“Hmmm?”
“You had asked me what I want to do after I graduate. I’m going to need to figure that out for our next speech.”
“Oh, right!” I smiled. “What did you say your major was again?” I should have already known the answer from class today, but I hadn’t been paying attention.
“Do you always daydream during Comm?”
I laughed. “I don’t daydream. If you haven’t noticed, I get incredibly nervous talking in front of the whole class.” It was a lie. I always seemed to be daydreaming about Professor Hunter. During Stat I hadn’t even tried to make out what the heck my foreign professor was saying. I was just picturing the hunger in Professor Hunter’s eyes.
“Yeah, which is incredibly cute.”
I couldn’t help blushing.
“I’m double majoring in finance and economics,” he said.
I was a little surprised. “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that in a million years. You must be really smart.”
He laughed. “Does that surprise you?”
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’re smart. It’s just that you’re really funny and endearing. Why such serious majors?”
“Yeah, I don’t know. They just seemed like logical choices I guess. And I really don’t have a clue what I want to do when I graduate.”
“You’ll need to do some soul searching before your speech then.”
“I guess so. Anyway, this was leading me to the fact that you’re going to need to answer the question that you passed on.”
“What was that again?” I asked, pretending to look confused.
The waitress came over and placed our drinks on the table.
“I know you remember the question.”
I took a sip of my soda and stared innocently at Tyler.
He laughed. “I asked you what the most scandalous thing you’ve ever done was.”
When he had first asked me the question in the dining hall, I completely freaked out. Professor Hunter had just kissed me. But now it was so much more than that. A kiss didn’t seem nearly as scandalous. Before I even knew what I was doing I was answering his question:
“I kissed a professor once.” I tried to say it nonchalantly.
Tyler laughed. After a few seconds of silence he said, “Wait, are you serious?”
“Well, he kissed me, actually.”
“Which professor was it?” I could hear a hint of jealousy in his voice.
The waitress arrived and placed the pizza down on the rack in the middle of the table. “One cheese pizza,” she said with a smile. “Anything else I can get for you?”
Tyler continued to stare at me.
“No thanks,” I said to her and she walked away.
“Penny? Which professor?”
Why couldn’t I keep my mouth shut? It just felt so good to finally tell someone. “Yeah, I’m not going to tell you that. That’s the most scandalous thing I’ve ever done though. Consider the question answered.” I grabbed a slice of pizza and put it on my plate.
“Where did you kiss?” Tyler asked.
“Not answering that.”
“How long ago was it?”
“Not answering that.”
“Were you trying to get your grade changed or something?”
“No!” Kind of.
“Was it just the one kiss?”
“Tyler!”
“Fine. But for a scandalous story, you left out a lot of the scandalous details.”
“I think kissing a professor counts as scandalous enough.” I took a bite of the pizza. “Sooo good.”
Tyler smiled at me and grabbed a slice for himself. “You are quite intriguing, Penny.”
As I ate my pizza, I thought about the luau I was supposed to ask him about. I couldn’t say no if he invited me, or Melissa would be suspicious of me. Would Professor Hunter be mad if I went? He couldn’t be. He was probably dating other people too. And were we even dating? I was so confused. And I could always say I was sick at the last minute.
“So my roommate, Melissa, is getting along really well with your friend Josh.”
“Yeah, Josh really likes her.” Tyler was looking at me curiously.
“What?”
“Well. I know you’re still getting over your ex. And I completely understand that that takes time. But it physically hurts me to know that someone as beautiful as you is just sitting in your dorm room every weekend. It’s a sin.”
I blushed. “I like staying in.”
“How about you make an exception this Friday?”
“What did you have in mind?” Oh good, he was going to ask me. Asking him just so I could cancel later seemed horrid.
“My frat is having this luau thing. I was hoping you could come.”
“As friends?”
“As my date, Penny. God you’re infuriating.”
That’s what Professor Hunter had said to me right before our second kiss. Right before the mind-blowing sex that I was sure could never be topped. Am I really that infuriating?
“I’ll come as your friend,” I replied.
Tyler smiled and shrugged. “It starts at 10. Did you want to meet me there?”
“Yeah, I can walk over with Melissa.”
“Great.” He looked pleased with himself despite my denying it was a date.
My stomach churned with guilt. Tyler was so sweet. I always laughed with him and had fun. I felt like I could always be myself around him. And he really was handsome. His crystal blue eyes always made me smile. But he deserved someone who wasn’t daydreaming about their professor half the time.
When the check came I rummaged through my backpack for my share. Tyler pulled out a twenty and placed it on the table.
“I’ll pay for half,” I protested.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He stood up and put his hand out for me to grab.
I took it and let him pull me up out of my chair.
“Thanks for lunch,” I said.
“Hey, what are friends for?” he said with a smile.
Friday
My new bikini was hanging in my closet. I already knew I was going to cancel, but pretending to be excited and shopping with Melissa would hopefully only help make my sudden upset stomach more believable. I didn’t like deceiving her, but she could be so relentless. If she ever became suspicious of me she’d easily be able to get the truth out of me. And Melissa couldn’t find out. I didn’t want Professor Hunter to get in trouble. And I certainly didn’t want to get in trouble.