There I was. I don't even know how to begin to tell how I got here.
I guess we could start when I got an email that included:
What is your number? I'll call you so we can discuss it.
I was shocked, a phone call? This late on a weekend? It felt superfluous, unnecessary. But to refuse felt strange, too. I couldn't figure out a good wording to ask for another time and it wasn't like I was doing anything in that moment, so that should be fine. Before I knew it, I had sent my number over and waited for his call.
After that phone call, I had awkwardly sat in his office once to discuss a paper and in class had stumbled across a couple questions.
But now, here I was: straddling his lap with his fingers in the waistband of my thong.
In his office, door closed and locked. If anyone walked past his window, they would hear his voice and my whimpers.
Perhaps I should give more background. After those aforementioned interactions, I had received an accidental phone call. Brief, but I felt composed and my laughter felt mature. Then a complement here and there, scribbled on the side of a test or in the margins of a paper. I felt silly for feeling so intoxicated when I read over his praise, but it felt dimensional. He was saying more than just the scratched letters. But paired with sweet affirmations came harsher criticisms. One minute drunk and then the next sentenced to hang.
But that's how he was, brutal, candid, demanding. All of this though comes from a depth that I couldn't quite understand, which pulled me in. I think maybe he saw that. He saw that I recognized it, the pool of experience and emotions. I had dammed up my own lake of doubt and criticisms and musings, too.
There was a time when I visited his office to get a book from him. Him, opening the door and widening his smile, me stepping in cautiously asking about his day and the book. Him, responding and peeling the paperback book off his desk and handing it to me, apologizing that he's in the middle of something. I took the book and walked through the door, but at the same time he had reached to pull it open and so there we stood for two seconds too long. Eyes caught, his gaze dropped to my mouth. He looked as if he was going to say something, then stepped back and nodded. I didn't hesitate to leave and walk down the hallway, in shock of our proximity and...his gaze.
His brown eyes, furrowed brow, and relaxed lips - I couldn't get it out of my mind.
It wasn't until another semester that I found myself sitting in his office, again. Different class, different paper, different topic. I stuttered my way through talking about my idea and the difficulty I was having in bringing it about. Things had felt normal at this point, I told myself they had to be. The conversation carried, he mentioned other writers and theologians that could be of some use. I don't remember how but the conversation had shifted into depression and anxiety. I remember my voice so clear it rings in my head now. I shared and he had, too. It was a beautiful moment. As I was telling him goodbye and how much I appreciated our conversation, his hand twitched at his side before curling into a fist. I pretended to not notice, I had told myself that this was all so ridiculous. But I felt the whisper of a hand touch the hem of my top when I walked away.
Same semester, but near the end, same office but now in a very different conversation in a very different position. Grazing his finger tips across my chest, down my stomach, looping to my back using my hips as a guide. "Tell me to not do this," he pleaded.
"Please do it," I moaned. I could feel him grow underneath me, so I circled my hips. His sharp breath left his mouth, I made sure to watch.
"God," he breathed when he noticed I was watching him. "Fuck."