A Fair Model
*****
This next chapter picks up one week later. How's that for continuity? It's one of my stranger chronicles as well, and I debated even including it; but here you go.
*****
It was a Monday morning in the short interim time between the end of spring semester and the beginning of summer semester, and I was posting a flyer at the pool. It was the official end of my sophomore year (though I was half-way through my junior curriculum due to summers) and the end of my roommate time with Angel. We had moved her to her new apartment that weekend, and I had come back to a place of my own with a big Angel-shaped absence in it and a certain loudmouth cat craving attention.
The upshot was that she was only two hours away, so I really could see her without much trouble if we both had time. This was the only positive. I was about to start serious upper-level major classes next term now that my main math and physics sequences had run their course, and Angel was about to kick off an MBA and internship program. We wouldn't have time for a while. We agreed that this was probably good though to get us through the first several weeks apart. Nothing keeps you focused and away from moping like having too much to do.
The other thing on my plate was that I needed to find a roommate before the end of the month to take over Angel's half of rent and utilities. My friend Rodney would have been perfect, but he had also graduated. All the other girls I knew already had living arrangements settled or didn't stay for summer term, so I was starting from scratch. I opted against putting anything on the gay & lesbian organization bulletin board. I was out to my friends, but not to everyone. What I did do was to put a roommate wanted flyer up at the pool. That, I decided, seemed like a sensible way of finding someone at least remotely compatible.
*****
"Hello?" I answered the phone that afternoon.
"Is this Elain -- the one looking for a roommate?" a girl's voice asked.
"Yes, it is."
"My name is Jessika. I was touring campus today and saw your flyer at the university pool. I'm moving to town next week to start a graduate degree in graphic design, and I need a place to live that's not on campus but close to it like your flyer said."
"That's what I've got. The duplex is about a mile off campus. I'm an undergraduate student, and my old roommate just graduated and moved off to do an MBA."
"Cool, what can you tell me about the place?"
I gave her the rundown on how the rooms were laid out and how we'd be sharing a bedroom, bathroom, and closet. It was a small place but could be deceptively roomy if you didn't mind living closely. She seemed okay with all that.
"The rent is something I can afford, and I don't smoke or mind a cat. Do you think we could meet and see if it could work out for us?"
"Sure. Do you want to just come over here or should we meet somewhere else that is easy for you?"
"How about the pizza place next to campus for dinner? I already know where that is at least."
"That will work," I said. I had nothing else going on. "You say you saw the flyer at the pool. Do you swim, then?"
"Yeah, some. Not competitively, though, just for exercise. I do some modeling, and it's an easy way to stay in shape."
"No kidding? I'm just in it for the exercise too. I'm not shaped right to be a competitive swimmer."
"Huh... Say, how do I recognize you at the pizza place?"
"Oh, I'm easy to spot. I've got lots of red hair."
"Really? Hmm..."
"What?"
"Um... nothing. I'll see you there at... say six o'clock?"
"Okay by me."
"All right then, bye."
That was strange, but I had no idea how strange it would get.
*****
I got to the pizza place about ten minutes early and got a table near the door. I had been there long enough to get a big red plastic cup of Diet Coke and to assure the waitress that I wasn't ready to order yet, when a young woman dressed in expensive clothes came in the door. I could tell instantly that it must have been this Jessika person. She was gorgeous, and she walked like model.
She turned to scan the restaurant for me, and my jaw dropped in shock. It had been a couple of years and her hair was different, but I recognized her face instantly. She spotted me two seconds later and her hand leapt to her mouth to cover her gasp.
"Oh my god -- it
is
you!"
The last time I had seen her, she was naked and flushed at my feet with her fingers pressed deep into her pussy. She had called herself Jodi, the girl from the pool shower back home.
*****
"No way! What are you going to do?" Angel asked.
I had called her immediately after walking back in the door after dinner.
"We're going to give it a try," I said. "We couldn't think of a reason not to."
"I can think of a thousand reasons not to!" Angel said. "What about how she feels about you, for starters? This girl used to secretly (and then not so secretly) masturbate while watching you shower. She also lied to you about her name. What's her take on that and on trust and on personal space, huh?"
"We talked about all that," I said patiently. I wasn't surprised by Angel's reaction. She is very protective of those she loves.
"We were very honest with each other, and what it comes down to is that we're both very different people than we were two years ago when that happened. We're both into other women though, and neither of us is dating anyone right now, but we figured we'd go into this as purely roommates.