My Professor's Secret

25|

As expected, the Minnesota weather was a lot less welcoming. Thankfully I packed appropriate attire to keep me as warm as possible for our five day stay.

"Smells amazing in here, dad." It was almost pathetic the way it came out. Weeks of radio silence and the first thing I said once I saw him was it smelt nice.

Nonetheless, dad's face lights up once he notices me. He leaves the stove and his specialty chili to bury's me in a tight squeeze. I think back to Chris mentioning how even though he wanted to be furious at dad for dating again, he couldn't because he could tell dad was becoming happier again. And he was. He hadn't hugged me with this much tenderness since mom's funeral.

Dad became a shell of a man without my mother. There were days Christian and I had to physically drag him out of bed to eat or shower. As hard as he tried hiding it, it was obvious he was depressed. I couldn't imagine seeing him go through that all over again. If Lorelei could get my dad to hug me like I was his little girl again, who was I to come against them and their relationship?

"That's all Lorelei's doing. You both just missed her. She ran to the store to pick up some hot coco and popcorn for tonight."

He goes on about their new unspoken tradition of watching scary movies every Friday in the renovated garage theater on the projector screen dad apparently installed himself. Which as expected led him into showing us the renovations. There was an authentic popcorn machine, a makeshift snack bar made from an old glass dresser stocked with endless amounts of candy, bean bag chairs and even a cotton candy machine. No doubt this was Lorelei's doing. I couldn't even fault her on it because everything looked incredible.

After catching up with dad, Chris and I headed to our rooms to unpack which only took ten minute. Instead of heading back downstairs with dad, I found myself knocking at Christian's door.

"Dad seems really happy, right?" I asked, taking a seat on his bed.

"I can't remember the last time I saw him cook a proper dinner or saw him genuinely excited to show us something. I feel like an asshole for how I treated him the last time we were here."

I didn't have anything to say. Mainly because the reason Chris said that was to guilt trip me into feeling bad about the cold shoulder I'd given dad up until our conversation at the mixer. He was right though. I felt like an asshole.

"So, is it safe to assume that since dad is in such a good mood that we can keep those rumors about Trevor and I between you and I? I just wouldn't want him to hear his daughter is supposedly sleeping with the faculty. It could probably trigger something. It's not really the best welcome home story either. Not to mention he and I just started talking again."

Chris' face scrunches into a deadpanned stare as if he'd been trying to read me. He kept quiet but walked over to me and took a seat.

"So there is a situation?" The furrowing of my brows was enough for him to continue with his theory. "If there wasn't anything going on between the two of you, you wouldn't care if I brought it up to dad because you would just deny it knowing he'd believe you over me."

I shook my head at him and stood up from his bed to walk over to the door so I could leave. No need to entertain an idea that he'd run with anyways.

"And if there were some truth to it? Hypothetically that is."

"Then hypothetically I would say that that man has a habit of hitting on college students and abusing his authority by convincing them he's into them. Once is a mistake. Twice is habitual."