The Professor

Chapter 15

NOAH

It was funny how much could change in a while.

According to the time on my phone, it was a few minutes after five o’clock, and at this time four days ago Dalia had been standing on the other side of this desk, beaming at me. But now that I thought about that day, it felt like it was five years ago because Dalia was pissed at me.

I’d first assumed she was avoiding me out of feeling awkward because she didn’t come to my office yesterday and on Wednesday – well, she had actually dropped by on those days to do what she always did for me as my TA but I was never in the office when that happened – and that had made me think about texting or calling to apologize for what I did but I ended up deciding that apologizing in person would be better.

Now it had become clear that she was pissed at me instead because when I told her to drop by my office after class ended a couple of minutes ago, she scowled at me.

It had been jarring and I’d wanted to attribute it to her being in a bad mood or something but then I remembered that one of her friends, Tamika, who used to grin at me whenever she saw me now glared at me instead.

I heaved a sigh and dropped my phone on the desk before glancing at the novel Dalia lent to me. I could still remember the smile on her face when she handed the book to me as I picked it up and turned it over.

“Shit.”

The door opened and I immediately sat up, thinking it was Dalia, only to deflate when I saw it was Avery instead.

“Hey Noah,” she said with a smile while closing the door.

“Hey.”

As she walked over to me, I pulled open my desk drawer to put the novel in it but paused when my eyes fell on the ripped up sticky note Dalia had thrown in the trash the first day I asked her for help. Right… I stared at it for a little while more before I slid the drawer shut and exhaled, hard.

Dalia had every right to be angry. I drew a line between us that day in the cafe and I just had to go and cross it.

“Noah?” Avery called, snapping me out of my thoughts, and I returned my attention to her, raising my brows.

“Yes?”

Her smile faltered and she blinked at me before tipping her head to the side. “I uh, asked when you want to reschedule our date to.”

“Oh.”

I had canceled our date yesterday. I told her it was because dad wanted me to have dinner with him and some of his friends and that wasn’t a lie but the real reason why I canceled was because I just couldn’t. I had seen how excited she was for the date when she’d dropped by my office on Wednesday and yesterday multiple times and I felt quite awful because while she couldn’t stop thinking about it, I couldn’t stop thinking about Dalia.

I had agreed to go on a date with her because I wanted to get Dalia out of my mind but as Thursday approached and I couldn’t plan the date properly without thinking of Dalia instead of Avery, I realized it wasn’t going to work. Of course, I could have still gone ahead with the date despite that but Avery didn’t deserve that. She also didn’t deserve me agreeing to go on a date with her for the sole purpose of getting Dalia out of my head.

Once again, the note in my desk drawer was right. I was an asshole.

“Avery–”

“You don’t want to, do you?” she asked as her shoulders slumped and I took a deep breath, sitting up once more.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Uh…” Why didn’t I want to or why was I sorry?

Her jaw clenched. “Did you even have dinner with your dad last night?”

I did but there was no point in saying so because that wasn’t the real reason why I canceled the date. If I was interested in her, dad would have been the one I canceled on instead.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated and after a few seconds of staring at me in silence, she let out a harsh breath.

She then smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes. “See you around, Noah,” she said before leaving my office.

****

In a week, I’d managed to piss off two women with my behavior and decision-making skills and the universe had decided to give me a taste of my own medicine.

What the– I paused in the living room’s doorway after spotting Shane sitting on the couch across mum and Taylor and I narrowed my eyes.

I was currently in my parents’ house and I had come over because Mum told me she had bought something for Shane’s son, Axel. He was coming over to my place tomorrow so she wanted me to pick up what she got but seeing Shane here made me realize this was another one of her interventions. If it wasn’t, Shane wouldn’t be here at the time she told me to show up.

Did she truly even get something for Axel?

I gritted my teeth and just as I was about to turn around to leave, mum glanced over her shoulder.

“Noah,” she called out, drawing Shane’s and Taylor's attention to me, and I bit back a groan while she got to her feet. She then quickly walked over to me.

“What the f**k, mum?”

“Five minutes. Just give him five minutes, Noah..” Her eyes were red and puffy and my heart tightened because the only reason why she cried nowadays was because of the state of Shane and I’s relationship. “Please,” she added and I sucked in a breath.

I hated this.

My eyes darted from her to Shane and his lips twisted into a smug and self-assured smile. Like he was amused at my expense.

I really hated this.

“Five minutes,” I said and she immediately bobbed her head before pulling me towards the couch Taylor was on. “I’m not sitting.”

I pulled my hand out of hers, going to stand behind the couch instead, and she looked like she wanted to protest but when I raised a brow, she reluctantly nodded.

“Why are you here?” I asked Taylor who looked like she’d rather be anywhere else and a small frown appeared on her face as mum came to stand next to me.

“Mum tricked me into coming over.”

“Ah.”

No one said anything for a while after that and the silence that settled on the living room was so intense, it could be a physical presence.

I glanced at the clock.

“So…” Shane began, shattering the silence with the tact of a hammer, and I glanced at him. “How was work?”

Really? I raised a brow, resisting the urge to scoff. Small talk?

“...It was fine,” I answered in a clipped tone before mum gently nudged my arm and I shot her a look that said ‘what?’. She didn’t say anything.

“Mum said you’re a lecturer at Hartman.”

“And?”

Mum made a noise in the back of her throat while Shane blew out a breath.

“Noah, I’m trying here. Okay?”

“Dude,” Taylor muttered and his gaze hardened as he glanced at her.

“Shut up–”

“Don’t tell her to shut up,” I cut in, scowling at him, and mum pulled at my sleeve while he rolled his eyes.

“Oh, here we go.”

“Shane,” mum called and he set his mouth in a hard line. He stared at her for a couple of seconds and I didn’t need to look at her to know that she was either mouthing at him or gesturing something.

When he finally looked away from her, he sucked in a breath, like he was trying to prepare himself for something, and flashed me an amused smile. "... Okay… Noah, I screwed up.”

Rage gripped me. Not because of what he said or the fact that he was smiling when he said it but because of the way he said it. Like he was doing me a favor by saying it… like I had been begging him to say it and now he finally did.

“Based on your daily life experiences, you’re going to have to be more specific.”

He instantly froze at that while mum gasped and once more, silence settled on the living room.

There were two things Shane despised and those were someone mentioning any one of the times he’d screwed up badly and someone comparing him with me. Now that I was the one to mention him screwing up, he was definitely seeing red.

“Noah–”

“Do you have a f*****g death wish?” Shane cut mum off, his voice low and angry, and I glanced at the clock again. I was done here.

“Do not walk away when I’m talking to you,” he said, getting to his feet, as I headed for the passage that led to the door.

“What are you? Dad?” I replied while mum called our names, pleading with us to stop, and he began to close the distance between us. Mum rushed over to him to try to stop him from coming closer as he yelled all kinds of obscenities at me but she wasn’t succeeding much and I clicked my tongue.

Fucking typical. f*****g annoying.

The doorbell rang as I walked towards it with Shane still on my tail and the urge to turn around and give him the fight he wanted rode me hard but mum was already crying so I didn’t.

I unlocked the door and flung it open, pausing when I came face-to-face with the person on the other side of it.

…What the f**k?

Color drained out of Allison’s face, leaving it pale, and she backed up a bit as she stared at me.

“N–Noah,” she muttered in a shaky voice while mum yelled, “What the hell are you doing here?!”

It took me a moment to register the appearance of the woman in front of me and I blinked twice but what I was staring at didn’t change. What the f**k?

Allison was pregnant.

It was either that or she was hiding a beach ball under her dress and since the latter option didn’t make much sense, I was sure it was the former.

Our relationship had only ended three months ago but another thing I was sure of was that it wasn’t for me and my hands tightened into fists as I jerked my head in Shane’s direction.

I caught Allison and Shane in my bed three months ago but their relationship had been going on for four months before then and I knew this because I had discovered the texts they sent to each other. Allison had logged into her f*******: messenger on my old tablet a long time ago and had forgotten to log out so when I finally turned on the tablet weeks before catching them in the act, I came across the messages.

Another thing to note was that during those four months, I basically had no relationship with her because we were having problems and she picked fights with me at any chance she got.

That was why I was sure that she wasn’t pregnant for me but for Shane.

Wow.

Shane and mum didn’t look surprised that she was pregnant, just angry that she was here, and I sucked in a breath. So mum knew too…

“Noah,” mum started. “I– We didn’t… Oh God. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I wanted to laugh but I found that I couldn’t as I stared at that asshole so I just did what I could. What I wanted to do ever since I walked in and saw him sitting in the living room.

I sent my fist flying into his face.