Temptation - Chapter 47
Monday
Melissa came in the door with two bags. She kicked the door closed with her foot and put her backpack on the ground.
"Hey, Melissa."
"Hey! Wow, you look a lot better, Penny. Did you take a nap or something?"
"Yeah," I sighed. "And I do feel a lot better."
"Okay, this one is yours." She tossed me one of the bags as she sat down beside me on my bed.
"Thanks for picking up dinner." I opened up the container and snapped my chopsticks apart.
"So how did your conversation with Tyler go?"
Tyler. I felt sick to my stomach thinking about him. I had treated him so horribly. I twirled a noodle around my chopsticks. "Not great."
"Did you tell him about James?"
"He found out on his own. James tried to call me while Tyler had my phone."
"Oh. Well, he's dating someone else too. He couldn't have been that upset."
"But it wasn't just that I was dating someone else.
It was that I had lied about it to him. I kept using getting over Austin as an excuse to not date Tyler, when really I was seeing James the whole time.
I should have told him right away." Just like I should have told you.
Maybe I should have let Professor Hunter stay to explain things.
"What did Tyler say to you?"
"I hurt him, Melissa. He hates me."
"I'm sorry, Penny."
Things with Professor Hunter were great, but I had lost one of my closest friends in the process.
Even though I had told Tyler I only wanted to be friends, I had lied to him about the reason why.
And then I almost jumped into bed with Tyler as soon as there was a glitch in my relationship with Professor Hunter. What is wrong with me?
As if hearing my question to myself, Melissa said, "Okay I have to ask. What is going on with you? Dating two guys at once is really not like you."
"No, it's not at all. I guess I was going back and forth in my head just because I was mad at James. I've never had such an instant connection with anyone before. It's really hard to explain."
"When we went through the pro con list between James and Tyler, Tyler clearly won. But I could tell that you wanted to be with James. I get it. Either there's that connection or there isn't."
I nodded.
"There's one thing I'm still confused about, though. Why didn't you just tell Tyler you were seeing someone else right away? Were you worried you were going to hurt his feelings?"
On paper, Tyler had won. Why hadn't I just told him I was seeing someone, without saying it was Professor Hunter?
Because I told Melissa that I was dating someone else.
It was because I knew I could see myself with Tyler too.
I really could. I had been keeping him as a backup plan. I was an awful person.
"I never really believed James could possibly like someone like me. I thought our relationship was doomed from the start. I think I wanted Tyler to like me. Because I knew he would be great to date too. Please don't think less of me. Tyler was my backup plan."
Melissa laughed. "Everyone has a backup, Penny. I don't think anyone has ever made Tyler a backup before though, because he is damn sexy." She paused. "Sorry."
I looked down at my food. "Do you think he'll ever want to be my friend again?"
"Penny, I don't really think men and women can be friends. I already told the two of you this when you were both pretending to be friends. Someone always wants more, and in this case you both wanted more. Unless Tyler is gay. If he's gay, you guys can be friends."
"He's definitely not gay."
"Then you were never just friends and never can be just friends. Besides, if you ever wanted to get serious with James, he would probably get jealous if you were friends with another guy."
Professor Hunter was jealous. He had asked me on our first date not to see Tyler anymore. Melissa was so good at stuff like this. I should have been talking to her about everything from the start.
"Okay, so what happened with your speech today then? You said you were mad?"
It was time to tell her now. I swallowed hard. "Remember when I slept over James' apartment last week?"
Melissa nodded.
"When I woke up I wanted to change into clean clothes." I tried not to blush. I had actually been naked and needed something to wear. "So I borrowed a shirt from one of his drawers and I found his wedding ring."
Melissa stared at me. I thought she was waiting for me to say just kidding or something. When I didn't, she said, "What an asshole. Oh my God! And I convinced you to try and work things out with him? Why didn't you tell me, Penny?!"
"I was embarrassed. I was so mortified. I felt like it was partially my fault and I felt so guilty. But your advice was actually good. Because when I talked to him on Saturday I found out that he had left his wife. He filed for divorce last year."
"So they're divorced? Well that's a relief, you little home-wrecker." Melissa smiled.
My stomach knotted. "The divorce isn't official yet. Apparently she won't sign the papers."
Melissa scrunched her mouth to the side. I could tell that she still thought Professor Hunter was sleazy. She definitely didn't approve. But she didn't know how sincere he was when he talked to me. He didn't love his soon to be ex-wife.
"Are you sure he's telling you the truth?" she asked.
"Well, that brings me to this morning. It really seemed like he was, but I wanted to look it up to make sure. And I found an interview with his wife saying that everything was fine between them. So I freaked out."
"You need to learn how to control your temper, Penny. I get being upset, but ruining your Comm speech because of it? You probably failed."
"It would have been easy to get over before my speech if I didn't have to see him while I was giving it."
"I thought you said he wasn't in your class?"
"He isn't exactly." I took a deep breath. "He teaches it. James is the guy from the coffee shop. He's Professor Hunter."
Melissa laughed. "Right, like you'd date a professor."
I stared back at her.
Melissa's jaw dropped. "You're shitting me, Penny?"
"Ever since meeting him in the coffee shop I couldn't stop thinking about him. And seeing him in class three times a week made it impossible to get over him."
Melissa just stared at me.
"I wanted to tell you right away, but if anyone found out, we might get in trouble.
And he came over today after my meltdown in class.
He promised me that he was telling the truth about his wife.
And I believe him. If you could have seen how upset he was that I was mad at him.
.. He would never hurt me." I knew I was rambling but Melissa was still just staring at me.
"He asked me to be his girlfriend. And I said yes.
I know it probably sounds crazy, but I want to be with him. Melissa, please say something."
"Well it makes sense now."
"What?"
"Dating James is against the rules. Tyler was a safe choice, but you wanted a bad boy."
"That's not true." Was it true? I found Professor Hunter irresistible. Was I drawn to him because he wasn't good for me?
"Your boyfriend is a married professor. And you're a student. So, yes, I think you could classify him as a bad boy. Penny, bad boys are exciting, but they are always the wrong choice. Haven't you ever seen a romantic comedy?"
"Melissa, you don't even know him. He makes me so happy. He's wonderful." And sexy and dangerous. Oh my God, I've fallen for a bad boy.
"He makes you miserable, Penny! You've been a mess this whole past week. I've never seen you this upset and crazy before."
"Because I love him! And I was heartbroken when I thought it was over."
"I'm sorry, I am. I don't want to be judging you, but..."
"Then don't. Just be happy for me."
Melissa scrunched her face to the side again. "I'm sorry. I am happy for you. So you really love him, huh?"
"Yes." I smiled.
"I need to meet him."
"Okay, you can definitely meet him now. He almost stayed today but I told him I needed to talk to you first."
"Thanks. I would not have appreciated being blindsided with this. I can't believe you're dating your professor!"
"And you can't tell anyone, Melissa."
"That's going to be hard."
"Trust me, I know how hard it is."
"I can't even tell Josh?"
"Hopefully he doesn't already know. I haven't asked Tyler not to tell anyone yet. But if Josh doesn't know, please don't tell him."
"Wait, Tyler knows that James is Professor Hunter? He doesn't just think you're dating someone?"
"No, he knows."
"You have to text him. Like now. He's probably bad mouthing you to the whole frat."
"I don't think he'd do that."
"Text him, Penny."
I grabbed my phone off my desk and quickly typed out a message to Tyler.
"Tyler, I'm really sorry about everything.
If you could please not tell anyone about Professor Hunter though, I'd really appreciate it.
I'm hoping that we can still be friends.
" I pressed send. Tyler thought I was no longer with Professor Hunter.
If he knew I was with Professor Hunter again, he definitely wouldn't ever speak to me again.
I put my phone back down on the desk. I just wanted to be happy about Professor Hunter asking me to be his girlfriend.
Dealing with everything else made it hard for me to be excited, though.