Why Did We Have to be Cousins Ch. 02

It was June, and I had graduated and found a mechanical engineering position in Wausau, which was only a 30-minute drive away. The winters up here would make that drive longer and more hazardous, so I found a one-bedroom apartment with a carport that put me within 15 minutes of the office. Still, I would drive back home about once a month, just to be with my family. It was more like every weekend, during the summer months, until Ellen left for school.

Being the ‘new guy’ and directly out of school, with absolutely no experience, I was assigned a mentor. Mike was probably seven or eight years older than I was and had been with the company for about five years. We quickly became good friends.

Mike was into Triumph sports cars. He had a red TR4 with its distinctive ‘bubble’ on the hood and drove it all year round.

There were two bad things about driving it in the winter, especially in Northern Wisconsin. One was the soft top. In the middle of winter, you were lucky if the heater produced enough heat so that you couldn’t see your breath. The second was that the car had very little undercoating. Given the amount of salt that was used on the roads, it was just a matter of time before the car suffered ‘Cancer of the eyeballs and Cancer of the rear panels’. Meaning rust. But, that was a common ailment of a lot of the cars in the 70s. You just learned to live with it.

During a few lunches in the summer, he would invite me to join him for an hour’s country road drive along country roads lined with towering pine trees. The first time we did that, I loved it and was hooked.

I was ready for a change in my vehicle as I was still driving a four-door Plymouth Fury. It was a practical car for getting my stuff to and from school, during my last year of school. Now, I wanted something that was just for fun.

It was the first week of July and I planned to visit my family for the 4^th of July weekend.

My dad rolled his eyes when I pulled up with the top down and parked my 1970 maroon TR6 in his driveway. I mean back in the 70s, there were only three car companies: GM, Chrysler, and Ford. Here was a British car with Union Jack decals on the rear panels. He did let up the next time I was out to visit as he had talked to some of his coworkers and they reassured him that the TR6 was a very reliable and well-made auto.

So, that’s how Ellen and I spent the rest of the summer before she headed off to school for her final year. We would cruise the back roads with the top down. Ellen would always wear shorts that, when she was sitting in the bucket seat would ride up to the top of her thighs, revealing lots of smooth creamy-white legs. And then there were the halter tops. Most had a built-in bra but that didn’t prevent an occasional down-blouse view of her creamy mounds. I’m not sure if she did that on purpose, or that she was just so casual and comfortable with us that it just happened. Still, the occasional view would cause a ‘stir’, and I kept reminding myself…’She’s my cousin’.

I got a letter at the beginning of her last semester, announcing that she had turned in her “V” card. She got the same response from me that she had given me… “GOOD FOR YOU.” I meant it. And she knew it.

I was tempted to play the same game with her that she did with me when I turned in my “V” card. The only thing I asked was, “Was it fun?”.

The next letter from her only said, “It was fun.”

I let it drop. Still, the vision of my cousin being made love to lingered in my mind. I don’t know why, it just did. She later told me that it was a one-time thing and, ‘no’ it wasn’t due to any effects of alcohol.

Ellen finished and graduated with a major in education. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend her graduation. I beamed with pride when I heard her full name being announced, and watch her proudly walk across the stage to receive her diploma.

The following weekend, there was a large graduation party with family and friends at her house. There was food galore and of course beer. After the party had wound down to the point where it was just her family and mine, I took her for a short walk out and out of the view of the families.

Opening the small jewelry box, her eyes welled up as she saw the heart-shaped pendant with the emerald birthstone resting in the center. Ellen wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her full body into mine. I felt her tears through my shirt as my arms encircled her and held her closer than I think I ever had.

Pulling back, our eyes met. Then our lips met in our second-ever kiss. This kiss was not like the first one when she asked me to be the first guy to kiss her. This was a kiss of a deep and ever-lasting friendship as it went on… and on… and on. I had never experienced such an emotional moment in my life.

“Why did we have to be cousins?” her voice was soft.

With a final tender and emotionally filled kiss, she turned and walked back to the house. I stood there, realizing that we had just shared something immensely intimate that had been building for a long time.

………………………………………

Athens was always in desperate need of teachers. It seemed like once everybody graduated from either high school or college they couldn’t wait to move and have a more exciting and fulfilling lifestyle. With Ellen, she loved her family and couldn’t see moving, even being half an hour away in a real city. So, she eagerly accepted a teaching position at the elementary school. She knew that she could have made more by teaching in a much larger school district, but that didn’t matter to her. Athens is where she grew up, and Athens is where she wanted to stay. Although she did admit, that the choice of men was pretty limited. However, since she was still living at home, to try and save money, it didn’t matter.

I never invited her over to my apartment for dinner, an afternoon getaway, or anything. No reason, I just never did. I think that any of those would have been something that the families would not have gone for. With a 30-minute drive each way, Ellen would have, most likely, spent the night on my couch, or we would have crossed a line that could never be taken back. I knew that we couldn’t go there. But, her comment, ‘Why did we have to be cousins?,’ lingered.

I had tried the bar thing shortly after moving here, with the possibility of a casual hookup. It never happened. Single women in bars weren’t looking for casual hookups. They were in search of a future mate. I wasn’t even close to that. Even tried the watering hole that was popular with the singles from work. But then Mike gave me some advice to not get involved with co-workers, even if they worked in different departments. He had seen it before and most of the time, it wasn’t pretty when it ended.

……………………………………

The engineers I worked with were a pretty close-knit group. There was Roger, who was a couple of years older. He had come up to the engineering position by way of the design group, as a draftsman. By ‘draftsman’ I mean with a T-Square, triangles, pencil, and paper. And another guy, Gary, who was two years older. I was the only one on the staff with a Mechanical Engineering degree, besides the VP of Engineering.

It had become a daily lunch thing for four of us to go out to a bar for lunch and have whatever lunch special was up for the day, over a couple of beers, as we discussed the rumors floating around the company.

One lunch had the potential to change my path and future.

It was Thursday, and Richard, the VP of Engineering had joined us, which was unusual. He was a pretty cool guy with a beard, smoked a pipe, and was really good friends with two of the other engineers, Mike and Roger. He was also the only one in the company with a Professional Engineering License.

As we all settled in, he looked at me and Gary, who was the other engineer in our group.

“What I’m about to tell you, I need for you to keep it strictly confidential. Roger and Mike here already know but as a professional colleague, I think I owe you two some explanation.”

He took a swig of his beer and Gary and I just looked at each other, confused.

“Tomorrow morning, I’m going to turn in my resignation. I’m going to take on a position, as VP of Engineering, with a competitor in Southern California. Since it will be a competitor, I’m pretty sure that tomorrow will be my last day with the company. I’m not sure what will be the immediate effect on the department, but I’m sure that Leon will be promoted to the VP slot.”

Leon was my boss and who hired me. Nice guy. For my first job and supervisor, he seemed to be honest and fair.

“From there, I’m not sure who they will put in the Chief Mechanical Engineer position. I have my thoughts, but will keep those to myself.”

Over the next few months, Roger, Mike, the sales manager, and an application engineer all left the company and joined Richard at our competitor.

It had become a pattern: resignations in the morning, followed by a desk cleaning by noon, then a gathering at the employee’s favorite ‘watering hole’ with celebrations and final ‘good luck’ and best wishes.

The ones for Richard, Roger, and Mike were pretty tame with only a few outside the engineering department attending. The ones for the sales manager and the application engineer drew employees for the various other departments.

Instead of the usual ten to twelve sitting around various tables, the bar was packed with probably twenty to thirty employees. I guess that sales guys are more outgoing and just have the knack to attract and make everything around them like a huge party time.

Most of the sales guys never went back after lunch. They were pretty sloshed. I could see some ‘hooking’ up happening between the sales guys and some of the single women that were there. I thought about it. There were a couple of cute and lively ones that were interesting. It’s not like I’ve had an active sex life since I left school, or any sex life for that matter, just something didn’t feel right. Plus Mike’s warning about getting involved with co-workers… even if it was just a one-time casual fuck.