“Are you all right?” Melanie asked as she was getting her coffee.
I looked over at her and smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”
She shook her head and shrugged. “You’ve just been tapping your foot since you sat down.” She looked down at my leg then back up at me.
I crossed my legs at the ankle and fixed my dress. I’d talked to her a little bit about Mason—Professor Cline—the previous night, but not in too much detail. I felt bad for not telling her everything, but I honestly didn’t want to be judged. I knew she would think going to dinner with him would be a bad idea, and I really didn’t want to hear it.
“I know I’ve already told you this, but if you need to talk, I’m here.”
I gave her a reassuring smile. “I know, Mel. Everything is good, I promise. I actually feel better now that I’m not there anymore.” I didn’t need to elaborate. She knew I was talking about Tim and everything I said was true. It had only been three days, but I was actually feeling better about myself, not living there anymore. It was like living in that relationship had been suffocating me. I refused to mention that my attraction to Mason had anything to do with why I was handling everything so well. He was the perfect distraction for that part of my life.
“Have you called Mom?”
“No. Not yet,” I answered, scrunching my nose. “I honestly don’t want to make the call. You know how she is. If I call her and tell her and she says I told you so, I swear I will threaten not to come home for the holidays.”
Melanie laughed. “Then you better not call and tell her because you know she will.”
I laughed as I stood from the table and grabbed my things. “Thanks, Mel. I really do appreciate it.” I walked over to her and gave her a hug before heading toward the door to go to class.
As I got to school, I went into the building and fast walked to the room. I had ten minutes before class started and I wanted to be in my seat before he came in.
I opened the door and my eyes went straight to his desk. He was already there, looking over some papers. As I shut the door, his eyes turned up to meet mine and goosebumps rose on my arms. I swear if he had super powers my dress would have melted off with his fiery gaze. Biting the inside of my cheek, I made my way to his desk. My face was flaming so bad I could feel the perspiration on my forehead. It would officially be the hardest part of every class, signing that damn attendance sheet.
I looked him over as I approached his desk. He was dressed in another charcoal grey suit and his eyebrows were pinched as if he was concentrating too hard. He was better at avoiding than I was. It was like I couldn’t stop looking at him.
Grabbing the pen, I leaned down to write my name on the attendance sheet. Just as I was done writing, I looked up to see him looking down my dress. His eyes met mine with a smirk, then he averted them to write something on the paper he had in front of him.
This is going to be so much harder than I thought.
I walked away from his desk and made my way to the same seat I had on Monday. I passed by the girl who’d given me the stink-eye and noticed she was giving me dirty looks.
What the fuck? I turned away and took a deep breath as I sat in my seat. I didn’t need to worry about anyone else except myself. If she didn’t like me, that was her problem.
I started taking my things out of my satchel and glanced up at the clock. We had three minutes to go before he would get up and lock the door. Looking around the room, I noticed it was pretty much full, all except my row, which had a few seats available. I guess the warning was well received.
I set up my laptop and opened my notebook when I heard the door open. I looked up to see a cute, shaggy blonde-haired guy dressed in a faded blue t-shirt and jeans with a backpack hanging off of one shoulder. He walked up the steps and made his way down my row, taking the seat one over from me. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d seen him before.
I averted my eyes so I didn’t seem like a creeper and busied myself on my laptop when I saw movement from the corner of my eye. I slowly turned toward the guy to see he was looking at me with a smile. I smiled back at him, feeling awkward.
“Hi. Sorry to bother you, but do you have a pen or pencil I can borrow? I left mine in the car.”
I nodded. “Of course.” I picked up my satchel and grabbed one of the ten pens I had in my bag.
I held out my hand and he leaned in and grabbed it. “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. My name’s Brian, by the way.”
“I’m Emmalynn, but everyone calls me Emma.”
“Emma. That’s a pretty name.”
I smiled shyly. “Thank you.”
“So, did I miss a lot on Monday?” he asked.