Out of the corner of my eye I watch his hand move toward my notes, and now I feel slightly ridiculous about how the entire page is color-coded in about six different markers. It looks like a kindergartener got hold of my notebook.
Not to mention the small drawings in the corners, but my mind empties when I feel the warmth of his body behind me. Without meaning to, a shiver moves through me.
“The Fine Arts department is pulling its hair out over the talent it lost to mathematics,” he says, and maybe it’s just me, but he sounds amused.
I feel heat rise in my cheeks, and I wish this interaction didn’t feel so completely natural.
“Maybe you could write me a recommendation,” I say a little sulkily and close my notebook.
He sits down across from me at the table, opens a book, and just like that, as if this were some kind of study session, he starts reading.
Something in the air smells like...tea? I watch him take a sip from a thermos, and I almost roll my eyes because of course this man drinks the kind of drink that keeps you alive until you’re a hundred.
I turn back to my notes, and then I hear him mutter, “I would never hand you off to another department, Amalia.”
Even though he can’t see my face, I give a small shake of my head and have to bite my lip to keep from smiling too widely.
I’m not sure how long we sit like that, both of us reading in silence, but my phone buzzes, a reminder that I need to leave for a lecture. And I don’t want to. I don’t want to break whatever this is, this moment where he isn’t Professor Vaughn, I’m not Miss Sanchez, and the only thing I care about is the warmth sitting in the middle of my chest.
Without looking up from his book, he says, ”You have your database systems lecture, Amalia. Cristobal doesn’t appreciate latecomers.”
I don’t ask how he knows. My class times aren’t exactly a state secret, though something tells me he doesn’t make a habit of keeping track of every student’s schedule.
The old Amalia would have said goodbye five minutes ago and been halfway across campus by now. Part of me is tempted. But I stay because something tells me I’d regret leaving, and I’ve never been good at making peace with regret.
Without moving from my chair, I answer.
“Good thing I’m not planning to be late, because I’m not going at all.”
His eyes lift from the book then, and I have to draw a slow breath because there’s something in them — a curiosity, a quiet satisfaction. I know I chose correctly because I have never felt for any person what I feel for Silas Vaughn, and even if he’s never going to be mine, I can allow myself a few extra minutes in his presence.
The next moment, my phone rings, andseñorGustav’s name appears on the screen. His eyes go to it automatically, and his posture shifts into something tighter.
I stand and move to a corner to answer so I don’t disturb his reading.
“SeñorGustav, is something wrong?”
“Amalia, I need you to go into the database for Leo’s store and update some prices urgently. They have an inspection in ten minutes, and the invoices don’t match their website prices.”
“Why can’t they just update the prices themselves?”
“Because they forgot the password and locked themselves out of the account,” he exhales, audibly irritated.
He knows I don’t usually take rush jobs, only ones planned in advance, but I have my laptop with me anyway.
“Send me the products that need updating.”
“What would I do without you, Amalia?”
“You’d probably have to give up those silk ties,” I tell him, laughing softly, because he’s as close to me astíoFelipe.
He’s the first person who ever saw something in me beyond the nerdy girl image and helped me make real money using my brain.
I hang up and turn back with a smile still on my face, only to nearly walk straight into Professor Vaughn, who I could swear is grinding his teeth right now.
“Who isseñorGustav and why are you smiling like that after talking to him?” he asks, and a strange warmth settles low in my stomach.
“A professor from high school. And as for the smile, some people trigger this reaction in my brain where endorphins are released, and my mouth just goes up automatically, like this,” and my fingers move toward his mouth and lift the corners of it.
