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You OK?
Yes, I’m fine. Go to class so you’re not late. I’ll see you at home.
A genuine smile spread across my face from that two-word combination. There were a lot of things about my sister that people didn’t know or understand. She had built a wall around herself over the past year—maybe a bit longer—and didn’t let anyone get close. Except for me. She and I truly shared something special, and the fact that she noticed, just from the few lines I messaged, that something was bothering me made my heart swell.
I picked up my abandoned lunch and took a huge bite. I still wasn’t hungry necessarily, but I never knew when Chaplin would give me a break, so I figured I’d eat while I had the opportunity. I finished the thing in a few more bites and was across the room throwing away my trash when the door opened.
“Andrew?” A woman poked her head in and called for my teacher. When she didn’t get a reply, she came into the room farther and froze when she saw me.
“Hello,” I said with a smile. “He’s not here right now,” I told her as though it were my place to speak on his whereabouts.
“I see,” she said while doing one of those head-to-toe assessments. “And you are?”
I had no idea who the lady was, but I didn’t appreciate her tone or the rude way she just sized me up. I must have hesitated long enough for her to rethink her behavior—or at least I hoped that was what prompted her next comment.
“I’m Rebecca Donnio. I’m a colleague of Professor Chaplin’s,” she explained nervously. “My office is next door, and I just popped in to see if he wanted to grab lunch.”
“I’m not sure where he is. I think he may have gone to pick up some food. He didn’t say before he left.”
She shifted back to the ruder version of herself and said, “I’m sorry, dear, who are you?”
Pardon me? Dear? I despised when people used terms of endearment to be condescending. It was such a transparent tactic. Immature too.
My decent upbringing overrode my desire to tell this woman where she could stuff her territory marking.
Instead, I offered her my hand. “Hi. I’m Maye.”
She shook my hand with the least bit of interest she could feign. “Maye,” she repeated and walked right past me and went to his desk and opened drawer after drawer until finding something to write on. I had no idea if they were good friends, or maybe more. Did they share a level of comfort that would excuse her invasion of his personal space?
She certainly thought so. I stood back and decided not to get involved. If he didn’t want visitors in his office while he was gone, he should’ve made that known.
The woman watched while I took my seat. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around campus before,” she added while surreptitiously looking at the few things on his desk. Wow, this woman had some big balls to be snooping while I watched.
“Oh,” was all I said but gave her a smile. Unfortunately, she was too preoccupied with her investigating to look at me. When I said nothing more, she finally met my stare.
“Are you looking for something in particular?” I asked. “I can let Dr. Chaplin know what you need when he returns,” I said while holding her direct attention.
“No. Just leaving Andrew a little note here. I’m sure he’ll see it right away.” She strode to the door without giving me another glance.
I was too shocked at what I’d just witnessed to utter a goodbye.
I got back to work, assuming my instructor would return any moment. I’d rather be busy when he walked in than dawdling.
But I was wrong. It was just over an hour later when the man quietly entered the small office. I was fighting the need for a nap in the worst way, and he caught me mid-yawn when he came through the door.
“Pardon me,” I said with a cautious smile. I waited until he was settled behind his side of the desk to mention his visitor. “A woman came by looking for you. I believe she said she was one of your coworkers? She left a note for you on your desk.” Rather than study him while delivering the message, I continued typing data into the spreadsheet I’d created.
He didn’t respond to my information, and when I finally looked across the desk, he was staring at the folded note as though it were a poisonous snake. With one flat palm, he covered the paper, crumpled it into a ball, and dunked it right into the trash can beside our desk. Never opened it—just tossed it unread.
Well, I guess that’s what he thinks of Ms. Donnio.
And why did I get so much pleasure out of that gesture? I told myself because of how rude she had been, but a nagging little voice inside my head called bullshit. I knew I’d been hoping he wasn’t involved with that woman from the moment she’d poked her face in here. But I also knew I had no right to feel possessive of the guy who apparently couldn’t stand to be in the same room with me for more than three hours.
After all, that was the second time he’d bolted from the office when the mood between us shifted. Maybe he was dealing with the same feelings I was and was uncomfortable about it. Even though there were no actual rules about staff dating students, it was frowned upon. Shep and I had actually researched the topic in the school’s charter our freshman year. She had a hopeless crush on one of our professors that first year and came up with some insane plan to ask the guy out. It never worked out, though, because he disappeared over Christmas break, and a different teacher took over his classes when we returned for the second semester.
Professor Chaplin struck me as a rule-following kind of guy, and the last thing I wanted was to cause problems for him.
So did I address the situation or just leave it? What if I were wrong? It would be so embarrassing to admit catching heavy lust for the man while he saw me as nothing more than a silly, inexperienced student.
