Page 14 of Released from the Sin Bin

Unfortunately for her, we’re both on our lunch break. I follow her to the dining hall and slide in line behind her. It’s early for lunch, and the dining hall is never packed around this time. I’ve seen Willa eating here by herself a few times. Sometimes Vic is with her.

“Why do they call it Taco Tuesday when they don’t serve tacos?” I look up at the daily menu that has two items listed; chicken or steak burritos.

She checks her phone, looking at an unanswered message thread with her boyfriend, Vic.

“Those are burritos. It’s a taco sin to call it anything else.” I keep talking even if she’s ignoring me. “There’s no day that starts with a B, but then they should have a taco option.” The dining hall has other options, but the specialty section that changes every day doesn’t give too many options to customize. “If I take out the rice, the tortilla will be too big.”

She glares up at me and back to her phone, texting again and completely unamused by my conversation starter.

“These aren’t much of a burrito anyway.” I lean into her ear after she orders hers.

“I don’t care.” She jumps away from me.

After talking to the guy and getting my taco-rito, I see Willa sitting alone. She keeps playing with her phone, looking more and more upset. There’s something going on between her and Vic, and I shouldn’t care. I should walk away, but she did help me out. It’d be nice to repay her in some way.

“How’s your taco-rito?” I get comfortable in the chair across from her.

That look she’s giving me could push me through the wall. I feel it like a jacked 6’3” hockey player with twenty pounds worth of pads smacking into my chest.

“You don’t like the name I came up with?” I place my hand over my heart as if I’m hurt. “I thought it was a good one.”

She takes a huge bite of her burrito. The rice falls out the other end as she tries to hold it together. Juices from the meat mixed with salsa and sour cream squirt out at the corners of her mouth as she chews.

“That’s attractive,” I tease her with a wink to let her know I’m only kidding. “I can’t see why Vic wouldn’t want to meet you for lunch.”

“If you must know,” more rice flies out of her mouth onto the table before she swallows and wipes the sauce off her chin with a napkin, “we got into a fight last night.”

“You broke up with him? Finally.” There’s not a chance she did, and sure enough, the perpetual glare she has toward me deepens.

“Just because we fought, doesn’t mean we broke up.” She frowns, glancing at her unanswered phone.

“Tex-Mex Tuesdays,” I shout. “That’s what they should call it.”

She shakes her head with a silent laugh, swallowing back another impressively huge bite of the burrito.

“Tex-Mex Tuesdays offering taco-ritos.” I smile proudly at my revelation.

“You’re ridiculous.” She cleans her face with the same napkin. “What do you really want? Why are you sitting with me?”

“I’m bored.” I shrug.

The last thing she needs to hear is that I’m sitting with her because her depressed loneliness is pathetic enough for me to notice.

“Is that why you slept with Coach Higgins’ wife?” She smirks smugly. “Because you were bored.”

There she goes, assuming the worst of me, yet again. It’s best she knows how bad I really am, but I can’t help defending myself. If I had slept with my professor’s wife knowingly, I’d own up to it.

“I had no idea she was married,” I sputter with my mouth full. “She set it all up.”

“Right.” Willa rolls her eyes. “She didn’t tell you she was married. Lured you to her home—”

“A motel room,” I correct her.

“A motel room.” She rolls her eyes again. “Had sex with you, then what? Told you she was married to the women’s hockey team head coach and your professor?”

“No.” I roll my eyes dramatically to mimic her. “She fucked me in her motel room, gave her husband the key, and timed it so he’d walk in while my cock was inside her pussy.”

Willa winces. “I hate that word. And that’s a bit far-fetched, don’t you think?”

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