The Professor (8 page)

I drove through the rolling hills of the mountains north of the University. I usually enjoyed the drive, but right then the only thing I had on my mind was getting to Ethan’s house. I couldn’t wait to see him, it had nearly driven me mad when I hadn’t been able to talk to him after class. I pulled into the driveway, and found him waiting at the doorway for me.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” he said. “We’re going out.”

“Out?” I asked. “What do you mean?”

We had never been out as a couple before - we had both agreed that it was too risky. I didn’t want to think about what it might mean if we were caught together by someone from the school.

“I got us a table at a nice, quiet place,” he said. “The semester is over, and I thought we should celebrate.”

I grinned. “It’s
almost
over,” I corrected. “I still have finals - and you still have final grades to turn in.”

He smirked down at me and wrapped his arms around my waist. He pulled me in tight and planted a deep kiss on my lips. “You know who’s grade is already final, though?” he asked. I beamed my hopeful look up at him, and he nodded in confirmation of my unspoken question. “That’s right. You’re officially done with my class. And that means that I’m no longer your professor, and you’re no longer my student.”

It was the best news I’d heard all day.

“Maybe we should go back inside and celebrate, then,” I said. My hips pushed forward into his as I said it. I could feel his excitement at my proposition.

“I’m trying to make an honest girl of you,” he said. “But if you insist…”

He teased me and began to pull me in toward the door.

“No, no,” I said. “You’re right. But you’re not getting off the hook that easily. You better have something steamy in mind for later.”

“You know I will,” he said, his eyes beaming fiercely.

He led me out to his car and held the door open for me. We drove back down the mountains to the city where he took us dangerously close to the University. Turning down Speedway, he led us to a tiny little restaurant that I had driven past a hundred times and had always been curious about. It was called The Room, and it was very difficult to get a table in their tiny dining room.

Ethan led me in and told the hostess who he was. She said the owner was excited that Ethan was able to make it out, and she led us to a corner table.

“I’ve always wanted to come here," I said, taking everything in.

Thirteen tiny tables wrapped around a curved bar in the dimly lit common room. At the back of the restaurant a hallway led to an adjacent wine shop. The owners encouraged everyone to peruse their extensive wine collection and purchase a bottle they would have with dinner.

He grinned at me.

"I'm just glad I can put a smile on your face," he said.

I beamed at him. He was wearing his usual slacks and white, pressed button up shirt. He had a sports coat on. Ethan could wear suits as naturally as someone wears their pajamas. He managed to make even the nicest clothes appear commonplace.

"So what's good here?" I asked.

He grinned at the menu as his eyes scanned over it. His shaggy brown hair fell down in front of his face again, and a familiar twinge of excitement ran through me.

"What
isn't
good here?" He reached to the side of the table and plucked a second, leather-bound menu. “Let’s start with a bottle of wine,” he said.

I cringed. “You know I'm not twenty-one yet," I said. The six months until my birthday felt like it would never pass. I hated being limited on what I wanted to do - especially now that I had begun dating an older man that didn’t have the same limitations.

At least that’s what I thought we were doing - dating. I had never given it much thought before because we were usually confined to the secrecy of his home. We couldn’t go to my place on campus, and this was the first time we had ever dared to go out in public - though The Room was the epitome of quaint and private.

"This isn't the kind of place that asks for identification,” he said through his grin.

I bit my lip. I had the hardest time telling him refusing him anything.

"Get whatever you think I’ll like," I said.

A waiter, standing tall and proper, stopped at the table. He was helpful and curt and vanished the moment we were done placing our drink order.

"This has to be the fanciest place I've ever been," I said.

Ethan leaned back and took in the atmosphere. "It's a nice place.”

"So you know the owner?" I asked.

"I've done some business with him. I helped him renegotiate some of his financing terms a couple years back. Saved him quite a bit of money.”

I grinned. "I love it when you sound all professional." I regarded him for a moment. He leaned back in the chair as though it were the most casual thing in the world. He was at home in a place like this. "Why did you ever leave the corporate world?” I asked.

His brow wrinkled as he considered the question.

"I needed a change," he said. "Teaching is completely different from the world of corporate finance.”

"What kind of finance did you do?" We had never talked about his background in New York at length. The few times I’d tried to bring it up he had been quick to change the subject.
 

Ethan’s lips curled up in a smile, but his brow crinkled as though he were troubled. “I co-managed a venture capital fund,” he said. “It was good money - great money, in fact - but, in the end, it wasn’t enough.”

I wondered what it would be like to leave a high paying job because the money was enough. My family had survived on a shoe string budget for a very long time, and I one day hoped to be comfortable enough to not have to worry about paying the rent each month.

“But why teaching?” I asked. “You spent all those years on Wall Street, and then you jump back into college life?”

“It wasn’t just years on Wall Street,” he said. “A few years after I graduated I enrolled in NYU’s Executive MBA program - it’s meant for working professionals and allows a bit more flexible schedule along with designing the coursework with the assumption that the student has at least a working knowledge of the way that corporate America operates. It was while I was doing the MBA that my interest in teaching grew.” He paused a moment and I could see the reflection in his eye as he thought back on that time in his life. “For the first time I felt like I was surrounded by other students who were genuinely interested in what they were learning. They were people that were trying to make a better life for themselves, and everyone revered the professors and soaked in every word they said as though it were business gospel being handed down from on high.” He chuckled softly and I could help but smiling. “Teaching undergraduate business hasn’t quite lived up to my expectations, but I’m told it gets better.”

“So you sacrificed the money to take a job that was more meaningful?” I asked.

He opened his palms face up and gave me a huge smile. “I just wanted to make a difference in someone’s life. As I found out a while ago, you can’t buy happiness. But helping people, inspiring people,
that
can make all the difference in the world.”

I thought I could understand where he was coming from. While my family may not have had the most money in the world - we were happy. My father and I were very close, and even while I was at college I talked to him on the phone every couple days. My mother was a bit crazy, but she had the best of intentions - and that’s what mattered.

The waiter came back around with the bottle of wine and served it to us. Warmth instantly spread throughout me and I found it harder and harder to focus on the conversation. I loved talking with Ethan. He had an air of worldliness to him that I had never been exposed to before. It was like he had already lived the dream I was hoping to explore, and had been placed in my lap to tell me all about it. He was the future male version of me, and his mind was mine for the picking.

Our food was delivered promptly by a host of waiters. I had a thick piece of chicken with some fresh green beans and broccoli. The green beans were the best I had ever tasted. Somewhere along the way I made it through my second glass of wine. A heavy thickness settled itself at the top of my head, and on my cheeks. Warmth spread from the top of me down to the darker areas.

I leaned in close so only Ethan could hear me.

"So are you going to take me back to your place and ravish me until the Sun comes up?"

"Don't you have finals to study for?" he chided me with a half-smile.

I pushed him softly and smiled. “Promises were made, Professor.”

“I’m
not
your professor anymore.”

I ran the inside of my foot up his leg.

“Is it OK if I pretend?”

“I suppose there’s no harm in that.”

I felt his strong hand sliding along my knee and up along my leg. It sent shivers through me, and I didn’t know how long I could make it before I jumped on him. I managed to control myself for a few more minutes while we finished the last of the bottle of wine, and Ethan paid the tab. I gathered my coat and swung it around me as we made our way to the front of the restaurant.

The brisk night air greeted us as we made our way out into the parking lot. The streets were busy and the tiny parking lot was full. We walked straight past another couple as they headed toward the restaurant, and I was so wrapped around Ethan that I almost didn’t hear a familiar voicing calling out to me.

“Kayla?”

My brow scrunched together and I looked back over my shoulder hesitantly. The two we had just walked by had stopped, and I suddenly recognized the girl.

“Dana?” I said, suddenly sobering. “What are you doing here?”

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