The Music Assignment

[Author's Note: This is a short story written for a contest of the Lit Bulletin Boards. It's short, on purpose, which limits the obvious sexuality, but, despite that, I hope it carries the sexual mood that this little fantasy has always carried for me. Enjoy!]

Lee sighed as he looked over his class notes again. The class project was due in only a couple of weeks and he wasn't even close to being ready. He stretched in his chair and was willing to surrender for the night when there was a soft knock at his. He stood up and made his way past a couple piles of library books to open it.

The girl on the other side of the door jumped slightly and smiled nervously as he greeted her. "Hey Jenny. What brings you around tonight?"

She smiled back, her hair framing her cherubic round face as she ducked her head shyly. "Well, our paper is due and I've seen your notes. You need help."

Lee opened the door wider and smiles. "Well, come on in. I need a lot of help. To be honest, I just don't understand what I'm doing here.." She came in, ducking around him and slightly brushing his chest with her shoulder as she did giving him a faint whiff of her gardenia perfume. He had mentioned once how much he had liked it and, after that, she always seemed to wear it to class. They sat next to each other and he had come to rely on her ability to keep everything organized as much as she relied on him. They were from different musical worlds - he from jazz and she from classical. In a class that concentrated on jazz, he had managed to help her., Besides that, her shy demeanor offset his often too-outgoing manner and they had become great study partners. His grades owed much to her organizational help, but there was more. He genuinely liked being around her and he thought she was perhaps the cutest woman he had ever seen. When he told her that once she just blushed and smiled. Nothing more was said, and he let it lie. He liked what he had, even as he wanted a great deal more.

She sat down on the edge of the couch as he got them each a cup of coffee and began to take a couple books out of her knapsack. "Here's where we have to work together now closely," and she puzzled Lee by blushing on that word, "if you're going to get finished on time."

He sighed. "I'm supposed to contrast composers who wrote down their music for the band and those who didn't. I mean, there's a huge difference between Ellington and Monk, and they're all obvious!" He threw up his hands and sighed. "I don't even know where to begin."

Jenny let him finish, then said, "It's obvious to you, because you've played it, but I haven't. So explain it to me.."

Lee thought for a second then answered her. "I like having most of the music laid out in front of me. That makes a band tight, but still lets the individuals have a place to soar. The other stuff can just become noise too quickly. You have to have structure before you can have freedom." He kept on going for a few minutes more, the coffee forgotten. As he spoke he leaned closer to her, gesturing with his hands, touching her leg occasionally. Once in a while, he would get up to put a CD in the player to let her hear a snippet of music to illustrate his point.

When he was done, Jenny was smiling at him broadly "You're amazing when you talk about music," she said. "That's where your passion is." She cut herself off abruptly, as if she had said something she hadn't wanted to. "I mean...you love music and it shows. It lights you from the inside. You talk about it and it carries everyone along. That's what your paper should do. Just write like you were talking to me right now. I mean, you were so....so....." She stammered to a finish. Lee looked at her a moment, then looked at her differently. He had never considered that she might want from him what he wanted from her, but maybe she did. He only knew one way to find out. She cleared her throat in the silence and turned as if to speak again, but he caught her chin in his hand lightly and kissed her lips gently. She gasped, but didn't move away. He deepened the kiss, opening her lips to his and she answered with a whimper deep in the back of her throat. Her body turned to press more against his and her hands came up to wrap around his back. The kiss built, gained more and more passion as they plundered each other in that embrace. After what seemed like hours, Lee broke the kiss and smiled to see the same passion in her eyes that he felt in his.

"Now...I was so...what? You never did finish that sentence."

She looked back, her eyes smoldering from the kiss. Her voice was soft and low, as if she only wanted him to hear the answer, ever, "Sexy. Now please...kiss me again."

So he did, and more.