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Rose gradually realized she was awake. She hadn’t actually opened her eyes, but her dream was receding fast, and already she didn’t know what it had been about exactly. But somehow the bed didn’t feel quite right. Neither, for that matter, did her head. Slowly she opened her eyes. This was not her bed. Or her bedroom. Or even her apartment. She groaned.
“How you feeling?” Dave asked. She looked at him. He was lying in bed next to her. He looked worried. He also needed a shave.
“What happened?” Rose asked.
“You got drunk. You puked all over Sally’s apartment, and she pushed you into the hall and you puked there. You had no place to go, so I brought you here and put you to bed.”
“In your bed?”
“Where else? It’s the only bed I have.”
“Were you drunk too, Dave?”
“Yeah, but not as drunk as you were. I could still stand up.”
“Shit. Did we have sex?”
“Yeah. You said you wanted to.”
“What the hell do you mean I said I wanted to?! I was drunk, for God’s sake!”
“So was I. How was I to know you didn’t want to if you said you did?”
“You raped me!”
“No I didn’t. You said you wanted to have sex. Besides, I was too drunk to get it up.”
“You raped me! That’s sexual assault!”
“Oh calm down. There was no assault. You said you wanted to have sex, and I gave you what you wanted, or at least tried.”
“I was incapacitated. Oh, God! And I’m religious! I’m supposed to be a virgin! I feel so, so filthy. Where are my clothes? I want to go home.”
“You’re wearing them, well, most of them. Don’t you want some breakfast first?”
“No.”
Rose walked out. It was nearly two months before Dave heard from her again. And it was only then that he learned what her last name was. The information came in a summons from the college dean to an interview, where Dave learned that he had been charged with sexual assault and he had a choice of admitting guilt, and in that case he would be suspended, or of letting the case go to a hearing. In the event that he was found guilty in the hearing, he would still be suspended but probably for longer. The dean asked him point blank: if it went to a hearing, could he prove he was innocent? Dave was, unfortunately, not entirely innocent. He had had sex with Rose, or anyway had tried to.
The dean also told him that Rose’s family had hired an attorney, and however things came out on campus, the attorney had announced that he planned to bring civil charges against Dave as a sexual predator.
Dave left the dean’s office with his head spinning, and headed across campus to his calculus midterm. It was hard to concentrate on calculus, and it was pretty clear to him that he failed the exam.
When he got back from the midterm, Dave found a message on his answering machine. It was Rose.
“Hi, Dave. I hear you saw the dean today. I hope he threw the book at you. Oh, and one more thing. You should know that I’ve been HIV-positive since I had a bad blood transfusion in Kenya two years ago. I hope you rot. Good-bye.”