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  “Indeed. His surgery is scheduled for a week from now, so he’s taking a leave of absence for the rest of the semester.” Dr. Roth had been a real hard ass in my time at the university, often failing good students and pushing those of us slackers beyond our comfort zones. It was his way of teaching us life lessons through those dreaded blue book quizzes each week on our knowledge base or some bullshit I was sure he made up.

  “I’m so sorry to hear that.” Although I wasn’t surprised, considering his behavior of drinking and eating to excess outside of the classroom, along with who knows what else was rumored about the cranky bachelor math professor.

  “It’s actually partly why I’m calling.” Dean Andrews pauses.

  “Oh, really?” My curiosity is peaked.

  “Yes. You see, I was hoping you might possibly be able to fill in for one of his classes for which I can’t seem to find a timely replacement. He was teaching four classes, and this block is one of the hardest to fill. It really fowls things up for the students eager to complete this required course.” I tap my pen on the desk and flip my smart phone over to look at my calendar, which Tom updates for me daily.

  “Which class would that be? I’d love to help if I can.” I flip through aps and hover over my Facebook account that I keep just for family and close friends. I’m more interested in how faulty its algorithms are than anything else. I click on my calendar instead and check my current availability.

  “Well, it’s the Tuesday/Thursday module of Statistics. I can’t get anyone to take it, and the TA simply doesn’t have enough experience to do it for the rest of the semester. I can just imagine the parents calling in an uproar.”

  “Alright. I’ll have Tom rework a few of my meetings. I’ve always loved the Stat course.”

  “Really? Excellent! I’ll have Beth email you the syllabus. See you Thursday on campus then? We can discuss the transition after class and make sure the students are on par for the exam.”

  “Great. We’ll have lunch after class. See you then.” I hang up and lean over my desk. I miss the university environment. Teaching had always been fun for me before I almost ruined it for myself, and that made me think of her… No sense in reliving the past. I figure the college classes are much safer than my student teaching days.

  Chapter Two

  Edith

  “Ugh. Is it really Thursday already?” I whine, sitting on the lounge chair in one of the study alcoves with Aiden and Shelby. My voice is muffled from the book I left open over my face, using it as a mask.

  “Yeah, it is.” Shelby closes her makeup compact and stands up in front of me. From under my book, I can see her neon pink TOMs shoes and her curvy jean-clad legs.

  “What?” I remove the book from my face and, half-sitting up from the chair, I look at my two closest friends. I keep the closed book mashed up against my head, praying the formulas and numbered equations stay put in there today.

  “I’ve told you osmosis doesn’t work, Edie.” Aiden laughs, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses and going back to his own book, highlighting bones and muscles in his biology tome.

  “Edie, when was the last time you ate something other than those gross ramen noodles and watered-down orange juice?” Shelby keeps looking at me like I’ve grown a second head.

  “Awe, Shelby, are we really going to have this conversation again? Ramen is a nutritious staple food to the transitional college diet.” I push my statistics book to the floor and pull the elastic band from my hair, attempting to pull it up into a simple ponytail before Shelby stabs me with her eyes.

  “Yes, we are. Sit in front of me.” Shelby takes a brush from her bag and brushes out my hair, fixing it into some intricate braid that is likely to fall out the minute I leave her presence.

  “Are you still going to the clinic next week?” Aiden asks me with a pointed look.

  “Of course I am. Oww.” Shelby pulls a lock of my hair tight, making me sit straight as she rhythmically weaves locks of hair in and out. She has a way with hair and, depending on her moodiness, can either lull me to sleep or scalp me bald.

  “So how about we go for burgers after class then? You can meet us at the Grease Lounge by the bus stop.” Aiden shuts his own book and tosses things into his leather messenger bag that I envy. My own bag has been sewn back together several times since my freshman year of high school. It’s one of the few things I have from my grandmother who encouraged me to stay in school. I used patches of whatever fabric I had to keep the damn thing together. If I had the money, I would have bought a new pretty brown leather bag. I figure if it’s lasted this long, it must be a sign from my grandmother to keep going.

  “Edie?” Aiden asks again and I drag myself back to the conversation. Shelby is quiet and focused on braiding my hair, gently pulling and weaving, lulling me.

  “Um, okay. I’m sure I could use the protein before I donate to the vampires, earning me my big twenty dollar gift card.” I hear both Shelby and Aiden snort in their cutesy couple language that just screams they don’t approve of my money-grubbing habits. Luckily for them, they will never know what that is like. Neither of them have to worry about making it on their own and hording an emergency account of money just in case my scholarship money is late or discontinued each semester.

  “Okay, I’m all done. Tie?”

  I hand the elastic band to Shelby and she secures my French braid, or what I think is a French braid. We grab our stuff and go to our separate classes…Muscular Biology for Aiden, Sculpting for Shelby, and Satan’s Statistics for me.

  I walk down the hall and walk into the classroom. Trying hard to remain obscure, I sit in the back closest to the door. It’s the easiest route of escape if we are going to have another shitty pop quiz my already stressed brain can’t handle. If I had known what a dick this professor was, I probably would have saved it for the spring semester instead of doing it now. My rent on my studio apartment was due, and I was a little behind on my utility bill because I keep forgetting to buy stamps. The only disorganized thing I probably do, because I hate having to track down stamp machines, or go to the post office. They won’t let me pay online, which would be freaking cheaper to do if the jerk-holes at the energy company updated their technology infrastructure. It doesn’t help that I refuse to have a computer of my own, just using the 24-hour computer labs on campus. I already cut my cellphone down to just texting because there is no one for me to call that can’t reach me via a simple 144 character text… sue me for being cheap. I sit down and see that annoying TA, Daniel Munson, taking attendance, but no professor yet. Maybe, just maybe, we’d luck out. It is an unspoken rule, if there is no professor twenty minutes after the start of class, all of us responsible students would bolt for the door. We still have twelve minutes left, but who’s counting? Looking down, I pick at a string on my already worn jeans, trying to blend into the lecture hall scenery.

  “Edith Willows.” I hate this TA calling my name, mostly because he’s annoying and acts superior just because he’s a math whiz. If you want to see a real math whiz, let me show you my coupon collection.

  “Hey, that’s you, girl.” My classmate nudges me and I raise my hand, not looking up.

  “Uh, thanks.” I mumble, finally looking up to make sure the TA from hell marks my presence. As he checks me off, I see our new professor walk into the room. I feel my heart skip a beat, leaving me ready to dry heave.

  “Wow, hot damn,” the girl next to me whispers, dropping her pencil and book to the floor right next to me, drawing half the classes attention to our corner of the room. Crap, this is not good. It is mortifying to see this man again after several years of keeping him firmly locked away in my fantasies.

  Jack Hamilton is teaching this course? Jack-fucking-god-like-Hamilton is teaching my last block of statistics?! There is no way in hell I am going to get through this unscathed. He had been a student teacher back in my hometown, and now he is doing big things for some business he started. “Math wizard” was what everyone called him back the
n, but I only saw him as a freak of nature, so good-looking and godly. I spent my entire junior year with my brain only processing every tenth word he said. My grades suffered because I couldn’t keep my teenage mind focused. I had been mortified when my underwear were damp and messy after he lectured in my Principles of Math course. I was wet for him every damn day for an entire year, until he left for bigger and better things, leaving me behind in shithole New Jersey. If he is teaching this course, I am definitely in big trouble. I glance around the room swearing others can hear my heart beating.

  “Good morning, class.”

  Fifty-five voices responded in unison, including mine, although I’m sure no actual words came out of my mouth. His voice coated me in nostalgia like warm tea with lemon and honey, both tart and sweet, reminding me why I worked my ass off to get out of my shithole town. Nobody would want a dumb girl like me and, as my parents often reminded me, I was going nowhere fast. I stare at Jack Hamilton, admiring his smart-fitting suit, which probably cost as much as my first semester tuition. Navy pinstripe jacket and pants… He definitely is not a tweed man and, for that, I am thankful. His shocking blond hair is cut close to his head, and his bright blue eyes suck me in. Shelby would probably say they were “azure pools of ecstasy”, but all I really want right now is to slink down in my seat and slip away. I have become an embarrassing puddle of teen crush and disappointment. I can feel the damning clench of my stomach as he goes on to tell us why he is taking over for Dr. Roth and that he is glad to be back teaching this semester. I sure as hell wasn’t. I didn’t even know he was an adjunct here. He is screwing with my average grade mojo and my ability to blend in and get through this necessary evil known as college. How am I supposed to concentrate on passing this class when all I can think about is going back to my apartment after class, sliding my fingers down my pants to part my damp lips, imagining him kissing and licking me. Ugh, this isn’t going to end well for me. It never did. Here he was, going on and on about internal and external validity measures, while I just want to push past students to get to him, knocking over that stupid podium to rip his jacket off and have my way with him. I must be absolutely crazy. Mental illness must run in my family and now I can confirm I had it, too, because I am panting and hot for the teacher. Cursing my luck, I might as well have the fucking flu.

  “Alright, class. Here’s today’s quiz assignment. You’ll have until the end of class to complete it,” the annoying TA says in his nasally voice, passing blue books and test sheets to those of us sitting at the end of the rows. Great. Freaking great. I wasted the entire class daydreaming about climbing on top of Professor Jack Hamilton, and Daniel Munson, the freak TA, is pushing a book in my face. There is no way I’ll be able to concentrate, let alone answer these questions. As the minutes tick by, nothing substantial is scratched onto the pages. I close the book, grab my bag, and stand to leave.

  “Times up.” Daniel smiles and snatches the book from my hand, adding it to his pile, walking away.

  Students file past me down the risers of the classroom lecture hall, one clipping me in the shoulder and mumbling an insincere apology. Yeah, I’m not sorry, either. At least I’m not knocking them down for real, just in my stupid fantasy. I try to get out of there as quickly as I can, squeezing my eyes shut and praying he’d just forget who I am and what had happened between us all those years ago.

  “Edith Willows, I need to speak with you for a moment, please.” His deep voice penetrates my head. Shit. Like a zombie, I turn around and shuffle back. Karma really has it out for me in this life, doesn’t she? What a little bitch.

  Jack

  I stop in the cafeteria prior to my class to pick up a cup of coffee and grab my student roster from Dean Andrews. I pay for the chalky brew, and I now remember why I always got coffee near my place and never on campus. I walk down the hall, passing students eager to start their day, and read over the list of fifty-five names I will be instructing for the last few weeks of the semester. None of the names ring a bell…until I get to the end of the list. Edith Willows. I reread the list twice, figuring it had to be a coincidence. Rutgers is an enormous campus with several thousand students. It is impossible for it to be her. I want it so badly to not be her, the one who stopped me from pursuing teaching.

  I go to my classroom and meet Daniel Munson, the TA and senior Calculus major, by the door. After a brief greeting, I walk past him into the classroom. He is checking names off the attendance list. Of course, he is near the end and I catch his call for Edith Willows. I set my bag and coffee down, looking into the risers of the lecture hall. A head peeks up, all dark glossy hair and big brown eyes set in a pale face that looks almost as horrified as I feel when she meets my gaze. Immediately, I look away and reach into my bag, grabbing my notes for today’s lecture. There is no way it can be her, but it is, I know it is. Taking a deep breath, I make sure I stand behind the podium and instruct Daniel when I want him to write something on the board for me.

  I am more than capable of doing it myself, but the problem is that I am sporting the kind of wood only freshman boys do when they catch their first glance at a naked co-ed. Edith Willows had tormented me when I was student teaching at her high school almost six years ago. I had fast-tracked through college, thinking I wanted to teach math full-time. Then I saw Edith and all hell broke loose with my anatomy. It was possibly the worst year of my life. So much so, I minored in business and started my own company so I would never be tempted in the classroom, the way Edith tempted me. I was ashamed by my own attraction to her and, admittedly, I wasn’t very nice or kind to her back then because of my fears. All I had to do was stay away from her, get my teaching credits, and get the hell out of there, but I fucked that all up.

  Edith Willows had a way about her, the tough girl who always looked ready to shatter into a million pieces. I knew the kids in her school teased her and bullied her quite a bit as she was a loner with a less-than-friendly attitude. Her family lived in a trailer park on the edge of town. Her daddy was a well-known drunk and beat the shit out of her mother, who was always equally drunk. I never knew how Edith made it to school every day. She was always late to my class, sneaking in the back unnoticed and finding reasons to cut out early. I felt bad for her and, as long as she was quiet and turned in her homework, I didn’t have it in me to send her to the principal’s office. I never saw her as college material, so the joke’s on me for assuming she wouldn’t amount to much. I figured she would follow in her parents’ drunken footsteps. But here she is now, sitting in a senior math class. Good girl, I thought, until I realize I need to not have any thoughts about her, good or bad, if I am going to get through this. I can’t exactly call Dean Andrews and back out of teaching this class without a legitimate reason.

  I really need to forget about Edith. It was the same dynamic nearly six years ago and I am not going to lose everything simply because my dick wants something it can’t have. I finish the rest of the class by giving the students the assigned quiz Dr. Roth had left before his medical leave. Daniel, my puppy dog TA, shoved a paper at me, while students scribble out answers to the questions.

  “Professor Hamilton, this is a list of the students who are averaging a C grade or less. Dr. Roth asked me to prepare it before he went on medical leave.” Daniel’s voice pitches at the end and it grates on my nerves for some reason.

  “Any of them on scholarship that might be in jeopardy? The Registrar’s office usually includes that information so we can let them know if they haven’t looked up their grades already.”

  “Just one, sir. Edith Willows.” Damn. Of course. How else would Edith be able to get out of her current situation?

  “Alright, Daniel. I will address it. Just collect the quizzes for me.” The last thing I want to do is have a conversation with a student who I want naked and panting with her legs around me. I watch Daniel take Edith’s quiz first, gleefully moving onto the next student. TA’s were always an oddity to me, even now as a professor. I can see Edith is tense as Daniel
takes the blue booklet from her fingers. She hesitates letting go before he snaps his wrist, wrestling it from her grasp. I need to see if Dean Andrews will let me pick a new TA. Daniel irritates me and I don’t want him touching Edith, even if I have no say in the matter.

  Staying behind the podium as some of my students file out, I call, “Edith Willows, I need to speak with you for a moment, please.” Brat keeps walking like she doesn’t hear me. “Miss Willows.” I use my most authoritative voice and watch her stop, standing in the doorway as students brush past her. She takes a step back and I can see her thin, skin-tight jeans lovingly molding to her ass. Guess I’m staying behind the podium, I thought, taking a deep breath.

  “Y-yes?” She turns toward me, slowly walking over to where I am. Time had generously filled Edith out in all the right places, and circumstances seemed to have molded her, as well. I notice her hair is a lot longer, and she is wearing it in a thick braid that makes me think of wrapping it around my hand and holding her down as I take her from behind. If I am going to get through the next few weeks, I need to stop thinking about her ass. This podium is going to be my new best friend. In fact, I really need to get a handle on that image because I can see my dominant bedroom behaviors coming out and getting me fired.

  “Miss Willows, it’s nice to see you again.” Very nice indeed, I thought. I sway my hips behind the podium a little, trying not to make it obvious I need to adjust things below.

  “Sure. Yeah, I guess. I didn’t know you taught here.” Edith pushes her braid back, the tail of it catches over her shoulder, letting the length touch the top of her breast. Edith is average in height, but there is a vulnerability I sense in her. I both like it and hate it, which confuses me.

  “Only when the dean asks to me to step in. I’d hoped to teach full-time someday.” But you, you little beauty, ruined me for it, my brain echoes.