Dan's POV

Frigid wind whipped dried brown leaves around my shoes as I ran down the pavement that stretched across most of Columbia's campus. The first thing wrong with that scenario is that I was running. I don't run. I don't even jog. I saunter at best, so I was basically exhausted after three seconds. What made my physical exertion worse, though was the temperature. The air was so cold that it literally felt like I was inhaling powdered mints and my lungs felt like they were going to shred apart. But I kept running because I was already late.

I had a faculty meeting with the English department that ran over, which wouldn't have been a big deal as I didn't have a class to get to, but I'd scheduled several meetings with students for that afternoon. Midterms were coming up and just like when I was a student myself, things were completely chaotic. Probably more chaotic for me, since it was my first time dealing with the stress from the educators point of view. I taught five classes, which might not sound like a lot, but collectively I had over 375 students, which most certainly was a lot.

A lot of grading, which meant a lot of (really bad) reading, which in turn meant a lot of my time to have everything in when it is supposed to be.

Thankfully not all of my students wanted to see me. Just a few handfuls. Most of them were doing fine, a few were looking for extra credit, and then there was Sydney who was using my meetings as an excuse to hang out in my office until her evening dance class started. Which was why she was the last meeting I'd scheduled.

By the time that I got inside of the Philosophy building and to my office there was a line of three students standing silently by my door.

I was trying not to pant for air as I hurried by them, which only made me sound even more breathless when I spoke. "Sorry. Running a bit late."

I unlocked the door and motioned for the girl nearest me to follow as I stepped inside.

She sat down in front of my desk while I sifted through folders for hers, though it finally dawned on me that I didn't know who she was. Instead of asking like any normal person might, I continued to try to control my shortness of breath while searching for the list of students I was meeting that I'd made the previous day.

I found it crinkled up inside of my briefcase with a beautiful ring right in the center from where I'd sat my coffee down on it. I'm so professional, really. I can't handle myself.

"Alright, Tiffany," I began, reaching for the mess of folders. "You're-"

"Um, Professor Howell," she interrupted. "I'm not Tiffany."

"You're not, are you?" I laughed, sliding my chair close to my desk to pick up the list. "Sorry. You look a lot like Tiffany...Farah?"

"No. I'm Chelsea. I have your morning Philosophy class on Monday and Friday."

And that is exactly how I spent the next three hours. Confusing everyone and everything that I could have possibly confused. I knew it was it was going to be difficult, but it was definitely made worse by my horrible organizational skills.

By the time that my last official meeting was over my desk was covered with papers and folders and little post it notes I'd made for students who I had assigned extra credit work to...It was a chaos that only I would understand and be able to work through.

I felt like I was finally able to breathe and relax a bit when my door closing scared the hell out of me. I looked up to see Sydney smiling at me while holding two bags of food that smelled absolutely amazing.

"I come with noms, Professor Howell," she said as she walked further into my office, not even bothering stopping at my desk of insanity. She walked over to the small table in front of my couch instead and sat the bags down before removing her scarf and then unzipping her jacket. Of course the only thing she had on underneath it was a bloody sports bra since she was going to dance class after our quick meal together. "How did your meetings go?" she asked as she sat down on the couch and began opening the bags.

"Horribly," I laughed, pushing my chair back to stand. "I was late and kept getting students mixed up. I have so much work to do already and the bloody midterms haven't even happened yet. I'll be happy when they're over and done with." I sat down beside her and eyed the food she'd brought which was Thai takeout. "Thanks for bringing dinner. I'm going to be stuck here for a while."

"You're welcome," she replied, leaning over to kiss my cheek quickly. "Phil told me this morning that you were probably going to be super busy so I thought I would be a helpful girlfriend and at least feed my man. Do you want me to come see if I can help with anything after my class is done tonight?"

"Nah, don't worry about it," I declined, picking up one of the drinks from the table. "I know you're just as busy."

"Dan, I'm like super duper smart. I'm not that busy," she informed me before flipping her ponytail over her shoulder, joking with me.

"Even though that might be true, you still have better things you should be focused on," I replied. "I appreciate the offer though."

"You are so stubborn. Just accept my help, turd," she replied, flicking a noodle at the side of my face. "I'll take any extra time I can get to spend time with you because I happen to like you a bit if you haven't noticed by now."

"Well that extra time with me would also entail extra time with Ms. Summers," I explained. "I figure you'd rather not."

I could see behind those expressive eyes of her that a great deal of effort was being made not to wrinkle her nose in disgust or roll her eyes. "You know me well, Professor Howell," she replied while reaching over to steal a bite of my food.

"I do," I agreed, turning on the sofa. "And that reminds me. Are you alright? You were tossing and turning a lot last night."

She shrugged her shoulders like that would be enough of an explanation from me. When she looked over she started to laugh because I guess my face let her know that it definitely was not.

"I don't know. I'm just stressed out over school and stuff," she told me, stabbing at her plate rather aggressively. "And I feel like an asshole because I lied to B and told her that I filled out my schedule but I didn't because I feel like it's stupid to do it when I don't know if I'll have the money for it."

"No, it would be stupid not to go ahead and pick your classes while most of them are still open. You still have time between now and when tuition payments are due to get a job," I replied, sitting my plate down between us.

Of course I felt partially responsible for the reason she was so worried. I was, after all, the one who gave her an ultimatum about her job. But I was looking out for her well being.

"Brighton offered to get you in at that bar she works at. I know it's not much, but it's something."

"Yeah, I know. I'm supposed to go talk to the manager tomorrow," she replied before taking a sip of her drink. "I guess sometimes I just feel silly. I mean, I'm surrounded by all of you smart people and I'm getting a degree in dance. Is there really any point? I highly doubt someone like me is going to end up being one of those cool people who gets to like choreograph music videos and shit. I just want my own little studio and cool people to teach."

"Yeah, there is a point actually. It's what you're passionate about. Do you know how few and far between that people can say that they are doing what they love to do? It's rare. You don't do it for success. You do it because you enjoy it. You would hate any other job, even if it meant you'd have more money."

"Not true. If I could get paid lots of money for having sex with you I would not hate that job," she grinned up at me. "I didn't like smack you or anything in my sleep did I?"

"No," I laughed. "Just a few bony elbows to the ribs here and there and lots of leg kicking."

"Sorry," she laughed, covering her mouth with her hand since she had just taken a bite of food. "To be fair, you are longer than me so there's more of you to kick."

"Yeah but it was like sharing a bed with Ollie. He sleeps sideways and loves kicking people in the face. I don't know how Phil still has all of his teeth after four years of that."

"Aww, I am so sorry, babe. You should've woke me up and told me to chill the fuck out or something," she said while reaching over to rub her thumb over my dimple like always. "I'll talk to my dance teacher about everything today and see what she has to say about it. Maybe I'll be able to keep from abusing you in my sleep tonight."

"You better. Or I'm going to be forced into telling Brighton that you didn't really do your scheduling, then she'll be forced into mommying you and dragging you to do it by your ear."

She glared at me and threw her napkin onto my lap. "If you do that then I'm going to tell Oliver that you're the one who ate the last bowl of Fruity Pebbles this weekend. Watch yourself."

I laughed picking up the napkin. "His vengeance will be well worth it," I said as I threw it back at her. "Brighton is the only person you'll really listen to."

"Nu uh! I listen to you all the time too. I even listen to you in class which is sort of like extra listening."

"That must be why you're asking someone else what to do and completely terrified of Brighton knowing," I teased. "Don't worry. I'm not offended."

"But I do listen to you!" she giggled. "I listen to Phil too. You three are the only ones I listen to. For example, you're the one who made me realize that working at my old job was stupid because I wasn't safe. If I hadn't listened to you then I wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"You know, honestly, it doesn't matter to me who inspires your choices, as long as you're making the right ones, I'm happy." I leaned over and pressed a quick kiss against her lips before picking up my plate to continue eating.

"I made the choice to stay in your class and be with you. I think those were pretty awesome decisions," she told me, winking at me as she took a sip of her drink.

"Actually, I refused to let you drop it so you can't take credit for that," I winked back. "Though being with me was your choice and I agree that that was a nice decision."

"A nice decision," she mocked me, rolling her eyes. "Don't get too excited about it or anything, Dan. I don't want you to strain anything over there," she laughed.

"What do you want me to say?" I laughed from behind my hand as I chewed. "You know I'm happy to be with you. I even share my food with you. That says more than I ever could."

She laughed, shaking her head as she closed her container of food to slip back into the bag. "Sweetie, I think I heard more passion out of you when you found out that there was going to be a Cool Ranch Dorito taco at Taco Bell." She stood up from the couch and bent down to pick up her jacket, glancing at the clock as she slipped it back on.

A knock on the door kept me from being able to reply to her and she paused briefly at her cleavage with the zipper. I swear I could just see her thought process about whether to leave the jacket open that way but I guess she decided to take the high road because she moved the zipper up to cover herself completely. "Oh yay. Ms. Pencil Skirt is here," she whispered in a nasally voice while grabbing her scarf and putting it on rather aggressively.

"Come in," I called out as I pushed myself off of the sofa. I grabbed the bag of trash and chucked it into the bin by my desk just as the door started to open.

"Good afternoon, Dan," Eve smiled as she stepped in. Though she halted at the sight of Sydney tugging her bag over her shoulder. Even after several other classes together, there was still a lot of uncomfortable tension between them. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No, not at all. I've had student meetings all afternoon. Ms. Knight and I were just finishing up with ours," I explained, moving around my desk to sit behind it.

Eve said nothing in response as she continued through the doorway, leaving it open for Sydney to walk out of.

"Have a good evening Ms. Knight," I said, glancing up at her from the mess before me.

"Mmhm. You too, Professor," she replied while walking by Eve but not bothering to say a word to her. She also didn't bother closing the door behind her.

With a sigh Eve pushed it shut. I glanced up a second time to see that she was looking at me, smiling.

I waited a few seconds, assuming she was going to speak, before offering a forced smile and turning my attention back to my work.

I heard footsteps followed by a shuffling noise before Eve came into my line of vision. Under the long coat she had been wearing was a button down tucked into a very high waisted pencil skirt. I could feel the corners of my mouth twitching.

"Like what you see?"

I was so caught off guard by her question that I dropped the stack of papers I'd picked up.

"What?" I laughed, fumbling to pick them up again.

"My outfit, silly," she replied, draping her coat over the back of the chair before sitting down. "It's new."

"Oh, yeah, no," I shook my head, "I'm not fashionable. You do look nice though," I deflected.

"Thanks. I try," she grinned, digging through her bag. "By the way, I finished all of those essays you gave me to grade. I know you still have to look over them but I feel much more confident about these than the last. I'm trying your approach to not be so textbook about errors. Like you said, not everyone is an English major."

"That's good. It's nice to keep an open mind. Of course some things can't be overlooked but usually if it's a small error I'll note it but not take off any points while grading," I said, taking the folder she was offering me. I looked at my desk and felt very overwhelmed about my choice of where I was supposed to sit it. "I have more for you if you're interested in grading them for me."

"Of course," she replied. "But first, can we take care of that mess?" I looked up to see her gesturing towards the chaos in front of me. "I'm extremely obsessive compulsive about clutter. Even if you say no I'll probably try to straighten it up for you."

I laughed at how serious she appeared as she spoke. "I believe that," I responded, sitting the envelope down on my lap. I scooted my chair over and motioned for her to join me. "I should probably fix this before I attempt to do anything else."

She let out a sigh of relief as she stood up. "Thank you. Seriously. I wouldn't be able to concentrate with that mess right in front of me."

"It's that bad?" I laughed.

"It's that bad," she agreed, pushing her chair next to mine. "I have two housekeepers."

I was unable to stop the loud laughter that followed her comment. I thought that she was kidding but it became very evident that she wasn't. I cleared my throat. "Wow. Two housekeepers. I don't even have one."

"You don't?" she asked, leaning over me to collect some of the folders. "Does your house look anything like your office? Specifically your desk?"

"No. My room is a bit messy but my brother and I make sure the rest of the apartment is tidy."

"Tidy," she repeated, leaning back with a smile. "So you live with your brother?"

"Mhmm. And his four year old."

"Oh, so there's a woman there to keep things in order then?"

There's two, actually.

"No," I shook my head. "Just us two."

She looked at me with an eyebrow raised but didn't let her gaze linger. "So no girlfriends then?"

"Nope. Like I said, just the two of us. And Oliver, my nephew."

"Interesting," she replied while opening the top folder on the stack she was holding. "I find it pretty shocking that you are single. I mean, I'm sure that even you're aware of the fact that you're handsome and even your students have issues keeping their eyes off of you."

I stopped mid drawer pull to look at her with an eyebrow raised. "I'm not aware for the former, actually, but as for the latter, they should look at me. I do stand in front of them and shout. I'd be more worried if they weren't paying attention."

She laughed, apparently unaffected by what I'm sure Sydney would call my 'sass'. "Dan, there's a difference between looking at people and looking at people. I'm sure you know what I mean." She flipped through a few pages in the folder, making me think she dropped the subject but, oh no. "Like Ms. Knight, for example," she said, gesturing towards the door. "It's obvious that she is one of the girls who is looking in a different way and the way that she uses her body to attempt to grab your attention proves it."

"Actually, Ms. Knight is gay. I've met her girlfriend. She's very nice." I pressed my knuckles against my lips to hide the smile that was threatening to reveal itself. "I'm glad to hear that you pay so much attention to the way others look at me, but sadly you're mistaken."

She was visibly shocked. I think someone could've driven a vehicle through her mouth because it was hanging wide open. "Oh," she finally spoke, blinking quickly. "How odd. I never would've thought." She tilted her head like she was thinking over it and then shrugged. "Oh well. To each her own. I guess that just shows that we should never assume things."

"To assume is to make an ass out of 'u' and 'me', so no, we shouldn't assume anything," I replied, overjoyed with how many times I'd been able to sass her in the last few minutes. "Ah, here are those essays you agreed to grade." I picked the folder up and quickly dropped it on top of the pile sitting in front of her.

"Thank you very much," she replied, happily taking the folder before sitting it on the chair next to her.

From that point on we were met with silence that lasted until we got my desk completely sorted. I had to admit, for a girl with housekeepers, she sure knew how to tame even the worst of messes. All of the folders that had been scattered were all tucked back into the filing cabinet along with the rest of the paperwork and rubbish that had been cluttering my desk. The only thing that was sitting on it was my laptop and necessities such as pens, paperweights, and Post Its.

She'd even managed to get me to move away and sit on the couch so she could sort out the drawers. I was honestly half expecting her to ask for a broom and dustpan so she could properly clean the place up.

"Shit!"

I looked up from one of the papers I was double checking to see Eve struggling to...I'm not sure what she was struggling with, but she was messing with her wrist and looked a bit frustrated.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

She quickly looked up at me from behind my desk. "My bracelet unclasped. It's so small and I have really long nails so it's not the easiest piece of jewellery to put on."

"I can help," I offered, sitting the paper on the cushion beside me before standing.

"That'd be great. Thanks," she replied, standing to meet me half way. "A friend of mine gave this to me ages ago and I should just get a new clasp but I don't want-" her words trailed off while I was attempting to work the clasp and I raised my eyes from it to her face to see her staring at me with the strangest expression on her face.

"Are you-" I started to ask if she was alright but before I could complete my sentence her lips were against mine.

My whole body froze. I had no fucking clue of how to react except for thinking 'what the fuck' over and over in my head. One of her hands moved to the back of my neck and she tilted her head to the side. When I felt her tongue move over my bottom lip something snapped and brought me back to reality, thankfully.

I quickly stepped away from her, leaving her standing there with very red cheeks and a look of complete shock on her face. She brought her hand up to her mouth as if it was just dawning on her that she kissed me.

"I- I'm so sorry," she spluttered out before turning around to gather the folders I'd given her and her bag. I stood there completely blown away wondering what the fuck was going on. She pretty much ran out the door without saying another word or explaining why she attacked me with her mouth out of fucking nowhere.

I was so distracted with my thoughts that the sight of Brighton poking her head around the doorframe actually made me jump and let out a yelp that sounded strangely like one of my brother's.

"And Professor Lester said that you don't scare easily," she laughed as she stepped over the threshold into my office.

"I usually don't," I replied, my palm pressing against the left side of my chest. "What brings you here?"

"I'm helping Phil sort through files and we ran out of manila folders. Dodge Hall is practically deserted so he asked me to come see if you had any."

I knew that Brighton hadn't seen what had just happened but I felt like the wrongness of it was written all over me. I stood there staring at her for several seconds and I watched as she shifted her eyes around then subtly glanced over her shoulder before looking at me again, confused. "What?"

"What?" I repeated.

"What's wrong with you?" she laughed, crossing her arms. "Did you not hear me ask if you had any manila folders?"

"Yeah, sorry. I'm a bit out of it. It's been a long day," I replied, turning away to open the filing cabinet by my desk.

"I know the feeling," she sighed. "I worked this morning, went to class, went back to work, then came back here to go to the library, now I'm helping Phil since he's swamped with so much stuff. Oh, what's this?"

I was so on edge from what had happened with Eve that I spun around too quickly to look at Brighton and ended up smacking my knee against the side of the cabinet in front of me. I was unable to care about the pain pulsating from it because of the shiny piece of jewelry she was picking up from the floor. It was Eve's bracelet.

"Someone has had way too much coffee today," she laughed as I snatched the bracelet from her grasp. "What? Was I not supposed to see that?" She gasped. "Did you get that for Sydney? That looks expensive. Let me see it again," she said while trying to take it away from me.

"It's not for Sydney," I blurted out. Brighton furrowed her eyebrows, her lips parting to speak but I forestalled her. "My TA must've dropped it. Sorry. I didn't mean to get snatchy, but it's obviously expensive."

"Obviously. That thing has more diamonds than Little Wayne's grill. Which is exactly why you should let me see it."

"Since neither of us can afford to replace it, I'm going to put it up."

A weird noise left her and she started waving her arms like a mad woman. "Don't wad it up! Here, look. Let me show you." She stepped closer to me and pried my grip loose, sliding the bracelet so that it was laying flat across my palm. "There. Where ever you decide to put it, lay it like that."

I sat down in front of my desk and carefully laid the the string of tiny diamonds down inside of the open drawer.

"So does that belong to the same TA that Syd can't stand?" Brighton asked, sitting down on the edge of my desk.

"Yep," I nodded. The last person I wanted to talk or think about was Eve, so I made quick work of changing the subject. "I'm surprised Phil's allowing you to help him with how close midterms are."

"Well it's not like I'm giving him much of a choice. It's one of my work study days. Plus, I'm a creative writing major. We don't exactly have course material to study for big exams."

"You know, I never thought of that. What exactly are your midterms?"

"It depends on the class. Typically though it has to do writing. Creatively."

I rolled my eyes. "Thank you for that, smartass."

"Sorry," she laughed. "It's completely random though. There will be questions about different parts of a story. You know, all the technical stuff, then there'll be a scenario of some sort that I'll have to write about...It's not really anything I can prepare myself for. In one of my writing classes though, the midterm is a short story that we've had all semester to work on. So it really does depend."

"Hmmm. Interesting."

A buzzing noise sounded off and both of us started to pat our pockets.

"It's me," Brighton announced. I looked up to see her bringing her phone up to her ear. "Hey babe."

Babe? Was that Phil babe or Sydney babe?

"No, I'm fine. I was just talking to Dan. Yeah. Yeah, he has them. No it's fine. Okay. Okay. I love you too." She pulled the phone away and slipped it back into her pocket before looking at me. "What about those folders?"

"What folders?"

"Seriously?" she laughed, rolling her eyes. "Your attention span is worse than Oliver's. The manila folders that I came for in the first place."

"Oh." I rolled my eyes at myself while reaching over to open the filing cabinet that I'd hit my knee on. "Sorry. Like I said earlier, I'm out of it more so than usual."

"Clearly," she teased, standing up from the edge of my desk. I pulled a pack of folders out and she took them without hesitation. "Well I should get back to helping your brother. Thanks for the folders."

"No problem."

Brighton left my office and I reclined back in my chair. Finally alone I was able to fully process what had happened. Well, I'd obviously processed it before, but now I had to think through a choice I didn't want to think through. The choice of telling Sydney about what had happened.

Sydney's POV

There weren't many good things that I had to say about Dan's little teaching assistant, Eve, but one of them had to be that she put fire under my ass every time I saw her which was awesome for going into dance class.

When I dance I completely zone out. From a young age I used it as my escape and it was something I still did in my 20s. It was free therapy and I loved it more than eating and sleeping which was some serious business because I love to eat and sleep.

My class that particular night was modern dance which was my favorite class because of my Professor, the movements, the music, and the people I got to work with. I adored every bit of it.

I probably also loved that class because it was more of a challenge for me than tap or ballet. Those were the two that I was trained the most thoroughly in and felt most confident in. Modern was new to me and we all know how I love challenges.

Our Professor, Mrs. Benson, was gone for a few days and we were left with a substitute but instructed to work on a number we'd been trying to get right for 2 weeks before she left. We really worked our asses off to get it right so I was really excited for her to see us dance that night.

When we finished the number the only thing that could be heard in the room was the sound of all of us breathing heavily. She sat in the front of the room, her long legs crossed and her hand covering her mouth as she looked at all of us through her jet black bangs. She was in her late 50s and could pass for her 30s. From the moment I met her I knew I wanted to be like her. She was the mother I think I was meant to have. Classy, sassy, blunt, beautiful, and a hell of a dancer.

The longer we all stood there staring at her in the silent room I think the more nervous we all got. Sometimes I think she had fun with that. It had to feel powerful. I know Dan had fun doing that shit daily.

"I want to know how the hell all of you managed to go from that tragic mess I saw 5 days ago to this fabulous group of people tonight?" she finally spoke and you could literally hear all of us let out a breath of relief followed by giggling. "No, I'm completely serious," she said as she stood up, sitting her clipboard down on the chair she'd been sitting on. "Everything was on point. All of the little things that were making the number seem shaky and not fluid at all were completely fixed. How did you figure it all out so quickly?"

One of the guys in the row in front of me raised his hand and she glanced over at him, nodding for him to speak. "It was Sydney," he told her, throwing me right into the deer in headlights look. "She knows how to do all kinds of shit," he informed her, his hands on his hips as he turned look at me.

She tilted her head as she followed his gaze to me and smiled, nodding. "Interesting. Let's go again," she responded, making her way back to her seat.

I didn't think too far into her comment because we danced for the rest of the class and added moves in places, tweaking things for a performance we would have coming up to show what we'd done up until that point in the school year.

We finished a bit later than usual but I didn't really mind because I didn't have any plans for that night other than reading over a few notes for another class and maybe helping Dan and Phil if they needed any help with their stuff they were swamped with.

I was in the back of the room getting my things together when I felt someone's hand on my shoulder and turned around to see my Professor smiling at me. "Sydney could I see you in my office for a few moments? If you're not busy, that is."

"Not at all," I responded with a smile but also wondered why the balls she wanted to talk to me. I followed her out of the room and to her office with all sorts of thoughts running through my head. Part of me was scared she was going to tell me to fuck off and stop trying to run her class. I couldn't help it though. I was a perfectionist and if I saw that someone needed help I always just stepped up without hesitation or being asked to.

"Have a seat, please," she instructed, closing the door behind me. Her office smelled like fresh coffee and some kind of orgasmic cookie. There were black and white photos all over the walls of people dancing which were absolutely gorgeous and I wanted all of them.

"From my glory days," she said as she sat down, noticing me looking.

"Those are all you?" I asked, able to see that she was definitely the beautiful woman in all of the photos.

"Guilty," she answered, smiling. "My boyfriend was a photography major so he took a lot of photos of me."

"That's so cool," I told her, trying to make myself stop staring but there were so many pictures and they were truly beautiful. "Whatever happened to him?"

"Oh, I imagine he's sitting in our living room watching hockey right now or something I wouldn't want to watch," she laughed. "I ended up marrying him."

"Awww, that's so sweet," I replied, leaning back on my chair because I felt a bit more relaxed.

"Thank you. But, we're not here to talk about my extremely talented and beautiful husband," she responded, flipping her hair over her shoulder and sighing before winking at me. "I want to talk about you."

"Me?"

She nodded. "I've had my eye on you all year. You are amazing in this class as well as your ballet and tap classes. I mean, you have talent that I haven't seen in many, many years yet I see that your major is undecided?"

I could feel my face getting super warm and knew I was blushing like mad. "Wow, thank you, first of all. That means alot coming from you. About the major, when I signed up for classes I wasn't able to take enough centered around dance to actually classify it as my major yet so I put undecided."

"Are you planning to major in dance now?"

I sighed, shrugging. "Money is a real issue right now and I can't get loans so I'm not sure if I can even come back next semester."

She looked shocked and perhaps a bit disappointed. "Sydney, that would honestly be tragic to me," she laughed. "I mean, have you seen yourself dance? This is what you were born to do. With the right education you could make a real name for yourself in the dance world."

I felt butterflies go through my stomach and I honestly wondered for a second if I was going to cry. "I want to come back, I do. I want to major in dance and do anything I can involving dance but I have no job right now. All I have is the money I saved before I lost my job and even if I use all of that it won't cover more than 2 of my books."

She leaned back in her chair and folded her arms as she studied me. "Did you know that I have a few studios?"

"No, I had no idea."

"I do. Here and in New Jersey. But it just so happens that I need someone to instruct tap lessons at one of my New York spots. Would you be interested in that?"

Holy shit. Was this woman forreal?

"Uh, yes!" I answered, obviously excited.

"You don't even want to know how much it would pay?" she laughed and I laughed too.

"You said I'd be teaching dance I went for it. I'll live off noodles if I have to to get to do what I love for a job."

She grinned a very big grin and leaned forward. "You could not have answered that more perfectly. What if I told you that I can make sure you'll make enough money to live comfortably and I can see what I can do to get you grants for school so you won't have to worry about paying money back."

My eyes were probably bulging out of my head. I wasn't used to anyone wanting to help me like that. Before I met B, Dan, and Phil I was surrounded by shady assholes who were only out to use me and all of the sudden it was like this woman was wanting to hand me all sorts of goodness on a platter.

"I would say that you're my new favorite person in the entire world and I'll tap dance my ass off for you," I answered, laughing.

"I should've spent more time talking to you since the beginning of the year. Honestly, I've seen so many people come and go from here who had so much talent but didn't have the heart to make something of it. I didn't want to devote any of myself to helping someone who would graduate and run off with some med school twat or something," she rolled her eyes. "No offense if that's their thing but performers are just, we have a different kind of spirit and I think that some embrace that and some just push it away. I've watched you in here and your other classes and everything comes so naturally to you that it actually makes me jealous. The fact that you're intensely beautiful doesn't hurt either," she laughed.

"Thanks," I managed to say in a quiet voice because I was too busy staring at her like I was in complete shock. I'm fairly sure I was in complete shock. I'd been told when I was younger that I was good at dancing and of course I'd been told when I danced half naked on a damn pole but to be told by someone as talented as her was mind boggling.

Over the next while she took even more of her time to not only help me get my schedule fixed for the next semester but she helped me fill out all sorts of applications for grants that I apparently could be approved for that would pay for parts of my education and books because I had no income and was single. I had no idea that anything like that even existed because I quit high school and got my GED before the whole college counseling thing that they did for everyone.

We had several cups of coffee together while doing all of that and I also opened up and told her my story. Yes, I even told her about the club and what happened. I conveniently left the parts about Dan out and filled that in with mine and Brighton's romantic story though. She was cool but I didn't want to flush everything just handed to me down the toilet by thinking that was that cool.

I'm not sure of what time it was by the time I finally got to our apartment building. I think I was so scared that I would end up calling Dan to tell him my news instead of telling him in person was part of why I refused to look at my phone in the cab on the way home.

I was bouncing around in the elevator like an impatient child as I stared at the numbers. I knew that if anyone was going to be as excited about this as I was it would be Dan and Brighton definitely would be too but I wasn't looking forward to dropping the bomb about lying to her about my schedule yet so she would be told tomorrow.

When I got into the apartment I wasn't expecting to find that no one was in the kitchen or living room. I glanced at the clock as I walked past the living room and saw that it was nearly 11 pm. I couldn't believe Dan hadn't called wondering if I was dead in a ditch somewhere.

I quickly made my way down the hall and to our room to find him sitting on the middle of his bed in his pajamas playing his Nintendo DS which also shocked me because I figured he would be grading papers.

"Hello there, stranger," I greeted him as I took my jacket off. "Sorry I'm so late," I continued, walking to the closet to hang up my scarf and jacket before grabbing some clothes to change into after I showered. I honestly wanted to pounce onto the bed like an excited baby cheetah on crack but I could see by the look on his face that something was a bit off.

"You're fine," he replied. I looked over my shoulder to see that he was still looking down at his DS. "Brighton told me you were staying late. Everything alright? You usually don't stay on campus any longer than you have to."

By that point I had gotten excited all over again and was bouncing around in place. I finally just threw my clothes onto the bed before hopping onto it, nearly making him topple over. "You are not going to believe what happened to me tonight. Like, I don't even know what to do with myself right now. I want to scream and flail my arms and things," I told him while actually flailing my arms and not caring that he was judging the hell out of me for it.

"So, my Professor has been gone for a few days and we totally sucked balls at this dance she taught us before she left but I worked super hard and helped the class and when she saw us tonight she was super happy with it and someone told her I helped. Then after class she pulled me into her office wanting to know why I wasn't majoring in dance and I told her my story and anyway not only did she give me a job teaching tap lessons in her studio but she sent in some applications for me to get grants to help me pay for school and got my schedule fixed for me for next semester. She literally like fixed all of my problems right then because she said that she saw so much talent in me that she knew I would go far if given the opportunity. Can you believe that? Oh fuck. I think I'm gonna cry. This is like really amazing, isn't it?" I rambled, putting my hand over my chest while taking a deep breath to try to calm myself down.

"Wow. Yeah, that is completely amazing," he replied, sounding as shocked as he looked. He closed his DS and sat it down on the nightstand by his bed. "I don't even know what to say, honestly. All of that is great news. I'm really happy for you, and I'm glad you got everything sorted out so quickly."

I know that he wasn't required to be super stoked about it like I was and that he was really stressed with work but his lack of enthusiasm definitely put a tiny hole in my balloon of giddiness. "Yeah, it's pretty great," I responded, trying to keep the smile on my face while I reached around him to grab the clothes I threw around. I crawled off the bed, clearing my throat because I felt totally awkward for some reason. "I'm gonna go take a bath," I told him, motioning towards the door with my head before walking out.

I don't really know what I was expecting. I mean, Dan isn't someone who runs around squealing like a fangirl and giggling about things like me. I guess I just wanted to share that moment with someone because I literally never had anything like that happen to me in my life apart from being accepted by that university in the first place.

On the way to the bathroom I thought about telling B but I could hear Phil snoring before I even knocked on the door so I didn't want to wake either of them.

I turned on the water and poured some bubbles into the bath before walking out and heading to the kitchen to grab a wine glass and a bottle of red wine. I could at least celebrate by myself.

After getting settled into my bath with my wine I tried to focus on the fact that instead of worrying I could actually look ahead to my future. Still, part of me wished I wasn't doing that alone in my head. Hell, even if Oliver was there if he saw how excited I was he would've still been bouncing around with me and probably offering to celebrate by watching Adventure Time and drinking chocolate milk with Lion.

The door opened and I glanced over to see one of Dan's eyes peeking through the small gap. I parted my lips to speak but before I could say anything, the small gap disappeared and the door closed.

If I didn't already feel alone and unable to be as happy for myself as I wanted, that little action made me feel that way. Though he hadn't done or said anything out of the way, I expected him to be more excited for me.

I finished off what was left in my glass as the door started to open again. This time I didn't even look over at who I knew was Dan standing a few feet away. Instead I focused my attention on my toenails and the fact that I needed to paint them because the coats were chipping.

I heard a soft shuffling noise and subtly glanced in his direction to see him standing in the same spot. Completely naked.

"You could have told me you were having wine and a bubble bath," he commented, starting towards the tub carrying his own wine glass. He stuck one leg into the water and the second followed. I instantly curled my legs up to give him room to sit in front of me and I watched as he did just that.

He reclined against the opposite side of the tub and stretched his long legs out so that one ankle was propped up on either side of my shoulders, a soft sigh of relaxation soon following his movements.

"You seemed like your mind was somewhere else so I didn't want to be all up in your personal bubble," replied, moving my hand around to make a 'bubble shape'. "I know you've got a lot of shit going on right now."

He splashed bubbles at me while laughing lightly. "I'm just really tired. It's been a long day, but that doesn't mean I don't have time for you," he said while holding his empty wine glass up. "Especially not when something so wonderful is going on in your life."

I sat up a bit to grab the bottle of wine and leaned forward to pour some for him before sitting it on the floor again. "Dan, when I told you I got the reaction that I would expect if I won a 6th grade spelling bee," I laughed. "So, I decided to come get all pruney and tipsy in this lovely, large bathtub. But, I am glad you came to join me."

"I'm British, what do you expect?" he asked, chuckling. "I'm a miserable, unexcitable asshole. But I really am happy for you, and more than that, I'm glad someone else sees in you the same things that I do."

I laughed as well before taking a long sip of my wine and then absent mindedly swirling the bottom of the glass around on some bubbles. "Thanks. I definitely got lucky and it feels really good. Almost too good to be true."

"Well it is true," he grinned, reaching out for my hand. He tugged on it, urging me to sit up a bit as he leaned forward. "And you should feel good." His words were just above a whisper and they smothered against my lips before he kissed them softly, his water and bubble-soaked hand cupping the side of my face.

I couldn't keep myself from smiling against his lips. After what had to have been hundreds, if not thousands of kisses from him I still got butterflies every single time. "You might be an unexcitable asshole but you're my unexcitable asshole and I adore you," I told him, my lips just barely touching his before I kissed him again. "Mmm, I love when you taste like wine," I sighed.

I could feel his lips curving into a grin and his hand slipped from my cheek into my hair. "Good thing I taste like that often," he mumbled, tilting his head. His tongue trailed across my bottom lip before then slowly into my mouth, giving me a proper kiss. It felt like it had been days since he kissed me like that even though it had only been hours.

He pulled away, but didn't recline. Instead he grabbed the bottle of wine from the floor and refilled both of our glasses.

"To the first of many opportunities in store for you," he offered, raising his wine glass while sitting the bottle down.

"And to us," I added, raising my glass as well before tapping it against his. Our eyes stayed on each other while we both took a sip.

Instead of leaning back again, I managed to turn my body around and scooted back so that my back was against his chest and I laid the back of my head on his shoulder. "This is much more comfortable," I told him, sighing happily as I propped my arms on his thighs.

"It's also better than having your face in such close proximity to my feet," he replied, wiggling them around from where they were propped up on the other end of the bath.

He snaked an arm around me, trailing his fingertips up and down my stomach. Soon after I felt his lips press against the side of my head and what I could only describe as a happy sigh leave them.

"At least you don't have ugly feet," I replied, trying to stretch my feet out to his but my legs were definitely not long enough for my feet to touch his. "Actually, I can't think of a part of you that is ugly. Why do I like you so much?"

"I have no idea," he laughed. "Why do you like me so much?"

"Hmm. Good question," I replied, turning around to look at him. I sat up on my knees and took another sip of my wine before taking his glass and mine and sitting them on the floor.

I pressed my hands against his thighs under water and slowly moved my hands up them, leaning in closer to him as I did. "There are many reasons I could give you like your intelligence, your wit, your sense of humor, your sassiness. But, I'm not too great with words and I'm sure you've heard all of that before."

I moved closer to him, my hands moving from his thighs to the sides of the tub as I moved to straddle his lap. "So, how about I show you instead?"

"Mmm, I like that idea," he responded, smoothing his hands up my sides. "Showing does a little more for me than telling."

I pushed my hips forward and was rewarded with the feeling of his very hard cock pressing against my pussy and lower stomach under the water. There was no stopping the moan that left my lips and leaned in closer to him, pressing my lips against his collarbone. "You might be unexcitable like you said earlier but in situations like this, I've noticed you have no issues with showing me exactly how you feel."

He slid his hands down onto my hips and pulled me closer, creating friction in the right places. "That's because in situations like this, showing is much better than telling."