Being jealous of my room, which was several times the size of hers, Cherry didn't need much convincing to hang out there once work concluded. She even brought her PlayStation 4 over so we could play 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and she could laugh at my relentless confusion. Eventually, feeling guilty that I was the only one holding a controller, we switched to some racing games whose name I can't remember and chased each other around a track.
"How's archaeology going for you?" I asked.
"It's going well," Cherry replied, lounging on my sofa, cross-legged in angel-white pyjamas. " Lecturer's a bit of a knob but, you know, we move."
"A knob how?" She shrugged.
"Expects you to know the syllabus before he's even covered it. I guess it'll be in the textbooks but I'm not gonna read loads of shit before I know it's even relevant, am I?"
"I guess not, no," I conceded, as my car span out again. " Just be careful. Worst thing in the world would be you getting sent to my office."
"Well, yeah, but if that happens you'll go easy on me, right?" She looked at me with a freckled face that I had expected to be good-humoured, but there was more than a bit of hope in it. I wondered if she'd taken this chance to address an anxiety she'd been harbouring since we met.
"I'd go more than easy on you," I said. "You can just hang out for ten minutes and we'll pretend I did it."
"Ideal," Cherry laughed, her face flooding with the same relief I'd been seeing all day in my office, her attention returning to the game. Even having been barely looking at it for the last few moments, she was still on the edge of lapping me. Again. " One of the benefits of friends in high places."
"Is this something you've been worrying about?"
"So much," Cherry laughed. My car crashed and she winced at the volume. "Mind if I turn the sound off?"
"Go for it." She stood and went to the TV to fiddle with the buttons, poorly positioned under the frame -- as she did, bending over, I could see through her pyjamas the dark silhouette of Calvin Klein underwear hugging her plump bottom. I tried not to stare and, feeling a strange twang of annoyance that I'd probably never see it bared, failed.
For a time, we were sat in silence, but a n uncomfortable thought was niggling away at my brain. " One of the benefits of friends in high places," she'd said.
"What's up?" Cherry suddenly asked.
"Huh?"
"You've got a faraway look going on."
"Apparently I always do." Cherry smiled.
"Come on, what's up?" I took in a deep intake of breath -- if I could put girls over my lap, I reasoned, I could say what was on my mind.
"You're not just hanging out with me so you can get an easy time of it, are you?" I asked. "I'd feel a bit-"
"Used?"
"Yeah."
"No, Kel, I'm not. I don't waste my time on people I don't like. Don't fuss about it." She patted my thigh reassuringly.
"Well, even if we weren't hanging out, I'd still just let you off," I said. "It's what I've been doing today and I'll probably keep doing it."
"Oh, really?" asked Cherry.
"Yeah..." I sighed. " Every girl who came to me today, I just sent that away. Well... except the first girl. I went too far, I think."
"Too far how?"
"It was like a, you know..."
"Bare ass?" I nodded. "Wow."
"Yeah. It felt great at first, like I'd really figured it out, but it all drained away so fast. Now I feel awful and I don't have the energy to do it again. Two days in and it's already too much for me. I can't just pack it in -- I can't go back to working in a kitchen -- but every time I get into it like I did this morning I scare myself."
"You get into it, huh?" I felt my face stain red.
"N... no?" Cherry cackled.
"Maybe I was wrong about you being all subby. Well, I've been wrong before."
"It's not comfortable, though," I said. "It's like sometimes there's someone else in charge of me. Like I stop being myself occasionally."
"Now that sounds like one hell of an awakening," Cherry giggled. "What darkness doth reside in you?"
"Reminds me of a painting I saw in Bristol," I said, absent-mindedly.
"What painting?"
