I can only assume that all bath water would be appalling to drink, Professor Emerson, but I’ll take your word for it. Sicko.
“Well? Let’s hear it,” he prompted. “What are you thinking? I can see the wheels turning in that little mind of yours. So out with it.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and grinned, as if her little mind gave him no end of secret, condescending amusement.
Julia bristled. She didn’t like the fact that he’d used the diminutive little in referring to her mind, for it seemed to signify his contempt for her intellectual ability. So she decided to strike back.
“I’m glad I have a chance to speak to you privately,” she began, withdrawing two envelopes from her messenger bag. “I can’t accept these.” She slid the Starbucks gift card and the bursary award letter across the table.
Gabriel glanced at both items, recognized them immediately, and scowled. “What makes you think these are from me?” He pushed them back across the table.
“The powers of deduction. You’re the only one who calls me Julianne. You’re the only one with a bank account large enough to fund a bursary.” She returned the envelopes.
He paused for a moment. Was he really the only one who called Julianne by her proper name? What was everyone else calling her?
Julia.
“You must accept them.” He slid the papers over to her once again.
“No, I mustn’t. Gifts make me very uncomfortable, and the Starbucks card is too much. Not to mention the bursary. I will never be able to repay you, and I owe your family too much already. I can’t accept them.” She pushed them back.
“You can accept them, and you will. The gift card is inconsequential; I spend more than that on coffee in a month. I need to show you, in some tangible way, that I respect your intelligence. I said something in an unguarded moment that Miss Peterson took and twisted. So, it isn’t even a gift—it’s more like restitution. I maligned you; now I’m praising you. You must accept it, or this injustice will remain unresolved between us, and I won’t believe you’ve forgiven me for my verbal indiscretion in front of one of your peers.” He slid the envelopes across the table and glared at her for good measure.
Julia began to stare at his fancy hand-knotted bow tie in order to distract herself from the blazing blue of his eyes. She wondered how he’d managed to make the tie so straight and even. Perhaps he hired a professional bow tie-tier, just for that purpose. Someone with artificially blond hair and high heels. And very long finger nails.
She slid the Starbucks card back toward him defiantly. And to her great surprise, his face hardened and he pocketed it.
“I won’t play gift card ping-pong with you all evening,” he snapped. “But the bursary can’t be returned. The money isn’t from me. I simply alerted Mr. Randall, the Director of the philanthropic organization, of your accomplishments.”
“And poverty,” Julia muttered.
“If you have something to say to me, Miss Mitchell, please do me the courtesy of speaking at an audible level.” His eyes flashed to hers.
Her eyes flashed back. “I don’t think this is very professional, Professor Emerson. You’re passing me thousands of dollars through a bursary, however you managed to do it. It looks like you’re trying to buy me.”
Gabriel inhaled sharply and counted to ten just to avert a verbal explosion. “Buy you? Believe me, Miss Mitchell, nothing could have been further from my mind! I am deeply offended at being so maligned. If I wanted you at all, I certainly wouldn’t have to buy you.”
Julia’s eyebrows shot up, and she glared at him. Harshly. “Watch it.”
He squirmed under her glare, which was a rare experience for him. She reveled in it.
“That is not what I meant. I meant I would never want to treat you like a commodity. And you are not the type of girl who could be bought, are you?”
Julia eyed him frostily before looking away. She shook her head and began staring at the doorway, wondering if she should make her escape.
“Why do you do that?” he whispered, after a few minutes.
“Do what?”
“Provoke me.”
“I don’t…I…I’m not provoking you. I’m stating a fact.”
“Nevertheless, it is extremely provocative. Every time I try to have a conversation with you like a normal person, you provoke me.”
“You are my professor.”
“Yes, and your best friend’s older brother. Can’t we just be Gabriel and Julianne for an evening? Can’t we have a pleasant conversation and an even more pleasant dinner and all the rest? It might not seem obvious to you, but I’m trying to be human here.” He closed his eyes in frustration.
“You are?” It was an innocent question asked in good faith. Julia clapped a hand over her mouth as she realized how it sounded aloud.