The Italian Catalyst -CASTELLANO SERIES: ALEXANDER’S STORY

Chapter 6

Andrea’s POV

Lexi invited Bryan and I to her gig tonight.

Was it awkward to begin with? Yes and no.

It seems to me that things are pretty serious between Lexi and Alex, the way he looked at her, the way they laughed when either said something funny, the fact that he’s so comfortable around her almost made me jealous—almost.

I stopped watching when I heard Bryan called my name, twice. Despite watching his lips move, I can’t seem to hear a word he’s saying, not especially when I was thinking about last night on how Alex looked like he had wanted to kiss me.

Believe me, I wanted to but I knew there were consequences I could never bear and a heartbreak I can never recover from. It took all my willpower to push him back and get off the couch but I couldn’t help but tease him just a little sitting my way up, pretty d**k move that one, but if he could do it to me so could I. Just how long are we going at this game? I haven’t have the slightest clue.

“Yes the library.” I said. “The library?” Bryan repeated.

“Yes...”I nodded, although I had absolutely no idea why did I even say that.

“You went fishing at the library?” he asked, with a brow raised.

“I meant to say, fishing for books that I need. That’s the only fishing sport I’ve ever been at.” I said, hoping he’d not realize that I was indeed paying him zero attention. God I needed another lesson ASAP from Castellano to teach me a thing or two on how to pay attention to your man.

What the hell did I just say?

“So you want to go with me?” he asked, a little unsure especially when I was giving him the stupidest of answers.

“Uh sure.” I had to play it cool for now, if I were to ask him where we were headed to, he’s gonna be able to tell that I was staring at another man and not just any man but Castellano. “So this Saturday at 9? I’ll pick you up then?” he asked and I nodded. “Sure.”

And I still had no idea as to what the hell are we doing and where we were going.

Bryan and I had separate classes—and that only left me with Alex where we both had English Literature together. I was torn in between two feelings: One, I can’t help but dread classes with Alex since he’d spent the next hour getting on my nerves or flirting with another girl right under my nose or two, I get antsy whilst sitting next to him when I could practically feel the heat radiating off his body.

God help me.

The reason why I had all my classes pushed up was because I had done a GPA transfer from the University in London and I had my grades transferred back here in Boston. If I could put it easier, I was bumped up from Economy to First class hence why I had all my Business studies with Alex although I can’t tell if it was actually a blessing or a curse.

I watched Lexi bid Alex goodbye while Bryan had me in a hug. It was a warm, casual hug that had Alex squinted his eyes at us, holding out 3 fingers between Bryan and I to which I had ignored. It could mean two things… oh god he was right, my head was really in the gutter.

Once Bryan and Lexi left, Alex made his way to me but I begin to march right off, only to have him pull me back so I’d fall into step with him. “So how was your morning date? Lovely flowers you gave her.” I said, probably wanted to smack myself for asking that knowing very well I did not have the slightest intention to know, and the flowers…

“It was great, how was yours? Did he bore you so much you had to keep staring at me baby?” he asked, looking down at me. Need I remind you that he’s at least a head taller than I am?

And yea…busted.

“Aren’t you just as self-absorbed as ever?” I tried to play it cool but if there’s one thing you should know about Castellano, is that he’s very observant even though you think he isn’t paying attention. “Really, so tell me, what was it that Trevors was saying to you while you were busy boring holes at the side of my head, missy?”

“Oh for the love of god, I wasn’t staring at you, I just happened to be staring at the cute waiter behind you.” I walked faster but only to be caught in his hand once again, pulling me back. “Rude.” I narrowed my eyes towards his grip but he only took it as far as to throwing a hand over my shoulder.

“Liar liar pants on fire.” He sang.

“What does this mean?” I said, putting 3 of my fingers right in his face. “Oh that,” I heard him chuckle but I wasn’t the least bit amused. “I just wanted to remind you to stay 3 meters apart from Bryan but apparently you weren’t pay heed to my instructions.”

“Who are you to tell me so?” I challenged, sticking my chin out in defiance.

“As your best friend and brother’s best friend and stand-in big brother, I do not permit you to hug any other boy that isn’t your boyfriend.” He flicked the tip of my nose and put me in a headlock.

“And what exactly are you doing now?” I asked, smacking his arm that was around my neck repeatedly. “It just so happen, that rule doesn’t apply to me baby.” he said smugly.

“No exceptions here, get your slimy tentacles off me.” I demanded and flicked his arms away from my shoulder.

“Why don’t you come on over to my place so we could go together to Lexi’s gig tonight?” he asked, not even bothered to retract his arm and I gave up fighting that man.

“And what? Show up to your girlfriend’s gig dressed head to toe in your clothes? No thank you, I’d like to keep my head intact.”

“Really? Isn’t that what you’re wearing now?” he countered as we made our way towards the main pathway that led straight into the campus grounds. It was a long walk from here but it was fine since we had almost 45 minutes to spare before our first class began, although I wasn’t sure if I can survive another 45 minutes in such close proximity with Castellano himself.

“Hey Alex.” A sing song-y voice greeted as a few cackling girls walked past us, winking at him whilst he had his arm around me. He ignored them, although I wasn’t sure as to why he did but I was already used to his nonsense; everyone on this campus knew how tight my brother, Alex and I was. So it was pretty normal to see the three of us together, or if it was just me and Alex.

Although I wasn’t sure as to what had happened in between one year of my absence, I bet Alex had been f*****g around since he had a stamina like a horse, not that I have personally witnessed it how good he was in bed but did I want to?…

Okay let me just stop myself right there.

“You wanna tell me why you’re ignoring me right now?” Alex asked as he flicked his fingers against my arm and I did not even feel a single thing because my mind was some place else. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?” I asked.

“I asked if you want to grab dinner before we head to the gig and please tell me Bryan hasn’t asked you out because I will kidnap you literally even if he had asked you first.” He regarded me with a stern look and I sighed exasperatedly. God this man was literally the most possessive person I’ve ever had to deal with.

“No, fortunately for you, he told me that he had a matter to settle in the city but he’ll met me there at the bar right after.” I answered.

“Please tell me Bryan did not order something other than piccolo latte with your espresso shots, you’re awfully distracted and cranky this morning.” He looked at me concerned.

“He said I should try something new so he got me a caramel latte.”

“Well, did you like it?”

“Well…yeah.” I shrugged. “What’s not to like?”

“You hesitated.” He said, observing me closely.

“So?”

“That means you didn’t like it. I’ve known you forever baby, if you really like something, you’ll never hesitate in acknowledging it at all.”

“There’s always a first time for everything Castellano.” I hated that he was able to read me like an open book.

“There’s also a first and a last.” He countered, pulling me towards the direction of the hall that we were supposed to be in. We were walking in comfortable silence all the way through campus, weaving through the long, endless hallways and open-air walkways that had a good view of the vast lawn mowed grass filled with student clusters who sat around with their heads buried deep in books.

“How come Scott never said anything about you returning from London?” he asked all of a sudden while everyone was still shuffling into the hall while we took our seats at a far corner of the theatre.

“I told him not to.”  I said quietly. Since I stayed the night at Alex’s place, all I had was just a fully charged phone (since we used the same brand of phone) and a fountain pen I stole from his desk last night while I was scribbling out some calculus questions that he would have to solve later. Alex had his laptop with him and he passed me his notebook. I was gonna attempt to scribble some notes for however long my attention span could last for.

“Why the hell not Andrea?” he asked, he sounded a bit upset with me but I knew I had my own reasons. “Because I told him I wanted to surprise you.” I lied.

“Bullshit.” f**k, I knew I had to do better, Alex was always able to tell if I was lying or not but trust me I was getting good at it, well at least, some times.

“You’re lying Andrea. I’ve been meaning to ask why haven’t you called or texted me in one whole goddamn year and the next thing I know you come back here to New York and now suddenly you’re best friends with Trevors and even has a crush on him?”

“Alex can we not do this now? Seriously, some of us actually have to pay tuition to sit here in this hall.” I said, trying my best to avoid this conversation that I was dreading since I came back. Alex would never sit still until he got the answers to the question he wanted and I knew he wasn’t gonna let me off easily either.

“No, until you tell me why the hell did you disappear like that for a year, cutting off all forms of contact with me and when I asked Scott what the hell was going on, he doesn’t even know neither can he tell me because he went on for weeks to months without hearing a thing from you.”

It was true. Avoiding Alexander meant avoiding my brother as well. I knew just how close the both of them were; if I ever were to call him, I knew very well that Alex would be around and there was not a doubt that he’d snatch the phone away from Scott just to talk to me and if that happened, I think my resolve to stay as far away from him might break the second I heard his voice—I knew I’d take the next flight home.

I cried when I was at the airport before I left—waiting for him, I cried on the flight and I cried the second I landed. My parents had offered to follow me to settle in at my new place but I didn’t allow them, lying to them that I wanted to be independent and do this on my own. I checked in my dorm of one, went to all my classes, made a few friends here and there but they were nothing compared to my friends back here. Sam visited me once but I made sure he did not tell anyone that he was coming to see me, he’d give me updates from what was going back in New York but I forced myself not to ask how he was.

It was hard, pretending to be okay, putting on a strong facade whenever I had to FaceTime my parents, telling them that I got in a publishing company as an intern, met Bryan whilst being there when he came over from New York; we bonded over many meals, sight-seeing all those gigs we went together at the bar after work; I may or may not have used him as an excuse to be able to rid myself thoughts of Alex, but eventually that whole ‘use’ eventually made me actually feel something for him that was more than just a friend, but thoughts and images of Alex would always be at the back of my mind like a lingering itch waiting to be scratched—even over a thousand miles apart could never make me forget him.

“I wanted to avoid you, okay? God damn it Alex, if you really must know, I did it to get away from you because you made my life so miserable in the last few years.”

That—was a lie.

There was a long pregnant pause between the both of us and the lecture finally begin. I tried to pay attention, trying my best to ignore the fact that I felt him boring holes into my head. There was no way that I was ever gonna tell Alex about all that that he had put me through  because I didn’t want him to feel like he owed it to me just because of those ‘few’ incidences that happened in the past—even if we were to ever happen, part of me wanted it to be genuine.

I know there was a small part of me that would always ask a ‘what-if’ but the thing is, with boys like Alex who repel the word ‘commitment’ or anything remotely close to a serious relationship, I knew it wasn’t gonna be an easy road for us both and I always asked myself if I could ever handle being with someone such as Alex?

Say if he ever wanted a real relationship, then what? Was I gonna be okay with his past and what he’s done with the girls he’s told me about? I don’t think I would ever wanna put myself through that and I sure as hell did not see myself as being superior to the rest of his conquests, if anything, I was a far cry from the beautiful girls he’s dated and slept with in and out of campus.

I looked down at my note book and then at my phone screen. An hour has passed and all I had written on paper was the name of the class and the date today and the rest of the notebook—blank. From the corner of my eye, I watched Alex stare at the notes projected on the massive screen in front of us, hardly ever blinking.

Fuck what have I done?

**

Alexander’s POV

You finally gotten the answer you didn’t want, didn’t you? Good job Alexander. Now what?

Should I question her further? She sure as hell does not look like she’s ready to talk about it either, right? So what? Act like I did not just hear that coming from her mouth?

Okay for the record, in all my life no one has ever told me they wanted to avoid or get away from me, in fact, it was the total opposite. I mean, people flock my way, no one ever told me ‘no’, I was always so used to get what I want but when it came to Andrea, s**t just don’t go the way I want them to be.

“I’m sorry to have made you feel that way.” I mumble after what felt like the longest silence. She turned her head ever so slowly to look at me as if I grew two horns on my head when I apologized, and I rarely did and also, even if I did, it was not just to anyone. “Whatever for?” she asked, she looked like she didn’t see it coming.

“Well I must have been quite a jerk to you in the past, probably insulted your intelligence a little more than usual or scared away all those boys who wanted to date you…”I trailed.

“Is that why Ed and Charlie won’t go out with me? And the boys on the team?” her eyes grew wide as saucers.

“Oh come on, Ed turned out to be gay and Charlie was just, well I didn’t like him.”

“Wait what? Gay?” she looked at me with her brows furrow in confusion when I revealed the truth after years of her crying and asking me why she wasn’t good enough for all those boys? I mean, I knew they were texting but for some reason I didn’t like it, well, at least I didn’t think any of those boys were good enough for her.

“Then what about the boys on your team?”

“They messed around with so many girls on campus and I just don’t want them to hurt you like they hurt those girls.” I said.

“Really? Do you really want to play that Saint Castellano card right now?” She grinned.

“Will you just let me finish before you interrupt me again?” I said under my breath. “Bottom line is, I’m sorry, I‘ve probably been the biggest jerk to you but know that I don’t have any intentions to hurt you at all. I just had no idea you felt miserable being around me, I promise I’ll be good to you but…”

“Why is there a ‘but’ Alex?” she leaned against her seat, lifting her eyes to look at me while she tapped her pencil away against the same spot she had been poking on for the last hour and now has made a hole in my notebook.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna be any less annoying to you, if anything, I’m gonna be as peskier than ever.” I said, a cheeky grin broke out on my face.

“Do I have to remind you that you ought to keep your distance from me now that you have a girlfriend? I don’t think Lexi appreciates the fact that you keep lingering around me and plus the fact that I’ve been…” she looked around making sure no one heard her as she continued. “Sleeping over…”

“Oh she’s not the type to get jealous, don’t worry, if anything, she appreciates company for me when she’s around or not.”

She narrowed her eyes at me, “Are the two of you perhaps open to a …” she found herself clearing her throat and looking away but I held her elbow, forcing her to turn to me. “What is it baby? Spit it out.”

“You know, like an open relationship where you guys prefer having more than 2 in the bedr…”

“f*****g hell, baby, what kind of sick person do you think I am?” I chuckled lightly and Andrea’s face was all red when she realized that all these while she had assumed that I preferred more than just one partner in bed or I was in an open relationship but that wasn’t the case. Because one, Lexi wasn’t my girlfriend and two, I’ve not slept with anyone since about a couple months ago. Why? I don’t know, don’t ask.

“Castellano, Bennett, do you perhaps have something interesting you would like to share with the rest of the class?” Professor Bixby finally turned around with a chalk in the air while the rest of the class shifted their attention momentarily to us. “No sir, carry on.” I said calmly and the Professor nodded, turning back around.

“Oh sweet Andrea, just what the hell did you educate yourself with when you were in London? I’d very much like to know what other kinky s**t you’re hiding in there so you can teach me a thing or two.” I pointed to the side of her temple and she swatted my finger away, causing me to smirk. It seems to me that someone has been educating herself while she was away and I would very much love to find out.

“I just thought a boy like you who scored more dates than all the men in Hollywood combined, maybe you got bored with the traditional way of dating, you’d be open to weirder things. Hey, just so you know, I’m totally fine with whatever, no judgement here.” She patted my hand.

“But I’m telling you right now that I only enjoy pleasing women, preferably one at a time and for future references, I, Alexander Castellano absolutely love being in control.”

“I know when I get myself a man, I don’t intend to share him or any part of him with another woman, I’m not as broad minded and giving like Lexi is.”

“Didn’t peg you as a possessive one baby.” I smiled, turning my attention back to my laptop while I heard her quiet laughter.

“You don’t know a lot about me Castellano.”

“I’m gonna head off from here, I’ll see you later at the gig then.” Andrea said as she removed her sweater as it was getting a little humid outside. “Where are you headed to?” I asked, hoisting my backpack further up my shoulder.

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t know I had to report my daily activities to you sir.” She said sarcastically and I pinched her cheek lightly, turning her attention back to me. “Ow! Alex let go that hurts!” She protested, she didn’t like it when I did that to her.

“Don’t make me ask you twice baby.” I gave her probing look.

“Pottery class, you big bully! I’m headed to pottery class.” She gritted her teeth and I caressed her cheek with my palm. “Let me go with you.”I said.

“No way, you’re gonna distract me and I know you will.” She pointed at my chest, turning around but I caught her arm, well aware that people were staring at our exchange but I couldn’t care less.

“I wasn’t asking.” I said in a tone she knew too well that there was no room left for an argument. “Let me take you there. Besides, I’ve never tried pottery—it could be fun, like you said, there’s always a first time for everything.”

“First and last time Castellano.” She warned. I chuckled and I threw my arm around her, “You’re not the boss of me, baby.” I said quietly.

The pottery place wasn’t too far away, apparently it was just around the block of her shared apartment with Scott—that meant it was 5 minutes away from my place.

Andrea casually mentioned that she had been into pottery ever since she was in London, she said it soothed her and she liked the process of it all. The kneading, the shaping and the firing and then there was the painting which was her favorite and I knew for one she could paint pretty well. Despite not knowing anything close to pottery, I was certain about one thing—I now knew one thing Andrea liked to do.

The words that were thrown back and forth in our argument last year outside the bar was forever indented deep in my brain and it still stuck with me till this day.

‘I’m sick of being your beck and call whenever you need me, which includes you wanting to hang out with me but make the whole day just about you and what you like to do.’

A year ago I decided if she were ever to come home, I’d make it a point to do the things that she liked and I shouldn’t always make it all about me and this time, I genuinely wanted to make her feel happy being around me and not the other way around.

“Hi!” Andrea chirped, smiling widely at the elderly lady who stood in the front desk, writing something on a book. She looked up instantly and noticed the two new visitors standing in front of her.

“My name’s Andrea’s Bennett and I’m here for my 11am class with Miss Jones, this is my friend Alexander, I was wondering if he could sit in today without a prior booking?”

Friend? I hate that ring to it.

The elderly lady smiled at the both of us while she opened her log book, running a wrinkly finger down the scribbled words on the page that had been flipped one too many times. “Why yes of course dear, your friend is most welcome to join in. We only have two other attendees for this slot besides you and him.” I think the woman meant me.

“Cool, thank you so much.” I winked and the elderly lady blushed before turning around. Andrea sent me a pointed look before the lady disappeared behind a row of shelves to grab us aprons.

“Once, just once. Don’t try to flirt with another woman right under my nose.”

“Why? Are you jealous? Fine then, I’ll have my eyes on you for today if that’s what you want.”

“That literally isn’t what I meant, and no thanks, I don’t need you breathing down my neck all day.”

“The heart wants what it wants baby, don’t deny it.” I tucked a loose strand of her hair behind my ear and she watched me in silence as I did.

“There you go, here are you aprons. Have a great time in there you two.” The woman smiled at us.

“Have a great day Miss Banks.” I said, reading her name on her tag. “You’re welcome dearie.” She patted his hand and Andrea smiled.

The class was small, there were only 4 chairs available aside from the chair that was occupied by another woman who seemed to be in her mid-forties who greeted us with the most matured voice ever—kinda made me think of mom.

The room that we were in was structured in a way where ample amount of natural light was allowed to seep through the large bay windows of the one-storey building, the floors were covered in large plastic sheets that were stained in dry gray and brown colors to what I assume was dried up clay and other paint colors splattered everywhere else.

Andrea introduced herself and so did I. I learnt that the woman’s name was Mary Jones and she used to be a Scientist who worked at one of the biggest labs but then gave up her job when her third child came in the picture, so she decided to pursue her hobby in teaching pottery class that was close to home.

I’d say that’s somewhat a wholesome life, getting to fulfill your dreams like that, living your best life and just doing the things that you love.

“Hey baby…” I said quietly while we waited for the other two students to arrive. “Hm?” she hummed, dropping her phone onto her lap mid-text. I loved it when she responds to the little term of endearment that I call her and this time she wasn’t even fighting me for it.

“Aside from pottery, what is it that you really like to do?” I asked. I too, realized I’ve never asked her this question, ever. The three of us had been hanging out so much over the last few years and we always went with the flow of things, nothing ever was pre-planned because we figure if that were to happen, we’d always end up cancelling at the very last minute.

She thought for a bit before answering, “Road trips where we have no destination and zero plans, love watching sunsets with ice cream sorbets in hand, collecting random seashells at Brighton Beach in London—that became my favorite past time alone while I was there, ooh and yes, painting at beaches became therapeutic, finding hiking random trails and the list goes on…” her eyes lit up while she spoke and while watching her many expressions and I watched her with measured interest.

“What?” she asks, after realizing that I’ve only been staring at her and not saying a word. “Stop staring at me Alex, you know I don’t like it.” She pushed my face away playfully.

“Let’s do all of them then.” I said. Both her brows raised in question as her lips pursed ever so slightly. “You said before that whenever I had asked you to hang out with me, we were only doing the things that I liked.”

“When did I say…” her brows furrowed as she begin to recall her words, her eyes wandering off. I pulled her chin to me and she had no choice but to lift her eyes to mine. “I’ve missed out a whole year on your life as you did with mine, the least you could do is give me a chance to catch up on what I’ve been missing out on our friendship.”

She seem to be calculating something in her head but I flicked her nose gently. “I know that you have a lot of catch up on so we’ll spread out these activities that you like to do and of course this time I assure you, I’m not gonna disappear for an hour or two…”

She opened her mouth to say something but two other middle schoolers shuffled into the room, giving us a surprised looks when they saw two young adults seated in the same room as them. “I’m not taking no for an answer baby.”

I saw her smile there and then, a small discreet smile after she had turned away to look to the front when Miss Jones began speaking. I breathed out a sigh of relief and chanted: baby steps Castellano, baby steps.

And so I did learn the basics of crafting and molding clay out of nothing, smoothing my hands around the wet clay as I watch it spin on the electric-powered potter’s wheel—that’s what I was ought to call it. I was inwardly cringing as to how weird the clay felt in my hand and Andrea laughed at me while I made faces, trying not to let the clay I had molded fall apart.

I watched her in awe, twisting and turning her ball of clay on the center of the turntable with ease, watching her stick her tongue out in trying to get the shape she wanted. I on the other hand, had probably turned my ball of clay to resemble a snake and Andrea did not look please, especially when I had rolled two smaller balls, placing it on either sides of the long piece of clay I had just made.

“Castellano! Knock it off, there’s kids here!” she hissed over 4 times now.

It honestly took skill and patience, a whole lot of patience to just sit here watching a clay spin from nothing into something exquisite; the time, the concentration, the creativity blended in to form a perfect piece of art and Andrea’s came in the form of a little jug with shapes she had asked me to carve on.

Trust me when I said I was no artist, so all I did was carve our initials while she wasn’t looking. Childish I know but like I said, I’m no van Gogh.

“Alex…” she dragged her voice once we were on our way back to her apartment. “What did you do here?” she lifted up the jug, smoothing a finger across our initials. “I did as I was told , in your words you said, ‘go crazy’.”

“Yea but I didn’t mean carve out our initials on it.” She said with an expression that was half-smiling half-frowning. She wasn’t mad.

“What? I think it’s a perfect way of reminding ourselves that we did something fun together without bickering for once.”

“If you put it that way, sure.” She shrugged as we took the elevators up to her shared apartment.

Her place was nothing like mine. If I were to describe it, this was much homier, much more lived-in despite it being three times smaller than my Penthouse—there was a kitchen, a living room space, three rooms built-in where one of it was turned into a study, two bathrooms and a laundry area.

I loved it here and I realized that I had been lounging around their place more often when Andrea had left to London.

Mainly the reason why I did was because I was hoping she’d call wanting to talk to Scott and then I’ll be able to jump at the chance just so I could talk to her but I always left their place utterly disappointed.

Sometimes, I waited till Scott knocked out for the night, I’d find myself lingering in Andrea’s room longer than usual, staring at the photos of our adventures over the years she had framed, polaroid’s of us, her family, her brother and her, the three of us that she had hung on mood board; there was one photo in particular that wasn’t present in the spot where it should have been—a photo of the two of us at a camping trip two years ago. I would know, I’ve been in here alone with her one too many times.

I couldn’t wrap my finger around it on this one. She said she wanted to get away from me because I always made her life miserable but why then have a photo of us in her unpacked luggage from London?

“Sorry, I haven’t gotten into unpacking yet, I still have some things that are still being sent from London.” She said, flipping over the flap of her luggage—she knew I saw it.

I cleared my throat before asking her, “Do you perhaps need some help unpacking?” I asked, looking around her room—it was still fairly empty like how she had left it. She shook her head before telling me no, setting her jug on her desk while she drew the curtains open, revealing the magnificent view of the city in broad daylight.

It was awkward, way too awkward to be back here again knowing the fact the last time when we were in a small room with no one around, things got heated up pretty quickly.

“I’m heading into the kitchen to make a snack, you want anything?” she trailed, walking past me but I grabbed her hand, halting her in her steps.

“Why are you so antsy?” I asked but she avoided my gaze, suddenly finding the rug beneath us rather interesting.

“I’m not, I just remembered that I have an assignment to catch up on after this.”

“Your classes with me have barely started and you have assignments when I don’t?” I asked, raising a brow and she looked at me briefly. “Well of course, yeah. It’s like an extra credit thing for that Management class I’m taking.”

“Andrea Bennett, why would you need extra credits when you’re literally a first-class honors student?” I questioned, watching her tilt her head to the side to look at me. “Precisely, in order to uphold that fancy title, I need to work twice as hard. And don’t you think it’s time for you to provide me my art of seduction lessons in return for the questions I had written for you this morning?”

“What questions?” I raised a brows.

“I took the liberty of highlighting your reference books and noting down some questions for you to solve with answers included because I figured I didn’t want you calling me every minute just to ask me how to solve them.”

“It should be an honor to receive calls from me.” I said smugly.

“It may be for your side hoes when you call them to come soothe your midnight itch, but for me, it’s like you’re one of those annoying salesman that’s trying to talk me into getting a loan or worse, scam me.”

I chuckled humorlessly, yanking her arm so that she fell right into my lap. A surprised gasp broke out her lips the second she realized what was happening. “What are you doing?” she enquired, looking straight into my eyes, watching her stare flatly at me.

“Tell me baby, how far do you see yourself with Trevors going?” I asked, my tone dropping a notch lower.

“And I owe you an answer to that because?” she trailed, waiting for an answer while she sat up straighter when my palm rested against the small of her back.

“Tell me, and then I’d be able to teach you a couple more things if that’s the case. But…” I said huskily, lifting my chin so that the tip of my nose touched her chin lightly, “If you were to stare at another man whilst being on a date with him or call it whatever, then I guess you shouldn’t be wasting your time taking lessons from me either.”

“Considering the fact that him and I have been on many unofficial dates back in London, I would say it would be official soon, after all, he did just ask me out for a first date this weekend.” She said confidently, her voice unwavering.

“Where to?” I prodded trying to hide the disappointment in my voice.

“Why? Do you intend to supervise us? Or worse, crash our date altogether?” she asked. I breathed in the woodsy scent from her creamy skin and recognize the smell of my body wash on her, I smiled involuntarily as my lips ever so subtly grazed her chin.

She shuddered and I felt it but still, she made no attempt to move.

“Not if I were to steal you away first. But let me ask you something, do you even know where he’s taking you?”

I knew she didn’t because throughout breakfast, she was just merely nodding her head, answering a word or two and her eyes were flickering towards me or trained on me. So yeah, I was pretty confident that she had no idea where Trevors was taking her.

“I would never tell you, it’s a secret.” She said quietly, attempting to lean away from my touch and I all but pulled her closer, grazing her jaw further and I heard the smallest moan escape her lips. f**k that was literally music to my ears.

“I’d hate to teach you the art of seduction only to have you use it on another guy, baby.” My voice dropped a notch lower as my other hand grazed her knee, resting it casually on her thigh.

“Then don’t.” she said firmly, looking down at me with those eyes that had gradually darkened, even under daylight. “Even if you didn’t teach me, I think I’m perfectly capable in seducing a guy even without him realizing it.” She said in a purr and her voice sounded like silk, languidly dropping her eyes to my lips then back to my eyes. “And I think,” she used a finger, pushing my face away from hers gently, “I’m doing a real good job at it.” She winked.

And that didn’t take me long to figure out that between the both of us, I was the one being seduced.