Title IX

"I'm sorry to take your time up with this. If you ask any of her neighbors in the dorm, you'll find I'm a regular visitor. Obviously, I can't get in unless she lets me in. She kind of likes it rough; that's not the first time she's kicked something over. She likes to pretend she's a good girl, but let's just say she keeps inviting the bad boy to come back. She wanted it, and that's all there is to it."

"Did she or did she not hit you on the head with a lamp?"

"She did not. She knocked the lamp off in a moment of passion."

"Are you saying you've had sex with her before?"

"Not relevant," said the Dean of students. "He doesn't have to answer."

"But I don't mind. We've done it many times. She may be shy, but she's no virgin."

"Did she say 'No', or 'Stop', or 'you're hurting me'?"

"I think what she said was more like, 'No, don't stop, give it to me!'"

"So, I hear you saying that she wanted to do it. Why did she file a complaint?"

"Well, she thinks if she doesn't admit to saying 'yes', then she's still a 'good girl', or something like that."

"And the bleeding?"

"Well, I'm just a guy, but I think it was maybe just that time of the month. But I don't really know. I just know she wanted it, I gave it to her, and now she's complaining, after the fact. A girl can say 'no' before, but you can't really wait until after and say 'I didn't mean to' ".

"Can a girl say no during?"

"Well, maybe, but, she didn't. That's the truth."

"Well, you were mad about what I said before, but this is no surprise. We're down to 'he said, she said', and we're supposed to guess if it was rape or not. I, personally, find it hard to imagine a woman would do oral sex on a man, if she didn't want to go the whole way."

"Well," Paul said, "I find it very easy to imagine that a woman doesn't want to get pregnant, and she agrees to something that won't get her pregnant, and then she says no to something that would get her pregnant. And last time I checked, 'no' means 'no', even if you have your clothes off."

"We only have her word for the fact that she said 'no'. He says they did it before."

"I have news for you," said Alice, "we have a black eye, a broken lamp, a rape kit, and a gynecological exam that say she didn't want to do it, and tried to get him to stop. What, if a girl let's a man in her room, does that mean her body belongs to him?"

"She didn't want to lose him," Paul said, "but she didn't really want to have sex. She tried to compromise, and ended up compromising herself. I say let's get to a vote, so we can wrap this up some time this week."

"OK," said the Dean. "The most severe charge we have, is a charge of 'rape'. Write 'guilty' or 'not'."

A moment later there were three slips in the 'guilty' pile, and two slips in the 'not guilty' pile. "So we have 'guilty'. Now we've got to decide the on campus consequences. WE can't do criminal charges; that's the prosecutor's job, but federal guidelines say we have to protect her."

"If we expel him from campus, he can sue us, and since it's just 'he said she said', we could lose a lawsuit."

"If we let him off entirely, and don't protect the victim, we could lose federal funding."

"If you people don't stop yammering about what we could lose as a campus, and start thinking about what is the most just thing to do, I think I'm going to lose my lunch."

***

It was late afternoon on a Friday. There was a tap on his office door. "Professor Barton? Is this a good time?" He looked up. Danielle Stone was standing there.

"Come on in," he said. She sat in a chair across the office.

"I wanted to tell you how grateful I am," she said. "I'm grateful that you were a voice of reason on the committee. I'm grateful that you didn't tell anyone about... what we did before. And you were right."

"I was wrong to try to placate him with oral sex. He was not a good boyfriend, and I just didn't understand. And I was wrong to ask you for... the lesson I asked you for. I'm sorry."

Paul wasn't sure what to say. He still wasn't sorry for what they had done, even though he knew that it had been wrong even at the time.

"But I want you to know," she said, blushing, "that even though I know I shouldn't have asked, and we shouldn't have done... what we did, it was just such a wonderful experience, that I'll remember you forever, and I'm going to keep looking until I find a boyfriend as kind and wonderful and caring and sensitive as you are, but closer to my age."

She was saying what they had done was wrong, so he was pretty sure offering her a 'Part II' lesson would be a bad idea. With great regret in his heart for what could never be, he said, "Danielle, you are right that we shouldn't have done it, but I want you to know that I have no regrets. That was very special for me, I will always have a special place in my heart for you, and I hope you find a man to marry who is worthy of you. I would love to dance at your wedding some day, and wish you the best. Because I can say with certainty that the man you marry will be a very fortunate man indeed. Words cannot express how special that day in my office was for me, and, ... and ..."

He stood up. This was embarrassing. Tears were running down his cheeks. He couldn't think what to say.

She came over, gave him a big bear hug, one last deep kiss, and then she gave him a little wave, grabbed her backpack, and left. He knew she was out of his life, and he knew better than to try to pursue her. It was over.

In his quiet office, he heard a thump. It wasn't anything in his office, and his office was on the top floor. Then he heard what sounded like something breaking. Alice's office was right below him; he'd better see what was going on.

Alice's door was closed. "Alice?" he called. He heard a muffled sound. The door was locked. Fortunately, he had a master key.

He opened the door to find Alice, with her blouse torn open, and Gabe Simpson holding one hand over her mouth. There was a broken lamp on the floor. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on. He stepped forward and punched Gabe right in the eye. Alice twisted away; and Paul kneed Gabe in the groin. While he was bent over, Alice gave him a side kick to his kidneys. Gabe fell to the ground.

"You bitch," he moaned. "You and that bitch of a Dean got me expelled. This asshole saved you this time, but I'll catch you later, and I'll give you what you deserve, for messing up my life. I swear."

Paul grabbed his arm, and twisted it viciously behind his back. He looked up at Alice.

"Alice, do you have enough acid in the chem lab to dissolve about 200 pounds of fat and calcium?"

She cast a worried look at him. "Well, actually, I do. But that's not a very pleasant way to die; even worse if you're tied up and put in feet first. We'd have to gag him, so the screams couldn't be heard in the next building over. Do you really think it's necessary? I mean..."

"Well, it's your call. We can call 911, and charge him with assault and attempted rape, and let the police take care of it. Or we can gag him, and take him to the chemistry lab and never ever have to look at him again. What do you want to do?"

"Well, I certainly don't want to deal with a police report. They never followed up when he raped Danielle. Maybe we'd better just take care of him ourselves..."

"No," he moaned. "I don't want to die in a chemical vat. I swear, I just wanted to scare you, really..."

"Well, maybe if he called the police and confessed, then we wouldn't have to waste the chemicals on him, at least not this time."

Paul grabbed Gabe, with one arm under his throat, and the other at the top of his spine. "Say 'yes' or 'no'. Do you know how easily your spine can be broken, leaving you a quadriplegic who needs a bag to go to the bathroom?"

"Yes," he managed to choke out.

"Ok, now when the phone is next to you, I want you to confess that you raped Danielle, that you broke into our office building, that you attacked Dr Alice Stillman. And if you do a real, convincing job of it, I won't break your neck, and we won't dissolve you toes first in a vat of acid, unless, of course, we see you on campus again. Do you agree to our terms?"

"Yes."

"Alice?"

She held up the phone. "OK, they said 911 emergency. Go," and she held the phone up to his head.

"This is Gabe Simpson. I want to confess. I did rape Danielle Stone. I just broke into the faculty office building and tried to beat up Dr. Alice Stillman. Please don't let them kill me. I don't want to die. Help?"

She took the phone way from him. "Let him up. If the police let him go, we'll use the chemicals next time."

"OK," and he released his hold. Gabe crawled painfully out of the office, then, hunched over from pain, started limping down the stairs.

She swung the door shut. "You have an interesting message on your voice mail, now. Please don't delete it until we're sure he won't be a problem."

"Oh, that's good," he said.

She looked at him with dignity, even though her blouse was torn open, and what was underneath covered very, very little of her skin.

"Paul, I've just got to ask. You've been here for 6 years, you have tenure now, and we've been friends since I got here. And never once have I heard you say anything about going on a date. Until I heard some interesting sounds coming from your office recently, I was really kind of wondering about you, if you know what I mean. So, what gives? You're an attractive single man, a widower, do you date, or what?"

He blushed. "Actually, I'm kind of shy, and I don't know many people off campus. And you've been at those workshops; it's a federal crime these days, if you tell a woman she's pretty and it makes her uncomfortable. So, I just haven't... I mean..." he trailed off. "At first it seemed disloyal to the memory of my wife, and then, I just didn't know how to start dating again. I know what I did with Danielle was wrong, but I was so lonely, I just did it anyway. I know I could have lost my job, and I was very lucky not to."

She shook her head. She spoke more softly. "If those silly rules weren't there, is there anyone on campus you would want to date? You can tell me."

"Alice, you are my best friend. And I don't want to do anything to hurt our friendship. But, I've got to say, you are a very beautiful woman, smart, caring, hard working, and did I mention sexy, and if I dated anyone at all on campus, I'd want it to be you, if it wouldn't hurt our friendship."

"You poor man. I don't think you paid enough attention at those workshops. If you keep pursuing after being told no, that's a problem. If you are in a position of authority and you pressure a subordinate, that's a problem. But it's OK to ask, and it's OK for two consenting adults, neither of whom is a subordinate of the other, to have a relationship if they both want. I think you're too shy."

He shrugged, and gave her a sad smile. She said, "Well, I'll never be able to wear this blouse again." And she calmly unbuttoned the last remaining buttons, and tossed the torn blouse at the garbage can.

"That slug was in here, pawing me, and I wasn't sure what would happen. That really left me with a bad taste."

"I'm so glad I came in time."

"Well, I need a kind gentle, preferably handsome man to help me forget that slug." She put her arms around his neck. "I want a man I care about to caress me, and hold me, and make me feel loved, and beautiful, and special." She kissed him on the nose.

"If you want to, you can reach behind my back and unsnap me," she whispered. "I promise you won't make me uncomfortable."

She pulled him in, and gave him a kiss, for the first time in the years they had known each other. After a couple of fumbles, he released her wisp of sexy lingerie. He had no idea what kind she had been wearing under her blouse and lab coat, until now. He took her in his arms, and kissed down her neck, and lower, until he was nuzzling her soft breasts, and then he started licking her nipples.

"Oh, I knew you would be gentle," she whispered. As she gloried in his touch, she fumbled at her skirt. Then her skirt fell off.

"I didn't want to risk our friendship either, but please... take my panties off, and take care of that tootsie pop between my legs. I want to know how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop..."

He gently pushed her into a chair, and got on his knees. "yes, yes, oh, yes, that's it, oh, that's the way I like it, oh... oh... oh... yes..." She arched her back, he supported her from below with his hands, and he found the perfect rhythm. She gave a loud gasp, barely keeping herself from screaming, and relaxed.

"Let me see your popsicle, my love. I want to lick something too." She pushed him down into the chair she had just vacated, grabbed him by his special handle, and started circling the tip with her tongue. "Is this how you like it? Do you want more?" All he could do in reply was to moan. Then her mouth was too full to talk, and he was too lost in pleasure to talk, as she slowly brought him to a climax, and then swallowed everything she could get out of him.

She pulled him down, next to her on the rug, and they simply held each other. "Is it OK if we become more than friends, now?" she asked.

He kissed her. "Let's start with lovers, and work up from there." He looked deep into her eyes. "Do you need time to think about this?"

"Yes, I do." "Hmmm..." She said. "I've known you for four years. And now I've thought about it. 'lovers' sounds good to me. If we hurry, we can get to the pharmacy before it closes, and start practicing right away."