Her bikini was so small that it took me five minutes to realize I knew her. But when she turned around, smiled at me, and took the empty chair next to me by the pool, it all came rushing back in an instant.
“I haven’t seen you since high school,” she said, pulling her sunglasses down.
“Who let you up here?” I asked. She had always been a difficult student, and I teased her to no end about it. Old habits die hard.
“Me? I’m more surprised they let lecherous old men like you up here with all these pretty young things. Don’t they have a bouncer anymore?”
The rooftop deck was less exclusive than it was hard to find, but that didn’t mean she was wrong. She fit in far better than I did, although I suppose I was part of the charm. What’s the point of discovering a swimming pool on the roof if you can’t bump into writers and artists with morals few and far between?
“I seem to recall you had a fondness for lecherous old men like me,” I said, wondering how much had changed. Eight years is a long time, especially for a girl like her.
“And I seem to recall you didn’t mind a short skirt and knee high socks. Although I suppose this bathing suit doesn’t leave much to the imagination.”
I looked her up and down without hiding a thing because the game came back without any effort at all. We had a boundary we both pushed against, and while it grew blurrier the closer we got to graduation, there was still a line I hadn’t crossed. It wasn’t much of one, but it was a line all the same.
“I wonder if I would have done it,” she said, closing her eyes. “I mean, if you had actually followed through with my blatant offers, I wonder how I would have reacted. It’s so easy now to picture myself doing it all, but at the time I think I was still content with the fantasy.”
“I’m glad you never asked me outright,” I said, and it was the truth. Hints were one thing, but if she had undressed or told me to take her, I’m not sure what I would have done.
“I can’t remember how many times I came thinking about you.”
“I stopped counting a long time ago,” I said, turning to face her. She sat up and leaned closer to me so our heads were practically touching.
“It’s not as hot now, is it?” She asked, one hand on my cheek. “I mean, the thought of you fucking me right now. The image of you pulling me into the bathroom, sliding this bikini to one side, and just fucking me until the guilt goes away just isn’t as hot as it was when I was your student.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s completely without appeal,” I whispered, sliding one hand down her shoulder as I toyed with the thin blue strap. “In fact, I can think of five reasons we shouldn’t fuck right now, and none of them have to do with my tenure.”
“One of us has a ring on,” she whispered.
“And one of us has a date waiting at the bar,” I said, my hand slipping down to her hip.
“Neither of us has a condom,” she said, her lips against my ear.
“Both of us fall in love too quickly.”
“On the other hand, there’s a lock on the bathroom door and eight years is a long time to wait.”
“You make a good point,” I said, standing up and pulling her with me. “It’s a very long time to wait.”
“You know what will be longer?” She asked, looking up at me with a grin I remembered far too clearly.
“What’s that?”
“The two minutes you have to wait before following me.”
And she was not wrong.