30 Nights (18 page)

After giving it some thought I had realized that he was probably right. I’d spent so much time in school that I needed a chance to be out on my own, to live my life a little before jumping back into the books. It wasn’t that I would never do it; I knew I would eventually.

It had been the safe thing to do, the one that made the most sense at the time. I was in my mid twenties with a pile of student loans to pay off. Passing up an opportunity to pay that off and work with someone in my field had seemed too good to be true at the time.

Too bad the reality hadn’t quite matched up.

“I might go and do it sometime. Right now I’m still mostly enjoying my job. As you said, I’m good at what I do. Eventually I’ll get tired of working with Mickelson and I’ll want to spread my wings again. For now, the pay is good and I get to work with my best friend.”

“Fair enough.” But there was something in his tone that told me he wasn’t exactly convinced. At least he didn’t browbeat me the way Jasmine did.

I dumped the ingredients onto the pizza shell and shoved it in the oven. “There. That shouldn’t take long to heat up.” I put my elbows on the counter and leaned forward, giving off what I hoped was a nice shot of my cleavage. “Whatever shall we do now?”

“Plan.” His gaze circled from my breasts to my throat and back. “For our next night.”

“I love how you think, Professor.”

“What we did today was”—he flicked his gaze to mine—“the most arousing thing I’ve ever done. I know I’ll get hard from now until I die every time I think about it.”

For a moment, I forgot to breathe.

“Maybe we could do something else like that. If you think you’re up for it.”

There were more than a few cards in that pile that had great exhibitionist possibilities. And while I wasn’t interested in doing anything that would get either of us in trouble, the excitement might be worth some risk.

“Maybe we could.” I looked over to the cards, still sitting in a haphazard pile on my coffee table. “Maybe we could even combine a few of them. Kill two or three birds with one stone?”

The smile he gave me should have been illegal. “I’m all ears.”

19

S
ometimes the curveballs life throws your way can be a real pain in the ass.

We’d spent some time going through the cards as we ate pizza. Our planning didn’t happen quite the way I’d hoped. It’s funny how two rather intelligent people can have their conversation dissolve into juvenile jokes. That in turn led to us watching standup comedy on Netflix while we finished off a bottle of wine that I’d tucked away for a special occasion.

It was actually a lot of fun.

I’d invited Eric to spend the night, but he said that he wasn’t ready for that. “There are a lot of things I’m still trying to figure out. Staying at your house feels . . . too much. I hope you understand.”

I didn’t think it was a big deal, especially when it meant we could have sleepy morning sex, but I wasn’t going to push matters. Instead I took a long bath and crawled into my bed to sleep with the sheets that still held his scent.

Sunday morning I rescued my corkboard from the gremlins that live in my spare closet. I’d learned a lot about him in the last few days and I wanted to make sure I had my board as up-to-date as possible. I printed the details neatly and rearranged them as best as I could.

Big appetite.

Car accident—doesn’t want to discuss.

Not a fan of purple.

Wants to have anal sex. Didn’t want to ask.

Tries to hold in his giggles when he sees something funny.

Has the best laugh.

Goes to Blue Jays home games.

That last bit I found out Sunday afternoon when he texted me a picture of him and Claude in the stands with a beer. I stood in my spare room staring at it. There was something in his expression—a joy that I didn’t normally see when he was working—that pulled hard on my heartstrings. Eric’s recent past had taken some of the happiness from him. It was nice to see him having a good time, even if I wasn’t there with him.

Maybe I should send him some naughty texts in return. Not that we’d done much in the way of that yet, but sexting
was
on the list.

I’d save that for another day.

I returned my attention to my task at hand.

After reviewing everything I had about him, I knew there was one important thing still missing. Reluctantly, I pulled out my pen and wrote
Grace
on a card and added it to the board as well. While I might have a bit of a jealous streak, and still wanted to punch her in the nose if I saw her, I couldn’t deny that she’d been important in his life.

On a happier note, I added our completed cards to the proper side and then stood back to proudly survey our accomplishments. We’d certainly been busy in such a short time. Great Glenna might be mortified to know what I’d done, but she would have appreciated the chances that I’d taken in the name of having some fun.

Eric did text me once he got home from the ball game and we continued to chat well into the early hours. I’d drifted off to sleep at some point during our conversation and woke to the buzzing of my phone sometime around six in the morning:

Oh. Oh, he was totally a keeper.
Double, double.

I needed to learn how to take a compliment.
I’m sure Claude and the Jays actually winning their game helped.

Eric didn’t respond immediately, though I saw that he’d read the message. He went fifteen minutes before texting a simple
Not as much as you.

I sighed. Then squealed loudly. Then panicked because I realized the time and had to haul ass or else I was going to miss my bus. I dressed quickly and made it all the way outside before turning around to go back and grab a sweater. I really hated September some years.

Walking from the bus stop to my building wasn’t normally something that I paid attention to. I simply walked, my mind focused on my upcoming workday. This particular morning I seemed to notice things that I normally wouldn’t. Eric’s car was parked much the same place it always was, near the back of the lot. The air was far cooler than it had been up to this point in the year. The leaves were already starting to change. Students had made the switch from T-shirts and shorts to leggings, jeans, and sweaters. Soon, happily, the aroma of pumpkin-spiced everything would fill the air.

Eric said he was going to put the coffee on my desk, which meant he’d probably be sitting at his desk. I wanted to stop and chat with him, but I decided to play that by ear. While it wasn’t a huge deal that we were sleeping together, he clearly still wanted to keep things on the down-low.

Which I could totally do if it meant more balcony sex.

The second I emerged from the staircase I knew there was something different from previous weeks. Eric wasn’t in his office. No, he was standing in the doorway of
my
office and he was speaking to someone. Jasmine rarely came in this early, which meant she was probably swamped with something. If she caught Eric trying to sneak a coffee in, she would most definitely give him the third degree. Poor guy.
I’d better go rescue him
.

It was strange but my hackles went up before I even realized that I was walking into a problem. Eric stood directly in the doorway, blocking any sight of the person he was speaking to. The closer I got the more I realized that he was completely tense. He heard the click of my heels and turned as I got close, revealing Professor Mickelson standing in the office.

And he had my coffee.

Shit.

“Professor Mickelson, you’re here.” I nodded to Eric and gave him my politest smile. “Good morning, Professor Morris.”

“Glenna.” Now that I’d gotten to know him, I recognized that tone as him being more than a little ticked off. “Let me get out of your way.”

Professor Mickelson isn’t much taller than me, with a slight frame and sinewy muscles from being a marathon runner. He had this way of looking at me when he spoke that made me feel as though I was always being evaluated. I always felt as though I had failed. “Good to see you still arrive on time. I came back early to make sure we had a few days before my conference. I want to make sure you didn’t have any errors in the presentation. Not that I could find anything on this desk of yours.”

“I wasn’t expecting you here today so I hadn’t printed it off yet. Let me get organized and I’ll pull it up for you to take a look at.”

It was weird, knowing both Eric and my boss were watching me without watching, both drawing conclusions about what they saw. I knew Eric thought I was a pushover for jumping whenever Mickelson wanted me to do something. I also knew my boss didn’t think I was ready to take the next step in my career. He, too, thought I was too meek, too inexperienced.

As far as I was concerned they were both wrong. I was still learning from Mickelson. Yes, he could be a pompous ass and took advantage of my skills when maybe he shouldn’t, but he was my boss. He’d been working in this field for years longer than I had and had a breadth of experience I could learn from. Lots that I
had
learned. It would only be a matter of a few more years before I knew I’d want to take the next step.

I just wasn’t quite ready.

“So when do you fly out, Phil?” Eric sipped his coffee and had taken to standing in the doorway again.

“Thursday. I’ll be spending the weekend with some colleagues before the conference begins on Monday.”

“And then are you back to England after?”

“I’m not certain. When I was at Oxford, I’d discovered a program that allows for Inuit students to complete education via mobile devices. I might change direction and go north for a while. Observe their program in action before I return.”

I stopped moving and stared up at Mickelson. In all the e-mails he’d sent to me over the last few weeks, he hadn’t mentioned that to me at all. “That sounds fascinating. I would love to see—”

“Yes, well, it should be.” He made the small clicking sound in the back of his throat that he always did when he got annoyed. “Print off the presentation notes. You know I need to see them on paper and not on a screen.”

I’d been dismissed by him so much over the years that it didn’t bother me. Maybe it was the way Eric flinched or the fact that his research was also essentially
my
research and to be cut out of the conversation hurt. Either way, I ignored the rising tightness of my throat and hit the print button. “Of course.”

“You two have a lot of work. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you for the coffee.” Mickelson held up the cup in a salute. “Much needed.”

“Anytime.” Eric’s gaze flicked to me briefly before he turned and left.

So not fair.

“Well, my girl. Bring those papers into my office when they’re done. And your pen so we can make corrections as we go. I want to maximize our time together.”

“Yes, Professor.”

He sipped his coffee as he left for his office upstairs.

Heartbroken would be a bit of an exaggeration, but something akin to that was how I felt. With Mickelson back, any daytime chats with Eric would have to be put on hold, or at least reduced to expected interactions. If I had any free moments at all. When my boss was in conference mode, he tended to be all consuming of my time.

Dammit, this sucked.

The printing didn’t take long for me to finish and gather, so I had little reason to procrastinate. I stepped out into the hall and headed for the stairs. I didn’t get far when Eric emerged from his office. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Mickelson could wait at least for a moment. I hugged the printouts to my chest and made my way to him. “So that sucked.”

“I ran into him coming into the building. He asked who the coffee was for and I told him it was a thank-you for you helping me with something last week. He offered to give it to you and then started drinking it.”

Yeah, that was typical Mickelson. “He probably forgot it was for me a minute after you told him and drank it on impulse. He’s done stuff like that before. I’ve gotten used to it.”

“I wanted to punch him. Repeatedly.”

Never in my life have I had a man get protective of me like that. Seeing Eric, knowing that he’d been seething the whole time he’d been talking to Mickelson, did strange things to my libido. “That’s hot.”

“Hey, lovebirds.” We both stepped back as Jasmine marched down the hall directly for us. “How was the weekend?”

“I’ll let you go.” He gave me a little smile before he turned away and waved at Jasmine. “Have fun. Don’t let him ride you too hard.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She took one look at what I was holding and groaned. “Shit, Mickelson’s back early.”

“Because of course he is. I was just heading up to the office now to go over the presentation.”

“I’ll say a prayer for you.”

“Does that work for atheists?”

“We’ll find out.”

At least I had two people in my life who had my back if I needed it. “Well, thanks in advance. If you don’t hear from me by lunch, send out the search party.”

“Damn right I will. I need to know how your weekend went.” Her grin was downright maniacal. “Details. I want them.”

“Later.” I walked away to the sound of her groans.

 

“I just can’t accept this. We need to change the entire template.”

I wanted to cry. Not little tears either. No, I wanted to engage in full-out sobs. He’d rejected all of the work I’d done over the past few weeks. The terrifying thing was that the mistakes he’d pointed out were actual, honest-to-God errors and not him being picky. I’d been so distracted by Great Glenna’s passing, Eric, and the sex cards that I’d screwed up.

“I’m sorry. It’s been a rough few weeks.”

“Not an excuse. Can you imagine the reaction had I gone on with the presentation in this state? Unacceptable.”

“The file is on my computer. I’ll clear my plate and have it finished by the end of the day.”

I stood and wasn’t at all surprised when he followed me out to the stairs. “I need to make a call and then I’ll be down to check the status. I’m very disappointed in you.”

Those five little words were enough to break my heart. “It won’t happen again.”

For the first time since I’d accepted my position with him, I wanted to give up. It didn’t seem to matter how hard I worked, my work was never good enough. I was never going to be ready to do my PhD at this rate.

I didn’t even have the pleasure of seeing Eric. His office door was closed and I knew he was off teaching for the rest of the afternoon. That was probably a good thing, giving me one less distraction. The moment I walked into the office, Jasmine was on me. “Tell me about the sex. Was he good? Did you do the cards? What days? You hid that stupid board of yours that you had in the office, right?”

I fell into my chair. “I can’t do that now, Jaz.”

“You promised.” She was actually pouting.

“I promised before I had my work put under a microscope and found severely lacking.”

“Bullshit. You’re brilliant.”

I held up the printouts that were now covered in bright red ink. “I used the wrong template, I mislabeled a diagram, I forgot to reference his new research study, and I misquoted him. That’s just on the first five pages.”

Jasmine frowned. “You don’t make mistakes like that.”

“I also don’t normally lose a loved one and then start having kinky sex with my fantasy man. It’s been a weird few weeks.”

“I’m sorry. Can I help with anything?”

“No. It will be fine. He’ll be down in a minute so I better get started.”

The next person to walk through the door was Nell, not Professor Mickelson. “Hello, gorgeous. And hi, Jasmine.”