Chapter 4 #3
“You too,” he says with a crooked little smile. “Keep in touch.”
I think my voice will be squeaky if I speak again, so I just nod, and when I walk away to meet my roommates, my heart is still thumping loudly in my chest.
Dominic
Good luck on your first day of classes.
Me
Thanks! You too!
Dominic
And in case you’re missing home too much, I sneaked a pic of this guy while I was walking to campus. On a scale of one to ten, how much does he look like Mayor Monroe?
Me
Oh wow. Ten. ELEVEN! Mayor Monroe is taller.
Dominic
Might have to tell him he has a twin running around over here.
My first day of classes is about what I expect. Syllabus after syllabus after syllabus, class expectations, professor introductions. Everything I knew I’d be seeing.
The only surprise comes when I get to my last class of the day: Intro to Engineering.
It takes place in a stuffy lecture hall, not a giant auditorium but still full with maybe fifty students. The professor is at the front of the room, a slight but stern-looking man with glasses and gray hair. Two TAs are crouched over a desk off to the side, heads ducked, papers in hand.
When the professor starts class, his voice is loud and authoritative even though he’s not using a mic, and I can hear him perfectly all the way in the back row.
“I’m Professor Sallow. This is the Introduction to Engineering course—let me introduce you to your TAs, and then we’ll take roll. If you’re hoping to add the class, please come see me after. We always have a handful who drop it in the first week, so we can probably make room for you.”
Professor Sallow waves off to the side for the TAs, and they hurry to stand next to him.
“This is Jeffrey Gulliver,” he says, gesturing to the one who’s closest. “He’ll be responsible for students with last names M–Z.”
But I barely register what the professor is saying, or what Jeffrey Gulliver looks like, because my eyes have snagged on the other TA—the one who now switches places with Jeffrey and stands directly next to Professor Sallow.
“And this is Dominic Harper,” the professor says. “He’ll be responsible for students with last names A–L. Everybody say hello, please.”
A low mumble of hellos ripples through the room, and the TAs nod at us. Dominic is slightly less casual than he was a few evenings ago; he’s wearing jeans that are less faded this afternoon, and there’s not a baseball cap in sight. His hair is less messy, too.
He still looks like he could build an entire house from the ground up by himself. It’s something about him, the way his shirt stretches over his broad chest or the calluses on his hands that I can’t see but know are there.
The girl next to me giggles and whispers something to the girl on her other side, and she’s not the only one; a soft murmur rises and hovers above us as everyone recognizes what I already knew: that even with his straight face and businesslike expression, Dominic Harper is hot.
Handsome. Sexy. All of those things. He is easy on the eyes and then some.
And he must know it. I don’t see how anyone could miss the effect he has, the sudden wave of interest that comes over the small auditorium.
But he doesn’t react, doesn’t even seem aware, and because I’m petty, I find myself feeling grateful that none of these girls have seen him in work boots and torn jeans with a curled baseball hat. That’s where he shines the brightest.
Not that anyone asked for my opinion, but still.
When Professor Sallow takes the floor and dives into the actual class, I pay attention with faint interest. The course will give information about the different kinds of engineering and the basics you’d need for any of them.
I understand the things he says, but he speaks quickly, and he doesn’t linger on any one topic as he goes through what the semester will cover.
The whole time, Dominic and the other TA sit off to the side, speaking quietly every now and then and passing papers back and forth.
Dom has a laptop, too, and they work with their heads close on whatever it is TAs do.
By the end of class, I’m left feeling disconcerted, confused, and a little too warm.
I’m almost excited to leave the building and return to the fresh air.
So when Professor Sallow dismisses us, everyone stands, but I’m one of the first. I’m strangely jittery, my pulse still unstable, my sweater heavy.
My gaze flies to Dominic, because he gets to his feet at the same time I do.
I can pinpoint the exact second our eyes lock, and my heart skips another few beats.
His brows jump, even though he must know by now I’m in this class.
And then, apparently unaware that half the females in the room are still watching him, he smiles—the first smile our class has seen all hour.
He sends it past the pretty girls in the front row, over the heads of the preening gigglers, right around the serious studiers. It finds no one—
Until that crooked grin and his glittering eyes travel up, up, up to the back row and land undeniably, unmistakably on me.