Page 39 of Unapologetic Obsession
Matt watched me, patiently waiting for the truth about last night.
It hit me then.
He thought I had run off to be with a man. He wanted an explanation but didn’t know me well enough to demand one.
Perhaps it was best if he thought I was involved with someone else. It gave me an out and saved us both from an uncomfortable conversation.
Unfortunately, Matt wasn’t discouraged. “If you aren’t busy today, maybe we can hang out again?—”
I muttered a prayer when a purse slammed on the table, cutting him off.
“Thank God,” Amelie gushed, trying to catch her breath while simultaneously sorting through her bag. “Can’t believe I made it to class on time. Can you imagine what Professor Maxwell would say if he caught me walking in late?”
“He’d say we’re all useless, and he could train monkeys to arrive on time,” Sean joined the group and the conversation without missing a beat.
I smiled. I had never been happier about being paired with extroverts. Not only could they carry the conversation, but they were also the perfect distraction from awkward moments. Matt looked annoyed by the interruption.
“Why were you late?” Amelie asked Sean.
“Was talking to the boyfriend over the phone and lost track of time. You?”
“Missed my train.”
The conversation lulled when we heard purposeful footsteps walking into the lab. Such confident strides could only belong to one man. Professor Maxwell marched to the front of the class, stopping in front of the whiteboard. Today, he wore chinos with a button-down shirt and glasses. No lab coat.
Despite being a workaholic, he always appeared posh and well-groomed. For the first time, dark circles had shadowed his eyes, suggesting he’d had a rough night. A sinking feeling gnawed at me, hinting that something bad had happened to him. I retraced the evening in my mind, but nothing pointed to the source of his physical distress.
At least, the casual wear made him relatable, and the girls ate it up. Several eyes lingered on the shirt hugging his broad chest and shoulders. You could almost hear the collective sigh of the female demographic because, dressed up or down, the Maxwell twins could stop traffic. Girls giggled in the back, and I had a feeling that despite repeated warnings, more infatuated students would find themselves in trouble by the end of the semester.
While others were distracted by his taut muscles and sexy clothes, I was focused on something else entirely. I had never seen him with his black-framed glasses. The frames were square with two small blue diamond studs above the hinge screws.
Hm.The diamonds were barely noticeable; still, he never struck me as a person interested in embellishments of any kind.
His unsmiling eyes locked on to me right away. It took a couple more seconds for him to realize that Matt had sidled up to me. “You changed seats.”
I looked around—as did the entire class—and realized Professor Maxwell was addressing Matt. He called him out in front of the class without so much as agood morning.
Matt raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck, embarrassed by the blunt accusation. “Erm. Yeah.”
“Why?” Professor Maxwell asked, though it was more of a bark.
Matt was flabbergasted by the follow-up question. “I-I…just grabbed an empty seat. I didn’t think it mattered since we don’t have assigned seating?—”
“We do now. How else do you expect me to remember your unremarkable names? Change back.” When Matt didn’t stand immediately, Professor Maxwell’s face morphed into the scariest version of it I had seen. “Did I stutter?”
Matt moved out of the seat so fast that he knocked over his notepad. Professor Maxwell glanced at me and tried to subdue some of the angry lines on his face. He had been going to great lengths to repress his demonic personality around me. He didn’t want to scare me, though I hadn’t figured out why he cared what I thought of him. My guess kept returning to my scars because I was the only person he handled with kid gloves.
Once Amelie and Matt switched seats, I chanced a glance at our ever-morphing professor. He was already staring at me.
I gulped.
Throughout the lecture, his gaze kept finding its way back to me. This wasn’t just a one-time thing—Amelie noticed it too, confirming I hadn’t imagined it. She glanced between us, clearly trying to decipher the meaning behind these strange looks.
I felt my cheeks flush, and I desperately hoped no one else noticed the sporadic ogling. I was so focused on the thought that I could barely hear the lecture. I tried my best to jot down his words, but I already knew I had to borrow Amelie’s notes after class.
By the time the buzzing in my ears subsided, the lecture had concluded, and he was assigning homework.
“Select a topic for your term paper by next week. You’ll have until the end of the semester to conduct your research and submit a paper based on your theory. All the research must bedone in the lab. If you don’t have enough time during class, do it after hours.”
