We lay still on the bed, cuddled together, both completely naked.

“That was the best sex I’ve ever had,” I say.

“Me too,” says Chloe, cooing softly into my ear.

We’re talking in hushed romantic tones, whispers that belie the sounds and screams that were issued from the room only a few minutes before.

“You sure it’s OK that I didn’t use a condom?” I say.

“It’s fine,” says Chloe.

She’s just returned from the bathroom where she cleaned up a little.

Her hair is wild and she looks hotter than ever. Some guys say they don’t have interest in a woman after they have sex with her, but with Chloe it’s completely different. I only want to spend more time with her now.

Her makeup has worn off slightly, but she looks even hotter without it, not that she wore much of it before.

“You’re so beautiful,” I say, stroking her softly on her cheek.

“So are you,” she says, making me smile. No woman has ever called me beautiful before. They’ve called me a lot of other things, not all of them nice. Hey, on campus, I have a bit of a reputation already.

But Chloe’s the one for me. I’m not going to be messing around anymore. She’s the one I want. I have no interest in anyone but her.

“I was thinking you could come visit me at college sometime,” I say.

“I’d really like that,” says Chloe, kissing me gently on the mouth. “I just need to get some time off. And my Dad…”

“Oh yeah,” I say, my heart suddenly feeling heavy and sad. “I’m really sorry about that… I wish there was something I could do. I don’t know what to say, Chloe.”

“It’s OK,” says Chloe, a single tear coming out of her eye. “You don’t need to say anything.”

“But it’s not OK,” I say. “It’s not fair that you have to say here in town while everyone else goes to college. You were the smartest student in our class. You should be at some crazy university for smart people.”

She laughs. “You’re pretty smart yourself,” she says.

I smile at her. “Not like you are, though,” I say.

We lay in the bed for another half hour, not speaking, just cuddling, just enjoying the sensation of our bodies naked against one another. I’ve been with a lot of women, but I can’t say that I’ve ever cuddled. At least not like this. There’s still the sexual tension here, but it’s calmed down, now that we’ve had sex, and we can just relax and enjoy being near each other, being with each other.

The light is soft and dim and this basic hotel room, and I’m certain it has never looked more inviting, more at peace. It’s interesting how my perceptions change now that I’m satisfied, now that I’m happier, more at peace.

I’ve never felt more relaxed or calmer than with Chloe, naked, curled up against me, her head nestling in the crook of my arm, her arm slung across my chest, her breasts pressed lightly into my side. Her toes curl absent-mindedly around mine, stroking the tops of my feet and my ankles, my lower legs. I gaze at her magnificent legs, so smooth, so perfect.

Chloe’s phone rings.

“Just let it go,” I say sleepily.

“I’ve got to check,” says Chloe. “It might be my dad.”

She gets up, naked, and bends over. I admire her ass as she does so, and the way her breasts and hair hang…

“Hello?” she says, looking concerned as she stands straight up, turning towards me where I lie on the bed, the covers half covering my muscular body.

“This is she,” says Chloe, in a worried tone.

There’s a silence as Chloe listens to the person on the other end of the line. I guess it’s not her dad if she has to identify herself. It already doesn’t look like whatever happened is good, judging by Chloe’s face and the fact that it’s four in the morning.

Chloe’s face turns white as a sheet as she listens without saying anything.

My heart is beating quickly. I’m worried, worried about Chloe, suddenly realizing that I care about her like no one I’ve ever cared for, and I hardly really even know her well. But despite all that, it feels like we’ve been together for a long, long time.

“I’ll be right there,” says Chloe.

“What happened?” I say, as Chloe puts the phone down and starts getting ready rapidly.

“It’s my dad,” she says, her voice sounded stressed. She’s talking quickly and quietly, the way people do when something very serious happens. “I wasn’t there for him when he needed me. Something happened with his kidneys. I don’t know, I didn’t understand it. But he called 911 and an ambulance took him to the hospital. He’s in the emergency room right now. I have to go see him. This could be the last chance I have.”

“I’m coming with you,” I say, jumping out of bed and throwing on all my clothes.

She nods at me. There aren’t tears in her eyes, but it looks like she might begin to cry, as if she’s trying hard not to cry.

“Ready?” she says, scanning the room just once to see if he’s left anything. She doesn’t even look at herself in the mirror as she leaves.

I follow her down the hall.

“I can drive,” I say.

She shakes her head. “I’m going to need my car,” she says. “I have work tomorrow too.”

“But you won’t have slept at all,” I say, checking the clock on my phone. “It’s after four in the morning now.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she says, looking very, very worried. And not about herself, but about her dad. “Follow me in your car. I know the way to the hospital.”

I guess she’s been there before plenty of times.

It’s a half hour drive, and she’s driving fast in her old car, speeding along the empty dark streets, our headlights casting cold white light over the dead leaves that scatter in the wind.

It’s chilly but I don’t turn on the heat, or the radio. I’m staring straight ahead, trying to catch glimpses of Chloe in the driver’s seat in her car. I wonder what’s going through her head, and I wonder whether she’s crying.

We get to the hospital and she doesn’t even park right, just puts her car in the lane. It’s the middle of the night so it doesn’t matter much. I park my car, and then jog over to her, and catch her as she’s rushing inside.

“Here,” I say. “I’ll park the car. Don’t worry about it.”

I park her car too and then head into the hospital emergency room to find her. It smells bad in here, a sickly kind of smell. There are people sitting around and moaning, with all sorts of aches and pains that I can’t identify. There’s a weird buzzing sound that’s loud and it sounds like it’s some sort of malfunctioning fluorescent light.

I tell the receptionist who I’m looking for and she points me into the room. Apparently there’s no problem with visitors right now.

Chloe is standing by her dad’s side. He’s lying in the bed and he looks yellow. He’s hooked up to all kinds of tubes, IVs spiraling out of his veins. He has that seriously sick look, the strange tone to his skin, and the way he’s lying, as if he’s been sapped of all his energy, makes him look really sick.

“I came as fast as I could, Dad,” Chloe is saying.

“I’m glad you’re here,” says Chloe’s dad, weakly, as if he’s really struggling to speak.

I walk into the room slowly and give an awkward wave at Chloe’s dad.

“Hi,” I say.

“They’re’ going to have to put him on dialysis,” says Chloe. “His kidney isn’t working.”

I nod slowly and gravely, feeling terrible and awkward here, not knowing what to say. I don’t have any words, and I’m wondering how her dad is going to react to this. After all, why am I here with his daughter at four in the morning, and why wasn’t she at home?

There’s only one possible explanation and I wonder if in his sick state if he’s going to put the pieces together. Then again, she’s a grown woman, right? Can’t she make her own decisions?

“What are you doing here, Dan?” says Chloe’s dad, apparently gathering all of his strength to ask this question. He picks his head off the pillow and stares at me, more of a glower really, putting all his energy into it.

“I was…”

I stop speaking. I simply don’t know what to say. I can’t simply say I was sleeping with his daughter, can I?

Damn it. In college, I don’t run into problems like this.

Chloe gives me a look that I can’t read. Her face is indescribable, even though I know she’s upset. There’s some other emotion there that I’m not picking up on. If I had to guess, it would be anger towards me. But that wouldn’t make sense, would it?

“He was with me, Dad,” says Chloe.

“You were…?”

Chloe nods.

I don’t say anything.

I can see the anger in her father’s face. Serious anger.

“He’s sick,” says Chloe. “It’d be better if you go, Dan.”

“But…”

“You have to go,” says Chloe, in what sounds like an angry whisper. Her eyes smolder. The anger is clear now.

But why is she angry at me? It doesn’t make sense?

My hands are tied. I can’t stick up for myself in a situation like this—it just wouldn’t be worth it with a sick man like this, a dying man.

I learned about dialysis when my aunt had it. It’s a horrible process where they clean your blood. It depends on the person, but with Chloe’s dad, I don’t think he’s going to live much longer, not more than a couple months on dialysis.

I head to the door and Chloe doesn’t follow me. Doesn’t she want to say goodbye? I mean, I know her dad is sick, but…

“You know I’m headed back to school soon?” I say. “I’m not sure we’ll be able to see each other…”

Chloe nods at me stiffly.

“Bye,” she says.

I don’t understand this attitude. After all, we just spent the most incredible night together.

Suddenly, I remember I have her keys, so I go to hand them to her. But she doesn’t move her hands to accept them, instead keeping them crossed in front of her, under her breasts.

I put them on the nightstand, and I leave the room, with Chloe and her sick father both glaring at me.

What the hell just happened?

I head out into the cool night and get into my car and drive home in silence. The world around me seems to have become terrible, in the sense that everything that was imbued with magic only hours ago has now become flat and dull. The leaves blow with the wind, but they don’t move that place in my soul, doing nothing for my spirit. My body has become like an automaton, like a robot. I don’t know what happened with Chloe, but I know what that look meant. I don’t know why she acted the way she did, but I know what it means for us.

Her dad’s disapproval of me is more important than her feelings for me. That’s what this all means.

Well, her dad is dying, I tell myself. Cut her a little slack.

But I can’t…

Not after the incredible night we spent together in the hotel room.

How could she be so cold to me after that? Everything in her demeanor screamed “get away from me and don’t contact me.”

I’m on absolutely no sleep by the time I get home, so I crawl into bed, fortunately arriving before my parents have woken up. I don’t fall asleep though, despite how exhausted and tired my body is. Instead, I listen to the morning sounds of the house, my parents getting up, brushing their teeth, turning on the radio.

The sun is up now, but it’s a cold and weak sun that barely penetrates the clouds.

Sometime around 8am, I finally fall asleep for a few fitful and restless hours.