That Sweet Deal

Chapter 8: I Know It Must Be STD Not Me

Gwen's brain frantically, if not a bit slowly, tried to remember Dorian from her senior class. She didn't remember there being a Dorian. He says he remembers her streaking during her senior year so he must have gone there while she did.

"I don't remember you in my class. People may have not known who I was, but I certainly knew who they were." Gwen wanted to add she really knew who Jackson was. He was the stereotypical crush: captain of the football team, flaxen hair, chiseled good looks, etc. Gwen sighed. She hadn't thought about Jackson in years. Last she heard he was working his way up the advertising ladder in some big firm in New York.

"Yeah, I'm from all over actually. Born in Syracuse, New York and moved around. My dad worked for the government and his job had us living all over the country. I spent my junior and senior year in Maryland. I was a junior when you were a senior."

"I'm surprised you remember me. Except for the streaking thing, I didn't do anything else exciting." Gwen tried to think back to high school to see if she remembered seeing him in the halls. Nothing much came to mind.

"You were in my math class. I sat in the front row and you sat in the back next to your boyfriend."

Now she was really stumped. Gwen never had a boyfriend in high school. She was far too shy to flirt with any guys and too much of a homebody to go to any parties. Gwen will admit she was a nerd. Mostly her boyfriends were in books that she read well past her bedtime.

"Boyfriend? I didn't have a boyfriend in ... oh you probably mean Henry, Chrissy's boyfriend. We had fourth period calculus together." Chrissy was Gwen's best friend in high school. They lost touch after Gwen moved to Chicago a few years ago.

Dorian's eyes widened as he shook his head, "So he wasn't your boyfriend? Crap!"

"Why are you angry to find out he wasn't my boyfriend? Did you have some weird bet going?" Gwen was trying to make sense of Dorian's odd behavior. She wondered for a moment if he took any of her drugs the way he was acting.

His head fell into his hands as he tensed his shoulders. Dorian groaned in frustration, "No, it's just ... I sort of had a crush on you back then. If I had known you didn't have a boyfriend ... I don't know." He finally lifted his head as his eyes squinted as if he was in pain.

"Hey, wait a second. I remember you. Yeah, you were the little skinny kid that kept turning in the front row and staring at me in math class. Wow, you have really grown since then."

"I was a year younger than everyone. By age I should have been in tenth grade but I excelled to the point I could move a grade up. I hit a growth spurt the summer before my senior year."

Gwen nodded because now everything was making sense. Then something occurred to her, "So when you first met me last week, did you recognize me?"

"Yes. I did." He answered sheepishly as his gaze drifted back to his knuckles.

"Why didn't you say anything? We talked a good bit that night, you could have brought it up anytime."

"I don't know. I guess I just don't go around telling everyone I had a crush on that yeah, I fantasized about them ... um ... never mind." Dorian suddenly stood from the folding chair, knocking it to the floor in the process. "How about I make you some soup. You must be getting an appetite by now."

"Now wait just a minute. This is getting good. So, you used to fantasize about me huh?" Gwen smirked and couldn't help but enjoy watching Dorian eyes flicker about the room trying to avoid her gaze.

"I'm going to start on that soup." He muttered the words as he left her room, shutting the door behind him.

Gwen couldn't help but smile at the thought of someone, especially a man as handsome as Dorian, having a crush on her. There was a pleasurable ache in her chest the more she thought about it. She closed her eyes and her mind drifted back to high school calculus. Gwen remembered his large blue eyes always staring at her before class started. At first she thought it was funny and Henry even joked that she had an admirer, but after a while Gwen remembers becoming annoyed. She wanted the boy to say something instead of just staring. Now she realizes he thought he couldn't say anything, that Henry might be jealous.