I laughed. “How’s your boy toy?”
“It’s already over,” she revealed.
“So soon?”
“I told you, these things never last very long,” she said. “These boys are good for sex, but little else. It’s not like you can have an actual relationship with one of them.”
I looked up. “Why not?”
“Oh, come on, Chance,” she said. “The generational gap is too wide. These boys have no real-life experience; they can’t hold a conversation for long.”
“Harsh.”
“But true,” Lindsey said, with a shrug. “In any case, I’m going to have to take a little break from my…forbidden rendezvous.”
“Oh?” I asked. “And why is that?”
“Because apart from teaching, I’m also working on a paper of my own. I hope to have it published within the year, so I need to concentrate.”
“Some say sex helps with concentration,” I teased.
Lindsey laughed. “In my case, it’s just a distraction. Once my paper is published, then I’ll be able to resume my extracurriculars.”
I smiled. “So, just out of curiosity…”
“Yes?”
“You’ve never had a real relationship with a student, have you?”
Lindsey raised her eyebrows. “Why do you ask?”
“Like I said, just curious.”
“You’re not thinking of trying it out, are you?”
“Of course not,” I said coolly.
She smiled teasingly. “To be honest, with my first experience, I did think of it as a relationship. We were together for a few months, and it wasn’t all about sex.”
“But?”
“As I said, the differences between us started creeping in after a while,” she explained. “He was eleven years younger than I was, which granted, doesn’t sound like a huge age gap, but I felt it.”
“What did you talk about with him?”
She smiled. “You know, I can’t remember for the life of me.”
“Did you talk to him about… Oh, I don’t know, your personal life?”
“My personal life?” Lindsey repeated.
“Your parents, your family, your…ex-boyfriends?” I asked, trying to make the questions sound innocent.
“No, I don’t think I ever did share all that with him,” she admitted. “That requires a different kind of connection and ours was never that deep.”
I thought about all the intimate details I had already shared with Natalie and wondered what it was about her that had caused me to open up like that. It was certainly out of character. I had to admit, that bugged me a little.
I wondered if Lindsey was right and after a few months my preoccupation with Natalie would wear off, too. Maybe all this was a simple matter of sexual frustration. Maybe once we’d slept together, I wouldn’t think of her nearly as much.