The Professor

Chapter 16

NOAH

My fists stung. So did my face and my side but it was worth it because by the time Shane and I got separated, I had done way more damage than he had.

My phone started buzzing on the passenger’s seat and I glanced at it to see that it was mum calling me for what must be the twentieth time. I gritted my teeth.

Did I expect mum to keep Shane’s secret no matter how bad what he’d done was? Yes – she had been doing it since when we were kids – but damn… Finding out she knew Allison was pregnant for Shane and kept it from me hurt almost as much as finding Shane and Allison in my bed.

The phone stopped ringing but it started again in less than a minute while I wondered if she knew when Shane started f*****g Allison behind my back. Yes, that sounded ridiculous but if it was the truth, she would have definitely kept it from me and tried to fix it instead.

After all, her priorities always aligned with making us appear as a perfect family.

I picked up the phone just as it stopped ringing again, turned it off and tossed it back on the passenger’s seat. I then returned my attention to the road, heaving a sigh, before a lightning bolt cut across the sky. Thunder cracked in its wake and I remembered that I hadn’t covered the patio furniture before leaving home. Most of them weren’t water-resistant and I was still at least fifteen minutes away from home.

“Crap.” I reached for my phone without taking my eyes off the road, intending to call my neighbor to ask him to help me with them, but before I could grab it, I saw her standing on the sidewalk… Dalia.

Oh.

She looked like she had something important on her mind as she stared off into the distance, not paying attention to her surroundings, and the next thing I knew, I was pulling up in front of her.

Her eyes snapped to the car when it stopped and she took a step back before I lowered the window next to the passenger’s seat. A frown immediately overtook her expression.

It reminded me of her reaction to me asking her to drop by my office and the fact that she hadn’t done that made it clear that she did not want to talk to me. That didn’t stop me from leaning towards the open window.

“Hey.” Hey? Really?

She raised a brow and after a couple of seconds, she heaved a sigh before looking away from me. “Good evening, Professor Anderson.”

I frown at the coldness of her tone. “Uh, are you waiting for someone?”

“No,” she replied, giving me a look that said what do you want?, and I shifted in my seat while the rumbling of thunder permeated the air.

“Where are you headed?”

“My apartment.”

“It’s about to rain. Let me give you a ride.”

“Hard pass.”

Crap.

She began to walk away from me and I didn’t hesitate to put the car in gear before driving alongside her.

“Dalia,” I called out but she paid me no mind and if not for the growing look of displeasure on her face, I’d think she didn’t hear me. “Can we talk?”

“You’re talking right now.”

“I’m sorry.”

That got her to pause and I stopped the car while she glanced at me.

I hated the glare she sent my way. I liked making her smile, making her laugh, and the fact that I was the reason behind her anger made me feel shitty.

The sky finally opened up and she momentarily directed her glare to it as raindrops splashed against her, darkening her oversized hoodie.

“Can I give you a ride?” I tried again.

A slight frown appeared on her face and she glanced at the sky once more before glancing at the take-out bag in her hand. She then set her lips in a hard line. “...Sure.” She walked toward the passenger side and opened the door while I quickly moved my phone from the passenger seat to the glove compartment. “Thanks,” she added after getting into the car and shutting the door.

“No problem.”

She placed her take-out bag on the floor, between her legs, and because I was a bastard, my eyes lingered on her legs longer than they should have. Is she wearing shorts under that?

“Oh my God,” she blurted out, drawing my attention back to her face, and I saw that she was staring at me with wide eyes. “What happened? Did you get into a fight?”

…Oh, my face.

“You should see the other guy,” I muttered, clenching my jaw as I remembered what happened in my parents’ place. After putting the car in gear once more and turning on the wipers to see clearly, I realized that Dalia was still staring at me, her brows creased with worry.

“Are you worried about me, Dalia?”

“I– No…?” she replied in a rush and the corner of my mouth turned up while she cleared her throat before turning her attention to the road.

The first minute of me driving was filled with an awkward silence and me occasionally glancing at her but after a couple of seconds, I couldn’t not say anything any longer.

“You’re mad at me–”

“Now why would you think I am?”

“Because it seems like you–”

“I’m not mad at you.”

“You–

“I’m not mad at you, Professor Anderson.”

“But–”

“Take a left here.”

I opened my mouth to protest her cutting me off before realizing that she was giving me directions to her place. I exhaled loudly and complied.

“I’m not mad at you,” she repeated and I glanced at her to find her already staring at me. She smiled. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.”

She was obviously lying about not being mad at me – if the change in her attitude towards me was anything to go by – but if I said that, she’d just repeat that she wasn’t.

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’ve never skipped your class,” she countered and I opened my mouth to say she no longer dropped by my office but decided against it because she did drop by. It was just when I wasn’t there.

“I asked you to drop by my office today,” I said instead and she hmmed, still smiling.

“I forgot to.” Her voice was warm but her expression wasn’t genuine.

I heaved a sigh.

Even though she still didn’t want to admit that she was angry with me and said that I didn’t have anything to apologize for, the fact remained that I had upset her on Monday.

“What happened on Monday…” I started, still alternating my attention between her and the road, and she tilted her head. “It was unprofessional. I overstepped and I took your kindness for granted. So for that, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Dalia blinked at me once. Twice. She then faced forward and the silence hung for a painful second before she pointed at one of the buildings that lined the road. “There. That’s my apartment building,” she muttered and I ground my teeth together as I nodded.

“Okay.”

She leaned forward to pick up her takeout bag while I pulled into the parking lot and I returned my gaze to her when she leaned forward again to pick something from the floor. Whatever it was held her attention for a couple of seconds but I couldn’t see it – the takeout bag shielded it from view – and just as I was about to rectify that, she looked at me.

“Your date forgot this.” Her tone was back to being cold and as I frowned, trying to figure out what she meant, she chucked something at me. It hit me in the chest before landing on my thigh where I saw that it was Taylor’s lipstick. “Thanks for the ride.”

What the–

She grabbed the door handle but before she could pull it to open the door, I grabbed her arm, and she turned to face me, clearly annoyed.

“What date? I didn’t go on a date,” I stated as she opened her mouth to say something and her frown deepened.

“What? Do–”

“It’s my sister’s.” I picked up the lipstick, turning it so she could see the bottom of its case which had ‘Tay’ inscribed in it, and her frown faltered. “Her name’s Taylor.”

I had dropped Taylor at her friend’s a couple of minutes earlier. It must have fallen out of her bag while she was trying to find plasters for the cuts on my face.

Dalia relaxed a bit and released the door handle but didn’t remove her hand from it. “...You didn’t go on a date with Avery?”

“Avery?” I drew my brows together and her expression immediately softened when I shook my head. “I canceled it.”

How did she find out about the– That doesn’t even matter. Was that why she was upset? …She was upset because she thought I went on a date with someone? I–

“Why?” she asked in a low voice but she looked eager to hear what my response would be.

I pursed my lips.

I had just apologized for overstepping a little while ago and saying why I had canceled the date would be me overstepping again. But if she had actually been upset because she thought I went on a date…

“You were bothering me,” I replied and a line appeared between her brows. “I agreed to go on a date with her because I… I can’t get you out of my head.”

Her eyes widened at my revelation, but she didn’t say anything.

“I know, you’re my student. I shouldn’t be thinking about you the way I do but I just…” I let out a harsh breath. “f**k me.”

Her brows jumped at that and it took me a moment to register what I’d said.

“Whoa!” Heat rushed to my face. “I don’t mean you should f**k me." Wait. "I mean, you can if you want to." What the ever-loving f**k? "Oh God. What I’m trying to say is–”

The laugh Dalia let out was unlike anything I’d heard before. Her head lolled back, hitting the headrest, and her entire body shook from the sound which sent a warmth that was impossible to ignore through my body.

Oh…

I immediately stopped thinking of how I was going to die a thousand deaths after she left and began to think about every way I could make her laugh like this again instead while tears formed in her eyes.

Unfortunately, she stopped laughing after a little while.

“Can you– Can you wait a bit?” she asked, her eyes still twinkling with laughter, and I nodded without hesitation. “I need to go grab something from my apartment. I won’t take long.”

I nodded again, still staring at her dazedly, as I released her arm with the speed of a snail. “Okay.”

She flashed me a smile – a genuine one this time – and it was damn near impossible not to smile back before she got out of the car. The rain wasn’t hitting her – I had parked underneath an arch that was connected to the building – but she rushed towards the building’s doors like it was and I kept my eyes on her till she disappeared behind the doors.

I sucked in a breath.

Okay. I turned in my seat to face the wall I was parked in front of as I exhaled slowly. Stay calm.

I didn’t want to get too excited because she hadn’t exactly said she was interested in me the way I was in her but I couldn’t stop the wave of giddiness that hit me as my mind replayed our conversation. She had been upset because she thought I went on a date with someone.

My face felt like it might c***k in half from how big I was smiling and I turned in my seat again to watch the double doors of the apartment building while listening to the steady drum of rain outside.

A couple of minutes later, she appeared on the other side of the doors and I quickly sat upright as she stepped out of the building with a small box in her hand. She closed the distance between us with the same urgency with which she had rushed towards the building, and I opened the door next to me after realizing she wasn’t heading back to the passenger seat.

“So…” She opened the door wider while I saw the first-aid sign on the box she was holding and set my feet on the ground outside the car. “Why did you get into a fight?” she asked, stepping into the space between my legs as she placed the first-aid kit on the car’s roof, and I ground my teeth.

She’s so close.

“Someone upset me.”

She raised a brow. “I pegged you as someone that always took the high road.”

“The high road was closed for construction then.”

She grinned before getting to work on my face.

Neither of us said anything else for a while after that and as the want to touch her kept growing while she covered my injuries with plasters, I decided to bring up Monday.

“On Monday… Did you not want me to do that?” I asked. She gave me a questioning look. “You pulled away.”

Realization dawned on her face and she muttered an ‘oh’ before her lips curved into a small frown. “Avery opened the door.”

My brows snapped together. “What?”

“She didn't see us. Well she technically didn’t open the door. I just saw the door handle turn and panicked.”

That was why she reacted like that. I couldn’t help but feel a bit silly now because I had just assumed she panicked because I tried to kiss her, and decided to go on a date with Avery. So– “What if no one had dropped by and I kissed you?”

Dalia froze. She obviously hadn’t expected me to ask that but I just had to know how she’d have reacted if we hadn’t been interrupted.

“...I wouldn’t have hated it.” she said and air whooshed out of me just before she used her hand to touch the side of my face, a barely there caress. My spine tingled. “I wouldn’t hate it if you did that.”

Fuck. My heart thudded against my chest, my pulse thundering with each beat, and Dalia shuddered when I finally placed my hands on her thighs. It was as if all my senses had been kicked into hyperdrive as we stared at each other and my body buzzed for more. More of her.

I began to slide my hands up her thighs and the moment I felt the material of her shorts under the oversized hoodie, she stepped away from me with a teasing smile on her face.

She then grabbed the first-aid kit from the roof. “See you on Monday, Noah.”

Fuck.

“Goodnight, Dalia,” I muttered, resting my head against the doorframe, and as I watched her leave, two things solidified in my mind.

The first – Dalia was trouble. And the second – I wanted trouble… badly.