				THE COMPLICATION (Chapter 55)				

 The complication's name was Eduardo Gonzalez.

Sophia met him in her calculus class-he was a math major. A native of the Dominican Republic, he had lived in New York City since he was thirteen. He was dark, and oh so gorgeous. Every girl in the class had been trying to catch his attention for a month. Sophia was bemused by it all-especially since Eduardo seemingly had eyes only for Sophia. He had made some sort of suggestive comment to her, a week into school, and she had just giggled and said, "Sorry, I have a boyfriend." This was the wrong thing to say to Eduardo, because he took it as a challenge. He muttered under his breath, out of her hearing, "Not for long."

The little gifts came first. A pair of earrings. A box of chocolates. All with the same type of inscription on the card: "I am not your boyfriend.......yet" said one. "Would your boyfriend be so thoughtful?" said another. When the CD of tunes from the Dominican Republic showed up, she figured out who the secret admirer was.

She confronted him after class the next day. "Eduardo, all the stuff you've been sending me is sweet and thoughtful, but you've got to stop. I'm very, very taken."

"Sure" he smiled, but thought to himself-let's see how taken she really is.


Two tickets to the ballet arrived next, with this note: "These are yours to do with as you wish. If you have someone to accompany you, wonderful. If not, here is my number."

She looked at the tickets, and called Warren.

"Hiya Pookie."

"Hi, Warren. Listen, I have the opportunity to get two free tickets for the ballet tomorrow night. You up for it?"

He sighed. "Sorry, Soph, got a huge test on Friday."

"Ah, can't you take a few hours out? Study more tonight, or something?"

"I am studying tonight. I'm also studying tomorrow night. This one's gonna be a ballbuster, sweetie."

"Dammit, Warren, this is important to me."

"And passing biology is important to me. C'mon, Soph, gimme a break, huh?"

"FINE!" She slammed down the phone. And picked it up, and called Eduardo.


The ballet was wonderful. Eduardo was a perfect gentleman, holding doors open and stuff. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. And, when they got back to her dorm, he went to kiss her-and she didn't stop him. His lips bore down hard on hers, insistent, demanding, his hands massaging the small of her back. When he finally broke the kiss, she felt a little lightheaded. He smiled his rakish smile, and said, "There's more where that came from-after you become free."

Free? Of Warren? He was promising her that if she broke up with Warren?

The next day, in class, he sat behind her, his eyes boring a hole in her back. He brought his foot under her chair and rubbed her leg. He put his strong hand on her back. After class, he grabbed her, and kissed her again, in the open, with a strong, sure hand snaking up to grab her breast. He was dominating her, and she was on fire. And he said it again, "Remember, the whole ball of wax-after you become free."

When she got back to the room, the flowers were there, with a similar card.

She broke her date with Warren that evening, feigning sickness, and managed to avoid him all weekend with the same excuse.


Monday, in calculus, he did the same thing. Surreptitious touches with a firm, strong hand. Footsie under the desk. And, after class, he grabbed her and kissed her again, one hand on her breast, the other one snaking its way between her legs, rubbing her drenched pussy through her jeans. She felt powerless to stop him, and it turned her on. Finally, he whispered, "Are you free Friday night?"

"Yes."

"Really, truly free?"

"I will be." She was in a trance.

"Good. Friday I will take you, and make you mine, and you will no longer be free again."

Sophia ran back to the dorm, wrote the letter, and dropped it in Warren's box..


Warren bounded back from class, and checked his mail. Not much, except a letter from Sophia. A letter? She's not usually much of a letter writer. He walked into his room, and opened the letter.

He read,

My dearest Warren,

I am sorry, but I think we have reached the end. There is someone else. I will always treasure what we had together, but it seems to have run its course. I have been worried about us for some time. I feel trapped. I need to experience more than what we have. I know this will hurt you, and I am truly sorry for that, but this is the way it has to be.

Love,
Sophia

Enclosed with the letter were the pendant and the claddagh ring.

Warren sat down hard on his bed, feeling like he had just been run over by a locomotive.


Elise picked up the phone in the room. "Hello? Hiya, kid! Hold on. Sophia, it's Warren."

"Hang up the phone."

"What?"

"Hang up the damn phone!"

Elise didn't, but she said to Warren, "Warren, she's telling me to hang up the phone. No, I can't get her to talk to you. Sophia, he really wants to talk to you!"

"HANG UP THE PHONE!" Sophia bellowed. Even Warren heard that one, so, when Elise went back to the receiver, Warren himself had already hung up.

"Sophia, what the hell's going on?"

"I broke up with Warren today. I left a note in his box."

"You WHAT?"

"Yeah, remember that guy Eduardo I told you about? The Latino hunk?"

"Yeah..."

"We've kind of been.....well.....fooling around. Not that far yet, because he promised me that only after I was free. Well, now I'm free." She giggled. "Oh, you should feel his lips, his hands, oh wow. He dominates me. He grabs me in the middle of class and in the hallway and I can't even begin to resist him. I want the whole thing, I want all of him."

"So you broke up with Warren?" Elise was incredulous. "You guys were talking marriage!"

"I'm too young to get married, and I'm too young to be a single girl in college with a studyaholic boyfriend who I never see. Warren and I want different things out of life."

"It never seemed like you did before."

"Well, things change. I changed."

Elise just shook her head. "It's your life, but I think you're nuts."


Warren, for his part, was devastated. She wouldn't talk to him on the phone. She wouldn't answer her door for him. She blocked his number on her cell phone. She wrote the note, and that was that, and she was done with him.

And he would never understand it. How could she walk away from what they had together? How could she just cut him off that way-and for another guy?  How the hell can you fall out of a love like the one they had for another guy overnight?

Warren would probably never know. All he did know was that he was alone, some other guy was holding Sophia in his arms, and it felt like half his heart had been ripped out.


Sophia couldn't wait to see Eduardo in class on Wednesday. However, he didn't sit near her. He also didn't wait for her after class. She saw him up ahead, walking with Kelly Watson, who lived on the same floor as Sophia. She wondered what was going on. Just then, Warren popped into her head. And she felt an overwhelming pang of guilt. She willed it away.

Thursday, she was sitting in her room, and idly punched "play" on her CD player without checking the disc that was in it. The first thing she heard was "Romeo and Juliet". After that, it was "Moonlight Serenade." It was a CD that Warren had made for her, of all the love songs that meant something to them. Crying, she stopped the CD player. She picked up her cell phone and stared at it for a while. Ten times, she almost dialed the speed-dial number that was Warren's cell phone. Then, Eduardo popped into her head. She put the cell phone down, but she didn't stop crying for a while. 

Friday came, and he, again, didn't sit next to her. He did however grab her after class, run his strong hand down her breast, and say, "Are you ready for tonight?" All she could do was nod.

Walking from her class to the dining hall in her dorm afterwards, she saw Warren. He didn't see her, but she got a full look at his profile. He was chatting with Papa Bear from his floor. Sophia hid behind a tree, and heard his animated description of getting Elizabeth Cushman drunk after the competitor's party at Nationals. She remembered that. She listened to Warren telling Paul about it, and it all became flooding back. She slipped into the building without Warren seeing her, and forgot all about lunch. She went up to her room, crying. She contemplated breaking the date with Eduardo, but thought of him and got all weak in the knees. Ah well, she thought to herself, I already let Warren go, might as well go through with it. She started to get dressed.

She was waiting for him when he arrived, dressed to the nines. He showed up, gorgeous as ever, and took her into his arms and kissed her deep, closing the door behind him.  He led her to the bed.

"Now? I thought you were going to wine me and dine me first," she giggled.

"Plenty of time for that. But we both know what we want now, don't we?"

She let him lead her to the bed, as he caressed her breasts. She felt herself just starting to get wet, and moaned, "Oh, Eduardo." He reached up under her skirt, and pulled off her  panties. He undid his belt buckle, pulled his pants around his ankles, threw her onto the bed, and climbed on top of her.

"Um, Eduardo? We have all night, you know. You can slow down so we can both enjoy this."

He ignored her. She tried to close her legs. "Eduardo, can we take our time, please? This is just too fast."

He slapped her, hard, across the face. Her eyes widened in horror and pain. He pried her legs open and lunged for her again. She was too stunned to resist.

 She felt his cock up against the entrance of her pussy. He hadn't even taken her clothes off, really-just the panties, and lifted the skirt. She really wasn't all that wet yet, and her surprise at his haste didn't help, but he didn't much care. He aimed, and rammed his cock into her fairly dry pussy with brutal, sudden force.

"OW. Eduardo, that hurt!"

He ignored her, and started slamming his cock in and out of her pussy.

"Eduardo, slow DOWN! This HURTS! Come on! OW! Eduardo, you're HURTING me!" He still ignored her, as he pumped his cock in and out of her pussy.

"Eduardo, stop this. Please? Oh, it's too HARD Eduardo you are REALLY hurting meeeeeeee."

If anything, he increased the pace. Sophia started crying. "Stop this, please stop this, Eduardo, it hurts, oh it hurts....."

He finally stopped-only because he had reached his climax, and he poured his cum into her battered pussy. He quickly pulled out, pulled up his pants, and zipped them. Then he turned to Sophia and said, "Well, my dear, now you're really free. Because I got what I wanted from you, and I'll bet your lover-boy isn't into sloppy seconds. Adios," and with a cackle he left the room, leaving Sophia on the bed, crying.


Elise walked in a few hours later.

"Sophia! Oh my God! What happened?" She was still lying on the bed, exactly how he had left her. She hadn't even bothered to put her panties back on or pull her skirt down. She had just finally stopped crying.

"You know the saying, you can't rape the willing? It's a lie. I was willing, and he raped me anyway." She described the whole encounter.

"Oh my God." She looked down between Sophia's legs. "Sophie, you're bleeding!"

"I deserve it."

"We need to get you to a hospital. This might be something serious."

"I don't care. Maybe it's something serious. Maybe I'll die. Or maybe I'll live but never be able to have sex again-wouldn't that be a fitting punishment?"

"Come on, Sophie."

"I want to die, Elise." She started sobbing again. "I really want to die. Look at me. Look at what I let happen to myself. And why? Because my hormones were in overdrive, and I was vulnerable to his 'charms', because my boyfriend studies too much? Oh, God. I want to die. I deserve to die."

"Stop it," Elise said. Then she sighed. "Look, if you won't go to the hospital, let me take a look. I am pre-med, I know a little bit."

"All right."

Elise went down, and pulled Sophia's lips apart. "OW!"

"Sorry, Soph. He really hurt you."

"It feels like someone's been whacking my pussy with a baseball bat for three hours."

"Well, I found the source of the bleeding. It's a cut, not too far in, and it looks like it's going to be all right. But you might be bruised."

"Of that, I have no doubt."

"We really should get you to the hospital."

"No. If it's really bad tomorrow, then I'll go."

"All right."

"I want to get out of these clothes, though, and into some PJs. And I can't get up, I don't think."

"I'll help." Elise got her some PJs and helped her change, since she was shaky and unsteady. 

"I appreciate this. Your TLC isn't quite on Warren's level, but it's appreciated nonetheless."

Elise giggled. "Did Warren ever have to dress you or something?"

Sophia smiled. "Oh, worse than that." She told Elise about the famous hangover bath.

"Wow," Elise said. She looked hard at Sophia. "Y'know, if I ever had a guy who loved me so much he was willing to wash vomit out of my hair, I don't think I'd ever let him go."

"That, roomie, is because you're a hell of a lot smarter than I am."

Elise looked at her. "Sophie, what happened?"

Sophia sighed. "The first thing you have to understand is that I'm kind of a nymphomaniac." Elise laughed. "Really. Now, I'm not a slut-not before tonight, anyhow-but my hormones are in perpetual overdrive. And they have not been getting satisfied since we've been out here, because Warren's got his nose buried in a textbook too often. And, to be fair, I've blown him off when I had to study once or twice."

"The second thing you have to understand is what my sex life was like before Warren." She described her previous boyfriends, and her abuse. Elise looked shocked. "The third thing you have to understand is that I've been to bed with one guy since Warren and I have been together."

"You cheated on him, and with who?"

"We don't consider it cheating, because I had his permission-and it was with his best friend."

"You slept with his best friend, and he KNEW ABOUT IT?"

Sophia giggled. "Knew about it? He was there. In the same room, in another bed twenty feet away with my best friend."

Elise's eyes bugged out of her head. "I should also mention that his best friend and my best friend have been dating almost as long as we have. Oh, and us being in the same room was only the first time."

"THIS HAPPENED MORE THAN ONCE?"

"Uh-huh. In a special place." She explained about the cabin. "We were always in the same room, but, after the first time we often ended up in the same bed. In fact, there's been a few times that Warren and Jason were in the same girl." She giggled. "And boy is that fun."

"I do not believe what I'm hearing."

"I told you I was a nympho. Anyway, the point I was getting at is that Jason is a much more aggressive lover than Warren is. Warren is the epitome of kind, gentle, and patient in bed. Jason's more aggressive in bed-and Jessie's more aggressive than I am, which Warren found fun. I told Warren once that 95% of the time I preferred it his way, but there was that 5% there."

"What I think I've figured out is that there is a small part of me that needs to occasionally be dominated in bed. Warren's done that maybe twice in all the time we've been going out together, and he has to really be in the mood to do it. He can't turn it on and off. It's not really in his nature. Which is why Jason was a fun diversion, because he's dominating. Not rough, not at all, but dominating."

"Ah," Elise said, "And Eduardo was dominating you from the moment you met him."

"You got it. His eyes, his hands, his words, were all so incredibly demanding. And I got turned on like you wouldn't believe. I wanted someone to throw me on the bed and ravage me." She looked down at herself. "Not like this, though. You'd think I would have learned my lesson from the other guys that have dominated me-Jason being a notable exception, because he's not a dominator, just a sweet guy with an aggressive streak in bed. But the other ones,........I really should have known," she sighed.

Elise thought for a moment. "Sophia, do you still love Warren?"

"Yeah, I do, with all my heart. Y'see, Eduardo wasn't all of it. It had gotten very routine, you know? We've been together for a long time. I think I was thinking about 'the relationship' instead of the guy with whom I *had* the relationship. We could have fixed things, but I never said a word to him. He's all I've ever wanted, for three and a half years."

"So, what you're telling me is this-you had a guy for over three years, he satisfied you 100% emotionally and 95% sexually, and you dumped him because you had an itch that you wanted scratched?"

"That about sums it up. Stamp 'fucking idiot' on my forehead and parade me around the campus. Or maybe I should tattoo 'slut' right across my pussy." She started to cry again.

Elise sat next to her, cradling her head on her lap and stroking her hair until the sobs subsided. "Sophia, do you think he'd take you back?"

"Oh, yeah. In a heartbeat. Don't make that sound like bragging, because that's not how I mean it. Because I know he will love me until the day he dies. I also know I'd take him back, in a heartbeat, if he had done the same thing."

"Sophie. CALL HIM!!!!!"

"I can't." She sniffled. "He's better off. He'll figure that out, sooner or later. Because I don't deserve him."

"I doubt he'd see it that way."

"He will, eventually. He's the sweetest, nicest guy on this campus. He'll find someone. He deserves better than an idiotic slut." 

"Sophia......"

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, Elise, but I made this bed and I have to lie in it. I need to face this. I ruined everything."

Elise didn't know what to say to that. Sophia rolled off her lap and attempted to go to sleep. 


The next Thursday, Warren was sitting after class with his friend Alexa. 

"Hey, what you doing tomorrow night?" Alexa asked.

"Nothing."

"You want to go out? Maybe see a movie and then to Paolo's for a pizza?"

Warren looked down. "Oh, Alexa, I'm not sure."

She smiled at him. "What, you intimidated by a girl asking you out?"

Warren smiled, thinking of Sophia and just who had asked who out then. "No, of course not. It's happened before. It's just that........listen, Alex, if you just want to go out as friends, two people having a good time together, than I'm up for that. But, I don't know what your intentions were, and you have to know up front that I am absolutely, positively not ready for anything more than friendship. And it might be a long time before I am ready." His voice got softer. "If I ever am."

Alexa looked at him. Then she smiled. "What's her name?"

Warren smiled back. "Sophia."

"How long ago?"

"Last Monday."

"Unexpected?"

"A landing party from the planet Klingon touching down on the quad saying 'take me to your leader' would have been less shocking."

"Any explanation?"

"As John Lennon once sang, Some Other Guy."

"Shit. How long you with her?"

"Three and a half years."

"Oh, God. Serious?"

"I heard wedding bells ringing. Had no doubt of it. Thought she did, too, right up until I got the 'Dear Warren' letter in my box. Plus, she not only ended the best relationship anyone could ever be in, she also put the kibosh on a promising career." He explained about the ice dancing. "I tell you, Alex, sometimes it's a struggle to get the will to get out of fucking bed in the morning."

Alexa looked at him. "All the more reason you need a night out." She put her hand on his. "With a friend. That's all I really had in mind, anyway."

Warren smiled at her. He did like her, at least as a friend. "You convinced me."


That night, at the café, he caught a glimpse of Sophia. She was 20 feet away, and for a moment, their eyes locked. And he felt it-the same passion, the same connection, that he had always felt when looking in her eyes. But it was concealed, this time, underneath a bottomless well of sadness. He quickly turned away and disappeared into the crowd.

Tim was with him, and kept his eyes on Sophia after Warren turned away. She watched Warren's back disappear into the crowd, and seemed to take a step towards him, then stopped. She was plainly trying to not cry, wringing her hands and gnawing on her bottom lip.

She looks absolutely pitiful, Tim thought to himself. And I know my roomie is half-suicidal right now. Something's gotta be done.

On the way back to the room, he stopped in to talk to Papa Bear.


 "Listen, Lobster-breath, you got do to something." Papa Bear was talking to Warren, with Warren's roommate Tim nodding on in agreement. "You're tearing yourself up inside."

"Look, she dumped you after three years, but you just left," Tim added. "Two weeks have passed.. You need to fight, Warren. You surrendered. You surrendered too easily."

"Right," Papa Bear picked up the train of thought. "Look, what's worse? Wallowing in self-pity, or taking a chance? Three and a half years, and you tell us you were practically married? I'd fight back. I'd fight to get that back with all I've got. If I loved her as much as you say you do."

"Time to make a stand, Warren," Tim concurred.

Warren sat, and thought. " I'm sorry, guys. I just can't do it. But, you're right. I can't wallow in self pity any more. I have to face the fact. It's over."

"Warren, it doesn't have to be," Tim said. He described what he saw in the café. "I think she still loves you."

"Uh-huh. So, then, why doesn't she tell me? She knows where I live. She's the one that broke this off. I tried to call her, to talk to her, for a week. I'm not going to do it again. It's over."

Tim and Paul just looked at each other, resigned.




