4. Salem
I shifted my backpack to my other shoulder and finished my smoothie before I tossed the plastic cup into the trash. Jogging up the steps to the library, I mentally tallied how much I needed to accomplish before I would be ready to launch my business full-time.
I pulled the glass door of the library open and held it for another student.
She smiled at me and winked over her shoulder as she passed through.
I watched as she put an extra sway in her hips as she walked.
Shorty was bad as hell in those denim cutoff shorts and cropped off-the-shoulder CSU sweatshirt.
Wraparound sandals with a tiny heel wrapped up her shins and calves.
Her long, auburn ponytail bounced with each step she took and swayed from side to side, brushing her ass.
I shook my head and chuckled. Why were women such a tease these days?
I loved my women with their natural beauty.
They didn’t need extra hair and ridiculously long nails to get my attention.
I preferred a woman who was confident in her beauty, however God blessed her with it.
Maybe that shit worked for these other little young college boys, but I wasn’t a traditional student. I had spent too much time in the streets to differentiate between what was real and what was fake.
Nah, I preferred a strong woman who didn’t play games or try to tease every man she passed for a little attention. I preferred women like the one who was walking my way and wasn’t paying a damn bit of attention to where she was walking.
She wasn’t what most might normally consider short, although she was exactly a foot shorter than I was. I only knew that because of an experiment that she conducted at the beginning of the semester about people’s perceptions based on looks.
She was studying something and pushed the wireless glasses up the bridge of her nose. Another student walked past her and spoke, and she smiled that beautiful smile of hers that showed off that slight overbite.
Professor Pisces, as I liked to call her, looked back down into the book she was studying and kept walking. My eyes dropped to take in her hips and thighs in the jeans she wore. She wasn’t a big woman, but rather petite. And still, in spite of that, she was curvy.
The CSU T-shirt she wore molded to her body, showing off the curve of her breasts and a flat tummy. She didn’t need to show an inch of skin to be fine and beautiful, and she knew it. Her curly hair was pulled up into a messy ponytail on top of her head.
“Professor H,” I called out, trying to warn her that she was about to collide with me. There were rails on either side of us, and I couldn’t move to the left or right. I could only keep going.
“Professor H,” I called again. I didn’t want to get too loud because we were in a library, after all. I tried to speak loud enough for her to hear me. She still kept her nose buried in her book, and that was when I realized that she wore AirPods in her ears. She couldn’t hear me.
I put my hands out to brace for impact.
“Umph!” She huffed when she collided with me. I quickly moved my hands from her arms down to my sides. She removed the AirPods from her ears.
Her almond-shaped, chocolate brown eyes widened. “Mr. Gates.”
“I tried calling your name, but you had the AirPods in.”
“I’m sorry. I was listening to my notes to get inspiration for a debate I’m planning for next week.”
“It’s all good.”
She nodded and looked all around at everything except for me. She appeared to be uncomfortable, and when I looked around, I saw a few people glancing our way. I assumed it had something to do with our unavoidable collision.
“Hey, I’ve noticed things have been a bit tense in class. That’s not what I wanted to happen. That job’s just a little side hustle I’ve got going on the side, and Chelsea pays nicely for the job.”
“You don’t have to explain to me. That’s your business. She tried to warn me, but I missed her text messages.”
“Would you still have come if you’d known that I was going to be the model?”
She dipped her head down shyly and answered me. “No. It would have been unprofessional and unethical.”
“Is that why you didn’t return last night? Is that why things have been tense in class between us?”
“Nothing has changed in class. I assure you that there’s no tension between us.”
“I feel like there is. I mean, you don’t even joke with me in class the way you used to, and you avoid calling on me for answers.”
“Mr. Gates, I have?—”
“Shhh!” The librarian loudly shushed us when Professor Hall raised her voice a little louder.
“Follow me.”
“No.”
“Follow me, or I’ll make a scene,” I threatened in a low tone before I pulled back and winked at her.
Her eyes ballooned, and I wondered if she really was as scared as she seemed, or if it was all my imagination. She set the book down on a table. I turned and headed back in the direction that I had come from, making my way out of the library.
When I jogged down the steps, I turned to see her still standing up there, staring down at me. I crooked my hand, she rolled her eyes, but she finally came down the steps.
She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and stared at me. “What is it that you want, Mr. Gates?”
“You seemed a bit uncomfortable in there. I thought I would get you out of there so you could relax a bit without all the eyes on us. Not be so damn uptight.”
“I’m not uptight. But I do have a job to do, Mr. Gates.”
“Would you stop with all that Mr. Gates shit? We’re both adults. You can call me Salem.”
Shaking her head, her ponytail released a few strands. “No, I’m fine as things are.”
“We aren’t in the classroom.”
“What was it that you wanted?” she asked pointedly.
“Why don’t you join me for a cup of coffee?”
“No. Why would I do that?”
“Why wouldn’t you? We need to figure out a way for us to exist in the same space without the discomfort and tension that’s been created since you saw my dick again. Guess it’s got you feeling a way and reminiscing and shit.”
Her honey-colored skin turned a deep shade of red, and she quickly averted her eyes.
“I’m sure that we have nothing more to discuss.”
“See, I think that’s where you’re wrong.
I’m certain that you want to meet up with me for this coffee.
I mean, after all, you skipped art class.
And people are going to start talking soon if they notice that you continue avoiding calling on me in class.
I just want things to go back to the way they were before you remembered I was a card-carrying member of the NWBDS. ”
“NWBDS?”
“Yeah. Niggas with big dicks society.”
I knew that I was doing too much. But I loved seeing the way that she blushed. It was cute and shit the way she turned red, and her eyes widened. She looked around as if she were looking for an escape as she replied, “There’s nothing more to discuss.”
I folded my arms over my chest and cocked my head at an angle. “See, I’ma have to test you on that. Because if you don’t return to Chelsea’s classes, then I’ma have to call you out on that in your class, Professor Pisces.”
“I’ll be in class,” she replied with a fiery attitude as she lifted her chin.
“I have your word on it?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s shake on it.” I extended my hand, and she extended hers. When I took her hand, I clasped it firmly and shook it. When I finished, I slowly caressed the center of her palm with my thumb as I licked my lips and winked at her. “See ya tomorrow night, Professor P.”