That September, I noticed Clarissa sitting in a student center lounge, smooching with some guy. I noted that he was considerably taller and more 'buff' than I was.

She saw me looking at her. In fact, I wanted to be noticed by her. When she turned my way, she mouthed the words fuck you. Then she stuck her tongue out at me.

I immediately left to check the bins of our rival newspaper, The Campus. The first issue of the term had been out for about two days. Sure enough, I saw Clarissa Wexler in the staff box, listing her as a staff writer, not a mere contributor. Inside I found a news article by her, one of those incredibly boring stories that The Campus specialized in. Only materials related to the school itself, no matter how indirectly, were accepted. That contrasted with the free-form weirdness that sometimes prevailed in my paper, The Salient.

Joining that other paper was one move that I had speculated that she might do. She’s pretty clever, after all.

****

Three days later, I met Clarissa in person. I was walking past Wagner Hall when she came up from the opposite direction. It was too late for me to change my path. She was nicely dressed in a white blouse, tight dark trousers, and low-heeled but formal black shoes. Instead of the hippie-like cloth band, she had a plastic one across the top of her head.

As we closed the distance between us, she said, “Hey, D’Amato, come over here, I want to talk to you.”

“What, are you stalking me?”

“You can only wish.”

“So, is that your boyfriend I saw you with in the lounge the other day?”

“That was him, and I’m sure he fucks me better than you ever could.” Yes, she certainly is brazen. “Stand over there by the wall.” She meant the brick side of the Wagner portico. As she leaned on it, I stood in front of her.

“I’ve seen you walking around with your sweetie, too, I assume. She’s got glasses and dark hair like I do.”

“Yes, and she’s also on the paper with me.” I definitely shouldn’t have said that.

“I thought so. What’s her name?”

“I’m not going to tell you that.”

“There’s only five females on The Salient now. I’ll figure it out. From the way she looks, you’ve done pretty well for yourself.”

“Why, thank you.” I tried to sound sarcastic, but I probably failed.

“So, do you have to pay her something to put out for you? Even if it’s only a lot of dinners and drinks?”

You really are nasty, aren’t you? But I kept my temper. Before I could think of a response, she said, “I read that article of yours about the bus ride to California. Did you cheat on your girl out there, too, since she wasn’t around?”

For some reason, I answered honestly. “Even if I had wanted to pick up a girl out there, I had no chance with the guys I was with.”

Clary was genuinely amused by that, and she laughed. “That is so rich! And two of them are on the paper with you. I must meet these schlubs.”

I changed the topic to her work. “I see that you write for The Campus now.”

“They offer better opportunities than your rag does; I figured that out. By the way, you lied to me last June.”

“I did no such thing. You were the one who blew me for a position if you remember.”

“I’ll never make that mistake again. So, I think you got all worried that I’d blab to your main squeeze, didn’t you?”

Instead of denying it, I stupidly asked, “How could you know that?”

“It wasn’t that hard to figure out.” She lowered her voice, “Because I know that you’re such a cowardly little prick. You, pretentious nice guys, are always bastards underneath.”

I don’t think I had ever been so intensely disliked by anyone. “And you, Clarissa, are quite a piece of work yourself.”

“It takes one to know one. Anyway, despite having access to a chick, you still must have masturbated over the summer thinking of me.”

“I’m not going to answer that.” It certainly was true, however.

“I’m sure you did. I bet you imagined spanking my sassy ass too.” That was true as well, but I wasn’t going to admit that either. “Have you ever spanked a girl in your life?”

Foolishly, I wanted to impress her. “Yes, I have.”

“With that girl of yours?”

“No, someone else.”

“Thus, you thought that one was a bad girl too.”

“Oh, a lot badder than you by a long way.” Somehow I felt a need to brag further. “That same one also spanked me, paddled me, in fact. The first time she did that, she caught me by surprise.” I was talking about my ex, Nora, of course.

“And you liked it, I bet. You, nice guys, are always so twisted underneath, I’ve seen that too. Although, I wouldn’t mind dominating you, just to see the look on your face.”

“You always have to have to outdo yourself, I’ve noticed.”

“Yep, that’s me. I can also speculate that you fantasized about putting your cock up my ass and shooting your load into my butthole.”

That was brutally explicit, but I wasn’t surprised. Indeed, I had mentally used that scenario as well. It was time to move to yet another topic. “Hey, if we don’t like each other, why are we even talking right now?”

“It can be enjoyable to banter with someone you don’t like. You never know what will come out, like right now, for example.” I could understand the argument she was making. “In addition, you had your dick in my mouth once, and that always makes an impression on a guy.”

“It also makes an impression on the girl.”

For a brief moment, I had caught her unprepared, but she quickly recovered. “I don’t know yet if I’d stoop to actually taking revenge on you. However, Mr. D’Amato, I may toy with you periodically, just for the fun of it.”

I tried to keep a tone of worry out of my voice, but I heard it anyway. “What are you going to do?

“You’ll know it when you see it. I guess I do hold grudges.” She had somewhat contradicted what she had just said. “Like most guys, you completely underestimate how well women – like me – can read any social situation, including the one you’re in right now.”

“Then how come you believed me last June?” I had finally admitted, in effect, that I had been lying.

“You had a very smooth line of bullshit at the beginning. You had me going for a while.”

“You were the one who instigated it. I only said what you wanted to hear.”

“That’s because you had an agenda too. Actually, we did have a deal worked out, but it wasn’t good enough for you. Then you had to go and insult me. I’d call that projection, wouldn’t you?”

With that, Clary turned around and shook her tight little ass at me. “Whack this in your dreams.” Then she walked away.

*****

A bit later that day, I pondered that Clarissa hadn’t seen the wild stuff we had printed in the winter and spring of 1974. She hadn’t arrived at the college yet.

For a few issues, an aspiring artist and an aspiring writer had gotten control of their own part of the paper, the so-called Weird Section. The artist imagined himself to be the next R. Crumb, but he had less talent. Thus, he would sometimes reprint Crumb’s cartoons without getting any copyright permission.

The writer was a quiet guy, but he was simply weird, like his section. Reading his stuff was often like watching someone drool on himself. Yet we got away with it; we were not suspended or defunded. Only the college’s student body could authorize the latter through a vote.

However, within a few issues, there was an internal revolt. It wasn’t moral outrage. It was much like Clarissa’s ambitions; some staff didn’t want to be associated with a publication that printed drawings of masturbating nuns, among other things.

I joined the rebel faction. My only motive was that we might get shut down, and then I’d have nothing to do at the college besides attending classes. The other group, including the two pornographers, loathed me and the other plotters. We were called the young upstarts.

Both of those guys graduated that spring, and for the following year of 1974-75, the quality of the paper’s contents was very uneven. I did get a lot of my own articles printed, however. That was the period when Clarissa first knew of us, but I didn’t know why it took nearly ten months for her to decide to join.

I never mentioned the paper’s history to her.

******

Within another three days, Clarissa pulled her first stunt. I’m pretty sure she must have known I was in The Salient office at that time.

She just walked through the open door, and she was nicely dressed again. Her faked demeanor was quite loud, almost giddy.

There were four other male staffers in the place, including the two schlubs mentioned earlier. The only female was my ex-girlfriend Nora, who was typing something at the far end of the room by the windows.

“Hi guys, I’m Clarissa Wexler, and I just joined The Campus. I thought I’d come in and introduce myself to you all. By the way, I’m a sophomore now.”

The four guys looked confused and offered desultory greetings. I had been caught walking towards that end of the room, and I just stopped there. Clarissa focused on me.

“Hey honey, what’s your name?”

“It’s Paul.” Don’t honey me, you nasty twat.

“Okay, so you were the one who wrote that Greyhound bus story.”

“Yeah, that was me.”

“I really enjoyed that one. It must have been quite a trip.”

“You could say that.” Okay, you’ve had your fun, now get the fuck out of here.

But no, she walked along the other side of the table and approached Nora. My ex was also tall and had glasses, but she had been styling her dark-blonde hair in a brush cut for nearly a year by then.

She looked extremely skeptical as Clary approached her. The latter said, “Hi, sweetie, may I ask what your name is?”

“It’s Nora, if you must know.”

“I see that you’re writing something there.”

“That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

Nora didn’t take shit from anyone, and I knew she probably hated being called sweetie. Clary must have wisely picked up on the fact that she shouldn’t push that meeting any further. Instead, she stepped over to one of the windows and said, “I just love the view from the third floor of this building. You can see all the way to Mount Sinai Hospital.”

Then she turned around, presumably to find something else of interest in the office.  It was a rather barren room, and the only thing worth concentrating on was me. Fortunately, she was almost done for that day, and she headed back towards the door. Then she stopped opposite me and said, “Paul, it was a pleasure meeting you.”

“Same here, I suppose.”

“In fact, it was a pleasure meeting all of you. But I’ve got to get back; an article to write, you know. Always busy, busy.”

When she was just at the door, Clary turned around and winked at me. Then she was gone.

A moment later, Nora got up. She crooked a finger and said, “Come with me. I want to talk to you about this.”

Around the bend in the hallway, we stood there, and she said, “You obviously know that Clarissa snip from somewhere.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“First, her whole act was completely bogus. Second, when she first spoke to you, you looked like you wanted to fall through the floor.”

“I’ve never had a good poker face.”

“Yes, I could always read you like an open book. Finally, I saw her wink at you.”

“I’m not sure I want to talk about this.”

“Oh, come on, we broke up eleven months ago. You have nothing to lose.” I thought, actually, we didn’t break up, you dumped me. “And I’m sure it’s a good juicy story.”

“At least Clary didn’t think you were Michelle.”

“So it’s Clary now. How cozy. Thus, she knows about Michelle?”

“That’s right. She saw us together earlier this semester. However, she doesn’t know her name.”

“That’s good; keep it that way. But you must have told her that she’s on the paper with you. Now Clarissa really knows where to look for her.” She shook her head. “You know that expression, ‘God protects children and fools?’  Now let’s get a coffee or soda.”

*****

By that September, Nora was something more than an acquaintance but less than a friend. She was just an ex, but that could be liberating because I no longer had to worry about what she thought of me. Nora was not mean-spirited, but she could be difficult at times. I had taken that as a challenge. Hey, I must be pretty cool if I can handle a woman like her. Of course, I didn’t expect her to leave me so abruptly.

In the snack bar, we sat facing each other. “Now, confession is good for the soul.”

“Forgive me, Nora, for I have sinned.”

“I bet you have.”

I described the story of how Clary had been in the office the previous June and what had happened.

“She was promising to dole out a sexual favor for every article of hers I supposedly would get published.”

“I wonder who her patsy at The Campus is now? So, was the blowjob any good?”

“It was okay. I did get a bit on her blouse, which bugged her.”

“You never could aim well.” The first time Nora had blown me, I had pulled out as we had already agreed to, but I got a considerable amount of cum in her hair. “And that no panties bit was intriguing too.”

“I wish you had done that more often.”

“Too late now. Anyway, she’s quite a whore, isn’t she?”

“That’s exactly what I called her, a whore.”

“You just can’t keep your mouth shut or your dick in your pants. I’m sure that didn’t go over well with her.”

“She got very upset, that’s true. But a few days ago, she sort of promised not to retaliate against me. I mean, that she wouldn’t tell Michelle, I guess. She does know that one of the five female names is her.”

“And you believed her? Listen, my friend. You’ve got a problem here.”

“So what should I do about it?”

“I’m not sure right now. The worst that could happen is that you would lose a girlfriend. You’ve been through that before.” Yeah, once, and it was with you.

“I don’t want that to happen. I love Michelle.”

Nora sang, “ ‘Where is the love? You said, was mine, all mine ‘til the end of time. What is just a lie?’ You’ll just have to go back to the time-honored tradition that men – and women too! – have always depended on. You’ve got two hands.”

“Clary did say that she was just going to toy with me like she did today.”

“Then be glad that Michelle wasn’t there. She would have picked up instantly on what was going on. Just don’t let this Clary blackmail you.”

“I don’t have any money.”

“Of course not, you’ve already figured out what the danger is. No one else on the staff besides Michelle cares about the stupid stuff you’ve done. But, if it’s inevitable, then take our lumps like a big boy.”

“Nora, thanks for your advice.”

“You’re welcome. I always like helping ex-boyfriends get out of the jams they put themselves into. By the way, what did you tell her about me, if anything?”

“Ah, not much. Well, I didn’t mention your name, of course.”

“Not much, huh? Look, you’ve suffered enough for your bad judgment. Let’s see what she does next.”

****

What happened next wasn’t pretty. I was getting the creepy feeling that Clary was roaming around the South Campus looking for me and, if she was lucky, Michelle would be with me.

My girlfriend and I were having coffee in the Finley snack bar when I heard, “Paul, darling, how are you doing?”

Oh shit. Without being invited, Clary sat down to my left. Michelle looked a bit baffled.

I hoped Clary would explain herself so I wouldn’t have to do it for her. Fortunately, perhaps, she did just that. “I’m Clarissa Wexler, and I just joined The Campus.” She was directly addressing my Michelle. “Perhaps you’ve seen my byline?”

“Ah, I don’t think so.” Many of us on The Salient didn’t read all of their articles too closely.

“Well, I’ve seen a lot of Paul’s stuff since I was a freshman last year. I’m one of his fans, you might say.”

Michelle asked the obvious question, “It seems like you’ve met him before. I mean, you recognized him just now.”

I thought I should intervene with a limited hang-out. I said, “Yeah, she came into our office last week and introduced herself.”

Clary said, “It was quite brief, I can assure you. I also met that Nora girl. You know her, I’m sure.”

Nora, as my ex, knew about Michelle and me; however, Michelle didn’t know my past connection to Nora. Clary seemed devious enough to speculate about it all, however. I had mentioned having an ex on the paper.

Clary didn’t waste any time in continuing, “So, honey, what is your name?”

The terse response was, “It’s Michelle.”

“Okay, I’ve seen you in the staff box. Michelle Hanley. So, are you two an item?” She pointed to me.

“An item?”

Clary winked at her, “You know what I mean.”

For a moment, I remembered that old Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life.” A mean little kid had the supernatural power to make people he disliked simply disappear. I’m going to send you to The Cornfield, was the way he would put it. That’s exactly what I wanted to do to Clarissa.

Michelle was generally low-key and not a suspicious person, but she was also perceptive, and I knew she was trying to assess the situation.

I jumped in again. “Sure, we’ve been dating for a while.”

“Just dating?” Then Clary dropped her bomb. “Actually, to tell you the truth, I met Paul last June. I came into The Salient office to join the staff, and we had quite a long conversation about my prospects.”

“So, why didn’t you join?”

“Paul and I couldn’t come to terms about my status there.”

“What terms? Just about anybody who wants to write can get their stuff in.”

“That’s what I found out later. I must say, Paul could have been a bit more forthcoming about the true nature of things on your paper.”

I was going beyond disliking Clary to truly hating her. At that point, I didn’t know how to respond.

Clary timed her next statement well. “Anyway, sorry, I’ve got to get going. Michelle, it was good to meet you. Paul has certainly found a lovely person to be with.”

Without waiting for a reply, Clary got up and walked away. I fantasized about paddling her swaying little ass. First, it would be over the cloth of her trousers and then on her bare behind.

I had to say something to Michelle. It likely would be something dumb, and it indeed was. “She’s quite a character, isn’t she?”

She wasn’t happy with me, I could tell that. “Was there anyone else there besides you two that day?”

“Oh yeah, Jeff was there.” He was one of my Greyhound bus schlub companions. Michelle had never previously, as far as I knew, gone behind my back to confirm anything I had told her. That time, however, I was sure she’d find a reason to talk to Jeff about it.

She looked at her watch. “I almost forgot, I’ve got to get over to Cohen Library right now.

That was surely a pretext to get away from me and cool off for a while. Or maybe she’d just stoked her suspicions. Anyway, she immediately got up and grabbed her bag.

Lamely, I said, “I guess I’ll catch up with you later,” although I doubted she would remain on the campus.

I watched her behind, too, as she left. However, in her case, I wanted to get down on my knees and kiss her sweet ass. Forgive me, Michelle, for I knew not what I was doing.

****

Around that time, I was getting the notion that Clarissa might have psychopathic tendencies. Most such people are not serial killers or have even committed physically violent acts. It did mean that they may lack empathy, be manipulative, have superficial charm, or any number of other traits.

Of course, I wasn’t qualified to diagnose anybody. Yet it did seem that there was something off about Clary. Probably I thought that because she was continuing her grudge after a relatively minor, in my mind, incident. What was really strange was that we hadn’t seen each other in over two months, and yet she was acting as if had happened yesterday. If anything, she was escalating her tactics when there seemed to be so valid reason for doing that.

Nora had been capable of some odd behavior at times, but Clarissa was going beyond anything my ex had ever done.

******

In the following week, Clarissa delivered her revenge on me. Nora had been right, and she had worked out a plan on how to do it.

I was attending a Salient staff meeting one afternoon. About twenty-five of us – almost all of the active staff – were there. As usual, there had been a considerable turnover from the previous semester. Old-timers had finally graduated – a few taking more than the standard four years – and new members had joined.

Near the end of that event, Clarissa opened the door and just walked in. Instead of her formerly cheerful voice, she used a quieter, more even tone. “I’m sorry, I was just wondering – would anybody mind if I sat in on your meeting right now?”

That was baffling because no one had ever seen a staffer from another paper request that. We had no secrets to hide, so there was a murmur of affirmation from a few people.

“Thank you; I appreciate it.” Then she got a chair and pushed it next to somebody else at the end of the table to my left.

Before she sat down, I noted that she was better dressed than I had ever seen before. She had an open blazer over her blouse, a dark skirt, nylon stockings, and black medium-heeled shoes.

She didn’t look at me, but I felt chilled anyway. Something bad was going to happen, that could be her only reason for being there in the first place. Nora was a couple of seats down on my right side, and Michelle was almost directly opposite me on the other side of the table.

I should have used some pretext to excuse myself from the room. Maybe Clarissa would have done her bit anyway, but without me there, her timing would have perhaps been thrown off. Yet I stayed. I knew I had done something wrong, and maybe I wanted, almost unconsciously, to endure the consequences. Take your lumps, as Nora had put it.

It was hard to sit there waiting while knowing that Clary was going to pull the trigger on me. As the meeting reached its conclusion, I almost changed my mind, and I was prepared to dash out the door. Then Clary started to speak.

“Now, before you all go, I have something to say about that guy over here – your new features editor.” She pointed to me. Her tone was calm, but there was a hint of anger in it too.

I was so tense that I prematurely reacted to her. “Everything she’s going to say is a lie.”

“I would appreciate it if I may speak at least. Does anybody here have objections to that?”

Yet I had the presence of mind in the next couple of minutes to be objective and think, she really has acting talent.

Clary preceded to tell a version of what had happened the previous June. She had come into the office, and I was the only one there that afternoon. According to her, we had been sitting on the red couch discussing her wish to join the paper. Then I brought up a proposal that she give me sexual favors in return for getting her articles published.

She said, “Needless to say, that was completely outrageous. I wouldn’t accept that, and I said so. I should have just gotten up and left, but I thought that maybe it was all some kind of sick prank on his part. But, no, he was quite serious.”

There was silence in the room. She had everyone’s attention, including mine.

“Then he got up and stood in front of me, and he unzipped his pants, letting his cock jut out. It was fully erect by that point, and I knew he had been fantasizing about me while pretending to discuss the paper.”

Well, she had been correct about me getting an erection, even before she had spread her legs for me to see her crotch.

“It was so shocking that for a moment, I was unable to move. He said, ‘If you expect to get anywhere here, you’ll have to suck on my dick, like whenever I want you to. And you’re certainly going to be doing a lot more for me than that.’ ”

I again blurted out, “That’s another lie too.”

But how could I have told the truth? The reality of that day didn’t make me look much better. She had proposed providing the sexual favors, not me, and then she blew me as a kind of down payment. But then I got angry when she wouldn’t do anything more over the summer, so I insulted her, and she had walked out.

I had forgotten about a detail that Clary did provide. “It was a unique two-tone cock, darker on the inner half. It would be unmistakable to anyone unfortunate to have seen it.”

That was undeniable proof that she had indeed seen my exposed cock, one way or the other. She addressed Michelle directly. “Michelle, you could testify to the truth of that, I’m sure.”

I glanced in that direction, but Michelle was looking at Clary, not me.

“Then, when I tried to get up, he pushed me down on the couch. He grabbed my hair with his right hand and yanked my head back. He then put his left hand under my skirt and tried to pull my panties off.”

You weren’t even wearing panties that day, but of course, I didn’t say that.

“I knew I was in real peril then, but I know how to defend myself. I lifted a foot and gave him, from below, a solid kick in the nuts. He just collapsed on the floor, of course, and I grabbed my bag and got the hell out of there.”

It was impressive how she had turned herself into the heroine of that narrative.

“On my way out, he yelled at me, ‘You little whore, you’re going to pay for this.’ ” 

It was Nora, bless her dark heart, who calmly mentioned something. “I notice it took you a while to report this.”

“Nora, you must understand how intimidated and, yes, ashamed I felt after that, although I had done nothing wrong. It wasn’t until this semester, when I met all of you, people, that I realized that you would believe my story.”

It occurred to me that Michelle, Nora, and four of the guys had seen Clarissa acting in ways that were inconsistent with her tale. But there were more than twenty people in the room, including three other women. I think they were all too surprised to have come to a conclusion at that point.

I lashed out, “So what the hell is it that you want?”

She addressed the staff rather than me. “What I want is for this D’Amato person, this leering molester – and he’s capable of more than that, I’m sure – I want him to resign from this paper. And if he doesn’t do it himself, I want you to fire him, ban him, for his disgraceful behavior.”

Then she spoke directly to me. “You’re lucky I don’t report you to the school administration or press charges against you. But I don’t want the hassles; I just want it all to go away. But first, you have to go away.”

She concluded her remarks. “That’s all I have to say. I trust that you will do the right thing.”  Then she stood up. As she left, I imagined her lifting her skirt and mooning us. Somehow, under my shame and anger, I amused myself by imagining that she would have no panties on under her pantyhose. Her ass crack would be there for all to see.

A second later, my resolve gave way. I got up and left without saying anything. Clarissa wasn’t outside the room, but I thought she might have gone down the main staircase just across the hallway. I went around the third floor and used another stairway at the back of the building.

*****

I spoke to Michelle the following day, and I have to give her credit for remaining so calm. She didn’t yell at me or cry. Occasionally, she would ask me a few questions to clarify some detail.

When I was done telling my story, she gave me some opinions.

“First of all, I get that this Clarissa person is – I’d call it mentally ill. Or at least she’s got some kind of personality disorder. I don’t know; I’m not a psychologist.”

For a second, I hoped to get a reprieve, but I highly doubted that was going to happen.

“Now I do believe your version because I know you’re not like that. And what she said yesterday doesn’t fit with the way she acted earlier.”

That seemed to be a bit encouraging until I heard what she said next.

“But in some ways, the truth is just as bad. First of all, you lied to me about Jeff being there. But much worse than that, you did have oral sex with her. I know you might think it was merely a blowjob, and you didn’t even come in her mouth. Well, there was also that brief bit of finger-fucking that you did on her.”

“I never used the word ‘merely’ ”

She ignored my statement. “I know how manipulative she is and how great the temptation must have been when she offered her cunt and then her mouth to you. Probably, but I’m just guessing, the majority of men would have given in to her wishes.”

“That certainly is true.” What a dumb remark.

“Yet, I don’t think you expect me to forgive you and just go on with you as we were. She may have invented this scheme, but you went along with what she wanted. You even admitted that you considered banging her for a while behind my back.”

That was no point in conceding how ashamed I felt. There still seemed to be a slight opening with Michelle to get me through. I said, “Well, ultimately, it’s your call.” Please, have mercy on me. But I refrained from saying that.

“I have to sleep on it, but basically, I don’t care what most men would have done. I only care about what you did. I mean, she wasn’t holding a gun to your head.”

To me, that was an example of Michelle’s dry wit. Yet I wouldn’t have minded at that point aiming a gun at Clarissa’s head myself.

I asked her something irrelevant. “So I guess you think less of me now?” I don’t know why I had bothered to say that since the answer was so obvious.

“It doesn’t matter, I accept the reality of it. It would be great if you had behaved better, but you didn’t. So, that’s all I have to say about it right now.” That oddly mirrored Clarissa’s final words, although I doubt it was intentional.

Then she grabbed her bag, got up, and left. As I watched her leave, I knew that our breakup had just happened. It was amazing how fast and total it had been.

*****

Nora was a good audience for my story because she loved gossip so much. She herself was a source of some excellent gossip too.

When I met her a couple of days later, she said, “I just want to make it clear that I believe your version of these events. I mean, I saw how she acted in the office that day, and that doesn’t jibe with what she said later. In any case, your timing on this couldn’t have been worse.”

“Really, how so?”

“Have you heard of Lin Farley, she teaches at Cornell?”

“No, I’m not familiar with her.”

“Let me try to make this brief. She’s coined the term ‘sexual harassment,’ and then she testified about it just last May, here in New York before the Human Rights Commission. There was a big write-up about it in The Times in August. August 19th, to be exact.” She let me ponder that, and then she asked, “You do understand what Farley was talking about?”

“Are you saying that Clarissa read that article?”

“I have no idea. I’ll bet that some of The Salient staffers read it, however.”

“But she was lying about it.”

“It doesn’t matter. Frankly, neither one of you was completely blameless on that day. It just turns out that she maneuvers better than you had expected.”

“But I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But you did act foolishly, thinking more with your dick as usual. I mean, it was obvious that she was playing you from the very beginning; she was pretty blunt about how transactional it all was. You noticed that and yet still went ahead and had her blow you anyway.”

“She tempted me. Like, she showed her bare crotch to me.”

“And what did she say just before that? ‘If you can help me, I can help you.’ ”

“So what should I have done?”

“Since you had already figured her out, you should have just shown her the door. If you were really that aroused by the sight of her body, well – you were there by yourself. You could have just jerked off. Masturbating about someone has fewer risks than getting sexually involved with her.”

Actually, there had been a suggestion of some other benefit from Clary, but I didn’t tell Nora that. I merely said, “You don’t mince words, do you?”

“Do I ever? Now, Mister D’Amato, I know you pretty well. You admitted that what really triggered you was that she was going to dole out a sexual favor every four weeks or so whenever an issue with her stories came out.”

“I never thought that.”

“Yes, you did; you’ve already said that. And then you couldn’t keep your mouth shut either. You had to go and call her a whore, which set her off.”

“But what I said was true.”

“That is also not the point. A good rule of thumb in life, when meeting someone for the first time, is to never tell them exactly what you think of them. It doesn’t matter how much you believe you’re right. I could give you some examples from The Godfather films.”

Nora was a big fan of the movies, and she often referred to them when making some point of her own.

“I know, like Senator Geary with Michael Corleone.”

“That’s a good one. Scope them out first before you start blabbing. Of course, in your case, the consequences are a lot less dire,”

I quoted a line from one of the films. “ ‘I intend to squeeze you.’ ”

“And now Clarissa has just finished squeezing you.”

“Should I just quit the paper?”

“Don’t bother, just stop going there. Your name is already mud with at least half of them, especially the female staffers. They’ll figure out what happened to you.”

“But now I’ll have nothing to do but go to classes.”

“Interesting how that takes priority over losing Michelle. I see you can be a bit cold at times.” She must have seen the look on my face because she added, “Sorry, that was a bit low.”

I still felt like fretting. “By the way, do you think Clarissa is done with me?”

“Who knows, but I suspect she’s gotten what she wanted. Maybe she’s becoming bored with her crusade against you. Just stay away from her. If she approaches you, make it clear that you don’t want to talk to her. And for God’s sake, don’t threaten her with anything. I assume you've already fantasized about what you'd like to do to her.”

She smiled, and I knew that I had some gossip for her. “Yeah, I've thought about paddling her behind and then fucking her up the ass.”

“Well, don't tell her that!”

Nora was being tongue-in-cheek with me. I replied, “Of course, I wouldn’t do that. But, she’s obviously mentally disturbed.”

“All the more reason to be suspicious of chicks who flash their pussies at you in the first ten minutes. You ain’t that much of a stud.”

“Thanks, Nora, I appreciate your honesty.”  I hoped to sound a touch sarcastic, and I think she caught on to it.

“It’s been all my pleasure. Hey, all you’ve lost is a girlfriend and an unpaid position on a student newspaper. No permanent damage, I think. And maybe you learned something for future reference. Women only pretend to be the gentler sex. When our fangs come out – beware! So, I think we have covered this pretty completely.”

That also was like Clarissa’s last line. Yet I was still oddly fond of Nora a year after she had left me. “You never forget your first girl.”

“That’s for sure, but I’d be pretty memorable anyway. So welcome to your latest dry spell. How long was the previous one?”

“After you left? About two weeks.”

“Since you’re such a pick-up artist, you should do fine.” I knew she was kidding me, but I wasn’t that confident in my own abilities.

At least Clarissa never bothered me again. I saw her only once on the South Campus that year. Anyway, nearly a year went by before I found a new girlfriend, and she attended another university.

######

Nora appears in a number of other stories, including “Nora’s Domination Problem" and “Dominatrix: Reality and Fantasy.” However, those are on a slightly different timeline in which Clarissa does not appear.