It had been so long since she had felt wanted—so long since she had really wanted someone else, but now she couldn't even begin to hold back the feelings she was having. Her only regret was that these feelings were for someone in the past—so far in the past that she felt there was no turning back:
Everything had started three years before, her freshman year in college. She had met the most wonderful man, Paul. Originally she saw him only as a friend, but that lasted little more than a few hours upon their first actual meeting. He took her, as friends, to a show at a little club nearby. He explained to her that he didn't date people younger than him, only those who were older than him—he was five years her senior. They were dancing at the show that night when Paul tugged on her hair. He was the first person to ever do this and she couldn't have described the pleasure if she had tried. She was immediately hooked on his dominant nature. When they got back to her room, everything he had said about being just friends went out the window when he kissed her, and then kept kissing her.
Upon leaving the dorm she asked him, "I thought you weren't interested in girls younger than you?"
His answer was, "I wasn't," and he smiled.
From that point on began their friends with benefits situation. At first she found this to be very fulfilling. She hadn't had many sexual encounters before Paul, but he was by far the best. From the first night he had kissed her, something had been different. His way of kissing was unique and that alone was enough to turn her on without him touching her at all. She loved the hair pulling and ass smacking sex. He was gentle enough that she was never concerned and always felt at ease with Paul, but just rough enough that she was going nuts when she wasn't having sex with him.
But as is the case with many young women and their friends with benefits, she started to have feelings for Paul, something that Paul had told her from the very beginning was not possible. For a while after she told him she had feelings for him they didn't talk, but just a short while. She wanted the sex, but more so wanted to be around him, so she said she was okay with just being friends with benefits. Deep down it was killing her. Eventually it became too much for her and an argument ensued. From that point on, they didn't talk for over a year, until she emailed him.
She had never emailed him directly before, their only communication was by AIM, but when she logged into her forgotten LiveJournal, she saw he had a new email address posted. She hadn't signed on to the LJ since she stopped talking to him and she was torn. In the time they hadn't been talking, she had many sexual encounters. She had become more willing to try friends with benefits, but deep down, she always wanted that extra connection. After seeing his email address, she felt like she had to contact him, but wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do, or even if it was an okay thing to do. Things had ended on bad terms between them, but she wondered how he was and if he was even still living in the same town. So she sent an email, short and sweet. She told him that she didn't want to cause any problems, but that she just wanted to check in and say hello. She figured he wouldn't respond, but she wanted him too badly. At least this way he would know she was still thinking about him.
The next day she had an email from him. Surprisingly, very surprisingly, he said he had been thinking about her as well. Apparently he and a friend recently had a conversation about sex and sex partners during which Paul made a mental list of the good and the bad.
"Don't worry, you were on the good," he assured her.
She was upset for a bit that he had talked to someone else about having sex with her, but then she realized how many people she had talked to about how amazing he was in bed. They started gradually chatting, it was worth trying to at least be friends. During this point he told her that he had grown up a bit, realized that he eventually wanted to settle down. Could this possibly be the same Paul? After a few weeks she invited him over for brunch to which he accepted; he never came. Yep, same Paul.
The next week she met a guy, a guy who seemed wonderful at first. She dated this guy for over a year. During that time she continued to talk to Paul and was always tempted by him, but she never went any further than talking to him as a friend. Over the summer that year she and her boyfriend had a fight, a big fight. That night she went out for drinks with some friends and ended up texting Paul. The bar was called The Cellar and since Paul lived nearby, she assumed he would know the place.
"You should come to the cellar," she texted him.
A bit later, after they had left the bar, she got a text in response, "Is that a bar, or are you actually waiting for me in my cellar."
She thought it was hilarious at the time, but the next morning she couldn't help but wonder why she had asked him to come. What was it she would have said or done?
A few times after that Paul made comments like, "It's too bad you have a boyfriend" and "we had some great sex didn't we?"
It was getting to be too much for her, but the attention was nice. It seemed like her boyfriend never gave her attention and he sure wasn't as good as Paul in bed. She never really enjoyed sex with her boyfriend, but she loved him, so she stayed with him and never cheated. Just the same, she didn't feel fulfilled in her relationship; she felt abandoned and alone most of the time, definitely not wanted or desired the way Paul had made her feel, and she definitely wasn't comfortable about her body around her boyfriend, even after a year of dating. She should have known something was wrong, but she stuck with him.
Just shy of 15 months together, she broke up with her boyfriend. Turned out that he was the vainest son of a bitch around and he didn't think she was pretty enough for him. He said that he was embarrassed to be with her in public and that's why he didn't have any friends anymore. She was crushed, but soon realized that she had known for some time that it wasn't going to work and it was all a big weight lifted off of her shoulders.
Soon she started talking to Paul more frequently. The more she talked to him, the more she wanted him. She went back to her hometown for a few weeks after the breakup, but Paul said he wanted to get a drink with her when she got back. She couldn't wait, but she wasn't sure if this was right. Was it okay to want to go out for a drink with an old flame that soon after a breakup? At this point she wasn't sure what would happen when they got a drink. After all, she hadn't been single for very long and had been very devoted to her boyfriend. Was she ready to have sex with someone else? Was it safe for her emotionally to have rebound sex? She struggled with this the entire time she was away from college for those few weeks.
As her return flight drew nearer, the more convinced she was that she wanted Paul more than ever. She told him in a text that she had been sexually frustrated in her relationship and hadn't found pleasure in the act in a long time. His response made her want to get on a plane as soon as possible.
"After our drink I'll have to pin you down and fix that."
She wanted him. Bad.
Her mind was soon flooded with memories of their times together. Things she hadn't thought about since the time that they happened were suddenly in the forefront of her mind. She couldn't think of much else but the sex with Paul, but she knew she would never make it as just friends with benefits, she had changed, but not that much. She made the decision that she would try it, just for now, even though she knew it wouldn't last. She knew the feelings would come back, and she knew they would come quickly, but she wanted to enjoy the sex at least a little before this happened, so she decided to go for it. She figured that when she started having feelings for her, she would tell him, which would inevitably lead to another argument and not speaking again, but that was fine, she was graduating in the spring, at least that's what she tried to tell herself.
Even though she wasn't seeing him until the week after she got back to college, she was nervous for the entire flight. Just thinking about him turned her on, even when she wasn't thinking about sex. She hoped she could get through this without spoiling everything with her emotions too soon, but she could already tell that her feelings for Paul had never gone away in the first place.
Once back at school, things fell into a routine pretty quickly. Although she wasn't taking classes over the summer (she was working) she was pretty well distracted—until Paul sent her a message. "Tonight?" was all it said.
So she sent her response, "Where do you want to go?"
When she hit send her hands were shaking. She felt like a child. Why on earth was she this nervous, or maybe she was just anxious? He made her wait for his response. Finally, she heard the message alert and opened her phone.