Going on Thirty

Jacob leaned over and pointing at the back of Kimber's head, mouthed the words, "I'm so gonna hit that tonight, Mr. S!"

Dan bristled at the crass remark but kept his emotions in check as he replied, "Good luck with that, Mr. Dunning."

"Luck? Nah. It's a done deal," Jacob said brashly before turning to catch up with Kimber.

Freddy excused himself for a moment and sidled up to his friend.

"I tried to buy you some time, bro. Sorry if it wasn't enough. Did you get to tell her the plan?"

"No, but I think I'll get the chance before the night is over," Dan said as he watched Kimber walking away. He smiled when he saw her remove Jacob's arm twice in rapid succession both times he tried putting it around her shoulder.

"Was I as big a shitbag as Jacob?" Freddy asked. "You shoulda heard what he said to me. No wait. You shouldn't have heard it."

"Yeah, you were pretty bad, my friend. And he said something to me I'm guessing he probably said to you."

Dan looked at Freddy and at the same time, both of them said, "Shitbag!"

The evening dragged on for what seemed like days as the gymnasium slowly filled up with students mostly wearing formal attire. A Goth couple and two lesbian girls wearing cammo were the exceptions to the rule. Dan chuckled and again thought of the saying, "To each their own."

It was almost 1am before the student DJ announced, "Okay. This will be the last song of the night, folks! We're gonna slow it down so grab that special someone as the official part of Homecoming 2017, comes to end!"

Dan knew where Kimber was almost the entire night. The only times he wasn't sure he'd assumed she'd gone to the restroom. There'd been several stolen glances and even a smile or two but no other contact at all.

Jacob wasn't smiling as Kimber pushed him away first once and then twice before heading toward him. As she approached, he could see Jacob angrily gesticulating while on his way toward him, and Dan was pretty sure what had just happened.

"Trouble in paradise?" he asked as Kimber walked up and shamelessly took his hand and pulled him onto the dance floor.

"This is paradise," she said as she put her arm on his shoulder and offered him her hand.

"He looks pretty upset," Dan said as he tried to figure out what Jacob was saying.

"He's not happy with me because I not only told him I was saving the last dance for you, but that I had no intention of going to the motel room he said he reserved for us tonight."

She smiled happily at Daniel then said again, "As...if!"

She moved closer then said, "I'm dying to hear the news. Can you please tell me?"

"I can," he said as he squeezed her hand and ever-so gently ran his fingers along her lower back.

It didn't take long for him to finish and when he did, Kimber said in his ear, "Oh, Daniel. I am so happy! I can't tell you how much I want that to work out for us."

Just hearing her call him by his first name...no, that and the way she felt in his arms and the way she looked and the perfume she was wearing, were causing some serious swelling in a certain place. Kimber's body was already way too close for a student-teacher dance, but the lighting was very dim and neither of them cared.

Kimber pressed even closer and felt him then moaned softly. She gently pulled her hand from his and slid it around his neck as she pushed her body against him.

"Mmmm. You feel so good, Daniel," she whispered.

"You, too, Kimber," he said to her while pretending to be looking out into space the way an uninterested teacher should look when dancing with a student.

The song was just about to end when Kimber said, "I'm not sure I can wait that much longer. Is there any way we can see each other before then?"

"I'll find away...sweetheart," he whispered as he let his lips brush against her ear.

As the last note played, Kimber put her lips next to his ear and said quietly but clearly, "I love you, Daniel," before quickly letting go and walking away.

Her unexpected declaration of love caught him so off guard he was completely unaware that Jacob was in his face saying things other students heard.

"Come on, you fuck head! Let's go!" he finally heard.

Freddy arrived just in time and stepped between them.

"Mr. Dunning? Step back!" he said. The smell of alcohol on Jacob's breath was very strong.

"That fuck is trying to steal my girlfriend!" he hollered as another male teacher arrived and stepped in. He and Freddy each took an arm and dragged him to the other side of the gym.

The other teacher had his hand out and Dan assumed he was demanding a flask until Jacob dropped his car keys into the outstretched hand.

"Kimber!" was his first thought as he realized Jacob had been drinking and what might have happened.

He'd lost sight of her again and suddenly felt panicked. He was supposed to stay and chaperone on a very large boat the class had rented for the night, but the thought of Kimber alone and with no way to get home was too much.

He trotted over to Freddy and said, "I've gotta find her, man. Tell the assistant principal I got sick because that's how I feel."

"I got you covered, bro. Just...be careful, okay?" he said before telling his friend to go find her.

Dan walked quickly to the front of the gym expecting to see Kimber standing there, but she was nowhere to be found. It was chilly outside and her thin dress was no match for the cold night air as he frantically looked around. Couples and individual's were steaming out of the gymnasium toward the parking lot. Many got on the busses the school had provided to take them to the boat.

Several minutes passed before Dan realized she wasn't there. He also realized he was worried sick as the busses began pulling away filled with loud, boisterous high school seniors. He was about to go back inside and look around when he saw something, or rather, someone, standing by his car near the back of the parking lot.

He ran toward her and as he arrived she was shaking from the cold.

"I knew you'd find me," she said as Dan pulled his jacket off and put it around her.

"You're freezing!" he said as he held her not caring where they were or who might be watching.

"No. I'm just fine now," she said her teeth still chattering.

"Come on. Let's get inside and turn the heat on," he told her as he fumbled for his keys.

"I was worried sick about you," he said as he opened the door for her.

"Don't be," she replied. "I had to get away and I knew you'd eventually find me. Here. Waiting for you."

He closed the door then hurried around, got inside himself, and started the car.

Kimber was still freezing and her tiny body was shaking.

"Can you hold me, Daniel?" she asked as she looked over at him with hopeful eyes. "I don't want you to get in trouble. I...I just need you to hold me."

"I don't care about trouble or rules or...anything...but you," he said as he reached over to hold her close.

They sat there waiting for the heater to kick in and once it did, Dan asked, "Warm enough?"

Kimber ignored him and said quietly and innocently, "Will you take me home with you?"

Her beautiful eyes were open wide and filled with both hope and longing.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he touched her pretty face.

"I've never been more sure of anything in my life before, Daniel," she told him as she reached up and took his hand. Her eyes darted back and forth with his several times before she said, "Except for one thing."

"What might that one thing be?" he asked quietly, their faces just inches apart.

"That I really do love you, Daniel Snyder," she said with total sincerity. "I've loved you since we had coffee together. And yes, I'm fully aware how that sounds. But I do know it. I knew it then and I'm even more sure now. You don't have to say it or even feel it, my love, but I do love you. I do."

Daniel could not only see her love for him in her eyes, he could feel it in her voice and in the touch of her hand, and he felt it, too.

"I've dreamed of meeting someone just like you for as long as I can remember, Kimber."

She smiled and looked down momentarily as he paused.

He gently lifted her chin up until their eyes met again the said, "I just never, not in my wildest dreams, expected her to be one of my students."

She smiled happily at him then said very sweetly, "How many students have you had who are going on 30?"

"Just one," he told her with a smile. "And she just happens to also be the only student...no, the only woman...I've ever loved."

Dan saw her eyes filling with tears as she touched his handsome face.

"I find it hard to believe a man as beautiful as you has never been in love before," she said as a first tear fell.

Dan gently brushed it away then said, "I've always wanted to fall in love only once."

He wiped away another tear as he told her, "And I want that one time to be for life."

"I wrote those very words in my diary last night," Kimber said. She smiled bravely then told him, "I wrote, 'I love him so very much and I pray he loves me, too. And I pray we never love another for all the days of our lives."

"I won't," he said tenderly but with complete sincerity.

"Then...then please take me home and make love to me," she said her voice filled with want and need. "I've saved myself for you, my love. I didn't know when or where I'd find you. I only knew that when I did, I would know. And when I found you...I knew. I just knew."

The attraction was so strong, so overwhelming, no force on earth could have prevented their lips from meeting that first time. The kiss was slow and gentle, long and passionate. Tongues freely mingled as love was exchanged in some kind of primitive almost primordial, chemical way.

The sound of tapping on the glass sounded distant at first. The noise didn't make sense as their lips and their minds were locked in this melding of love until it did.

Kimber pulled back and sucked in air as the fear washed over her.

Dan was afraid to look knowing what this meant.

"Dude, roll down the damn window!" Freddy said.

"What the..." Dan said as he did just that.

"Our bus broke down less than half a mile up the road. Tammi's phone is dead and it's the weirdest thing, but no one can get reception. I was hoping you'd still be here."

Kimber was sitting back against the seat and up against the door when Dan looked over at her.

"It's okay. Freddy...Mr. Thomas...knows," Dan told Kimber.

He bent down and said, "Hi, Kimber. Sorry for scaring you guys like that. I just needed to ask Dan for some help."

"So...so you're not...we're not in..." she said as relief swept over her.

"No. We're not. This guy's been my best friend from college and he knows."

Freddy bent back down, looked at Kimber then said, "I do. And for what's it worth, I approve. I mean, Dan's like the smartest guy I know and when he said he's got it bad for a high school girl, I don't have to get it. I just have to be glad my best friend is happy. He is, you know?"

"Me, too, Mr. Thomas," she said sweetly.

"Call me Freddy when no one's around, okay?" he said.

Kimber smiled then Freddy explained what he needed. In less than three minutes, using Dan's phone, Freddy was on with the dispatcher who promised to send another bus post haste.

"Thanks, bro!" he said handing Dan's phone back to him. He tapped the side of the car and said, "You kids have fun." He looked at Kimber then said, "Sorry. By kids I meant..."

"It's okay, Freddy," Kimber said. "No offense taken. After all, I'm going on 30."

Dan saw the puzzled look and said, "I'll explain it tomorrow."

"I may be um...somewhere else tomorrow if you get my drift," Freddy said in the voice men use when they think they're about to get lucky.

"Oh. OH! Okay. Well...then I'll see you when I see you...Romeo."

Freddy laughed then bent back down and said, "Goodnight, Kimber. Take good care of this guy. He's not just the best, he's the best."

"You won't get any argument from me, Freddy, and I second Daniel's sentiments. Good luck!"

Freddy tapped the car again then said, "I gotta get back. Hot date waiting and all."

"If the heat's out, she's probably freezing by now, but...okay," Dan teased.

"Thanks, man. You really are the best."

Freddy waved then turned around and started jogging in the cold night air.

"You guys are a rather unlikely pair," Kimber said with a smile.

"I've heard that a time or two," he told her.

"Like us?" she asked sweetly.

"Like us? Oh, no. I haven't waited my whole life to meet Freddy," he assured her.

"I hope it's been worth the wait," she told him.

"Do you know the Bible?" he asked her.

"Not well. I kind of lost faith after the accident, you know."

"I do," Dan told her. "I'm not much on religious things myself, but I was just thinking about a parable I learned in Sunday School when I was maybe five or six. It's called the 'Pearl of Great Price.' It's the thing that a man will sell all that he was in order to get once he's found it."

Kimber understood immediately and Daniel knew she did. Even so, he still told her.

"You are my Pearl of Great Price, Kimber. I would gladly give up everything I have for you to include my teaching job."

"And you are mine, Daniel," she told him. "I'm ready to give up...everything...for you."

She leaned over and kissed him this time then said, "Everything, my love."

Dan had only made love to one other virgin before and that was the night he lost his virginity, as well. As he recalled it had been clumsy and awkward and rather painful for the girl as he had no idea what he was doing as he thoughtlessly poked around much too hard and too quickly.

But with Kimber it was very, very different. She was ready and eager and even hungry for him. Dan was loving and patient and spent a great deal of time on foreplay kissing and caressing, touching and gently probing as they explored one another's bodies.

"You are the most beautiful woman I've ever known he told her when she was undressed."

"Is that in the biblical sense?" she teased.

"In any sense," he told her.

"I...wish I was, you know...bigger for you," she said feeling slightly self-conscious at not really even needing a bra at 18.

"No. No!" Daniel assured her. "Kimber. Sweetheart. Not all men are the same. I love your body exactly the way it is."

He smiled, touched her face, then said, "More than you can know. It—and you—are perfect just as you are."

She sensed he was telling her the truth and thanked him.

"I've always been felt...cheated," she told him. "It seemed so unfair."

"But now you've found someone who thinks you're flawless; someone who wouldn't change anything about you," he said as he cupped her pretty face. "I love your body, sweetheart. And I love you."

Kimber melted into his kiss and in just under an hour later, she endured the briefest stab of discomfort as she became a woman in the arms of the first and only man she'd ever loved.

Moments after that short 'stinging' feeling was replaced with the most wonderful feelings of pleasure she'd ever experienced. He'd given her an orgasm with his fingers and then again with his tongue. But the feeling of fullness she experienced, the sensation of her lover inside her not only filled her physically, it filled her emotionally and somehow even spiritually as her body shuddered and exploded in another orgasm more intense than anything she'd ever known.

"Oh, my God," she said happily as he lay on top of her, his hard cock still inside her. "So that's what all the fuss is about. I thought it would be nice, but..."

She looked into his eyes then said again, "Oh, my God!" as she pulled his head into the crook of her neck.

Moments later, Kimber said without moving, "How long until we can do that again?"

She felt him swelling inside her and said playfully, "Oh. That soon, huh? Mmmm!"

The next morning Daniel wanted to make breakfast for them, but Kimber wouldn't have it.

"I hope it won't surprise you that I am a very traditional girl. I won't refuse help around the house or tell you not to bring me breakfast in bed on special occasions, but I want to take care of my husband."

When she realized what she'd said she threw her hands over her mouth and said, "Daniel, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to imply that...I wasn't hinting around at..."

He pulled her to him and said with a smile, "Stop. I like traditional women and I like the sound of that word when you say it. You know—husband."

"Me, too," she said as she drew circles on his chest. "I have to admit I didn't think the man I'd fall in love with would ever be my teacher, but I did fully expect him to be older than me."

"Just not this much older, right?" he said as he pulled her over and rolled on top of her.

"I guess I kind of had ten years in mind—for obvious reasons," she told him referring to her parents. "But then you never expected to fall in love with one of your students, either so..."

"How are we going to do this until..." Dan began saying.

"Until you get your degree and start teaching college math?" Kimber filled in.

"I don't have the job yet," he reminded her.

"I know, but it's just a formality. After the dean interviews you, you'll be a shoe in. I promise," she told him playfully.

"I hope you're right," he told her. "Either way, I can't keep teaching high school. Not when I want to be with one of my students like this all the time."

"But I thought you were going to wait to resign from your job until you know for sure. I can't be the cause of..."

Dan put his finger other lips and said, "You're not the cause, honey. You're the reason. You're my purpose. I can bag groceries or mop floors in the interim. But I can't keep teaching when I'm so in love with you."

"I love you, too," she said her eyes again welling with tears. "I love you so very much."

On Monday morning, Dan handed the principal his resignation while thanking him for the privilege of having taught there for over ten years.

"But what are you going to do if you don't get the job, Dan?" the principal asked.

"I'll get it," he said confidently. "I have someone who believes in me. Completely."

"Lucky...girl?" he asked tentatively.

"Not you, too?" Dan said shaking his head.

"Sorry! It's none of my business, you know? I've just heard so many rumors over the years and I can't ever remember you with a date at any function so..."

Dan actually laughed then said, "No, you're right. But it is a girl. A young woman, actually. A woman who's um...going on 30."

"Well, that makes sense. You must be what? Around 33 or 34 now?"

Dan smiled and said, "Close. You know, she and I don't make any sense, and yet it's the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced."

"Then she is indeed a very lucky girl, Dan," the principal said.

"No, I'm the lucky one. I've waited for her all my life. I just never thought I'd find her where I did."

The principal laughed then said, "The Lord...or the universe maybe, works in mysterious ways sometimes, right?"

"Yes, it does," Daniel agreed before shaking hands and walking out. He laid his keys on the secretary's desk and with that, said goodbye to the only job he'd ever known.

Dan took a temporary job as an assistant manager at a hardware store until he interviewed with the dean of the community college who hired him on the spot—pending his successful degree completion which followed two weeks later. He would be starting as an associate professor of mathematics on the 5th of January, 2018, and making about 25% more than he'd made teaching high school.

In the interim, he and Kimber spent as much time together as they could. They neither flaunted nor hid their budding relationship, and Dan's parents soon learned to love her almost as much as their son once they got passed the shock of learning she'd been one of his students. But just one evening with Kimber proved what their son had assured them. She was indeed 18, but it honestly seemed like she really was going on 30.