“Close with them?” I ask.
“My parents, yeah, but not really my brother.”
“Why not?”
“He’s… difficult. Opinionated.”
“He’s a California liberal.”
“Basically.”
I laugh again. I ask her about her parents and she tells me about them, about their normal middle-class life. Her father works for an insurance company and her mother works part-time at a local school district.
She grew up normal, band practice, soccer games, all that. Middle-class living.
“What about you?” she asks.
“I have two brothers and three sisters,” I say. “Mom and dad were prolific.”
She laughs at that. “Really?”
“I’m the middle child. Sisters are all younger, brothers are all older.”
“Oh, weird.”
“Right? Mom didn’t work, and Dad was… well, he did a lot of stuff. Mostly construction, but he owned a bar at one point, and he was a bookie for a while.”
“A bookie, seriously?”
“It was a different time, but yeah, seriously.”
“Wow. How did you end up like this?”
“Hard work,” I say. “Did well in school, got into Yale, launched Meteor from my dorm. Back when that sort of thing was possible.”
She laughs and listens as I tell her about my family, about my crazy old brothers and my crazier younger sisters.
It’s strange, talking about all this with a girl half my age, but I forget all about that as we get talking. Her age disappears, and I find myself just talking like we’re two normal people sharing coffee.
Since that’s what we are. Nobody knows that I got her off yesterday and that I can’t stop thinking about it.
She checks her watch after about a half hour of easy talking. “Oh, shit,” she says. “I lost track of time. I gotta get going.”
“Class?”
She nods, standing up. “Class.”
“Okay then.”
She hesitates, smiles at me. “I’ll see you later.”
I nod and watch as she walks away. But instead of going out the front… she heads to the back, to the bathrooms.
I don’t know why I do it. I get up and follow her without thinking. The coffee shop isn’t busy right now, and the bathrooms are located in a little alcove tucked in the back. It’s totally empty when I get back there, and nobody’s coming or going.
She comes back out from the unisex stall a second later. She blinks, surprised to see me. I step forward, pushing her back into the bathroom.
I kick the door shut and kiss her.
Slow and deep, I kiss her. I need to taste her. She kisses me back without another word.
I break off the kiss after a slow moment. “I know this isn’t the most romantic spot,” I whisper in her ear. “But I couldn’t help myself.”
“You need to learn some self-control, Professor,”
I smirk at her. “You wouldn’t like it.”
“Maybe not.”
I kiss her one more time, turn, and leave the bathroom. I walk away, passing the table, and leaving the coffee shop.
I have a smile on my face, her lips lingering on mine.7ClaraThat night, after classes, I find myself wandering on campus, heading toward the lab.
I don’t really know why. I feel restless and alone. Mac invited me out to some party, but the idea of getting drunk and letting annoying frat guys try to flirt with me just isn’t appealing right now.
I still feel Jason’s lips on mine. He surprised me back at the coffee shop by pushing me back into the bathroom, but I loved it. I saw something n his expression that I didn’t expect to see.
Something I’ve never seen in a man’s eyes before.
Pure desire. Real, true, genuine desire.
My head’s been spinning all day. I don’t know what I’m getting myself involved in, but I’m excited to find out.
I step in through the building’s door. And head down to the lab. The lights are off, and they come on with a slow flicker, almost like they’re groaning.
The room looks small and empty without the others in it. I head over to my computer and sit down, booting it up, biting my nails, wondering why I’m here and not out partying like a normal college kid.
Maybe I’m not a normal college kid. Or maybe I’m just starting to change.
I get to work. There’s a ton of stuff to do, and all of our tasks are set out in this flowchart-like document that Jason put together. Each of us is assigned different tasks, and if we all complete them on time, the final product will come together.
I decide to get myself a little cushion, get a little ahead of the game. I figure it can’t hurt, just in case something comes up later.
I work for maybe twenty minutes before I hear footsteps out in the hall. My head’s full of programming and I barely even notice it when the door opens and two people step inside.
I frown and look up. It’s Howard and Parker, chatting with each other. They stop when they spot me.
“Clara,” Howard spits. “What are you doing here?”