The first time she walked into my office I was demonstrably startled, she wore a light summer dress with shoe-string straps leaving her striking shoulders exposed. She was not a beautiful woman, and had a tendency towards plumpness, but there was something about her that I found instantly attractive. Perhaps it was her youthfulness that made her so irresistible to me, whatever it was, I was temporarily knocked off guard.
I was expecting her of course, but students came in and out of my office all the time. Many of my students are beautiful, but Iβve been a professor for a long time, and so beauty has lost a great deal of its power over me. Besides most of the girls are too young and silly to interest me.
I knew I was in trouble that very first meeting, I knew I should never agree to supervise her research, but I could not resist her. I told myself nothing would ever happen, she was young, probably in her early twenties, she would have no interest in a man more than twice her age. Besides, I would never compromise my job and my family for a brief taste of pleasure.
I found myself fiddling for a great deal of the interview; at one point I realized I was twirling my hair around my finger. As a psychology professor, you would think I would have more control of my body language, but I always struggled around Leigh. Unconsciously playing with my wedding ring and stroking my face were my displacement behaviours, and they were the only thing preventing me from fondling the girl herself.
I saw her once a week for many months and derived great pleasure from the accidental touches that came my way, I would take her pen and my fingers would graze hers, her legs might brush up against mine as we sat close looking at a paper together. Curiously, she would never pull away when this happened and I would enjoy the warmth of her legs for a few wonderful seconds before I felt the contact inappropriate and I would reluctantly move my leg away.