It’s Danni, and something's wrong

When I look at my phone, I see it’s Danni on my personal line. I hit “answer” and say, “Hey, Danni, how’re you doing?”

“Andrew, where are you?” she asks. “I knocked on your door, and you’re not home.”

“No, I’ve been off-campus running an errand. I’m on my way back to the dorm now,” I tell her.

“When you get back, would you come over for a bit?” Danni asks. There’s a strange note in her voice.

“For you, anything,” I tell her grandly. “See you in a few.” I hang up wondering, What’s that about? What am I going to be walking into here?

*******

When I walk down to Danni’s room, her door is open, as usual when she’s in. I knock on the doorframe; she looks up, smiles at me, and says, “Hey, Andrew, come on in.” She’s trying to act normal, but her smile’s a little ****, and she’s clearly tense. I walk into the room and close the door behind me; her smile fades a little, and she tenses up a little more.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Sit down?” Danni responds, gesturing to a chair. I sit, and she looks deep into my eyes. She’s all kinds of wound up. Of all the scenarios I could come up with on my drive back to the dorm, the likeliest one to me is that she’s made me; her next words confirm that. “I won’t say who said,” she continues in a low voice, “but someone told me you’ve been—performing oral sex for money. On women,” she adds quickly; I admit the clarification is useful. I wouldn’t judge one way or the other, but it’s always good to know which way someone’s interests lie. (Have you ever gone girl-watching with a lesbian? It’s a lot of fun—at least, it always was with my friend Jael.)

“At your service,” I admit, handing Danni my card. Her face pales as she looks down at it. She looks back up at me and asks quaveringly, “How could you do that?”

“Well—” I say, uncertain quite how to answer her. “I tried a lot of things in high school to get girls to notice me. None of them worked. Then—Danni, would it answer your question to tell you how I ended up doing this as a business?”

“Maybe?” Danni says, looking like she’s as unsure where to go with this conversation as I am. Since it’s the best deal I’m likely to get at the moment, I tell her the whole story, going all the way back to that last gathering of friends before college. When I finish, she’s silent for a long time. I sit quietly with her and wait. Finally she asks, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I look at her in disbelief. “How was I supposed to bring that up? Sit there at dinner and say across the table, ‘Oh, by the way, I eat girls’ pussies for money. Would you like to try me out?’ Like that would have gone over well.” Danni looks abashed, but giggles a little. A little more hopeful, I press on. “To be straight out, I was afraid to take the risk.”

“To take what risk?” she asks. Her voice sounds odd.

“I knew I’d have to tell you sometime if I was going to get anywhere with you,” I say, finding the words difficult, “but I was afraid of—making you hate me.”

Danni looks down, and her hair falls to cover much of her face. I want to reach across the space between us and brush it away, but I don’t feel brave enough to do it. “Would you really care?” she asks quietly.

“Yes!” I tell her, the passion in my voice surprising both of us. Danni looks back up, her face startled open. Her lips quiver a little. “Look, yes, I’ve been making money eating girls’ pussies. That’s all I’ve done. None of them have wanted more than that—some have hinted, but after all this, I’m still a virgin, for crying out loud!—and I haven’t been pursuing more than that. I’ve been pursuing you.”

Danni looks startled to hear me say that, and a little flattered. She looks a little hopeful as I continue, “I haven’t been at all sure about my chances; I know you were nervous about me after hearing Alyssa scream that first afternoon when I ate her pussy. But I’ve been attracted to you from the first moment I saw you. The more time I’ve spent with you and the better I’ve gotten to know you, the better I’ve wanted to know you—in every sense of the word.”

That may have been a bit too far, because Danni goes quiet for a long time. Eventually, she breaks the silence by clearing her throat, then asks, “If you’ve been interested in me all this time, why haven’t you told me?”

“I didn’t know if you had any interest in me,” I say simply.

Danni snorts. “You’ve been—going down on all these girls, and you expect me to believe that?” she says, bitterly and with some heat.

“Danni, none of them have been interested in me so far.” Danni starts to argue, but I override her. “Every last one of them has contacted me in response to a business proposition. They’re interested in paying me to provide them a service. They’re very clear from the start about their interest and its limits. If any of them had decided they wanted to date me, it would have been because I’d eaten her pussy. What does any of that have to do with our relationship? How was any of it supposed to give me any insight into how you might feel about me?”

Danni sits quietly and looks thoughtful. After some time, she says, “Well, I guess that leaves just one question, doesn’t it?”

I feel a jolt go through me, and my body goes cold. “What question is that?” I ask, almost afraid to hear the answer.