It's a Date

At first Tim thought that something had gone wrong in the trade. The world, everything around him, had gotten bigger. The whiteboard was bigger. His professor was bigger. Even the paper, the one that said "Great work!" written in red on the top, was bigger.

And then he saw Stacy. She was still unmistakably the same woman, but she was so much bigger. So much bigger than him, to be precise. He closed his eyes and groaned. He had given her his height.

Instinctively, he pulled a compact out of his purse to check his reflection. His face looked mostly the same, with the exception of his cheekbones being a bit more pronounced, but holding the mirror out, he could see that his shoulders had narrowed significantly. He was small. It was hard to tell how small, but judging by how small he felt, he had lost at least half of a foot in height.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Doctor Morgan's voice cut into Tim's thoughts, snapping him back to the present. She was staring at the door that Stacy had exited through and sighing.

"It's alright," Tim said, "I know how she feels."

"You?" she turned to face Tim, "Your grades have been excellent this year. In fact, I've been under the impression that this work has been a bit below your abilities."

Tim giggled. "Oh, stop it!" he said, coyly smiling.

Where had that come from?! Giggling? He was not a giggler.

"I'm serious," Doctor Morgan continued, packing up her materials to leave, "I've been speaking to some of your other professors, and you're excelling in their classes too. Have you thought of what you’d like to do after you graduate?"

“I’m not sure,” Tim said, who had earnestly been working so hard to keep his head above water that he had only hoped to get through his degree, not what he would do with it when he got it.

“Well we have an excellent post-graduate program,” she said, “We aren’t the most prestigious university, but you should consider us. I’m not the only professor that would like to keep working with you. What do you think?”

Tim blushed. She wanted to keep working with him? His favourite professor finally liked him? This was definitely worth a few inches.

And, he suspected, that it wasn’t his scholastic prowess that had Doctor Morgan interested. The way she was looking at him, the she was smiling, it felt more than professional. It was something he was becoming more than familiar with since he had started making trades.

Women looked at him.

For a moment, Tim regretted wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Doctor Morgan was being so sweet. It wouldn't hurt to reward her by showing a little leg, or maybe a low-cut top. Maybe at his next class he could make it up to her by wearing a skirt and bending down to pick up a pencil. He bet that she would get a real kick out of that...

Wait...

What?!

Where had that come from?!

Tim's grip on his book bag and purse tightened. He had gotten Stacy's grades, but in the trade he must have gotten something else. That was the extra weight that Justice had been talking about. Her grades had been tied in with her flirting, her teasing, her showing off! And now, even after he had realized what had happened, was craving, craving, a change of clothes into something more feminine, something more sexy. He was much closer to the student he had wished he could be, but he was much farther from the man he wished he could be.

"Well, I'm honoured to be asked," Tim gushed, reaching out and touching her arm lightly, "I honestly didn't know that anyone was noticing me."

"Nonsense," Doctor Morgan said, "A bright young man like you will of course turn some heads. You've got an excellent future ahead of you. Maybe we can be part of it."

"I think I'd like that," Tim grip on his purse loosened, feeling excited once again about his prospects. Maybe being a bit of a flirt wasn't that bad, "I've got another class to get to, but could we meet sometime to talk about it? I'd love to have a chance to pick your brain. Lunch tomorrow?"

The professor paused, looking at Tim with serious eyes, considering. Then, "Lunch it is. There's a little sandwich place on Oak Street, just off campus. Do you know the one?"

He did, and the plan was made. Tim was a great student! His favourite professor was asking if he would stay on for grad school! Yes, he had to measure the up-sides of this trade against the down-sides, and he wasn't sure whether he was happy about what he'd lost, but he wasn't entirely displeased. Besides, the professor wasn't just a great teacher. She was a fox. He hadn't admitted to himself how much he was attracted to her until now, but now that he was going for lunch with her, he couldn't help but be excited. Already he was flipping through outfits in his imagination, remembering what he'd seen in his gluttonous closet, to try to be as attractive as possible for his date.

Lunch.

Not date.

Wait. Was it a date? He had just started seeing Nancy. Was he already cheating?