In Session
I groaned, sinking on to a stone bench. The campus was so beautiful but right then I hated it. I hated everything. I hated how optimistic I’d been. I hated that I’d thought school was going to be fun. I hated—
“Nora?”
Yeah, okay, I guess I hated myself.
I glanced up to see Foster standing over me. Internally I groaned. I couldn’t handle this right then. Inside I was melting down.
“Foster, please go away. I can’t see you without my heart breaking,” I answered truthfully. To my dismay, Foster took a seat next to me. Did he want me to die?
“Nora.” Foster took my hand. I watched our palms meet, my stomach fluttering. Even though mentally I knew he didn’t love me and we couldn’t be together, I still loved him. I still got butterflies. How was it possible to both be in heartbreak and in love?
“Nora did you hear me?” I shook my head; I’d been too busy trying not to cry. “I said I want you to read something.” Foster handed me an official looking letter from a college nearby. Intrigued, I took the envelope and opened it. I skimmed the contents before looking to Foster.
“Why do you have this?” I asked suspiciously.
“Can’t you read, Nora? I thought you had to be smart to get a full ride,” Foster teased.
I glared, not in the mood for games. “You’re hilarious. I mean, why do you have it? Why do you have a letter from this college?”
“I applied for a job. They accepted me. I’m now their new professor.”
“This is in the same city,” I said, no emotion in my voice. I didn’t want to get excited if Foster wasn’t on the same page as me.
“I know.”
“What are you trying to say?” I asked, hope filling me inside despite my best efforts to tamp it down.
“I’m trying to say that I love you too, Nora.” Foster pulled me close to him. “I love you and now everyone can know it. I’m no longer a faculty member here.”
“Really?” My face split into a full-on grin. Foster put both of his hands on either side of my face and pulled me in for a kiss. There, in the quad, in the middle of every student, teacher, parent, and mascot, we kissed. I didn’t care if they were watching and I didn’t need to care. It was sublime.
Slowly, Foster pulled away. He planted another light kiss on my lips before saying, “Really.”
* * *
All Rachael had to say when I told her about Foster’s new job was “I told you so.” After she practically knocked me upside the head for being so stubborn and not listening to her in the first place, she pulled me into a big bear hug.
It’d been almost a month since Foster had started his new job, and we couldn’t have been happier. I spent almost every night at his place and most days I visited him for lunch at the other campus.
One particular day Foster wasn’t expecting me, though. I’d told him I had an exam that would run long. In reality, I wanted to watch him work. While I was ecstatic that Foster and I could be out in the open, I did miss watching him teach. Foster was an amazing professor and there was something magical about watching him teach.
As the rest of his students were filing in, I situated myself in an inconspicuous spot. I opened my laptop so he wouldn’t see my face and watched him for the full hour and forty-five minutes. He was just as I had remembered: shirt rolled up, showcasing his muscular forearms, mussed up hair, gorgeous smile. I glanced around the room and noticed a few girls looking dreamily at him; I couldn’t blame them.
When the class emptied, I waited for him to finish talking to his students and then walked up to his desk. Foster looked at me, surprise written across his features. He scooped me up by the waist, planting a kiss firmly on my mouth.
“What are you doing here?”
“I had a few questions,” I said, breathless between kisses. “Professor Khan.”
* * *
THE END