Page 10 of Where We Met

Let her do it. Let her walk away.

“Savannah,” I shout.

You idiot.

She turns around and the view of her long blonde hair blowing in the wind takes my breath away. I jog the couple steps it takes to catch up with her.

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t completely honest with you just now.” Her head turns to the side in confusion as she waits for me to go on. “I… I’m just…”Don’t say it.“I’m attracted to you.”

Her eyes are open wide as my words hang in the air. I suddenly feel like a total creep. This older man—her teacher, no less—telling a beautiful young woman he’s attracted to her. It’s weird.

“I’m so sorry.” I fumble over my words as I try to think of a way out of this. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“You didn’t?” she asks. “How did you mean it?”

“I just, I meant…” I try to think of something, anything that gives me a way out of this. I let out a breath as my shoulders fall down in defeat. “I’m sorry. It’s so inappropriate that I said that to you. I just wanted you to understand that I didn’t commend your answer because I was afraid… Afraid of your classmates seeing right through my attraction. If I had given you praise that I hadn’t given to any other students, or if they noticed the way I look at you… I don’t know. But it’s obviously inappropriate and nothing would ever happen.”

She does the last thing I expect when she starts to laugh.

“Are you laughing at me right now?” I ask, a bit frustrated.

“I’m sorry. I’m not. It’s just… I’m attracted to you too. I've been doing everything in my power to squash my little crush.”

Fuck me, why does that make my stomach muscles clench with excitement?

“But you’re right, it is inappropriate. I have no intentions of acting on it,” she says, diverting her gaze toward my to-go coffee cup.

What she’s saying is exactly what she needs to. It’s responsible, mature, and… it only makes me want her more.

Everything in me wants to pull her body against mine to warm us both up from the frigid cold, to find out what her lips feel like against mine, to bring her to the point where her body is writhing, desperate for me to give her pressure in the one spot that would satisfy her.

Vino and Bailey are sniffing around as they wait patiently for us to pay attention to them. Everything about this feels like a normal interaction between adults, but it isn’t. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

I notice her look at my coffee cup again before glancing back up at me.

“But I do hope we can put this aside, because I really want to learn as much as I can from you this semester. Well, not because it’s you but because of the subject matter,” she clarifies.

“And I want to help you in any way that I can,” I tell her. When she looks down at my coffee again, I have to ask. “Do you have a problem with my choice of coffee or something? You keep eyeing my cup. I’m starting to get a little self-conscious.”

She laughs, and the sound makes me feel oddly light. I’ve never experienced that before from something so simple, but it makes me want to do everything in my power to keep making it happen.

“Oh, gosh, no!" she replies. “I can’t believe you noticed that. No, it’s nothing like that. I’ve just recently had to cut back on some things to afford this last stretch of school, and coffee from anywhere but my apartment got the axe from my budget. I’m basically just drooling over your coffee.”

It’s been such a long time since I’ve struggled with money. To be on such a budget that coffee isn’t affordable is foreign to me. To think of Savannah not being able to enjoy such a basic part of one’s day makes me irrationally angry.

“Come on.” I start to walk as I motion for her to follow.

She looks around like she isn’t sure what’s happening before her legs move to catch up with me.

“What’s going on?” she asks, her voice etched with confusion.

“We’re going to go get you some coffee,” I tell her as I lead us to the parking lot.

I’m not normally bossy, but I feel this strange need to make this right for her. I can tell she’s the type of person to refuse help, to think nobody should do anything for her, and I’m not having it.

“Professor Luke, no! This is insane. I donotneed coffee.”

Yep, I knew she was going to refuse. I lead the way to my car parked in the front, opening the back door to let Vino jump in, and then wait for her dog to get in too.

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