Janet’s just a friend

“Yeah, totally,” you say, pulling away from her just a hair, just enough to remove her lips from that electrifying distance where they might accidentally touch yours. “You… who’s your boyfriend? I could give him a talking to. Guys can talk about this kinda stuff without it seeming like a girlfriend nagging.”

Janet pulls away from you, too, and you sense a shift in the mood. All of a sudden, those nice little digs you’ve been giving her during the shoulder massage are no longer drawing those lovely little moans.

“Huh. You’d do that for me?” she says, glancing at your lips.

You resist another urge to kiss her, and pull away completely, breaking the contact between the two of you. You stare into her sparkling eyes (that’s just the make-up, you tell yourself, only the make-up), and you nod.

“Yeah, of course,” you say. “Just let me know who and I’ll be happy to talk. Although it could be awkward if I don’t know him, so maybe I shouldn’t promise too quickly…”

“You might know him,” she says. “He’s an RA for one of the freshman dorms. Have you met Dominic?”

“Yeah, shoot, ‘course I know Dominic, he’s my RA,” you say, your eyes widening. You may have just dodged a bullet the size of the Eiffel tower. And damn, you’ve always thought highly of Dom, but the guy’s got some game, bagging a girl like this…

“Really!” she laughs, covering her mouth. “That’s amazing! I’ll have to let him know. He could really use a lesson from you.”

“Yeah, consider it done already, I’ll tell him the next time I see him,” you say, still trying to play it off cool.

With that, the two of you lapse into another silence, both watching the next act of the film play out. Somehow, it’s less comfortable than the first one. Maybe it’s the knowledge that the two of you probably shouldn’t be in this car, doing this, right now, even though technically, neither of you crossed a line. When you next glance over at Janet, you see that she’s busy swiping on her phone, and for half a second you wonder if she’s on the dating apps, two-timing Dominic anyways, when you realize that what you’re looking at definitely isn’t a dating app. Those look like… flash cards? She goes through the cards with such a speed that you barely have time to read the words—Klumpke, Guillain-Barre, Subscapularis Enervation—before they disappear.

“What is that?” you ask, curious.

“Oh, just Anki,” she says. “Med school stuff. I’m prepping for Step 1.”

You frown at her, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t know much about med school, but isn’t Step 1 what you take after you get in?” you ask. “I thought you were supposed to be studying for the MCAT or something.”

“Took the MCAT already,” she laughs. “Not to brag, but I got a perfect score. So I figured I’d get a headstart on Step.”

“Shit,” you say, suitably impressed. “Perfect grades, a ton of work experience, a hot boyfriend, a sweet ride, and looks to more than match those… you’ve got it all.”

She laughs and shrugs. “What else is a girl like me supposed to do?”

Me, you answer silently, but that moment has long passed. So instead, the two of you sit in her Bentley, making small talk as the rest of the movie plays out, both of you not quite sure how you ended up in this situation.

Janet +5