Chapter Two
When you think of college professors, you think of old, fat, and ugly. You definitely do NOT think of 24-year-old, messy brown hair, and insanely physically fit. Well, that's what this college professor was. I took him in as soon as he walked in: worn khakis, wrinkly button-up shirt, loosened tie, cologne.
"Thanks for having me for dinner, Faith and Jack," he said. Oh my god, his voice was like, really sexy. I knew that I would have a problem on my hands. He smiled. I'm pretty sure my heart skipped a beat and did a flip.
"Let me introduce the children," said my dad. He went down the line of kids and introduced every one. Zack (was I allowed to call him that?) bent down so he was face to face with them and shook their hands. It was the sweetest thing ever. When my dad got to me, I stood up, and tried to keep my cool. "This is Taliya," he said. "She's our actual daughter. She's seventeen."
He smiled and looked me straight in the eye. My heart jumped. "Nice to meet you," he said as he grabbed my hand.
"Nice to meet you, too." My hand was still tingling after he let go.
"Actually, Taliya is looking for a job this summer," said my mom. "Maybe you know a position on campus?" God, could she be any more embarrassing? I could feel myself blushing, I wanted to hide my face in shame.
"Actually, I might have one." I looked up at him. God, he was like 6'3". I was so not used to guys being that much taller than me at 5'8". "If you can do simple filing tasks I'll be more than happy to hire you."
I opened my mouth to say no thanks, I didn't think I would be able to keep myself away from him if I worked right there, but before I could say anything, my mom jumped in. "She'll take it," my mom said. I shrugged and smiled.
"Great," he said. "Can you start tomorrow?" I nodded.
Dinner was a disaster, I couldn't help but stare at him, and he totally caught me like eighty times. He left right after dessert. On his way out the door he said, "I'll stop by at ten tomorrow to pick you up, Taliya." For the rest of the night I pictured him saying my name, Taliya.
I woke up to my alarm the next morning at eight. I know, it was summer and I was supposed to sleep in, but I had to look decent for the guy. I may not have had a chance with him, because it was illegal or whatever, but I could at least make the guy pine quietly. I wore my dark skinny jeans with the big hole in the knee and a purple top that showed off my body in a non-whorish way. I'm not going to lie; I have a pretty good body. Like the whole 36, 24, 36 thing. Well, that's me. Not to mention my ridiculously long legs and my toned arms from carrying kids around all day.
I straightened my hair and pieced it around so my side-swept bangs were perfect in the effortless way and put on makeup. At 9:30 I made myself a bagel and at 10:00 I was getting into the car with Mr. Hughes. I was so nervous.
"Morning, Taliya," he said to me.
"Good morning, Mr. Hughes," I said, kind of timidly.
"You don't have to call me that, you know," he said. "Just call me Zack." I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just sat there. "So, I'm just going to give you a quick tour of the campus, just in case I need you to run any errands for me, and then I'll get you started on filing my student's artwork."
"Wait, you teach art?" I asked, a bit shocked. I thought he taught something boring, like English.
"Yeah, of course. Why?" he said.
"Nothing, that's just what I want to major in when I go to college."
"Aren't you a little young to be thinking about what you want to major in?" he asked me.
"Hey!" I said, teasingly. "I'm going to be a senior. Besides, are you ever to young to find your passion?"
"Ah, touché," he said. God, I could tell this was going to be an amazing summer.
He gave me the tour of the campus and then sent me to work while he was teaching a class. All I had to do was find the students' names in the filing cabinet and put their art inside the folder. Occasionally Zack's art was mixed in, in which case I would set it on the desk. He was good, really good. I got to listen to all of his classes, too. He seemed like a really great professor, he was constantly making the students laugh. It made my heart ache in a way, just because I knew I could never have him.
What killed me most was that I had never been this weird about guys before. I've dated my share of boys, but none of them made me feel like this. And I wasn't even dating the guy! It was the weirdest thing ever, but I kind of liked it.