I woke up the next day by the sun shining in my face, something that didn't normally happen due to the fact that I've got blackout curtains. I stretched my body out and realized how incredibly sore I was and that I was no longer wearing any pants. Wait, how had I even gotten home? I sat up quickly and looked over to my left, fearing the worst. Surprisingly, there was no one in my bed. I let out a quick sigh of relief and went into my bathroom to examine last night's damage. My hair was in a knotted mess around my head and my makeup black smudges around my eyes and down my cheeks. I used my makeup wipes and face wash to try and scrub my face clean. These two together could not remove the black circles or bags from under my eyes. I threw my hair up into a bun and brushed my teeth, my mouth tasted terrible.
When I felt I had washed off the remnants of last night, I padded to the kitchen only to be stopped in my tracks.
"Good morning beautiful." Dylan smiled, he had breakfast out on the table. He wore a pair of sweatpants I had stolen from an old boyfriend and seemed to be missing a shirt.
"Uh... Good morning." He chuckled and I sat across from him at the table. He scrolled through his phone as he ate a bite of his eggs. "You made breakfast." I noted stupidly. That could not be any more obvious.
"It's not what you're thinking, I promise." He set down his phone and tried to smile reassuringly but I know he could tell I was still skeptical.
"Then what happened last night? Because it definitely looks like something happened." I looked down at his naked chest and blushed. He grinned in response.
"Honestly? You made a move on me and I wasn't exactly saying no. When we got to bed you stopped and kept saying 'oh god everything is spinning why is it spinning' and I knew you were too drunk to do anything. That's when I realized I only had a few moments to get you to the bathroom. I held your hair back while you threw up, got you cleaned up, and put you back to bed. You grabbed onto my hair until I climbed into bed with you. You wrapped yourself around me and fell asleep. It was kind of cute." He smiled while taking another bite of his breakfast but I couldn't stop the heat that I felt spreading across my face and chest. I was so embarrassed. Not only had I actually tried to make a move on him, which I guess wasn't too bad, I could've potentially thrown up on him.
"I am so sorry. I am such a mess. I never should've tried anything this is so embarrassing I swear I'm never like that."
"Even if everything would've went forward I'm not sure I could've even worked correctly." He said, causing me to giggle. It made me feel a little better knowing that he was having, ah, difficulties last night as well. "I figured that would help with your embarrassment. I can't imagine what would've happened if I couldn't have gotten it up." We both laughed and continue to talk throughout breakfast. It definitley was not just the alcohol last night that made him seem appealing, I was having a good time just sitting and talking with him.
He looked at his phone and let out a sigh, "I should probably get going." I couldn't help but frown. He stood up, placing a kiss on top of my head. "If I could stay, I would. I've got work in a couple hours and should probably go shower and change my clothes. I can't imagine I look very good right now."
"I disagree." I said and he smiled. He put his clothes from last night back on and gave me a quick hug. "Can I get your number?" He asked, holding out his phone. I put it into his phone. "We should do something again, maybe with less alcohol though." We both chuckled.
"That sounds good." He kissed my cheek and left me by myself.
I put our dishes into my sink and went to my bedroom to check my phone. As soon as I unlocked it I couldn't help but laugh at the amount of text messages I had from the girls. They discussed what had happened with their nights and asked me, multiple times, what had happened with Dylan. I told them to Skype me and grabbed my laptop before heading to the couch.
"So." Gem wiggled her eyebrows, "What happened?" I giggled and filled them in on my night. They weren't surprised that nothing had really happened but, they had strong hopes that our relationship would actually go somewhere.
"I think I really might be starting to like him." I smiled slightly, I wasn't used to this whole potential dating thing. I'd never really "liked" a guy before so I wasn't totally certain of my feelings yet. I wasn't opposed to giving this a try, though.
"That's great! Oh my gosh, we can double date!" Jennifer squealed happily.
"And when Nick comes up, I can join you!" Gemma added. Her boyfriend went to a college in Buffalo, around where she's from. Once he graduates he'd be coming to stay with her up here next year since she's joining the Graduate program at our school.
"Don't get too ahead of yourselves." I warned, knowing that these things almost never work out for me, "We just started talking. Literally, I met him last night."
"Yeah but, don't you guys have class together? Or rather, you teach his class. That's the perfect opportunity to get to know him better!" Jennifer pushed.
"I'll try. You guys want to watch something?"
"I've actually got a huge paper to write so, raincheck?" Gem asked and I nodded.
"That's fine! I'll find something to do, I'm sure." We said our goodbyes and hung up. I went through my planer and saw that I actually had some reading due for one of my classes. It essentially took the rest of the day as it was the driest book I had ever read. I constantly found myself forcing myself out of my thoughts and back into the book. I couldn't wait for this reading to be done.
Sunday morning I woke up to a text from Dylan, asking me if I wanted to grab something for lunch. I obviously said yes and he told me to meet him at the pizza place in town. I dressed pretty casually, in jeans a tshirt and a flannel over that. We ended up staying at the restaurant for about three hours. We talked about a lot of things and I'm surprised that we weren't asked to leave due to the fact that it was incredibly busy around lunch time and we had been taking up seats that other people could've used. When we finally left, he walked me to my car and kissed me sweetly. It was nice but, I felt like something was missing. Maybe, it just took time. Things didn't happen like they did in the movies. It wasn't a love at first kiss kind of thing, feelings took time to develope and I was more than happy to give it the time it needed.
Class on Monday seemed a bit more awkward than normal but, I couldn't quite figure out why. He was back to doing the whole, "I'm going to be kind of moody and withdrawn with you but, still be friendly to other people thing". I was starting to think he was regretting asking me to be his TA. I was somewhat regretting the whole deal but those extra credits and easy 4.0 were making it worth it.
"Ms. Jamison." He said, handing me the last papers he had collected. He had assigned all classes an essay over the weekend to write that I, thankfully, didn't have to do since I had agreed to correct any grammar or punctuation mistakes I found. "I'm glad you're a writing minor, I've never been that good with the whole correcting grammar thing. Definitely a hassle when you're a teacher." He chuckled and I slid the papers into my bag with the rest. It was going to be a long couple of nights. Thankfully, I didn't have to grade the actual content. "Have you seen Ms. Bowman today?" He asked, sitting back down at his desk.
"No, I won't be seeing her until later. Why?" I just wanted to get out of here so I could get some lunch, I was starving.
"We set up tour of my greenhouses for this weekend, are you available?" I had to think for a second, going through the calendar on my phone.
"Yeah, it looks like I'm free."
"Great." He smiled, "I'll see you next class."
The next couple of days passed by pretty quickly and uneventfully. I had gone to lunch a couple times with Gemma, Jen, Dylan and Jen's new boyfriend Noah. I had a lot of fun with Dylan and in between my homework we had managed to go to the movies and out to dinner once. I would say we were in the dating stage. We were technically free to see other people but we're still seeing each other. My mom always said that this was how you it was supposed to be, you didn't always jump into being in a relationship with someone. This was comfortable and it felt easy and not rushed. I liked whatever we were in all of its uncomplicatedness.
It was now Friday and I was in the greenhouse, ready to go home and start my movie night with Gem and Jen.
"So, come up with an excuse yet?" Lillian and I were transplanting succulents into bigger pots.
"Not yet." I sighed, "I'm sure I'll come up with something before tomorrow." She had been on my ass about this all week, wanting to make sure whatever I said was believable enough.
"Why don't you come up with a family emergency?" She suggested, "That way he'll practically force you to leave." She smiled, looking as though she was mentally patting herself on the back for her good idea.
"That's bad karma." I shook my head, "I always worried that if I faked a family emergency like an illness or an accident to get out of something, it would come true. Kind of like a cosmic slap in the face for using something bad to not do something."
Lillian laughed, "Fine. Just come up with something before tomorrow. Run it by me first, though. So I can prepare myself." She was thinking way too far into this. I could tell that despite her confidence, she was getting nervous.
"I'm sure everything will go fine and you'll have the romantic evening you planned for." I assure her but feel a slight twist in my gut. Although I had been spending a good chunk of my time with Dylan, in and out of the classroom, I felt this pull towards Professor Young. Sometimes, he would joke about something and we would both laugh and the sound of it would send my stomach into a frenzy. I felt like a schoolgirl but at the same time, it all felt wrong. I still looked forward to our classes together and the brief conversations we had and sometimes, certain things about him would cross my mind when I was with Dylan. I barely knew him and yet, I couldn't help but compare the two. I knew, after this weekend, I was going to throw myself full force into my school work and Dylan to keep myself distracted. Would that be possible?
HELLO! I'm sorry this chapter is kind of blah but, I promise next chapter is going to be #spicy. Things are really going to get interesting past this point although, I hope you think the story, so far, already is!! Thank you for 100+ reads now! This is great!! Keep reading, adding this to your library or reading lists, voting and PLEAAASE comment! I would love feedback!