Home > Sext with Me(9)

Sext with Me(9)
Author: Evie Claire

   Talia busied herself with a stack of mail waiting on her desk. Peeking around the curtain of her barely violet bob whenever she could, trying to see what was happening over by the computers. But thanks to a display midway down the nearest case, she couldn’t see a damned thing. Which only unsettled her further.

   Once she finished sorting the mail, she turned to the small box that had been delivered. She popped the seal with a pen and opened it to reveal her first official business cards. The timing of which was perfect. Nothing boosted one’s job confidence like seeing the title printed in bold letters under your name. Reading over it for the first time, her brain made another weird hiccup.

             Talia K Crump

    Special Collections Room

    Talmadge College Main Library

 

   Loves. Obsessions. Decisions. Regrets. Damn if the day wasn’t a roller coaster with a broken seat belt.

   “What’s wrong?” His voice interrupted her thoughts, and once again she had to pull it together. Good thing she was fast on her feet.

   “My name is wrong on these. My first business cards ever. Mrs. McTavish ordered them. I guess…” Talia didn’t want to say out loud what had happened. That wasn’t an answer he or anyone, really, needed. Her name was wrong. End of story.

   Maxwell took a card from the box, open on her desk. “Yes, it is,” he said after examining it. “Luckily, your mentor is here to help.”

   My mentor? she thought, having forgotten momentarily about the email she sent hoping for such an outcome.

   “These are printed through the campus press. You can submit an order request through their portal and have them in a few days. I can send you the link when I get back to my desk.” He looked at the card again. “Is everything else right?”

   Talia nodded.

       “Thank you, Professor Radclyffe. I’m going to find those titles you suggested now.” Ellie paused at the desk long enough to get his attention.

   “Oh, sure. Don’t mention it. I’ll tell Ivan—I mean Professor Hosier—to expect an A-plus paper coming his way.”

   Ellie blushed and turned away, tucking her hair behind her ear.

   “Goodbye, Ellie,” Talia added, the disappointment of being so easily forgotten plain in her voice.

   “Oh, right. Thank you, Talia.” Ellie gave a smile over her shoulder, but it was Maxwell Ellie’s eyes found before she left.

   Talia couldn’t help but let the defeat seep out of her in one long breath. And as if he could put her pieces together faster than she could, Maxwell smacked a hand on his forehead and groaned.

   “I stole your student. You two were having a moment, and I…” he huffed a louder sigh than Talia’s. “I ruined it.”

   Talia leaned on the edge of her desk, quietly tucking the card back into its box. Yes, that’s exactly what he’d done, but for some reason hearing it aloud made Talia feel small. And petty over the whole thing. Until she heard the faint flicker of empathy burning at the core of his comment.

   “You weren’t wrong. By the way. I mean Brontë is a queen.”

   That got Talia’s attention. It was approval in tiny form, something she’d spent a lifetime searching for.

   “No, but I would’ve encouraged a student to write a term paper that might have cost them a better grade.”

   “Not necessarily.” Maxwell pushed back. “I think dissecting a gothic romance is a very out-of-the-box idea. But Ivan is a close friend as well as a colleague, and I know what he wants to see from his students.”

       Talia looked out a nearby window because she didn’t know how to express what she was feeling without sounding petty or extremely needy.

   She’d known Professor Hosier since freshman seminar. She’d just never written a paper for him. This wasn’t about her. But, after all Ellie’s talk of obsession and emptiness, Talia wondered if it was an inner void that made her obsess over her current emotions. It wasn’t fair to blame Maxwell when she had a million insecurities all her own.

   “Think of it as another mentorship opportunity. Once you get to know the professors, you’ll be able to help students navigate their classes.”

   Talia shrugged. “I’ve always preferred fiction to fact.”

   “Most do. Reality is ugly. We create our stories to get us through. It’s human nature.” Maxwell was quick with the response, almost sensing what she might say before she did.

   “It’s not that. Scientific research, by definition, seeks to explain everything. Some things simply aren’t explainable. If a handful of words on a page are meant to define everyone and everything, that’s the definition of pigeonholing to me. We’re more than that. We have to be. It’s silly to think we aren’t.”

   Maxwell drew back, his brow wrinkling. Shit. She’d just called him silly. Offended his entire profession. That wasn’t what she meant. She opened her mouth to get her foot out, but he spoke before she could.

   “And fiction plays with those edges?”

       “For me, yes. I guess that seems silly to a renowned scientist. Everything needs to be classified into its proper place in your world.” She was trying, best she could, to downplay the perceived offense.

   “Everything needs to be examined. If everything were understood, there would be no more work for us silly scientists.” Again with that half-smile of his.

   “No, that’s not…”

   Maxwell raised a hand to stop her, then shook his head, slowly, deliberately, while his mouth fought the grin that came so quickly for him. This time it was definitely just confidence, not arrogance. When his eyes softened, he cocked his head as he asked, “You’re a Talmadge girl, right? What was your major?”

   “Yes, I was. And I was an English major.”

   “I need to stop spending all my free time with scientists. I’ve always prided myself on the ability to see the edges. You make me wonder if I’m losing my edge.” He paused, waiting for Talia to catch his play on words. And when she did, she couldn’t help but laugh. Okay, maybe he wasn’t so proud, because that was an awful pun he was so proud of. “Did you ever enjoy a psychology class?”

   Talia shook her head. “I paid my own way through school. There wasn’t money to take classes that weren’t required.”

   “Then I do have a lot to teach you,” he said. And even though it was one hundred percent innocent, Talia heard another meaning to his words. A meaning that had her right back in those damn lavender fields. For a second, they simply stared, Talia lost in her thoughts and Maxwell so obviously trying to guess what those were—was he already analyzing her? He was going to be dangerous.

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