Lie. Lie like you’ve never lied before.
“My email was hacked earlier this week. Yes. So I gave him my cell number in case they can’t get it resolved right away. It’s been a pain.”
Please believe me. I’m not a good liar. It makes me feel gross to do it, but until I talk to Tristan about her, I can’t take the chance.
“That must be a nightmare for you. I hope the university’s IT team can sort that out quickly. If you aren’t up and running in a day, come see me and I will toss a bit of weight around. I do that rather well.”
“Thank you. That’s a kind offer.” Fuck, I hate lying.
The office door opens behind her, thankfully saving me from any further awkwardness or interrogation, and Tristan steps inside, his face wide with surprise that we aren’t alone.
“Adrianna? I wasn’t expecting you today. Is everything all right?”
“Of course, Tristan. I was looking for you and found your new teaching assistant hard at work. Imagine my surprise that she’s been working already for almost a month and I hadn’t been able to tell her welcome to the team. You can imagine how rude I felt. Couldn’t you?”
Tristan looks nervous, actually nervous, to find a response. I feel like I’m looking at a wreck in progress and I can’t look away.
“In his defense, he’s been incredibly busy, and honestly, it wasn’t rude of you at all. No harm done.” I try to soften whatever is brewing between them because it is certainly getting awkward.
“Yes,” he adds in, “I’ll take the blame for that completely. We’ve been steady at work and it simply slipped my mind. Forgive the blunder, Adrianna?”
“I forgive you many things, Tristan, so I think I can add this to the list.” Professor Griffin turns her head to address me. “It was a pleasure chatting with you, Nora. I hope we will be able to do it again soon. Tristan, I would like private words with you when you’re unoccupied. Check your schedule and get back to me, would you?”
“Yes. Of course. Absolutely. I’ll make sure it’s on the calendar before I leave for the day.”
And with that, she leaves us, but we both take note of her very apparent choice to leave the office door very much open.
Tristan delays for a few seconds, not saying anything before he goes over and pulls the door closed.
“She ambushed you,” he says with finality. “I’m sorry, Petal. I should have thought about that before I left you here.”
“Thought about what? Why are you choosing the word ambush? There are channels when you hire a TA. She’s the department head. How did she not know about me?”
“Well, love, you are correct in your knowledge of the usual channels. However, in this instance, nothing about us is usual, including your subsequent employment with the department. I circumvented the red tape and simply gave you the job.”
I think I stop breathing for a moment with my mouth hanging agape. It takes a solid fifteen seconds before I’m even able to respond.
“I’m sorry, I think I blacked out.” I shake my head. “You cut corners and just… hired me? No one approved this? You just handed it to me? No wonder she seemed so upset. Who is she to you? She’s your boss in a sense, right?”
“That is true, Petal. She is the department head, which makes her in effect my boss. To make matters more complicated, she is also a close friend, more like a sister, to my mother. She’s like a second mother to me in fact. Anna is the reason I’m here. She was also the reason I stayed… until now that is.”
“Like a mother to you?” I ask, completely horrified. “This is all so overwhelming. I wasn’t ready to meet the family, Tristan.” I begin to chew on my nails, a nasty habit I picked up in London.
“Petal, she’s not an ogre. Do we have to tread lightly? Yes, of course, but that was going to be the case regardless of who was around.” A smirk begins to slide over his face. “Meet the family? That has a definite connotation to it.”
“Don’t tease me.” I cover my face with my hands. “I blew it with her, I think. On so many levels. As a student, as… this.” I motion to the space between us. “I’m overwhelmed.”
He gets so close…too close. Tristan begins to slide his hands up and down my arms slowly. His cologne begins to permeate my lungs. I inhale and exhale deep. The musky scent starts to calm me slightly. What does more than that, is his voice. “Don’t think too much. No one knows but you and I. Let me handle Adrianna. Hmm?”
I release a slow, steady breath and in a moment of need and comfort, I drop my forehead to his chest. “Okay,” I agree. “I’ll let you handle that.”
Relinquishing even that small amount of control to him is so scary, but at the same time, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.
“There,” he slips his hand around and glides it up my spine and back down, “was that so hard?”
“Honestly everything is hard where you’re involved.”
“Petal, you have no idea.”
I can’t look at him right now. He’s right when he says I think too much. I do. I’ve had years of training and practice. His firm body against mine feels so good. I’ve carried my full power for so long. Could it be time to let a bit of that go to someone else?
“This feels very dominant and submissive, Tristan.”
“I’m not particularly skilled or practiced in that lifestyle, but if that means you’re willingly submitting some of your anxiety and stress to me, then I’ll take it.”
I finally tip my head back to get a look at his face. He’s so technically handsome. Artists would say he has the perfect face, but I can see the worry lines starting to appear and the years of anger and darkness in those beautiful eyes. It frightens me, but it’s calling to me like a siren beckons to sailors who have no idea of the messy fate that awaits them.
And yet, they dive in willingly, eagerly even.
I can relate.
“I’d like to take you away from here. If you still have questions, which I’m sure you do, we can talk through them together. Is there somewhere you’d like to have a quiet dinner?”
“Can we go out? I mean, isn’t that dangerous?”
“I don’t think it is. As of now, we are colleagues of sorts to the unknowing eye. They don’t have to know the thoughts in my head.” When he smirks, a twinkle lights his beautiful blues.
“I wish I knew those thoughts, even if they’d scare me a little,” I tease him.
“Petal, there are thoughts in my head that would make you blush from the top of your beautiful head all the way down to your perfect toes.”
My heart begins to race at what he could mean, and of course, I’m as curious as ever. “There’s a small bistro about twenty minutes from here that has incredible soup. I’d love to go there with you.”
“Not that we need labels. We excel at moving ahead without them. Just for me, is this a date, Professor?”
“I don’t date, Petal. I’m either with a woman, or I’m not. Do you understand?”
His fingers reach up to sweep a piece of stray hair behind my ear. His head takes a cock to the side as if he’s either studying my reaction or committing his statement to memory.