When I was 19, I met this boy who was 15 at the time. I was his family’s guest on a university student exchange program. He let me have his bedroom while I was a guest in their home. Early every morning he would sneak into his room fresh out of a shower wearing only a towel around his waist, getting some clothes out of his closet. I pretended to be asleep every time. I don’t know why he didn’t just get a pile of clothes for the whole week and stash them somewhere in the den where he slept. I enjoyed those clandestine visits, however, and did nothing to make him aware that I knew. I watched him pull pants on underneath his towel each morning, back muscles gleaming from steam, watched him pull a fresh shirt over his lean muscled shoulders, shake his wet hair through the neck hole. After he left for school, I nuzzled into his bed and played with myself, imagining my body wrapped around his.

The family is well-known in Silicon Valley, a true testament to the American Dream. The father is ultra-successful and played a pivotal role in the development of computer technology as we know it. They own jets, Porsches and vacation homes, but they’re down to earth and hardworking. The parents seemed to like me, and not-so-subtly let me know they wanted me to go out with their older son, the one my age who was going to Stanford.

Once at dinner, the whole family was congratulating the boy for playing a great game for his high school football team. I teased the boy about growing up to be a professional football player. His eyes lit up for a moment before the father said that he was going to be a biochemical engineer. Not even as a joke was this kind of silly dream allowed in their household.

I ran into the boy today. I almost didn’t recognize him over a decade later. At 30 he’s taller, bigger, his cheeks rounded out more. He has come up to his father’s expectations, working on his doctorate degree in engineering at UC Berkeley. It’s difficult to see that young high school athlete I lusted over. He looks a lot more like his parents now.