selves. What were they trying to prove?
“It didn’t start as sex,” Maureen was saying. “It started as a massage and
them naked, just talking, and me just sitting there, watching and talking with
them. They said I could stay or leave, it was up to me. I took off the rest of my
clothes, mostly to be polite but also so I wouldn’t feel like a dirty old man. Or
woman. But they forgot I was even there and got totally into each other. I
couldn’t take my eyes off them. I was fascinated. I’ve watched porno before,
but nothing live. Have you ever seen straight people make love?” She rolled
her eyes up into her head. “Incredible. They really got into it. I was afraid they were going to wrestle each other into the fire.”
Abbas and Elena had involved a student in their kinky sex game? Daniel
was stunned, hurt, disgusted. It had been different when he was in college.
Weirdness happened all the time between faculty and students, and everyone
treated the affairs, pot parties, and orgies as simply part of their education.
But times had changed. This was an age of awareness, responsibility, and law-
suits. Abbas had exposed a student to something obscene and brutal, and not
just any student but one of Daniel’s favorites.
“And when they finished, they looked so satisfied. I was envious! So much
so that when Elena apologized and said she hoped I wasn’t shocked and was
there anything she or Abbas could do—” Maureen broke into giggles. “But
no, I said no, thank you kindly, I’ve had enough new experiences for one
night. I pulled my clothes back on and told them good night. And they re-
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C h r i s t o p h e r B r a m
membered to pay me for babysitting—I forgot. But I went back to my dorm
and had the damndest time falling asleep.”
Daniel studied Maureen, with her freckles and short red hair—she looked
like a farm girl despite her pierced eyebrow—and tried to imagine her sitting
naked in firelight, watching a husband and wife fuck. And he couldn’t, not in
a hundred years.
“How do you feel now?” he asked. “Do you feel guilty? Confused? Do
you need to talk to anyone else?” Did he actually want to involve Zack?
“I feel fine,” said Maureen. “Really. Very fine right now. I needed to talk
with someone, because keeping this a secret was making me feel like a pervert.
I couldn’t talk about it without getting people in trouble. But telling you, I
don’t feel like a pervert anymore. It was a privilege, wasn’t it? An adventure.
Not every day that you get to be part of a primal scene like that.”
She was tough and cool. She was an art student, for chrissake. She should
be fine. “You’re right,” said Daniel. “You can’t tell anyone else. We don’t
want to get the Rohanis in trouble.”
“Oh no. Absolutely not. But if anything else happens, I can come back and
talk to you, right?”
The idea that this could continue produced a new knot in Daniel’s stom-
ach. “Do you think something else will happen?”
“I don’t know. I have him for painting, you know. I babysit for them. And
I really like her.”
“Maureen, how old are you?”
“Twenty-one.”
She seemed sixteen, but she was old enough to know her own mind. She
was certainly legal.
“It’s not my job to tell you what to do,” he said. “But. I think you should
cool it with them. Keep your distance. For now anyway. Because things like
this can get out of hand.”
“I like her a lot. ”
“But you have him for a teacher. This could get him in trouble. More im-
portant, I think you can get hurt emotionally.”
“Really?”
“They’re a married couple. They’re working out their own shit. You don’t
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need to be drawn into it. I can’t tell you what to do—and please, come talk to
me if anything else does happen. But I think you should keep your distance.”
“Yeah, I see your point. It’s no good for me to have a crush on a married
woman.” She sighed once, then again. “But yeah, I’ll keep my distance from
her. But I got him for Advanced Painting. Where, in fact, I gotta go next.”
“Today?” She was taking a class with a teacher whom she had seen fuck his
wife?
She looked at her watch. “Oh shit, I’m late.” She jumped up. “But this has
been a big help, Wexler. Really. Thanks loads. I’ll let you know what happens.
Bye.” She opened the door and flew out.
Daniel got up and went into the hallway, but she was already turning the