“Wine?” she said with a mirthless chuckle. “I’m trying not to get in the habit, but when I get home, I feel so...angry. I go to bed angry and then I wake up ready to start the whole thing over. I feel like I’m in this enraged cycle of wanting to explode or sleep. If I don’t get some kind of release soon...” she trailed off, meeting his gaze.

John was hesitant to pick up where she left off. Thoughts of how they left their last meeting danced around his mind. If she was in need of a release, he could certainly make good on his offer.

“Which brings me to the other night,” Victoria finished.

He exhaled slightly. “Right.”

“When you first suggested a sordid affair, I think I was shocked by the ridiculousness of it.”

John straightened up in his chair and scoffed. “I don’t know about—”

“But then I thought about it as I sent my fourth email to Laurie: ‘what if I had a way to get my release?’”

As he rubbed his hands against the denim of his thighs, he followed Victoria’s train of thought as best he could. It appeared that she was thinking aloud, plotting as she went along. “Okay?”

“Maybe the sordid affair is the ticket,” she said, returning to the beaming, albeit manic smile. “Last night, I talked to my friends about it and they were really supportive. I made a pros and cons chart and then I made a tentative schedule for each week. If I planned it correctly, this thing might work.”

When he caught up to her, John stilled his movements. “I’m sorry?”

Victoria continued. “My friends and I talked, and I realized that I’m in desperate need of...fun. And you could be the person to supply that kind of...fun.”

John sat back in his chair and regarded her quietly. She still wore a strange smile which didn’t quite fit her face. “Is that a fact?” he finally asked.

Her vigorous nodding shook glossy black braids framing her oval face. “Yes. I thought we could lay out some ground rules for how this might work efficiently. You know, so it doesn’t interrupt our work together.”

He rubbed a hand over his mouth and narrowed his eyes at her. What? While he fully expected things to be awkward between them, he didn’t realize that Victoria would treat this so...businesslike. He didn’t know he was already a topic of conversation amongst her friends. God, there’s a pros and cons list? “Efficiently,” he murmured.

“I know that doesn’t sound steamy,” she said quickly. “But try to understand that I can’t let too many extraneous activities interfere with my work. Fall semester tends to be a stressful one for me.”