I set my hand on the arm he had resting on the tabletop. I only wanted to banish some of her worries, assure her he wasn’t diseased. But when Dr. Janison’s gaze darted to where my fingers sizzled against his skin, she didn’t appear reassured. She looked even more disturbed as she glanced between us.
Not sure how to kill all the awkward floating around us, I forced a bigger smile. “I found a pair of knock-off Jimmy Choos similar to that style online one time, in a silver pump, and I wanted them so bad. But even the replicas were more than I could afford.”
If the pair she was wearing was original, then the woman was easily standing on eight hundred dollars.
But instead of revealing the secret to me about whether they were knock-offs or not, she sent me a knowing kind of smile. “I do have expensive taste.”
When her gaze flittered back to Mason, all the muscles in his arm under my hand tensed.
“Is our meeting to discuss your class schedule still on for this Thursday, Mr. Lowe?” She looked pointedly at me as if she expected any negative answer from him would be my fault.
Understanding, I suddenly forgot how to breathe. Oh, my God. Dr. Janison? And Mason? No way.
His voice wasn’t tight or strained as he answered, “Of course,” but I could’ve sworn he was talking through clenched teeth, and he still refused to look at her.
She gave a single nod. “Good.” I swear she looked relieved by his answer. With one last glance at me, she murmured, “I look forward to seeing you then.” Turning away, she strolled off in her kick-ass shoes, which I suddenly had the urge to boot out from under her.
I whirled to Mason. “You don’t have any classes with her, do you?”
He popped his jaw as he clenched his teeth. “No.”
I shut my gaping mouth. “Oh.”
Hissing something under his breath I couldn’t quite catch, he snapped his messenger bag off the table with vicious force. “This was a mistake. I never should’ve sat beside you.”
My heart thudded against my chest. “Well, thanks a lot.” I forced my voice to sound offended instead of hurt, when honestly, I was a whole lot of both. “I had a sucktactular time talking to you too.”
Jerk face.
“I didn’t…” He closed his eyes and fisted his hands before sitting back down. “Reese, I didn’t mean it that way. I swear.”
“Then how exactly did you mean it? Because it sounded pretty rude from every angle I heard it.”
His lashes fluttered open before he pierced me with one of his intense, paralyzing stares. “Don’t you get it?” He glanced around the courtyard. “I just doomed you. By talking to you in public, by sitting with you at this table…” He whooshed out his arm to motion to our surroundings. “Everyone here thinks we’ve had sex.”
I snorted out a laugh. “Oh, whatever. I seriously doubt that. I barely even touched your arm. People do not…” But my words faded off as I glanced around. Everyone really was stealing speculative glances in our direction and talking behind their hands. I sank lower in my seat, feeling instantly ostracized. “Or maybe they do.”
Holy salted tomatoes, Batman. He must have a mighty heavy reputation if simply sitting beside him automatically made me a slut. “So…uh, Dr. Janison is really one of your, umm, clients then?”
He snorted but didn’t answer.
I groaned and closed my eyes. “Wow. This is going to make my next Early British Literature class way awkward.”
“Wait.” He grasped my forearm, and I swear I felt his touch explode out the tips of my toes. Maybe it wasn’t so farfetched to think he had such a heavy reputation. “Are you saying you have a class with her? With Dr. Janison?” When I nodded, he closed his eyes briefly. “Shit.”
Well, that didn’t sound good. “What? What does that mean?”
“Look.” He sighed, sounding incredibly tired. “If she starts giving you a tough time, or failing you or…anything, let me know. I’ll talk to her.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why…why would she fail me just for sitting next to you on a public bench?” And setting my hand on his arm as if we were dating, and…oh, crap.
But wait. “That makes no sense. Even if we had…you know, had sex or whatever, she has no reason to get jealous. Doesn’t she know she can’t possibly be your only…customer?”
“Of course she knows. But you’re obviously not a customer. She might feel slighted if she thinks I gave you a…” He glanced away and waved his hand. “You know, a freebie.”
“Wow. Okay. But wow. Not only is this the strangest conversation ever but, wow. A freebie?”
Mason sent me a dark glance as if he didn’t think I was taking the situation seriously enough. “You know what I mean.”
I barked out a laugh, because okay, yeah, the whole conversation did feel incredibly ridiculous. “Just convince her I paid for it then, that I’m, you know, a client too, just like her.”
He blinked. “What? You don’t want me to tell her we’re not fooling around at all?”
Flushing hard, I cleared my throat and glanced away. “Or that. That…I mean, sure, the truth would probably be best. Yeah. Let’s stick with the truth.”