Lauren took off her shirt as she walked into his apartment.  Jason immediately closed the door.  By the time he’d swung it shut, she’d slipped out of her skirt.  It lay in a lavender pile near his feet.

“Are you hot?”  Jason said, smiling, “You know, because I can turn on the air conditioner if you are.”

Lauren answered him with a grin.  Dropping a bottle of Chianti on the counter, she then climbed onto one of three bar stools.  Sitting now, naked on the cool black leather, straddling it, she said nothing. 

There’s a seduction in silence.  She’d read it once in a Gabriel Garcia Marquez story.  The scene he’d created appealed to her.  A woman laid bare.  A bit dramatic perhaps, but still – the idea had captured her interest.  Before, again, and now she’d tried it, this same scenario, one that had run itself about her mind many times.  Unfortunately, though, the reality of it always left her cold.  

She hoped. Tonight, she thought Jason might be different.

“All you have to do is let me know,” Jason said.

He cut across to the kitchen, grabbing the wine, taking out a cork screw and two glasses.  She watched him as he opened it, offering her the first glass, handing it carefully across the counter.   She drank it, watching him pour his own.

“You know,” Lauren said, “red wine is the only edible substance that contains the same Ph as a woman.”

“Hmmm,” Jason said.  “That I never knew.”

Lauren thought to herself how there were a lot of things Jason didn’t know.  She was aware of his intelligence.  He’d been offered a starting position in the physics department at CalTech.  He knew he was smart and so did she.  But still, sometimes he could be so dense.  She watched him now, as he sipped his wine; this annoyed her.  She flipped her blonde hair and trailed off down the hall, back towards his bedroom.  Jason followed.

He watched her body sway, tilted forward on three inch heels; they were black satin, now clicking in front of him.  She laid down on her side across his bed, heels still on. 

“So, did you have anything planned for the evening?”  Lauren said.

“Not really.” Jason glanced across the bed at his book, Elementary Particles. “It can wait,” he said. 

She noticed the book lying in anticipation on his night stand.  Again, she was irritated.

“Good,” Lauren said.  Then glancing up at him she stated, “You realize, you’re being difficult.”

He sat on the edge of the bed, placing a hand on her leg.

She kicked him off, sitting up beside him now.

“You’re still dressed,” she said.  “Why?”

“Probably because you haven’t done anything about it,” Jason said.

“Since when did this become my job?” Lauren said.

“Just thought I’d make you work for it,” Jason said, loosening his tie.

He enjoyed teasing her.  Of course he knew what she meant.  He thought by not playing into her ideal, he might change the rules a bit.  Since this was her seduction, he wanted to see whether she’d follow through.

Lauren rolled her eyes.  Jason smiled again, removing his tie, then placing it over her head, around her neck.

“It looks better on you,” Jason said. The tie hung loosely around her now.  It was his favorite; she figured it was because of the multi-colored equations running diagonally across its length.  He’d explained the meaning behind each one at a boring dinner party a couple months back.  But tonight, they just looked like a bunch of symbols.  Lauren flipped the tie over her shoulder, before pushing Jason onto his back.  Crouching above him, hair falling into her face and onto his, she undid a button at a time. 

He sighed now, breathing in the smell of her shampoo, and a bit of his own relief.  He was impressed.  She’d called his bluff and this made him happy, because otherwise she might have been angry.  This sort of thing had happened before.  He’d discovered the only way out was for him to play his “man” card, act dumb, awe struck, and tell her she was “just too much woman” for him.  He could get away with that because both he and Lauren understood that she had more experience in the area of seduction.  Though usually he thought the imbalance between them here worked in his favor. He liked learning from her.  It was nice to finally be in a position where he became something other than Dr. Freitag.

She kissed him now, drawing him again back into himself, allowing him briefly to become Jason.   Jason, a man, nothing more.  So often he had the hardest time staying with her, trying not to think.  It was, at least, what he got paid to do the rest of the day. He wished always he had a switch, or something similar.  Something he could flip in order to turn his mind off.  Someway he could live in the physical sense, aware only of his body, aware of hers.  He figured this was one reason they got along so well.  She was the first person that drew him out into himself.

Lauren felt Jason exhale.  She wondered what he was thinking.  Always thinking.  Though, she decided that’s what made him so fun to play with.  He was unpredictable, which meant she never got bored.  Before they’d begun dating, Lauren had plowed through a series of men, one after another.  At one point she’d dated three simultaneously - there was Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.   None were aware of the others, though, she thought maybe they’d known.  She’d never been sure; more so, she’d never cared.  For the most part, they’d just been someone or perhaps more something to do.  They’d all been friends of hers, safe guys she’d known for years.  So at some point, she’d tried them all on, kinda like shoes, just to see if they fit.  But like most, there was always something wrong or perhaps just nothing right with any of them.  Nothing that made them bad, per say, just none worth the long term investment. 

With Jason, however, he’d been different, a mistake really.  A mistake only in the sense that he’d been nothing she’d expected.  He caught her completely off guard.  In fact, she hadn’t wanted to go out that night – two years ago now.  Her friend Tiffany had forced her to come, pleading that she “didn’t want to be the only girl.”  “You’ll like them,” Tiffany promised, “Ivy Leaguers, just your type, and soccer players, too.”   At the time, Lauren figured Tiffany was trying to fix her up with someone other than her current – what was his name?   She didn’t remember now, only that Tiffany had called him Numps, an old British term that meant “fool.”  She smiled.  Spreading Jason’s shirt apart, she leaned forward, feeling the warmth of his chest on her cheek.  Glad for the little bit of hair there, she didn’t like men that were bears, or those completely hairless.  The first couldn’t be helped, the second she didn’t understand; luckily Jason was neither.  Lauren slid down beside him, now kissing his neck.

Folding Lauren into himself, Jason felt her breathing. 

“You’re the perfect fit,” Lauren said. “You know?”  Though she’d decided this the night they’d met, she hadn’t mentioned anything to him then.  At the time, it would have made no sense, but then she figured nothing good ever did.  He’d become her own personal hero, like Super Man or Ronald Reagan, only real.  Saving her from herself, and a past relationship history stifled by illogic and general indifference, though Lauren wasn’t really sure what she’d gained instead – she just knew it was something better. 

“I’m not smashing you,” Lauren said, “am I?”

“No,” Jason said.

“Good,” Lauren said, wriggling out of his grasp.  “I’m not finished with you yet.” Straddling him now, facing his feet, she began pulling of his shoes.  First the right, then the left.