Lesson # 3
Hard work pays off… sometimes
“If you could burn calories complaining you’d be as slim as a fitness model.” -Bobbi Garner
“I don’t know how you always manage to convince me to hop my massive butt on these crazy torture devices. The human body isn’t meant to withstand this level of pain.” Sweat was pouring down my face and into my eyes. I had gone through two towels already, not including the one I was holding. Bobbi was on my left barely breaking a sweat. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, and she was makeup-less and plain, if you could ever call her that. Her knees were going up and down vigorously. She was taking the strenuous workout like it was nothing.
“If you could burn calories complaining you’d be as slim as a fitness model,” Bobbi said, wearing a black and yellow half-top and matching yoga pants that made her ass sit up like a bookshelf.
“If I could burn calories complaining I would’ve changed my major to politics.”
Bobbi reached over to the dashboard of my machine and increased the thing’s speed with her finger. I gave her my patented Lynn stare of death, but all she did was look at me and smile. The gym was usually busy after classes. It was packed with several athletes and casual enthusiasts like myself. We were both working out on a torture machine built like a small rotating flight of stairs. It was like climbing to the top of the world’s tallest building and back without taking a break.
“See, this is the part where you have to relax into your workout. If you fight it, your muscles tense up and it will only make it worse, so relax and breathe like me.” Bobbi took a deep breath. “In for two seconds and out for three seconds. It calms you right down.”
“Screw you Bobbi, this hurts!” I grabbed a towel and wiped my forehead again.
Bobbi chuckled. “Is that the best you can do, tell me to screw myself?”
“I’m too tired to be creative right now, and my mother used to say that curses were ugly words that only came out the mouths of ugly women.”
“Well, in that case,” Bobbi said, “we’re both as ugly as sin. Lynn, I’ve heard you go on tirades that would make a sailor blush.”
“Why are we having this conversation?” Sonja chimed in. She was also working out on a stair climber to my right, wearing something similar to Bobbi, but powder blue. Her hair was tied up in a long, thick braid, and she too was au naturel—without any makeup. “Where I come from there is a saying. Beauty is pain. We’re too young to be fat and flabby. I don’t see what all this complaining is about.”
“Why do Russians always come up with such harsh expressions about pain or death?” Bobbi scoffed. “It’s creepy.”
“I am not Russian,” Sonja retorted. “I’m Serbian, for the hundredth time.”
“Tomato tomahto.” Bobbi cut her eyes at me. “Why is this tramp even here?” she whispered.
Sonja muttered some words that I couldn’t understand, but I was pretty damn sure they were curses.
“I told you, Sonja and I are cool now.” I wiped my forehead with my towel. “I misjudged her and so did you, so cut her some slack.”
“Okay, fine, but you can’t expect me to just change my perception of someone overnight, considering all that you’ve told me. I need a minute.” Bobbi looked past me to address Sonja directly. “Sorry, girl. I’ll come around sooner or later.”
Sonja nodded, but I could tell she was upset.
“Have you figured out what you’re going to do about your job situation?” Bobbi asked. “I could front you some cash if you need it. I don’t know for how long, but it’s an offer.”
“You could always get a job as a juggler.” Sonja smiled. “The way you handle men these days, having one in your right hand and the other in your left. You already have plenty of experience.”
“What’s she talking about?” Bobbi asked.
“It’s nothing,” I replied, giving Sonja a stern look.
“Oh, it’s something,” Bobbi said.
“Damn it, Sonja,” I said under my breath.
“Lynn went out to breakfast with Professor Foster’s younger brother. I saw them in the parking lot, and the man was gorgeous with a capital G. He was like the cover of a romance novel: tall and muscular, with a sexy, wide chest and big, rounded shoulders… I bet he has a huge cock.”
“Stop it, Sonja,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I bet it hangs like a fat baby’s arm between his legs.”
“Hey!”
“With its hand balled in a fist.”
“Sonja. Stop it!”
“Okay, okay… I’m just saying.”
“I get it already. Sheesh!”
Bobbi fell out laughing, of course. She lost her footing on the stair climber and fell on her butt going backwards. “You know,” Bobbi said, lying on her back, “I think I’m beginning to like this girl.” Bobbi sat up and wrapped her arms tight around her shins, bringing her knees up close to her chest. That was not what I had in mind when I’d hoped we could all be friends. I felt like they were ganging up on me. I already felt guilty enough for the whole Dane thing. “Seriously, though, all games aside, Lynn, I hope for your sake Sonja is wrong. You couldn’t handle a man that huge, especially when it’s only on your second time around. You’ll wind up in a hospital somewhere swearing off men forever.” She giggled.
“Correction,” Sonja interjected. “It would technically be her third time around.”
“Oh, great, just tell everything you know why don’t you?” I threw my hands in the air.
“I plan to,” Sonja replied, pushing the button to stop her machine. “Lynn and Simon had sex the other night… in our room.”
“What?” Bobbie shouted.
“Hey! Keep your voice down,” I cautioned.
“You did not do it with Professor Perv! Lynn, you told me all you did was make out. Tell me you didn’t have sex with him.”
I sighed. Thinking I should’ve told her everything from the start. “I did.”
“Wow.” Bobbi scratched her head. “I’m sorry, but that’s just mind-blowing. I guess I should’ve seen it coming, though. I mean, I knew you guys had had a minor intimate encounter, but I didn’t know you went that far. You made it sound like you were fantasizing about sex but it hadn’t happened yet.” Bobbie paused, probably thinking whether she should be pissed at me or not. “Well, was it good, at least?”
“I don’t want to talk about that. It’s over now, anyway, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Good. In that case, it would serve Simon right if you dated his younger brother. It sounds like he would be the better choice anyway. What’s his name?”
“Dane Foster.”
“Well, better Dane than Simon, if you ask me. I’m telling you, Professor Perv is bad news. What he did to you in class has already gotten around the school. You should never be his assistant again even if he wanted you to be. How would the students respect you after watching him berate you like that in front of them?”
“I don’t know.” I felt a sting of shame. I was still sore about the whole thing. I could tell the whole world it was over all I wanted, but deep down I still had feelings for him. I wasn’t ready to be so nonchalant about it yet. “I never thought about it that way. Let’s change the subject, okay? What’s done is done. I have to move on, and besides, he’s hired another assistant already—and before you say anything, just because there’s a new assistant it doesn’t mean that he’s involved with her.”
“Damn, Lynn, you are really that naïve, aren’t you?” Bobbi exclaimed. “Odds are he’s smacking her ass behind a desk somewhere, and you know it. I say if the brother is interested, you could at least see what he has to offer other than a big dick. But for your sake and sanity, we don’t have to talk about it anymore.” Bobbi sighed as I saw her look over my shoulder. “That might prove to be more difficult than we thought, though.”
Sonja also looked to her right.
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Because Simon’s
coming in, and he’s not by himself.”
I turned my head toward the entrance door. Simon walked in with his chest out and his head held high, trailed by his new assistant Meghan Carmichael. Both of them were wearing workout gear. Simon was wearing basketball shorts and a plain white tank showing his broad, athletic chest that I remembered caressing and his well-defined arms that were wrapped around my body. Meghan was wearing green super-short shorts with her butt hanging out, and a matching mesh tank top. I hated them both immensely.
Bobbi looked at me with empathy in her eyes. “Maybe we should hit the showers. I’m sure you don’t want to see this.”
Simon and Meghan placed their towels on the bench by the free weights. He looked like he was there to train her, showing her proper form and the like. Every time she bent down, he was staring at her ass and resting his hand on the small of her back.
“Why doesn’t he just have sex with her right there on the matt?” Sonja said. “She’s practically bending over saying ‘stick it in here.’”
Bobbi nodded. “Seriously, that’s so disrespectful. I’m going to go over and say something.”
“Please don’t,” I protested. “It won’t solve anything.” I turned off my machine because I was no longer in the mood and had a hard time catching my breath. I felt like confronting Simon right then and right there, but I was weak and looked as ragged as an old wet mop. I couldn’t let him see me like this. My hair was plastered to my face, my shirt was soaked through with sweat and I was sure my face was pasty and blotchy. Compared to the full makeup job Meghan had on at the gym, I was sure the way that I looked would be a letdown.
“This is so disrespectful,” Bobbi repeated. “Look at the way he’s parading her around like a trophy wife. Eventually the board’s going to catch wind of this and then he’ll regret how he treated you.”
“Who cares?” I said. “Unless someone, like a student or a professor, actually sees him with his hands on her breasts, nothing will happen. And even if they did, it’s just hearsay. I doubt Meghan will say anything, so other than having a statement from her, the board can’t do anything. They won’t have proof.”
“You’re proof,” countered Bobbi. “You can log a complaint against him if you wanted to. I could back you up. I mean I wasn’t there. But I could testify to what you told me. It might not be a slam dunk, but it’s something. That has to be enough to get him fired right, or in the least make it uncomfortable for him to be teaching here”
“She doesn’t want to get him in trouble,” Sonja said. “Look at her. She looks like she just lost the love of her life.”
Sonja was right. Although my heart was breaking, I would never do that to Simon. The man opened something in me, and the potential of what he could’ve done left me in permanent wonder. I couldn’t help but feel like I could’ve played it differently. Not fought him so hard or pushed him away, maybe played more of Simon’s sex games; anything to stop what I was feeling.
“Come on, let’s go.” I gathered my bundle of towels and took another look over my shoulder at Simon. He looked happy with what he was doing and whom he was doing it with. The sting of jealousy hit me as I watched him smile at Meghan endearingly; his crescent moon dimples sinking into his cheeks, and the look of his dazzling greenish-blue eyes. My stomach did a nauseating somersault.
Bobbi, Sonja and I stood there in plain sight, but Meghan and Simon were oblivious. I felt completely invisible to him. My friends were standing shoulder to shoulder, looking as angry as I was hurt. It was written all over their faces in scripts, and a novel of pain was written all over mine.
Bobbi turned around. “I don’t know what’s going on with you two, but if you care about that man—if you truly do—sometime you may have to teach him a lesson. I’m not saying I like him, because I don’t, but either give him hell or give him sugar. You can’t do both. If it were me, I’d walk right over there and raise hell to the both of them, but I know you’re not the type, so I don’t recommend it. But you’re going to have to do something… anything to get that sad look off your face.”
I looked to Sonja as she nodded in agreement, and without saying a word, she turned and walked toward the showers. That was when Simon looked in my direction. His eyes went wide as seeing me took him by surprise. He left Meghan mid-conversation and walked toward me. I held up my hand. It didn’t stop him at first, but I started to turn my back to him for emphasis. He stopped in his tracks, his mouth opened to speak. I turned my head and walked away before he could manage.
As I did, I could feel my heart racing and beating out of my chest. Part of me had, of course, hoped he would come up to me and explain that, whatever it looked like with Meghan, it meant nothing. He was only trying to make me jealous, but I knew that it would end in me melting into his arms and continuing this awful cycle of pain. If I was going to face him, it was going to be a day when I felt stronger and fully prepared to make him answer for his sins against me. That way I would know for sure whether or not he meant what he said.
Lesson # 4
The more things change, the more they stay the same
“How did I manage to find myself in these positions?” -Lynora Minnelli
On my way out of the registrar’s office, I was distinctly made aware of two things. I couldn’t transfer out of my economics class, not by myself, and for what I could do, I needed Simon to sign off. So what now? I would really hate to talk to Simon, let alone have to ask him for a favor. I was screwed. I really was. I should’ve never gotten myself in that predicament with him. I should’ve never opened my heart to the hurt that he dished out.
I walked down the hall in the direction of Simon’s office. My hands were getting sweaty and my breathing was sharp and shallow. I couldn’t believe I was doing it again. How did I manage to find myself in these positions—begging Simon once again to save me from something? I stood in front of his office door with my right hand ready to knock. It was trembling as I debated it for the tenth time.
“Lynn?” I heard his voice from behind me. My lips started to twitch as a quick flashback of he and I kissing took over me. I opened and closed my hands, hoping to catch the nervous sweat that was beading in my palms so he wouldn’t see what his presence was doing to me. He didn’t deserve that kind of satisfaction. Tiny insect feet crawled all over my body. I released a shuddered breath and turned around. Simon was dressed in a white shirt, fitted black jeans and his normal black boots.
Damn, he looked good. I hated him!
“Simon.” I tried to sound as mater-of-fact as possible, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t fooling anyone but myself.
“Lynn.”
I didn’t want to look at him more than I had to. The man had a power over me. I tried to look past him so I wouldn’t have to bow my head.
He pulled out the key to his office door. “I’m surprised to see you here; is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine. Can we talk?”
“Yeah, sure, come on in.”
Simon unlocked the door to his office and looked around to see if anyone was watching before he walked through. He swung the door wide open and ushered me in, then followed closely behind me. He walked over to his desk and sat behind it, looking as if he was all business. Gone were the lust he had for me in his eyes and the insatiable want he seemed to have for me once. I knew he was mad, but did anger trump all? The way Simon looked, he was indifferent to my presence.
“So what can I do for you?” he asked. Simon wore a poker face, and it was better than mine—or maybe he had never cared at all. “Are you here to apologize?”
“What do you mean, apologize?” I was annoyed by his aloofness. I instantly forgot why I had come to his office. “Apologize for what?”
He leaned on the desk with his elbows. “For forcing me to be an ass to you and having to hire a new assistant. Do you think that was easy for me?”
“You don’t seem too broken up about it.”
“I’m very broken up about it, I’ll have you
know. But what do you want me to do? You basically told me to leave you alone and treat you like any other student. I still don’t know what the hell brought that on.”
“Look, I didn’t come here to argue with you, Simon. I came to ask you a favor.” I needed to stay on track. There was no point getting into another argument with a gut-wrenching ending.
“That’s ironic. What could I possibly do for you at this point? And please don’t ask me for your job back, because that ship has sailed way into the night.”
“I don’t want my job back. I mean, I do, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Well, can you get to the reason, please? I’m busy and I have a lot of work to do.”
Simon was making this very difficult for me. Tension was apparent between us. I gripped the armrests on the side of my chair. My shoulders started tightening in knots. I could hardly stay there another minute in his presence, so I said it before I stood up and walked out. “I came to ask you for help with my class situation. I need to find another option, and I wanted to see if there was anything you could do to help?”
Simon looked up with something like hurt in his eyes. I was taken aback by his sudden display of emotion. “I don’t want you to leave my class, Lynn. You’ve already lost your job as my assistant—you’re too good a student to lose that, too.”
“Come on, Simon, you and I both know it would be awkward for me to stay.”
Simon got up from behind his desk and walked around to where I was sitting. I tried to get up, but he grabbed both my arms and practically pinned me to the chair. “Let me be clear with this so you understand.” He said it between his teeth, like he was angry. My heart rate went up with every word he spoke to me, and I felt a sense of relief he cared at all. “I do not want you to leave me, Lynn. I’ve been this long without you and it’s driving me crazy already.”
Teacher's Pet - The Complete Series: Books 1-4 Page 10
