On the Record

by K. A. Linde

  Once everyone left, Liz followed the other woman back to her office. She took a seat across from the professor and waited as the computer booted up.

  “That was great work this week,” Professor Mires said.

  “Thank you,” Liz said cautiously. Those words normally came with a but.

  “Do you feel challenged in my class?”

  Oh boy! It wasn’t that she didn’t feel challenged, but she enjoyed the subject so much that it didn’t feel so much like work.

  “Um . . . yes?” she said, it coming out more like a question. “This is the subject I want to move into. I find it very interesting and valuable for my future.”

  “Good. Good,” Professor Mires said absentmindedly as the computer brightened before her eyes. She took the distraction to filter through her emails and Liz just waited. “This colloquium is very important to me and to the university. It is truly part of my life’s greatest work to be able to bring together my colleagues along with prominent journalists and politicians to foster more research and development, as well as the potential for great educational and networking opportunities for everyone involved. I want everyone to benefit from this, and I want you to participate.”

  Liz sat frozen. How could she participate more than she already was?

  “I would love for you to present some of your own research at a special topics in undergraduate research in political journalism on Friday afternoon.”

  “Me?” Liz asked, excitement bubbling up in her chest.

  Professor Mires looked back at her from behind her horn-rimmed librarian glasses with a smile. “Yes. I thought I would include your final research paper for the semester. Of course, that would mean it would be due a couple weeks early, but we could work with the preliminary drafts, if that suits you.”

  “That would be . . . wow,” Liz said, speechless.

  “I’ll take that as a yes?”

  “Yes! Absolutely.”

  Professor Mires’s face brightened further. “Are you sure you’re set on becoming a reporter? You would do wonderfully in graduate school.”

  Liz’s head buzzed with the compliment. “I’m open to different options, but I’ve always wanted to be a journalist.”

  “Well, don’t rule grad school out,” she said with a nod of her head. “Now go on. That’s all I wanted to talk about. You can respond to these emails tomorrow during your research hours.”

  Liz blew out a sigh of relief. She really just wanted to get home and see Hayden. Massey was covering the paper this afternoon, so Liz had the night off.

  “Thank you again,” Liz said, before darting out of the room.

  When she left, she was walking on cloud nine, with a bounce in her step and everything. Liz took the stairs two at a time and pulled out her phone to text Victoria. She was supposed to meet with her after class to walk home, but she had forgotten to let her know she would be late. She jotted out the message to ask her to wait.

  As she hit Send, her phone started ringing. Shit! Had she had that on loud all class?

  Then Liz noticed the name flashing on the screen. Justin. That wasn’t a name she had seen in a while. After he had gotten a DUI last summer, lost his scholarship, and left the school, no one had really heard much from him except to know that he was taking a semester off to “get his life back together.” Sometimes he didn’t even return the messages she left for him, which was why she wasn’t expecting him to call back now.

  “Justin, hey! How have you been?” Liz asked.

  “Hey, Liz. Not too bad actually. Yourself?”

  “Good. Professor Mires is working me into the ground and Hayden wants me to be editor-in-chief next year, but you know, nothing big.”

  Justin laughed. “You still dating Lane?”

  She hadn’t heard from Justin in weeks. “Yeah. We’re still together. What’s up?”

  “I’m coming into town for work in a couple weeks. Do you want to catch lunch next Friday?”

  “Sure,” she said immediately.

  Liz’s classes were over early on Friday, but she usually had plans with Hayden. No biggie. He wouldn’t care if she rescheduled. She almost laughed at the thought. Only a couple months ago she had gotten out of a similar lunch with Justin at the thought that she might see Brady, and now she was dropping her lunch with Hayden with equal ease.

  “Sounds good. Aren’t you back in school? What has you traveling to Chapel Hill for work?”

  “Yeah. So about that,” Justin said. She could practically see him shrugging through the phone. “I got a job with a software company. I’ll tell you all about it when I come into town.”

  “Just text me when you get here and we can figure out where to meet.”

  “Sounds good, Liz. Catch ya on the flip side.”

  “Bye, Justin,” she said, trying to hold back an eye roll.

  Liz dropped her phone into her purse and rounded the corner. Victoria was standing under the tree in the middle of the Pit, talking on her cell phone. She hadn’t even noticed Liz walking directly toward her.

  “No, seriously, you’re ridiculous,” Victoria said into her phone. “I am never going to do that.”

  “Hey,” Liz said, waving at Victoria as she approached. Victoria still ignored her.

  “You can try if you want.” Victoria tapped her foot impatiently. “Yes, I might be amenable to that, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you bring one of your friends in on this. If I’m having a threesome, I want some double penetration.” Victoria glanced up then, smiled and waved. “Hey, Liz is finally here. I’ll call you later.” Victoria snapped her phone shut. “Ready to go? I’ve been waiting all fucking day for you.”

  “Trouble in paradise?” Liz asked.

  Victoria shrugged. “I’m giving Daniel a hard time. He wants to threesome with some other chick, which I’m down for, but not one of his friends. Ew. Gross. Let me find the chick if it has to be a chick. You know?”

  “I just can’t believe you are still dating the Duke Fan,” Liz said the name with disdain, “let alone sleeping with him.”

  “Oh, lay off. He’s not that bad. And anyway, at least I’m sleeping with someone. How come you haven’t fucked Mr. Perfect yet?”

  Liz shrugged. “Not ready.” How many times had they had this conversation? Victoria didn’t want details if she did sleep with Hayden. She just wanted it to happen already so that she could tease Liz.

  “It’s been a couple months. It’s kind of weird. You’re not going to fucking save yourself for marriage or anything, are you? I might disown you.”

  “Oh my God, no. I’m not saving myself. I just . . . I don’t know. I’m not ready.”

  “How are you going to know when you’re ready? When he puts his dick inside of you and you don’t tell him no?” Victoria asked. “I think you should just let him fuck you and then you’ll know if you were ready or not.”

  “That does not make any sense. At all, Vic.”

  “Try it out and then it’ll make sense.” She stopped midstride and gasped. “Oh my God, is he impotent?”

  Liz rolled her eyes and picked up her pace. “I’m never talking to you again. We’ve ceased being friends.”

  Victoria laughed boisterously and jogged to catch up in her mile-high heels. “I’m fucking with you. Slow down. Slow down.”

  “You’re a real bitch. You know that, right?”

  “Class A act. The one and only.”

  “Class A tramp.”

  “I love you, Lizzie,” Victoria said, trilling the name affectionately.

  “I love you too, Vickie,” she said, in the most annoying singsong voice she could muster.

  They turned the corner onto their street with a relieved sigh from both of them. It wasn’t a far walk, but in chilling temperatures and high heels, it sucked. Liz changed the topic and told Victoria about her conversation with Professor Mires. Victoria was happy for her, and even managed to hold in her sarcastic comments until the very end. Victoria knew how important this was to Liz, bec
ause Victoria’s success was just as important to her in her genetic research laboratory. Both girls were on the right track to getting any job they wanted after graduation.

  Once they finally made it to the house, Liz dropped her backpack in her room and quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a black tank top, and black sweater with her black riding boots. She was glad she had the night off to hang out with Hayden. It had been a while since they had just relaxed together. School was sucking the life right out of her, and he was loaded down with coursework, the newspaper, and applying to jobs at the same time.

  “Heading over to Hayden’s,” Liz called out to Victoria.

  “Tell Mr. Perfect I said hello and to fuck your brains out,” Victoria yelled back.

  She cringed. Liz had used the phrase with Brady the first time they were together. She did not want to think about Brady. It felt wrong to even think about them in the same sentence. But Victoria was kind of right. It had been a long time since she and Hayden had started dating, and why was she holding back anyway? She should want to be with Hayden like that. Maybe if things felt right tonight . . . maybe.

  Rushing out the front door, Liz hopped into her car and drove the short distance to Hayden’s house. His car was in the driveway, but his roommate, Kevin, was missing.

  Liz parked behind Hayden, and then walked up to the front door. She knocked and then walked inside without waiting for him to answer. He was halfway to the door when she stepped across the threshold.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” Hayden said with a bright smile plastered on his face.

  “Hey,” she said, closing the door behind her.

  She walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her against him and dropped his lips to hers. Liz let him take over, feeling the energy of his kiss and losing herself in the electricity that passed between them. She let her mind wander to that moment at the Lincoln Memorial, how her body had reacted, how a part of her even then had wanted that kiss. She had wanted that kiss for a long time, and now that she had it, she let the tingles run up her spine and opened her mouth to him eagerly.

  Their tongues met and massaged each other. His hands gripped the thick material of her sweater and pulled it up so he could feel her skin. She clutched the longer strands of his medium brown hair, not even thinking for a second of letting him go.

  But slowly his kisses became pecks and he stepped back, laughing, as if he was surprised he had lost himself so completely in the moment. “I guess you missed me,” he said, keeping a hold of her hand and walking her toward his bedroom.

  “I think you missed me too.” Her eyes darted to the outline of him now visible through his jeans.

  He chuckled again and nodded. “I always miss you.”

  She walked into his room and kicked off her boots while he closed the door. “How was Professor Mires’s class?” he asked, as he flipped on a side lamp.

  Now was not the time for talking, but that was what made Hayden, Hayden. He was not an act-now-and-think-later, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. Normally she really liked that about him. It was definitely different from most guys, who thought with their dicks and wanted to talk only after they got it wet.

  “Good. I got an A on my paper. After class she told me that she wants me to participate in the political journalism colloquium and include my research paper in the undergraduate research panel,” she told him proudly.

  Hayden broke into another huge smile. “That’s awesome, Lizzie,” he said, wrapping her in a hug.

  Not an ounce of jealousy. If something similar had happened to him, Liz knew she would have been jealous. But Hayden wasn’t like anyone else. He was genuinely happy for her.

  “What a great opportunity for you.”

  “Yeah, she’s trying to get me to go to grad school, I think. She told me she thinks I’d conduct great research.”

  Something did flash in his eyes that time. Anger? Frustration? Liz wasn’t really sure.

  “You’d give up being a reporter after working on the paper all this time?”

  Oh. That.

  “No. I wasn’t planning to.”

  “I just . . . well, I wouldn’t want to put in all of this time preparing you to be editor after I graduate if you’re going to drop out of the paper after I leave.”

  After he leaves. She hadn’t really thought about him leaving in a while. It didn’t sit well with her. She didn’t want him to leave.

  “I have no intention of going to grad school if I can get a job as a reporter,” she consoled him. “I just thought it was a nice compliment on my work.”

  “It is,” he agreed.

  She reached out and took his hand, stroking it gently with her thumb. “Don’t talk about you leaving.”

  “What?” he asked, staring down at her pressed into his bed. She saw his eyes take in the position of her body in a sweeping motion, and then he adjusted the way he was sitting.

  “I like you here,” she told him. She had never really said anything like that to him before, but as soon as it was out of her mouth she knew it was true. She certainly wasn’t ready for Hayden to get a job and move away.

  “Well, I’m here right now,” he said, leaning into the bed and letting their lips meet again.

  She groaned deep in her throat as need took her where she hadn’t been before. Hayden’s weight shifted, and his body pressed down on top of her. Liz’s hips swayed side to side enticingly. Her hands found his belt and tugged on it to bring him closer to her.

  Her breathing grew ragged as their bodies moved in time together. Between her circle eights and his thrusts up toward her, Liz felt like her clothes were going to melt off with the heat they built between them. His body kept up the rhythm in a way that made her eyes roll back at the thought of what he could do to her without the clothes on.

  And in the dim lighting he seemed to be exploring her everywhere at once. His lips urged her to continue and his tongue made her body tighten in all the right places. His hand jerked in her hair and she felt her legs spread open to accommodate him further. She could feel his thickness pushing against her. His other hand had found the seam of her sweater and was pushing it out of the way. He unclasped her bra and immediately grabbed her breast, kneading it and then pinching her already hard nipples.

  Fuck. She was fully clothed and so fucking turned on.

  He released her for just a moment before stripping the sweater over her head. The tank top came next, and she didn’t even let him bother with the bra; she just tossed it onto the ground. His head dropped down and he sucked on her nipples.

  Liz felt her body coming undone at the seams. How had she ever thought she didn’t want this? She had been building everything up in her mind for weeks and weeks: How could she give her body completely to someone she hadn’t given everything else to? How could she move on?

  But as her heart thudded in her heaving chest and her body arched toward Hayden’s lips, her nipples demanding his attention, she couldn’t imagine not wanting this with him. She was denying herself for what?

  She couldn’t comprehend the reasoning as waves crashed over her body.

  She didn’t want to think about anything but Hayden’s lips moving farther south. The sound of a zipper made her clench involuntarily. She wanted him to touch her so badly. Her body was practically demanding it, aching for him. He dragged her jeans down her lean legs and pushed her thong aside as his thumb rubbed against her already sensitive clit.

  Her body bucked under him, but he took the moan that left her lips as encouragement and licked against her slick folds.

  “Oh fuck,” Liz cried, her body already pulsing.

  He slid a finger into her experimentally, and then another when she allowed it. She tightened all around him, imagining how good it would be in that moment to have his cock fill her. God, she was going to come already.

  He started to move in and out of her while he licked and bit and sucked her clit until she was visibly shaking underneath him. She couldn’t hold o
n. She was seeing spots in her vision. Her toes were curling and she was going from the tingly feeling to utter numbness as her whole body tried to take in the enormity of the orgasm pressing in on her on all sides.

  Hayden forced her legs open wider with one hand as he continued to work. Gasps left her mouth in between the moans. Oh God, she couldn’t hold on any longer. Whatever he was doing right there. Just like that. With his tongue.

  Liz’s head snapped back and her body pulsed wonderfully as a climax shot through her. Her body moved against his fingers, trying to keep them inside of her even as he slid out. And she just lay there breathing, exhausted and satisfied.

  With a deep breath, Hayden rolled off of her before lying back down next to her. He kissed her forehead and pulled her into his bare chest. When had he lost his shirt? She didn’t even care right then; she just wanted to curl up against him and pass out.

  “Lizzie,” he groaned, his breathing still uneven. “I don’t want to push you . . .”

  He was so used to her saying no that even though she had looked and acted completely willing to move forward, he was hesitant. He didn’t want to push her away by pushing too hard. But he wanted her. It was all over his face.

  And yet as dirty as she felt thinking about Brady in that moment, it all came back to her: the reason she hadn’t moved forward. Brady. She was still hung up on Brady. She couldn’t get him out of her head. She ducked into Hayden’s chest and tried not to think about Brady, but the image of him only came to her stronger.

  She wasn’t ready.

  Chapter 6

  TRUST FOSTERS TRUST

  Hey, gorgeous, are you out of class yet?

  The text from Hayden flashed on her phone just as Liz was packing up. She shouldered her backpack and turned to leave. She was glad that she only had early classes on Friday.

  Just got out.

  Lunch? I’m starving, and I miss you.