“Hey,” I said quietly, my hands in the back pockets of my jeans. “How’s your hand?”
“Hey.” He flexed the fingers on his casted hand and gave me a stiff smile.“It’s good.”
There was hurt in his eyes. And hesitation. He had to be so confused. Hopefully, I was about to change that.
“Good,” I said.
“Yeah.”
Super awkward.
He set the eraser in the tray. “What’s up?”
I hugged myself, feeling completely exposed. “So…I didn’t handle things very well the other day and I wanted to apologize.”
He relaxed a bit, his shoulders, which had been hunched, evened out to normal height and the clamp of his jaw loosened. “I’m sure you were shell-shocked.” He cracked the thumb knuckle on his good hand and waited for me to respond. When I took too long he added, “Did you want to talk about Spy, or…?” A groove formed between his brows. He was referring to my past.
“I’m not ready to talk about that,” I said quickly. “Any of it. Yet.” My lip quivered and I bit down to make it stop. “I actually wanted to talk to you about…” I shook my head. “I’ve had time to think it all through and…” My throat was suddenly dry. I swallowed. “I think we should go on a date,” I said with the speed of an auctioneer.
He blinked and for a second I thought he’d missed it. One brow quirked. “You do?”
“Yes.”
He scrubbed a hand over his face and I knew I was giving him whiplash. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah. Very.”
His lips quivered and I could tell he was trying not to smile. “Okay. I think that’s a good idea.” He rubbed his chin. “Yeah.”
“This Saturday. We’ll double with Anna and Blue. In Blacksburg.” Again, at auctioneer speed.
His eyes widened and I could see the protests coming about how he was still my professor.
No.
I needed him to do this. I looked around to make sure the room was empty. Then I kicked my plan into high gear.
I widened my eyes in mock surprise. “The craziest thing happened the other night.” I trailed my fingertips across his wrist and down his palm. His breath hitched. “There I was, minding my own business, and all of a sudden myprofessorwas in my room.” His mouth fell open, stunned. “With the doorshut.”
I could see the guilt in his expression.
“And then,” I whispered, my thumb tracing over his knuckles. “He got in bed with me. Completely scandalous. The nerve of the guy.” I shook my head and pursed my lips. “And you know what happened?”
He looked like he’d forgotten how to breathe.
“Absolutely nothing. The world didn’t spin off its axis. There was no big scandal on social media. No one found out.” I clicked my tongue. “Pretty boring actually.”
He sucked in a breath when the tip of my finger brushed the length of his forearm. Then I stepped back, putting him out of his misery.
His cheeks were pink. Ashton was a letter-of-the-law kind of guy. Not gonna lie, the fact that I’d gotten him to do something he shouldn’t—twice—felt kind of empowering. And completely terrifying. I shouldn’t have that kind of control over him.
“Tally.” His hands went to the back of his head, his biceps bulging out of the sleeves of his pale blue polo.
“That’s my name.”
His somber expression said he didn’t find this funny. At all.
I dropped the teasing. “I’ll drive myself and meet you at Anna’s. It’s just the four of us ‘hanging out.’” I made quote marks with my fingers. “We’ve done it lots of times.”
