“I’m sorry,” I said, letting go of her. “I don’t know why I did that.”
“I do,” she said, heading into the kitchen. I followed and heard her mutter, “Men.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
She walked over to me and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Stephen, but you probably shouldn’t do something like that again.” She stood up on her toes and kissed me lightly. “That wasn’t exactly the stealthiest move back there. We need to keep this secret for both our sakes, right?”
I nodded.
“I can’t have you getting all territorial with me.”
Territorial? Is that what she thinks I was doing? That wasn’t it at all…was it?
“I don’t think I was being territorial,” I said.
“Yes, you were,” she argued. “You saw the pizza guy ogling the girl you’re fucking and you wanted to show him that I was off limits. Typical guy behavior.”
I gaped at her while she smiled.
“It’s OK, Stephen. You just can’t do stuff like that on campus, if a guy flirts with me or asks me out. I have to be your student when we’re in school and nothing else.”
I knew that she was right.
“Besides, I’m not sleeping with anyone else, so you don’t have to worry,” she added.
“You’re not?”
“No, sleeping with two people at the same time gets complicated and I don’t do complicated. As long as you’re fucking me, no one else is,” she said.
“Oh, that’s good, I suppose,” I said. “Um, what about dating?” I asked, remembering my possible blind date with Lily.
“I don’t date. Dating leads to boyfriends, and I don’t do relationships. I like to keep things simple, you know?”
“I guess so,” I said, although I really didn’t. I had never considered having sex with someone I wasn’t dating.
“Stephen?”
“Yes?”
“I like fucking you and I like hanging out with you,” she said. “But if that isn’t your sort of thing, that’s perfectly fine.”
What exactly is she saying? She wants to keep doing this?
“You…you want to do this again?” I asked her.
“Sure,” she said with a smile. “You can come by a few nights a week when both of us are free.”
I thought about what she was offering: physical pleasure with no strings attached. Was such a thing even possible? More important, did I want something like that? I wanted to have sex with her again. And I did like talking to her as well. At least, I did when she wasn’t being argumentative and stubborn. She seemed so different here in her apartment than she did in class, but it didn’t change the fact that she was my student and seeing her privately wasn’t allowed. All my life I had played by the rules, and I’d never thought I would find myself in this position, doing something that put my career at risk. Julia was still holding me around my waist, looking expectantly at me while I struggled to come to the right decision.
“Look, you don’t have to answer right this second,” she said. “Think about it, OK?”
I nodded and she reached up again, giving me a quick kiss.
“Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
I watched silently while she grabbed the pizza and two beers from the refrigerator. She put the box on the bed with some napkins and placed our drinks on the nightstand. All the while, I was still trying to figure out how it would work if I did come back here again another night. Could I really just come by her place and have casual sex whenever it was convenient? I knew this wasn’t how one should treat a woman. But Julia didn’t seem to care at all about stuff like that. She was the one who’d suggested continuing our pleasurable, albeit strange arrangement and while I’d found that I liked that she was so free with her sexuality, it still went against my sense of propriety.
“Hey.” She interrupted my musings. “You’re thinking way too much about this. Come have some food and just relax for a while.”
I sat down on the bed, leaning against the headboard as she handed me a slice. I secretly wished for a plate, but decided that it was probably best not to say anything.
“Do you want to watch a movie?” she asked.
“What did you have in mind?”
“We can watch Kill Bill,” she said with a grin. “Get you up to date on cultural references.”
“What’s it about?” I asked, taking a careful bite of the pizza, which was very tasty.
It didn’t go unnoticed by me that whatever Julia provided, whether it was food, drink, or sex, I enjoyed it immensely.