I know it has been a while, but school is starting up and summer reading lists have not been finished. I'm such a procrastinator… I will bore you no longer. Here is the next chapter…
Perin was less than pleased that HIS girlfriend could possibly dare to do this to him. She had dinner with her teacher! Daine was his, not Numair's! 'Daine will come back to me soon, though,' he thought, an evil grin spreading across his face. 'Or else she will get a rude awakening.'
Daine felt guilty, though not for forgetting her dinner with Perin. She felt guilty for not feeling guilty. Daine hated it when Perin would over react like he did sometimes. He was usually a great boyfriend, always giving her attention. Sure, he was a little over possessive, but that was probably because he knew she still didn't fully trust him yet. And yet, she told Numair something she never dreamed of telling Perin. Daine decided to push this out of her head as she walked into Numair's classroom. All she had to do now was look forward to work and her lesson with Numair.
Unfortunately, things rarely go as planned. Daine ended up staying up half the night, her mind ruminating over Perin, Numair, and everything else. She ended up sleeping in class. Numair didn't bother waking her up, deciding to talk to her after class about this.
Numair told his students they could leave and Evin, looking over at Numair and then back at his friend, left the room. Numair came over and stirred her from her sleep. Daine tensed up, but relaxed when she saw it was Numair and not…well, she didn't want to get into that right now. Numair looked at her, concerned, and said, "Daine, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, just tired. I didn't get much sleep last night…" She trailed off, hoping that Numair wouldn't dwell into the situation any further.
Numair, however, decided to press on. "Does this have anything to do with Perin? Because if it does, I'll—" He was cut off by Daine replying, defensively, "We had a fight. I couldn't sleep well. That is all there is to it."
"If that is what you want." He turned around and grabbed his briefcase and walked to the door. "I'll see you for the tutoring lesson. Just lock up when you are done. You can sleep here as long as you want." With that, he left the room, leaving a somewhat dazed and confused Daine, who was trying to figure out Numair. She stood up with a groan, collected her things, and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her, and headed off to work.
Thankfully, her work that day went smoothly, with no major problems, even though she was still slightly drowsy. She walked out of the barn, smiling, over to Numair who was sitting on a bench, waiting for Daine to come out. It seemed like he didn't feel the need to bring up their conversation this afternoon up, which suited her just fine. It was snowing, so both Daine and Numair were overjoyed that they would be inside the elephant's enclosure with heaters to keep them warm.
They walked next door to the zoo and got in for free because of Numair. He grabbed Daine's hand and ran across the zoo to Maggie's enclosure and stepped inside. They shed their coats onto a bench by the entrance, and walked over to the glass overlooking the elephant's small house.
There were a few areas for specific purposes. One was for baths, another for play, with a large punching bag that she loved to play with and another with her food. Her trainer was in there with a large canvas and a cart full of paint and a few paintbrushes. Maggie was painting one of her famous pictures.
Daine happily watched Maggie select a new brush with her trunk from her trainer and dip it in a new color. She then brushed away at the canvas, painting a picture that would sell for thousands. Numair came up from behind her with a large book and handed it to her. She opened it up and was immersed into the world of anatomy. Numair pulled up a bench and they sat down as he started to explain an elephant to her.
Eventually, they had to leave. Even though all the visitors had left long ago, all the trainers and volunteers were leaving, too. They hopped into Numair's car and started driving to Daine's apartment. On the way back, Numair couldn't help asking, "So why don't you trust guys easily?"
Daine, who was zoning out, snapped back into reality and became tense. "How do you know that?"
"You told me on the bus when we first met." He didn't mean for Daine to become guarded, but he wanted to know. "And also our conversation today kind of hinted at that."
Remembering the conversation when they first met and their incident this afternoon, Daine relaxed slightly and replied, "Ask me later." Seeing Numair's questioning and somewhat hurt look, she quickly replied, "It's not that I don't want to tell you, I'm just not ready yet. I will tell you later, I promise. Just give me some more time."
Numair smiled at her. "Don't worry. I'll be here ready to listen when you are ready to tell me." He pulled up to the sidewalk in front of Perin and her's apartment. She opened the door and got out; whispering a thanks quickly hurried to the door, trying to keep the snow off of her new book. She walked upstairs and opened the door to her apartment, glad to see that Perin wasn't home yet. She quickly got ready to bed and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, dreaming, to her delight and dismay, about her handsome professor.
The next morning, Perin apologized, like he always does, and made her a lovely breakfast, though had to leave before he could eat it with her. But that suited her just fine, because she now had some time alone to contemplate what Numair had said to her last night.
"Don't worry. I'll be here ready to listen when you are ready to tell me."
She was happy she wasn't being pressured to tell, like Perin did occasionally. 'It really is my fault that he is getting angry with me. I would be getting angry with myself if I was in his position. I never told him about my past and don't plan to any time soon, which must be frustrating to him.' But, for some reason, she couldn't help but remember that neither Numair nor Evin ever pressured her into telling them, but Perin was her boyfriend, so he should know. Daine decided to thrust this out of her brain and cleaned her dishes. She grabbed her bag and headed off to the bus, awake, unlike the previous day.
Numair was on the bus already, like he usually was. She walked over to him and sat down in the spot he always reserved for her. They shared hellos and then fell into comfortable silence, though Numair was dying to tell her something. Once he got back from their lesson, he called one of his friends who was teaching a self-defense course. He figured that this might give her the confidence to be less guarded. She had happily told Numair that she would love to teach his "prodigy" student. So now it was time to pop the question…
"Daine, I have a friend that teaches self defense classes for women and I wanted to know if you would be interested." Upon seeing a questioning glance from Daine, as if asking, "Why would I need that," he elaborated on his plan. "See, I figured that it might give you the confidence to trust guys easier. Because if they do end up being jerks, you can kick their ass."
Daine smiled at this thought, thinking of trying to throw Numair over her shoulder, but just laughed at this thought. She calmed down and replied, "That sounds fun, though I would like to meet your friend before I decided anything officially."
Numair smiled his charming smile and said, "That sounds great to me."
Who is Numair's friend? You'll find out next chapter! Please R&R! Thanks to my beta Daughter of Nature!
And thanks to all those who reviewed: SOPROL, JustAnotherCrazyPerson, Blackheart Feather, and ImmortalLover. Until next time.