Page 24 of Me and My Hot Professor

Chapter Twelve

Josh

When Monday came around, I was eager to see Naomi. We talked briefly on Sunday and she sounded off, distracted. I stood at the front of the room and smiled at students as they trickled in. I had the papers to pass back and planned on another group discussion for the reading I assigned.

I glanced at my watch, class was officially started and I was still waiting on Naomi to walk in. I shut the door and addressed everyone, got them into groups and started passing the papers back while they engaged in discussion. I couldn’t help watching the door, my eyes flitted to it every few minutes.

Naomi walked in ten minutes late and found her friend, Jacob, and joined his group. She was wearing a long sleeved shirt and shorts. Her hair was in a messy bun and there were a few bags under her eyes. It bothered me that I didn’t know what was wrong and that she didn’t think to talk to me about whatever it was. After class she didn’t even look at me on her way out.

As soon as the day ended, I had to pick Kaden up from pre-school. Amy needed me to babysit for a few hours. So I took him to the park and we grabbed some dinner before I took him to Amy’s. I drove back to my place thinking about Naomi and wondered if I should even ask her what was wrong. It didn’t make sense to get in too deep with her because she was right on a certain level. We couldn’t be anything more than what we were.

I called her and had half a mind to head in the direction of her apartment. She answered on the third ring. “Hey,” she said.

“How are you?” I said. Then came the long sigh.

“I’m…I don’t know,” she said. “It’s my family,” she muttered. I asked if I could come over and she said yes. When I got to her place, Naomi was in pajamas, though it was way too early to be wearing pajamas. There was a pot on the stove and the scent of garlic bread was in the air.

“Want some pasta?” Naomi asked. She walked to the stove and grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet beside it.

“I already ate, thanks though,” I said. She nodded and then took the tray of garlic bread out of the oven. She set herself up at the bar and I sat next to her.

“You didn’t look so good in class today,” I said. She took a bite of her pasta, made a face and chewed slowly.

“I got sick randomly and my parents are getting a divorce,” she said. She pushed her plate of pasta away from her and took a bite of the bread, she made another face and pushed that away too.

“A divorce?” I asked. She nodded and took a sip of her water.

“God,” she said and hopped off of the stool to run to the bathroom. I wondered if it was the stress of the news that was making her sick and waited for her to get back. I doubted she would want to see the food when she came back so I rummaged around the kitchen until I found Tupperware and put all the food in the fridge for her. By the time she came back out, pale, I had finished washing her dishes.

“Oh, Josh you didn’t have to,” she said. “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem,” I said. “You never thought your parents would divorce?” I asked. She shook her head.

“No. On positive side, my brother apologized to me,” she sighed and then walked to the couch and sat down.

“Maybe you should talk to your parents, one at a time, you know? Figure out what happened or what’s going to happen,” I suggested.

“I don’t…I’m not ready to talk to them yet,” she said.

“What can I do?” I asked. I felt helpless. I’d gone through a divorce before but my parents were solid. They’d been married for fifty years so far. I didn’t know what I would do if they split up. I knew Amy would be devastated. Naomi told me she wasn’t close to her family but I imagine she was messed up over it.

“Cuddle?” she said. I smirked and then joined her on the couch and held her against my chest. She put her arm around my waist and rested her ear over my heart. I felt her own heartbeat against my side and soon I heard her breathing change, she was asleep. It took me five minutes to doze off.

“Josh?” Naomi poked me in the chest. I woke up and glanced at the window in the kitchen. It was still dark.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Two. Do you have classes to teach tomorrow?” she asked. I shook my head.

“Do you want to stay over?”

“Yeah. Are you feeling better?” I asked her.

“Sort of,” she said. We sat up and moved to her bedroom and watched tv until we fell asleep again. Come morning, I left before she woke up. I knew that I was getting too attached to Naomi, part of me couldn’t help it. I hoped that would wear off, my attachment to her, when the newness of our relationship wore off. Staying at my house or hers would get old and eventually we’d split, right?

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