“No worries. Ty will get you squared away,” she assures me and then walks to the desk a few feet away.
“Huh,” I tell Ty as the scowl returns to his face. “Looks like you’re stuck with me, Ty.”
“Phoebe, this is a bad idea. You should work with Meg or Katie.”
“I thought you just told me you were basically the only one qualified to help me?” I ask, annoyance clear in my tone.
“It’s just--”
“It’s just what?” I ask, frustrated. Ugh. “Do you have a brother?” His face pales at my question, but I keep going. “Like a twin, perhaps? And he’s the nice, normal one, and you’re the evil one? Because the guy sitting in front of me now is not the same guy who sat on my steps last week, who came to check on me.”
“I shouldn’t have done that. It was stupid.” He runs his hand through his hair and fiddles with his pen.
“Good to know,” I say. “But your stupidity doesn’t negate the fact that I need your help.”
Meg looks over at us, likely because we’re getting a little loud in this quiet space.
“Fine. Like I said, I’m here Monday through Friday afternoons. Feel free to schedule an appointment.”
I check my phone. Damnit. We’ve spent the better part of our tutoring session arguing and I need to get to work. “Great,” I tell him, smiling sweetly. “I’ll see you Wednesday.”
***
Ty
Phoebe walks out of the writing lab and though she’s gone, and I’m sitting here with my book in a relatively quiet space, I feel trapped. There’s no way I can be her tutor.
Damn me and my fucking need to meddle. I should never have gone to campus that day, never given her a tour, and sure as shit never sat outside her dorm like a weirdo or a lovesick fool.
But none of that even matters. Phoebe was right, and like she said, I’m the most qualified person here to help her. She just has no clue how untenable that is. Sure, she thinks I’m the king of mood swings, but that’s better than the truth.
Meg gets up to toss her coffee cup, and I seize the opportunity to talk to her.
“Hey, do you have a sec?”
She looks at the near-empty center, laughs, and nods. “In fact, I do. What’s up?”
I shrug, going for casual and unaffected. “I was just wondering if maybe I’d be more useful in another time slot?”
“You want to add more hours? I mean, maybe you can split Saturdays with Jake. I can ask him, if you want.”
I shake my head. “No, not more hours. Just different ones. You know, since business isn’t actually booming right now.”
She waves off my concern. “Don’t worry about that. You get credit either way. And the department wants us fully staffed. I know I said this wasn’t our busiest time slot, but the pace will pick up. Besides, what are you complaining about? Seems to me like you have a regular client.”
“Yea, about that…” I pause because I have no clue what to say next. I don’t know how to explain that I’m not a good match for Phoebe. I just know that tutoring her would lead to disaster.
She smiles conspiratorially. “No worries, Ty. I promise. It’s not like you’re a professor or even a TA. You have no influence over her grade, so it’s fine if you tutor your girlfriend. Lots of people do.”
Jesus. “Oh, she’s not--”
“Fine, your hookup, crush, friend, whatever. It doesn’t matter, as long as you’re professional.” At this, she levels me with a look. “We can trust you to be professional, right?”
“Of course,” I answer immediately. “I just want to be here when I’m most needed,” I say, making one last attempt to get my time switched.
“Looks like you’re needed three days a week at one. And honestly, I’m glad you’re here. My concentration is business and technical writing, and Katie is a sophomore who just switched to English from history. We can easily handle the intro classes, but the upper-level Brit Lit? That’s all you. You are definitely the perfect guy to help Phoebe.”
I fake a smile, resigned to my fate and realizing that Meg has no clue how wrong her words are.
