“Mhm. It doesn’t sound that terrible to me right now,” he said.
“Certainly you’d be sick of me by then anyway.”
He lifted my legs, sat down on the couch, and put my legs on his lap. “No, I don’t think so.” He slowly unlaced one of my sneakers, pulled it off my foot, and dropped it on the floor. Grabbing my other foot, he repeated the process with my other shoe.
It was hard to talk about the future with him. I didn’t want to discuss everything right now. But he was being so nonchalant about the fact that he was still married. He couldn’t commit to me in his current situation, so what was the point of talking about it?
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
“I’m guessing that means you are?”
“I’m starving.”
“What would you like?”
“Can we order a pizza or something?”
“That sounds fantastic.” He pulled out his phone from his jeans and looked over at me. “Where do you want it from?”
“Is Grottos okay?”
“Sure. I haven’t tried their pizza yet.”
“Are you serious? How can you live here and not try that?” I bit my lip. That’s what Brendan had said to me when I told him I hadn’t tried one of the hotdogs from the stand on Main Street.
“I’m assuming you like it?”
“It’s the best.”
“Grottos it is then.” He put his phone up to his ear. “What kind of pizza do you like?”
“Plain.”
“Is it weird that I didn’t know that?” He rubbed his thumb along the inside of my ankle.
Tyler knew my favorite pizza place and that I only liked cheese pizza. I shook the thought out of my head. “We’ve never had pizza together before. How would you know?”
“Hey,” he said into the phone. He ordered the pizza and gave them his address. When he hung up, he smiled at me. He was still caressing the inside of my ankle. “So what makes their pizza the best? Because I’m from New York, and I’m pretty sure New York pizza is supposed to be the best.”
“You’ll just have to wait and see.”
“What else don’t I know about you?”
“You know me pretty well. Although, we don’t do much talking when we’re together.” I tried to raise my eyebrow at him but I couldn’t do it.
He laughed. “I’m glad you can’t give me a scolding look.”
“I’m not trying to scold you. I think that being intimate is time well spent.”
I pressed the sole of one of my feet against the zipper of his jeans.
He grabbed my foot in his hand. “Except you’re supposed to be taking it easy. Which gives us a perfect opportunity to talk.”
“Okay. Let’s play a game.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Truth or dare.”
Professor Hunter laughed. “Wait, really?”
“The idea of playing truth or dare with a guy I liked has always excited me. I don’t know, we don’t have to. You can just ask me some questions.”
“No, I’ll play.”
I smiled at him. “Okay, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“What do you usually do in your free time?” I looked around the empty apartment.
“I grade papers.”
“That can’t be all that you do.”
“Recently I’ve been busy thinking about you.” He smiled at me.
“So you grade papers and think about me? But what do you do for fun?”
“Thinking about you is fun when you’re not mad at me. But I believe it’s my turn now. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Why didn’t you tell your parents you were dating someone?”
“I thought our relationship was supposed to be secret.”
“At first. But then things changed. You told Melissa.”
“I didn’t want to lie to them about you being a professor.”
“So are you mad that I met them today?”
“No, not at all. I think they both liked you.”
“Only because they don’t know that I’m your professor.”
“Maybe. My mom thought you were hot.”
Professor Hunter laughed.
“Truth or dare?” I asked.
“Truth.”
I wanted the game to be light and fun, so I switched gears. “So back to my original question. What do you do for fun?”
“You.”
I kicked his leg playfully. “Seriously, James.”
He shrugged. “I exercise most days.”
“Obviously.” I looked at his muscular physique. “What do you do for exercise?”
“There’s a gym in the building. And I like to run outside.”
“Do you even have a T. V.?”
“No. I can get one if you want.”
“Don’t you get bored? Alone in your apartment?”
“I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a new company. It keeps me busy.”
“Another tech company?”
“Yeah. I’ve been working on some logistics for awhile. But it’s in the beginning stages. It doesn’t make sense financially to start it right now.” He looked away from me.
I swallowed hard. “Do you mean, it’s better to wait until after you’re divorced?”
He ran his hands through his hair. “I’m not giving her half of this too.”
“Truth or dare?”
“I think it’s my turn, Penny.”
“Truth or dare?” He was the one that brought her up. Now seemed as good a time as ever.
“Truth.” He sighed.
“Why did you go to New York while we were broken up?”
“I needed to talk to her.”
“About what? Why didn’t you just talk to her on the phone?”
“I was hoping I could convince her to sign the papers.”
“By having sex with her?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“So what then? You went to talk about getting divorced and ended up sleeping with her? One step forward, two steps back.”
“I missed you. I was a mess. I’m sorry, Penny.”
“Do you still have feelings for her?”
“No.”
“Then why did you sleep with her?”
“It’s not like I made love to her. It was just sex.”
“And what about the first time we had sex? Did that mean nothing too?”
Professor Hunter sighed. “No. It meant everything. It’s different with you. Everything is different with you. I don’t know what else I can say. I was upset. I made a mistake. End of story.”
“It’s not the end of the story because you’re still married.” I was trying to keep my voice even, but I was having trouble.
“Truth or dare?” he asked.
“Dare.”
“Penny…”
“Fine, truth.”
“And what about Tyler?”
“What about him?”
“You went to see him yesterday. What did you talk about?”