They both looked over at the bed in the corner. Then they looked everywhere but at each other. Their palms clung and stuck, moist.
But after that, the conversation didn’t tangle as much as Melissa thought it would. Matt turned out to have some good stories – ones that made her giggle quite a lot. He had a nice voice, low and deep, and a really nice laugh.
By the time the buzzer sounded, alerting them to the end of their time, Melissa had forgotten she was holding Matt’s hand. Well, not forgotten exactly, since every time they shifted position or got up to use the restroom or grab a snack or a drink from the stocked mini-fridge, they had to make the conscious effort to rejoin hands. But she’d forgotten that it should feel strange to link their fingers together, press palm to palm.
“Have you ever heard of bundling?” she asked just before they left, when they’d both released their hands and stretched, heading for the door.
“Sounds familiar.” Matt held the door open for her so she could step through.
“It’s something they used to do with courting couples. It would be cold, so they’d allow the couple to be in bed together, under the blankets, to keep warm, but they’d put a bundling board between them to keep them from doing anything inappropriate.”
He laughed as they entered the lab’s quiet, dim hallway, every other light turned off in honor of it being after hours. The only sound other than their footsteps was the shush-shush of the janitor’s mop on the floor ahead of them. She noticed they’d fallen into step naturally, him shortening his stride to match hers.
“Sounds…sexy,” Matt said. “And that reminded you of tonight?”
“Sort of,” Melissa admitted. “Because those young couples didn’t necessarily know each other when they started, but the long-term goal was getting them together in the end. For marriage, of course, not just…you know. But still.”
Matt was silent as they reached the end of the hall and the doors to the Psychology building. Once they passed through them, they were no longer supposed to have any contact. He paused, hand on the metal bar that would push the door open.
He looked at her. “So…what do you think’s going to happen here?”
“I don’t know,” Melissa said. “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Chapter Six
Well, she wasn’t blonde. Not blue-eyed. And she definitely didn’t have a double D-sized rack, not even a single D. Her hands had been small and soft, though, her grip firm and strong when she shook hands and sweeter, more relaxed, later after they’d spent the four hours talking.
Actually, it wasn’t a bad first “date,” Matt thought as he showered and shaved, brushed his teeth and picked out clothes for the next night’s session. He’d been on worse, and even though Melissa might not’ve turned his head at the bar, spending those four hours with her had been pretty nice.
He was looking forward to tonight, if for no other reason than it meant he had a reason to blow off Damian and the other bros, who were all hanging out at the frat house with the underclassmen. They were having something called a “poker party” with one of the sororities, where everyone was giving half a playing card, and the goal of the night was to find the person with the other half of your card, then spend the rest of the night hooking up. Matt wasn’t really interested in spending the night trying to get in the pants of some sophomore or junior…or worse, a freshman.
Anyway, tonight on the list was holding hands, with the addition of hugging. Matt had no idea how this was going to go, but he was up for it. It beat the hell out of some other ways he’d spent his nights lately, namely up to his ass in bills he had to pay or in school work.
She smelled good. Like, really good. He noticed that right away as soon as they both got in the room and Melissa stepped right up to him without any more than a second’s hesitation. She fit right up against him, too, her breasts pressing against his chest in a way that meant he had absolutely no issue with the fact she was less than a DD.
Too soon, she’d stepped away with a nervous little laugh. “Hey.”
“Hey.” On impulse, he snaked an arm out to grab her around the waist to pull her in for another hug. That’s what they were there for, after all.
Melissa let him hold her close. They lingered that way for a moment, before she pulled away. “How’re you?”
“Good. Good. You?” He wasn’t sure where they were supposed to go from here, since you couldn’t really keep up a four-hour hug. Then again, he hadn’t thought he’d be able to maintain holding hands for the full time, either, and they’d managed that with only a little awkwardness.
“Great.” She grinned and took his hand to lead him to the couch, where she settled in at once, one leg curled beneath her as her fingers curled lightly around his. She didn’t let him go, either, but kept his hand. “I got a call from my future boss. They actually want me to start a month earlier. I was going to take some time off, but now I’ll be able to go right into work after I graduate. It’s going to be awesome.”
“Yeah? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going straight into a paid internship with Triple Smith and Brown. It’s an accounting firm,” she said, like he might not’ve heard of the biggest accounting firm in three states. “And after that, it’s pretty much guaranteed to lead me right into a full time job. Which is great.”
“Yeah. Lucky you.” Matt twisted his fingers in hers, noting again how soft her hands were. He had nothing like that lined up, which sucked. He had a few leads on some engineering jobs, but so far nothing had opened up. “But don’t you want to take some time off before school?”
She shrugged. “No. Then again, I’d only planned on setting up my apartment and stuff like that. It’s no week in Cancun.”
“Right.” He thought about spending the week with sand, sun, babes and booze, just like Damian said. That’s what he was here for, to get the money for the trip.
“So. Hugging.” Melissa gave him a grin. “Not so bad. And I’m not sure why, but it felt easier than the hand holding did at first. You?”
“Yeah. It did.” It helped that she’d been the one to make the first move. “Should we do it again?”
“We’re supposed to,” she said. “I guess so. I don’t know how many hugs we’re supposed to have in four hours.”
“I’d guess a lot.” Matt laughed, already leaning in. “We’d better get to it.”
They talked as they hugged, pressing their bodies close. They experimented. Standing. Sitting. They tried reverse hugs as they chatted, which might’ve been stretching the definition, but with Melissa’s back pressed up against his front, leaning against him as he stretched out on the couch, it felt okay. They both figured the purpose was having as much body contact as possible.
They hugged. They talked. And talked, and talked. Without the pressure of trying to get laid – that wouldn’t come until the end of the experiment. If then. Only two days into it, Matt knew he wouldn’t turn it down if the chance came up, but he wasn’t going to expect the same from Melissa.