The next few weeks I was very busy. My research and thesis had come back from the review committee. There were a few things I had to clarify and rewrite but it was looking good. I did the work and resubmitted it. Then all hell broke loose. This bitch from university admin called me and accused me of lying on my application form for the faculty.
I had been offered the professorship but weirdly I still had to fill out the form to apply for it. I had been engrossed in my work when I had to submit the application so I hadn't read it very well. I'd filled it in and ticked all the boxes but since I had been offered the position, I had assumed that I had fulfilled all of the requirements.
There was a condition that all new professors after 2017 had to have an education at degree or diploma level. I thought that a bit odd. Surely all professors had at least degrees or diplomas. In fact I thought they all had to have PhDs. It turned out that I'd misread it. All new professors had to have at least a diploma IN education. I didn't.
In the middle of this, Darren called me. I'd put his number in my contacts so his name came up.
"Hello, Darren?"
"Yeah, Hi Mark, how're you doing'?"
"Oh, got a few problems with my work but okay. You?"
"Yeah, I'm okay... Well I'm shit actually."
"Why? What's wrong?" I said. I could tell he was upset, but weirdly I was getting an erection.
"My wife's divorcing me..."
I was a bit put off that he was upset about that but he continued:
"And the bitch wants to take the house. Not only that, she's saying she's pregnant and the kid's mine."
"Have you got a solicitor?"
"Well when we bought the house, we had the same solicitor to do the conveyancing and stuff but he said he obviously can't represent us both in the divorce so he kicked me off. I had to look for another one and he's just a kid. I don't think he knows what to do."
"I though you've been separated for a while. Are you sure the baby is yours?" I don't know why I asked that. Wishful thinking? It was a pretty damn rude thing to ask.
"Well actually I have my doubts. We've been separated two months and we hardly fucked before then. I wasn't that into it, you know...?"
What do I know? I guess I did, or at least I hoped I did.
"My solicitor says while she's pregnant or she's a single mother, there's no way I'll get her to sell the house and give me my half. I told him I didn't think the kid could be mine. He said it wouldn't make much difference but he would ask her if she'll do a test."
"Her solicitor came back and said she refuses to do any invasive test because it might cause a miscarriage. She'll do another test that only needs a blood sample from me and her but I would have to pay for it. It costs thee-thousand bucks and I can't afford it so I dropped it."
I couldn't offer to help. I could barely make my share of the rent and a few times my flatmate Dianne had topped me up. I owed her big time and so I wasn't going to lend money to anyone. Also, since my PhD was nearly finished, I would only be eligible to tutor undergrad mathematics until the semester coursework was complete, only a few weeks away. I had been banking on joining the faculty but now I had to enrol in a year long Eduction diploma course with now no guarantee that the professorship would still be open to me at the end of it. I was going to have to find a job.
"Shit. I don't know what to say. I wish there was..."
"You don't have to say anything Mark. I just had to get it off my chest. I'm pretty well resigned to it. I only put up a quarter of the deposit anyway though I did heaps of work renovating the place. Cathy's got a much better paying job than me so she was paying the mortgage and my pay was going to living expenses,"
"How did you two meet?
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit... Why did I ask that?
"Tinder. We went on a date. Turned out she plays golf. We hit it off, excuse the pun. She was really in to me. I never knew women got so horny. We fucked on the first date. Then she kept calling me. I'm too gullible. After about two months, she proposed. I didn't want to marry her but I just let her railroad me into it."
"Ummm... Darren... do you mind if I ask you something personal?"
"No, go ahead. I really like talking with you Mark. I don't know why but somehow I feel I can really open up with you."
"Oh thanks Darren. Well..., what did you mean when you said that you weren't really into sex with her?"
"Yeah well, I think you've guessed from what I said down at Pelican Point and also what we did... To tell the truth, I think I'm bi. Actually, I might even be like you."
"Oh wow. Yeah, I sort of guessed but I wasn't sure. I thought it might be just wishful thinking."
"Wishful thinking? What do you mean by that?"
"Oh god Darren! You have to know how hot you are. I've been getting a hard on and fantasising about you ever since that day."
Well, to tell the truth, I haven't been exactly celibate since breaking up with George but more about that later.
"Hahahaha, really? Well to be honest, I think you're hot too and you've been in my thoughts a few times since that day, mostly when I've had my cock in my hand."
"Oh Darren, stop giving me a hard-on. I'm due at a tutorial in five minutes. Have you ever done anything with a guy?"
"A few times. Not for ages though. Actually I fucked a guy once though I was really stoned at the time."
"Who?!?!"
"Oh a guy I met at a golf tournament in Adelaide years ago. We were paired up in the second round. Actually I won the tournament. Ten under par even with my handicap. I got fifteen grand prize money!"
"Hey congratulations, but get back to the fucking story!"
"Hahaha, yeah well, we had a few drinks at the reception later, then it turned out we were staying at the same hotel. We had a few drinks at the bar then he invited me up to his room for a few cones. Well one thing led to another and in no time I had my cock up his arse."
"Oh god how I envy him." Yes, what a slut I am.
"Yeah Mark? I didn't think you were... I would love to... Hey Mark... would you... would you do that with me?"
"Oh yes. Indeed I would!"
"Cool. Wouldn't it be hot to do it out on Pelican Point?"
"Oh god yes, but hey Darren, sorry I have to go to my class and I think I've got a precum stain in my trousers. Can we continue this later?"
"Hahaha. Yeah, actually I think I'm leaking too. Talk later Mark... and thanks. Talking with you had made my day. I was feeling really down before but now I'm pumped!"
"No worries Darren. I'm feeling pretty good myself. Later?"
"Yeah, bye."
He hung up.
--
Now a bit of background that becomes relevant later about how I broke up with my boyfriend George and how I met one of my students, Bao.
My research had been sponsored by a Sydney Insurance company. A few months after I started, there was a scandal at another Australian university because they had allowed Chinese students to work on a research project and the Chinese government to sponsor it. Only later it was found that the research was used by the Chinese government for sophisticated surveillance of their population using a special kind of artificial intelligence facial recognition algorithm. Something that would be considered a human rights violation here.
The government did a review of all research projects in progress that might have national security, foreign relations or human rights implications and my project was caught in the net. It meant that I couldn't have any foreign students as assistants and security around my work was tightened. I had to go to a monthly review meeting with people from ASD cyber security and with ASIO.
However, there were many Chinese students in my tutorial classes and one guy in particular, his name was Bao, impossibly cute as well as smart, used to hang back after class and ask me questions. He did ask me what the subject of my PhD thesis was but I just told him that I couldn't talk about it because I was competing with another university. A lie, but I didn't want to arouse curiosity. He didn't ask after that though he still came to talk to me after class.
At the monthly security meeting with a guy from the government I gave them his name as I was required to do. He rang me a few days later and told me that they had no specific suspicions about Bao Zhang but still to keep my mouth shut about what I was working on.
I had been with my boyfriend George for two and a half years. We never lived together. I live with an old school friend Dianne. She's a lesbian and we'd come out together in high school. We've been inseparable ever since. George is an extremely good fucker. There's a kind of upward bend at the end of his cock that really makes me go crazy. He more than satisfied me sexually, we like the same kinds of movies and the same kinds of food... we were good for each other and I guess good friends, but I can't say I loved him.
Dianne used to complain about how loud I was when we were in my room and he was fucking me but she was loud too when she had a girl in her room. I don't know what they did to each other and I don't want to know, but oh my god.
Anyway, I don't think George and I ever said that we would be monogamous but I sort of assumed it. He was enough for me but it turned out I wasn't enough for him. I came to know that he was fucking other guys. He noticed that he was always on G...R but it was at a kitchen supply shop that a guy working there came to talk to him. I don't remember exactly what he said but obviously, they had recently fucked and he was desperate to do it again. Frankly I can't blame him. George is a really really good fucker.
Actually, I didn't care. George filled that part of my life, literally and figuratively and I was extremely busy with my research.
But then along came Bao. George and I had dropped in to The Shift, a gay bar on Oxford Street to check out a new drag queen and go-go boy act that had started there. George is a confirmed scene queen and several of the cast where his friends. I spotted Bao on the dance floor, shirtless, his beautiful white body glossy with sweat and reflecting the coloured lights. I liked him already but now I fell head-over-heels in lust. I was surprised because I thought Chinese students are pretty much under the thumb of their embassy. I know that they are regularly called to meetings there. They wouldn't have approved of Bao behaving like this.
Bao saw me and threaded his way through the crowd towards me, taking more than a few looks of admiration and a few pats on his arse on the way.
"Hi Mr. Andrew, nice to see you here!" He yelled over the dance music.
It is the tradition at our university that under-grad students address tutors in this way. Perhaps it is to ensure students don't get too familiar with them but I'm only considering that possibility as I write.
"Hi Bao. I'm pleasantly surprised to see you here. You look very sexy!"
"What?!"
"You look sexy!"
He smiled.
"This is my boyfriend George!"
"What?!"
"George!"
"Oh hi!"
George looked at him, nodded and then looked away.
Just then, the music stopped but a drag queen got on stage and started announcing the show. I turned to look.
"Talk later!" Yelled Bao.
"Okay!"
