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DJ’s giggles come from below, so I know he is on his way down.I slide my legs through the tube and push off for speed.By the time I get to the bottom, the entire family is waiting and, to my surprise, guess who is standing alongside Nicki.None other than Xander.
“DJ, you deserted me!”I pout, trying to cover up the stress I just put myself through.He laughs while holding Dani’s hand.I dust my pants off and because my parents raised me right, I greet Nicki and Diesel with, “Hey guys, thanks for joining us.”
Nicki reaches out with a hug, “Look who we bumped into in the parking lot, and he’s here alone.I told him to tag along if he didn’t mind baby crap.”I glance in his direction and nod, “Professor Manning.“
“Evening, Miss Johnson, can I speak with you for a moment?”he asks and gestures toward the side of the trailer from hell, “in private?”
I roll my eyes, “We’ll catch up,” I tell the others to go ahead.
I follow Xander away from the crowd and off to the side.“What’s up?”I ask.
“When we aren’t at work, I’m Xander.Stop calling me Professor all the time.We are co-workers.I am no longer your teacher in that sense.”He seems defeated.I know he’s been correcting me and fighting about this for months.But I’m stubborn, and if I give in and he becomes Xander instead of Professor Manning, things can become complicated, possibly even more difficult than they already are.
He continues, “I hate Professor.It makes me feel old.The only reason I use it in class is that it shows they respect me.Clearly, you do not, and you’ve made that very clear with all your tit-for-tat arguments in class when you were my student.You were the biggest pain in the ass.Do you know that?Questioning everything I discussed, it drove me nuts!”He slides his hands into his front jeans pockets and rocks back on his heels, diverting his eyes away from me.He looks kind of relieved to get all that off his chest.
I open my eyes wide and pull my hand up to cover my mouth.I can’t stop the giggle passing through my lips, “Did you just really say tit for tat and then call me a pain in the ass, on top of it?”
Here the sexy uptight man, who was proper and infuriating as my teacher, is just a, normal, down-to-earth guy.Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen him at the bar here and there, but he has always come across as an uptight, by-the-book kind of person.He is proper, polite and never did I think he would have the balls to confront anyone.I kind of feel bad for him, so I stop giggling.
“Okay, Profess...I mean, Xander.But I can’t promise there won’t be any more tit for tats.”He smirks, slides his hand from his pocket, and we shake on it.
We begin to walk down the path between the games.He stops and pays the carni-guy five dollars to throw a dart.It pops, and he points to the stuffed monkey with purple, spiky hair.When he turns, he hands it to me, “a peace offering?”
“Purple, my favorite color.Thanks.”I take the monkey and glance over it while we continue walking to find my family.
“By the way, you may want to invest in some curtains for your bay window,” he says.My mouth drops open, the audacity of this guy admitting he saw my tits.
“Growing balls, are we Xander?Don’t press your luck,” I quickly respond, shaking the monkey and reminding him of the peace offering.But it’s too late.My anger builds out of nowhere.How dare he?
“Maybe YOU should get curtains and stop peeking through my windows.I have nothing to hide.It’s my apartment, and I can do what I want.”The blood in my veins feels like it’s boiling, and I walk faster to get away, glancing left and right to find my sisters.
One minute ‘mister nice guy, let’s be friends.’Next, he thinks he will tell me what to do.I don’t think so.I feel him run up beside me.His hand takes my wrist, pulling slightly, “Hey!”he says, I spin to face him.
“How dare you...”I lift my loose hand to strike him, but he catches it, preventing contact.
“I didn’t mean any harm,” he releases both hands and, with guilt in his eyes, he turns and walks away.
“What was that all about?”Nicki comes up behind me, and I take a deep breath, “Nothing, fucking nothing.”Annoyed with myself and with him for putting his hand on me.But guilt-stricken because he doesn’t know why I reacted the way I did.
She throws her arm around my shoulder, “It can’t be easy.”
I turn and look at her, “What?”
She continues, “You had the hots for him when he was your teacher.Now you’ve been working with him and live right next door.Either you got over it, or you are a hot mess.”
I glare through the crowd and see the back of Xander’s head as he walks through the exit gates.
A complete hot mess.
