Extra: Rani-Retrospective

((This is just a little scene to show the first time Rani and Arthur really met. It's not really explicit, but it's a nice little behind-the

((This is just a little scene to show the first time Rani and Arthur really met. It's not really explicit, but it's a nice little behind-the-scenes look I thought you might enjoy.))

Rani Shah had survived Freshman year and the first half of Sophomore year on her own. Growing up the middle child in a large family, Rani seized the opportunity to go to a college far away from her family and strike out on her own. She reinvented herself almost immediately Freshman year, buying new clothes with the money she’d saved and dressing in ways her mama and papa would have never allowed. Her parents weren’t strict by their cultural standards, but they were pretty conservative by American cultural norms, and the pressure from her aunties to be an example to her younger cousins had nearly driven her mad during high school.

College was different. Gone were the floor-length dresses and baggy clothes. The curve-hugging jeans, shorts, short skirts, crop tops, and generally slutty outfits were here to stay. She wasn’t afraid to admit that she’d been a bit of a slut with her newfound freedom. College was a smorgasbord of men and women to choose from, and men were always willing to fuck if they were single. Sometimes, they were ready even if they weren’t single. Women took a bit more work, but she’d done plenty at parties, in the dorms, and the occasional threesome when some couple were out there looking for a unicorn.

Rani didn’t want a relationship. She wasn’t into cuddling after sex, and more than one young man had been disappointed to find there was no second date if she slept with them on the first. She didn’t usually sleep over, and other than a handful of repeat friends-with-benefits, she moved on pretty quickly between partners. She was living her best life, going through a phase where she wanted to try everything, and in the year and a half she’d been at college, she’d done most things on any sexual checklist at least once. If she liked it, she did it more. If she didn’t like it, she turned it down the next time it was offered, and there was always something new to try.

In her experience thus far, people were freaks. All they needed was permission, and they’d share how freaky they liked to be.

Her typical method of operation was to find a cute or sexy guy she liked the look of in the cafeteria. It was even better if he brought something new to the table, but it wasn’t always necessary. It was also a good idea if they came recommended by a friend or former partner. Though, this was not strictly necessary either.

Along the way, she’d discovered more about herself and humanity than she’d thought possible. She’d also grown and developed in other ways, not just sexually. She’d found a love for the arts she didn’t know she had. Specifically, photography, but also videography and cinematography. She liked the visual arts, and if her parents would accept a degree change to the arts, she would have changed majors already.

That conversation had been like banging her head against a brick wall and finding the only cracks were in her own skull. Her parents did not believe in the arts. They believed in the sciences. If she wanted to pursue the arts as a hobby, that was fine with them. They encouraged that and admitted readily that she had a good eye and plenty of talent, even if they didn’t know much about art. They were encouraging in that regard. Yet, for a career? No. If she was going to be a career woman and not a wife, she would get a real career or have to pay for it on her own.

So she continued to be an Electrical Engineering major, taking as many art-based electives as she could squeeze into her schedule. Unfortunately, not all electives could be art classes. Some of them had to relate to her major in some way, and thus, she was taking a class called Business Writing this semester. It was boring.

The professor was an old man who, for all his knowledge about "business," seemed averse to work. Everything was peer-reviewed, and nothing seemed to matter that much. It was an easy “A” in that regard, but wasting the time annoyed her. She could be getting work done for her classes that mattered, or melting into sex-driven oblivion with a partner or cleverly designed tools for that purpose in the time she wasted here. Still, at least it wasn’t all bad. There was one piece of decent eye candy in the class: Arthur.

A year ahead of Rani in school, Arthur was the perfect guy. A tall, muscular, broad-shouldered young man, he looked like something from a comic book. The chiseled physique wasn’t that special; plenty of guys had it. The height was a factor not many others had, though. Then there was the face. He had thick, short, well-kempt brown hair, almost black, especially when he had product in it. In contrast, he had bright blue eyes that speared Rani’s soul as soon as they met her gaze, and he made eye contact whenever he passed her, unlike many guys.

A lot of guys like that might have been assholes, jocks, or frat boys who had life given to them on a platter. But Arthur was quiet. When he spoke at all, his voice was a rich baritone that made him sound far older than he was. His default demeanor was peaceful, gentle, and quick to smile, and she’d never seen him so much as tense or frustrated. He dressed in slacks and collared shirts like he’d stepped out of a photo shoot. She wondered what it might be like to have him model for her camera and how she might try and convince him to remove bits of clothing until he was modeling nude, and then they could- well, it was a frequent fantasy of hers when she lay in bed alone at night and needed something to get off to.

She would be willing to bet money she wasn’t the only one to have a crush on him in this class, and he had been on her to-do list since her Freshman year when she spotted him in the cafeteria. The only problem was that he had a girlfriend, and unlike some guys, he was actually a decent human being. They’d never spoken, but no matter what Rani wore or how seductively she might try to look at him, he only had eyes for the girl who sometimes hung on his arm.

Arthur’s girlfriend Lori was a lot like him in some regards. She was cute, with long dark hair and bright hazel eyes. Lori’s fashion sense wasn’t as formal as Arthur’s, but she always wore a silver necklace with a heart-shaped padlock pendant. The silver matched a necklace she’d sometimes seen beneath Arthur’s shirt, with a key instead of any pendant. Rani saw them together a lot in the cafeteria, the lovey-dovey couple that looked like they belonged in a magazine trying to sell you the bench they were sitting on.

Only now, late in the semester, it had been a few days since she’d seen them together. Word around campus was that they’d broken up, and the change in Arthur’s demeanor suggested it wasn’t his idea. Arthur looked terrible now.

Not that he wasn’t still hot, he was, but the inherent joy in his face was gone, replaced with a weary stillness that made it seem like no one was home behind those bright eyes. It was like watching someone walk through their life on auto-pilot, and Rani had patiently waited two full weeks to give him the appropriate amount of time to grieve the loss of the relationship he’d had with the woman who’d been his girlfriend since Freshman year.

Rani decided she would help him. She would help him get over Lori in a way that would hopefully provide them some mutual satisfaction. She would show him there was life after loss and plenty of fish in the sea. Not that she wanted to be his girlfriend. No, a good fuck, and maybe a follow-up or two if he proved talented. Then she’d set him loose on the sea of women here at the University who, like Rani, were looking for a good time.

She knew exactly what she was going to say to him, too. She chose her outfit carefully, deciding not to be too flashy about it or too forward. A guy like Arthur, shy as he was, might need some coaxing to come out of his shell. She would ask him to dinner at the cafe, a public place with low pressure, under the pretense of reviewing the start-up proposals they had due in their Business Writing class. Then, she would ask him to walk her back to her dorm. Then she was going to invite him in and rock his world.

Was her plan a little basic? Sure. But it hadn’t failed her yet. A little homework, a little light conversation, and an invitation were all any guy she’d ever met needed to get naked between her sheets. Then again, some guys didn’t even need the first two. Plenty of guys would have probably settled for the invitation.

She wore a pair of jean shorts perfect for one of the first warm days of early spring. They weren’t cut-offs, but they weren’t terribly long shorts either and only came down to the tops of her thighs. They were a struggle to get into with her apple-bottom-shaped ass, but showing it off was part of the plan, and the jean shorts hugged tight to her curves. With it, she wore a cropped halter top that showed off two inches of her stomach before the shirt's material, just a strip to show off her belly button piercing. Then, the halter was tied in the back behind her neck. It covered her breasts, but they weren’t her best feature, and it showed a decent amount of sideboob at the right angle.

She waited until after class, and then she struck.

“Arthur?” She asked, stepping up to him as he packed his bookbag.

Arthur looked up and met her gaze as she looked at him. “Yeah?” He asked uncertainly.

“Would you be interested in reviewing each other’s business proposals before we turn them in?” Rani asked. “You’re the only one in the class I haven’t been partnered with yet, and I want a fresh perspective from someone doing well in the class.”

“Oh uh…” Arthur seemed hesitant, but Rani hit him with a confident smile, and he instinctively returned it. “Sure. I have mine mostly finished, I think.”

“Would tonight work, or do you need more time?” Rani asked.

“Well, I have work-” Arthur started to think about the rest of his schedule for the day, and Rani watched as his eyes seemed to calculate whether he had time tonight.

“It won’t take long.” Rani assured him.

“Yeah.” Arthur agreed. “Tonight’s fine.”

“Cool.” Rani’s smile widened. “Maybe we can go over them at dinner tonight? Meet up in the cafe around five-thirty?”

“Make it six.” Arthur nodded. “That’ll give me time to put the finishing touches on my proposal so you can review it.”

“Six it is.” Rani agreed. “It’s a date.” She winked at him and walked away, putting some extra sway into her hips, but when she looked over her shoulder to catch him looking like she had with other guys a few times before, he wasn’t. He was zipping up his backpack. He slung it over his shoulder and followed her into the hallway with his eyes high the entire time. Like he didn’t even notice the best ass he’d ever seen practically putting on a show for his benefit. Well, his teasing and their mutual benefit, she hoped.

Six couldn’t come soon enough, but it came. Rani didn’t want to seem too eager, so she was a few minutes late, and Arthur was already at a table. She put her bag on the empty seat and sat with a plop that made her braless chest bounce, but Arthur hadn’t looked up from his phone until everything came to a rest, and when he did, his eyes remained on hers.

Rani almost sighed in frustration, but she kept it to herself and gave him a smile. Arthur smiled back, but it was clear his heart wasn’t in it or what they were talking about when they started to discuss their business proposals. Rani pulled out her laptop, Arthur pulled out his, and they swapped to review each other’s presentations. Rani had intentionally set her wallpaper as one of the more tasteful nudes of herself, hoping that he would minimize, close, or tab over from the presentation to see it. A little preview to get him in the right frame of mind for the animalistic fucking she wanted from him tonight.

Arthur’s background was a picture of him, Lori, and two old people, probably his or her parents. A selfie taken at a baseball game from a decent seat, but otherwise didn’t seem to commemorate any special occasion. She frowned and glanced up at him, but he was busy reading her presentation. She flicked through a few slides of his.

Her small business proposal was for a photography gallery, not a single-artist studio, but a gallery where photography artists and other artists could share and sell their work online. The unique factor was that the photography was meant to be erotic, a gallery for erotic art. If Arthur seemed enticed or seemed to notice at all, he didn’t show any signs of being shocked, intrigued, or even interested. His expression was flat.

His business proposal was for a brick-and-mortar stage theater company operating in the city. A business that, while well-researched and well-proposed, wasn’t likely to make much money. The figures in his projections were optimistic but still depressing compared to hers. She frowned a little and then checked his browser history to see if he had any interesting porn in there.

There wasn’t a lot of porn from the usual sites, but not because he’d cleared his history or anything like that. There were a few hits but no bookmarks, and none was very crazy. Some light bondage stuff, some threesomes, typical male fantasy shit. The surprising part was the number of instructional videos and blogs he had bookmarked. There were articles on everything from how to tie a bow line to how to provide emotional aftercare and several other concepts Rani had heard of but had never expected anyone her age to actually research.

“What do you think?” Arthur asked, looking up from her screen to see she was studying something on his screen.

Rani closed his browser immediately and pulled his presentation back up. “Uh…” She said, marshaling her thoughts for a moment. “It’s… optimistic.”

Arthur frowned. “Yeah, maybe.”

Rani gave him an unintentionally condescending smile like he was an adorable puppy who thought the ball he’d found was the best toy in the whole world. “It’s optimistic.” She repeated. “Theaters like that don’t make money. They have to rely on charity and grants to cover operating costs and barely have enough to pay their actors, let alone their musicians. Theaters don't make money outside of Broadway, which is a tourist destination.”

“Well…” Arthur tried to find some line of reason to defend his figures and landed on one. “The figures are based on research.”

“Research on theaters in the location you’ve suggested, or research on Broadway theaters in Manhattan?” Rani asked. She realized from his expression that she’d guessed precisely where he’d gotten the figures. “Yeah, no. The proposal is solid otherwise, but the projections are fiction, and Old Man Rogers will definitely knock you down a letter grade or two for that.”

Arthur sighed.

“What did you think of mine?” Rani asked, interested.

“It looks good.” He nodded. “The only difficulty is it would have some stiff competition. Plenty of sites offer erotic art already, and they all compete against the ‘everything on the internet should be free’ mentality. You’d have to ensure there’s a way to keep the online works from being pirated, so you should add a cybersecurity line to your budget. Otherwise, it looks good.”

Rani was taken aback. She hadn’t expected an accurate or helpful observation, but it was a perk. It wasn’t a bad idea; it covered a base she hadn’t considered when drafting the expense report. “That’s actually a good idea.” She said. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Arthur said and moved to pass her computer back.

“Do you want to see some of the art?” Rani asked.

Arthur raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“For the gallery.” She said. “I was thinking of including some samples in the presentation to show how well it could sell.”

Arthur scoffed. “I think that might give Professor Rogers a heart attack.”

“It’d be tasteful.” Rani smirked. “But maybe you’re right. Some of it might be too racy.” She expected the teasing remark to catch Arthur’s interest and make him want to see the art so that he could make sure it wasn’t too bad for Old Man Rogers. Instead, Arthur merely shrugged.

“Best to leave it out then.” Arthur agreed as he passed her computer back.

Rani looked at him and then passed his laptop back as he handed her hers. “Want to review it once I make the changes?” Rani asked.

Arthur shook his head. “I think you’ve got it.” He said. “I, meanwhile, might need to rethink my entire presentation.”

Rani gave him a consoling smile and reached to put her hand on his forearm. He missed the gesture and put his laptop into his bookbag, accidentally moving his arm out of the way. Rani slid her hand back before he noticed.

“In a hurry?” She asked.

“I uh…” Arthur hesitated. “No, not really, I guess.”

“You just want to be at home rather than here?” She asked.

Arthur’s polite smile faded.

“Did I say something wrong?” Rani asked.

“No, I just-” Arthur shook his head and slumped in his chair. “Sorry. I’m just not very sociable right now. My girlfriend and I are going through some things, and she-” He hesitated. “Well, it’s personal.”

“I thought you two broke up?” Rani asked, surprised.

It was Arthur’s turn to look surprised, but that surprise melted into a nod of acceptance. “We did. Or, more accurately, she broke up with me. I’ve been trying to convince her to stay, but she wants to change majors and transfer schools, and… she doesn’t want me to give up my future either, so… she decided we should go our separate ways. A clean break.” Arthur sounded detached as he said it, but Rani knew those sharp, bright eyes well enough to see the water in the corners. He was holding it back, but it took more effort daily.

“Do you…” Rani hesitated. Emotionality wasn’t her strong suit. She wanted a dick to ride on, not to be his shoulder to cry on, but if one got her the other, it might be worth it? Did she want to pity fuck this guy? No. She wanted him to take her like those muscles of his suggested he could. She didn’t want to wipe away his tears. She frowned. “Do you want to talk about it?” She asked, feeling obligated to follow through.

“Not really.” Arthur shook his head.

Rani sagged in relief. “Well… here.” She said as she took a napkin off the cafe table and scribbled her number. “When you’re ready to move on.” She said and handed him the napkin.

Arthur stared at it momentarily, not hearing or seeing what she’d done. It was like he was off in a different world, and when he took the napkin, he didn’t really seem to know why.

Rani scooped up her things and started to walk away, looking back over her shoulder. She deflated as she saw Arthur use the napkin to blow his nose. Too soon. She’d struck too soon. She sighed. He was still hung up on his ex, and he wouldn’t be ready for a good fuck until next semester, probably. Guys were so emotional sometimes. She almost wished Arthur could be more stereotypical. Then again, thinking about his browsing history, maybe it was good that he cared more about his partner than his own satisfaction. It was only a shame that kind of thing came with strings attached. Strings Rani wasn’t willing to accept for herself. Not yet.

“Hey.” Rani said to a random guy she met in the hallway on the way back to her dorm. He looked passably like Arthur. He was tall, but skinny instead of muscular, but the hair was right, even if cut differently, and his eyes were close to the same color. Not quite as bright and piercing, but close enough. “Want to fuck?”

“Uh…” The guy hesitated, looking around for any cameras or a team of pranksters that would jump out and say he was a perv or something. “Why me?”

“It’s a yes or no answer.” Rani said as she started to walk away. “And anything other than an enthusiastic yes is a no.”

“Yes!” The guy said, catching up to her. “I meant to say, Yes.”

“Good.” Rani said with a smirk. “Follow me.” She headed toward the doors.

“My name’s-” The guy started.

“Don’t care.” Rani said as they left the building behind.