I barely had any sleep that night, as my brain and my heart couldn't get to a conclusion between guilt, excitement, fear, doubts and a few other ghosts that were circling my bed. Looking at my wife of so many years lying by my side, I couldn't avoid feeling bad for having cheated on her, but if I closed my eyes and thought of Julie, my heart and my cock reacted almost instantly, telling me to push ahead.
The next day I scarcely did any work, waiting anxiously for the time to get Julie after college. I knew it was a risky thing to do, but after what I had done the day before it looked less scary and I tried to calm myself and not to think on everything that could go wrong, from some of her friends wanting to know who I was to someone I knew recognizing my car. Anyway, during the day I had already sent her a text confirming our "date" and she had answered me a single, laconic "yes", and now it was too late to back down.
My heart was pumping hard when I stopped my car in front of her college at 6PM sharp, and its rhythm only increased during the ten minutes or so I had to wait while wondering if she had backed up. I was almost sending her a new text when I finally spotted her leaving the campus, this time wearing her "normal", everyday clothing: jeans, a t-shirt with a big cat on the front and sneakers. Less than thirty seconds after that she was opening the passenger door by herself, as I didn't risk leaving the car somewhere so public.
When I got a closer look at her, everything, every fear, guilt and doubt left me instantly. She looked so fragile, so small and so young on those clothes that I wanted to pick her up in my arms, to hold her and to take care of her. At the same time, the make-up she was using, adequate for her clothing but lots more than she used to wear when I first met her on the lift, made her so pretty, so sexy and so provocative that I could feel my body react, wanting to do things far more lascivious than hold her close. Anyway, I barely had time to process my feelings, for as soon as she got inside the car she said, with a sense of urgency:
"Let's go before my friends leave the campus."
Waking up and instantly realizing she was right, I started the car and drove while saying:
"I missed you very, very much, my sweet thing..."
She didn't answer and kept looking to her lap as before. Not knowing what to do, I drove in silence for a minute or two until she finally spoke, this time looking at me:
"I... We need to talk."
"OK..."
"Not here... I... Can we go somewhere we can stop the car?"
She sounded different, mature, and It got me worried. Maybe she had in fact told her mother? Oh, I would be so fucked... I tried to push the bad feelings away and, after thinking for some time, said:
"We could stop on the beach. At this time of the year and at this hour it will be almost deserted, and we can talk."
"Ok."
"Can... Can you tell me what's happening, my pearl?"
"Not here, please..."
By the way she said that last phrase I could see that she was nervous and anxious, too. In fact, it was as the young girl was instantly back, the maturity she expressed before already gone. A minute later, as we stopped on a traffic light, I looked at her, seeing that she was crying softly, making my heart sank. I almost tried to ask what was happening again, but controlled myself and kept driving to the beach.
Ten minutes later we arrived, and I drove all the way to the end of the beach to find an isolated spot where nobody would pass by. As soon as I stopped the car, I put some easy listening MP3s to play and, turning to her, said softly and lovingly:
"We're here, my little thing. What is it? Why are you sad?"
She looked at me, her eyes full of tears, but didn't speak. I couldn't help anymore and, taking off the seatbelt, got closer to her, holding her tight while she started to cry harder with her head on my shoulder. I was very confused and very scared, but I knew that I needed to wait for her to speak, that rushing things would not work, so I did my best to put myself together and waited for what appeared to be an eternity but was probably only a minute or two until she finally stopped crying and, getting back to her seat, said with her eyes down and in a girly voice:
"I... I want to know what you want."
"What I want? What... What do you mean?"
"You... What we did yesterday... It was not like I dreamed. I always thought my first time would be special, with someone special, something I would remember dearly forever."
The guilt I felt at that moment was so powerful, so hard, I almost cried myself. She continued:
"It was with someone special.", she said, turning her head up and looking into my eyes before continuing: "At least for me. But... But I felt so bad after that, I cried so much when I got to my bed."
"Why?", I asked, already knowing the answer.
She was again looking at the floor when she replied:
"Because it was so... carnal, so sexual. It was not about love, but about... lust. And..."
I was feeling so, so bad that I needed some more time to think, and so I asked:
"And...?"
"And I know it was with someone special for me, but I really, really don't know if I'm special to you or if I'm only a young girl you wanted to..."
She stopped talking, and this time I didn't have the courage to ask her to continue. Looking back now, years and years after that, I think it was at that moment that I started to realize that I, too, was feeling much more than lust. Her fragility, her childish behavior had an effect on me too, an effect that I wasn't able to control anymore.
"Julie, I... I don't know what to say..."
She was crying again, her arms folded, when she replied:
"Because I am, I am only a girl you... You wanted to do things with..."
"No, no, no...! I... Oh, fuck it! Yes, at first it was. You looked always so pretty, so innocent, but at the same time so... sexy in your working clothes, that I couldn't help but want you. But now... Fuck, now I don't know anything anymore. I'm feeling like an idiot, a fucking teenager!"
I was angry with myself and hit the wheel with my fist, not in a violent way but as a way of letting some of the steam out. We were silent for some time, her crying subsiding little by little while hundreds of thoughts passed by my head at the same time. Eventually, it was her that spoke again:
"What... What are you feeling for me, Mark?"
I looked at her and found two pleading, beautiful eyes looking back at me. I couldn't help but to want to protect her, to get her into my arms forever, and unable to control myself I got closer to her and kissed her, a lovingly, passionate kiss that she returned instantly.
I couldn't say how long the kiss lasted, but when we finally parted our lips I was lost, completely and utterly lost. I couldn't say I loved her yet, but I surely wasn't thinking about fucking her as my sole goal anymore.
"Julie... I... Let me propose something for you. I don't want to make you feel bad again, never in my life. I know that yesterday I pushed you, and I'm sorry, I really am. I was fucking selfish and didn't have any regards to your feelings."