After Aaron told Tony about his infatuation with Marisa, how she was different from other girls with her green eyes and shiny black hair in jagged bangs; after he went on about the freckles dusting her cheeks which charmed him although he couldn’t say why except that ordinarily black-haired girls (at least in his limited experience) didn’t have so many freckles and such pale luminous eyes; after Tony said, “I’m sure you can have her if you want her” and after Aaron softly demurred, not expecting such a crude response from his Resident Advisor; and after Aaron said “perhaps” and then added (so softly he thought Tony didn’t hear but clearly he had), “perhaps in my next life”...

After all that, he shouldn’t have been surprised when Tony turned up with Marisa the very next day in the dorm lounge. Tony had Marisa’s soft hand in his rough one and she trailed him like a puppy and he went to the communal refrigerator and got the leftover peach upside-down cake that Aaron had baked on Sunday, and said, loudly, “Since you love peaches so much, Mare, I couldn’t let you miss out on my buddy’s peach pie. I thought there was one last piece, and I was right!” Aaron was half-hidden in a corner of the lounge, hunkered with Grey’s Anatomy in a ratty armchair without any springs. He wanted to correct Tony because it wasn’t pie at all but upside-down cake but then he saw Tony take a forkful and place it in Marisa’s open mouth. Her eyes were closed. He listened to her soft moan of pleasure and for a moment anyway it was as if he, and not Tony, was snuggled on the couch next to her.

Bio: Nancy Ludmerer