Cornered

[Note: this is an entry in an "exactly 750-words" writing exercise.]

"We have to get to class," Michael Wu said, pulling himself off Ted's cock, rolling over, and sitting on the side of the bed. He gazed out the window of his small University of Michigan student apartment bedroom, looking at a near-blizzard of snowfall. He was a graduate student in chemical engineering; Ted was a graduate student in nuclear engineering. They had been shacking up like this for a couple of months. Michael had pursued Ted and Ted covered him.

Michael was pursuing Ted for more than sex, but he didn't want Ted to know that. So far Michael had been harder to work than Jason, another nuclear engineering graduate student, had been, but Michael persevered. The sex was an added benefit. Thinking on this reminded Michael why he'd forced a quick fuck.

"I have something I have to do before class. I'll see you there," he said as he rose from the bed. Some of the chemical and nuclear engineering classes overlapped. Michael and Ted shared one that met in two hours.

"Sure, see you there," Ted said, pulling the sheet up and turning over.

"You might build in extra time getting to class," Michael said, as he padded toward the bathroom. "It's snowing hard."

"And to think I could have gone to Florida Atlantic instead," Ted said, with a groan.

"They don't have the important nuclear research there they have here," Michael said, as he entered the bathroom. He didn't see the slight smile on Ted's face.

"No, no, they don't," he answered.

* * * *

Michael didn't mind the snow. It wasn't as heavy as he experienced in his Heilongjiang home province, in China's extreme northeast. But it was falling heavily even for Michigan. He barely could see where he was going in the small park-like quad in front of the engineering building. Today the snow was a good thing. There were few out in it and it would cover the exchange.

As he approached the intersection of paths in the quad's center, he saw Jason sitting on a bench buried in snow. Jason was shivering despite being bundled up and was looking furtively around, obviously only being there because he had to—because there was business to do.

He nodded to Michael as the Chinese student approached him, immediately then swiveling his head around to ensure they weren't being observed. The blizzard was a godsend in assuring their privacy. He gave Michael a plaintive, let's-get-on-with-it-and-over-it look as he took a glove off and slid his hand into the folds of his coat, pulling out a large envelope.

Michael sat on the bench, pulling out a smaller envelope containing money, not needing to be as large as the one Jason handed him that contained diagrams and mathematical formulas. No sooner had the exchange been made than Jason was up and disappearing in a swirl of falling snow. After unzipping the slit on the side of his boot and slipping the envelope from Jason inside, Michael waited for a few minutes before getting up and heading to class.

He didn't head directly toward the engineering building, though. Spy craft had taught him not to take direct paths. He headed away from the engineering building. He'd go out to the perimeter walk around the edge of the quad and then around the sides and back to his lecture class in the engineering building.

It was because he'd taken the circuitous route that he saw them—down the side of another building facing the quad.

Why were they together in the shadows of the building, Michael wondered. Jason and Ted, huddled into their heavy coats in the snow, heads together. What were they doing?

But he knew what they were doing. His heart ascended into his throat and he almost gagged on despair. He suddenly knew what was happening. He turned and walked directly back into the quad, toward the engineering building. There was a tree there with a hollow hole in it. He'd used it before for dead drops. The best he could do now was put the envelope there and hope he could come back for it.

* * * *

Ted slipped in beside him as the lecture was beginning. His leg brushed Michael's and Michael felt the surge of arousal of the nearness of him.

"Have I missed anything?" Ted asked.

"No, you seem to have it well in hand," Michael answered.

Would there be time for another fuck before Ted arrested him, Michael wondered.