Page 32 of My Forbidden Professor

But we will.

Wrongness slices through me, but there’s nothing that will change about our situation. I can’t leave the university. I only have one more year. Jacob would never ask that of me, and I would never ask Jacob to leave his position. Although I don’t understand why someone so obviously brilliant is teaching. He likes his students and is dedicated to his job, but I can’t help but feel there’s so much more he could do. He’s not a dusty old man who has had his career and is content to downsize. He’s multi-layered, multi-textured and blinds me with a brilliance of color every single moment I’m around him. And even when I’m not.

My cell rings and I answer with a pang of guilt. I’ve ignored Adeline and she’ll probably be wondering where I’ve been.

“Hey, Addy. How are you?”

“Where have you been? I’ve left messages for you and you haven’t answered,” Adelaine’s jubilant voice sounds through my cell. I wince and quickly check my messages, seeing I’ve missed several of her calls.

“I’m so sorry! I’ve been busy,” I say.

“Busy studying? It’s a long weekend. You work too hard, Steph. You need to take some time off,” she says.

I lean against the counter. “To be honest, I haven’t exactly been…studying.”

“That can only mean one thing. You’ve met someone!” Adeline’s joy comes across the airwaves to slap me with her exuberance. I shouldn’t be hiding anything from her, but I can hardly tell her I’ve been having an affair with my professor.

“Something like that.”

There’s a slight pause. “What’s going on? Is he treating you right? Just say the word and David and I will come down and crack a few skulls.”

My laugh is easy. “No need for any blood-letting. It’s all good. I’d let you know if it wasn’t.”

“So, he is treating you right? It is a man?”

“It is a man and he does treat me right, but you know about romance. It’s never straight forward,” I say.

“As long as you promise you’re okay,” she says. “And you promise you’d tell me if you need me.”

“Or me.” I hear Dad’s voice in the background.

“Will the two of you calm down. It’s all good. He’s all good. I promise I will tell you more, but not right now,” I say.

“Ooooo. That means he’s there, doesn’t it?” Adeline says, too perceptive for her own good. I’m struck again by how she’s years beyond her physical age. I guess that’s how she keeps Dad on his toes.

Time for a change of subject. “So, what’s been happening? How’s the prep for your big day going?”

“Stressful but amazing,” Adeline says. She utters a happy sigh. That sigh. The one she produces when she’s truly happy. And considering how perfect my dad is for her, I totally understand why it’s real. “Something has been on my mind, though.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“I’ve always wanted you to be a part of our wedding party,” she says.

“But Maddy is your bridesmaid.” It makes sense for Adeline to ask her best friend.

“She is, but then I thought, why not have two bridesmaids?” she says.

“But won’t that make Dad unbalanced if he has you, me and Maddy up there, but only Tristan as his groomsman?” For sure Dad will have asked Tristan, but if he’s asked anyone else, I’m not sure who that would be.

“I don’t care and neither does David. He and I are far from conventional. You know that.”

If I had no sense of true love, I’d envy what these two people have. But I have experienced Jacob now, and I understand it on a level I never did before.

And then, out of nowhere, a realization slams into me.

I want what Dad has found with Adeline for me too. I want that sort of forever. I’ve never known that feeling before. It’s never even occurred to me. But now, after this weekend, I have. And the more I think about it, the more something clicks into place.

Only one man has made me feel this way.

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