I am starting this story, if it is a story, in no particular place. That's because I have no particular story. Take your chances.
I am starting with something I think about, once in a while, but it happened a decade and a half ago.
I am sitting in the living room of our two-bedroom suite at college, my sophomore year. It's a college in Providence, Rhode Island, that used to be a loftily exclusive women's co-ordinate college, but now, pursuing the worship of "equality," it has been integrated with the men's college, one big happy university.
If I don't start this story pronto, I will have no readers left.
My roommate was out, our little living room was warm and well lighted. I was on the divan beside a guy who came to see my roommate. When I had answered the door, I really smiled. A tall, lanky New England prep-school boy—not a rare species at the men's college. He had "WASPish good looks," as we said, then. And he seemed so happy and expectant.
When I told him that Kathy was out, he wilted like tomato plant at noon in August, sagged; I almost could see his leaves brushing the floor.
"Was she expecting you?" I asked. You have to say something. I am a woman at a well-bred college; I have manners. I cannot act like an Italian landlady in the South Bronx. No offense.
"No," he said, decisively, absolute rejection of my suggestion. Then, normally, "No, I dropped by."
"Kathy isn't here. The Rock, I think"—that was our library.
He nodded. He did not leave. He was casing me, though, I was sure, though with some class. I am a little tall, lanky like him, short black hair, bangs, brown eyes. My best asset is my legs, long, pale, nice shape. I dress to show them off. Otherwise, my butt is compact, my breasts, at least I think, are beautiful, but even under a T-shirt with no bra no one notices them. Too small. I've always been cute, people say, like an elf, when I was little, and now a Parisian gamin, flashing long bare legs on the margins of an Impressionist painting, maybe by Courbet.
By now, I am talking to myself, I know. Everyone has gone off looking for nudes of Polish girls with immemorial chests.
I said, when he didn't move, "Well come in." Maybe I wanted to see if a tomato plant could walk. I gestured at the divan. I am a cultivated woman; this is adult life; there is the hospitality reputation of the women's co-ordinate college to uphold.
He came in and sat down. Was I decent? No. I had come back from my run around College Hill, out to the athletic field, around it four times, and back. My sweat pants and zippered top were mauve; I wore nothing under them. I am too firm to jounce. I don't mind the slight titillation as I run when my bare nipples rub against the sweat suit; anything to relieve the boredom of jogging.
"Kathy should be back," I said, trying to be encouraging. I checked my watch. Almost 10:00 p.m. Would Kathy want this guy waiting for her? My guess: yes. Preppy, good-looking, athletic sort of, and one sad puppy with corn-tassel blond hair and blue eyes. Kathy was the busty, blonde babe with the big heart, big boobs, big smile. She wouldn't turn away the janitor. Sorry, catty remark.
I had been about to open a bottle of chardonnay and start on my Greek and Roman Literature reading. You can't have everything. "May I offer you white wine?" I asked with a tight smile.
"Yeah," he said, "yeah," and heaved himself up off the divan with a really heroic effort and held out his hand. "Brandon Mayberry," he said. Did I giggle? I did not. Did I say, "Brandon? Mayberry? Are you kidding?" I did not.
I held out my small, well-manicured hand, smiled into his yes, and said, "Ellen Melville."
"Oh, like Herman?"
"I'm from Long Island. I'll open the wine." I turned to our galley kitchen. He followed. He opened the wine. He poured just two thirds of each glass; a born waiter. Or maybe his summer job.
We went back and flopped onto the couch. Now, I can fast forward, here, skipping our conversation about classes, nice Kathy, running, and hanging out at Faunce House and reading the Wall Street Journal between classes—not me, but he seemed to have investments. And the nine-foot Kodiak bear in Faunce, in the glass display case, and how he has such a tiny penis for such a big bear.
But let me skip that. Because whenever I get to the point, you will be skeptical, at least until I explain.