And I got a reaction. Not the reaction I wanted, though. He pulled me away from him and threw me beside him on the bed, where I landed, bouncing on the mattress. He had used more force than necessary, and my hair was everywhere in my face. But I didn’t make a move to remove the hair from my face or stand up. I just lay there, closing my eyes, not looking at him. I wanted to know what he was thinking. If he had hate or anger or whatever it was he was feeling. I had a lot of questions. I thought men wanted s*x, and this was the second time I was trying my best to seduce him, and he was refusing me. My research—both social and personal—said he would go for it, but he was being painstakingly stubborn. And that started giving me back negative thoughts. Like… why didn’t he want to do it?

