Page 16 of Teaching Roman

Chapter Eight

As soon asI was sure Cassie was one hundred percent passed out and in no danger of more drunken shenanigans, I slipped onto the patio. The night air had dropped, making me feel like I was home again. It was cool enough that I wrapped my arms around myself as the breeze blew shivers into my skin. The moon shimmered on the glassy surface of the ocean, just bright enough to reveal Roman lounging against the wall. He took a hesitant step toward me as I came outside. We both stopped short of each other, maintaining a safe, classroom-appropriate distance.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“She will be,” I promised him. “Boy troubles.”

“We are trouble,” Roman said. He grinned at me, his teeth whiter against his tan face in the dark. For a moment I imagined flicking my tongue across those teeth. The thought sent heat to my cheeks, but thankfully it was too dark for him to see me blush. Thinking like that was going to get me into trouble.

“The first step is admitting you have a problem,” I told him.

“If only I could get all three billion of us on the same page.” He shrugged a perfect what-can-you-do-about-it shrug. The man could give classes in charming a woman out of her panties.

“I’ll be happy to find a couple of men who share that attitude,” I said. “It would save my friends and I a lot of heartache.”

“Sounds like Cassie isn’t the only one dealing with boy trouble.”

That was the problem with having a conversation with Roman. He was trained in the art of communication. It was his job to teach people how to communicate, which meant he picked up on the littlest signals or the most innocent word choice. Not that I had boy trouble per se. I was pretty sure flaking out on a nice, dependable guy who wanted to marry me didn’t qualify as a problem by most people’s standards.

Part of me wanted to open my mouth and spill the truth about me and Brett to someone. I could tell Roman. He was a fantastic listener, and he’d been so patient when I went to him for help with Jillian a few weeks ago. She’d been flunking out of his class because she was too afraid to face Liam after he found out about her Parkinson’s. Most professors would have written it off as an excuse, but he genuinely cared. He’d gone out of his way to help her pass and to help her come to terms with her illness. We’d spent a little time together then, but this felt different, and that was the problem. The feelings that prevented me from opening up to Roman about Brett were far from academic or professional.

“Solidarity,” I said instead. It was both the truth and a lie at the same time. I felt my best friends’ heartbreaks as acutely as I had ever felt my own during any of my break-ups, and right now I was too consumed with Cassie's sadness to really think about Brett. It was that or I was a heartless monster who had been stringing my ex around for nearly two years.

“You’re a good friend.” Roman paused and his eyes flicked to the path that had brought us back to our villa. “I should go. I wanted to be sure everything was under control.”

“I’ve got this. Don’t worry.” But even as I spoke I didn’t want him to go. A variety of ways to keep him here flashed through my mind. I could set an accidental fire or rip off my clothes or offer him that drink. Inviting him to stay for a drink seemed like the least dramatic or dangerous way to keep him from leaving.

“Can I get you that drink?” I asked. “Since I ruined your night.”

“I was home reading,” Roman assured me. “The only thing you ruined was my loneliness.”

I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the way my stomach flipped over when he mentioned he was lonely, and went inside to grab a bottle of wine. My hands shook while I rummaged through the drawers for a corkscrew. I finally found it and dropped it on the floor. Thankfully Cassie was passed out or I probably would have woken her. Nothing short of a nuclear strike would get through to her right now. I’d played nurse to her drunk-ass enough times to know that. It took two tries and a ruined cork but I finally got it open.

“So was it a bad book?” I asked, hoping that I looked casual as I brought him out a glass of wine.

“Why would you think that?”

“I usually don’t feel lonely when I’m reading a good book.” In fact, when I cheated on my textbooks and let myself read a romance novel or the latest bestseller, I was barely aware of my own existence.

“It was work stuff. Apparently, I don’t know how to take time off from school.”

I raised my glass in a toast. “I hear that. I plan to spend most of my time here hiding my textbooks from Cassie so she doesn’t take them away.”

Roman laughed at this and shook his head. “But you're on vacation. I come here all the time. It isn't vacation when it's home.”

“It’s still your semester break. There’s no reason you need to be reading either!” My words rushed out in a jumble. I’d begun to tremble and it had nothing to do with the cool breeze wafting up from the ocean and everything to do with the insanely sexy man standing next to me.

“I’m not judging.” He held a hand up in surrender. “I just hope you have a good time. I know you’ve been really stressed out the last few weeks. I know you were worried about Jillian.”

Of course, he wasn’t being judgmental. That wasn’t Roman’s style.

“Sorry. I get a lot of shit for being so focused on med school and graduation.” It was hard enough to explain why I wanted to spend another five years in school let alone that I needed to be prepping for those years right now. Class for Cassie and Jillian existed on a period by period and semester by semester schedule. Neither of them planned to go further than getting their B.A. I couldn’t blame them for that, but I also couldn’t explain to them why I had to be looking so far ahead all the time.

But Roman only snorted at this. “With this job market, most of your friends will wind up in graduate school.”

“Speaking from experience?” I asked.

“I wouldn’t call Interpersonal Communication my calling.” He shrugged and took a sip of his wine, his lips lingering on the rim, long enough to make me jealous of the glass.