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Aston
I’m running late, which is rather unusual for me. It’s been a couple of days since I finally met my little flower in person, but ever since, she’s been all I could think about. We’ve been texting every day, and I’ve been so occupied with her, that everything else in my everyday life had to take a backseat.
Which isn’t good, because the new semester is about to start, and I’ve been assigned a new class on short notice because the professor who was supposed to teach this class fell ill all of a sudden. It’s unclear when he’ll be able to return to work, as his situation appears to be rather dire, so they asked me to step in. It shouldn’t be a big deal, because I’m very familiar with the material, but I hate having my schedule derailed like this, just because the university holds so much power over me. I love teaching, but the circumstances surrounding my job as a tenured professor are anything but ideal sometimes.
I’ve been distracted and absentminded the whole week, and this morning is no different. I’m glancing at my watch as I hurry down the corridors, realizing that I’m not quite as late as I feared, when my phone rings. I pull it out of the side pocket of my satchel and my eyebrows fly up in surprise when I see the name on the display.
„Chase,” I greet one of my best friends from college. „What’s up? You okay?”
Chase is probably the busiest and most active member of our group, always in a hurry, always stressed, doing everything in fast motion, as if he was trying to live up to his name. We regularly talk on the phone, but I’m usually the one calling him, and he has never called me this early in the morning.
„I’m going to be a father!” Chase yells, so loudly that I move the phone away from my ear for a bit.
„What?” I exclaim in disbelief. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. First, our friend Gabe gets engaged—an event that all of us witnessed during the opening gala of the foundation he founded with his now fiancée Ella—and now Chase is telling me that he’s going to be a father?
„Yep, you heard that right,” Chase responds.
„You’re kidding,” I insist, still not able to fathom the truth behind his words. It’s so unlike him. When we joked about that silly pact to find wives more than a year ago, on my 30th birthday, Chase was the one who was opposed to the idea the loudest. He insisted he had absolutely no interest in tying himself to one woman, just like our friends Logan, and Gabe. Gabe insisted that he had no interest in rekindling things with Ella—but now he’s engaged to her.
Among the four of us, I was the only who actually wanted to get married, and now I’m the only one who is still single.
„I’m not kidding,” Chase maintains. „Madison told me last night. I came home from the office, dinner in hand, not suspecting a thing, andbam! There she is, waiting for me on the porch, and she just drops the news. Apparently she found out while we were in Boston. That’s why she was so flustered that night at the gala.”
I remember him saying something about being worried about her because she seemed stressed and close to burnout.
„Wow, that’s…. congratulations!” I finally say. „I’m sorry, I was just—”
„Shocked? Surprised? Well, you and me both, buddy,” Chase says. „And you know what’s crazy? I was going to propose this month. I didn’t exactly know when and where, and I was a little thrown off with the whole Gabe thing, because it felt like I was just copying him, so I thought I’d wait a bit, but…”
„You proposed, too?” I finish his sentence as a smile creeps up on my face.
„I did. Right on the spot when she told me,” he says. „I was gonna do it soon anyway and I was just so… well, fucking happy. I just did it.”
„Well, then congratulations on that, too!” I tell him. „I’m assuming she said yes?”
„Obviously,” Chase confirms. „No one could ever say no to me.”
„Your charm has always been irresistible,” I mock. „Hey, listen, I’m about to teach a class. Let’s talk later?”
„Yeah, sure! I just had to share. Gabe and Logan are next. You’re the first Plutus boy I told.”
„What an honor,” I tell him, still smiling. Plutus is what we call our group, our pact.
We say our goodbyes, and I try to make sense of the turmoil inside of me. I’m happy for my friends, of course I am. But I can’t help to feel a sense of being left behind.
I’m the oldest of the group, the most mature, the most reasonable, and even back in college the boys joked about me being the father of the group. I’m not sure how I feel about reproducing, but I know that there’s a hole in my life. The lack of a partner is weighing heavily on me, but it’s so much harder to find the perfect fit for someone like me. I’m too much for most women, it seems.
Maybe she could be different,I dare to think. It’s a dangerous thought that has brought me more disappointment than happiness in the past, but I can’t help holding on to the hope that there’s someone out there for me. A cute and kinky girl who shares my unique tastes, a girl who is smart and curious with a mind open to new experiences.
My little flower has been feeding that hope for weeks while we exchanged text messages, and she brought this hope to a whole new level when we finally met. I’m counting the days until I get to see her again, until I get to play with that delicious body of hers and get to dive deeper into that keen mind.
I slow down my pace as I get closer to the class I’m about to teach, and shake my head.
I need to focus. Now is not the time to think about her, or all the things I want to do to her.
I take in a deep breath of air, filling my lungs and my mind with things that hold a different kind of beauty. Numbers and the things they tell us have always been beautiful to me. Math doesn’t deserve the hate it gets, and I wish more people would see the beauty in it. This is why I enjoy teaching at one of the best schools in the country so much. Harvard students are serious about their studies, and they share my passion for numbers and functions.
I’m smiling, when I walk into the room, holding my satchel with one hand while I use the other to adjust my glasses.
