Their table was quieter too as everyone savoured their desserts. Nate wiped his mouth and put down his napkin.
“I think now would be a good time to give Gloria her gift.”
Gloria froze, holding her spoon halfway between her mouth and the dessert bowl.
“Oooh, exciting!” Robyn gushed.
“Gift?” Gloria quirked an eyebrow. “What gift?”
Not only did she not expect a gift...she didn’t have one to give him in return. Well, not a fancy gift, anyway.
Nate reached inside his suit jacket, pulled out something, and presented her with a slender, rectangular box. She took off the wrapping paper to reveal a black velour case. And when she opened that....
She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a diamond pendant necklace. She had no idea how big or small a carat was, but it was large enough to twinkle nicely without being ostentatious.
And she thought the new laptop Michael and Robyn gave her as a grad gift was more than generous! She never expected anything like this—her first piece of fine jewellery.
Michael gave a low whistle and Robyn softly squealed and clapped her hands delightedly.
“Oh my God! Nate? This is for...? I...I-I can’t—”
“You can and you will.” He took the necklace out of the case, stood up and circled around her chair to put it on her. “This is my gift to you. It’s a graduation present and a token of thanks for everything you’ve done for me. I wanted to give you something other than a pay check.”
Gloria reached up and touched the pendant. It winked at her with every nudge of her finger. She opened her mouth to speak, but words failed her and she had to take a sip of water.
“Th-thank you, Nate,” she finally managed. He took hold of her free hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Thank you, Gloria. That necklace is just a token compared to what you’ve given me.”
Her bottom lip began to tremble.
“Hey, everyone,” Robyn piped up. “Time to open your fortune cookie!”
Gloria smiled. Leave it to Robyn to keep the party moving along.
The meal ended shortly thereafter, and they made their way to the parking lot.
“Well, it’s been nice getting to know you, Michael.”
“You, too, man. I’ll let you know when our next poker night is.”
As the men chatted, Robyn pulled Gloria aside.
“Now, you two be careful,” Robyn said, looking pointedly first at Nate, then at Gloria.
“Don’t worry, Rob. I got this.” Gloria smiled, thinking about her birth control pills in her overnight bag and the condoms in her purse.
“Hey, sis!”
The way Michael shouted at her made her jump and made her nervous. If he thought he was going to put his foot down at the last minute in some kind of show of—
“Have a good time, you two,” he called and motioned for Robyn to come along. She did, but not without giving Gloria a tight squeeze and a kiss on the cheek.
“See you Sunday evening,” Robyn said and went over to Michael.
Gloria watched Robyn give Nate a sisterly kiss too, and then she and Michael strolled to his car hand-in-hand.
Nate turned on his heel and, hands in pockets, approached her where she stood under one of the parking lot lights. Once next to her, he stuck his elbow out, indicating for her to link arms with him. When she did, he clutched her arm, pulling her snugly against his side.
“Come along, Miss Goodman. I think there’s one or two more things I can teach you before you leave me.”
“Jesus, Nate, you’re killing me.”
A moment later, Gloria’s loud, passion-filled moan was his reward for his efforts, so he doubled down by swirling his tongue around her clit before sucking it into his mouth as he gripped her hips and pulled her closer.
During times such as these—when he had his head between her thighs—Nate swore he would be the only man—or boy—to ever have this privilege, but he knew he was being unrealistic. The best he could hope for was to give those who follow something to measure up to.
Grinning, he rose up and manoeuvred himself between her legs. She was panting.
“Me? Kill you? Perish the thought.”
When she rolled her eyes and gave him a wry smile, his breath caught in his throat. In that subtle gesture, Nate knew he was going to miss everything about her—her body, her brains, her humor, her heart—every single damn thing.
Yes, Gloria was young and beautiful, and now that she had come out of her shell, she was a force of nature humanity would have to contend with.
Men were going to be tripping over themselves to be with her.
“Gloria,” he whispered.
She stroked his back, lips still smiling, but said nothing.
Instead, she just opened up to him.
It was seven o’clock on Sunday evening by the time Nate pulled up in front of Gloria’s house. They had wanted to spend as much time as possible together. But the day had been odd. Nate didn’t know if they were sexed out after the night before, but they were definitely more subdued today.
Perhaps because they knew that it was the end.
The weather knew it too, because the sky was overcast, and there had been sporadic showers all day. Now, sitting in front of her house, dropping her off, Nate was reminded of that first ride home he gave her at the beginning of the summer.
He turned off the stereo, silencing Anita Baker mid-lyric. Only the sound of the windshield wipers and the running air vent filled the car.
“Don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything.”
“Nate....”
“No, I mean it. Even if it’s just to talk and vent.” He reached out and grasped her hand. “I’ll always be here for you, Gloria.”
She looked where he held her hand, and he felt her squeeze. Then she slipped her hand away.
“I got you something too. A token of remembrance,” she said, changing the subject and leaning forward to pick up something off the floor. “You once said you don’t keep a photo of your mistakes.” She reached into her purse and gave him a small envelope. “I hope you don’t see us as being one.”
Smiling, he opened the envelope. Inside was her senior photo. A simple composition taken from the waist up of her dressed in a white blouse with her dark hair falling in luxurious waves about her shoulders. The soft focus effect and the dark blue background gave her an angelic appearance.
Apart from being the most recent photo of her, it was probably the only professional photo she had. While it wasn’t uncommon for students to give photos to their favorite teachers, Nate knew this would be the only senior photo to have pride of place in his wallet.
Turning it over he read her inscription:
To Nate,
with love from
Your Gloria.
He blinked slowly and cleared his throat a few times because someone left a frog there. The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily and he finally let out a short, nervous laugh.
“It’s beautiful, Gloria. You’re beautiful.”
“Nate,” she whispered, embarrassed.
“Hey.” He tilted her chin up and made sure her eyes met his. “No regrets, Gloria,” he said softly.
“No regrets,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
She leaned across and kissed him, hard, on the lips. He started to open his mouth to deepen the kiss, but she pulled away, quickly exited the car with her bags, and walked to the front door.
Within seconds she had the door open and was inside. The door closed.
She didn’t look back.
Springtime and another academic year had come and gone. Once again it was the last week of regular classes before finals and graduation.
For the first few weeks after Gloria’s departure, Nate was on eggshells, waiting for Jill to pull some stunt or for righteous anger to spew from the principal’s office, but it never happened.
Jill well and truly got the hint because his schedule was totally out of sync wi
th hers. And while he tried hard to maintain his happy-go-lucky attitude with his students, he remained distant enough so as not to encourage anyone, although with some teenage girls, they just saw it as him playing hard to get.
He didn’t know whom he felt more sorry for: the poor girls who thought that they had to use their sexuality to get ahead—or the poor sap who would eventually take their bait.
As an outcome to his textbook authoring, he had been receiving offers from other schools in and out of his current district. One offered a pay increase he couldn’t resist. So he didn’t.
This finals week would be the last one for Nate at Darning High. He was going to put the family home up for rent and move closer to his new school.
Since he and Jill no longer kept company, she didn’t discover his plans until after the position became his. And if that burn wasn’t enough, Rory Stewart let it be known about the hot romance he’d had with Gloria over the summer, so any hopes Jill had of spreading rumors about Nate and Gloria were dashed.
Nate couldn’t begrudge the kid his bravado or the way he padded the details. Nate had gotten the true story from Gloria.
Speaking of Gloria and the textbook, when Nate received another part of his advance after turning in the final proofs of the manuscript, he was able to convince Michael to send Gloria a financial gift and buy her books for the year. It took some doing, but he only thought it fair. Gloria had helped him get his book; he should help her get hers. Nate got Michael to tell her another grant had come in after she left.
Now it was late afternoon on Friday. Nate sat in his office doing some paperwork before heading out for the day. It took him a long time to get used to the fact that Gloria wasn’t here and they wouldn’t be spending time together over the weekend—as usual. He slowly moved back into his Friday night routine of either getting take out and watching a movie or going to play poker with Michael.
Nate had just turned off his computer when he realized he’d forgotten to go through the mail he’d picked up from the office earlier that day before lunch. It’s not like he expected anything apart from the usual flyer or note, but important memos tended to turn up late in the day.
When he saw the envelope with the handwritten address done in a familiar, round but neat script, he was so taken aback, he actually gasped. Putting everything else aside, he tore open her letter.
Dear Nate,
This is the first time I’ve tried to contact you since I left, so I hope this note finds you OK and that it hasn’t been...diverted. :)
He grinned. What a minx.
You will be happy to know that I beta tested your textbook as I typed. See enclosed.
Nate pulled out another folded piece of paper. He opened it to see it was a copy of her second semester report card. She had a 3.825 GPA overall, but what really caught his eye was next to the listing Biology 101...a B-plus.
“That’s m’girl!”
He laughed until he noticed that she also included her phone number, and the address—and map—to her new apartment.
Off campus.
“Oh, dear god,” he groaned as a thousand memories of him and her together flooded his mind at once.
Barring any change of plans, Gloria would be at the university for the next four years, and his new job was fifty miles north of the campus. An easy trip for him to make on the weekends. Or even weeknights.
How could he—why should he—resist?
Happiness was only an hour away.
I want to thank you for reading The Summer of Consent and showing your support for an independent author like me. I hope you enjoyed reading it because I had fun writing it!
The Summer of Consent was written as a standalone novel, but recently I got a germ of an idea for a possible sequel—if there is interest for one.
Are you interested?
Let me know by leaving an online review—even if it’s only a sentence or two. Whether good or bad or indifferent, your opinion is important!
Or if you could tell a friend about my book, I would be most grateful.
Meanwhile, I’m working on new material, so be sure to visit my website (jaynemarlowe.com) and stay in touch!
Yours sincerely,
Jayne
xox
If The Summer of Consent got you hot and bothered,
you are going to want to know...
When life imitates art...expect to be framed.
Eva Cavell is sexually frustrated and believes her size and race intimidates men. To relieve her sexual tension, she allows strangers to fondle her in the darkness of a movie theater.
During one of her escapades she meets renowned artist, Joshua Delaney. He’s been watching Eva and sees through her icy exterior straight to the hot passion burning underneath.
But Eva has an image to uphold as an instructor at a private Denver college and as the youngest child of a prominent Black family. Will she ever be able to live her life how she wants and without shame? Or will the people in her life conspire to humiliate her?
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Jayne Marlowe is a child of the 1970s who remembers life before there was an Internet. She loves writing about naughty people doing naughty things. Her interests include reading, music, animals, comic books, cartoons, retro things, vintage things, fried food, and real cars made out of real steel.
She is left handed and very ticklish.
For updates about Jayne’s future titles, subscribe to her announcement-only list: "Marlowe's Lowdown."
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Website: https://jaynemarlowe.com
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