Page 21 of Otter Heart
“Stop flirting with me.” I chuckled and waved for him to follow. “I have no idea if you should keep your shoes on or not. I hired a lady to clean this place for me, but I can’t tell how good of a job she’s doing.”
He laughed at that, and I couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to be around someone with a sense of humor. Most people just gave me pity, and I wassotired of that. And it was nice to have someone that didn’t flinch at my flirtatious jokes either. Flirting with straight dudes just made them uncomfortable, but Adam didn’t seem to mind that much.
Maybe he was into me.
My heart thumped at the thought, but I pushed it down. There was no reason to get my hopes up. At the most he wanted to be friends and nothing more. Chances were he was just stopping by to let me know he had joined a multi-level marketing scheme or something and wanted me to join. Or maybe he felt bad for me and wanted to lend his aid to feel good about himself. I wasn’t really sure.
“I hope I didn’t interrupt anything,” Adam asked as we headed toward the kitchen.
“Nah. I was wrapping up my class for the day, anyway.” I pulled open the fridge. “Grab yourself a drink.”
“Thanks.”
I heard a can shift in the fridge as he took one from the top left. That’s where I kept the flavored water.
“You can take anything,” I said, gesturing to the fridge as a whole. “And I don’t mean that in a Midwestern guilt sort of way. Literally any drink you want is fine.”
“Are you sure?”
I pointed at my face, as I crossed my eyes. “Do I look like I’m kidding?”
He laughed and placed the can back. “Alright. You don’t mind if I take a beer?”
“A bottom that drinks beer?” I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You do you, boo.”
“Who says I’m a bottom?” Adam shot back, taking one of the bottles from the bottom right.
“You drink iced chai lattes.” I stepped up to him, getting close enough to feel his body heat as I took a beer for myself. I heard his breath catch. “And you get so easily flustered when a guy gets near you. It’s adorable.”
He didn’t make a snide remark as I pulled my beer away and closed the fridge. The top middle drawer had my bottle opener, and I popped the cap off my own before sliding it across the counter to Adam. It took a moment before he regained his composure and opened his own bottle. He took a seat across from me, the chair squeaking slightly under his weight.
“So… uh… you’re a student then?” he asked, clearly trying to avoid the previous subject.
“Nope,” I replied, taking a swig. “Professor actually.”
“Really?” There was a tone of genuine surprise in his voice.
“Well, adjunct professor. I teach literature to the virtual students. Right now, I’m teaching American Lit and British Lit simultaneously. I was just giving the students their homework for the weekend when you knocked.”
“Oh wow. You must be like really smart then!”
“I read a lot,” I laughed. “And I force other people to read and then have intelligent thoughts about their reading. There’s not much else to it.”
“Sounds smart to me.”
“What do you do?”
There was a long pause.
“Nothing anymore.”
“Nothing?” I pressed. “You must do something! What did you do before this?”
“I worked at a big finance company in their HR department.”
“That sounds…fun.”
I could almost hear him scowl.
