Page 58 of The Lessons

Yep, so far, the self-control thing wasn’t working very well. Lord knows I’d almost crossed the line in the elevator a few days ago, but Dr. Lerner hadn’t said anything, so I was sure Natalie hadn’t reported me.

Thank God.

I somehow managed to get lost in my thesis. Before I knew it, it was one o’clock. I walked over to the window and glanced between the blinds, angling myself so I could see down the street. No Natalie. I started pacing around my small office, stopping to check and then recheck my outfit. It was stupid. I’d worn basically the same thing every time I’d seen her, my office uniform of dark jeans and a button-down. As I paced, I wondered again what kind of guy she went for. Jock? Bad boy? Nerd? I found myself hoping that I was her type, that maybe she liked me.

I mean, shehadto like me; hello…the elevator,for Christ’s sake. If the engineer hadn’t managed to open those doors, I was sure we would have finished our ‘lesson’ right there.

Fuck, who was I kidding? That wasn’t a lesson. That was me being a selfish dick. I was a little ashamed that I’d been so flagrant in my disregard for her situation, but the truth was, I felt a connection to her. That’s all that there was to it; I wanted her for myself. And speaking of keeping her to myself, where the hell was she? She was usually right on time. I immediately started to imagine the worst and picked up my phone to call her.

Mid-dial, the doorbell rang. I glanced at the time as I went to the door—1:15.

“You’re late,” I huffed, probably a little too gruffly.

She made a face and offered a quick apology.

Crap, I was so wound up. I needed to check myself, stat.Jesus, Andrews, get a hold of yourself.She isn’t going to drop her panties if you keep acting like a troll.

I tried to right the ship. “You’re not subconsciously trying to avoid me?I mean,this, are you?” Shit, shit, shit.Words, why must you fail me?

“Aren’t you supposed to leave the Freudian psychobabble to Dr. Lerner?” she quipped as she smirked at me.

“Hey, I’m less than a month away from my degree, which I believe makes me fully qualified to offer Freudian psychobabble,” I teased back, trying to lighten the mood. Instead, there was an awkward silence. I threw my hands together and nodded to the back room. “Ready to get to work?”

She nodded, and I let her lead the way, not really out of chivalry but because I wanted to check out her ass. She was wearing a tiny pair of blue shorts. Honestly, not checking her out would have been a disservice. The shorts were divine, the way they wrapped around her hips and showed off her shapely legs. I liked her legs a lot. They weren’t super skinny like some girls. They had a bit of meat to them, which made them extra soft when I—

“Nice turtle.” She nodded toward my new friend.

“Thanks. I just got him. I was thinking we should name him.”

Crap, I said ‘we.’

I cleared my throat. “What do you think of Stan?”

“How do you know it’s a guy?” She picked it up and turned it over. Lord have mercy, was she looking for a penis?

“Hmm. Good question. I suppose it could be a girl.”

“Maybe you should pick a gender-neutral name.”

“Like Frances?”

“Or Jamie.”

I paused, rubbing my brow, trying to think of a gender-neutral name that started with a T.

She gasped. “What about Taylor? Taylor the Turtle.”

I smiled; she was so excited. “I like it.”

She placed the turtle back on the tabletop. “It’s nice to meet you, Taylor.”

“Careful, I don’t want it getting too attached.”

“What do you mean?”

I walked over to the other side of the room to hide the expression on my face, but this was it. The moment of truth. How she reacted to this statement would tell me a lot. “Well, it’s just, you know, after today, well, we might not have a need to see each other again.” I picked up my water bottle and took a long sip.

“Because we are going to achieve penetration?”

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