Summer of 64 – part 2.

The prospect of spending a whole Saturday in the office instead of just the morning proved to be the great incentive that Mr. Davis had said it would be. Never had Peter seen some of his fellow workers do their jobs with such animation. By eleven twenty-five, the practice audit was done and people were already making for the doors. “Excuse me,” Kathy said, loud enough for everyone still around her to clearly hear. “I could use a little help in putting all of these ledgers away.” Dozens of eyes looked at the scattered piles of heavy accounting ledgers that had been left scattered across a dozen desks. Normally kept in a large storage room down on the twenty-first floor, they had been moved upstairs for the audit. With half the work force already gone, none of those left wanted to get stuck any longer than they had to. One by one, they came up with some excuse as to why they couldn’t stay. Without the authority of the office manager behind her, and he had been the first to leave, Kathy really couldn’t force anyone to stay. “Come on, Pete,” Joe said as he started for the door. “If we can catch the train, we can be home in an hour.” Peter thought about it a few moments, then said. “You go ahead, I’m going to stay and help.” “Whatever the hell for,” Joe said. “No one else is.” “Because it’s the right thing to do,” Peter answered. “If you want to go, you go ahead.” “Suit yourself,” Joe said, shaking his head at his friend’s attitude. “But just remember Pete,” he said in a lower tone that only the other teen could hear. “It’s not like she’s going to be so full of deep appreciation that she’s going to drop down to her knees to thank you.” “Sometimes, Joe,” Peter said as he watched his friend walk away, “you really are an asshole.”

By the time Peter walked back into the office, Kathy was the only one still there. She was loading a few of the ledgers into a shopping cart that they used to move them between floors. Picking up two of the books from a nearby desk, Peter dropped them into the cart.

“Oh Peter,” Kathy said as she jumped slightly at the sound of the books landing on her own pile. “I didn’t realize that anyone was still here.” “I thought I’d stay and lend a hand, Mrs. Chakiris,” the younger man said. “That’s very nice of you,” Kathy replied, her smile exhibiting a genuine warmth that he had never seen before. “But if you are going to stay, I’m going to insist on one condition.” “What’s that?” “You stop all this Mrs. Chakiris nonsense,” Kathy laughed. “Like I’ve been telling you to do all summer. You make it sound like I’m old enough to be your mother.” “All right, … Kathy.” Peter smiled as he piled another few ledgers into the cart.

Even with the two of them, it took another hour and four elevator trips to the twenty-first floor to put away all the ledgers. “I read an article the other day,” Peter said as pushed the now empty cart down the equally empty hall. “that said that someday they’ll be able to make computers that will keep all these records on a disk the size of a pack of cigarettes.” “Are you sure that wasn’t one of those science fiction magazines,” Kathy laughed. “Sounds like something out of the Outer Limits.” “No, it was Scientific American,” Peter said, then realized that she was joking with him. “Oh, I get it.”

The elevator door opened once more on their floor. As they stepped back into the office, Kathy checked her watch. “Quarter after one,” she said out loud. “I was afraid that I wouldn’t get out of here until after three.” “Oh no,” Peter exclaimed as he heard the time. “I forgot to call my brother about the Mets game.” He quickly dialed his brother’s house on the closest desk phone. His sister in law told him that Mark had already left for the game. She also told him that when Peter hadn’t called him one way or another, Mark had simply asked one of the neighbors if they wanted to go.

“You were supposed to be going to the baseball game?” Kathy asked Peter, not being able to ignore the telephone conversation. “My Dad won a pair of tickets, he gave them to my brother and me,” Peter explained. “Now I feel guilty about having you stay and help,” Kathy said. “You don’t have to feel that way,” Peter replied. “I wanted to stay, I really did. More than I wanted to go see the game.” “I think you’re lying,” Kathy smiled. “but thank you for saying that. I really do appreciate your staying.” Peter wasn`t sure what he was going to say next, but whatever it was, it flew right out of his head as Kathy leaned over and gave him a thank you kiss on his cheek. It was the sort of kiss you would get from a friend, but as unexpected as it was, he couldn’t have been more surprised if she had kissed him on the lips and stuck her tongue down his throat. “You really are a dear,” she said with a smile after the kiss.

“I guess I’d better get going,” Peter finally replied, still at a loss for words. “Before you go, Peter,” Kathy said as she sat on the edge of her desk and crossed her legs. The black slacks she wore seemed to accent, rather than hide her long legs, “can I ask you something?” “Sure, anything,” he quickly replied. “Do you ever hear the men in the office talking about me?” “I’m not sure what you mean?” came his reply. “Oh I’m sure you do,” Kathy said. “It’s no secret to me that a good many of the men in this office look at me as some sort of easy lay, even though I’ve never so much as gone out with any of them for a drink after work.” Peter was shocked to hear the phrase “easy lay” come out of Kathy’s mouth. It wasn’t the sort of thing he’d ever heard any woman say. “Well I try to ignore office gossip,” he said. “But you have heard it?” she asked again. “Yes,” he finally admitted. “Do you think that it’s true?” “Well I guess it doesn’t have to be true to be gossip,” Peter said after a few moments consideration. “Well just to set the record straight, I’m not an easy lay, despite what anyone says. Most men these days see a woman who is both attractive and divorced and automatically assume that if she shows the slightest interest in them, all she wants to do is go to bed with them. As if she was nothing better than some common streetwalker.” With his eyes fixed on the contours of her body, the first thing that came to Peter’s mind was that there was nothing common about Kathy. Then his common sense took hold and he said nothing. Yet he wondered why she was telling him all of this. “One of the reasons why I don’t date anyone from the office,” she went on, “is the fact that because of that view, any invitation I did accept would be taken as an invitation to something far more than dinner. Even if that expectation went unfulfilled, there are many of those who would assume that it had been realized.” Peter was now totally confused and still confused by the candor of her statements. It was almost like talking to one of the guys. After all, girls didn’t talk about getting laid, did they? Finally the thought occurred to him that she was telling him all of this because somehow she had heard what he and the guys had been saying about her in their lunchtime bull sessions. “I guess I’m sort of guilty too,” he admitted with a deep blush as he explained how she had come up in their noontime discussions. He left out, however, the fact that she was a frequent visitor in his own masturbation fantasies. That would be too forthcoming. Kathy laughed at his admission. It took him a few seconds to realize that she wasn’t laughing at him, just his admission. “Sweetheart, it doesn’t bother me that you and your buddies talk about me,” she laughed. “That’s just part of being eighteen and perpetually horny. In fact, I’d be more offended if you weren’t checking me out. Women have egos too you know. I wouldn`t even be shocked to know that one or two of you might think of me late at night.” This was way too much, Peter thought to himself. He couldn’t imagine any woman saying the things that Kathy had just said. “I guess by now I have you totally confused, don’t I?” Kathy finally said. “Sort of …” Peter answered. “Well the reason I guess I told you all of that was because I want to make it up to you for missing the baseball game and spending your time helping me. I just wanted you to understand that what I was offering was exactly that, with nothing else attached.” “Okay,” Peter replied, still not really understanding. “I was going to the World’s Fair out in Flushing Meadow tomorrow with my roommate,” Kathy finally explained. “But she had to go home to New Jersey last night because her Mother is ill. Since the tickets to the Fair are already paid for and everything, I was wondering if you’d like to go with me? Just as friends.” Peter’s eyes lit up. Despite living not all that far from the Fair, he had yet to go there. It was one of those things that you kept saying, next weekend. Without evening thinking about it, he was saying he’d love to go. “That would be great,” Kathy said on hearing his reply. Would you rather meet me at the entranceway, or do you want to come over my apartment and pick me up. I live up on Belle Boulevard. “I guess it would be easier to meet at your apartment,” Peter said, not having realized that Kathy also lived in Queens. “The way the crowds are at the Fair, we might never find each other.” “You’re probably right,” Kathy agreed as she wrote down her address on an index card for him. “We should get an early start, would eight be too early?” Peter said that eight would be fine as he took the card from her. Kathy said that she had some errand to run in the city and that she would lock up everything in the office. As he rode the elevator down to the lobby of the midtown office building, Peter only now realized what had just happened. “Wait until I tell the guys that I’m going to the World’s Fair with Kathy,” he told himself excitedly. Then he considered what Kathy had said about how the men in the office viewed her, a view shared by his friends, and decided that perhaps this was something that he should keep to himself after all.