"Hey Professor do you have a moment" came the sweet voice of Anna's favorite student, Mary,
"Hey Mary, I've got just a few here. But my office hours are technically over"
"I know Dr. Bartel but I was running late and just wanted to ask a few questions about tomorrow's exam. I know we are only two weeks in, and I know that I've taken your tests before and I shouldn't worry but well, you know..."
The two chatted for about fifteen minutes, Anna knew she shouldn't give preferential treatment to a student, but she also knew everyone did. Besides, Mary was the type of student that was impossible not to give preferential treatment to. She was usually timely, she did really well on basically every assignment, and she tried hard. She was basically the opposite of 90% of Anna's students.
The other thing that made it easy to waiver on the strict office hours was that for the first time in two years, Anna didn't really have a reason to go home. Up until the prior Friday Anna had been in a long term, and loving relationship. Last Friday, that ended. She walked in on her former boyfriend Tony, another professor at USC, fucking a student...one of her students. He told her it was a one time thing, it was a lapse in judgment it was blah, blah blah. Anna got it, the girl was stunning. Anna had her in classes before, and it was easy to see that Kiara was simply beautiful. But, she was also only twenty one or twenty two. She was ten years younger than her ex-boyfriend had been. She was a student. Most of all, she wasn't Anna. So Anna ended things. In under twenty four hours she had found a new apartment, and was waiting on furniture to be delivered to it. So tonight, if she wasn't in her office, she was going to be alone, with her laptop, Netflix, and an air mattress.
Suddenly, the fifteen minutes had become forty five. Anna realized this, and realized how caught up in her loneliness she had been and did something unexpected and asked Mary if she could take her out to dinner. Mary, covering up her shock, accepted. The two had a lovely dinner, and parted ways. They then did it again a week later, and again a week after that. It was those dinners that made it possible for Anna to slowly climb out of the depression the end of her relationship created. Not just those dinners, but those were the starting place. Those dinners let her feel comfortable reaching out to friends she had become distant with. Those dinners let her feel like herself again, a single person not one half of a couple.
Those restored relationships, those dinners, and the new experiences she allowed herself to live caused the semester to fly by. Suddenly, it was December, the last Friday before finals. Anna locked her office door, and headed home. She walked into her now well furnished apartment. Anna loved this apartment. It was her, her decorations, her space, her, her, her. It was the first place that was truly hers. Never before this apartment, had she had her own place, no roommates, no boyfriends, nothing. Anna took off her heels, and placed them in the shoe rack, Anna walked into the hybrid living room/office and set her laptop on her desk and plugged it in. She went to the kitchen and preheated the oven for dinner, and then to her room where she changed out of her professorial armor, her blouse and skirt, and into her at home skin: a black t-shirt, baggy sweats, and a messy ponytail. Anna looked at herself in the mirror. At thirty two she looked damn good. She was five foot seven, and fit. Not muscular, but toned. She loved the way her long red hair looked in a ponytail. She loved that under the baggy clothes was a body that she was confident in. She loved herself.
The rest of the night was going to be perfect, time for her that she always needed on Fridays. A frozen pizza, some wine, and shitty horror movies. The next week there was no classes as the students had a week break before finals, Anna had no office hours Monday, and maybe she would stretch this lazy Friday night into a lazy three day weekend.
Anna went into her bathroom, and as she stood in front of her sink, back to the shower, she felt a hard yank on her ponytail, and a cloth held over her mouth. Almost instantly her eyes went blurry, and she couldn't make out the person behind her in the mirror. She tried to fight them off but the cloth and whatever was in it was too much. She felt herself sliding down. The hand on her hair stayed tight and Anna could feel strands ripped loose from her scalp.
When she awoke, her hair was no longer in a pony, and instead was splayed across her face. Anna tried to move her hand but was unable to. Anna thrashed realizing that both her hands and her feet were tied to her own bed. As she thrashed about she became very aware of the fact that she was completely naked. Someone had undressed her while she was unconscious. She felt someone lay down on the bed next to her. The warm breath of the other person on her neck made Anna shudder. As she did so Anna took in a deep breath of air and mixed with the smell of her own hair she smelled this person. She knew the smell, she knew the smell because she associated it with the first dinners that pulled her out of the funk.
"Mary?" Anna asked in a whisper
"Hey Dr. Bartel. I'm surprised how fast you recognized me, what gave it away?"
"I can smell your perfume, and it, well it, it, it is very distinctive"
Mary giggled a bit at that but didn't say anything else. She just lay next to Anna for a bit.
"Mary, why are you doing this?"
"Why? Well, you're my favorite teacher, and I want to have you all to myself. But you also were my boyfriend's least favorite teacher. You cost him his scholarship. So he had to move away. When he moved away he started having sex with another woman, because I wasn't there to satisfy him anymore. But then I really started to like you." Mary's words came out casual, just like when she and Anna had been at dinners.
"But Mary, I don't...." Anna was struggling to come up with words.
In her mind, Anna was a jumbled mess. She was scared. Scared of what had just happened. Scared of being totally at someone else's mercy. Just plain scared, and extremely confused at what Mary was telling her.
Mary made a shushing sound and put a finger to Anna's lips. "Don't worry, I'll keep explaining. Do you remember a student named Alex Dempsey?"
"Honestly, no" Anna replied "but I only really remember the best students, Mary, I teach four hundred people a semester, so many just don't try they"
Again Mary's finger touched Anna's lips, instantly silencing her.
"Okay, well Alex took your intro to American History class two years ago. He was a football player. You gave him an F, and that meant he failed and lost his scholarship. We tried to make it work for a bit but we just couldn't do it. Not when he was fucking someone back home. So I ended things. That was this summer.
"When I came back to school this year, and I had you for the Early Presidents class at first I was so so so mad at you. I had to take the class eventually so I decided to just do it now and deal with being mad. But then, you mentioned Tony. When I heard you talk about him, and how you were a couple I practically couldn't breathe. It wasn't fair. Because of you my relationship went to hell. So I decided to get you back."
"What do you mean? Is that what this is?" Anna asked
"Oh no. I had Kiara, one of my sorority sisters, sleep with Tony. She seduced him like it was nothing. Then she told me all about your reaction. She told me you threw things at both of them, that you bawled like a baby and then stormed out. I knew the reaction was what I wanted...but I didn't get to see it. That's why I went to see you after it happened. I wanted to bask in your misery for a bit."
"Mary, that is so" Anna began, but again the finger silenced her.
"But then you surprised me. You took me out on our date. Our first date. Then you took me on another, and another. And I realized I couldn't stay mad at you. But then you stopped taking me out on dates as much, and then we haven't at all since Halloween, and I realized that you just need to understand how to date me, and what happens when you're naughty."
