Page 3 of A Daddy for Christmas 3: August
“Cool. So you know the routine.”
He nodded. “For the most part.” The damn elevator was taking forever, so he went and pressed the button a few times.
“That doesn’t make it come any faster,” Thor pointed out.
Auggie shrugged. It made him feel better, though. He pressed it a couple more times. Just because.
It was still another minute before the light on the button blinked out and the doors slid open.
“It’s my first year teaching this class,” Thor noted.
“Did you just become a professor?”
“Oh, I’m not a professor. I’m an artist. I’m filling in for a friend.”
“Oh, so you won’t be the one teaching every week.” Auggie was strangely disappointed about that. Well, maybe not so strangely—Thor was hot.
“No, I will be. He’s doing a sabbatical year in Spain, so I’ll be filling in this semester and next.”
“Spain? Wow, that must be nice.” He couldn’t imagine having a job that let you just drop everything and go to Europe. Hell, he couldn’t imagine having the money to do that. Living in Spain for a year had to be expensive.
“From what I’ve heard, he’s enjoying it.” Thor smiled and held the door to the student union open for him. “He’s painting his ass off. Says he hasn’t been this inspired in years.”
They went over to the cafeteria side and sure enough, a big sign proclaimed today’s special was pot stickers. Auggie grabbed a tray and nodded when the lady behind the counter asked if he wanted the pot stickers. “Anything else, hon?”
“No, thank you.” He did grab a can of Ginger ale from the fridge next to the cash register, though.
The total came up and he put in his card, wincing when the sale was denied. Shit, the drink from the vending machine earlier must have depleted his account. His shoulders hunched, his cheeks going red as he prepared to apologize and run.
“I’ve got this,” Thor said, handing over his card.
Auggie hunched his shoulders even more. “You don’t have to.”
“I owe you money anyway,” Thor told him. “For your sitting. I should have paid you as soon as the class was done, but I got distracted.”
Okay. Thor did owe him for sitting. For half the class anyway. It was still embarrassing to have your payment denied, but he had to give Thor props for smoothing the whole thing over like he did.
“Thanks,” he muttered, not looking at the cashier. He didn’t look at Thor, either, the sting of not being able to pay still needling him.
“There’s a bunch of free tables over on the terrace.” Thor pointed with his elbow and Auggie headed in that direction.
The smells from his plate were making his stomach rumble, and that faint feeling was back with a vengeance. No matter how embarrassed he was, he really did need to eat.
They sat and Thor grinned. “I just love these things.” Then he dug in, forking an entire pot sticker, dragging it through the sticky sauce before putting the whole thing in his mouth.
Auggie cut his pot stickers in half, but then he followed suit, falling on the plate like he hadn’t eaten since… well, breakfast. He hadn’t skipped lunch on purpose, but he’d gotten busy and by the time he was thinking he needed to eat because he was really hungry, it was past time for him to go. As it was, he’d been late.
He ate four or five of the dozen or so pot stickers on his plate before he came up for air. He poured his ginger ale out into the provided glass and drank down a good half of it. Damn, it went well with the food.
“Feeling better?” Thor asked. “Less shaky?”
Auggie nodded because yeah, he was feeling a ton better. And now that he’d had something to eat, he could admit—to himself at least—that walking all the way home would have been horrid on his very empty stomach.
“Thanks for covering me.” He waved at his plate so Thor knew what he was talking about.
“My pleasure.” Thor pulled out his wallet and handed him a wad of twenty-dollar bills. “I should have remembered to pay you before we got to the cafeteria.”
Auggie frowned. “This is too much.” Even without counting it, he could tell it was more than he’d earned.
