Page 27 of Me and My Hot Professor

Chapter Fourteen

Josh

I wanted to stay with Naomi. That much was painfully true when I woke up beside her in the morning and felt like everything was as it should be. I left her apartment early and drove back to my house while mulling over the situation. We could stay together. We could continue doing what we had been doing until the class was over, then we wouldn’t have to hide anymore. At least, I was pretty sure that was how it worked.

I looked for the orientation packets I got when I was hired at Southeastern and found the code of conduct and ethics book for professors. If I wasn’t mistaken, relationships between professor and current student were prohibited, but relationships with students you weren’t personally teaching were merely frowned upon. When the semester ended we could go all in, basically. I flipped through the pages until I found the policy. I read it through four times. I was right. Hope tugged at my chest. My phone was on the desk, I grabbed it and called her.

Naomi answered on the last ring, “Hey, didn’t I just see you?” she said, her voice was a lot lighter than it was the night before. I hoped that was because of me, she’d been having a rough go lately with all of her family drama.

“Yeah but I just discovered something I probably should have looked up a long time ago,” I said. “Come over tonight, I want to talk about it in person.”

“Sounds serious?” she said.

“Yes and no, plus I want to see you,” I said.

“You always want to see me,” she chuckled. “Alright I’ll see you later, then.” We ended the call and then I faced the new set of papers I had waiting to grade. With earbuds in my ears for background music, I buckled down and started grading.

When I felt a tap on my shoulder, I jumped out of my chair and spun around to find Amy bent over, dying of laughter. “What the hell, Amy?” I yelled.

She pointed at my face and forced air into her lungs, “You should see your face,” she chortled. She wore a pair of skinny jeans, a t-shirt and light blazer over it. Her hair was tied in a ponytail.

“You could have called, texted, anything to let me know you were coming over. You can’t just sneak up on people like that and give them heart attacks!”

Amy laughed all over again. I rolled my eyes and took the earbuds off, sat down and ignored her while she recovered from her fit of laughter. I finished grading the last paper.

“I’m sorry,” she said soberly. “Really, I didn’t mean to give you a heart attack. But I texted you like five times,” she said. “I just came from a late lunch and was passing by so I brought leftovers.”

“Thanks,” I sighed. “You should have called if you were close by and I didn’t reply.” I stood up and put the graded papers away. The code of ethics book was underneath it all and on the center of my desk. Amy’s eyes landed squarely on it and she glanced at me curiously.

“Brushing up on some rules?” she asked.

“That’s just where I’ve left it,” I said as nonchalant as possible. Amy recoiled a little bit and looked at me as if she didn’t recognize me.

“Why do you have to lie, Josh? I know you. That book was probably filed away neatly somewhere in saran wrap,” she said. Amy searched my face and unconsciously, her hand went to her hip. “That girl from the club,” she prompted.

“I told you all there is to know, Amy. Drop it,” I said.

“Josh. I really hope you aren’t being stupid and dating a student. You’ve never done that before and you’ve always made a point not to find yourself in that situation.”

I sighed heavily and rubbed my eyebrows. “So where’s the food? What’d you bring?” I asked and walked out of the office. Amy didn’t leave the room until I got to my kitchen and found the paper bag on the counter. She’d had lunch at a Cuban restaurant. Inside was half of a steak sandwich and a cup of fried sweet plantains—maduros.

“Josh…” Amy stood by the fridge with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Amy,” I said and popped the container with the sandwich open. It was still warm, I took a bite. Her jaw tensed and she waited for me to give her a serious answer. “It’s not what you think. So, relax,” I said.

“Tell me she’s a grad student at least, a young lecturer or something,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it Amy. I’m not gonna lose my job. There’s nothing for you to be worried about so please drop it,” I said. She rolled her eyes and then grabbed her keys from the counter.

“I’ll pray for you, Josh,” she said. It was something she often said when I frustrated her.

“Please do,” I said with a smirk. Amy waved and I silently walked her out. I hung out by the front door until she pulled away then sighed as I walked back inside. Yeah, there was no hiding things from Amy. On purpose or by accident, she always found shit out. It turned out to be a good thing that I pissed her off because a few minutes later, Naomi texted me that she was outside.

I jogged to the front door and opened it for her. Her eyes were dull, she wore a sweatshirt over shorts and her hair was in a loose half ponytail.

“Hey, how are you? You don’t look like yourself,” I said. Naomi stepped inside and pecked me on the lips.

“I’m fine…it’s just been a blah kind of day,” she said. Naomi rubbed her eyes and walked towards the kitchen. “Can I have some water?” she asked.

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