Chapter 8 Lila
Lila
As the rest of the week passed by, I slowly was able to push Jace from my mind and focus on the beginning of the semester. I lectured, held office hours, and advised my students.
Cam Keene looked like a slacker, slouching in his chair in the back of class and seemingly focused on whatever he was doing on his laptop. But when I called on him, he always had the right answer. He also got a perfect score on the quiz I gave on Wednesday.
Looks could be deceiving, I guess.
When I walked into my Criminology 101 class on Friday, I was greeted with another fruit on my desk. This time it was an orange, and the note was even more suggestive than the first one.
Some vitamin C to help boost your immune system, just in case you have some sleepless nights in the near future.
-J
I refrained from looking at him, but I could feel him smiling down at me from his seat. I walked across the lecture stage to retrieve a wastebasket, carried it back to my desk, and slid the orange and the note into the trash.
When I glanced up at him this time, he was frowning.
Good.
“Close your laptops if you have them open, and take out a sheet of paper,” I announced. “We’re going to have a quick quiz to review this week’s reading.”
There were a few groans in the class. I made a point of staring up at Jace, as if to say that his flirting was the reason for the pop quiz. He slowly shook his head and tore a sheet of paper out of his notebook.
After collecting everyone’s quiz answers, I launched into my lecture and only thought about Jace a handful of times. When class was over, I quickly packed my things and hurried out of the classroom before Jace could flirt with me some more.
I was almost back to my office when I rounded a corner and nearly ran into Professor Galloway.
“Woah there,” he said. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
Thinking quickly, I said, “I need to get to my next class, and it’s over in the Crawford Building. I’m just stopping by my office real quick.”
Galloway fell into step next to me. “How was your first week of the semester?”
“Very well, actually,” I said. “I’m happy with all my classes.”
“I feel the same!” he replied cheerfully. “I often find that the spring semester is slow to begin, because students are sluggish after the holidays. But I am quite pleased with the quality of students I have. They’re not always this bright. Aren’t we lucky?”
A student brushed past on the other side of Galloway, and before seeing him I knew from his cologne or deodorant or whatever that it was Jace. He glanced over and gave me a private little wink that the other professor couldn’t see.
While watching him shove his hands in his jacket pockets and walk away, I said, “We are lucky indeed.”
One of my favorite routines from the previous semester was treating myself to a drink at a local bar after my last class on Friday.
Frankie’s was the bar I liked the most, because it was one block away from campus, next to the parking garage where I parked for class.
I found an empty barstool and waved to the bartender when he glanced my way.
“Gin and tonic.”
He stared at me for a few seconds, then said, “Coming right up.” I pulled out the quizzes from class today and a red pen. Grading papers or tests always went faster when I did it at the bar. It felt like less of a chore.
While making my drink, the bartender kept glancing over at me. Eventually, I realized how he knew me—and how I knew him.
“One gin and tonic,” he said, placing a tumbler glass in front of me.
“You’re Brock Radley, right?” I asked. “From my Criminology class?”
His smile was almost apologetic. “Evening, Professor Carrington.”
“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised about running into students in a college town.” But something about his face was tickling another memory. A few heartbeats later, it fell into place.
“Wait. You’re the guy who… shit. You’re friends with Jace Strickland.”
He planted both palms on the counter and cocked his head at me. “I wouldn’t say we’re friends. I just met him in class on Monday.”
“Yeah, well, you’re friendly enough to know about our situation. Or am I wrong?”
“None of my business,” he replied bluntly.
Sighing, I lifted my bag into my lap and started putting away my papers. “I’ll take the check.”
“Where are you going?”
“To find another bar.”
“Hey, wait,” Brock said. “You really don’t have to do that. I don’t care about whatever dumb situation happened between you and Jace. I’m just a bartender, and you’re just a customer. Besides, there’s no check to bring. That drink’s on the house.”
“Is that a bribe?”
“Depends on what you give me on the quiz.”
He held my gaze a moment later, then went down to the other end of the bar to help two sorority girls who had just sat down. He seemed genuine about not caring about the situation with Jace, so I decided to stay and enjoy the drink.
As I went back to grading quizzes, I occasionally glanced over at Brock. He had jet-black hair and a full, but short-cut, beard. He was broad-shouldered and carried himself like an athlete. And, like Jace, he seemed older than the rest of the Freshmen in my class.
“How’s the drink?” he asked a few minutes later.
“It’s excellent. How old are you, Brock?”
He blinked, then answered: “Twenty-six. I’m the one who’s supposed to be checking your age, though.”
I chuckled wryly. “I didn’t have any older students in the fall semester. Now I’ve got you and Jace, who’s twenty-seven.”
Brock snorted. “It goes both ways: I was expecting some gray-haired former cop with a beer belly to be my Criminology professor. And I didn’t think I’d still be in school by this age. It’s a long story. But I’ll graduate before I’m thirty, which is something, I guess.”
“Professor Galloway doesn’t have a beer belly,” I said, “but he’s a former detective with gray hair. You’ll probably have him next year.”
“I’m actually in his Forensic Science class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He’s not bad.”
“He knows his stuff,” I agreed. Then, a moment later, I said what was really on my mind. “You know I cut things off with him.”
“Professor Galloway?”
“I… no. I meant Jace. I don’t date students, let alone students in my class.”
Brock was silent a moment, then asked, “How’d he take it?”
“Stubbornly, actually.”
Brock grinned. “He seems like the stubborn type.”
“I just wish he would drop it. He’s leaving me notes in class, along with fruit. There’s an entire campus full of women who would happily go out with him. I don’t see why he’s obsessed with me.”
“Normally, I would tell the woman sitting in your barstool that she’s incredibly beautiful, and that’s why this guy likes her. But you’re my professor, so I would never say that, of course.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Of course.”
The guy next to me ordered a beer. Brock retrieved a pint glass and started pulling the beer, then resumed chatting with me. “Honestly, though, it’s probably the forbidden nature of the relationship.”
“Is that all it takes?” I mused. “If you tell a boy he can’t have something, it makes him want it even more?”
“Yes, that’s all it takes,” Brock replied while giving the other guy his beer.
He planted his palms on the bar, which made his arm muscles pop a little.
“I have some relevant experience there. When I was a high school senior, I started hooking up with the basketball team’s athletic assistant.
I was eighteen, don’t worry. She was twenty-two.
The forbidden aspect is what made it so hot. ”
I started to say that maybe he was just attracted to older women, but then stopped myself. That’s what I would say if I wanted to flirt with Brock. Which I definitely didn’t want.
“The crazy part was that I wasn’t really attracted to her,” Brock continued. “We didn’t have anything in common. She wasn’t my type. But hooking up with her was borderline scandalous, so we had this insane chemistry. The fact that we weren’t allowed to do it was what made it fun.”
“Well, hopefully Jace gets bored with bombarding me with fruit,” I muttered. “Thanks for the perspective.”
He pointed at me. “You’re welcome to repay me with an A on today’s quiz.”
I plucked his quiz out from the stack and slid it across the bar. “Too late. You already earned an A the harder way.”
Brock grinned. “The next gin and tonic is on the house, too.”
I decided it wouldn’t hurt to let him make me another drink.