Chapter 2: The Players

When I woke up the next morning, it wasn’t until I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror that I remembered what I had done the night before.

I blinked myself awake, contemplating my reflection in the mirror. I was naked, ready to jump into the shower for my morning routine.

I had really agreed to basically playing a game of hide-and-seek with my boyfriend. A game of hide-and-seek with actual, physical consequences—though I was sure I would enjoy it if he caught me, I still was likely to end up a little bruised and banged up.

I started to have some doubts.

Even thinking about it just as hide-and-seek, I was feeling a little intimidated as I looked at myself. Unlike Liz or Nikki, I wasn’t much of an athlete; if anything, the adjective I liked to use to describe myself was lanky. That I still looked like that after the Freshman Fifteen—much less nearly three years of college—mostly implicated just how skinny I had been in high school. I could at least get in a decent run before needing to catch my breath, but I wasn’t used to it. I wouldn’t be able to keep up any pace for the full hour.

My black shoulder-length hair would at least be an asset, making it easier to hide in the dark—and I would wear all black. But my skin was extremely pale: not albino, though people had sometimes referred to me as a Snow White because of the extreme contrast between my hair and my skin. I admittedly did sometimes play it up with some black eye shadow and bold red lipstick, but I could avoid those for the game. Still, in the pale moonlight...

I sighed as I climbed into the shower. Even though there was a part of me that was turned on by the idea of losing the game, I had gotten fired up. I wanted to win.

If I even went through with playing it.

On the other hand, what was the worst that could happen? I get a little bruised up by my boyfriend, have bad sex, and see a side of him I don’t normally see?

The hot water streaming down my body, I contemplated the possibilities again, more awake and thoughtful. But I still came to the same conclusion.

I wanted to play the game, and I would win either way.

Will and I met up for lunch, as we typically did on Mondays.

“How’d your test go?” I asked as I set my tray on the table and sat down to join him. Sometimes our friends would join us, but not today.

“Pretty good, though I stayed up way too late last night studying for it.” He shrugged. “Probably would have done just as well if I’d gotten enough sleep.”

He smiled at me, and I smiled back. I felt lucky every day that not only had I gotten to date such a handsome man, but he was also a wonderful, kind person. Threatening email the previous night notwithstanding.

“So I got an email from you last night,” he led, with a glance to either side, which I read as making it clear that we were in public, so we probably ought not to go into too much detail. The nearest people were about ten feet away and engaged in their own conversation, but I agreed with the caution.

“Mmhmm,” I said with a nod, spoon full of yogurt in my mouth.

“And I figure you were a little tired when you wrote it, and possibly pressured by Sylvia. Don’t give me that look, I know how pushy she can be when she wants something. I just wanted to check in with you in person. Do you really want to do this?”

It really was sweet of him to check in like that, and it was something I appreciated about him. It was the sort of thing that—ironically enough—made me trust him all the more with it.

I swallowed and stuck my spoon back in the white goop. “Sylvia did make the suggestion, and helped me write the email.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.”

“And yes, I want to do this. I think.”

“Think?”

“I mean, it’s a big step, you know? I might still chicken out before Friday, but...” I nodded. “Yeah. I’d like to try it out.”

“Hm.” He got a faraway look again.

“Something wrong?” I wondered.

“No.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m also looking forward to it. More than I thought I might. Truth be told, while yeah, I’d thought about that sort of thing in the past, it never was my cup of tea, you know?”

I nodded.

“But as something to try? It’s ... exciting. I want to see how it plays out. I don’t necessarily want it to be a regular occurence or anything, but we’re in college, and college students experiment, right?”

I laughed, taking another scoop of yogurt. “It’ll be quite the experiment for me, too. I hadn’t really thought about that stuff in years. Though.” I brought the spoon up as I looked at him. “I was a little surprised by your response. How did you know just the right thing to say?” I stuck the spoon in my mouth, finding the yogurt again good enough to eat but not good enough to relish. Cafeteria food.

His face flushed as he looked down at his plate. “I uh ... well, after we said goodnight last night, I sent Nikki a text asking her about it a little. Even though I wasn’t quite expecting the email you sent, I wanted a little bit of a better idea of where you might have been coming from with your desires. So we could talk about them, if nothing else. See if there might have been some way to incorporate it into our sex life.”