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Katherine

The first thingI do when I get out of my wet clothes is decide I need ashower.

It’s nice that my mom decided I should have my own room for the weekend instead of bunking me with my cousins. I love them, and it would have been fun to have sleepovers with them the way we always used to, but I amso freaking gladto have my own room right now, especially after being aroundLiam.

I wrap a towel from the a cabinet in the en-suite bathroom around me as I go back out to my room, flip my suitcase onto its side, and unzip. I have a bunch of my textbooks with me because I’d planned on squeezing in some studying. I know there’s going to be down-time, especially when everyone’s sleeping off their hangovers, and my dad told me that Liam actually has a small cabin out here in East Hampton that he’d recently bought with plans to fix it up and rent it out as anAirbnb.

I’d planned to beg him to let me use it as my own personal getaway away from thegetaway.

Now I might need it more thanever.

I go back to the bathroom, start up the shower, and step in a few moments later, letting the warm water flow over my tired, aching shoulders. I really need to learn how to drive. Taking the train out here wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great,either.

When I saw Liam again, everything started taking on a sunnier hue. When he told me I needed to call him the next time I needed a ride, that’s when I started to feel the tickle in mybelly.

I’m independent, and I don’t need a man. That’s what I keep telling myself. Maybe it’s because of the caliber of men I usually attract. I don’t know if it’s ameproblem or athemproblem, but either way, there’s aproblem.

My ex, for example, from freshman year, the one and only guy I’ve ever seriously dated. He was aproblem.

When classes were done, papers had been handed in, and the summer was getting underway, we decided we would try long-distance. I lived in the city with my parents and he was about an hour into New Jersey. At first we split our traveling, him coming to spend a weekend here and there at my house and me going down to hang out with him every so often. But then it became more one-sided and I found myself doing all the logistical work. I told myself it was no big deal; I told myself I was acting entitled to think he come to my neck of the woodsmore.

But after getting caught in a downpour on my walk from the train station to his house — after I told him it looked like it may rain and his response was to point out it was only a five-minute walk and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky — my visit to his house that weekend ended in a breakup instead of a temporarygoodbye.

It seemed that we’d been looking at two different skies. This was just one of the many ways in which we differed. You can compromise on a lot of things in a relationship: what to have for dinner, what movie to watch. But some things can’t be compromisedon.

And it was the laststraw.

Liam isn’t like that. I know he would never leave me on the side of the road to get rained on. To get all wet, to soak through myclothes.

Gulp.

Katherine,stop.

I grab my shower gel/shampoo combo, squeezing some onto the washcloth I brought in with me, focusing on my neck. I slide my hands along my shoulder muscles, up my neck, behind my ears, letting myself really take my time. Between classes and studying for the LSAT, I really don’t have much time formetime.

I mean, I’ve chosen to prioritize the things I’ve chosen to prioritize. Academics. That’s pretty much my one and only priority for me right now, and that’s how it’s been for a very longtime.

With the warm water beating down on me, I let my mind drift…wander…toLiam.

I move the washcloth down to my breasts, slowly caressing myself in large circles. There’s the most decadent, sweet, slow curl of heat winding through me. I bite my lip, making the washcloth go lower, swallow thickly, and let out a light, low exhale with a moan sliding from my partedlips.

I bite my lower lip and a devious smile spreads across my face. I slide the washcloth from the apex of my legs and back up, the fabric abrading my nipple. My breathing kicks up as I drop the washcloth at the corner of the shower and shampoo my hair quickly before getting out. I reach over to turn the wateroff.

Really, Katherine?I look at myself in the mirror.You were really going to do what you were just going todo?

I wrap the big, fluffy towel around me and tuck it in on itself, but I can’t stop the ache between my legs. It’s unbearable. This is going to happen. My body is telling me what I need it to do and there isno wayI’ll be able to go back downstairs and join movie night without getting this out of mysystem.

Screw it. This ishappening.

There wasoneother time I thought about Liam this way. I was home on Christmas break freshman year and he’d come over for Christmas Eve. I had to avoid him all night because every time I tried to talk to him I tripped over my words and felt my cheeks get hot. I thought it was a glitch in the matrix orsomething.

Now I know itwasn’t.

I don’t have to get very deep into my imagination to call up this fantasy. It’srightthere.

I slide my fingers against my slit and past it, making small, tight circles. This is going to have to be fast because I know someone is going to come around asking me why the girl who lives in jeans and sweats is taking so long getting ready. I dip my fingers lower but I don’t put them insideme.