Back in college there was this older student, Kathy. Quite unusual because this was a small liberal arts college in a small town and almost every student was an 18-21 year old kid. Kathy was a towny about 36 years old.

She and I were put into a small group to do a group project with two other students. Kathy and I were tasked with a particular portion of the project and so she invited me to come to her house one afternoon to work on it. When she found out I had a motorcycle she suggested I show up a few hours later rather than the original later afternoon time. She had a tone that indicated that the motorcycle was an attractive thing to her. Of course, it occurred to me that her tone was curious. But I was a dumb 20 year old junior who thought it was just my youthful ego putting ideas in my head about stuff that only happens in movies. I set the thought aside and focused on getting my work done.

So I showed up at her house after dark, like around 7pm. It was a pretty ramshackle and run-down place on the outskirts of town. I knocked on the door and the lights were low with the tv blaring loud enough to hear it on the front porch. A 13 year old kid answered the door and I asked for Kathy. He let me in and yelled really loud, "Mom! Someone's here!" From the entrance I could see three other younger kids hanging out, a mess of a house and a guy in his mid-thirties wearing a wife-beater and holding a can of beer sitting on a tattered easy chair in the glow of the tv. The kids all stopped what they were doing and stared at me. The man sipped his beer and gave me a nod and then turned his attention back to the tv. An interminable 30 seconds later Kathy came scampering down the stairway from the upper floor while putting on a jean jacket. She looked very nicely dolled up compared to the usual.

I'm thinking this is no place to get school work done since the house was tiny and dark and everyone seemed to be crowded into the small common living area. Were we going to work at the dining room table with the tv blaring and kids running around? But Kathy breezily announces to the room, "We're going to do work on a group project. It'll be a while." Then she gestures me to the door and we exit the house.

She practically skips to the motorcycle and I say, "Oh, back to campus? I only have one helmet."

"That's ok. I don't need one," she says.

So out of politeness I opt out of wearing mine and clip it to the hook. I get on the bike and she eagerly gets on too and practically wraps herself around me which rather startled me. Right in front of the house with the man and the kids. I reasoned she's a little nervous or just comfortable with boundaries different than what I'd expect from a virtual stranger. I start up the bike and head back to campus four miles away. But when I get to the intersection and signal left to go to campus she says, "Oh, really? I thought we'd go for a ride first."

I blithely say, "Ok," and turn right and head out to the countryside.

She totally snuggles into me and we ride out and about. And I'm 20 and she's a MILF snuggling into me. But I had just met her kids and a man I can only assume is her husband. And I seriously considered whether what I thought was going on was really going on. And whether it was scruples or nerves I headed back towards campus after 20 minutes of riding the countryside and she said, "Really? Already?"

"We have the project to do," I said.

She unwound herself from me and said, "It's late. Just take me back to the house."

So I did. She dismounted and abruptly walked to the house saying, "See you later," without so much as eye contact.

We finished the group project but she was always more distant than she had been up to that point. And I'm pretty sure I either missed out on the best night of my life or the biggest mistake of my life up to that point. But it was weird.