the train came through it just nudged me over. That’s all!”
I stared some more. “You drove onto the railroad tracks while a train was coming through and then stayed in the car?”
She gave me a peevish look. “That’s exactly what my father said! I don’t need to hear it from you, too!”
“You’re lucky to be alive! Just how bad is the Challenger?” She turned to face the road again and mumbled something. “What was that? I missed it.”
“I said it’s totaled.”
“Well, as long as it’s nothing major.” I got a raspberry for that. I rubbed my hands over my face. “I think I understand your father a little better now. He’s not just giving you away, he’s reducing his liability!” That earned me a second raspberry.
Leaving aside Marilyn’s driving history, I enjoyed the drive back. Marilyn had on a dark blue tank top that showed some interesting cleavage, and a short denim skirt. I enjoyed watching her.
I had gotten a room at the Sheraton in downtown Utica. It was on Genesee Street, which was the main north-south business street through the city, just south of 5S. It was maybe a couple miles south of St. Peter’s, where the wedding was to be held, and maybe five miles east of the Lefleur’s and Trinkaus Manor on 5S and 69. I had gotten a block of rooms reserved for family members and any of the guests who wanted to stay over. Harlan and Anna Lee, Tusker and Tessa, and Joe would be arriving Thursday, and my entire family, including aunts and uncles and cousins would be coming in Friday. The rehearsal was at 1700 on Friday, the wedding was at 1100 Saturday, and the reception was at 1400.
Marilyn thought my use of military time was hilarious.
We drove the Thruway back to Utica and got off at Exit 31 and drove down Genesee Street to the Sheraton. When we got there, Marilyn pulled up to the door and she got out with me. I pulled my bags from the back seat and she opened the trunk up. She handed me a suitcase. “I told my parents I was staying with Tammy. She’ll cover for me.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“You sound like you don’t want me to stay?”
I wrapped her in another hug. “Go park the car and come in, and I’ll show you just how much I want you to stay!” I lowered my face and kissed her. At the break, she closed her trunk and got back into the car, while I scrounged up a bellman for the luggage and went inside to check in.
Marilyn returned while I was still registering at the front desk. She was quiet and held my hand and leaned against me while I finished signing in, and then held my hand as we rode the elevator to the third floor. The bellman delivered our luggage and I slipped him a few bucks, and then Marilyn just came up to me and wrapped her arms around me.
“It’s all right,” I told her softly.
“I just wish this was all over!”
I rubbed her back. “Thirty years from now, our children will be getting married, and we’ll be able to laugh at them and tell them just how awful it was for us and how we survived it all.”
“Thirty years! I don’t think I’m going to last thirty minutes!”
“In sixty years, you’ll be able to laugh at your grandchildren,” I answered.
Marilyn gave a small and manic laugh at that. I let go of her and pulled her by the hand over to the bed. Since I hadn’t planned on Marilyn staying with me, I hadn’t gotten a suite. The room still had a king-sized bed, though. I sat down on the bed and pulled her down beside me. She simply leaned against me with her head on my shoulder.
“I think you need to relax,” I told her. I moved backwards on the bed until I was comfortably in the center of it and pulled Marilyn along with me. I lay down and she lay down on top of me. I reached up and cupped her face in my hands and kissed her softly. She slipped her tongue between my lips and made a gentle moaning sound as I rubbed my hands across her back. She had a thin bra under the tank top, and as she squirmed around on top of me, I responded.
“I love you so much,” I whispered to her. “I love you; I love you; I love you. I can never say it enough. Every day we will be married, I want you to know that I love you.” I felt something warm and wet touch my cheek and pulled back enough to see that my fiancée was crying. I continued to hold her and comfort her, telling her how much I loved her and how I would love her every day and forever and ever, and anything else I could think of until she calmed down.
I knew it was just a bad case of nerves. I slowly moved from rubbing her back to slipping my hands under her tank top, and then slid it up her body and off her. Next went her miniskirt, which I unzipped and pushed down off her hips, to leave her there in her simple cotton bra and panties. I shucked them off her as well, and then I undressed myself as she silently watched me. Once I was naked I climbed on top of her. Marilyn wrapped her arms and legs around me tightly, as if to hold onto me no matter what happened, but I simply made slow and gentle love to her, even as I continued to whisper my love into her ear.
Afterwards I lay there on top of her, supporting my weight on my arms while I kissed her face. Marilyn finally smiled at me. “Better now?” I asked.
“Better,” she replied, smiling up at me.
“It’s just nerves. Any time over the next few days, if you get a case of nerves, just ask me and I’ll help you work through it.”
That got her to giggling. “That’s mighty generous of you.”
I gave her my most innocent look, or at least as innocent a look as I could give while laying on top of her naked. “I am a kind and generous sort of guy and want nothing more than to know that I am able to help those feeling down.”
Marilyn wiggled her ass from side to side underneath me. “Well, I’m starting to feel depressed again. Think you can help with that?”
“It’s a burden, but I always try to help. With a little help from you, I’m sure I’ll be up for it.”
“I’ll help if you will,” she replied.
Afterwards, Marilyn rolled off me, and I was breathing hard. “I don’t know about you,” I told her, “but I certainly feel more relaxed.”
“Me, too,” she admitted. She rolled onto the bed beside me and threw a leg over mine. “What about later? I might need some more relaxation then.”
“Well, you just let me know, and I’ll see what I can do for you. Of course, you’ll probably need to make sure it’s easy for me to relax you, and you’ll have to make sure I know when you start getting nervous.”
She smirked at that. “And just how do I make sure you’ll be able to relax me?”
“Well, I think that bras and panties just get in the way,” I answered her.
“You really are an oinker!” she laughed.
“I’m hurt that you would think ill of me like that.”
“And let me guess. When I need to be relaxed, I should just grab your pants?”
“Communications are the key to a strong marriage,” I piously intoned.
“What would it be communicating if I squeezed your balls?”
I grinned at her. “Probably that you needed a good spanking!” That prompted her to try and grab me, but I managed to escape, and then had her trapped face down on the bed while I swatted her bottom a few times. I kept her in that position until I climbed on top of her for a third round.
We were so damned relaxed we fell asleep at that point!
We woke up again early in the evening. It would be nice to say that I spent the rest of the evening madly screwing my fiancée, in every imaginable position, multiple times, without letup. Nice, but not quite true. Marilyn seemed much calmer, and we were both hungry, so we washed up and dressed and went downstairs to the Sheraton’s restaurant for dinner. I did manage to hide her bra and panties while she was in the shower, and not just the ones she had worn, but the ones in her suitcase as well. I also hid the sneakers she had been wearing and set out her high-heeled sandals.
After I came out of the shower, I heard her rummaging through the drawers and her suitcase. I came out of the bathroom to find her wearing a Sheraton robe and saying, “You think you’re so clever!”
“Is that a question or an accusation?”
“Both!”
“I always thought being clever was a good thing. During the Trojan War, Odysseus was the hero, and he was the clever one.”
“Whatever!” She stripped off her robe and pulled the tank top and denim skirt on without her underwear. “Happy?”
“Very! I’m so happy, I’ll even return the favor.” I grabbed my slacks and slid them on commando style, and then pulled on a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt.
Marilyn snorted and laughed at that, then slipped on her sandals. She stood up and turned around in front of me. “Is this what you wanted?”
“Like you have no idea!” I replied, nodding my head and licking my lips. Suddenly room service sounded like a very good idea!
Marilyn put the kibosh on that. “I’m hungry. Grab the key.” I grabbed my wallet and key and followed her into the hallway. We held hands down the hallway and down the elevator.
It wasn’t a long wait at all to get a table. Once seated, I asked Marilyn what she wanted to do that night. Movie? Go out to a club? Go bar hopping? “I’m too tired for any of that. I just want to get dinner, have a couple of drinks, and go back to the room. Is that all right?”
“Whatever you say, babe. I just want you to stay relaxed.”
She gave me a lewd grin at that. “We’ll do some relaxing later, too. There’s something else I need you to help me with, too.”
I smiled at her. “What’s that?”
She leaned in towards me and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I plan to shave my legs and all again before Saturday. Could you help with that? You know, like before?”
Suddenly my mouth felt dry, and I wished the waiter would show up to take our drink orders. “Whatever you want, honey, whatever you want!” I finally managed to croak out.
If Marilyn was trying to unsettle me, she succeeded. Helping her with her intimate hygiene needs stayed in the back of my mind all through our drinks and dinner. I was even prepared to skip dessert and head back upstairs, but she dragged the evening out, giggling at me as she did so. Now I was the one who needed relaxation!
After dinner, I hustled Marilyn back upstairs as quickly as I could. She tried to drag out the torment, by saying she felt like taking a walk or going into the bar, but I all but pulled her along and threw her over my shoulder. It wasn’t a long ride up the elevator, but I let my fingers do the walking as soon as the door shut. I had her moaning by the time the door opened again.
Marilyn scampered down the hall to our room but had to wait until I got there. I unlocked it and we slipped inside and were in each other’s arms before it even shut. “I can’t wait! I have to take you! Now!” I told her. Marilyn simply moaned and grabbed me through my pants. We never made it to the bed. I pulled her skirt up to her waist and lifted her up and sat her plump little bottom on the dresser. Her tank top I pushed down off her shoulders. I took her there, standing between her legs, as we rocked the dresser.
As we finished we were both panting, and I stepped back, and Marilyn climbed down off the dresser unsteadily. “That was pretty good,” she commented. “For our second time, maybe you can do better now that you’ve warmed up.”
“I’ll warm you up! I’ll warm up your bottom!” I replied with a growl. I grabbed her and gave her a couple of swats on the rear.
Marilyn laughed and headed into the bathroom. I pulled my pants back up and grabbed the TV remote, and crawled onto the bed, propping myself up with some pillows. When she came back, she was barefoot, but still wearing the denim skirt and tank top, though now worn normally, and not around her waist. She crawled onto the bed next to me and propped herself up on her own pillows. We watched television for a bit, until I noticed she had fallen asleep. I rearranged her on the bed, and kissed her on the forehead, and then covered her with the bedspread.
When I woke in the morning, Marilyn was already awake, but before I could start something, she slipped off into the bathroom, probably to brush her teeth, and I fell back asleep. I must have dozed another twenty minutes before waking up again. Marilyn now had on a bathrobe and was sipping some coffee made from the mini-coffeemaker in the bathroom. “Morning, sleepyhead,” she said.
I stretched and said, “Good morning. Boy, I bet I know what would be a great wake-up call!”
“You’re already awake. You don’t need a wake-up call. Time to get up and face the world.”
I sat up and peeled off my shirt. “You sure about that? I missed that in the rules. Besides, I’m on vacation. I don’t have to face the world.” I lay back and spread my legs, exposing myself to her.
Marilyn wasn’t taking the bait. “Don’t you have people coming in?”
“Tusker and Tessa are coming from Baltimore, so figure an hour-and-a-half to Harrisburg, another four hours to Binghamton, and two hours to get here. They won’t get here until late afternoon. Bradley is coming from Philly, so he’s not getting here until mid-afternoon, and Harlan and Anna Lee are flying into Syracuse at 1400. I haven’t got a thing to do until this afternoon.”
Marilyn kept teasing me. “Don’t you need to go run around and work out or something?”
“I have some better exercises in mind. Want to join me?”
“Yuck! I don’t want to get all sweaty!”
I jumped off the bed and grabbed her. As she giggled and laughed, I tossed her onto the bed and had my way with her, burning up quite a few calories in the process. We did manage to get sweaty, but I promised to help her clean up later. We took a shower together and didn’t get down to the restaurant until mid-morning.
After breakfast, we walked around the hotel a bit, but the Sheraton wasn’t in one of the prettier sections of the city, not that Utica is well known for its civic loveliness. There were some nice sections over on the Parkway, but the Sheraton was located smack dab in the heart of the business district, and there was nothing around but office buildings and high rises and traffic too dangerous to cross even at the crosswalks. We just goofed off for a bit, did the shaving thing, talked about the wedding and the honeymoon, had lunch and a few beers, and simply waited around for our friends to show up. They were all on the groom’s side. Marilyn’s maid of honor and one of her bridesmaids were local girls, and Suzie was coming in with my family Friday morning.
It was about four in the afternoon before people started showing up. Marilyn and I had gone down to the bar and were nursing a few beers, figuring we’d catch some people as they came in the front door. From the bar, you could get a good view of the lobby. Harlan and Anna Lee showed up first. They landed about quarter after two, took thirty minutes to get their luggage and rent their car, an hour to drive from Syracuse, and ten minutes to get lost and unlost on Genesee Street. I noticed them coming in and we went into the lobby to say hello. They were going to check in and unload their gear, and then come back down for drinks with us.
Joe Bradley showed up while the Buckminsters were still upstairs. He was traveling stag, which didn’t surprise me. He never chased women back at RPI, although he occasionally claimed a girl back in New Jersey. I never saw any pictures, though. Regardless, if he was gay, he was so far in the closet as to be undetectable. For certain, after living with him for three years, my gay-dar had never gone off even once.
The five of us were having beers at a table in the bar when Marilyn looked out into the lobby and said, “Oh my God!” She turned back to me with a look of mixed shock and awe. “It’s Tusker and Tessa!”
“What’s with you? You know he’s a bit nuts.” I figured it was Tusker’s appearance which made Marilyn’s eyes pop out. I stood up and turned around to see my friends. Tusker looked fine. It was Tessa who surprised us. “Holy Christ!” I exclaimed.
They had seen us in the lobby and waved and walked over towards the bar. Or at least Tusker walked. Tessa was waddling! She looked to be somewhere around ten or eleven months pregnant. She was grinning like crazy as she saw our shocked expressions. “I told him you’d be surprised!”
“Astonished, is more like it!” I replied. “You know; they have a pill to prevent things like this.”
“I told him you’d say that, too. The heck with you. Where’s the bathroom?” she answered.
Marilyn and Anna Lee rushed around, and the trio headed off towards the bathroom off the lobby. I introduced Tusker to Joe and Harlan, and we carried his gear over to the registration desk. It was the first time any of them had met anybody else in the group, although I had mentioned who was doing what to each of them. Tusker checked in and then waited for the women to return, and he and Tessa promised to come back down and join us in the bar.
Once they had left, I asked Marilyn, “Did she mention anything about them getting married?”
She gave me a wicked grin. “Nope!”
“I think Tusker would have invited us if they had.”
Anna Lee commented, “I didn’t see any wedding bands or engagement rings.”
“Trust those two to be unconventional!” I told the other three. “Tusker and Tessa are two of my oldest friends from home, back in high school. They’re even more different from each other than Marilyn and I.”
Marilyn nodded in agreement. “He’s like a crazy biker type and she’s a sweet and innocent college girl like me.”
Joe commented, “From the looks of things, not all that sweet and innocent.” I had to grin at that. Compared to my buttoned-down Army buddies, Tusker was a long-haired hippie.
Anna Lee commented, “I’m amazed they were able to travel. She looks like she’s about to give birth any moment now!”
“At least you’re a nurse!” I said.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that!” she returned.
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