Initially, I was nervous. I had no idea why I had been summoned to the dean's office, though it could have been as a result of any number of shenanigans in the dorm that I'd been involved in. It didn't make me feel any more comfortable when I saw that my R.A. was already in the dean's office when I was sent in. I'd felt that my R.A. was pretty cool and had assumed that if she had some sort of problem with me, that she would talk to me about it. The only issue I and the other guys on my floor had with her was that she did have a bias against the guys when it came to discipline. We always attributed that to the fact that she obviously liked girls a lot better than guys – she was a pretty butch lesbian.
I joined Lori sitting in front of the dean's desk and was forced to listen to what I considered an unbelievable and misleading tale. The previous Saturday night, we'd had a great night on our floor. Just about everybody who lived there was hanging out, some of us were drinking but we were mainly just having a really good time. At one point, John, Pete and I got it into our heads to run around the dorm sporting only our banana hammock underwear. We'd gone back to our respective rooms, slipped into the briefest pair of briefs we each owned and did a lap around the building on our floor, including right through the group that we'd been hanging out with. We then went back into our rooms and got dressed again. On the whole, the reaction had been pretty positive. The other guys thought it was hilarious and the girls, well, let's just say that all three of us had physiques that could pull off the look. And I know for a fact that Lori was laughing and cheering along with everyone else.
Apparently, sometime after the festivities ended on Saturday night, Lori's perception of the evening's big event changed. Personally, I think the fact that she might have actually found us sexy or attractive had messed with her belief system. Unfortunately for me, she decided to talk to somebody about what she was feeling and that person convinced her that she'd been sexually harassed.
So there I was, sitting in the dean's office being accused of sexual harassment. Luckily, I was given an opportunity to present my side. I pointed out to Lori that she hadn't expressed any discomfort on that night, that, in fact, she'd appeared to me to be having a good time. I also indicated that my understanding of the sexual harassment policy was that I wasn't expected to know intuitively when someone was offended by my behavior, particularly when they are not presenting any obvious signs. Furthermore, I explained that our little stunt had been done to make everyone laugh, not to try to titillate any of them. I apologized to Lori for offending her but also suggested that she might want to loosen up a little bit.
To her credit, Lori was open-minded on that day. She saw my point and suggested that maybe she'd overreacted. We agreed to put it behind us, that she would try to relax a little more and that I would keep my clothes on in public. When we'd finished up to the dean's satisfaction, she had me stay behind after Lori left. Closing her office door, she came and sat in the seat Lori had vacated. She chuckled and said that she thought Lori could definitely stand to loosen up a bit. That relaxed me a bit since I wasn't sure why she'd wanted me to stay after Lori had gone. It didn't sound like I was in trouble, especially when she started asking more about our run through the dorm. I gave her a little more detailed description, including answering her questions about what we were wearing and whether my partners-in-crime were in similar physical shape. She seemed to find it entertaining judging by the way she was laughing. She asked if anyone else had spotted us running around the dorm and I said that we'd passed quite a few people, male and female, who'd either cheered us on or wolf-whistled at us.
"If I'd been one of those young ladies," the dean said, "I probably would have grabbed one of you and dragged you into my dorm room." Seeing me raise my eyebrows at that comment, she responded with mock modesty, "Oops, I probably shouldn't have said that. How very irresponsible of me." She smiled a sensual smile.