“Oh, come on. Tell me.”
An idea came to mind to get him to stop pushing and I turned, keeping my face neutral to trap him. “Okay.”
“Yes,” he said, making a fist and pulling it into him.
“If you tell me about Jake.”
His victory smile dropped from his face and I openly smirked. “I hate you.”
I cocked an eyebrow and waited for him to begin or give up. I mostly hoped he’d give up.
His shoulders dropped on a heavy sigh. “He was a friend of a friend I got close to in college. We all got drunk and made stupid bets. I ended up having to kiss him and we all laughed, despite the way he kissed me back.” Jackson breathed a laugh and licked his lips, as though he could still taste the kiss. “By the end of the night, he’d stumbled into my room and kissed me again. I blew him and he…” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “He kind of freaked out and left. Came around a week later with a girlfriend, and we fell apart.”
“I’m so sorry, Jackson.”
“Now, we see each other and it’s okay. If not filled with a lot of tension. But I’m pushing through it because he’s given me no inclination of anything beyond polite, we-used-to-know-each-other vibes.”
I gripped his hand in mine and squeezed, not needing to say I was sorry again. He knew I was sad for him, and it didn’t help anything. “What do you do outside of here? How do I not know?” I asked, changing the subject for him.
“I’m a spy.”4
“Fascinating.” I exaggerated the word like I was truly shocked.
He just shook his head with a laugh before turning to me. “Okay. Now tell me where you met this guy.”
I stared at him, weighing my chances of making it to the door and hoping he forgot about it before he saw me again. Probably slim. But this was Jackson. We’d formed a friendship with zero judgement. If there was anyone I could tell, it was him. “He’s my teacher,” I mumbled, but judging by his wide eyes and opened mouth, he heard me just fine.
“Shut. Up.”
“He saw me here,” I said before I thought better of it. Maybe I’d been dying to talk about it5and now that Jackson knew, I was able to lift some of these confessions off my chest. “Before he found out I was his student. But even once he found out, he still came. I didn’t know, and we became friends and I just…I just liked him too much to stay mad at him for not telling me.
“Shut. Up,” he said again.
“You sound like a Valley girl.” He flipped his imaginary hair and we laughed, but then he just stared. “Okay. Bring on the lecture about all I’m doing wrong and how wrong all of it is.”
His shoulder lifted on a shrug, and he pretended to zip his lips shut. However, he broke the seal when he said, “Just be careful.”
I wanted to say I was, but deep down, I knew I wasn’t.
Being careful wouldn’t be seeing your professor. Wouldn’t be fooling around in his office. I opened my mouth to lie anyways when Charlotte walked in.
“Oaklyn!” She said my name with an exaggerated smile, and I knew she wanted something.
“Yes, Charlotte?”
“Would you possibly, maybe, kind of want to hopefully cover my last three hours at the bar? My boyfriend is landing in town early and I was hoping to meet him at the airport.”
“You have a boyfriend?” Jackson asked, shocked.
“Not all of us have a phobia of relationships.”
“It’s not a phobia.”
I cut in before their banter could pick up any more than it already was. “Sure, Charlotte. I got to make up that money somehow.”
“Thank you, thank you!” She came over and gave me a hug. “I’ll be leaving here in fifteen. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll just rest my feet back here for a bit and meet you out there.”
