That was when Emma became the wild card. I was just about to enter university, and Etienne was away oversees, training Afghans' in fighting off the Taliban. She began inviting me for dinner. Both her privileged kids, son and daughter, were away in boarding school, and she was feeling very lonely in that great big house of theirs. The dinners were pleasant enough, but then she began inviting me to spend the night. I had time off before starting classes, was just about to turn eighteen, so I thought, might as well. Then it got really ugly. She started coming into the guestroom when I was sleeping, and would lie down next to me on the bed. Then she started giving me massages, and finally, would pull me onto her. Now this was a woman already in her forties, and I was a teenager. She wasn't bad looking, but not really my type, but I felt that because of the power imbalance that I would have to comply and obey her. We had sex twice, then when I said I wanted this to stop, she threatened to have me charged with raping her, since of course no one was going to accept the word of a little black boy over a wealthy white woman.
To my relief, and puzzlement, that was the last time I stayed with her. She was supposed to have me over again a week later. I did not get a call, and I was not about to call her. Another week passed, then another. At first I thought Etienne was home on leave, but that wasn't the case. And anyway, I felt so guilty about betraying him with his wife, since he was in many ways the closest thing I had to a father, I simply didn't want to have to face him. A full month passed. Then another month. Etienne came home for Thanksgiving, spent a week, then returned to Afghanistan. Miraculously, I was able to avoid him.
Then, from Emma I received a text, and she told me to meet her in the Starbucks on the campus where I was studying, since I was now taking classes...
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