“Never.”
“Then I’ll tell on you.”
“I see the tabloid lifestyle is already in your blood.”
“Lupe, meet me in the city tomorrow.”
Lupe mused to herself, “Can I go from one man’s arms straight to another’s, and then when I get back to school, to yet another’s?” At length she replied, “I’ll be waiting for you at the boathouse in Central Park at three tomorrow afternoon.”
Except for the guilt, Lupe enjoyed her night of sleeping with a sophisticated adult male in his loft. Lupe liked Xavier without ever needing to see him again.
Additionally, she had no intention of meeting Hector in Central Park. She took the two-fifteen back to Poughkeepsie, eager to return to her room, change her clothes and find her Clarence.
“That will teach you to blackmail girls,” she thought to herself, settling into her window seat on the train and pulling Pamela out of her bag.
“So you thought you’d stand me up!” came a voice from above as Hector slipped into the seat opposite her.
“Oh my god,” Lupe breathed, extremely impressed. “I have underestimated you!”
“Prudent of you to have called Diana back with Mr. Duarte’s address. Happily, I was there when she took the information down and copying it only seemed like good sense to both of us. I’ve actually been keeping my eye on you all morning. When you got into a cab and told the driver Penn Station I saw my work cut out for me.”
“If you’re training for your career with the National Enquirer, you’re doing well. You already appear to be a practiced stalker.”
“I prefer to think of myself as a romantic.”
“Hector, I already have a boyfriend.”
“You also have a lover. Mr. Duarte.”
“Please don’t say that. What happened last night was a brief B&D adventure, never to be repeated.”
“Oh? And why is that?”
“Hector, why have you fixated on me? Why didn’t you move in on Diana while you had the opportunity?”
“What makes you think I didn’t?”
“Well, did you or didn’t you?”
“Did I or didn’t I what?”
“Play with Diana?”
“Diana is so sweet.”
“Oh, you barely know her.”
“I wish you were more like her.”
“Since you two are getting along so well, you don’t need me, do you?”
“I need you more than ever.”
“Look, I’m not even sure that I like you.”
“Did you like Mr. Duarte?”
“At least he knew what he was doing.”
“And you don’t think I do?”
“I know you don’t. How could you? You don’t have the slightest idea.”
“You go on thinking that.”
“Hector, you have to stop. It’s not funny any more!”
“Calm down.”
“I won’t be coerced into intimacy.”
“I understand,” Hector replied gravely, startled by her sudden anger. “I went too far. I’m sorry.”
“You really have to back off.”
“I’ll do that, Lupe,” he assured her, his heart pounding.
“You might grow on me in time,” she added with a smile. “I’m not ruling out the possibility.”
“Thank you!” Hector beamed.
“Maybe we can study together sometime. Or take a walk to the Cider Mill.”
“I’ll take you up on both.”
When their taxi disgorged Lupe and Hector in front of Cushing several hours later, Clarence Gerard was there to wonder at the sight.
“Lupe!”
“Clarence, hi.”
“Don’t forget about our study date,” said Hector, heading off toward Jocelyn dorm.
“You have a study date with Hector Green?” Lupe’s lover demanded, grabbing her overnight duffel and carrying it into their dorm.
“I vaguely committed to one,” she explained, following him upstairs.
“What were you doing together?”
“We just happened to take the same train back from the city.”
“Oh? You weren’t with him this weekend?”
“No, Clarence.”
“What were you doing in the city, anyway? You never told me you were going to the city.”
“Is that a hint of reproach?” Lupe opened the door to her room and they entered.
“I simply have the sudden and definite feeling that you were up to no good this weekend without me,” Clarence declared. When Lupe merely blushed he became more concerned. “Well? Am I going to have to beat it out of you?”
“I guess I had a sort of adventure,” she began. Then it all came out, because it was much too exciting a secret for a young girl to keep.
Clarence listened, pacing with folded arms. When she had finished describing her scene with Xavier Duarte in detail Clarence turned on her with blazing eyes.
“So that’s what you call being my girlfriend, is it?” Then he slammed out of the room.
Thus began a period of frost that lasted nearly a week as Clarence went about the campus and environs, steadfastly ignoring Lupe, no matter how affectingly she strove to catch his eye and in spite of how charming she looked in a whole new set of woolen skirts and sweaters.
Lupe’s pain was unremitting and her despondency grew by the day as she observed Clarence escort Meredith Pels, his leading lady in The Rivals, to local taverns and the dining hall. She was a tall, willowy, deep bosomed, blonde senior who radiated political correctness from every vegetarian pore. Off-stage she wore no makeup, dressed virtually in boy’s clothes and barely even seemed to comb her hair, yet she was a goddess and this was known to all, except herself. All of which gave no comfort the petite brunette.
