I didn't see much of Gerry over the next two weeks, except in class. Mostly I was trying to avoid him. I was still mad at him. One night I did happen to see Gerry walking across campus with an old girlfriend of his. No telling what kind of weird shit he did in bed with her. I didn't want to think about it.
As I was leaving the classroom one day, Gerry was standing in the hall, waiting. I hated to admit it, but he still looked good. His muscular body filling out his perfect clothes. I couldn't get that superhero image of him in his underwear out of my mind, but I was determined not to give in. I was going to avoid eye contact and walk past him.
He stepped in front of me, "Hey Aaron, can we talk?"
"No," I said. Moving to get around him. He moved to block my path. I had nowhere to go. Here we go again I thought, always having to have his way.
"I was hoping we could get together again." There was an awkward pause, and then Gerry continued, "You know. I mean, work on the assignments like we used to."
"Why would I want to do that?" I pushed back.
"Because...I don't know." He couldn't find the words, or if he did, he couldn't say them. After a long pause where neither of us spoke, he said, "I'll be at the library tomorrow. Regular place and time." Seeing the unconvinced look on my face, he added, "I hope you come by."
"I'm busy," I lied, and walked away.
I didn't get much sleep that night. I just lay there, thinking. What did he want with me now? It obviously wasn't the school work. We could both do the assignments on our own. We both knew that. He could have said he was sorry for the way he acted, but he didn't. Was I just another conquest? I sure wasn't going to have sex with him again. Let him find someone else for that. Everything about him annoyed me. But it had been incredible. That moment when we kissed was perfect, but then he wouldn't even let me touch him. It all made no sense. I hated him. Now he tried to make things better and I acted like an ass. I hated him even more.
The next day, I went by the library. Not so much to meet him. More to make sure that he wasn't there, if that makes any sense.
He was there, right where he said he would be. I wished I hadn't come. I wanted to leave before he saw me, but too late, he saw me and smiled. A bit too satisfied at first, but he quickly corrected that. With no reasonable option to escape with any sense of pride, I walked over to where he was and sat down.
"I was hoping you would show up," he said, relieved.
"Occasionally I make bad decisions," I said, bitterly. Reflecting on the first time I said yes to working with him, and my decision not to leave his room when I had the chance. I could tell he knew what I was thinking. We both sat there in silence.
Regretting my tone, I suggested, "How about we just work on the assignment?"
"Yeah. That would be great," he replied, and with that we started to work. Some moments were like old times, with nothing gone wrong between us. And then my mind would wander. Checking out his chest, looking for the outlines of his nipples. Spying his crotch. Thinking about the sex, and then getting mad all over again. Trying to stay focused was an extreme mental challenge.
We continued to meet and work together. Never straying too near a conversation about our past sexual encounter. Then one afternoon, Gerry said, "We never did get to go out to eat. You know that day, in my room, we were going to get something to eat, but we never did."
"Yeah, because something else came up," I said as we laughed.
"That's enough work anyway. I'll take you to my favorite place. Come on, let's go." Why did it always feel like I didn't have an option?
I figured we would end up at a local burger place, but instead it turned out to be a restaurant that specialized in healthy food. It made sense, given his attention to his body and working out.
As we were approaching the door, I recognized a girl walking along the sidewalk, one of Gerry's many girlfriends. "Hi Gerry. You getting something to eat?" she asked, ignoring me.
"Actually, I'm going to eat with my friend Aaron here," he said, while putting a hand on my shoulder. "Maybe another time. I owe him from a couple of weeks ago. Class project. He's been a big help."
"Oh. OK. Whatever." She said, disappointed. "Text me later."
After we went inside and sat down, I told Gerry. "You didn't have to get rid of her. If you wanted to eat with her that's OK. We could do this some other time."
"Aaron, relax. I'd rather be on a date with you than her any day." Date? What did he say? Did I hear him correctly?
"Umm. We're on a date?" I asked, confused.
"No, I think it's more like just dinner. To be a date, you'd probably need to eat, do something else, like a movie, and then wind up having crazy passionate sex. Now that would be a proper date."
"You're awful," I said, trying not to laugh. I knew he said these things to play with me. Make me sexually uncomfortable. It was all part of his well-practiced charm. Take you to the edge, push you just past it, then do it again, until he got what he wanted in the end.
