Read Inconstant Moon - Default Font Edition for Free Online

embarrassment. “I'm fine, lets just start. I'll sleep later.”
    They gather their things and head out, waving at Eric seated by the glass wall overlooking the oval.
    Eric smiles and waves back at Maggie, then turns back to his laptop. A quick re-read of the draft email doesn't pass muster, so he deletes it. He doesn't want to sound whiny is all.
    Beginning again, he types:
    Where are you? You said to meet you here. I thought we were going to get something to eat before the computer party. I could have eaten without you but now it's too late, they've shut down so only the vending machines are open.  Joy.  Rapture even.
    He looks up and scans the room again, but it's emptying fast. With everything closed down nobody is coming in. He sighs. Elsie never wants to go out.
    If you weren't coming why did say you were? I could be working on the essay due tomorrow, or researching my thesis, but no, here I am. Waiting for you.
    Not that he minds staying in with her. The sex is incredible.
    But.
    He doesn't know what her favourite colour is or even if she likes jazz. Just sometimes he'd like to be able to talk with her, find out what makes her tick.
    He smiles to himself.
    Well, besides that.
    O.K. look, how 'bout this. I'm heading over to Callaghan's. If you want me to bring you something let me know. I have my cell. Call. Tweet. Something.
xo eric
    This time Eric doesn't read it, he just hits ‘send’ then shuts down the laptop. Pulling on his jacket, he zips up, feeling in his pocket for his car keys. Not there. Must be back at the Res. He stuffs the laptop unceremoniously into the bag, shouldering it and heads back to Fyfield House. It's a long way to Callaghan's without wheels.
    At the building Eric waves at the night porter and heads for the stairs. He's been sitting too long and energy is bursting out of his pores so he takes the stairs two at a time, running all the way up to the fifth.
    A swipe of his card and he's in.
    Heading for his room, he thinks how quiet it is. Not a soul in the common room. Everybody out and about doing something or other. As he should be . . . would be . . . will be when he finds his keys. He's left the room open as usual, and drops the computer case on the desk, then roots through the knee hole drawer but they aren't there either. He frowns, where? Checks the floor by the desk, bedside, closet. Nothing.
    Nobody would bother to steal his keys. His car is a beater.
    Eric thinks. Last night after the pub with Elsie. He could hardly believe she came out with him. Damn the girl can dance. He smiles. Dancing was so great. Gotta do that again. He probably left the keys in her room. God knows he couldn't see straight when he came back down after. Maybe she'll be there and they can go to Callaghan's and get a bite together. So he heads back through the common room and up the stairs to the girl's floor.
    Strictly speaking, it's off limits. But as Romeo says, “with love's light wings did I o'erperch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out.”
    Eric smiles to himself as he heads down the corridor toward Elsie's room. Who is he to argue with Shakespeare? There's a crack of light under the door. Good.
    Elsie must have come back, great. Maybe she's changing for him. He smiles, taps softly once and pushes open the door to the room he knows as well as his own.
    Except it looks a bit different just now. The point of view is just
wrong
.
    Well.
    There's Elsie's unmistakable cascade of auburn hair, fanned out over the pillow in soft erotic waves of spun silk that contrast with her pale skin adorned with a delicate tracery of pale blue veins. Her face is flushed, her eyes closed as she undulates on the bed.
    Her long legs are bent and spread and her red polished toes knead the bedding. That's his Elsie all right. The thing that's not right is the sweaty guy kneeling at the side of the bed, head buried between her legs.
    They're going at it so hot and heavy they haven't even heard him. Elsie did a good