Epilogue

I had a blast being The Girls' RA for the rest of my freshman year. The school was eager to accept my donation of a new house on campus, but administrators were wary of allowing me to bypass the housing selection process and do my own room assignments. I persevered and, with some assistance from the Institute's property development team, everything was ready for The Girls and me to move in before classes started in the fall.

Steph moved into my old room and had a near perfect transition into the 'real world.' By this point she was working almost exclusively with challenge clients, and had more than reached her full retirement. She was not content to retire gracefully, however. Steph took my own rough transition as a personal affront and went on a crusade to reassess how Docents, and especially Elites, are introduced to retirement.

The Institute ended up completely revising its retirement procedures. Not only was the buddy system endorsed, but the process became much less mysterious as the various retirement opportunities became better known. Added to this was an increase in the number of Black Rings to provide required exit counseling.

Motivated by Steph's passion, I began researching how to create Little University. I was eager to take on the challenge of working with students, but wanted to surround myself with others trained by the Institute and use my wealth to give back to the community. I'm not sure if the Institute meant it as a quasi apology, but Kael managed to convince them to match any funds I raised. This inspired Steph and me to begin courting the most lucrative clients. Between the two of us we amassed an impressive endowment, which the Institute very publicly matched.

The Institute's donation caused quite a stir, as it was the first time they officially endorsed a university. Even with the Institute's active support and assistance, the University still took seven years to build. The first few years were mostly spent planning and arranging for contractors while I continued to attend Colorado College. Several times a year I would go on recruiting trips to meet with graduating PhD's from the top universities, but rarely missed more than a couple days of class.

Very few people were surprised when Amy and I started dating. I'd never been in a committed relationship before and it felt odd to be sleeping with only one person. It worked well for a few months, but my insistence on accepting clients over block breaks and her increasingly demanding dance schedule caused some tension.

Just before the end of our sophomore year, Amy accepted a full-time position in a professional ballet company in New York. It was a peaceful breakup and we were mostly glad to once again be 'just friends.' Even though we separated on good terms, I still felt depressed and ended up spending the entire summer hanging out with Nancy and working with clients at the Beach House.

When I returned to campus for my junior year, The Girls tried to go back to their previous nightly visits. It was nice, but I missed the intimacy that I shared with Amy, and later Nancy. I tried expanding our nightly visits with some of The Girls to become near dates, but it didn't help. Eventually I gave up, drowned myself in work, and managed to get some real progress made on finalizing the plans for the new university.

In the spring I began having heated discussions with Sarah about where she should go to college. Sarah was accepted to some of the best schools in the country, but refused to leave Colorado until I accepted another date with her. I tried to resist her advances, but I was never good at hiding my true emotions from her.

Things came to a head as I was packing for my trip home and making final arrangements to spend most of the summer at the Beach House.

"Why don't you want me to attend CC? You know I'd like it here. Since Mom's on the faculty my tuition would be free, and I already spend most of my time hanging out with The Girls."

"Look, I want the best for all of my former clients..." I began to explain, but her angry glare silenced me.

"Quit hiding behind this 'former client' bullshit," she hissed. "I've seen the way you look at me. Why don't you stop denying what we know was perfect right from our first night together?"

Sarah was absolutely livid, yet before I could reply she stormed out of the house.

Over the summer I called Sarah several times, but she was always either 'not home' or 'couldn't come to the phone.' Even my emails were ignored. I tried talking with The Girls about Sarah, but they all agreed that she had a right to be pissed off and just needed some time to sort things out.

Nancy could tell something was bothering me when I arrived in Grand Cayman. Considering the fact that she'd been my first, I asked her what it was like to sleep with a former client. We ended up talking all night, but her main point was that any person I slept with could be considered a former client. While an obvious answer, I'd somehow never thought of clients that way.

Hanging out with Nancy really helped me figure things out. I wasn't at all surprised to find that Sarah had already moved into The Girls' house by the time I returned to campus. Steph always insisted that we leave a few rooms open for any last minute retiring Docents/Elites so I knew there had been some rooms available.

Still holding my bags and heading towards my room I caught sight of Sarah reading on the couch.

"Hey Sarah, how's it going?"

Instantly I could tell something had changed over the summer. It was nearly three years since our Docent weekend. Gone was the girl who worshipped me, and in her place was a woman who seemed impervious to my charms.

"Miss me?" she asked in an indifferent voice, her eyes already returning to the text book she was reading for class.

All of the other Girls flirted shamelessly with me, but Sarah was different. She radiated the fact that she was now a woman, yet seemed content to wait forever for me to make the first move. I never realized how much we hung out until Sarah started refusing my offers to go running and no longer had any desire to study in my room. She made it clear that until I was ready to be honest about how I felt, whining about how our relationship had changed wouldn't do any good. At the same time I found that I was no longer invited to Sunday dinner at the Whetsons'.