“It’s really the only thing I think I’d be capable of doing, actually.”
“And what is that?”
“Going to bed.”
“Bed? It’s like 9 o’clock in the morning!”
“I know. I’m not saying I’d go back to sleep or anything like that, but I don’t think I’ll be physically capable of doing anything for at least a couple of hours.”
She patted at her face with a corner of the towel. “My legs really do feel like Jell-O.”
“Let’s do it, then. School’s out. We don’t have anywhere we need to be. I’m not saying we have to stay in bed all day, though if we do, I certainly won’t be complaining.”
I didn’t wait for her to respond; instead, I picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. I couldn’t remember a time when my bed had looked more appealing.
We lay down next to each other, the cool sheet on top of us. Tessa snuggled up next to me, and I kissed the top of her head, her hair still damp. I had said I wasn’t going to fall asleep, but I could feel myself starting to drift off into some sort of half-awake zone, and I certainly wasn’t going to fight it.
“You know,” Tessa said, “I’m really glad that I took you up on that offer.”
“I’m really glad that I made you that offer. I almost didn’t. And when I did, I didn’t think that you were actually going to do it.”
“I know that school’s out now and everything, but I want to keep seeing you.”
“I’d be pissed if you didn’t. I’d feel used, actually.”
She laughed. “Would you? I thought I was the one who was supposed to be the sex toy.”
“You are definitely so much more than that. Of course I want to keep seeing you. You’re living here now, aren’t you? That doesn’t have to change just because school’s out. The only thing that I think I’d like to see change is for you to go from being my student to my girlfriend. How does that sound?”
She snuggled closer to me, draping her arm across my chest. “I think that sounds lovely,” she said.
“Good.” I hadn’t been planning on saying that, on asking her if she wanted to be my girlfriend, but it seemed like the natural progression of things. She was going to keep living here, and we were going to keep having amazing sex, so of course she should be my girlfriend. I wanted that, and I was glad that she did, too.
We both must have drifted off to sleep, a little bit, anyway, because the next thing I knew I could hear a phone ringing. For a second, I thought it was part of the very lucid dream I was having, but then I felt Tessa stirring next to me. I opened my eyes as Tessa was groping for her phone on the bedside table.
“It’s my dad,” she said blearily, looking at the screen. “I should probably answer this.”
She sat up, the sheet sliding off her, her bare shoulder exposed. “Hello?” she said tentatively.
I lay back and let myself doze, half-listening to Tessa’s side of the conversation.
“Thanks,” she was saying. “Yeah. It was a lot of hard work. But I’m happy with all the grades I got, too.”
There was a long pause.
“Um . . . well, sure,” she said, sounding surprised. “If that’s something you want to do. Tonight? Uh, yeah, I think we could . . . hold on one second.” She brought the phone down, and I pried one eye open and looked at her.
“What’s up?” I said.
“Soooo . . . my parents are coming to the city this afternoon to see some friends, and then they want to take us out to dinner.”
“Us? As in the two of us?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Is tonight okay? Are you cool with that?”
“Sure,” I said. It was probably a good sign, an extending of the olive branch, if her father was calling, wanting to take us both out to dinner.
But when Tessa got off the phone, I could tell she was anxious about meeting up with her parents tonight. She tried to lay back next to me but her leg started fidgeting and then she started chewing on her cuticles, and finally she wriggled out from my arms and got up.