Thank you to justkimmy for reviewing :)
A little over a month into their relationship as well as the new semester, and Roman and Katrina are more crazy about each other than they were when it first began. They would find ways to tough each other, whether it was by holding hands and meeting up in the library, in between the aisles or sitting at the same table in the library.
Katrina did a double look as she made her way into her one of her classes and saw Roman looking at some papers. She walked back out and looked at the room number to make sure she hadn't walked into the wrong classroom and walked back in. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw everybody in the class that she knew and made her way to her seat by one of her friends as her and Roman made eye contact. Katrina looked at him as if asking what he was doing in her class and cleared her throat. The class settled down and began to talk.
"Good morning, everyone." He began. "I'm Professor Reigns and I'll substituting for Professor Ross until they find a better qualified canidate to take over the class until she returns. From what I understand, she had a family emergency that she had to tend to and so she won't be in for a while. I'll take the attendance and we'll get back to talking a little bit more."
The class sat in silence until he finished the attendance and as I looked around, I swore I could see some of the female students just swooning over him. I looked away, knowing that I couldn't do or say anything about it and she felt some jealousy towards them for it.
"I was asked to substitue this class at the last minute, so I wasn't able to prepare anything for you today." Said Roman. "If there's anything that you need to work on for this class or any other classes that you may have, you can do so now."
Katrina took out her laptop and began working on a research paper that she had for the class due at the end of next week. She was already two hundred pages into the research and needed a few more to go. Feeling her phone vibrate, she took it out to see who it was and saw that it was Roman who had texted her. Katrina looked up at him, without making it obvious to others that her blue eyes were making their way to him.
Roman: Meet me today in the locker room at the usual time that we meet after school?
Katrina: Of course. Let me just make sure I get a few more pages done in my research for this class and I'll make my way there.
Roman: I really like a woman with brains. I find it very attractive ;)
Katrina blushed and quickly hid her face from everyone else. Meanwhile, Roman was approached by a one of the male students and Roman took a better look at his face when he sat down. He wondered what the student wanted, seeing as they didn't know each other.
"My name is Josh and I wanted some advice on something." Said the brown eyed guy. He was tall and lean, showing that he either worked out, played sports, or both. "There's a girl in this class and her name is Katrina. She's sitting in the front row, the one with the blue eyes."
Roman looked up at her, not because the guy was talking about her, but simply because he liked to. The guy was just a reason to do so but the way that she wore her glasses, the way that her chestnut brown hair fell in her face and the face that she made as she tried to put it back in place, it all just made him smile. "And what happened?"
"I think she's really cute, but I don't think that she even recognizes that I exist any more than what she already does and we've been friends for five years now. We've been in a lot of the same classes together and I know I'm a little older than her, but I wanted to know if you knew her or if you had any advice on what I could do." Replied Josh.
He cleared his throat, not knowing what to say. Roman could feel the change in his mood, knowing that he couldn't say anything to the student sitting beside him about Katrina being his girlfriend and it was really hard.
"I've talked to her quite a bit. I have one of her friends in a class that I teach, so I'll see her often when I have him in my class." Roman told him. "She's really nice. Focused on her studies, but nice. I suggest you just go talk to her. Start up a conversation on something that you think she'll be interested in and see if that works."
Josh thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "I'll go do that now. The only time we'll get to talk in this class without getting into trouble. She's just so intimidating. I mean, she's incredibly smart. Katrina's a part of the National Honor Society, she maintained a 4.0 all through undergrad program and a 4.0 now for her PhD. She was even one of the very few lucky ones to win a scholarship for this program and she's only twenty-two. How many people do you know, accomplish that?"
Roman watched as he grabbed his things and made his way to the empty chair that was beside Katrina. She looked up at Josh when he asked if he could sit there and saw her nodding. She looked slightly uncomfortable and batted her eyelashes at me before going back to working on her laptop.
He saw as Josh awkwardly tried to make conversation with her. Katrina tried to be nice, but Roman knew by the change in her body language, that she just wanted to work on her paper as she kept with the conversation. Roman felt a twinge of jealousy, knowing that he had to sit there and watch another guy give his girlfriend a lot of attention without doing or saying anything against it.
"There's ten minutes left for the class, but everyone can go now if you'd like." Said Roman when he looked at the time. Katrina tried to quickly finish up typing something before turning off her laptop and closing it.
She noticed that Josh lingered around, waiting for her and she quietly sighed when she realized.
"You okay there, Ms. Rodriguez?" Asked Roman. He didn't use her first name and he didn't reach out for her like he always did, knowing that Josh was watching and listening.
"Yeah, I'm okay. I just don't feel too good." Replied Katrina. "I got sick yesterday and even though I feel a little better than I did yesterday, I still feel like crap."
He knew that she had gotten sick from something that she had eaten and so did she. They went along with each other's current and played along with each other.
"See you later, Professor." Katrina said as she went towards the door. She turned around and smiled at Roman when she looked at him.
Seeing that Josh was walking by her side, she slowed down and looked at him when she realized that he wasn't saying anything. "What is it?"
Josh looked at her and shook his head as if he didn't know what she was talking about. "What do you mean?"
"You never wait for me after class. This is the first time since we've met that you do." Katrina replied. "Is everything okay?"
He thought for a moment before responding. "Would you like to hang out today, maybe for lunch?"
Katrina looked at him in a surprised way, not expecting Josh to ask her to lunch let alone at all. A million questions ran through her head as she tried to figure out why he was interested in hanging out with her all of a sudden.
"Not today." She replied gently. "I'm having lunch today with one of my friends and we're going to see if we could talk to Professor Reigns. My friend is is one of his classes and wanted to talk to him about something. I'm sorry."
Josh remembered saying that one of her friends was in a class that he taught and that he always saw them together and nodded. "That's fine. Can I walk you to your next class then?"
She thought for a moment. "I'm done for the day, but you can accompany me to the library."
He agreed and began to walk away. Looking up from her phone, he heard Roman's voice and saw that he was talking to Derek who had bumped into him. Katrina made a 'call me' signal to Derek and played it off as if she was playing with her hair. Josh didn't notice when she did, nor did he notice the smile on her face when Roman winked at her.
When they got to the library, Derek called her and she quickly went to walk through the aisles, looking at the books and talking quietly to him. Because Roman was going to order some food for the three of us, he called mainly to remind her of the room that they were going to be in. The room was barely used in the afternoons in the building that they were going to be in and it was one of the most private classrooms in the building.
After sitting down at one of the tables and going back to working on her laptop, she saw Josh sit down in front of her with his tablet. Katrina looked up at him curiously, wondering why he's sticking around.
"I thought you had a class right now." She heard herself ask him as she typed away at her keyboard.
All he did was smile at her as he started to ask her a few questions in an effort to get to know her a little better. She was patient and kept the conversation going until it was time for her to meet up with Derek and Roman. Katrina was able to convince Josh to not walk her and that she'll see him in the next class that they had together and walked away before seeing if he left.
She got to the classroom and hugged Derek when she saw him fixing up the food. It was spanish food from a restaurant that was nearby. Turning around when she heard somebody walk in, she smiled when she saw that it was Roman.
"Hey Baby." Said Roman with a smile on his face. He placed his fingers on the nape of her neck as he leaned down for a kiss. Sighing happily, she let the kiss linger until Derek cleared his throat reminding them where they were.
"Let's not forget that the door is open." He said when we pulled away from each other.
Roman looked and closed the door, but left it slightly open. He smiled as he walked back to Katrina and gave her another kiss. She giggled against his lips but couldn't help but enjoy his lips.
Half an hour later...
"With the two of you meeting up in the locker room every now and then..." Whispered Derek so that nobody else would hear. "Have you two done the deed yet?"
Katrina and Roman looked at each other and then back at Derek for Roman to reply. "No we haven't. But with the effect that she has on me, I'm surprised I haven't gotten carpel tunnel yet."
They bursted out laughing as Katrina's face got red as she blushed deeply. She was glad that he was comfortable enough with her to admit that, but it's also something that she didn't know when it came to Roman, making her more red when it led to her thinking about what it would be like with him.
They all looked at the time and saw that another hour had passed and were surprised at how time flew by. Katrina and Derek were done for the day, but Roman had to get ready for practice. Before leaving, Katrina and Roman shared another kiss, knowing that they may not be able to until they were off campus or if they sneaked in another kiss.
Walking out of the building, they felt the fresh breeze meeting their face while they walked around campus. Katrina groaned when they all saw Josh walking towards them, but she didn't change her behavior to give anything away.
"Hey, can I talk to you?" Asked Josh when he reached the three.
"Um...okay." She replied and pulled away slightly from the group, to give her and Josh some level of privacy. She watched Derek and Roman go into their own conversation about something, and she turned her attention back to Josh.
Derek noticed how Roman's eyes continued to go back and forth between him and Katrina and Josh throughout their conversation.
"Nothing's going to happen between them. She's crazy about you." Said Derek when he turned around to see that Josh may have said something to make Katrina laugh.
"And he doesn't know that." Replied Roman. "It's hard."
Derek looked up at the man who stood beside him, and saw the look in his eyes when he saw Katrina and smiled.
"You do, don't you?" Asked Derek. "And you know what I mean. I see the way your eyes linger when you look at her, even when you don't mean to when we're in and around school. The way your face lights up when she's around, or even at the mention of her name. The way you care for her...it's different than when I first saw you two together. There's more feelings involved now behind the things you do when it comes to Katrina."
Roman looked away from Katrina and looked down. "Yeah, I do. It makes it harder for me because I know I can't do or say anything against it when I see guys giving her all of this attention. At the end of the day, Katrina's still my girlfriend. What guy in their right mind wants to see their girl with another guy and not feel some type of way when he knows that he can't anything about it?"
Katrina came back to where Roman and Derek was standing and Josh came behind her. Roman, starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, tried to get himself together. But it was beginning to feel like he couldn't breath, so he did what came to his mind.
"I really have to get to the locker room." Roman said suddenly when Josh reached them and pretended to look at his phone. Katrina's smile faded when she saw the change in his mood and frowned. "I have to start practice soon and hopefully the guys are already in the weightroom. I should get going. See you three around. Don't worry about that conversation that we had though, Derek. It stays between us."
He looked at Roman knowing what he meant and nodded in agreement. "See you tomorrow, in class, Professor."
Roman gave him a nod and continued to walk away quickly. "Is he okay?" Asked Katrina.
Derek could see the concern in her eyes, even though she was able to get her body language and facial features to not give anything away. He saw the same thing in her eyes that he did when he looked into Roman's grey eyes and nodded.
"He's fine." Derek replied. "He just really had to get to the team. They have a game coming up shortly and so he wants to make sure that they're well prepared."
"Professor Reigns is the new football coach?" Asked Josh.
Katrina and Derek both looked at him. "Yeah, he was announced as the new coach like last semester. That's also when he started working here, I believe."
Josh looked at Katrina after she responded in amazement. "You watch college football?"
"I love college football." She replied cooly. "I have since I was in middle school and as graduates, we get like 10% off on each home game. You don't watch?"
He shook his head. "I prefer the big leagues."
Looking to see if she saw Roman in the distance, she felt dissapointment when she couldn't find him any longer. She sighed and quietly and Derek was quick to notice. He knew Katrina well enough to know, or at least have an idea of what's going on with her without Katrina having to say a word. Seeing a hint of sadness starting to form on her face, he tried to at least make her smile, knowing that Josh wasn't going to leave that easily.
"You want to try that restaurant that just opened up?" Derek asked Katrina.
She nodded seeing the look on his face, getting an idea of what he was trying to do. "Maybe we can get something for dinner there too, if the food's good enough. I'll see you around, Josh."
Josh waved at them while they walked away only for Derek to see the sadness returning to Katrina's face, knowing that she had an image of Roman walking away the way that he did, and without him really saying bye to her.
"He's okay." He told her, quietly.
Katrina shook her head as she checked her phone for any new messages . "No, he's not Derek. Roman looked upset."
A/N: Does anybody think that Roman can handle keeping them a secret in and around school as well as he thought he could and how long will he be able to last if he does?