Gilligan's second date with Ginger began like the first, with dancing and kissing, both alternately and simultaneously. But then, while they were dancing for the second time that night, Ginger whispered in his ear, "Some women like ear blowing." She demonstrated on him, with warm, gentle breath.
He took this hint and did his best to imitate her.
"Mm hm. And kissing the ear can be very nice, too. Soft, teasing kisses, especially at first."
Again demonstration and imitation. It tickled a little, but not in a bad way.
"I like that," she whispered the next time. "Very much." And then her mouth teased his neck in a way that he found so distracting he stopped dancing.
"Would you like to sit down?" she suggested.
"Yeah," he said a little breathlessly.
So they sat in the cane chairs and he learned more about necking. He'd seen some at the movies, but more often in the back row than onscreen, so it was harder to observe. And it definitely felt different than it looked. It looked weird and awkward, but it felt great.
His lips and occasionally his tongue ran across her soft, smooth skin, making her sigh happily. And her talented lips, and teasing tongue woke up his face and neck, making him feel all tingly.
He tried to stroke her hair, when he remembered to. He did want her to feel special. She was special, teaching him all this, opening up a whole new world for him.
Sometimes their mouths would work their way back to each other and their tongues would hug. They'd kiss for awhile and then move back to cheeks, ears, and necks.
Four hours seemed to be just the right length of time for a date. Of course, these were dates without movies or restaurants or roller rinks. From what he'd overheard in high school and then the Navy, this was the part of the date that you could look forward to if the movie, restaurant, or roller rink had gone well and the girl liked you enough that she wanted to show her appreciation. Apparently there were bigger thank-yous than this, but the other guys usually dropped to whispers when they talked about those, so Gilligan had overheard much less.
This was different. Gilligan wasn't spending any money on Ginger. And she was the one to suggest each new step. Also it didn't seem like she was just rewarding him. She seemed to be enjoying all this as much as he was.
He remembered telling her— was it only two days ago?— that he wanted to take things slow, but he was no longer sure what slow meant. He knew there were steps between kissing and birds & the bees stuff. But he didn't know how many steps there were or how many were left. Were they doing a step per date? All he knew was he was having a wonderful time, and Ginger seemed to have found a way around his nervousness. Not that he was exactly relaxed, but he was willing to trust her as she suggested each new thing. If it ever stopped being fun, or if he ever felt overwhelmed, then he'd put on the brakes, but for now, he was perfectly fine spending most of these four hours necking. He was willing to wait to see what she came up with for their third date.
He did think of these as dates as well as lessons, even without the surrounding activities. They both used the word "dates" and they were scheduled times to be romantic. And yet, he'd always thought of dating as a chance to get to know a girl and become closer. He didn't feel like that was happening, maybe because these were also lessons, but maybe also because it was Ginger.
In some ways, he knew Ginger very well, not just her acting career, which he'd memorized before they met, but also some of her likes and dislikes. He also knew about her former roommate Debbie Dawson and how she envied Debbie being able to move forward with her acting, while Ginger's one encounter with a producer on the island had not gone well. (Gilligan thought she not only sang and acted terrific in the Hamlet musical, but she had looked beautiful in the flowing white gown and her hair loose and long.) He knew she was interested in medicine, too, not just helping the Professor as a nurse but once psychoanalyzing Gilligan. He'd been glad she hadn't asked about his dreams, since she featured pretty heavily in them and it had been harder to keep his distance from her than in real life.
The thing was, in some ways Ginger kept her distance. Not physically, but emotionally. He'd seen her laugh and cry and he knew how she felt about a lot of things, but he didn't really know how she felt about him. Was this all just a way to amuse herself? Was she lonely? Or did she, as he'd once thought when Mrs. Howell tried to matchmake him with Mary Ann and he'd misunderstood, have a crush on him?
He wasn't sure how he felt about Ginger anymore. He liked her of course, more than ever, because, whatever her motives, this was a very nice thing to do for him, making him into the world's greatest lover. And she must've realized that that would take months or maybe years to achieve. But he was confused by the excitement he felt when they danced, kissed, and now necked. Was that about the activities or about her? And how would he ever know, when all they did on dates was make out, and he never made out with anyone else?
Well, maybe it was OK to not have this sorted out in only a couple days. If he did have months and years of dating and learning with her, even someone as slow on the uptake as he was sometimes could figure this all out.