The Ship of Theseus
“Most of the internet is a focus-sucking black hole,” she said as she and her male friend left the Student Center, stepping out into the bright afternoon sun.
“I disagree,” the guy retorted with a snicker. “I get a lot of value out of Twitter and Facebook.”
“Who said anything about ‘value’?” she said, eliciting a smile from him. He enjoyed trying to confuse her with non-sequiturs, but she was quick on her feet and easily sidestepped his attempt. “Focus and value are not comparable. But I can talk about value if you want. Twitter doesn’t value you back. Nor does Facebook, beyond the ad revenue of course.” She paused for a second, noticing where he was looking, then exhaled audibly. “That blond you are currently ogling across the atrium doesn’t value you back either, you know.”
“Was I that obvious?” he asked with a shrug.
“Please. It’s like guys have 56K baud modems connecting your eyes to your brains.” It was her time to smile as a big pair of tits was harder to sidestep for men.
“56K baud modem? Wow, 20 going on 45 I see. What’s next, My long term memory is like a rack of floppy disks?”
“That would have explained the sound I heard coming from your ears the last time we studied together,” she said, winking at him.
“He ha so funny I forgot to laugh.”
“I get it though. That sweater wouldn’t be any tighter if it was painted on. She knows it too, trust me. She took the weather and how needy for attention she was into account before picking that out. I mean, a red sweater with a black skirt? If men’s eyes shot laser beams, she would have been dead before she got in her car.”
He laughed, suddenly picturing the busty blond on the quickest blind date ever with Cyclops from the Xmen.
She continued: “She makes my point for me. She’s definitely not willing to hold your gaze for a long period of time without fear of intimacy. Nor would she listen to you go on and on comparing the pre and post-Flashpoint versions of Superman, including the proper pronunciation of Maxyspacklick.”
“That’s Mix-eese-pit-lick,” he interjected.
“Mix eese-pot-li...Whatever!” she stammered, causing him to snicker.
“The point, Asshole, is that she’s not that, and neither are the other things you put your attention to. She’s like Twitter and Facebook: seeking your attention, your focus. For what? A little jiggle, a little flash of dopamine? Do you see what i’m saying?” He nodded, motioning for her to continue, which she would have done anyway given the momentum she was building.
“Do you know what you need? That thing you can put your focus on that is not only valuable to you, but also values you back in return. Someone who likes you for you. That’s what you need. Yea, Facebook lets you keep track of people you knew in high school that you likely wouldn’t ever see again except for the random reunions, and also lets you sell that PS3 you got when you turned 10, but that comes at a cost that you may not see right away.”
“True, but your point seemed to spill over into something not ADHD related.”
She stammered for a second. Then agreed. “You’re right. I made it about me there for a second. Not about you. Sorry.”
“About you?” he asked, confused. “I mean you are right, I do need to find things, and a woman, I guess, that would do the things you said, but what does that have to do with...”
She threw her arms up. “Forget it, Mr. Mix-eese-Pit-lick.” He was surprised she got it right that time, but she continued to talk quickly so he had to file that away for another time.
“So as I was saying, you have been dealing with ADHD for years, right?”
He looked away, His face contorted in deep thought. Finally he spoke: “Since 14 when I was officially diagnosed. Talk about the blind leading the blind, that doctor must have checked his phone three or four times during the test, and his receptionist had the biggest glasses I have...” His eyes met hers, first with confusion, then with understanding.
“Oh yea, sorry! Doing it again.” They both laughed.
He continued: “Concerta brought my grades up, but often gave me nightmares and..” he leaned in and whispered to her as they passed a group of other students by. “Hershey squirts.”
“Ew!” She pantomimed a bucket then pretended to throw up in it.
“Yep! I dropped it after a month or so. Next was Adderall, which made me feel like I drank too much Starbucks all at once.” His eyes thinned. “It also gave me…” he took a deep breath, “another issue.”
“What?”
“hmmm.” He looked away from her, then coughed when she elbowed him.
“Just tell me,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Let’s just say hersey squirts would have been an improvement.”
“Telll meeee!” she said, pretending to stomp her feet like a petulant child.
“Fine! Damn you and your ability to get anything out of me. You are my kryptonite! or my Magic Lasso.”
She blushed slightly, but he didn’t seem to notice. While she often felt he was sometimes as blind as Daredevil when it came to women, unlike the hero of Hell’s Kitchen she was happy his blindness didn’t cause his other senses to become super-sensitive.
He seemed lost in thought for a few seconds, then found his footing again. “I started Adderall when I was 15. While I didn’t have my first girlfriend then, I had.. well, you know...”
“What?” she asked, loving how he squirmed.
“You know…” he said after a few false starts. “I was, you know, already ‘Master of my Domain’ at the time.”
“Master of Domain? Is that a JRPG meme? You know I don’t play Persona.”
“No.. Sheesh. It was in an episode of Seinfeld.”
“Seinfeld? And i’m the 45 year old?!”
“Fine! Well you’re going to pull it out of me anyway.” He rolled his eyes, huffed a few times, then quickly said, “Jerking off. I’m talking about cuming! Blowing my load! I couldn’t do it!”
Time seemed to slow down for him. He noticed she winced when he said that, and was initially concerned he said something wrong. Then he noticed she seemed embarrassed for him, not of him.
Then his body told him they weren’t as alone as he had thought. Fuck.
“I don’t think anyone heard you” she whispered out of the side of her mouth as red blotches appeared on his face.
She was immediately proved wrong as a male voice called out, “My grandfather can’t get it up either. But he’s 90, and dead!” They heard laughter erupt behind them. Now fully embarrassed, he yelled as he turned, “I heard about your grandpa too. He was a…”, he noticed the one who made the comment wore an Alpha Beta shirt, and looked like he could bench the both of them at the same time.
Double fuck. “...Uh, he was a real nice guy. Class act!” He followed with, “I’m sorry about your loss!” as they both ran off.
They jogged until they disappeared behind the Garrick Center of Physiology, where she finally lost it. If she was drinking soda at the time it would have been all over him. But luckily she was a dry snorter.
“Oh my god! That was crazy!” she said in between gasps of air. She had to lean on a tree that stood near the path to stay upright.
“That’s not going to be forgotten any time soon,” he finally said after watching her regain her composure. “By them or by you!”
“Don’t worry about me, Mr. Adderall,” she said, elbowing him. “Your dirty little secret is safe with me.” She locked her lips up and threw away the key.
“It’s not a secret anymore. Thank god there wasn’t enough time for anyone to record that! I don’t want to go viral that way. Well, either way my, uh, problem disappeared after I stopped taking it.“
Good to hear, she thought to herself.
They continued toward her dorm. It was the first day of Spring, and she felt warm there under the afternoon sun, warmer than the cute little shirt and throw she wore should have made her, however. But that was no surprise to her.
“As I was saying, I bet my hypnosis can help you,” she said as casually as she could.
“But I don’t understand how it would help me, even if I believed hypnosis existed,” he said as they made their way off the path and started their way up a steep hill. He turned to her, offering his hand.
“I know, Mr. Skeptic,” she said. She quietly held her breath as their fingers met, hoping he didn’t feel the slight tremble in her hand or the quickening of her pulse.
“You trust me, right?” she asked him while looking into his eyes.
“I do,” he said, pulling her closer.
“Then what’s the problem? If you don’t think it’s going to work, then all it means is that we spent 20 to 30 minutes wasting our time. And given the amount of time you spend reading comics and playing video games, you are nearly a professional at wasting time. You should put that on your resume.”
“True,” he said, briefly flashing his smile. “If that 10,000 hour rule holds, i’m an expert at it!” They followed the hidden path up a steep incline through conifers that framed the university’s central cluster of buildings. She had told him the steep path saved several minutes from the walk. She didn’t mention she was fully capable of making it without his help, though. That was one of her own dirty little secrets.
They reached her building, then went in. Once inside her room, she positioned several blankets and pillows around on the floor in a circle. She “lit” an electric candle (real ones being verboten) and placed it on the floor in the middle of the circle. Feeling her excitement grow, she opened up a bottle of her perfume, and lightly tagged her neck with it when he was preoccupied with removing his shoes and windbreaker. Just a dab, she told herself. Just enough to be noticed up close. She then paired her phone to a pair of speakers peaking out from under her bed. She smiled when she heard the ambient music she chose for this occasion.
She told him to sit cross-legged on some of the pillows. Not so rigid his muscles would tire, not too loose he might fall backwards.
Just comfortable. Just right.
Good. He was already complying without his usual casual skepticism. Though he still wore that casual grin on his face like another man would an expensively tailored oxford shirt. She instinctively licked her lips.
Things had to go right with this, because she wasn’t used to taking this kind of risk. They had been good friends for over a year. If things failed...
She joined him on the floor, copying how he sat, how he looked at her back to him. Mirroring him was important. Mirroring meant trust. It meant she was like him. Like him. With a slight quiver she grabbed the candle, placing it on her lap. She slightly shifted her body, the warmth she felt outside grew between her legs.
She told herself she was just looking at him as she normally did, casually. Just the way one friend looked at another. She noted the stretch pants he wore with approval, and how the way he sat there seemed to stretch them out just a bit more than he knew.
She also remembered the shirt he wore, seeing it on him once before when they were in this very same room together watching a bad sci-fi movie on Netflix. She noticed how it had laid on his chest and stomach then, and how she had wanted to run her hands over it. Nothing has changed since then.
Collecting her thoughts, she took a deep breath that seemed to go further down her body than her lungs allowed, then, after a moment of a last prayer to the universe, exhaled her anxieties out and began.
“Like I said earlier, you master your life when you learn how to master your focus. Where your attention goes, so goes your mind. Value what you give your energy to, because there’s only so many seconds in the day and thus so few things that you can really attend to. Ready to begin?”
She watched him intently. Most guys she knew would have taken the Adderall thing to their grave, but after a push from her, he gave it up. How much more will he be giving up to her now? She suddenly felt a strange mixture of courage and arousal within her.
He rolled his neck, flashed his charming smile, then said “Yes I am. Let’s see if this works.”
It’s now or never. “Let’s begin. Breathe in deep with your nose. Out through your mouth. Good. In with your nose. Out through your mouth. Again, again, and again.”
She took a deep breath, letting a few seconds pass quietly. Pacing was important. “Continue to look into my eyes. My eyes. My eyes. We don’t hide anything between each other, right? You even told me about the problems you had on Adderall.”
She saw his warm smile and returned one back to him. Mirroring is important, she thought to herself. We are not all that different.
She continued, her voice taking on a slight musical tone. “Good. If you can tell me that, then you can trust me here. Nothing to hide from me. Just one friend, helping another friend, find his focus. His center.”
“Continue looking into my eyes. You’ve seen them hundreds, maybe thousands of times. Eyes, eyes, eyes. But not the way I want you to look at them now. Oh no. Now I want you to learn what focus is by putting all of your focus onto my eyes. Only my eyes. Nothing else. Only my eyes.” A part of her felt foolish saying these things to him, because It sounded like she was reciting an old vampire movie from the 50’s or 60’s. But the articles and studies spoke of attuning the induction to your client’s experiences, if possible. And she had seen the kinds of movies he liked, and therefore adjusted the script accordingly.
“First the irises. Look at them intently. How blue they are, even in candlelight. Remember when you were a kid and you would lean back in the thick grass and look into the sky?”
He nodded.
“So warm, so inviting, like those memories. Like that sky. My eyes always have something new to see in them. Maybe you will find something new in them now.” She noticed he began to look into her eyes intently. Warmly.
She then widened her eyes. “Now my pupils. See how big and black they are in the dark here? They pull you in, like you are orbiting two black holes. Around and around you go, spinning around my pupils. Around and around and around. Try as you might, you have been caught in their gravitational pull. Try as you might, you cannot pull away from them without effort. And you notice the more you try, the more tired you get. So tired.” She had to tell herself not to mirror him when she noticed his face and body slump forward.
“Breath in, breath out. In through the nose, out through your mouth.“
She drew her eyes open further. “Now look deeper. See how a slight change in my lenses creates a whole new world in my eyes for you to see?”
“Yea” he responded as he breathed out.
Mmmmmmm. She found herself mirroring the “yea” back to him in a much different tone. Luckily he didn’t seem to notice. She widened and narrowed her eyelids several times, talking about them until she ran out of words. She ultimately repeated “my eyes fill up your focus, and your mind,” like a sensual drone until his eyes began to flicker, leadened from her words.
It was time to bring this home. She murmured with delight as her nipples hardened beneath her shirt. She brought up the candle until it obstructed his view of her.
“Look at the flame. You know it’s not a real flame so it’s not flickering, right?”
It took a minute, but she heard him answer in the affirmative.
“Good. Yet, If you look at it long enough, you will see it flicker. Do you want to know how it’s going to flicker, since it’s not a real flame?”
“Yes.” He breathed out.
“Because,” she said in a voice filled with desire, “my words and mine will make it so.” She noticed something shift in his face. An acceptance perhaps? An understanding that what she was saying was true, like a mathematical formula? She wasn’t sure whatever happened was to her benefit.
“Focus on the flame. All of your energy and attention on the flame. It’s light fills your eyes, and your mind. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Fills up your world. No Twitter, No Facebook. No Finals. No blonds in tight red sweaters. Just you, me, and this candle.
“You..me...” he drawled.
“Exactly,” she said, breathless.
She slowly lowered the candle back to the floor, his eyes and face following with a slight lag. God, his eyes. Heavy, lidded, like he was on the precipice of sleep. Brought there by her words and her voice and her mind alone. Her will. Her power.
She reached out and placed her trembling fingers on his. He gave no response, offered no resistance.
“Do you..like my hand on yours?”
“Yes.”
She shuddered as she drew her other hand over her chest, finally free to feel his muscles as she had wished for months. She wanted to jump him right then and there, feeling his cock (her cock, a part of her mind correcting her) fill her up, but she knew what needed to be done first. One more step. One brought on by the philosophy class in which they had met—Ethics. She felt her mouth dry, but pushed forward. Just one more, big, step.
“Do you like me?” she asked tentatively.
“Yes I do,” he responded.
“I mean, do you like me more than a friend?” Her tongue drew over her lips instinctively. “Someone you can date?”
She held her breath while he struggled to answer.
“Yes. I. Find you…” he trailed off, seemingly lost in what little thought remained in him.
“Yes?” she asked, leaning on every word.
“I think about you.” He responded, “Not just a..friend,” he murmured. “More.”
She stifled a moan, instead opting to bite her lower lip and squeeze his chest.
“Just like I needed your strong hand when we took the hidden path to my dorm, you will need my strong hands, my guidance as you take this path. Do you understand?”
As an answer, he turned his hand over, splaying his fingers out submissively. She drew her finger over the lines in his palm lazily.
“Continue looking at the light. Soon you see it flicker, and when it does, you will find that your mind, and your focus, will be mine.”
He shifted in his seat, a tiny look of confusion played in his eyes. Perhaps this would have given her pause 20 minutes ago, but as her fingers slid between his, her reserve filled with arousal and need.
“Yes.”
“Say it.”
“Your mind.”
“My Mind.”
“Your focus.”
“My focus.”
“My voice, my eyes, my body.”
“Your voice, eyes...body..All of you.”
“Good boy.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed it tightly.
His lips parted slightly, attempting, to her understanding, to form words.
“Tell me.”
“I, I see it flickering.”
“Good boy,” she said, her words dipped in honey. “Close your eyes.” His eyes closed shut without hesitation.
She fought the desire to jump him right then and there, comfortable he was hers to savor in her own way. On her own time. And, she told herself, her needs were now his needs. Her time was his time.
But then, a quick look at the clock on her wall reminded her that time was still moving inexorably forward, as was her roommate’s classes, so she had to proceed. Reality broke through the fantasy.
She stood up, watching him sway slightly like he was on a boat in calm waters. All mine, she thought to herself as she felt the delta between her legs moisten. She sat down behind him, pressing her chest against his back as she draped her legs over his. She placed one hand on his chest, and the other dangerously near his crotch.
She couldn’t resist, so she gave his left ear a slight kiss, then, pulling him slightly toward her, a lick. His body shivered.
“I’m right behind you now. If at any time you feel yourself falling backwards, have no fear. I’m here to catch you.”
He immediately relaxed into her, the juxtaposition not lost on her. He was completely relaxed in her arms and legs, while she was a bundle of nerves and horny energy held back by sheer will alone.
If the fire alarms went off right now I don’t think he would notice, she thought to herself, not until the flames licked his ears. While I had a fire between my legs that threatened to consume me, and him, at any moment. All it needed was the right fuel. She caught herself giggling at her own thoughts. Was she becoming a romance writer?
“Your mind is mine. Say it.”
“My mind is yours,” he said.
“Your body is mine too. Say it.”
“My body is yours.” He sighed. His head rolled back on her shoulder.
She allowed herself the time to touch him all over while cooing in his ear about her eyes (endless fascination within), her hair (luxurious and sensual),and her neck (irresistibly kissable). Then, with her mind on him kissing his neck, she began to suck on his, producing a noticeable groan from him.
That was when she noticed the large tent in his pants.
“Take off your pants. Lean into me if you need to. I got you. Trust in me. Comfort in me.”
Once they were off, she peered over his neck, breathless. She had been with only one guy before in freshman year. Yet even though It was over all too quick and was rather perfunctory, it still awakened her sexuality. Her desires. She knew she would like it, love it even with someone she cared for, who liked her, and who could give her what she wanted. The hypnotized man in her arms, erect, throbbing for her, only for her, was that man.
Just like the Magic Eye 3D picture craze from when she was young, she just had to get him to see what was already there. And the hypnosis was key to it.
She wasn’t prepared for how her need grew to the point of overcoming her. She had to admit to herself that planning, then executing this plan turned her on more than she originally thought.
“Do you know you are leaning on me in nothing but your underwear?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know you are sooo hard for me? Your cock is throbbing for me. Only for me.”
She felt his hips twitch as he began to hump the air. “So hard for me. And I am so wet for you right now.” She took a deep breath, “My pussy is throbbing.”
He moaned.
“My cock, is only for you.”
Slumped on her, his head resting on her shoulder, eyes closed. Hard cock for her. For her, Only for her. All of him, primed and ready, for her. Only for her. Surprising herself, she wrapped her own arms around him, squeezed him tightly, and came.
“Oh god... that was.. delicious,’’ she finally said with a smile to the docile man in her arms.
She looked down, and noticed his own wet spot growing in his underwear.
Like flavors in an ice cream shop, various options flitted through her brain. Facesitting him while sucking on his cock? Ride him blindfolded? Turn him into a big bad wolf to my little red riding hood? Since it was their first time, she decided to go simple. WIth her own flare to it, of course.
“Feel your desire grow with every word your mistress says.”
“Mistress...” he moaned.
She reached through the flap in his underwear and pulled his engorged member out. After taking it all in for a few moments, surprised her work had paid off so well, she began to stroke it.
“As I stroke your hard cock, You find yourself falling more and more into hypnosis. My mind control. Falling more into my control.”
“Your control,” he murmured.
“Good boy,” she said, surprised how easily those words came to her. That could be his trigger, she thought to herself, seeing how his cock reacted to those words.
“Do you want me?”
“Yes,” he quickly said, surprising her with his quick response.
“How much?”
“I, can’t… It’s too…” he stammered.
She stopped stroking him, and wiped her fingers on the side of his leg. “Goooood boy,” she said, drawing it out. “Calm down. Don’t worry, you are my goooood boooy. Too much for you, wasn’t I? That’s ok….. Shhhhhh,” she cooed in his ear. “Any more and you would have exploded all over my hands, huh?” She purred in his ears until she felt his breathing slow.
“Yes, mistress.”
“Good boy. Your eyes will open soon, and when they do, all you will see is your beautiful, beguiling mistress.
“Beautiful mistress,” he grunted.
“Right. Open your eyes, now. Stand and view your mistress in all her glory!”
He quickly stood, opening his eyes. Once they cleared in the dark room, his mistress drew his eyes to her, the object of beauty that was in control. He knew who she was, of course, but to him it was like the other times were through a veil or through darkened lenses, and now she had empowered him to see her as she truly was.
Her eyes, previously blue, were now the blue of the heavens themselves. If she were to ask him what they looked like now, he would have said they reminded him of the eyes in the movie dune—the eyes of the Ibad. And she would have understood the reference, having read the book herself.
Her face, previously pretty, was now breathtaking.
She directed him to drink in her body further, and he gleefully obliged.
Her shirt was unbuttoned and lay on her chest suggestively. He could just see the inner curve of each breast, but he heard her words and therefore knew that her breasts would have no comparison. Others would be either too big or too small. And, like she said, experiences are what you attend to, and he found nothing else worth attending to.
He followed her body down further until coming to her red panties. Her finger was inside them, rubbing. Then he suddenly noticed his own hand furiously stroking his cock. When did he start doing that? He didn’t know, but the thought was fleeting as she led his gaze back to her.
“Kneel.” He did as he was told, eyes on her panties. She pulled her hand out and directed him over to her with her middle finger, wet with her need.
“Smell me.” He drew close to her panties, and, mind reeling, inhaled.
“Memorize it. Your mistress is pleased with her work, and is soooo wet for you.” He smelled again, relishing her odor. He wanted to see the source of the intoxicating smell, but the panties blocked him and he couldn’t move, frozen by arousal and her hypnosis.
After several moments, he felt her fingers run through his hair, then, on his sixth or seventh inhale, they both lost count, she quickly pulled aside her panties and pulled him in.
“Devour me. NOW!”
His hands found purchase on her ass as he plunged his tongue into her. He found it hard to breath as her legs wrapped around his head, pulling his nose into her clit. What air remained in him escaped in smothered moans.
She gasped, rubbing his face with her pussy. She sat up and, propped up by her elbows, watched as he ate her out. While it technically wasn’t her first oral, the guy who took her virginity had licked her several times, there was no comparison. That guy was just getting her ready for sex, while this was sex itself.
Her friends spoke of oral like it was like being at a fireworks show, and now she knew what they meant. His tongue explored places in her she didn’t know existed. She watched as his nose flicked her clit, causing her to shake. She saw his mouth and nose slick with her wetness. And She also saw his cock pushed up against his stomach. That was when she remembered that he was her hypnotised plaything, an articulated marionette with a hard cock, so she pulled at his strings.
“Lick me up and down like an ice cream cone. Now plunge your tongue deep into me. That’s it. Now grab my ass tightly my little fuck toy and get that tongue all the way in. Good boy. “ She held back a squeal as electricity shot through her, cumming again.
“Now breathe.” He gasped, his eyes heavy with lust and perhaps a little asphyxia.
“Up here”, she told him, pointing toward her mouth, which was curled in a mischievous grin. “Now.”
His cock seemed to vibrate as he found his way up her, until it rested directly on her pussy.
He felt a shock when he kissed her, their tongues entwined, her legs slowly wrapping around him.
Like her he wasn’t a virgin; He had lucked out in Freshman year, briefly dating someone who was previously a cheerleader in highschool, and who enjoyed utilizing her pom poms in bed. But the craving he desired, brought by her words and eyes were a new thing altogether.
“Like superman seeing the sun for the first time,” she told him, and he agreed. “Now,” she said, after licking his saliva off her lips, “Fuck me.”
“Mistress.” he finally managed after thrusting into her several times. He felt her eyes bear into him like diamond drills. He wasn’t sure what felt better, her tight, slick pussy or those eyes.
His brain tried to understand the lust coursing through his veins, but it was overwhelmed by it and what she had done to him. All he could do was thrust in her and look at her eyes. That was it. All else was static, background noise.
She told him to focus on her eyes, and he did. She told him to devour her pussy, and he did. Now he was focused on his cock in her pussy and her eyes, and so that was all he did.
This wasn’t a simple usage of hypnosis, she told him as he felt his urge building past the point that he or she could control it.
“Oh no no no,” she moaned.
Her eyes and words were passing through his blood-brain barrier and were actively rewiring his neurons. Luckily for the both of them, she said, it wouldn’t be done all that once and instead would require a lot of sessions like this one.
And looking at her devious smile, tasting her saliva on his tongue, and hearing her honey drenched words, “come for me,” he did just that.
“Don’t stop,’’ she said in a low growl after feeling him jerk in her. He continued fucking her for several minutes afterwards. His erection held strong, per her order, only dwindling after she had him pull out and then clean her out with his mouth.
“You will never tire of tasting me,” she said, breathless.
He stayed with her on the floor there, naked in many ways.
They began talking. There was nothing too embarrassing or too inappropriate with her, she told him. And as proof of her words, she told him about her most salacious sexual fantasies. Things that would have made pornhub blush. He told her his, because he was hers.
Eventually she noticed the time, and brought him back up through the hypnosis. He wouldn’t remember all of it, she told him, because hypnotising him for the first time was just too juicy to give up. “Plus,” she said while collecting her clothes, “who knows? Maybe we can cure you of your ADHD yet!”
“But don’t worry,” she said, as she adjusted her bra, “You will remember enough to keep you happy, and mine.” He smiled at that.
Later, as he left her dorm, after receiving a deep goodbye kiss from her, he was indeed quite happy. The sun seemed brighter, he thought to himself as he waved back to her from the street below.
He also found that his mind didn’t wander as much during his walk back to his car on the other side of the campus. The only thing that entered his mind besides his new girlfriend (she was just great, wasn’t she?) was a philosophy paper due the following week.
Originally he was going to write about the concept of natural constraints implied in the story of the Ring of Gyges, but he had a sudden flash of inspiration to write about the famous thought experiment called the Ship of Theseus. As he scratched the back of his head (his head felt strange, like he had been hyperventilating), something about that thought experiment seemed to somehow speak to him.
Yep, he thought to himself with a smile on his face, she was great.