~ Lila ~
For months I had been watching Professor Alexander like he was the only man in the world.
I sat in the back row of his literature class every Tuesday and Thursday, heart racing whenever he walked in.
He was tall, with dark hair that fell across his forehead in that messy way he never fixed.
His voice was deep and steady, the kind that made the whole room quiet down the second he started talking about books.
He wore plain button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up, showing strong forearms, and thin glasses that he pushed up when he got excited about a story.
I was twenty-one, a senior, and I had never failed a class in my life. But in his class, I stopped trying. Not because the work was hard. I had read every book twice. I knew every answer. I just wanted him to see m
