Maria nodded and took a drink of her coffee before patting my knee. “Okay, get moving. I need to go put my face on.”
“Thank you for my coffee delivery,” I said as she walked out the door. I allowed myself another minute of wallowing in bed drinking coffee before I forced myself to get up and get my butt moving.
“Only another eight months, Tessa, you can do this,” I muttered as I pulled open drawers and started grabbing clothes. Eight months felt like an eternity.
I managed to get to class about two minutes early. I knew Ian wouldn’t approve, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. I was tired.
“Hi,” he said when I came in. He actually smiled at me. It was a real smile, one that I had seen only on a few rare occasions.
It let down my guard. “Hi,” I said, a little hesitantly. I glanced around the room, expecting there to be a firing squad or something equally terrible.
“You okay?” he asked, with real concern in his voice.
Now, I was really convinced there was something going on. He had barely spoken more than a few words to me in the past three weeks, and now he was acting like we were buddies. I wasn’t in the mood.
“Am I fired?” I blurted out.
The look he gave me was a combination of horror and amusement. “Not that I’m aware of. Should you be?”
“No, but I’m late, and you’re being nice,” I said, not mincing words.
He threw his head back and laughed. “Have a seat, Tessa. You’re fine. You aren’t late, and I like to think I’m always nice.”
I gave him a look that expressed my opinion on that particular subject.
He smiled. “Okay, so maybe not nice all the time, but certainly not a tyrant, either.”
“Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes, and quickly returned to my desk. I didn’t have it in me to play his weird games. He ran hot and cold, and it took far more energy to be his friend than I had to give. The guy had serious issues. I certainly had my own, but I wasn’t playing with his emotions. He seemed to think I was someone he could mess with. I was no such thing, and he was going to learn right away that I wasn’t some yo-yo. He didn’t get to pull me in and push me out. Head games had never been my thing, and I wasn’t about to start playing them now.
I managed to get some of my own work done while he taught, which made me feel a little better. I didn’t feel as if I was completely buried, but I knew by the end of the day, I would be right back to square one.
The second class was nearly over when I finally finished the last of my homework. I quietly tucked away the evidence, hoping he hadn’t noticed that I hadn’t been paying all that much attention to his lecture. As usual, I waited until the students left before I gathered my own things to leave.
“Tessa?” He stopped me when I was almost to the door. I cringed, expecting a warning for doing my homework in his class.
“Yes, Professor Dunlap?” I meant to say it in a sweet, congenial tone, but the way it came out made me sound more like a smartass. I instantly regretted it.
He smiled. “Want to grab some coffee?”
I stared at him. Blinked, opened my mouth to say something—anything, but nothing came out.
“What?” I managed to get out.
“Coffee. Would you like to go get some coffee? On me?” he added.
An image popped into my mind that had no business being there. I quickly banished it and focused on the first half of his sentence. “Uh, sure,” I said, wondering if this is the part where he fired me from my duties.
We walked to the cafeteria, the same one we had gone to once before, forever ago it seemed. The memory made me smile. He had been so kind back then, but suddenly a couple days later, he switched off. He turned into a complete robot, and we had barely spoken since. I’m sure this coffee date would probably result in another banishment, but I didn’t care. A girl didn’t turn down a free coffee, no matter who the company was. Okay, yes, I did have some standards, but Ian was hot, and I did like to talk to him when he was normal Ian and not stuffy Professor Dunlap.
“Looks like it’s going to rain,” he said, as we got in line. “Do you also sit outside to drink coffee in the rain?”
I knew he was joking. “Nope, I only dance in the rain. You want me to find us a table inside?”
He nodded. “Sure, I’ll grab the coffees and find you.”
I left in search of the perfect table that would provide us with some privacy. This was a big student hang out, and the last thing I wanted to do was get any rumors started. I found one tucked away in a corner behind a garbage can and quickly claimed it.
“There you are,” he said, handing me my coffee. “I thought maybe you changed your mind and left.”