“Vous parlez couramment ou vous apprenez toujours?" (Are you fluent or are you still learning?)
“Je parle couramment, mais ça fait longtemps que je n'ai pas parlé français.” (I speak fluently, but it’s been a while since I spoke French.)
“Et vous vous sentez à l'aise de corriger des devoirs en français?” (And you feel comfortable grading homework in French?)
“Oui.” (Yes.)
He nods. “Wonderful. This should work out nicely, eh?” Eh? Is he Canadian? Belanger is French. He’s probably Canadian. Why does that make me want him even more?
“Looks like it.” I give him a stiff smile.I need to get out of this office.
“Right. Well, my class assignments are pretty straight forward. I teach Intro to French Language at the undergrad level. Thosestudents don’t write any papers, but they are quizzed in each class and have a midterm and a final exam. The exams include an oral component, and depending on the class size I may need you to attend that day to proctor while I administer the oral exam in the next room.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. Do you have a notepad I could use? I’d like to write everything down and I left mine in Dr. Matthews’ office.” He looks around his cluttered desk for a notepad, to no avail. “How do you find anything in here? I’ve seen teenagers’ rooms cleaner than your office.”
Dexter looks at me incredulously. “You’re kidding, right? I know where everything is in my office. It may look chaotic to an outsider, but I have a system.”
“And does your system include a spot for notepads?” I lift an eyebrow in question.
“Apparently … not today.” He lifts his hands in defeat. “We’ll just talk and I’ll send an email with all the information and the syllabi. Sound good?”
“Sure.” Time to exercise my nonexistent mental note-taking abilities. I’m sure I’ll forget half of what he says, and he’ll forget the other half. Hopefully between the two of us we can remember all the pieces to this conversation.
“Okay, so, we’ve covered Intro. Then I have another undergrad course — English Comp — and a graduate level French Lit. English Comp is basic, and since you’re teaching one of Dr. Matthews’ comp classes you shouldn’t have any issues grading for mine. All syllabi are approved by Matthews before finalization to ensure continuity, so we’re covering the same stuff.”
I nod. “Yeah, I don’t foresee any issues there.”
He continues. “My grad students have to pass French 1, 2, and 3 before they can take Lit because I require all texts to be read in the original language. The assignments in that class are mainly essays, but they don’t write assignments in French. Read in French, respond in English. I want my students to understand the meaning of the textin the original language, especially because the English translations often miss the true depth of feeling or meaning.”
I listen intently. I can tell by his animated speech that he loves teaching. He’s gorgeous no matter the setting, but if he lights up like this just talking about teaching, I can’t wait to see him in action. I bet he’s breathtaking.
Is there anything sexier than a man who is fully alive? I doubt it. I’m a textbook introvert, filled with social anxiety and preferring solitude, but when I’m lecturing about something I love, my anxiety melts away and I’m fully in the zone. I bet Dexter operates similarly.
As the minutes tick by and I listen to him talk, I find myself wanting to draw closer and touch him. Seriously, thank God for this desk in between us or I would be tempted to climb into his lap. This entire room smells of him; it’s intoxicating.
Snap out of it, Alis. You CANNOT have anything more than a professor/employee relationship with this man.
Or, maybe I could?He didn’t seem to think it was a bad idea.
No!He’s a professor. I’m a student. And everything that went down with Dr. Ryan, I know how easy it is for someone to misconstrue the nature of the professor/student relationship.
“Alis?”Whoops.
“Sorry, my thoughts trailed off for a second. Could you repeat that?”
He smirks as if he knows I was fantasizing about him. Leaning his forearms on the desk, he repeats whatever I just missed. “I said I think it’d be best for us to meet once a week to go over upcoming assignments. It’s important that we communicate regularly since you’re handling the grading for my classes.”
“Weekly meetings? Is that really necessary? Seems like an email report of weekly assignments would suffice. And you should get a notification whenever I post grades in the student portal.” I know what he’s doing, and I’m not having it. I’m hanging on by a thread of self control as it is; I don’t need any motivation to cross the line.
“Why send an email when you can drink coffee and enjoy friendlycompany?” He leans back in his chair, trying to look nonchalant as he imposes weekly coffee dates.
“Look, Dr. Belanger —”
“Dexter. Call me Dexter.”
I flit my hand at him, annoyed. “Fine, whatever, Dexter. We had one flirty conversation and an incredible kiss, but I already told you I can’t date you. Now is really not a good time for me. And even if it was, you’re still a professor and I’m still a student.”
“Incredible, eh?” Thank the good Lord this man has a beard. I don’t know if he has dimples, but if he did my panties would melt right off me with that ridiculously sexy smirk.
