|
He joined the university and was put to a mixed sex hall of residence. Most of the girls he met were at the communal kitchen of his hall of residence, they were pleasant and chatty but somehow pre occupied with their own concerns and with eating and drinking there. He was a serious student and his remarks at seminars were listened to with respect, but socially he felt a bit of an outsider. Occasionally, he would go to the gym to watch the female students sweating it out, but that was the extent of his libido. In his third year, around January, he made love to a girl, which was very pleasant, and then in February he spent the night with a second girl, both from his hall of residence. This girl had brief blonde hair and seemed to like him. He however acted a bit disdainfully to her, thinking, unfortunately, that it was the manly way forward, and afterwards ignored her; it was also a night of rough sex. That March, he began to notice that the female students in the common kitchen were palpably ignoring him, but his studies and academic ambitions prevented him from giving it too much thought and besides everybody was beginning to revise for the final examinations in May. Then one Tuesday in April, there was a knock on his room door at about 9AM after breakfast. Three girls entered and said they wanted to speak to him. The most forward, a brunette of about 21 years, sat on his bed wearing, he always remembered, faded tight jeans with her legs quite apart showing the material that covered her whole crotch - he just could not take his eyes off that. They said in the nicest possible way that he had been accused of date rape, but instead of reporting him to the student disciplinary committee, many of the girls in the commune had got together and had come up with a solution. Would he agree, they asked? They knew he would give it at least serious thought, as he wanted to progress to an academic career. The three visitors were very friendly and normal and attractive. They made him feel that he mattered as an individual. Three weeks later, he was treated in a friendly manner in the communal kitchen and in the gym. Nothing was said or done to dwell on the past, and he had even had taken out the blonde with short hair to the cinema, had even affectionately kissed her ears to make up for his disdainful and sarcastic remarks to her in the previous months. He did well in his examinations and was greeted by all when he passed them. He went to end of term parties and mixed socially. He did start to wonder who knew and who did not - it was promised solemnly it would be kept a secret from all except the three visitors- but after a while he gave up caring: nobody seemed to think him any different. Fifteen years later he was drinking coffee in a cafe when he saw a brunette also drinking coffee across the room, sitting by a table. He recognised her with an excited sweat and a brief almost imperceptible movement at the tip of his penis. Would she recognise him? He could see her smile at him as he approached her. Nothing was mentioned about the visit all those years ago, nor of the underlying reasons. That was all past long ago anway, and all he could detect was respect and friendliness from her. They talked about the articles and books he had written and of the universities he had lectured in on both sides of the atlantic. She was in publishing and there was much in common. After coffee, they exchanged email addresses and he felt that a genuine friendship was being born. |