Chapter 14
Poppy
Ipark my car on the street in front of Nick’s house for our first official tutoring session together.
It’s been a handful of days since I last saw him at his teammate’s house party. Since then, I can’t get him out of my head.
Probably because it was one of the hottest nights of my life…and we didn’t even do anything. Not even a kiss.
But pretending to have sex with him was such a turn-on. It felt like foreplay with how much it aroused me. I can’t stop thinking about it. About the sounds he made, the filthy things he said, the way his skin flushed.
Even now, just thinking about it makes my tummy flip. I feel that familiar faint pulse between my thighs.
Every night, I’ve thought about Nick. Every night, I’ve been tempted to grab my favorite vibrator and masturbate to the memory of our fake sex session.
But I’ve always stopped myself. Because it feels wrong to think of him in such a lustful way. He’s not my real boyfriend, so I have no right to defile him in my sexual fantasies.
A small pang of guilt hits my chest. What a perverted thought to have about him.
I push away those naughty thoughts and refocus. I’m here to tutor him so he can pass his College Algebra class.
I hop out of my car with my backpack, walk up to the front door, and knock. A few moments later, Nick opens the door.
His mouth slants up in a half-smile. “Hey there, hot tutor.”
I roll my eyes and walk inside. “Quit calling me that.”
“Never.”
I try not to smile as he closes the door and leads me inside. That nervous feeling inside of me fades. He’s acting totally normal, completely unbothered by what we did Saturday night.
His teammates Travis, Blake, and Leo are all sitting in the living room, on their laptops. They all say hi.
“They’re studying too,” Nick says as I follow him to the kitchen.
I see a small box of the preferred brand of herbal tea I drink on his kitchen counter.
“I didn’t know you liked tea,” I say.
“I don’t. I got that for you. It’s still your favorite, right? I remember you drank it a lot in high school.”
A warm feeling swoops through me. I had no idea he knew that was my favorite.
“Yeah,” I say softly.
He fills an electric tea kettle and grabs a mug from the cupboard. “I figured I should have my girlfriend’s favorite beverage on hand when she comes over.”
My tummy flips at how sweet and thoughtful it is for him to do that.
It doesn’t mean anything. He’s doing it because you’re fake dating and he’s trying to make it look real.
I ignore that flicker of disappointment in my chest. After my tea is ready, Nick grabs the mug, and I follow him back out to the living room and into his bedroom. He closes the door and sets the tea mug at his desk against the wall.
I sit down in the chair while he sits on the dining chair he brought in from their kitchen table.
“So. What are you having trouble with in college algebra?” I ask while pulling out a notebook and my laptop from my backpack.
He runs his massive hand through his thick, messy hair. “Everything.”
He shows me the last two quizzes he took. He scored Ds on both of them. I look over the problems that he got wrong.
“Okay, so it looks like you’re having issues with quadratic functions and equations.”
“To say the least,” he says softly.
I look over and offer what I hope is an encouraging smile. “It’s okay. I promise this is fixable. Why don’t we work through a few of the problems you got wrong on these quizzes, and I’ll show you how to do them correctly?”
For the next twenty minutes, I show Nick how to correctly solve three problems. He seems to understand more each time we tackle a different problem.
I hand him a pencil. “Here, why don’t you try to solve this one by yourself?”
After a couple of minutes, he solves it correctly.
I beam at him. “You got it right.”
He grins. “I did?”
“Yeah. Nice work.”
He gazes down at the notebook, still smiling. “The way you explained it makes it way easier to understand.”
“Algebra was my favorite math subject in school.” I take a sip of the lemon mint herbal tea Nick made for me.
“You’re a genius,” he teases for the millionth time.
I chuckle. “I’m not a genius.”
“Okay, well, you’re a really great tutor. The way you work through it makes a lot more sense than how my professor did it.”
We go through his other quiz and work through a few more problems. He’s able to solve most of them correctly by himself.
We work through a tough one together when he gets stuck. After I show him the correct formula to use, he solves it.
When he pumps his fist in the air in triumph, I chuckle.
“I had no idea it could feel so good to get a math problem correct,” he says.
“You’re doing so well, Nick. Great job.”
I pull up a short practice quiz I found online and hand it to him. “Give these a try. I’ll give you twenty minutes and see how many you can do.”
While Nick sits at his desk and works through the equations, I skim through a reading assignment for one of my classes.
When he finishes, I check his quiz and see that he got all but one correct.
When I hand him the quiz and he sees the score at the top of the paper, his eyes go wide.
“Seriously? I got almost all of them right?”
I beam. “You did. Amazing job.”
He holds the paper in his hands and stares at it, still smiling, like he can’t believe it.
He looks up at me. “It’s all because of you. You’re the best teacher I’ve ever had, Poppy.”
I start to shake my head, but he stops me.
“I’m serious. You’re better than any math professor I’ve had, Poppy. You’re so good at this.”
I beam at his compliment. “It’s probably just because we’re working one-on-one together. Most people perform better with one-on-one instruction.”
He shakes his head. “Professor Wilcox could teach me all day one-on-one, and I still wouldn’t get it. You’re a million times better than he is.”
We take a break to grab a snack. Nick brings in some fruit for us to share. He sips a protein shake he just made. “Have you thought about going into teaching?” he asks. “I know you’re a tutor at the college, but what about after you graduate?”
I shake my head as I finish a kiwi. “My plan is to go to law school and be a lawyer. I won’t have time to teach.”
“That’s too bad. I mean, you’re going to be a badass lawyer, but it sucks that you can’t be a teacher too.”
There’s a faint tug in my chest when I think about how much I’ll miss teaching once I’m in law school and practicing law.
“Maybe I can teach at a law school after working for a few years,” I say, a little sad. That probably won’t be for several years, though.
“I just think people would love to learn from you. You’re so smart and patient,” Nick says.
I take a bite of an apple, smiling as I chew. Hearing Nick shower me with compliments is the boost I didn’t know I needed.
“I have a YouTube channel where I teach random stuff,” I say quietly.
Nick beams at me. “You do?”
I nod.
“Can you show me?”
Nerves flicker in my tummy as I pull up my channel on my laptop, even though he’s already so supportive of me as a tutor.
But he’s never seen my channel. It’s pretty nerdy. He might think it’s so lame.
The second he sees the homepage, his eyes go wide. “This is awesome,” he says, grinning.
“Really?”
“Yeah.” He scrolls through the videos, fixated on the screens. “Damn, you cover every topic. History, math, literature, politics, science.”
He turns to me, his gaze bright, like my channel is the most impressive thing he’s ever seen. That warm feeling inside of me spreads.
He clicks on a video and starts watching it, but I close my laptop screen.
“Hey. Why’d you do that?” He lets out a surprised laugh.
“You’re not watching that in front of me. I’m too self-conscious.”
He just grins. “Fine. I’ll binge-watch all of your videos tonight after you leave.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. I’m gonna make some popcorn and watch all of them.”
I try and fail to fight the massive grin pulling at my lips. “It’s not that impressive. You’ll get bored.”
There’s a teasing flash in his rich brown eyes as he looks at me. “I definitely won’t.”
I check the time. “I should go.” I stand up. “And you really shouldn’t spend the night watching my videos. You have an algebra quiz test to study for this week.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll study plenty.”
I pack up my stuff, and Nick walks me out of the house. We stand on the porch together.
“Is it totally lame that I’m excited to take that algebra test?” he says through a handsome smile.
“No, it’s sweet.”
“I think I’m gonna do a lot better after this tutoring session with you.”
I smile. “Text me and let me know how you do.” I walk down the steps.
“I will. Right after I check out your channel.”
I turn around and see that cocky smile on his face. He’s unfairly handsome, and it drives me nuts.
But I kind of like it too.
“You’d better not. You need to study.”
“I’ll study and watch your videos.”
I chuckle and shake my head as I walk off. “Bye, Nick.”
“Bye, hot tutor.”
The whole drive home, I can’t stop thinking about how excited Nick was to watch my videos…and quietly hoping that he likes them.