“Ahem.”

Ethan blinked, coming out of a reverie. What was going on? Right, right. He was in the dorm room of Emily, a classmate in his statics class, to give her some informal tutoring. He&a;d just provided to her some guidance on a particular homework problem. She&a;d started to take another stab at it while keeping his advice in mind, and he&a;d zoned out while watching her pencil skitter across the paper. “Sorry, I wasn&a;t paying attention. Let me just check how you worked out the moment on that fixed support.” He reached for the lined sheet that she was using.

“Isn&a;t there something else you should address first?” Emily frowned at him.

Confused, Ethan followed her gaze to his lap—and his heart sank into his stomach at the realization that an erection was tenting his jeans. Fuck. While watching her do the problem, I must have gotten distracted by her skinny fingers and arms, and then let my eyes wander all the way to her flat belly and cute little breasts. I guess I&a;m dead, then. He made to get up from his chair at Emily&a;s desk, stumbling in his haste. “Sorry! Sorry. I&a;ll, uh, go now.”

“Slow down.” Emily grabbed his arm, pulling him back down to his seat. “Let&a;s talk about this like adults.” She was still frowning, but her words were less terror&h;inducing than her facial expression. “You&a;ve been helping me for half the semester, and you haven&a;t propositioned me. But obviously you&a;re attracted to me. So, what&a;s the deal? Were you just trying to get into my pants all along?”

“Well…” Ethan hedged. “I mean, the possibility was always in the back of my mind. But I wouldn&a;t say that it was my plan. I&a;m just a random engineer—skinny but not muscular. I&a;m sure you&a;ve got half a dozen football players sending you dick pics, and they&a;re way ahead of me in that game. It was more like ‘this is an opportunity to bask in your presence’ than ‘this is an opportunity to get into your pants’.”

Emily continued to frown, but remained silent for a few seconds. After Ethan nervously fidgeted a few times, she finally spoke. “I&a;ll clarify that I actually don&a;t have anyone sliding into my DMs. It&a;s my understanding that the male consensus on my attractiveness is more like ‘five or six out of ten’ than the ‘eight or nine out of ten’ that you seem to be assuming. In case you hadn&a;t noticed—” She grabbed one of her brassiere&a;s straps through her shirt, and yanked on it a little, resulting in approximately zero jiggle. “—I haven&a;t got much in the way of curves.”

Ethan&a;s heart had moved from his stomach to his throat, and he could feel his formerly&h;deflated erection returning. “So…”

“Let me finish,” Emily interrupted him. “You aren&a;t a pedophile, are you? Because that would just be disgusting, if you were pretending that I was ten years younger than I am.”

Ethan gasped in horror. “What? No! You don&a;t look like a ten&h;year&h;old. Yes, your—uh—”

“Permission to speak freely.” Emily was still frowning. “Again, let&a;s talk about this like adults.”

“Your breasts and your hips are small, but they aren&a;t nonexistent. I don&a;t think anybody would mistake you for a ten&h;year&h;old.”

“Okay.” Emily leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. It didn&a;t look like she was planning to drop her frown. “Here&a;s my assessment from the other end. You&a;re cute. Calling you hot would be a stretch—like you said, you&a;re just a skinny guy with no muscle—but you&a;re cute. Seven out of ten, let&a;s say.” She turned her head back to look at Ethan. “Later, we can discuss compatibility of interests and personalities with a view toward romance. For now: wanna fuck?”

Ethan blinked in astonishment before finding his voice. “No argument here.”