Tony kept replaying the incidents from the past few weeks in his mind. He was deep in thought.
Tony had returned to school, and Ms. Miller remained his calculus teacher. Ms. Miller seemed to treat Tony like any other student. Tony worked hard during class and did his homework, knowing that dips in his grades might negatively affect their relationship.
She was now regularly wearing normal, professional clothes to class rather than the shapeless bags she had frequently worn before. Ms. Miller had replaced her thick, coke bottle glasses with more stylish ones with black plastic rims. She wore them only when reading.
After five days that felt like an eternity, Tony lingered after class on Friday and asked if Ms. Miller wanted to study together again over the weekend. Although he had tried not to think about his gorgeous teacher, his mind kept straying back to their previous couple of encounters.
To his delight, Ms. Miller agreed with a smile.
When he went over the next afternoon, Ms. Miller was wearing a sexy white tank top with a pair of tight jeans. The black straps of her bra were clearly visible. They were lacy.
After they had studied for an hour, Ms. Miller brushed against him, making his pulse race. Then she went back to her books. When they took a mini study break, Ms. Miller leaned her head against his shoulder. He could smell the flowery scent of her shampoo.
At one point, Ms. Miller went to get a diet soda. She drank it out of a tall glass with ice cubes. Tony tried not to stare, but couldn't help noticing the condensation on the glass as it dripped off her cup and fell on the shelf of her breasts, creating a dark spot.
When she put the cup down, Tony leaned over to try to kiss her. Ms. Miller smiled and pulled away. And that was that.
As he left, she gave him a kiss on the cheek and rubbed her hand across his hair and past his ear. Then she closed the door.
After another week of school, they agreed to meet in Ms. Miller's apartment again.
She greeted him wearing a black t-shirt with a sequiny logo painted across the front. She wore a pair of fitted khaki pants that cut off at the calf.
Looking back, it seemed to him like she was flirting with him. They sat closely together at the kitchen table in her cramped apartment. She would laugh at his jokes. She would brush against him when she stretched.
Through it all, she would steadfastly refuse his attempts to push the relationship forward. When he initiated light physical contact, like putting his arm around her waist, she accepted it.
When he tried something more serious, she refused. As he was giving her a shoulder massage, he brushed his lips against her neck. She laughed and leaned forward away from him. She was never offended, but they didn't get beyond a few light touches.
At the end of their second study date, Tony tried to ask Ms. Miller as calmly as he could, "Ms. Miller? Am I doing something wrong?"
"What makes you say that, Tony?" she replied calmly.
"Well, I thought we had something special going, but every time I try to take us a little bit further... you don't seem to like it."
There was a long pause. Ms. Miller's blue eyes looked at him closely, and held his gaze. Finally, Tony blinked, and then looked away.
"I'll give you a hint, Tony. You'll have to try harder than that to win me."
That brought Tony back to the present. What could Ms. Miller mean? How could he try harder? What would it be like to win her?
The first time he had met her was in the park. He had "discovered" that his mousy teacher was actually incredibly hot. He had gone over to her apartment, and, at her request, he had felt her body all over. She had given him a blowjob.
The second time was during a study date, much like the ones they had just done. But she had let him watch her change in her bedroom. And they had sat together while both of them were half naked. Finally, he had fucked her tits.
Try harder? How much harder could he try?
Tony couldn't wait any longer. He called up the only person he knew who could give him girl advice. This was his cousin Caitlin.
Caitlin lived about two hours' drive from his parents' house. This meant that their families got together for holidays, but did not regularly hang out.
Caitlin was herself an attractive redhead who seemed to be popular with boys. She had a sister who was older than either of them, who Tony didn't know well. Along with their other cousins, Tony could remember laughing and joking together late at night as their parents hung out in the other room.
Last summer, the conversation had strayed into topics of love, and Tony could remember sharing who he liked with his cousin. He felt extremely comfortable, and Caitlin had always seemed to understand, to empathize with him.
During family get-togethers, even when he got rejected by some girl or another, Caitlin never judged him and never condescended to him.
But this was different. The girl he liked this time, Ms. Miller, was his teacher. Tony didn't think that Caitlin would understand that, and didn't want to endanger his teacher's job.
So he decided carefully what to tell Caitlin, and then dialed her cell phone.
She picked up on the fourth ring.
"What's up, cuz!" Caitlin sounded a little out of breath.
"Are you alright? Can you talk now?" Tony said.
"Sure sure. I just had to step outside. What's up?"
"Well, I have a girl problem," Tony said. He explained carefully the story he had concocted, which was basically honest but omitted key details: he had met a girl, and they had begun hanging out. From their first date, they had been hot-and-heavy. They had been together twice and both times it had ended in something physical. Then, on their past few study dates, the girl had refused to even kiss him.
"So you're mad because she won't put out again?" Caitlin laughed.
"It sounds bad I know, but that's not exactly it," Tony replied. "She wants me to 'try harder,' but I don't even know what that means."
"Oh, that's easy," Caitlin said, "It means that she doesn't want to just get together and have sex. You have to wine her, dine her, you know? A little romance, a little fun. Then see where she is."
Tony was immediately struck by how right that sounded. Ms. Miller wasn't a girl that you could just give booty calls to.
But another objection came up for him. He couldn't exactly bring Ms. Miller to the mall, or even out to a casual dinner. Someone might see them and recognize her. And she would lose her job if anyone found out that he was her student.
He thought carefully about what to say next. "Well, this girl. A lot of people around school recognize her. She has a bit of a reputation." That was true, everyone in school did recognize her since she was a teacher.
"Oh, Tony. You don't want to be seen with her? You're just using her for sex?"
