Safe With Me, Special Edition

by Shaina Richmond

  I'm probably overreacting. I had a great time with a great girl. If I have nothing else, at least I have an amazing memory. Even if I end up married to someone else I'll still have the memory of that night of mind-blowing sex, which was probably only a taste of who she was, sexually. Fuck. I have to marry her. This argument with myself did not end the way I’d planned.

  I really hoped it would wear off - this euphoria from getting laid for the first time in months. Maybe that's all this is, I told myself. There's no reason to worry.

  The past few years had been pretty rough on me. Since May, I'd lived in a house with three other guys and they were always bringing different girls home. That lifestyle didn't appeal to me. But it didn't mean I couldn't have some fun once in a while, right? It didn't make me a "bad guy." It's normal college behavior. Part of the college experience. It wasn't a part I was interested in before but maybe I was warming up to the idea.

  I tried to justify it to myself. The reality of the situation was this: I had feelings for someone who could really hurt me.

  My mind raced. I was in bed staring at the ceiling for hours trying to fall asleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I kept remembering how good she felt and how easy it was to be with her in every way. It felt natural. Talking, studying, laughing, kissing, fucking... it all felt so easy and effortless with her. I thought about things I wanted to do with her if I got her alone again.

  I remembered something she said - shouldn't it be the woman who feels this way? I couldn't imagine any of my roommates having these thoughts. All three of them did whatever they felt like doing. Those poor girls would be calling them and stopping by the house for days afterward. And my roommates couldn't have cared less.

  Shit. How did I get myself into this?

  Part 2

  Tyler’s Point of View

  Wednesday, October 6, 2010

  I finally got a few hours of sleep before I went to my 11:30 class. I forced myself to focus on the finance test because my mind wandered - a lot. I couldn't stop thinking about what happened the night before. I was thankful Susie wasn't in my class. She had it at 12:30. I probably would've failed the test if we were in the same room together.

  Should I be concerned about her past history with the men of this campus? Maybe there weren't as many as I thought. But really, she wasn't any different than any of the other women around there. She was just more open about it.

  I went to the student union, The Cellar, to wait for my group so we could work on our management project. Several of them were in the 12:30 class with Susie. The rest had another class I didn't need to take because of my transfer credits. A copy of the student newspaper was on one of the tables, so I picked it up to pass the time. The front page had a story about the soccer team.

  I thought about Troy Anders. I wondered if Susie had something to do with why he didn't play soccer anymore. My roommate, Joe, played soccer his freshman year and he still kept up with the team. I'd heard him mention several times that the team probably missed Troy. I had to find out more. Was he stalking her or something? She said he thought he was her boyfriend. Poor guy. I hope I'm not next.

  Joan Melton suddenly appeared in front of me.

  "Hey Joan!" I said, startled.

  "Hey Tyler!" She echoed my tone. "How's it goin’? Did I scare you?"

  "No, no. I was just thinking about something. Have a seat."

  Joan sat down across from me. "So what's going on with you, Ty? Haven't seen you in a while. How's Caleb?" she asked.

  Joan and Caleb, one of my roommates, had something going on over the summer. It started when they worked together at a bank. I had no idea why she wasn't around anymore. Caleb never mentioned anything about it to me. He was too busy bragging about his latest conquests.

  "He's okay, I guess. Busy with classes."

  "Hmm. Good for him."

  I decided not to probe, given her tone of voice.

  "I didn't know you were in any of our classes, Joan. Are you a business major?"

  "No. I'm minoring in Management. This is the only business class I have this semester."

  Susie mentioned Joan was a good friend of hers. I chose my words carefully, trying not to be obvious. "I met Susie Lombardi yesterday. I think she's gonna be here with our group today."

  "Yeah. She's so cool. We go way back. You didn't know her already?" She seemed surprised.

  "Not until I met her yesterday. We studied for the finance test. I took it this morning."

  "How do you think you did? I've heard that's a hard class."

  "I think I did better than the last test. Susie told me the secret was to go through the examples in the book."

  "She's smart. Listen to her."

  "Yeah, she's something." The words slipped out before I could stop them.

  Joan didn't seem to hear me at first as she turned her head to scan the room for the rest of our classmates. I was relieved. Then she looked at me, her eyes huge, like a light bulb came on inside her head.

  "Yeah, she really is something," she said. The size of her eyes went from wide to suspiciously narrowed. "You know, I tried to call her cell phone a few times yesterday and she never answered. She'll usually call me back even if it's late. She sent me a text message at, like, three in the morning to tell me she'd talk to me today."

  "Really?" I wondered if Susie would talk about me with Joan. What would she say? Would she tell her what we did?

  I cursed under my breath when I realized I sounded like a woman.

  "Hmm." She winked at me and smiled. I must have a horrible poker face.

  I saw Dan and Corbie walking toward our table.

  "The party has arrived!" Dan said. I wasn't happy to see him. He was a jackass. He seemed like a frat boy but he wasn't. Actually, a frat boy wanna-be. They probably rejected him because he was so annoying. He had a few good moments, from what I'd seen in class. But mostly, he was just plain annoying. He was somewhat shorter than me and seemed kind of preppy. His hair was short and dark, styled with too much gel. It made me thankful for my culturally-accepted long hair.

  Corbie just said "Hey." He was a tall, hefty blond-haired guy, built like a football player. I didn't know him very well but he was likable so far.

  Dan and Corbie sat down on the opposite side of the table from me, to Joan's right.

  "So you guys are in the same group as Tyler?" Joan asked.

  Corbie answered, "Uh huh,” as they opened their backpacks and got out their notes for the project.

  Lisa and Chris were the next to arrive. Chris sat to my right, and Lisa put her backpack down beside Joan and left to get something to eat.

  "Who else are we waiting for?" Corbie asked.

  "Looks like Susanna in our group. Who else is in your group?" Chris asked.

  Just the sound of her name made me smile.

  "Michael." Dan answered. "Here they come."

  I saw Michael and Susie talking and laughing as they rounded the corner into the student union food court. Michael was a tall, good looking, well-dressed black guy with a shaved head. He was smart and funny in every class I had with him. I felt a twinge of jealousy as I watched them walk along together. I feared I was going to have to do my homework on her before I assumed she'd slept with all of her male friends. I knew it could drive me crazy. My first impression was that she and Michael only looked like good friends. But, then again, wasn't that how she preferred it?

  They both laughed hysterically as they approached our table. The laughter made her tits bounce as she walked. She wore a brown jacket with a tight black shirt underneath. The memory of the curvy, supple body under those clothes was fresh in my mind. I probably would’ve gotten hard if I wasn’t so nervous about seeing her again.

  "Hey you guys!" Susie made one big waving gesture to everyone at the table.

  "Hi guys," Michael said, still laughing.

  Joan looked at Michael. "What’s so funny?"

  "It's nothing. Just some guy in that ‘free speech’ area outside," Susie
said. Her fingers made air quotes when she said ‘free speech.’ "He said something about a .38 special. We thought he was talking about a gun, like those anti-gun protesters who were here a few weeks ago. But then he started yelling something about ‘hold on loosely’ and I realized he was yelling about the rock group." She could barely finish her sentence without laughing.

  "He's dropped a little too much acid in his lifetime." Michael laughed. “He has this crazy look in his eyes.”

  "So, on our way in here we were trying to think of what random things we could go outside and yell at people about. Like, really old, irrelevant pop culture references. I'm sure the ideas aren't as funny as we think they are. You really need to see the guy." Susie laughed. She looked around the table and stopped laughing when she caught me staring at her. She returned my look and smiled.

  Dan and Corbie started laughing and throwing out ideas with Michael. They howled with laughter at their own jokes, especially Dan. I might have thought it was funny if I wasn't so distracted. It was my first time seeing her since I left her house at 2:45 that morning. I wondered if it would be awkward. One night stands weren’t my thing, and I didn’t know the proper ‘seeing you the next day’ etiquette.

  There was still an empty chair to my left. I hoped she would take it before Michael sat down or Lisa came back.

  "Anybody sitting there, Tyler?" she asked. Her sexy drawl said ‘Tah-ler’ again. I loved it.

  "Nope." I nodded slightly to the left, urging her to sit there.

  She hurried over to sit next to me, putting her backpack on the table. There were several conversations going on at the table at once. Michael sat on Susie's left, talking to Dan and Corbie. I thought maybe there was enough distraction, and people wouldn't notice if there was any awkwardness between me and the lady to my left.

  She let her leg casually brush against mine as she spoke to Joan. Maybe this won't be awkward at all.

  "I'm sorry I couldn't call you back last night. I was busy studying," she said to Joan. I wondered if Joan knew ‘studying’ was Susie's euphemism for ‘being thrown down on my couch and fucked by the guy sitting next to me.’

  "Yeah." Joan nodded. "I'll bet you were." She paused for a second, squinting at Susie. "Tyler here was telling me he met you for the first time yesterday. Don't you have several classes together? You're in the same major, right?"

  "Yes, but it's barely October. I don't know everybody, contrary to popular belief. So, what's going on? Your message sounded serious." Seemed like my Susie wanted to change the subject from the events of last night before Joan could ask any more questions. I didn't mind being low-key. She made it clear to me that I wasn't her boyfriend. I liked how we could hang out together the next day with no weirdness. But there was obviously an attraction between us. I could tell by how her leg lingered against mine.

  "We'll talk later," Joan said. Corbie tapped Susie's hand and she turned to talk to him. Joan looked at me, grinning.

  After a half hour of socializing, we began to talk about the big management project. It was nice to make some new friends. I had a feeling I was about to enjoy college a lot more from then on. Susie spoke to everyone and brought me into her conversations. She made me feel included, like I'd always been there. It was nice for a change.

  I got hungry around 3:00 pm. I decided on cheap taco's from the Taco Hut in the food court. I thought about asking Susie if she wanted anything but I didn’t want to hear the ‘I don’t want a boyfriend’ spiel again.

  When I stood up, I heard Joan say she was hungry too. I stood in line waiting to order when she came up behind me.

  "Hey Ty."

  "Hey."

  "So, taco's, huh?"

  "Yep.” I barely turned around to look at her.

  I heard her take a deep breath. "So what's going on with you two? Don't say it's nothing, either. I can tell."

  I looked down at the floor. I was actually dying to talk to somebody about it but I didn't want it to get back to Susie. I wasn't sure what to say.

  Joan continued. "Look, Ty. I haven't known you for long, but I think you're a really nice guy. Caleb said good things about you."

  It's funny how guys can open up to women and tell them what they're really thinking, but we don't talk to each other that way. I had no idea what Caleb thought of me, and I was stunned to hear this tiny bit of information. I still didn't know what to say to Joan.

  She went on. "I think you could be really good for her."

  "Really?"

  "Yeah. Definitely."

  "What makes you think that?" I asked.

  "I've known her for a long time. Susie was friends with my older sister Monica when she lived here with her aunt in high school. My family always kept in touch with her."

  "Oh?" I hoped she would keep going.

  "Yes. She's great. Probably my best friend. Monica and I always talk about how we wish she would settle down with the right guy."

  "Well, she's very blunt. She told me she doesn't want a boyfriend,” I said.

  "She acts like she's so hard. Like she's one of the guys."

  "So I've noticed." It was especially obvious that day. Susie knew how to hold her own with our male classmates.

  "Well, I don't really buy it. She's protecting herself. She likes her independence. She had it rough for a while after her parents died. She went through a lot before she moved to Lockwood when she was a teenager. And I think some other stuff happened when she moved away for a few years."

  I wanted to pry but I held back for fear of looking desperate. I found myself grateful for Joan’s talkative nature right then. But I wondered if that talkative nature was why Caleb didn’t have her around anymore. If she was standing there going on and on about something I didn’t care about, I knew I’d be annoyed. But since she spoke about something of great interest to me, I was all ears.

  "Wait a minute - she outright told you she doesn't want a boyfriend?" Joan asked.

  "Yeah.”

  Joan laughed. "She puts the walls up right away, I guess."

  I couldn't hold it in any longer. I needed to know more about her history with men."Okay," I sighed. "She made it sound like she really gets around. Is that true?"

  Joan looked like she was deep in thought when I heard the guy at the counter say "Next!"

  Great. I was just getting somewhere. I quickly placed my order and paid, as did Joan.

  She leaned down close to my ear, her voice quiet. "I've never known her to have an actual boyfriend. But she's not a slut. She doesn't mess around with just anybody."

  Our orders were ready at the same time, almost immediately. They probably have 50 of those stupid, cheap taco's already made. Damn it, Taco Hut! I should've gone somewhere else. I was desperate for information and I needed to buy time before I went back to the table.

  "Has she been with any of the other guys at the table with us today?" I asked.

  "Not that I know of, and she would’ve told me by now. I can usually tell anyway. That's how I find out. You see, I used to get really jealous of the attention she gets," she said. "We'd go out dancing. Guys wouldn't flock to her right away. But she has this personality. Not that she isn't pretty, don't get me wrong."

  "Oh, she's pretty," I said. "But it's the whole package."

  "Yes. Some guys would come over to hit on me and end up drooling over her. It gave me a complex for a while."

  We stood there holding our trays, waiting to walk back to the table. I was glad she wanted to stay there and talk. I hope she doesn't tell Susie about this.

  "Anyway," she continued, "I can't say every guy she meets falls at her feet, but the ones who fall for her fall really hard. And she's almost always oblivious to it." She took a deep breath. "Well, like I said, I used to get jealous. But eventually I found the humor in it. Well, maybe 'humor' isn't the right word. But I learned to appreciate it in a new way. I can tell when she likes someone," she paused, "and when someone likes her." She grinned at me. I looked down at my tray, knowing it was too late to de
ny it.

  She sighed. "We've been away too long. She'll notice. And she'll be pissed at me if she realizes we were talking about her. Don't say anything!"

  "I was going to tell you the same thing. Please don't tell her about this conversation."

  "Tyler, I'm rooting for you. Seriously. I won't do anything to wreck this. I've never offered to help anybody with her before. We can talk more about it later. What's your cell?"

  She sat her tray down on an empty table and took her phone out of her pocket. I gave her my number and she added me to her contacts, then immediately called my phone so I'd have her number.