“I just don’t want to see things get completely messed up for you, Leo. I know it’s all fun and good right now, but who’s to say that’s going to last? Who’s to say that someone isn’t going to find out about this and try to make your life hell? Or what if you get fired?”
“There’s so many what-ifs,” I said. “I really don’t want to sit here thinking about all of them. And who’s going to find out? You’re the only one who knows. Well, and my brother, but he’s happy for me. No one else knows. And I intend to keep it that way.”
“You might be planning to keep it that way, but what about her? You don’t know who she’s told. You don’t know if she’s suddenly going to decide that this whole thing is wrong and she doesn’t want to be a part of it anymore. Or—what if she says you forced yourself on her? What if she tries to play that card? It’s one thing to be involved with someone when it’s consensual, but it’s a completely different thing to have someone try to say you sexually assaulted them.”
I sighed and patted his arm. I was touched, really, that he was this concerned, but it was primarily because Jack was incapable of living a life that included any risks. The thing was, there probably were plenty of instances where he would have enjoyed taking a risk, but the stress of it would overshadow anything positive. I wasn’t going to sit there and dwell on the what-ifs, on the possibility that we would get found out, that Tessa would decide to say that I tried to take advantage of her. Could it happen? Sure, it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities, but right now, I was enjoying things too much to take anything else into account.
“She wants the good grade,” I said. “I don’t think she’s going to do anything like try to say I forced myself on her. And I know you said you didn’t want details, but, trust me—this is enjoyable for her, too. I’d even venture to say that she’s having just as much fun as I am.”
“Just because something’s fun, doesn’t mean it’s good,” Jack said.
The fun part wasn’t surprising—what I did find somewhat surprising though, was the fact that I actually really liked her. Not just because we were having amazing sex, but I liked being around her, which I wasn’t expecting. In fact, I’d been assuming that once the sex had started to get routine (which it almost always did) that I’d have to think of some excuse to try to get rid of her.
In fact, lately, I’d been thinking that I wanted to take her out to dinner. Or do something along those lines, something that wasn’t just sex (though that could certainly happen, too). I asked to speak with her after class, and I waited until the room was empty before telling her I wanted to take her out.
“Out?” she said, a surprised look on her face. “Out where?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Out to eat somewhere. I’m not too picky.”
“Oh,” she said. “Okay. Well . . . that would be fine. Maybe it would be better to go somewhere that wasn’t in the city, though? I don’t want to risk someone seeing us together.”
“Sure. We can go wherever you want. Though if someone does see us, you can just tell them we were talking about an extra credit assignment for you.” I expected her to laugh, but she didn’t; she only gave me a tight smile and nodded.
“I guess,” she said, though she didn’t sound certain.
“We don’t have to,” I said. Was it possible she didn’t want to go? Had I been misreading this situation the whole time, and she really was only doing this with me because she wanted the grade? “I just thought it might be . . . nice.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it will.” She smiled again, though it still seemed forced. “I’m sorry, I’ve just got some other stuff on my mind, is all.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
She hesitated, her gaze going around the room as though she was expecting someone else to be there.
“No,” she said. “It’s fine. Yes, let’s go out somewhere. That sounds like a nice idea. You can pick; just let me know.”
“Okay, I will. Anything you’re totally against?”
She shook her head. “I’m sure whatever you choose will be fine. I’ve got to run, though. I have a ton of work I need to do.”
She rushed off, and though she had agreed to go out, it seemed as though she wasn’t as excited about it as I might’ve thought she would be. My phone started to buzz, and I looked at the screen. My brother. I usually didn’t take calls when I was at school, but since class was over and I had some time to kill before my next one, I answered.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” I said when I picked up the phone. “It’s barely been a week since I last talked to you.” Usually, we’d go months.
“Hey, bro,” Aaron said. “Just got some downtime for the moment and was thinking about you—thought I’d give you a call and see how it was going.”
I laughed. “You can’t fool me. I know you’re calling because you want to hear about how it’s going with that student of mine.”
“Well . . . a little curious maybe. And you know, I don’t think I mentioned it before, but I’ve decided to take a break from hooking up for a little while.”
“What? Why?”
“It’s just . . . something I’m doing.”
Which was probably code for he had another STD that the antibiotics hadn’t cleared up yet. “So you’re calling to live vicariously through me,” I said. “Ironic. Unfortunately, Aaron, I’m not the sort to kiss and tell, so maybe go log onto xvideos or something.”
“You’re not really doing her, are you? There is no student you propositioned.”
“Actually, there is. And I’m still not giving you details about it. I will tell you this much though—it’s going better than I would have thought.”