Gianna walked inside of her dorm room, soaked. There was an umbrella in her car but her mind was all over the place and she couldn't focus on one thing. Causing her to forget to grab her umbrella before getting out.
Every piece of clothing she wore was drenched and her wet hair cascaded down her back, curling up as the seconds passed. She took off her wet boots so she didn't track up the floor any more than she already did.
"Ray." Gianna walked over to Raven's side of the room where she slept, peacefully. "Raven." She lightly shook her body making Raven jolt up.
"What? What happened?" Raven slightly panicked as she sat up. She was on high alert, ready to run out of the building if she needed to.
"I did something bad." Gianna said dramatically while sitting on the floor beside her bed. "Like I fucked up forreal." She kept going, starting to make Raven nervous.
Raven clicked on the lamp that sat on her nightstand and sat up a bit. "Gigi what happened?"
"I kissed him."
"Kissed who?"
"Miles."
"Miles who?"
"Miles Delgado!" It took a minute for Raven's sleepy mind to register what she said, and when it finally did, the shocked expression made Gianna feel worse than she already did.
"I'm going to hell aren't I?" Gianna covered her face with her hands as her leg shook up and down.
Raven sat in bed, confused as ever. "When did this happen? How did it even happen?"
"I asked him to help me with my story for the contest but since his office hours are too early for me, he agreed to meet me after I got off, and that's what happened. But when I was about to get in my car, we just... I don't know, Ray. All I know is we started kissing and then it started to rain."
"Wait. He kissed you back?!" Raven's eyes widened. She was definitely awake now.
"Yes! Ray, how am I supposed to go to class next week?"
"Either talk to him and tell him it's never going to happen or just act like nothing happened." She knew the second choice wasn't an option for her, but the thought of an aftermath talk had her scared shitless.
Gianna looked up at her with furrowed eyebrows, "Wait what?"
Raven sighed, "Oh my God Gianna don't tell me you actually have a thing for him. We just talked about this!"
She shook her head. "Even if I did, it's not like we would be in a relationship or anything." Gianna looked down ad fiddled with her hands.
"That's good to hear. Especially coming from you. I always knew deep down you had good sense." Raven joked making her smile a little. "I think you should talk to him so you can be on the same page. It's forever gonna be awkward though." She said making Gianna groan. "Goodnight girl." Raven chuckled before turning the lamp off and rolling back on her stomach. Her friend's piss poor taste in men never failed to surprise her.
Gianna stood to her feet and grabbed clothes to change into after her shower. She spent the entire night imagining every scenario possible that could occur when she sees Miles again. Gianna also could stop replaying their kiss in her head. She could even remember the exact feeling she felt at each moment. It was too bad that it was their first and last time.
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The next day, Gianna sat down at the kitchen island while she watched her mom cook. Brandy was making a family favorite: gumbo. "You and daddy know y'all are dead wrong for leaving for Christmas. What about tradition? What about me?"
Brandy chuckled as she stirred the insides of the pot. "Gigi, be honest. You just want to come to Europe with us."
"Of course I do! When have y'all ever been on vacation without us?" In all 22 years of her life, Gianna hadn't been away from her parents for more than a week and a half. And now that they were leaving for weeks on end, she didn't like it.
"Never and that's exactly the point." Gino, her father, came from the basement and placed a kiss on his wife's cheek. "Three weeks without you and them three other ones sounds amazing." Gino placed his hand over his slightly protruding belly and smiled at the thought. He loved his daughters and granddaughter to death but dealing with all those women on a daily was making the grey hairs come faster than they should've been.
Brandy lightly slapped across his chest. "Stop." Gianna didn't do anything but roll her eyes at her father. She was used to his brutal honesty.
"I won't miss you either daddy." She waved him off, playing the same game he was.
"Why your hair look like that?" Gino joked on her hair which was currently braided down with an Aztec clay mask lathered into it. His laugh made Brandy giggle as well.
Gianna folded her arms together, not finding the joke funny. "It was raining last night and my straight hair got messed up so I'm doing this so my curls don't be stringy. I'd offer you some but you're bald." She gave him a tight lipped smile.
"My bald head deserves some love too, Lil G." Gino said making Gianna laugh even though she wasn't trying to. "And it was raining at three o'clock last night. You was outside that late?"
"Yeah I was leaving that diner I always study at." She told him sweetly, knowing she was leaving out some details.
"You need to stop doing that before something bad happens." Gino warned her and she nodded. Too late she thought to herself.
"Oh Gianna! I've been meaning to ask you how's your class going with Miles Delgado? You haven't talked about it since you told us you got in." Brandy asked, making Gino's attention focus on her since he wanted to hear what she had to say as well. Her timing couldn't have been worse.
"I-uhh. It's um going good." She got herself together after clearing her throat and drinking some water. Her parents gave her a look as if they wanted her to continue and elaborate. "My writing is improving and my grades are great as well." Gianna said, hoping that was enough to get them off of her back.
"Well of course but how is he as a teacher? With him being your favorite and all?" Brandy questioned as she simultaneously stirred the pot of gumbo.
"It's going good mama. He's great." Gianna got up from the barstool to grab herself a snack out of the pantry. After browsing all of her options, she settled for two packs of Gushers.
"He remembered when your phone went off?" Gino teased her making Gianna roll her eyes. Her father was just hilarious.
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The day that Gianna was dreading the most rolled around. Tuesday morning.
As much as she tried to, she couldn't stop playing what she imagined what would happen when she walked into class.
Her and Miles being escorted to the chancellor's office, she'd be facing expulsion and Miles being fired in an instant.
The scene was so realistic in her head but it would never happen in reality. No one was there to witness it and even if they did, they wouldn't even know it was something that was supposed to be reported.
Gianna was too caught up in her phone, texting back and forth with Raven, to pay attention to what, or rather who was alongside of her. Both Miles and Gianna walked up to the door of the arts building together and she didn't notice he was there until he held the door open for her.
"Thanks." She said before continuing into the building. Miles was expecting a little more than that, so he followed behind her somewhat slow footsteps.
"Gianna." Miles called out for her but she ignored him and continued to walk. Seeing that she wasn't going to answer, Miles pulled her to the side.
"What are you doing?!" She whisper yelled while looking around them to make sure no one was near.
"What's the matter with you? Why you acting like that?" Miles asked. Gianna looked at him as if he had the word stupid written across his forehead.
"I don't know if you got amnesia over the weekend or something, but we did... you know."
Miles put on a phony confused face. "Nah. Can you refresh my memory?" Since Gianna was acting all paranoid, he only wanted her to say it out loud to mess with her.
Gianna smacked her teeth, "You know." He shook his head making Gianna sigh heavily. "When we kissed." She spoke so lowly that it was almost inaudible.
"Oh yeah." He replied. "You wanted to do it again or??"
Gianna's face was expressionless. Miles was playing and she didn't find the situation funny at all. "You're joking but you're not gonna be laughing when I get expelled and you're getting fired." She ranted.
"Woah, wait. Why you say that?"
"Because! What if somebody saw and said something? Oh my God. I'm so done for." She covered her eyes with her hand.
"Hey, calm down." Miles smiled politely at the janitor as he passed the two of them. Once the man was gone, Miles began to caress her arm, comforting her. "Everything is cool and nothing is gonna happen." Miles assured her, attempting to make her feel better.
"We'll talk more after class." He told Gianna and she nodded her head, then walked towards the classroom. He let her go in first and waited for two minutes to go by before walking in himself.
"You dodged a bullet." Brooke nudged Gianna's side, earning a small smile from her. As Miles greeted his class, he noticed Gianna held an anxious look on her face.
Miles sat at his desk before starting his lesson. He set his phone down and began to write the word poetry on the whiteboard.
"Phones on silent, please." He reminded the class as someone's text tone went off. Even though his back was turned, he already knew whose phone it was.
Gianna didn't say anything as she toggled her phone to vibrate. Before putting her phone down, she unlocked it and went to see who it was from and what the text said.
And when she did, she tried her best to stop the smile that was creeping its way onto her face as she read the last sentence.
Miles: Gianna, I need you to relax for me love. I know the program means a lot to you, so when I say I got you, I got you. Ain't nothing gonna happen and I promise you that. You look too beautiful to be covering up your face all day.
_____________________
After class was over, Gianna purposely packed up her things slowly as she waited for everyone to leave. "Miles I've been thinking and-"
"Surprise!" Gianna's eyes traveled to the door frame to see the stunning woman strut inside. With every move, Gianna's eyes followed. When the woman walked up to Miles and kissed him, her eyebrows raised in surprise. But her heart dropped when she spotted the diamond sitting on the woman's left hand.
The kiss didn't last any more than it started before Miles pulled away. His eyes instantly searched for Gianna but all he saw was the back of her body walking out of the classroom.
"Shit." He whispered while looking away from Kennedy. "What you doing here?" Miles gathered his things, ready to leave. Just that quickly, she'd pissed him off.
"Excuse me for trying to come be with you for your birthday." She rolled her eyes, sensing his annoyance.
"That's one thing but don't be coming up in here acting like we together. Especially in front of my students."
"You let your students call you by your first name?" Kennedy asked, confused since she'd over heard the start of their conversation. For the one semester she spent in college, she know she didn't call any of her professors by their first names.
Miles didn't pay her any mind as he continued to get his things. "Where the kids?"
"In the car."
"You left them in the car by themselves?"
"Yeah because I didn't want to make a scene in case you had a class going on." Her logic didn't make any sense to him because if she was so worried about interrupting his class, why would she barge in screaming surprise and kiss him?
"Alright." Was all he said, not wanting to talk to her anymore. As it felt like things couldn't get any worse, when they walked into the hallway, Jess was walking out of her classroom.
"Miles! Hi!" She waved with a huge smile on her face.
"Goodmorning." Miles said plainly. Both women stood and stared at him, waiting for the introduction. "Oh. Ken this is Jessica and she teaches the um sewing class?"
"Fashion and design." She corrected him politely while extending her hand to Kennedy's. "Nice to meet you."
Kennedy purposely used her hand that housed the ring that Miles bought for her years ago. "Nice to meet you too." She plastered a fake smile on her face. "Come on Miles we have to get the kids." She tugged at his arm, pulling him to the exit.
"She obviously likes you." Kennedy rolled her eyes as they approached her rental car. Once again, Miles ignored her and opened the back door to see both boys sleeping peacefully.
Miles got into his truck, grateful that he didn't have to ride in a car with her. Before pulling off, he tried to call Gianna's phone but she declined him each time.
He left her alone for now, but he knew for sure, that he wasn't giving up that easily. He just had to get his shit together first.
Kennedy Harper
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