I opened the door of the room where I had put Trisha to sleep. I swung it open wide, and saw Trisha looking back at me. She was wide awake, laying on one side, the covers halfway down her naked body.
"So you weren't really asleep?" I said knowingly.
"Of course not," she said, smiling. "Not that I fooled you, either. I just wanted to see how far you would go."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" I asked. I sat on the bed as she sat up and faced me.
"It means that you like something about me more than the other girls," she said. "Otherwise you would have just wished for me to wake up and walk in under my own power. Or done something mean."
"I think you're holding yourself in too high a regard," I said.
She looked at me sternly. "I do not," she said. "You're the one that's doing that."
I laughed. "Just how are you so sure of that?"
"What you've done so far," she said. "You thought enough of me to have me be by your side each and every moment in school. You made love to me 5 or 6 times today, but only once to the others. You held me close to you in the locker room and you didn't push me away in the car. And last of all, you carried me up here and tucked me in. Your own actions show that you think more of me than the rest of them."
"Ah, that doesn't prove a thing," I said, waving my hand in dismissal.
"Of course it does," she said. "I know I'm a horrible person. It's the way I've always been. You've shown me more compassion in one day, though, than everyone I've ever known. And you did so knowing what I had said about your best friend. If you were doing this just for revenge, you would have treated me with a lot more cruelty. Face it, you know I'm right."
She was really trying to crack my surface. "You might be right," I said. "But do you think any of that really matters?"
"Yes," she said. "I think you feel the same way as I do. You want to be with me all the time, just like I always want to be with you."
It was then that I realized she was right. I did. I couldn't help but admit that. Did this mean I loved her? I didn't know. She never said that she loved me. Maybe it didn't have to be said. Maybe if I admitted this to her, it would simply be understood.
I looked at her up and down. She did have the perfect body. Or at the very least, the perfect body for me. She was gorgeous.
As for personality, I really didn't know. I had no idea if we had the same likes or dislikes, the same passions, hobbies, etc.
But she was right. I did always want her to be beside me. I gave in to my feelings. "You win," I said.
"What?" she asked.
"I said, 'You win.' I do always want to be with you," I said.
"Hmm, I know," she said.
"Well, you don't have to smirk about it," I said.
"No, but it's more fun that way," she laughed.
I laughed too, as I tackled her against the bed. She screamed playfully as she found herself underneath me. I pinned her down and then stopped, and just looked at her. She looked back up at me. "Shall we?" I asked.
"Of course," she said. I wished I was naked and under the covers, still on top of her. We made love under the bed. Earlier when she had said we made love, I never thought it was that. It was just fucking, just sex. This, however, was making love. It lasted a long time, and we both climaxed several times. After it was done, I lay on the bed as she wrapped her arms around me tightly.
"So do you want me to be pregnant?" she asked.
"Do you really want to be pregnant?" I asked back.
"Not right now," she said. "Someday. But not now."
"Then there's your answer," I said. We were silent for a few minutes. "You know I still have an obligation to the others. I can't just...well, I can't not fuck them."
She looked into my eyes. "I don't care if you fuck them," she said. "So long as you don't make love to them. Save that for me."
"Do you know how strange that sounds?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "But think about it, you should know what I mean."
"I do," I said. "I just don't want to hurt you."
"You won't," she said. "I know what to expect from you. I know how you've set yourself up in this house with all of us."
"How do you know that?" I asked. "Were you listening?"
"No," she said. "But why else would you want us all here? I've seen what that ring can do, why not use it for us all to live here?"
"You know," I said. "You're a lot smarter than people seem to think."
"Is that so?" she questioned. I nodded. "What do you think?"
"I know they're wrong. That's been proven today," I said. "Those people are the stupid ones." She put her head down on my chest again, cuddling close to me. We lay there again for a few more minutes. Then she looked back up at me and asked, "Do you want to get married?"