Zane Orion's POV:"Daddy! We are late!" Lana screams at me as I go back and forth between the car and the house, trying to make sure I have got everything I need for the picnic. She is just five, but she can throw a tantrum that would have me regretting every single bad decision I have ever made in my life if I forgot some essential."We can't be late, princess. It is a picnic. The park will be there anytime we get there." I say as I rush back in to look for one of her tiaras in case she suddenly needs it.The picnic is a little tradition we engage in. Just the two of us. On Sundays. Just before I hand her over to Daisy for the week. I hate this arrangement, this back and forth at such a young age for Lana, but it works for us. I am ashamed to admit that I enjoy it even. It leaves me time to focus on my work as both a writer and a professor. I am grateful that my toxic marriage with Daisy is dissolved.But it doesn't remove from the fact that my heart aches for Lana. She is too young
Alex's POV:"Hi, Alex. I didn't know you took walks in this park. Meet Lana, she is my princess." Professor Zane says to me as I stand there feeling all sorts of feelings. Prominent of all is that I should have listened to my damn guts when I didn't feel like coming to walk in this park.I don't usually take walks. I am severely unfit. I have not even walked for up to thirty minutes around the park, and I am already out of breath, sweating like I ran a marathon. This walk was a spur of the moment thing. I just needed to leave the room, I was feeling stuffy. Also, Penny has been around more, mopping around and being irritable. I can only guess that things are not going really well with Tristan. I can't stand another moment of her mood swings and loud sad music bouncing off the walls of the room.I also have something to mope and be sad about but mine is better experienced privately because I dare not tell anyone that the reason for my mood swings is because I fucked my professor and h
Alex's POV:"Alex, I am so sorry. There is no excuse." Zane says, filling in the silence. The sincerity shines bright in his deep voice. I can't look him in the eyes because I am scared of feeling weak by the genuine intensity I will find there. I keep my head straight, like the squealing children have suddenly become interesting to me."Right." I say, my voice is low, and I hate the vulnerability I hear in it. Fuck. He can't know how weak I feel on the inside. How easily he gets to me. I pick up the golden leaves on the floor around the mat, and I pick at it mindlessly, still maintaining the absence of eye contact."Alex." Zane says when I don't say anything more. He doesn't know that there is a lump lodged in my throat and that if I speak, I risk sobbing."Alex, look at me..." He says quietly, and he moves an inch closer to me. We are sitting close but not suspiciously to anyone who might be watching. His crazy ex-wife, for example. I dread coming across Daisy ever again. Mostly bec
Alex Pov: "Okay, that will be all. Have a great day guys." The tall thin language lecturer wraps up her lecture after answering a couple of questions from the class. The class doesn't move or make a sound as she leaves. We are all waiting for something together with bated breaths. It is mid semester already, the time seems to have flown past but not for me. I noted every single passing week since that afternoon in the park with Professor Orion and his daughter. It has been four weeks of some kind of clarity for me. I am able to focus on my studies, classes and activities outside of my studies. I stopped taking walks in that park as a precaution but I joined a pottery class and that is as far as my extracurricular activities go. I also attend a debate club once a week. I managed to find a new friend in class. Maggie. She is nice and quiet with a sense of humour that catches one off guard. I like her. I hope she likes me as much. I rarely see Claire in class except on days we
Maggie sits patiently beside me as the class starts moving out. Some minutes pass by, I am sweating, and I still can't bring myself to type my name. Because I am afraid of the result. Things have been normal, or at least close to what normal should look like between us since the Park incidence. We have done our quiet best to act normal. I know I have. If he accepted my proposal, it would confirm everything we have tried not to talk about for weeks. In a way, it would. If he rejected my proposal, it would be the same thing. There is no winning. Then why the hell did I pick him? Because I couldn't imagine myself mentoring under anyone else. Fourteen year old Alex wouldn't forgive me for being a coward. It is all I have ever wanted. Mentoring under him would open doors for me. People always thought that writing is just talent. Nobody except those in the industry fully understands the hardwork that goes into perfecting the craft just like almost any other profession. You might have a
"That," Maggie points at the door with an angry pointed finger, I notice she is flushed in the face, she is pretty worked up, I have never seen her get this worked up over anything, Maggie is always chill and almost never takes anything seriously, I feel flattered, "that wss more than just crazy. Why is she so angry that Professor Orion picked you?" "Because he didn't pick her." I say calmly, in a tone that suggests that it was a pretty straightforward deduction. I am not being totally honest, but I can't help it. "Right." Maggie says and starts packing her stuff. She wants to leave and I don't know if I should follow her. We usually go to the cafe around the corner from the department to hang out and spend the afternoon, studying or working on an assignment or just chatting. "I mean, yeah. She is just a really weird girl and she is crazy about Professor Orion. You also noticed she only attends his classes, looking like a hooker and being all chirpy throughout his lectures." I say,
"Maggie." I say with a mock serious tone. "More than half the class wants to fuck him. Boys and girls. You are not special in that regards, sorry to break it to you, love." She says. It is one of the traits I find admirable about her. She is straightforward and never minces words. But right now, I had like to shove her honesty back into her throat. I can't stand the thought of not being special to Zane in some way. I want to add the little important detail that we already fucked. Just to be smug and rub it in her face. But I swallow the words. "Oh well." I shrug."What I want to know is Claire's business in all this. That girl's weirdness is of the dangerous type. I don't feel good about her." Maggie is serious again, holding my eyes earnestly. I like that she is worried about me. It makes me feel flattered. I am worried about Claire too. Even more so now, realising that she didn't really forget about me in the past few weeks I have been going out of my way to ignore her. How she
Zane POV:"I am so sorry, sir. I got distracted. Here is the file." Alex is breathing heavily, standing in front of me. She smells of sweat and heat and her sweet vanilla perfume still lingers underneath. She clouds my senses even when she is a mess like this. It is incorrigible, the purely chemical reactions she stirs in me on sight. I manage to keep my face neutral. I am not mad at her. How could I ever be? Though I enjoy watching her squirm like this, it is a perverse joy that I can't explain. Without saying anything, I flip through the file, not actually seeing anything because she is all I can see. Her full chest rising and falling discreetly as she tries to hide her panting. Her red full lower lip that she keeps biting. Her gorgeous hair all over her face. The sheen of sweat on her forehead. Did she run here? It is disgusting but I like her all flustered and breathy like this. She is not self conscious and defensive or painfully shy during these moments and I am able to glim