Tuesday arrived before Kyle knew it. After breakfast on Saturday morning, Professor Ayala called a cab for him. She had her spa weekend to enjoy. Before he left her suite, she pulled him in for a surprise kiss, whispered the hottest "thank you" in recorded history, and sent him on his way with a firm slap on the ass.

The rest of his weekend passed in a blur. Thankfully, he had a lot of coursework to catch up on, and it offered a welcome distraction from the questions. For a time, at least, but the questions always returned. He was getting accustomed to the way Ayala caused him discomfort and visibly enjoyed his reactions, but he had yet to reckon with his own feelings about it. Did this make him a submissive? What did that even mean? What other label could he slap on it? He liked what was developing between them, but he had no context for it. His online searches about submission yielded results that looked nothing like his experience. He remembered Ayala's advice, "Don't overthink it," and kept coming back to that after spinning in mental circles.