Jacob once again stood in the shower for a long time. He was glad his apartment was on a boiler because it meant he had an endless supply of hot water. He always felt he did his best thinking in the shower. He could just stand there facing away from the shower head and let the water hit right in between his shoulder blades.
He thought about what all had happened that day and the day before. It wasn't even his first week of college and already he had been used by two women.
Then when he felt he had met a girl that he really wanted to be with he discovered that she considered him competition for a second girl that really wanted to be with him.
"Should I pursue Rose, or should I pursue Alex?" Jacob muttered to himself out loud.
"If I pursue Alex it will destroy Rose and besides Alex may not even be into guys. If I pursue Rose, it will destroy Alex because Alex seems to have feelings for Rose. The oddest part of all of it is Rose wants to have sexy times with Alex but she also seems interested in me. But I cannot deny the fact that both girls are really awesome.
Both of them make me feel really good and both are great to be around. Alex and I shared a moment where we cuddled together and laughed and had a great evening. But Rose took the plunge and straight up kissed me. Then she held me close to her heart and there is no denying that I felt something wonderful there too."
Jacob looked down at his feet. He shook his head and decided it was finally time to get out of the shower. The clock on the wall of his bathroom said it was 6pm. Not wanting to have another Taylor incident, he put on underwear and pajama bottoms and a white T-shirt.
He went to the living room and booted up his laptop. He had a whole slew of messages from the social network. Most of them were from classmates and two were from Fred and Derek respectively. One was from a "Matt Feltwick" and this was the one Jacob opened first.
"I don't know what you were talking about when you said what you said in the hallway, and my girlfriend Clair refuses to tell me either. I don't deserve to be in the dark on this so I am asking you nicely to come clean with me. Is my girlfriend cheating on me with you? Be a man and tell me the truth."
Jacob hit the reply button and began to type.
"Matt, all I can say at this point is it depends at what point you started dating Clair. If you have been dating her since before Monday, then I am afraid she cheated on you with me. You can get mad at me if you want to, but I assure you that I had no idea she was taken. After she used me like a three dollar hooker she told me that the only reason she had fooled around with me was because she had never seen a dick before. My sincerest apologies if in fact she has technically cheated on you. Like I said before, however, it is not really my fault. Best of luck to you sir. Jacob Lifeson."
He saw that he had a message from both Rose and Alex and for some reason the hair stood up on the back of his neck. He knew it was not from the message from Rose but more from the message from Alex. He clicked on Alex's tag line.
"Jacob, we need to talk. Can you come by my apartment tonight?"
He replied with a quick, "Sure" and then clicked on Rose's message.
"Hey, I gotta say you are something special Mr. Lifeson. I don't know what is happening but ever since I saw you I have gotten butterflies in my stomach. Walking with you to the gym today I just couldn't help but kiss you. I hope you are feeling as good about me as I am feeling about you."
Jacob plopped the laptop onto his coffee table and jumped up off the couch. He marched right out his front door and down the hall to Alex's apartment. He was feeling extremely groggy from how little sleep he had gotten in the last 24 hours.
He knocked on the door and just as soon as his knuckles hit the door on the second strike the door flew open. Alex stood there in her usual huge T shirt.
"You got underwear on this time?" he said as more of a question than a statement.
"What difference does it make? I'm not lifting my shirt up for you again."
"That's fine with me." Jacob said smiling. "You wanted to talk to me?"
He walked in and sat down on the couch.
"Yes, I do actually."
Jacob was getting anxious. This could go a lot of different ways.
"I want to talk to you about us." She sat down on the couch next to him and sat with her back against the arm rest and feet together on the cushion with her legs open. She was facing him.
"Um...ok, sure." Jacob said not knowing for certain if this was going in the way he hoped for. It took every ounce of nerves he had not to look down between her legs.
"I like you, Jacob. There is something about you that seems different from other men. We slept in the same bed together and not once did you try to touch me or make any kind of move on me."
"Well I still haven't determined if you would like me to do something like that. Until I discover if that kind of action is welcome I am not going to try anything on you. You mentioned several times that we are friends and so I assume that is all you want us to be."
"Sometimes in platonic relationships, friends sometimes become friends that please each other sexually. That type of thing is certainly more acceptable since the two friends are a man and a woman, right?"
