by Bee Daniels
“It’s working with you, isn’t it?” Noah asked as he leaned closer to her, crowding her against the door. From the little distance between them, he could smell the sweet scent of her perfume. She smelled like honey, and it made him want to put his tongue on her brown skin.
“Noah!”
He was reluctant to look away from those brown eyes that were sucking him in. There was an energy between them right now, and as his eyes flicked down to her lips, he wanted to kiss them to see if they felt as soft as they looked. But the magic of the moment was gone when she turned to look at the person who called his name. Noah bit down his disappointment as he looked to see who had called him.
His friend and teammate, Dale, who was also taking this class, jogged over to them. When he stopped in front of them, his eyes darted back and forth between them with a look of confusion.
“Hey, Noah,” Dale said slowly before giving a curt nod to the girl. The girl nodded back before entering the classroom. They both followed behind her. Noah's eyes lazily roved over the people in the room. There were about fifty students or so piled up in the lecture hall, and it seemed the professor wasn't there yet. Noah recognized some of the people there, including Julie, a girl he had met last year at a frat party. From time to time, their social circles crossed paths, and when they did, Noah would flirt with her. She was a pretty girl who had the whole good girl look with the blond hair, and blue innocence of her eyes that matched her sweet smile. It was the type of look that made a guy want to see if there was something dirty hidden beneath it.
While Julie smiled at him, the guy next to her, Josh Anderson, glared. No one would be able to tell they were teammates. But that was expected. After all, Anderson hated him.
Noah's attention went back to the girl he had just met. He watched as she took a step forward to the front of the class before he grabbed her arm. She looked at him wide-eyed, and Noah wondered what got her so startled. Then he realized that he shouldn't have touched her without her permission. He pulled his hand back.
“You should come sit in the back with me,” he suggested. Noah wanted to get to know her. Something was intriguing about this girl that captured his interest beyond just her looks. If they sat together, it would give him the opportunity to do that. But he knew he definitely wouldn't be able to talk to her if they were sitting in the front of the lecture hall. From the stories he heard about this professor, she definitely wasn't going to let that happen.
“Man, what are you doing?” Dale whispered, but Noah ignored him.
The girl eyed him, a hint of amusement in her gaze. Finally, she said, “I prefer the front."
Damn. She was a tough one.
"Okay," he said. "Maybe you'll change your mind next time."
Noah headed up the steps with Dale hot on his heels, glancing back at the girl who looked at him a little longer before shaking her head. Noah wasn't going to give up, but he could tell that she wasn't going to be an easy one to crack. These types of girls took time.
Again, Dale whispered, but harshly this time, “What the hell are you doing?”
Noah arched a brow, confused by his friend's tone. "What are you talking about?" he asked as he sat down in the second to last row. Julie sat one row ahead of him, and the moment Noah sat down, she looked back at him, giving him a shy wave. Noah winked at her, and she blushed, a huge smile on her face. Anderson looked at the smile on Julie's face with a frown before he glared at Noah again. Noah stifled a sigh. If Anderson had a crush on Julie, judging from the jealous expression on his face, he could go for it. Noah had flirted with Julie a few times here and there and had come close to hooking up with her on multiple occasions, but it wasn't like he was in love with her. She was just another girl he wouldn't mind hooking up with.
Noah turned his attention back to Dale, trying to figure out what his problem was with him flirting with that girl. Was she someone else's girl? The thought of it bothered Noah. He didn't like the idea of her belonging to someone else, especially if it was a guy who wasn't deserving of her. And even if she was taken, Noah wasn't sure if that was going to stop his pursuit. Usually, he respected people's relationships and didn't cross a line of messing with someone else's girl, but this was different. He wanted to know her, and nothing would stop him.
“I’m talking about…”
Dale's words became white noise in Noah's ears as he looked at the front of the lecture hall to see where the girl was sitting, only to notice that she was not in the front row, but at the front, more specifically, the professor's desk. She laid the papers she had out on the table, shuffling through them and putting them in order before she neatly placed them in a pile.
Everything suddenly clicked.
“…remember when I told you we had our professor changed to a new one. She—” Dale jutted a finger in the direction of where the girl, or should he say, woman, stood behind the desk— “is our professor. She’s the hard-ass who's been making all of our lives hell. Man, were you just flirting with her? You couldn’t have been. I mean, I know you chase after a lot of chicks, but it’s no way in hell that even you’ll be bold enough to shoot your shot with a professor.”
Noah could barely listen to anything his friend said as he continued to stare at the woman, his professor, behind the desk, dumbfounded. Noah looked closer, ignoring his attraction for her. And with taking a closer look, despite her young appearance, because she definitely looked young compared to all the other professors he had seen, he could see that there was a maturity to her. No wonder she was dressed in fancy clothes. No wonder she had been looking at him as if he had two heads.
Dale was right. He had been flirting with his professor. He felt like a fool, left speechless, as he remembered everything he had said to her.
Hey, beautiful.
Not even a number.
Saddled with some hard-ass
It’s working with you, isn’t it?
"Fuck," he muttered, embarrassment flush beneath his skin. No wonder she hadn't been paying attention to him, paying him as much mind as a person would pay to a fly. She knew he was her student.
“What?” Dale whispered curiously. “Did she say anything to you? She doesn’t take attendance, but that doesn’t matter because we get daily points for participation, and it’s a big ass chunk of our fucking grade, man. So pretty much, you have no choice but to attend class, and you missed a whole two weeks.”
“Good morning, everyone,” Professor Bryant said, her eyes roving over everyone in the lecture hall until they stopped on him. There was a hint of amusement in those browns eyes before it quickly disappeared, leaving a sharp stare before she looked at the rest of the class. Now, Noah felt like even more of a fool.
She was definitely laughing at him.
“Today, we’re going to talk about Classical Conditioning.”
She turned on her heels and grabbed a dry erase marker, writing on the board.
“She doesn’t seem as bad as you said,” Noah said, finally accepting the fact that she was his professor, and he had humiliated himself. He would have to find a way to apologize for calling her a hard-ass to her face. He could salvage this. She looked like a nice woman. Maybe she could forgive him for being attracted to her. How was he to know she was a professor when she looked so young and good.
He watched her write, admiring her penmanship until he noticed what she was writing— Pop Quiz. His eyes widened.
“You’re reading assignment was Chapter 3, so to make sure you've read the assignment given to you, you’ll be taking a pop quiz before we go over the PowerPoint today.”
A student raised their hand, and Professor Bryant nodded. “How many questions?”
“There are thirty questions, but they’re all from the reading, so if you did it, this quiz should be easy for you.”
A series of groans were let out as everyone prepared themselves for the pop quiz, if it could even be called one. It sounded like a fucking exam to him. Noah tried to shake
his annoyance, knowing this was his fault. He hadn't read one chapter, and he hadn't even brought the textbook for this class. There was no way he was going to be able to pass this.
“And you say she isn’t that bad,” Dale said sarcastically as he pulled out a pen from his bag. Noah sighed, eating his words.
“Noah Walker.”
Noah looked up, surprised to hear his name from her lips. She looked up from the paper in her hand, which he assumed was an attendance sheet, and gestured for him to come down. Noah swallowed thickly, wondering what she could want from him before getting up and going down the stairs. He hoped she wouldn't be mad from him mistaking her as a student. In hindsight, he should have known from the clothes. But to be honest, he had been paying more attention to her beauty.
When he stood in front of her, she said, "My TA is running late. I want to ask you if you could be kind enough to pass out these quizzes for me."
She held out the pile of papers for him, and Noah could see the smug expression on her face. Immediately, the beauty he had seen in her before disappeared. Now, he saw nothing but a witch, one that would make his life hell so he wouldn't be able to focus all of his attention on hockey anymore, but instead, a class he didn't even want to take.
“Thank you,” he gritted out, and grabbed the papers from her hand, before turning to pass them out.
“Oh, and Noah.”
He paused and turned to see her grin, a terrifying grin that nearly made him shiver. Right now, she definitely looked like a witch. All she was missing was a broom and a carrot nose.
“Welcome to Intro to Psychology 1002.”
CHAPTER
1
NOAH
S
WEAT DRIPPED FROM NOAH’S HAIRLINE DOWN TO THE TIP OF HIS NOSE. The locker room was filled with steam as everyone headed to the showers to wash off the sweat they had accumulated during practice. Noah sat on the bench, hunched over, breathing heavily as he replayed today's practice in his head over and over again. It had been a habit of his for a long time now, unable to get hockey out of his head even when he was off the ice. He needed to process his mistakes to ensure he never made them again. This year was his second year on the college hockey team, and soon, it would be his last. He had to make sure he made no mistakes when it came time for him to skate across the ice in front of all of those people who would watch from the seats in the arena and on their televisions. He needed to prove to everyone why he should be drafted with his own skill.
“Noah.”
When the head coach called his name, he was startled out of his thoughts. Noah looked up from the tile floor to see Coach Benson standing in front of him. After being on his team for a year, Noah could easily read the expressions on Coach Benson's face to know his mood, and right now, from the pinched gaze and furrowed brows, he wasn't happy. Noah mirrored his face, not from unhappiness but confusion. He knew he made a few mistakes, but not so many that Coach Benson would be upset with him.
“What’s wrong, Coach?” Noah asked.
Coach Benson snatched a folded piece of paper from the breast pocket of his jacket. He nearly ripped it apart as he unfolded it before thrusting it in Noah's face.
“What is this, Walker? Huh? What the hell is this?”
Noah pulled the paper from his face so he could see it, and when he saw the list of his midterm grades, he sighed. Most of them were good. A sprinkle of C’s and B's with one A as the cherry on top. But there next to Intro to Psychology was a big fat F glaring at him. He hadn’t bothered checking his midterm grades for this reason alone.
“I thought we made an agreement, Walker,” Coach Benson said. “You told me that all of your grades would be good, so why do you have an F in this course?”
“It’s just a midterm grade.”
“Midterm grade my ass,” Coach Benson said as he folded his arms on top of each other. “The dean has been on my ass this year about the players keeping their grades up. No longer will you shits be able to pass by with bad grades. If you keep failing this course, you can’t play.”
Noah groaned as he stood from the bench and snatched open his locker, removing the things he would need to shower with.
“Coach, this class is hard. Professor Bryant rides my ass all day. It’s supposed to be an easy class, but she makes everything difficult. If I would have known she was teaching this course, I wouldn’t have taken it.”
When Noah had first met Professor Bryant, he had been surprised. He had mistaken her for a student because of her youthful appearance and her beauty. Now, looking back on it, it was silly on his part. He wished he would have never helped her pick up those papers that day because now he couldn't help but think the reason she made a first level psychology course so difficult was because of everything he had said to her. It was an irritational thought, he knew. From what Dale told him, Professor Bryant had been tough from the first day, which was why a good number of students dropped her class. But whenever she passed his exam back to him with an F on the front written in red ink, there was something in her brown eyes that made him think she was out to get him.
"Tough shit, Walker. You're taking the class now, so what are you going to do?" Coach Benson asked with impatience. His southern accent seeped into his words, revealing that the forty-five-year-old college varsity coach had been born nowhere near the state of Massachusetts that they were currently in.
Noah slammed his locker shut. “Honestly, Coach, I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s possible to pass this course. The questions on the exams aren’t multiple choice. She wants you to give examples and details and write paragraphs and essays. It’s all unnecessary shit, and way too much on my plate.”
“I’m serious, Noah,” Coach Benson said, grabbing Noah's shoulder with a firm, warning grip. “The dean is serious about this. After the protests and complaints from some of the professors along with the students, athletes can’t just bypass courses anymore. I can't save your ass on this. If you don’t pass this course, then I’m going to have to sit you out on the bench.”
Noah groaned, annoyed and frustrated. He should have never taken that course.
“This is your year, Noah. You can’t sit out on your year. How are the recruits going to look at you when they realize you aren’t out there on the ice because you couldn’t pass a psychology course?”
“But Professor Bryant—”
“I don’t want to hear any buts or excuses. I need to hear that you’re going to pass.”
Noah swallowed his irritation and nodded. He would kick this course’s ass if that’s what he needed to do to skate on the ice. He wouldn’t let Professor Bryant ruin this for him. He would do whatever it took to pass this course.
“I’m going to pass, coach.”
Coach Benson nodded, satisfied with his word before he pulled back. “I’m going to talk to this Professor Bryant for you. Maybe she can give you some extra credit assignme—”
Noah snorted, slinging a towel over his shoulder. “Good luck with that, coach.” He walked towards the showers, nodding at a few of his teammates who passed him. Coach Benson hadn’t met Professor Bryant yet, so he didn’t realize that his speeches about the team needing Noah wouldn’t work on her. She was a hard ass out to get him, insistent on making his life hell.
CHAPTER
2
MELANIE
Get Accepted into Harvard
Graduate with Honors
Attend Grad School
Open Practice
Publish Book
Married by Twenty-Five Twenty-Seven Thirty-Two
Three Kids by Thirty-Two Thirty-Seven
M
ELANIE GNAWED ON HER BOTTOM LIP, a terrible habit she hadn't been able to shake since her childhood. Her mother always warned her that her lip would burst one day, and though Melanie had encountered many bruises from biting on her lip with worry, till this day, she was fine with her lip still intact, and her mother's dramatics nothing but a child
's fable in the back of her mind. But right now, as she stared at her list, Melanie couldn't help but worry that this time her mother's fable would come true; for the past five minutes or so Melanie had been staring at the list in front of her, her teeth buried deep in her bottom lip.
Since she had been a little girl, Melanie had always planned her life out accordingly, so she was never off track and accomplished everything she had ever wanted to achieve. But there was one task on her list that seemed unachievable no matter how hard she tried.
A knock on her office door made her release her bottom lip from its captivity. Melanie looked up to see a head peeking through the cracked door. For a second, Melanie wondered if it was a student dropping by despite it not being office hours, which happened from time to time despite her warning her students that she would only speak to them during those hours. But when the door creaked open, revealing a redhead woman, Melanie realized it wasn't any of her students, but her co-worker, Jessica.
“You’re not too busy are you?” Jessica asked, hesitantly standing at the door, her eyes roving over Melanie's desk to see if Melanie had any important work. Melanie closed her journal and dropped it in her drawer, relieved not to see her failures anymore.
"No, I'm not," Melanie assured her, and she watched as Jessica smiled brightly, bouncing into her office. Jessica was a student advisor who Melanie talked to from time to time. She had bright red hair that matched her fiery personality that usually helped the students to get excited about the upcoming semester. It was often during her downtime that she came to visit Melanie whenever she had the chance to avoid boredom. Melanie didn’t mind it too much. Sometimes, it was good to have company, especially since the other professors in her department around this time were either busy grading work or lecturing.
“What are you up to?” Jessica asked as she grabbed a peppermint from the bowl of candy on Melanie’s desk before plopping down in the chair across from her desk.