Ellie was dimly aware of rain pattering against the windowpane. She opened her eyes to an unfamiliar blue wall and navy sheets. Where am I, she wondered, realizing she was also naked. Oh yeah, she thought. I shacked with that guy after the party. What was his name again? Andy? Greg? Jim? No… something short, though, she was pretty sure. Jason, maybe. Yeah, that sounded right. He had been the one wearing the American flag jacket, if she remembered correctly. But, then again, given all the beer she’d had, anything was possible.
She rolled over onto her back and discovered she was alone in a room that paid homage to the Stars and Stripes. Ellie felt relieved and closed her eyes again. The morning after was so awkward. But the problem was, she wasn’t exactly sure where he lived, and she didn’t have a car. He was going to have to take her home, or else she’d have to call one of her sorority sisters to come get her, and that would surely get her into hot water.
“Good morning, Beautiful.”
Ellie opened her eyes to see a guy wearing a blue robe and carrying a glass of orange juice and a bottle of aspirin. Yes, she was pretty sure his name was Jason, but she wasn’t sure why he was calling her ‘Beautiful.’ She knew she had to be quite a sight. Then again, maybe he couldn’t remember her name, either.
“I thought you might need this,” he said, handing her the glass and dumping two pills into her open hand. “It’ll help with the hangover.”
“Aside from being a little tired and woozy, I think I’m ok.”
“Trust me, you’ll thank me later.”
She shrugged and tossed the pills in her mouth, chasing them with a long drink of orange juice. It gave her a chance to study him without being obvious. He was maybe 5’8”, 165 lbs, give or take, and had short blonde hair and intensely green eyes. Not her usual type, but not all that bad looking.
“So tell me, Ellie, what time are you expected home?”
Okay, she thought. So he remembered her name. He got points for that.
“Well, you see, my sorority sisters are a bit, well… prudish. I imagine they think I should have driven back with them last night, and they’re probably horrified at the thought that I stayed with you instead, so I don’t suppose it matters when I get home. They’ll be upset either way.”
“Does that bother you?” he asked.
She paused before answering. “I suppose at one time it might have, but no, not anymore. So where am I?”
“At my house. My mom has breakfast ready, if you’re interested. She makes a mean Belgian waffle.”
His mother????!!! She was sick at the thought. What was he, twenty-two, twenty-three? And his mother was making breakfast for him and the girl he shacked up with? What kind of weird family was this?
“Don’t worry – she’s not one to judge. She knows I came home with someone, and she always makes a big breakfast on Sundays. If you’d rather, I can bring it up here. If you’re hungry, that is.”
“Um, thanks, but no. I’m not one for breakfast anyway.” She also wasn’t one to meet the parents of one-night stands, either.
“It’s okay. I understand. So, listen, if you need a bathroom, it’s the door on your right out there. I left some towels and stuff out for you. I think your clothes are over there on the chair. I’m going to grab something to eat and stay out of your way while you get freshened up. Holler if you need anything.” He leaned over, kissed her on the forehead, and left the room, presumably to go back downstairs.
This was just too weird for words, Ellie thought, as she drained the last of the orange juice and set the glass on the nightstand. He seduced her effortlessly, yet he was obviously an intellectual with good taste, if the well-worn copy of Les Miserables on the nightstand was any indication. She opened the cover to see JASON DANIELS neatly printed inside. The clock next to it said ten-thirty.
+++
Forty-five minutes later, after a bath in an ancient claw foot tub, Ellie was dressed in her clothes from the night before, jeans with a denim shirt over a white tank top. She didn’t see a blow dryer anywhere, so she left her long hair wet and tried to look human with the tiny bit of makeup she carried in her purse for emergencies. She dabbed on a little vanilla lip gloss and sighed. The morning after was so anti-climactic. The light of day certainly changed everything.
She heard a soft knock on the door.
“You doing ok?” he asked.
She opened the door. “Yeah, thanks. I’m fine. Just tired, is all.”
He smiled. Now she remembered why she had gone home with him. He had the sexiest smile, even when it wasn’t intentional. “It was quite a night, wasn’t it?”
“Look, Jason, I’m sorry,’ she said. “I have to admit that right now, I don’t remember a whole heck of a lot about last night.”
His face softened. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I didn’t have near as much to drink as you did, but I can assure you that I didn’t, I mean, uh, we, uh, that is….”
“We didn’t have sex?” Her voice was hopeful.
“Well, yes, we did. But what I was trying to say was, well, we didn’t do anything that you didn’t want to do. If that makes sense.”
“Okay…. So what exactly DID happen?”
“Why don’t you come in here and sit down. You look a little pale.” He led her out into the open area outside his bedroom and she sat beside him on a leather couch. Her heart was pounding and her mouth was dry. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the details of last night if it meant she had to sit down to hear it.
“Tell me what you remember,” he said, as he turned to face her.
“Well,” she began, “I remember playing ‘Asshole’ with a bunch of my friends and your frat brothers, and I remember you coming in pretty late. You sat across the table from me.”
“Yes, and you suggested we play ‘I Never’ when we finished playing ‘Asshole,’ and you played footsie with me,” he continued for her.
“Right, so we played ‘I Never,’ and I think we were the last two left in the game.” Her hazy memory began to clear a bit. “I said I was hot and needed to go get some air, and you followed me into the backyard, and I was leaning against a tree when you kissed me…” Her voice trailed off as she thought about that kiss.
She had leaned against the tree because she suddenly felt dizzy, realizing she had had way too much to drink during that game of ‘I Never.’ She had never met anyone else who had done as many things as she had, and she couldn’t believe she had admitted doing some of the things she had, given all of her sorority sisters who were listening to them play. They’d be talking about her sex life for weeks behind closed doors, which was all she needed.
And she was intrigued by his apparent experience in the arts of love, which was she had played a little footsie with him. It never hurt to let someone know you might be interested in getting to know them a little better, particularly when they seemed well-schooled in the arts of love.
He left her leaning against the tree while he went off to a dark corner to pee, and then walked back over to her, asking if she was ok. She was fine, she had told him, but was a little cold. He had kissed her then, ever so gently, cupping her face in his warm hands, their breath mingling in a ghostly fog. “I’ve never met anyone like you,” he said. She had felt butterflies in her stomach, and knew then that if he asked, she would spend the night with him.
“We went back inside after that,” she continued, “and sometime later we left.” She paused, not sure exactly how to continue. She was pretty sure they had left in a black Probe, and that they had kissed a lot on the drive to his house, but that was where her memory faded.
“We danced for awhile, and then we came here, to my mom’s house, and we went to bed. Together.”
Ellie felt sick to her stomach. She put her head in her hands, her face hot with embarrassment, her mind racing, well aware of how capable she was of losing all inhibitions when she drank. She never danced, but that wasn’t the most shocking. Fuzzy images crowded her mind: him above her; her hair falling around her face like a curtain as she rode him; his kisses on her neck; her mouth on his penis; spooning with him, their bodies slick with sweat, their breathing in sync.
Everything was so disconnected, yet so clear at the same time. She had sex with him, had been very wanton and almost whorish with him, the two of them rolling around on the bed, trying out every position they could think of and then some, and she had broken her number one cardinal rule.
She had spent the night in his bed. Her heart sunk.
He put his arm around her and pulled her close. “What’s the matter? Something seems to be bothering you,” he said softly in her ear. She took a deep breath and discovered his cologne, a spicy, woody fragrance with a hint of vanilla. He smelled so good, she realized, and she was tempted to kiss him. She was shocked by how quickly kissing him came to mind, given her need to figure out where her friends were, what they knew about where she was, and how to get home. Her body tensed.
“My friends?” she asked. “The ones I came with to the party? Where do they think I am?”
He tipped her chin and looked into her eyes. “I thought you weren’t concerned about what they thought.” He smiled, and she relaxed almost immediately. Something about his smile made her trust him, which frightened her to some degree.
“They know you’re with me. They were worried about you because they thought you had too much to drink and weren’t in any condition to make decisions about spending time with me. But I’ve known Casey for a while now. I assured her you were in good hands and I’d bring you back home today. Would you like to call her?”
She shook her head. She knew Casey had planned to stay in the city with her parents tonight, and she didn’t know the number. But if he had Casey’s ok to take her here, he had to be an okay guy. Casey was the one who set up this joint party with the Delta Chi guys, and her brother was a Delta Chi alum, so it had to be fine. She felt a strange sense of relief.
“So….” She said, not sure exactly what to say now.
“So….if you’re not hungry, we have a couple of options. You could sleep some more, or we could watch a movie, or I could take you home. It’s up to you.” He played with her hair as he talked, and she was having a hard time concentrating on what he was saying.
“I’m sure you have things to do today,” she said, focusing on the lamp beside his head. His green eyes were so intense, and she was finding it difficult to squash her desire to kiss him. Those eyes must have been a factor in her decision to come home with him last night. They had to be. That, and his incredibly tender kiss in the backyard. She got that funny feeling in her stomach just thinking about it. He was an incredible kisser, that much she remembered, and incredible kissers were few and far between these days.
