Page 13 of The Professor's Holiday Surprise

I’ll be at the school from 9 am to 4 pm, if another time works better than my posted office hours.

And you don’t need to apologize. I’ve been worried about you.

Noah

I stare at the way he signed off, with just his first name.

He’s clearly online and available enough to reply to my emails, but not available enough to do his Sunday night cam show.

Paisley, you need to forget you ever knew that he has that show.

Great. I’ll just file that in the futile Forget pile, right along with how he called me good girl when we first met, and now the fact that he’s been worried about me.

I should probably explain a little more, except when I hit reply, I find myself at a loss for words.

From: Paisley Stevenson

To: Noah Lowry

Subject: RE: RE: tomorrow

Nothing to worry about. Lesson learned on my part.

That’s not really enough, but I hope it conveys what I mean.

Except he replies again, immediately, so no, it doesn’t.

From: Noah Lowry

To: Paisley Stevenson

Subject: RE: RE: RE: tomorrow

What was the lesson?

Maybe we can talk more about this in the morning. I don’t want you to take on too much responsibility here.

Noah

Okay, he’s definitely not busy right now. So why didn’t he do his live stream? Selfishly, as a fan, I’m curious.

From: Paisley Stevenson

To: Noah Lowry

Subject: you’re probably busy

Dr. Lowry,

I really do appreciate your guidance on this matter. I have learned a lot from you this term. But I must be keeping you from something on a Sunday night?

Paisley

His response is once again immediate. For the first time, he addresses it to me by name. And despite my repeated uses of his proper prefix, he once again uses his given name to sign off.

From: Noah Lowry

To: Paisley Stevenson

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