As I spoke with Jessika about her final essay, I attempted to avoid staring at her always impressive cleavage, a challenge that I had faced all semester. And as always, I knew I was failing to properly ignore the allure of her tan flesh.
"You can revise the essay, Jessika, but grades are due next Monday. You will need to turn in your revised essay by Friday," I explained to her after reviewing her paper and discussing how she could improve it to be worthy of an 'A' grade.
Jessika frowned but nodded her head in reluctant agreement. She bit the corner of her lip and looked down β I had learned over the course of the semester that this expression indicated Jessika was thinking something through.
While she thought, my eyes dropped again to her cleavage. Jessika was wearing a tight, cobalt blue sweater with a 'V neck. It was not the most cleavage she had shown over the course of the semester, but the color of the sweater contrasted nicely with her light tan skin and emphasized how much of that skin was exposed.
I tore my eyes away from her chest and looked up just in time as she raised her own previously downcast eyes. As our gazes met, I realized another effect of the color of her sweater β her normally gray eyes had taken on an alluring shade of blue.
"I don't know if I will have time to fix it before this weekend," she admitted, with a slight shake of her head. Her soft chocolate colored hair, which fell a few inches below her shoulders, moved just enough that a few strands strayed from their intended place. I repressed the impulse to brush them back off her cheek. Jessika took a deep breath, which I might have found odd had her rising chest not distracted me.
The pretty brunette averted her eyes again and, in a rush, blurted out, "If I made it worth your while, could I email it to you on Monday morning?"
Immediately, a hyperawareness of the situation hit me. Jessika had waited until after I had spoken with all her classmates, so we were alone. And while she had worn tops that showed cleavage to every class during the semester, making her display of skin not at all unusual, I realized that her clothing that day looked more appropriate for an evening out rather than the last meeting of a college freshman writing class. In addition to the form-fitting cobalt blue sweater, she wore tight, sky blue designer jeans and gray high heeled pumps. A dark gray coat was still slung over the back of her chair.
As the silence stretched out, I also noticed a couple of aspects of her makeup that had not registered before. The lipstick on her luscious, full lips was perhaps a more vibrant shade of red than usual, and she was wearing metallic blue eye-shadow that likely contributed to the increased blue cast to her eyes. The overall effect of her makeup was fairly subtle, but in my hyperaware state, it was obvious to me that she had tried to emphasize her lips and eyes a bit more than normal.
As I tried to respond to Jessika's suggestion, I found I could not articulate even the simplest words. I have been teaching college writing for nearly twenty-years, and it is not at all often that I have become so tongue-tied with a student.
"Umm, well, I, umm, I mean, uhh, that maybe, umm..."
Jessika looked into my eyes, seemingly more confident than she had been just moments earlier, smiled, and touched my arm briefly. My lovely student then handed me a note. It was folded over, but I could see that the note was written on lavender paper adorned with floral patterns.
I did not open the note, nor did I speak. I just stood there, unable to verbalize, and watched her gather up her belongings. I did not even attempt to look away when she turned her back to me and leaned over far more than necessary to pick up her purse, which was sitting beside her seat. I just stared and her well rounded derriere. Once she had all her belonging together and her coat on, she turned to face me again.
Taking a deep breath, I found my voice: "Jessika, I am not sure exactly what you are suggesting, but it would be inappropriate..."
"Oh, I think you know what I am suggesting, Mark," she interrupted, smirking.
Stepping forward, she put her free hand around my neck and drew me in for a hug, whispering in my ear, "I'm free for the rest of the evening."
Then, without looking back, she strolled out of the class room.
***
I sat in my car thinking. The lavender note with Jessika's address lay on the passenger seat of my car. According to my GPS, she lived about fifteen minutes from the campus.
In all my years teaching college classes, I had only once had a sexual relationship with a student, and that had been after grades were final. I had been only twenty-seven then, and the student, a perky blonde with green eyes, had been twenty. We had dated four months before deciding that we were not compatible. After that former student, I had met my wife, and for most of the last seventeen years I had been married.
Sure, there was almost always one or two female students each semester who caught my eye, and even a few who, in different circumstances, might have reciprocated my interest. But, I had never explored any of such possibilities while I was married, including a couple of students who I thought might have been suggesting a quid pro quo arrangement, like Jessika just had.