by Arthurs, Nia
The last phrase had been spoken with more force than necessary. I guessed that his ex-wife was somewhere in the near vicinity.
“Alright, but I have my class in fifteen minutes. Do you think you’ll be done by then?”
“I’m sorry, man. I don’t know when I’ll be done here. Just postpone the class. I’ll cover for you.”
“But I have a test due to––”
The smack of a deadline rang in my ears. Now that I knew how annoying that was, I wouldn’t do it again.
I spun on my heels and faced the teenage girl in my couch. What was I supposed to do with her? Postponing my class was not an option.
The familiar rumble of an engine echoed in the air. Tess was home. I shook my head and strode for the couch.
Wait. Tess was home! She was a high school teacher. I’d seen the school logo on her uniform pocket the few times we chanced to meet.
Surely, Tess would be available to help me out. She rarely left the house on weekdays. Begging Tess to look in on Leslie would free me up to attend my class.
I checked my watch. I would have to run or I’d be late.
“Leslie, I’ll be right back.”
The girl didn’t even blink.
“Okay then,” I muttered.
I headed for the front door. I was turning the knob when Leslie’s voice surprised me.
“You have any food?”
I glanced over my shoulder at her reclining figure. Mentally reviewing the contents of my refrigerator, I said.
“I think I might have some tuna in the cupboard.”
Leslie made a face.
I sighed and stepped away from the door.
Cool air blew against my face as I opened the fridge. Rows of colorful vegetables and fruits met my eye.
Belize had an array of tropical foods to choose from. Since my last foray to the market, I had become quite fond of mangos and craboo.
“I can make you a fruit salad!” I yelled with my face still in the fridge.
No reply.
I gritted my teeth but patiently drew out the fruits one by one. The tinny sound of pop music came from the television.
“Girl, shake that booty. Shake it, shake it, shake it good. That booty! That booty is what God made so I ap-re-ci-ate it!”
The song filtered through my mind, reminding me of the day Dani and Tess visited. I smiled sub- as I replayed the moment Tess ‘injured’ herself.
Both girls were deplorable actors.
At last, Leslie’s fruit salad was done. I brought the bowl to her. She glanced at its contents and snubbed her nose.
“Here,” I shoved the plate closer to her face.
She scooted away from me. I felt anger rise in my chest. I had cut and peeled those fruits with care! The least she could do was pretend to eat it!
I glanced at my watch again. My eyes bugged. Only five minutes until my class was due to begin.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Whatever.”
I headed for the house next door and banged on the door, perhaps, a little more harshly than was necessary.
Tess opened the door.
“Hello,” I said.
A look of annoyance crossed her face. What? Now my very presence upset her?
“Hi?”
She shifted nervously. Her eyes scanned my face as if the answers to life were written there. I lifted my chin, hoping that my abilities remained under wraps.
Until I knew for sure that I had a handle on my attraction, I needed to keep my hands in my pockets. The lining in the material acted like a barrier so no energy could escape.
Tess’s slippers rasped against her welcome mat. The sound brought me back to the present.
Leslie. Jones. Class. Tess.
I hated involving anyone in my life, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“I need your help,” I blurted. Tess’s shocked expression made me feel even more sheepish. I pointed to my house to divert her attention, “over there.”
“Sure––”
Excited barking interrupted what she was going to say next. Oreo, wagging tail and all, scampered about her feet. The dog then turned his attention to me.
“Can he come?” Tess inquired.
I nodded once and led the way to my house.
“What do you see in him?” Tess mumbled.
Her words gave me pause. Had I heard right? Was Tess expressing… interest in me? No, I must be mistaken.
With not a second to lose, I discarded the thought and introduced Tess to Leslie Anne. The teenager had not moved an inch since I left.
“Um, hello.” Tess waved to her.
Oreo barked his own greetings. As I expected, Leslie Anne ignored them.
“What do you need help with?” Tess whispered.
I pointed toward the couch at the girl who had rejected my fruit salad. “That.”
“I don’t get it.”
“I’m leaving for class soon. I need you to watch her until I come back.”
“Who is she?” Tess asked.
Oreo wiggled out of Tess’s arms. The pup ran immediately to the teenager. Leslie Anne didn’t even spare him a glance.
She’s your worst nightmare.
“She’s the daughter of my friend.”
“What friend? Wait, are you talking about the man that was with you the day you moved in?”
I nodded and backed toward the door. “I need to go now. What’s your answer?”
For a second, Tess recoiled. I wondered if I had been too harsh. To my surprise, she agreed.
“I’ll watch her if you promise to do one favor for me.”
“What is it?”
“Don’t you have a class to get to?” she said. “You’ll be late if you wait around for me to explain.”
“I can’t agree to something blindly,” I argued.
“You’ll just have to trust me. Deal?”
I glanced at Leslie Anne. Whatever the debt was I would pay it. I accepted Tess’s hand.
Chapter 15
The minute our fingers touched, I knew I had made a huge mistake. Every fiber in my body sparked to life.
A surge of energy shot up my spine and sparked out of my fingertips. I glanced to my left. An invisible current pulled the curtains by the door.
I dropped Tess’s hand as if it were on fire. Time stopped. I saw her for–what felt like–the first time.
Her black lashes swept up and down, fanning the smooth skin of her brown cheeks. Her pink lips parted. A small breath escaped. The lamp overhead trembled. The window panes rattled.
I had to get out of here. Without thinking through the ramifications, I teleported. Three seconds later, I crashed into an office chair.
I righted the furniture and glanced around. Twelve pairs of eyes stared me down. I straightened as humiliation burned my cheeks.
I had been dumped into the middle of the conference room. While the board of directors held a meeting.
“Carry on,” I said.
I ducked my head and ran out of the room.
As I walked down the hallway, I pressed a hand to my heart. It was still beating hard and fast. I licked my lips, but my mouth was dry.
What had Tess done to me? The simple meeting of our hands had spurred a response so strong I nearly tore the curtains from the windows.
If we’d held on a moment longer, I would have shattered the glass.
I could no longer deny it. My mind had lost this battle to my … heart. I liked Tess Hardey. I groaned and pressed a fist to my forehead.
How on earth had that happened?
Between rescuing her from assailants and being rescued from her aggressive friends, I had fallen for her.
I paused just outside my lecture hall, recalling the litany that I taught my students.
Mind over matter.
Admitting that I had a problem was the first step to solving it. Having feelings for Tess Hardey was definitely a problem, but it was not an unconquerable one.
; Attraction was simply the result of a variety of chemicals set loose in the brain. Once I corralled the endorphins and restrained the dopamines, I would be fine.
Logic could cure anything. Even love sickness.
I leaned off the wall and straightened my blazer. I wasn’t some chump with dreams of settling down with a white picket fence.
Earth was not my home. I belonged in the stars. On my star. And no human girl was getting in the way of that. No matter how my body and heart misbehaved.
I turned the latch and strolled into class. I had spent enough time laboring over Tess Hardey. I had no more time to waste.
“Good evening,” I set my bag on the desk and grabbed the test I had prepared at home. “Please take out a pen and paper. You have thirty minutes to complete this assessment.”
The humans shuffled into action. I waited patiently until everyone was prepared and then handed out the test.
While the students bent their heads over their individual desks, I reflected on the matter at hand. My heart had calmed and I was finally beginning to think rationally.
I could beat these feelings.
Tess Hardey was more than just a woman. She was fierce, stubborn and basically a handful.
All I had to do was find something that I disliked about her. If I allowed her flaws to become the only thing I saw when she neared, I could shock myself out of the attraction.
Unlike humans who needed love to blind them in order for attachments to form, I could see with full clarity.
Locating Tess’s flaws would be a breeze. Indeed, the very things that I found admirable could be seen in a negative light.
A loud ringing assaulted my ears. I looked down at my watch. The timer was up. The half-hour was complete.
“Alright, set your pens down and bring your answer sheets forward.”
The students obeyed and strolled one by one to the front.
I noticed that a few of the young ladies lingered at my desk, but none spoke.
I ignored their stares and extended my arms for the other test papers. When I had collected them all, I stood and knocked the sheets together.
It had been a good day. I would return home, check the tests, deliver Leslie Anne safely back to her father and not think about Tess Hardey.
Satisfied with the plan, I held my books under my arms and walked toward the parking lot.
“Mr. Yi? Mr. Yi!”
I spun around. Stephanie Vasquez, a student in my Psych class, waved in the distance. I stood still, waiting for her to catch up to me.
As she ran past the quad and neared, I allowed myself to view her as a man.
Stephanie had long orange hair that was too brilliant to be natural. Her skin was a creamy shade. She was pretty in a well-crafted way.
“How can I help you, Ms. Vasquez.”
“Ms. Vasquez?” she giggled. “Are you really going to be so formal outside of the classroom?”
I could point out that she had started it by calling me ‘Mr. Yi’. If there wasn’t a need for formality outside of the classroom, that greeting would have been irrelevant.
But I held my tongue. Female humans misconstrued everything as flirting. I did not want to further encourage Ms. Vasquez’s ‘informality’.
“I had a question about last week’s class.”
I sighed, but patiently remained in place. “Go ahead and ask.”
I encouraged my students to participate during the session. Perhaps Stephanie missed that section of my introduction as she had been on her phone for most of the class.
Stephanie grinned and twirled her hair around her forefinger. “You said that chemistry is nothing but the brain attempting to keep the human race alive?”
I blinked. Did this question have a point?
Ms. Vasquez tossed her hair behind her shoulder and sashayed closer. “Care to test that theory?”
I understood that she was propositioning me. I also knew that I should rebuff her attentions as professionally as possible.
But I held still for a moment. Ms. Vasquez took my reticence as encouragement and brazenly placed her hand on mine.
I closed my eyes and waited. Electricity? Energy? I opened my eyes. Levitation?
The feel of her skin against my hand did absolutely nothing. I felt no sparks frying my nerves. My abilities were as quiet and docile as always.
I let her hold on far longer than was needed, hoping that my human body reacted to her obvious flirting.
If I could prove that the chemicals my brain produced for Tess Hardey could be summoned for someone else, it would cancel out the ideologies linked with love and prove my attraction was primal.
Unfortunately, the experiment failed.
I brushed Ms. Vasquez’s hand away.
“The answer is ‘no’,” I said.
She gawked as I gave her my back and ducked into my car. The engine rumbled to life and I drove out of the parking lot, leaving the beautiful girl behind.
I slapped my hand against the steering wheel. I was angry, but if I was honest, I was more upset at my human shell.
For five hundred years, women of all shapes and sizes paraded before me. I had explored the African savannah where the women wore headbands and skirts with chests bare.
I had sailed the rivers of India where the females wore beautiful saris and bathed themselves in spices and gold.
I had strolled down the stony pathways of French castles where young belles balanced huge ringlets of hair and flouncy skirts.
None had captured my attention. None caused my heart to race, my palms to sweat or my tongue to become heavy in mouth.
This foolish shell of a body! I would not be swayed. I would not….
The haunted sound of muffled crying met my ears. I instinctively pressed on the breaks and tilted my head toward the noise.
It couldn’t be. The sniffles were coming from Tess’s place. I jerked the wheel and raced down the highway.
The tires squealed as I pulled the car in front of her house. I threw the stick shift into park and jumped out of the car.
“Tess!” I pounded on the door, “Tess!”
I stepped back and widened my stance, preparing to knock down the door if I needed to. At the last minute, Tess opened the door.
I straightened, my eyes roving her face. She was unharmed. Had she been having a bad dream? Had Paul’s murderers threatened her?
My eyes raked the bottom of her sandaled feet to the hem of her yellow shorts, up her white blouse to her beautiful face and finally on the lopsided bun that she favored.
There was no bodily harm that I could see. My chest expanded with relief. I stepped forward. My hands ached to touch her but I refrained.
“I heard crying, is everything okay?”
“I’m fine,” she smiled. “Leslie was a little upset, but… how did you hear that from out here?”
She’s fine. She’s fine.
The words echoed in my mind and sent a wave of peace through my chest. As the panic cleared, my better senses returned.
Logic over love. Mind over matter.
I lifted my chin and looked down my nose at the shorter woman.
“It was just a guess.”
Oreo barked and barreled toward the door. I stooped down and scratched his ears, giving my beating heart time to catch up to the situation.
When I had regained control, I gave Oreo one last pat and stood to my feet. Even though Tess was fine, she should have communicated that she was leaving my place.
Half of my terror had stemmed from my belief that she was safely ensconced in my home, not hers.
“Why weren’t you over at my house?”
“My Oreos were in the cupboard over here,” she replied. Her eyes had narrowed and she was looking at me as if I was somehow in the wrong.
Women!
“Is Leslie Anne okay?”
“She’s fine. Do you want to come in?”
I followed her to the kitchen where Leslie was blowing her nose with a napkin. She looked sma
ll and vulnerable sitting in the chair.
I’d had a feeling that Tess could get through to her, but I hadn’t expected any tears. I shuffled from one foot to the next. Crying women made me uncomfortable.
“Your dad will be by in a second to pick you up,” I said to the girl.
Almost a second later, Jones’s car rumbled down the side street.
Beep! Beep!
“That’s probably them,” Tess said.
Leslie gathered her things while I walked to the door. Tess and Leslie trailed me. The two giggled and conversed like old friends.
I couldn’t even recognize the chatty, smiley teenager beside me. Leslie Anne was a completely different person.
What kind of spell had Tess weaved over us?
I stood on the verandah and watched Jones and Leslie drive away, still puzzling over the answer.
“I owe you,” Jones whispered as he faded from sight.
He knew that I would hear him. I shook my head and turned to Tess. Speaking of favors… my neighbor had done a huge one.
I was very grateful. Though it pushed my plan to focus on her flaw’s back a few paces, I knew I had to share my appreciation.
Stuffing my hands in my pockets in case my abilities acted out again, I looked at Tess.
“Thank you,” I said.
“S-say that again?”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t hear you that time.”
I began to smile but quelled the impulse.
Think of her flaws, man. Flaws.
But I couldn’t. She was adorable. Damn it!
Chapter 16
Thinking about Tess Hardey, looking at Tess Hardey, and breathing Tess Hardey’s air was hard enough. Witnessing Tess’s kindness toward Leslie Anne only made things worse.
I was there the day Leslie was born. Jones had been beyond proud. No one could wipe the smile from his face when he held her in his arms for the first time.
I was there for her second Christmas. Jones had invited me to share their family dinner. The little girl had been so close to her father, it reminded me of the slave children that had leaned on Ivy.
I was there for Leslie Anne’s primary school graduation. The auditorium had been like sitting in the middle of a furnace.
Jones complained non-stop until his baby girl walked to the middle of the stage.