The Degrees of Obsession

Chapter6

"Yeah, I'm preparing for my upcoming tests," Marilyn said, her mother's face smiling back at her from the FaceTime screen.

"Okay baby, make sure to have enough rest and eat too," Suzanne replied.

"I will mom." She peered down into her nearly empty coffee cup, making a mental note to get a refill.

"Alright Hun, I'm going back to work now."

"Okie dokie, I love you."

"Love you too Hun, bye."

With that, she ended the call. Marilyn raised her arms and stretched, her shoulders popping from hours of sitting. She had been studying at Lena's. A small whimsical café with a quiet library upstairs, located just fifteen minutes away from her dorm. She was supposed to study with Koko, but she headed home to get some of her belongings. No one else was in the library, save for the young librarian who got up occasionally to restack the bookshelves.

After a few more minutes of trying to keep her focus on her slides, Marilyn shut her laptop and got up to get a refill of her coffee.

"I'll be right back," she said to the librarian, who nodded in response, before heading downstairs to get her coffee.

The rich aroma of espresso and freshly baked pastries hit her senses, making her stomach grumble, no surprise, because all she'd had all day was that one cup of coffee.

"Two bagels and a cappuccino refill." She said to the waiter standing behind the counter.

The café buzzed with the occasional hiss of the coffee machines and chatters of people coming in and out.

Marilyn scrolled through her notifications as she waited for her order. She eyed one notification bubble in particular. Dee Sims liked your picture. She hasn't posted on i********: in a long while, so she was curious to see what post that was. Her eyes went wide and her cheeks warmed up in embarrassment when she opened the picture. It was a picture of her posing in a yellow bikini with her back to the camera and her hands in her hair. What the f**k? She thought. Koko was the one who took the picture three years ago. Marilyn even forgot she posted the picture back then and one has to scroll a couple of years down before getting to that particular picture.

She tapped on his profile again, but this time there was a profile picture. It was of an Asian guy sitting on the hood of a red car. He held his fingers up in a peace sign with a small smile spread across his lips and he looked to be around the same age as her.

"Ma'am, your order is ready."

She looked up at the waiter who was staring at her with a bored expression.

She quickly shoved her phone back into her pocket before collecting the steaming hot coffee and bagels. After making her payment, she made her way back towards the stairs leading to the library. She was absentmindedly munching on her bagel and scanning the crowded café. Not really looking where she was going, she bumped into someone, spilling her coffee all over the front of the person's light blue T-shirt and a little bit on her shoes. A loud gasp escaped her lips when she registered what just happened, and who she had bumped into.

"Jesus!" The man exclaimed.

Marilyn's head was spiraling. She tossed the now empty cup of coffee into a nearby trash can and ran back to the person.

"Oh my God, Dr. Dean . . .I'm so sorry." She dragged out a handkerchief from her pocket and proceeded to dab at the stain.

"It's okay, you don't need to do that." He replied calmly.

She moved closer to him and continued to dab at the ugly brown stain. Oh what have I done? She was so frustrated that she was on the brink of shedding tears. It was even more overwhelming with the people watching them.

Dr. Dean held her hands to stop her from trying to clean the stain.

"Marilyn, it's okay. It's no use anyway, the stain isn't going to go away like that."

She avoided eye contact with him as he let go of her hand.

"I'm really sorry," she muttered.

He placed a hand on her shoulder which made her manage to look up at him.

"Stop apologizing, it was obviously a mistake. And thank goodness, I always have a spare T-shirt in my car." He let out a small laugh.

She just stared at him, wishing the ground would open to swallow her.

"Okay sir. I'm sorry once again."

"I thought I told you that's enough apologizing." He said with a small smile.

She forced a smile too, which probably made her look like she was in pain, before nodding.

"I'll go get changed. Would you like another cup of coffee?" he asked.

She quickly shook her head, "No sir, thank you for the offer though."

"Okay then, if you say so," he said.

"I . . .uh . . . I should get back to studying." There's no way I'm going back to studying, I'm getting my ass out of here as soon as possible. She thought.

He nodded, "Alright then, see you in class tomorrow."

She was tempted to say "I'm sorry once again," but quickly replied, "Yes sir," before heading back upstairs to get her things. She didn't turn around, but she definitely felt his gaze boring at her back as she climbed the stairs back up.

*******

Koko almost choked on her saliva as she laughed at Marilyn's ordeal with their professor.

They were both sprawled out on her bed as rain poured heavily outside. Alyssa was in bed scrolling through her phone with her headphones on.

Marilyn glared at Koko, "You do know he most definitely got a burn, right? That coffee was scalding hot. And it was on his chest."

Koko stopped laughing and winced, "s**t, you didn't tell me that."

Marilyn groaned, "What do you expect? I told you I literally just got the coffee from the waiter when I bumped into him."

Koko moved closer to her and rested her chin on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, I'm not supposed to be laughing at that. Besides, I think he's fine because he posted an hour ago."

Marilyn got up and rested on her elbows. "Really? Show me."

Koko grabbed her phone from the dresser and opened her i********:.

"Here." She handed the phone over to Marilyn.

It was a short video of Dr. Dean in the café. He held up a cup, took a sip and ended it with a wink.

She cringed. "Well, he looks okay, but how can you tell? You can't see the red blotchy mark the hot coffee must have left on his chest. Secondly, this video is cringey. How can he post this?"

Koko collected her phone back, "He's okay. And if you're not convinced, you can ask him after class to show you his chest." She winked.

Marilyn reached out and grabbed a pillow, whacking Koko with it.

Koko couldn't help but laugh as Marilyn continued to torment her with more pillow whacks.