"A Birthday Wish Come True" {empath} ( M/F oral rom )

The couple walked to the entrance arm-in-arm, her head resting against his
shoulder and the side of his head leaning onto the top of hers.  Both squinted as
the couple stepped into the bright Nebraska sunlight.

It was a clear, sunny day with only a few small 'cotton- ball' clouds spread
across the pale cyan sky.  A chilly breeze blew across their faces.

He guided her towards a particular car in the lot - an anonymous, burgundy
two-door sedan.  She was lightly surprised at him separating from her and making
his way to the right side of the car.

"What, your vow that I'd do all the driving was sincere?"

"Well, partly that - it was in jest - but one: you know the roads and traffic
patterns around here better than I," he declared, ticking off points on his
fingers, "and two: I figure you should drive your car."

"Huh?"

"I mean it.  You complained that that old Citation didn't handle the winter too
well - check the registration slip in the visor.  You wouldn't BELIEVE all the
hassle a foreign national has to go through to buy and license a car for a third
party...without their knowledge!"  His dimples deepened as his smile was
increased.  Nadine stared at the piece of paper in her hands as the realization
seeped into her consciousness.

"You bought this NEW car for me!  How can you afford it?" Mikel opened his door
and got into the passenger seat.  "Well, my love, I know you well enough that you
won't do anything until I answer, so I'll tell you a little bit of it: remember
what I said about work terms, how I didn't need to do one if I found a job?"

"You got work already?  You just finished school!"  She lifted her legs into the
car and closed the door.

"Ah-ah; that must wait for polite dinner conversation; and DON'T bother
threatening me, Nadine.  You know how much I love my little surprises - just
humor me, please."  The man leaned across and pecked her softly on the cheek. 
She grabbed his head and increased the intensity of their kiss by several grades.

"So I just fucked a phone repairman who can somehow afford to take time off and
give his girlfriend a new car."

"Telecommunications technician, actually; but no - I'm working as a Cobol
programmer like I trained and I'm well-paid for it.  Oh, and before you say I'm
totally loopy, remember that I'm *supposed* to be in my line of work!"  His grin
threatened to split his head in two.

"FINE, fine, fine; I'm getting hungry so I guess I should just give up and drive
us to the restaurant."  She deliberately looked around, her gaze finishing its
journey on his face.  "How do I start my new automobile?"

He reached into his pocket, eliciting a sly smirk from his paramour, and produced
a single key with the manufacturer's logo on the base.  She started up, turned
the heater on full and pulled up to the road.  "Which way?"

"Get onto highway 41 and - to quote a famous pioneer of your people's - "Go west
young woman, go west!"

"But that leads out of town!"

"So?"

"The only thing on that road is Clay, and that's *miles* away."

"So?"

"All riiight," she consented, looking vaguely hurt at being kept out of the
secret.  They sat in silence as the car tried to forge ahead of the weak noon
sun, with Mikel keeping his hand on her near thigh and brushing her slightly
every now and again, attempting to apologize to her in a non-verbal way.

After a few minutes, he straightened up, and announced, the turning's not far now
- on your left and you won't miss the track."

She stared at him as if he'd just sprouted horns but returned her attention to
the road as they started to mount a small ridge.

Nadine found and easily took the turn-off from the road; there was no fence or
sign, and the track was just two tracks in an otherwise featureless snowy field.

"Now it's just over this rise..."

She slowed to ease through the snow more safely, and when they got close enough
the woman's eyes lit up like beacons.

A picnic.  There was a second car just up ahead in this secluded river gully, and
there was a man moving around the site Mikel must have chosen for them to eat
their first meal together in the open air.  A windbreak had been erected around a
large ground sheet, and there were a couple of coolers and a camp stove to one
side.

"Just pull next to the other car to let Mitchell out," he requested nonchalantly,
trying to suppress a smile at her amazement.

"This must've taken a lot of effort," she managed to say as she parked.

"Not THAT much - I went over a topographic map of the area back home: since
there's not enough trees to use for privacy, I decided to use the land itself -
this small valley.  The added effect of the low hill between here and the road
helps, too."

"And our 'waiter'?  How does he figure on our solitude?"

"Oh, he's just from the catering company in Hastings - I'd have done all this
myself, but I needed someone to hang around and watch everything.  He'll be
leaving now that we're here."

And sure enough, the tall man started walking towards the couple as they exited
the car.   "Thanks for all your help; you didn't have to do this!" Mikel declared
as he shook hands rather pointedly with the caterer.  "All in the cause of
romance, Mr. Torsson!" He then looked at his palm and started with surprise.

"I can't take this-"

"You already have - and don't say you wouldn't have earned that much with your
employers; I hope they don't get too mad."

"I'll plead car trouble; dead battery maybe.  Thank you and my best wishes to the
both of you."

"Right.  Drive carefully, Mitchell; and I'll drop off the windbreak and stuff
after we're done."

"Good-bye, miss."

"Good...bye...."  She watched the man get into his car, pull it around and
disappear over the rise.  "Who owns this land?"

He stepped behind her and embraced her, resting his chin on her shoulder. 
"That's rather up in the air, actually - I checked the title registry and the
last record they had was the purchase by a 'Seth Donaldson' back nearly a century
ago.  I tracked down his descendants living in Grand Island, and the lady didn't
even realize she owned the property.  Married and with kids, the woman doesn't
seem too interested in it either; she wanted to know what my offer was."

Nadine turned her head to regard her lover.  "God, you didn't buy it, did you?"

He laughed.  "No, I can't afford THAT!  When I explained I was just looking for
permission to hold a picnic, she okayed my request immediately.  It is beautiful
though - that semi-frozen river nearby."

"Yes.  I love it, Mikel."

They sat on the center of the blanket, and Mikel reached behind one cooler to
pull out a small, multi-shaded blue knit afghan, and draped it over his lover's
shoulders.

"This is..."

"What you knitted for me - I just had to bring it.  Now relax while I get us
something to eat."  He cracked open one of the coolers, grabbing two bowls.

"And what is on the menu, good sir?"

"Well, I apologize for not providing a choice, but I figure you won't mind too
much: chili.  We could use something warm in this weather."  He started to dish
out food for her.

"Fine by me, but WHAT'S YOUR STORY?  We're eating now; *tell* me!"

"Oh, all right - uh, what would you like to drink?" Mikel asked, holding several
bottles of different beverages. She pointed to one, and he poured her a measure. 
"My usual, of course, but don't change the subject!"

"Right, right.  Now this story actually begins not long ago, on a miserable
night...just after I called you.  I'm taking a long drive trying not to be...so
frustrated about having to break my promise of being with you for Valentine's
Day."

"Awww," Nadine interrupted, pausing from her meal.

"Do you want me to tell this or not?" he joked, taking a moment to fill his
glass.

"Go on."

Mikel told his story between mouthfuls of chili. "Well,...I'd driven north, past
Bedford and Sackville and when I'm almost to the airport..., I notice a glow
coming from somewhere across the divided road - down the far embankment, it looks
like.  So...I turn around, and come back down the other side.  And sure
enough,..there's a car that's gone off the road and into the chain-link fence at
the bottom. I stop, hit my hazard lights...and make my way down to see if I can
help.

"When I get there, I find an unconscious middle-aged man...in the driver's seat;
the car doesn't seem too banged up, but the driver's hurt...he's breathing and
got a steady pulse, but he's out cold and there's blood on the steering
wheel..and his forehead.  So I dash back up to the road, and wave someone down to
call an ambulance..then I go back down to the victim, doing a closer examination
- no other injuries. ID says he's ironically a Nebraskan."

"What?"  Nadine asked in surprise, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"God's truth.  Name's Peter Van Heyn.  After a few minutes...the ambulance
arrives, I briefly confer with them and we move the driver out and up to their
vehicle.  A few minutes...later, the police finally decide to come out and I
spend a short time explaining what I knew of the accident...and then I make my
way to the hospital to see how 'my' patient is doing.  They let me up to see
him,...he's conscious now, and he thanks me for helping him out.  The doctor
tells us that Mr. Van Heyn is in fair condition and they just want to keep him
overnight for observation what with his head-injury.  You want any more?"  Mikel
asked as he took their empty bowls.  Nadine just shook her head.

"Now, you know what I'm like; I feel he could use some company, being in a
strange town, in a *hospital* on his own, so I stay and chat with Mr. Van Heyn. 
Of course, after a while I'm telling him about my problems: falling in love with
a woman thousands of miles from me.  Lucking into an Information Technology
training program that delays our being together.  And then - when it looks like I
can get to you for a romantic meeting and go on to my work term just in the next
state, that falls through and I'm stuck in Halifax.

"Well, sure enough, visiting hours are over, and we wish each other well, and I
go home to be despondent some more and get some sleep before my last week of
classes.  Imagine my surprise on Monday morning when I walk into the training
center and I see Mr. Van Heyn talking with the course administrator!"

"No!"

"Yes!  It turns out he works for Mutual of Omaha, and heard about our I.T.
program and came looking for more programmers to help with their Year 2000
problem."

"I'd have thought they would be well into it now."

"Oh, yeah - they've been working on it for over a year now, but the number of
programs they've got running is enormous! They don't so much need skilled
programmers to deduce how to solve their problems, they just need people who know
Cobol and can make the changes they've figured out, and they need *lots* of them!
 Van Heyn came looking to get our entire class.  And Mutual of Omaha is fairly
desperate - they're paying us handsomely for something that's only slightly more
challenging than data-entry."

"You're getting paid right out of school?  No probationary period?"  Nadine
snuggled up next to him as they looked down on the frozen stream.

"Well, I think I got slightly more than the rest for my good deed to Mr. Van
Heyn, but they're paying me!  I got enough of a signing bonus to take a vacation
and buy you a car. They'll accommodate all of us for free - the whole class
jumped at the offer - provide each with a car for transportation, and a nice per
diem for food and entertainment.  I won't even TOUCH my paychecks; they'll go
straight into the bank!"

"But you're Canadian, what about work visas?"

"They've done all the paperwork; I'll have to renew myself after six months, but
all the hassle has been taken care of."

"Sounds great!"

"Yes, and I start as soon as I can.  Here's the clincher: I'm working on contract
- I work with them for the rest of 1998 and we see what happens then."

Nadine looked worried.  "So you could leave at the end of that."

"No, so I could start my own consulting business wherever I wished...like maybe
Geneva, Nebraska.  I signed the deal Friday and started packing.  I landed in
Hastings last night."  He leaned over and kissed his lover on the lips, and the
kiss lasted for as long as they could manage.

Nadine pulled him into her arms and replied, "You given me the best birthday
present you could; thank you." Her eyes started to glisten under her glasses.

"I honestly couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do. You are the most
important thing in my life, honey."  Mikel's voice began to crack.

They held each other for another few moments and then lay back onto the blanket. 
They kissed again, and their mouths wandered; her lips massaged his cheek.  He
started to whisper to her: "Iloveyou-Iloveyou-ohGODIloveyou..."  Mikel ran his
hand down her arm, gloved fingertips massaging her muscles through the coat,
reaching her hands.  Their hands locked together, and he rolled Nadine onto her
back, spreading her legs with his knees.

"No, Mikel - please."

He shifted position without skipping a beat in nibbling her jawline, kneeling
outside her legs.  "S'ok, honey," he whispered as his teeth neared an earlobe.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's just that we're so...exposed.  It's
daylight," she moaned, still holding him on top of her.

"You didn't complain this morning," he pointed out sarcastically.

"No, I mean we're in public-"

"Hardly, this is private property, and we're not visible from the highway - heck,
even overflying aircraft can't see us!"

"Planes?"  She frowned and released his hands, hugging him to her.

"Oof!  Yeah, Mitchell and I saw a couple contrails of high- flying jets when we
were setting up - probably commuters from Omaha to Denver or something...they
wouldn't be able to pick us out even if we started waving flags."  He smiled at
her, and kissed up the side of her nose to comb her eyebrows with his lips.

"Well, that may be, but I just don't feel comfortable," she replied, before
sucking on the tip of his chin.

"Fine, we'll just neck for a bit longer," he announced, shifting down her face to
fulfill his prediction.  "<muh> We should be getting back to the apartment,
anyway: what time was that phone guy supposed to show?"

She placed a kiss on each of his closed eyes, and shifted them into a sitting
position.  "I thought you knew exactly what was going on..."

"Well, sadly my memory is as leaky as a colander - a lot of unforgettable stuff
has happened to me in the last few hours, so the details just slid out of my
head," he sighed, his lips curling into the grin she saw so often on his face.

The man pulled his lover tightly to his chest, as if he wanted to force their
bodies into one complete being.  "I love you," he announced, "and meeting you and
loving you, Nadine Sanders, has only strengthened that."

"I can't find anything wrong with you - even your few scars are attractive to me;
you are just so perfect," she gasped. "Flatterer!  Anyone'd think you wanted
something."

"I do...I want you - but just not here."

"Well, I've said my first priority is your happiness - where do you want to go? 
Back home?  To a cheap motel, or to the most expensive hotel in Nebraska?"

"NNNNNNgh, you KNOW I've got that appointment about the phone line, you *tease*,"
she laughed, reaching up and tousling his hair.

"Fine then, let's get going so we can meet this cable monkey and get on to more
serious things..."  He released her and stood, holding her hands to help her up.

"Finally!"  She gave her man a quick hug, and looked around at all the gear of
their picnic.

"Do we take this?"

"Yep, we'll put everything else in the trunk and then come back to collapse the
windbreak and pop that in the back seat. You can give me a lift to Hastings
tomorrow and we drop it off. I check out of my hotel and we get down to business
of a happy life together," he finished with a wicked, mischievous smile as he
tossed the afghan onto a cooler and packed up the camp stove. "Of course, I'll
have to find a place to sleep, but I hear there's a campground near Geneva - I
just have to get a tent and a warm sleeping bag..."

"Ha!  Like I'm gonna let you out of my sight for a SECOND," the woman retorted.

"So you'll put me UP?"  Mikel inquired suggestively.

"Heh-heh, I'll see what I can do," she replied, running her hand on his thigh.

"<growl> - fine then, but grab that cooler and take it to the trunk; you've got
the key!"  Nadine complied with his request, easily hefting the empty container. 
She walked to the car and placed her load on the bumper.  She fumbled in her
pocket, fished out her key, and opened the trunk.  About to heft the cooler into
the car, she was confronted by a black case.

"Hey, what's this?"

"What's what?" Mikel replied, stepping up behind her and putting down his load. 
"Oh, that. What does it look like?"

"Duh; a briefcase!"

"What's in it?" he asked, taking hold of her shoulders.

"I don't know," Nadine replied, playing along.  "Let's see..." She reached down,
flipped the catches, and lifted the lid to find a portable computer.  "Hmmm - a
laptop.  Yours?"

"Noooooooooo," he replied, his voice almost a purr.

"Another gift?"

"Well, I figure you could use something a little more flexible than that old
thing you had on the table. 'All the better to read my posts'," he answered,
embracing her.

"Love you, you extravagant man."

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