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Huh. We were friends now? I guess we were. He was sitting in my apartment, eating lunch with me. We’d watched movies together and I’d taken a nap right on him. That sounded like friends to me.
I never normally told people my first name. I didn’t like it. But Liam was right. We were friends. And he’d asked, so…
“You won’t laugh?”
“Depends how funny it is.”
I shot him a glare and he burst out laughing. “Ok, ok, I won’t laugh. It can’t be that bad.”
“It is.”
“Let me be the judge of that.”
“Actually, it’s Prosperity.”
“You’re kidding?”
“No, I’m not, which is why I like to be called by my surname, thank you.”
“Prosperity.” He sounded as though he were testing the name on his tongue. He rolled it around his mouth. “Prosperity. It’s a nice name but it doesn’t seem right for you. What’s the deal with the Quaker name anyway?”
“My parents wanted me to prosper. Unfortunately, they meant with money, not knowledge. As you can imagine, they aren’t impressed by my life choices.”
It sucked that no matter how old people got, parental approval was a thing they sought. Considering I was forty years old, I knew it was ridiculous to feel the lingering shame of disappointing my parents. It definitely wasn’t as though I would change my career now just to make them proud of me. But sometimes I had to admit that half of my dislike for my name was that it was a stupid fucking name, and half was the reminder that I wasn’t what my parents had wanted me to be.
Liam looked at me wide-eyed. “Are you joking? You’re aprofessor. You teach, like, the hardest subject in the world. You’re crazy smart. How are they not impressed by that?”
I shrugged. This was not a conversation I really wanted to have.
“We just have different definitions of the word ‘success’ I suppose.”
“Well screw them. If they can’t appreciate you, that’s their loss. I can’t call you Prosperity, though. It’s just not… you.”
“Waggoner it is, then.”
“Maybe.”
Liam was looking at me and his eyes were dark, pools of intense emotion.
“What else would you call me?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
The sound of his voice and the suggestion that he’d come up with a name especially for me made me shiver in anticipation. This man was bringing all my emotions out from hibernation and I wasn’t sure what to do with them all.
Chapter 11: Liam
I’d started lunch feeling giddy because I’d been teasing Waggoner by displaying my body for his viewing pleasure. By the time we finished, though, I was struggling with some much deeper feelings. Anger at his parents for not telling him they were proud of all he’d achieved when the system was stacked against him. Protectiveness. Desire. Happiness. All the emotions warred within me.
I wanted to spend the afternoon pretty much exactly the way we’d spent the morning, only this time I wanted to put my arm around Waggoner. He ruined that plan by suddenly asking, “Don’t you have a lecture today?”
I cringed guiltily. I had remembered that this morning. Only, I didn’t want to go. Sitting through an hour’s class where I didn’t understand anything that was said sounded really boring unless it washimdelivering the lecture.
Trying to be direct, I opted for the truth. Only without mentioning how hard he made me or what I wanted to do to his body. I might have decided to be open about what I wanted but even I had some sense.
“There’s no point me going. It’s not like it will help. Besides, why would I go all the way to campus when I have the professor right here with me?”
“Oh.” Was that a pleased sound or a disappointed one? It frustrated me that I didn’t know him well enough yet to tell. “I suppose I can catch you up on what you’re missing.”
