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Amy
It took me way too long to calm down from the encounter with Professor Cole in his office. I couldn’t believe I’d done that. I had flirted shamelessly with him. He was twelve years older than me, strict, uptight and a total control freak. He was also clever, dry-witted, kind and I was fucking in love with him. Could you really fall in love with someone in a week? Someone you aren’t even dating? Well, turned out I could. Maybe I had already loved him longer than that. Maybe even from the first time I went to his class and watched him speak. I’d thought it an annoying crush, but it was much more than that.
I was laying down on the plastic seat at the laundry mat. Aaron was right. I hadn’t given up this job. I didn’t mind it, and I usually slept there. It was warm and smelled good. Was it so wrong to want to save up a little more cash, since the job was so easy? I didn’t think so, but Aaron had seemed annoyed about it.
I shifted around in the seat. Tonight, the calm atmosphere in the quiet place wasn’t as relaxing as it normally was. Tonight, I was pent up and filled with frustration, and I knew exactly why. That moment hours before had been the hottest thing to ever happen to me, and we had barely touched. If that was what almost being kissed by Aaron was like, what would actual sex be like? I couldn’t even imagine it, though I had definitely tried countless times.
“I knew you were lying to me,” a deep voice called to me, and sent me skittering off the plastic seat. Aaron stood in the doorway of the laundry mat. He was wearing a peacoat with collar turned up, and scarf and he looked too delicious. He came in, looking around the place. I squirmed, feeling caught in the lie. “Is this the date you were on that made you so tired?” he asked, coming to sit on the seat opposite me. I stared at him, trying to reconcile my feelings from earlier with the fact that he was here. He had shown up.
“It’s easy money. It doesn’t make good business sense to walk away from that. I like sleeping here. It’s cozy,” I told him. He narrowed his eyes, looking at the glass doors.
“It’s also dangerous, Amy. Anyone could come in, and you’re here, alone, asleep. It’s not smart, and you’re a very smart woman,” he said quietly. My shoulders sagged. I couldn’t really argue with that. It was risky, but nothing had happened so far. I’d gotten complacent, and I knew it. I flopped back and looked up at the fluorescent beams on the ceiling.
“Why does everything have to be so hard?” I wondered aloud. My shame at nearly being caught by Professor Devany crowded in on me and cringed hard.
“What’s so hard?” Aaron asked, watching me intently.
“Life?” I offered. He was quiet. “I’m so embarrassed about before-,” I started. Might as well address the elephant in the room.
“You do not need to be. It’s my fault. I’m the professor,” he said briskly. Right. Of course, he would blame himself for letting me act so badly.
“Right, you’re the responsible adult and I’m just the misguided student-,” I muttered. Aaron frowned at me.
“That’s not what I meant,” he started, but just then, a crowd of night cleaners came through the door. I knew the ladies well, and they usually stayed a couple of hours using the industrial-sized washers.
“I have to get back to work. You didn’t have to come here. It’s fine. I stuck my head in a bucket of iced water and cooled down. Don’t worry about me. You did nothing wrong,” I told him. Couldn’t he see I was the one who had started it? I was the one who had let my crush show. Crush was putting it mildly.
“Neither did you, Amy. Look, I see you’re busy. Let’s talk tomorrow,” he said, standing, as the ladies in the corner called their greetings to me. I stood up, ready to go and help them. I nodded to him, wrapping my arms around my chest, like that might hold in all the urgent and totally inappropriate feelings that were pressing to get out. Aaron nodded and then turned to the door. He stalked out with that big-dick energy I loved about him, as the ladies exclaimed over ‘my boyfriend’.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I told them again and again. “He’s just my professor.”
