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It had been a long time since I'd dated anyone, and it was giving me a little flutter in my stomach to think about going back to the bar with him. I wouldn't necessarily say the way we’d met was him sweeping me off my feet, and I wasn't going to take a Brianne-sized leap into saying it was going to be a fun story to tell our grandchildren or anything, but I was looking forward to spending more time with him.
Besides, I couldn't help but notice how many times our paths seemed to cross. It was like something was trying to push us toward each other.
I could explain away him coming up to the bar at the same time I did. After all, that was kind of the point of being in that establishment, and he might have noticed I'd been standing there waiting for the bartender to actually tend to me for a while. I could also make the argument that he, along with the vast majority of the other patrons at the bar, noticed my bachelorette party wrangling efforts and had come to my rescue with his dancing ruse on purpose.
But I didn't expect to see him on campus. It wasn't as easy to explain running into him in the hallway, and then again in front of the building. And then now as he slipped in through the back door of the lecture hall and hurried to a seat.
Wait. What?
I blinked, thinking maybe I'd just had Camden on my mind so much I'd managed to convince my brain I was seeing him. There was no reason he should be walking into my classroom. I hadn't mentioned I was a professor, and I definitely hadn't told him my schedule.
Yet, there he was. When I opened my eyes again, he was just settling into a seat and managed to knock several things off of the desk of the person beside him. Not only was he sneaking into my class late, but he was causing a major disruption while doing it. Why the hell was he there?
I realized I'd been standing there staring at him rather than continuing the lecture I'd started. The class had started to shift around in that uncomfortable way college-age kids tended to do when they weren't sure what they were supposed to do next and thought perhaps they were missing something.
I shook my head to try to jostle myself back into the moment so I could keep going with the lecture, an uneasy, eerie feeling started settling along my spine. Maybe it wasn't just fun coincidences that we were both on campus at the same time. After all, he was considerably older than the rest of the students starting up the spring semester.
Maybe he hadn't just happened to be walking down the same hallway or hanging out in front of the same building. Now that he was sitting in the back of the lecture hall, having arrived late, it was seeming more like Camden had arranged these run-ins intentionally. Was he stalking me?
I didn't want to call any attention to the awkward situation and forced myself to get back to the lecture. Fortunately for me and my current mindset, I did essentially the same lecture at the beginning of every semester where I explained the syllabus. I had it down to a science and could rattle it off with little thought. Throughout the class, I made a point not to look at Camden. I hadn't gotten much of a reaction from him when I first noticed him, and I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was affecting me.
The class felt like it dragged on far longer than it should have, and it was a relief when I got to the end of my lecture and looked down to see there were only a handful of minutes left in the session. I gave the class their homework assignment for the night, reminded them to connect on the online platform I used to support class projects and promote engagement. Slater wasn't as technology focused as most other institutions, but I tried to find ways to incorporate more into my courses. It helped keep work organized and connected more with the students whose entire worlds were defined by technology of all kinds.
The students took notes on the assignments and filed out of the room. I didn't have another class for a few hours, so I collected my things to head to the lounge to get some coffee. As I was zipping up my bag, Camden walked up to my podium. My spine went stiff, and I felt my mouth tug down into a deep frown.
"Hey, Kristen," he said with a cautious smile.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, not bothering with the pleasant small talk.
His expression faltered. "The same thing the other students were doing. Taking the class. Your class, I guess."
"Did you follow me here?" I asked.
"What?" he responded, sounding shocked.
"Don't you think it's a little strange that we met in a bar, then suddenly you're showing up all over the place where I am? You just happen to be in the same buildings I am, you're waiting outside my class, then you show up in it?"
Camden's expression went from confused to almost offended. His eyes narrowed, and his head tilted to the side quizzically.
"Are you really asking me if I'm following you around? Like some kind of stalker?"
"It does seem like a strange coincidence," I said.
"That I was at a bar on a college campus, and then ended up on that same college campus to take classes?" he asked. "You realize you did the exact same thing. Are you stalking me?"
"I'm teaching classes, not taking them," I pointed out.
"So, you probably know that this class has had full registration for over a month. If you check your roster, you'll see my name on it," he said.
"You really are in this class?" I asked.
He nodded, and I noticed him take a slight step forward toward me. It didn't seem like he meant to take that step, but that his body did it for him. Like he was drawn closer to me. I felt the same pull but was doing everything I could to resist it. I couldn't feel the same attraction to him now knowing he was in my class. The heat was strong between us, and my lips tingled to get another of those kisses, but I had to push back against it.
"I didn't finish college when I was younger because I wanted to focus on my ranch. Now I want to get my degree and build my business further," he said. "But you didn't know that. Just like I didn't know you were a professor. I was planning on us getting to know each other when we go get drinks."
With all my discomfort trying to figure out why he was in my class, I'd forgotten about Camden's invitation to go back to the bar with him. Now that he reminded me, I knew that couldn't happen. I shook my head, slinging my bag over my shoulder.
"We shouldn't do that," I said.
