Page 40 of Semantics

“Why wouldn’t I want to?”

“Because it’s not likely to be as good the second time. Or is it the tenth time? I don’t know how you count it. Either way, if you were getting out all that frustration with her, it’s probably dissipated, right? I mean, you’re not college students vying for the attention of some professors to earn top marks in classes and get a good job or whatever anymore, and now that you’ve done it, maybe that tension is all gone, and it’ll suck this time.”

Stella thought about that for a moment while she stalled by taking a drink of her water.

“I guess we’d have to do it again to know for sure, but there was something there this morning, too.”

“What do you mean? Another orgasm? I’m not jealous, by the way,” Jen said and crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, I’m totally jealous.”

“Not another orgasm.” Stella chuckled. “And I would be, too, if I were you. When we woke up, it was awkward, because, of course, it would be, but it also wasn’t at the same time. I could tell that she wanted to leave, but we were joking around while she was getting dressed, and she wasn’t trying to flee this time. Well, she wasn’t until she remembered that she’d left her purse and her phone out in her car overnight, at least, and she needed to make sure that no one had broken into her car to steal it.”

“She left her–”

“Yes. Violet Russell, the woman who brought six pens to every class because they each had a purpose, was so turned on by the thought of us having sex that she left her phone and purse in her car. It was there, by the way.”

“Six pens?”

“I overheard her telling someone in the class once. One black one for her to use. One blue one in case she didn’t want to use black that day. A backup of each, for obvious reasons.”

“Obvious to whom?” Jen asked.

“In case one of them stopped working, so her.” Stella laughed. “Then, one to loan out in case a person in her class asked, and another had to be red in case she needed to mark something in a different color. I should mention that six was the fewest number of pens she’d bring to any class. According to her, she also needed extras.”

“Because the other five weren’t extras?”

“The other five had purposes. These would be superfluous pens without purpose.”

“That’s sort of sad; pens just lying in her purse, living a purposeless life.”

Stella laughed a little and said, “You know the best part?”

“Well, it’s not the purposeless pens.”

“She used her laptop.”

“What?”

“We all carried our laptops with us and used them for notes and stuff. In five months, I’m not sure that I saw her use a pen once. Maybe when we took tests, but that was it.”

“So, this woman carried a bag full of pens to never use them?”

“Yes.”

“And she forgot to bring her purse inside your house last night?”

“Yes.”

“Oh, she wanted you, Stella.”

“I know. I wanted her, too. Her shirt even got ruined because of it. Buttons can still be found on the sidewalk outside of Buddy’s. If you see one, let me know. I might want it as a souvenir.”

“Don’t make it weird,” Jen said, laughing. “And don’t get cocky. It doesn’t look good on you.”

“Fair, but she still had to wear a shirt of mine home this morning either way.”

“I bet you loved that,” Jen said.

“I made sure to lend her one of my favorites, so I have an excuse to text her later to ask for it back.”