[Note: this is chapter 2 in a series, obviously. It's a bit of a slow burn compared to the first chapter. It should get a bit spicier next chapter if you have the patience.]
*****
"What have you been doing all week?" Dr. Émilie Martin asked.
'Two girls at once' is probably not the optimal answer,
thought Matt,
though not inaccurate.
It had been a long week, though an enjoyable one, but apparently not long enough to give him time to work on research. It was rather difficult to find any time to think whatsoever with his girlfriend, Mei Lin, having decided that they were now living together, and thus also living together with
her
girlfriend Nessa. He couldn't really complain. Aside from a little aching in his balls every now and again, and possibly a bit of dehydration, it was working out really great. Mei Lin's usually more than healthy libido had seemed only to get stronger with the constant presence of another lover in the house, and the living arrangements were in general pretty good, but it had not been much of a boon to his academic progress, and he doubted that his advisor, now staring at him with a look of displeasure, would be as happy about the new arrangements as he was.
Not least of all because she'd probably be annoyed that there was yet another girl now using her favorite fuck toy.
Yeah, two girls at once might be company, but three was a (not wholly unpleasant) crowd
, he thought. Fortunately for his aching balls, his lack of progress seemed to have killed whatever desire she had for him at the moment.
"Sorry, I just had some life stuff come up," came out of his mouth, followed almost involuntarily by "and teaching..."
Always a believable excuse
, he thought,
as long as only used sparingly. He hadn't blamed teaching for anything recently, right?
"Ah," she replied, "perhaps the undergraduates are making it difficult for you." Her tone was as cryptic as her expression. "Regardless," she sighed, "by next week, then?"
Matt found himself outside her office, missing the bit of memory where they had said goodbye.
Perhaps,
he thought,
perhaps, indeed
. Regardless, he needed caffeine at the moment. Lack of sleep, another side effect of two particular undergrads. He wandered to the coffee shop, trying and failing to get his brain started on math again.
He found Carmen at her usual spot behind the counter, serving the handful of bleary-eyed undergrads. "How's it going?" he greeted her.
"You look like shit. Should I make it an extra large, black today?" she smiled.
There was that latina charm.
"Extra large and black, you know just how I take it," he replied.
"I've seen you take it a lot of ways, but I think black would be new. Extra large, though..." she had to wait a second for his sleep-deprived brain to catch up to the innuendo. "...unless there's something about that Nessa girl you wanted to tell me?"
"Oh, so much I'd like to tell you," he chuckled.
"Mmm," she seemed pleased. "Show, don't tell, they say. Anyway, the usual?"
"Sounds good," he answered.
"The usual, or the showing?" she asked.
He sighed, still behind her rather obvious innuendo by a step. "The usual, for now. But maybe I'll ask Nessa what she thinks."
"You better," Carmen faux-chided him as she poured coffee in a large to-go cup. "So, how is that whole polycule thing going?" She slid the cup to him across the counter.
"Polycule?" he asked. "Do I need this caffeine more than I thought, or am I just behind the times on terminology? I'm having a hard time keeping up with you darn kids."
"I mean the Mei Lin-Nessa living situation. She mentioned something about it the other day, but I've just been left wondering since then."
"Spend a lot of time wondering about my love life?" he teased.
"Nah, just wanted to compare notes, see if you needed any help navigating the whole 'constant fuckfest' lifestyle." She just managed to slip that in before another customer came within earshot.
"I'll let you know," he answered as he took the cup and gave way to what looked like a harried freshman girl who'd just come off a night of cramming. "After I meet the parents this weekend."
"Good luck with that," she waved him goodbye and turned her focus to the freshman.
He had started out towards the door, but opted at the last moment to instead take an open table and try to organize his thoughts. He wasn't sure who would be back at his apartment right now, but he didn't want to risk another bout of female desire eating up his entire morning, as much fun as it would be. He really did have to get onto that research.
Maybe staying with Mei Lin's parents would actually work out
. As much as he was looking forward to the "hi, I'm the older guy who's banging your sweet little daughter" conversation, he had to imagine that even Mei Lin wouldn't be too keen on waking her parents up with sex noises, so he concluded that maybe he'd have some time to think. He took a sip of his coffee and tried to turn his thoughts to something productive.
And so of course Carmen sat down across from him. "You ok, dude?" she asked, drawing his attention away from homotopies once again.
Poor, neglected homotopies...
"Yeah, why? Is this a new level of customer service?" he asked.
"You've been sitting here for, like, fifteen minutes just staring into space," she said. "I thought maybe something was wrong. Or did I just interrupt those deep math thoughts?"
"Ah ha, no, I'm far more shallow than you give me credit for," he said.
Fifteen minutes? He really did need sleep
