by Claire Adams
“Mom, where are we going?” Connor asked.
Connor had done fantastically on our flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu. It was a long flight over a lot of water and I wasn’t sure how well he was going to handle it. Delilah had told me that he was afraid of planes and even had a nightmare the night before because he thought our plane was going to crash.
As soon as the plane took off though, Connor seemed to relax as he cuddled between Delilah and I, and we had a smooth flight. It probably didn’t hurt that I had splurged on a private jet – it was nearly impossible not to be comfortable on one of those. I didn’t like to waste money, but if it was going to make him comfortable, I was willing to do it. In fact, I would do almost anything for that boy.
Delilah and I had been dating for several months and my time with Connor had really helped me grow as a man. I’d been so caught up in the loss of Noah that I worried I wouldn’t be able to be around Connor, but I loved being around him. He was fun, and we played and got along great. He taught me all about his favorite animal, the squirrel, and I taught him about throwing a baseball and how to hit off a tee for his tee ball league. We had without doubt become buddies, which was a huge relief for me.
“We are heading to the beach before it gets too dark to see the sunset. Remember that really cool picture at Brandon’s house? The blue and red one that is in the living room?” Delilah said as she held Connor’s hand.
“The giant one? Oh, man, I love that painting. I like the blue side better than the red, though.”
“Yeah, we are going to see the beach that reminds Brandon of his son Noah and the painting he made at school. Remember I told you the story of how Noah had painted a picture that looked almost exactly like that painting on the wall?”
“Oh, that’s awesome. I can’t wait to see it. Will there be those mean words on the red part, though? I don’t like those.”
“No, there won’t be those. It’s going to look a little different than the painting, but I know you’re going to love it.”
“You know I’m really sorry I had to take that business call. I’m just so excited about this new company,” I said to Del as our driver made his way down the coast and toward the beach we were heading to. “Things are really going fantastic, and we are turning a profit already. It’s almost unheard of to be profitable at this early in the business.”
“Oh, honey, I know. I’m just teasing you. You take all the time you need. I’m really excited about your new company, too. It’s going to be huge. After all those cyber-attacks that have been going on, a company that truly can help keep people’s information safe is exactly what businesses are looking for.”
Delilah and I had come up with the best idea for a new dating company. Not only would it have state-of-the-art technology, but we hired the best of the best to incorporate the most top of the line security available. Customers could trust that their intimate information was safe and nothing was going to happen to it.
Luckily, the company had been doing great and within the first few months, we had seen huge growth. Not only had our clients doubled, but our advertisers loved the concept and we were gaining more revenue than any of our competition. We had a winner already and it was hard not to be excited about the whole thing. I needed a business to run and couldn’t have stayed home without work another week longer.
“Are we almost there?” Connor asked as it started to get dark in the car.
We had been traveling almost all day long. Between getting packed and driving to the airport, then flying and sitting on the tarmac in Hawaii, Connor looked exhausted. It was a lot to expect he could stay up too much longer, but I hoped he’d at least make it to see the sunset.
“Yep, we are getting close. Keep your eye out over there. Soon the waves will look like the blue from the painting and the sky will look like the red, but without the words,” I said softly to him.
I loved Delilah’s son like he was my own. It had been hard at first to be around him because he reminded me so much of my Noah. Not that they looked alike or anything like that, just his innocence and joy when he looked at the world.
I really had been terrified that I wouldn’t be able to handle the job of being any sort of father figure to Connor. Luckily, Connor had made the transition flawless for me and my fears quickly died down.
“You’re doing great with him,” Del said as she grabbed my hand. “He really likes you. I think sometimes he even likes you more than he likes me. That’s pretty darn good for being the new guy in his life.”
“I feel like I’m doing it all for the first time again. You would think I’d remember how this whole thing worked. Sometimes I think I sound like the lamest old guy on earth.”
“Well, it’s different with every kid. There’s no real way to know if you’re doing it right or not. I guess we will just have to see how much therapy he has to go through when he becomes an adult.”
We both laughed at the thought of Connor someday being an adult. I’d only known him a few months, but I really had started to bond with him. He was a funny kid and so much like Delilah. He was turning six soon, and I hoped we would continue to get along as he made his way to adulthood, although I certainly couldn’t imagine that day ever coming.
“We are here,” the driver said. “I’ll stay here and wait for you. Take your time.”
“Oh, Brandon, it looks just like the painting,” Del said as we got out of the car and went to the beach to sit for a minute.
She was right: it did look just like the painting. I could hardly move as I took it all in.
Of course, it was different because it was real and not an actual painting, but I flashed back to when Noah had given me his version of the sight and how excited he had been. His eyes had lit up and he was so proud of the work. I could tell this spot and our trip to Hawaii had meant a lot to him.
“Yeah, even more beautiful than I remember it,” I managed to say as I held back my tears.
“I wish you still had Noah’s painting, but I’m so glad you bought the one you did. I can just imagine what his painting looked like and what it must have meant to you.”
“This moment means so much to me, Del. This is what I want for my future, for our future. I want you and I want Connor. We both have pasts, and I don’t want either one of us to have to forget about those, but I want to go to beautiful places and sit on beaches and make memories together, the three of us.
“Delilah Hunter, will you marry me?”
The words hadn’t been planned at all. I didn’t have a ring and I hadn’t talked to her family, but as the emotion of the moment hit me, I couldn’t let it pass us by. I was done living in the past and ready to live in the future with Delilah and Connor. My heart raced as I waited for her to give me some sort of answer. I even slid down to one knee and looked up at her hoping that she would say yes.
“I don’t know. What about Connor? I haven’t talked to him yet about this. I should probably…”
“Mom, say yes, he loves you,” Connor said as he turned around from looking at the sunset and came to stand next to me.
“Thanks, man,” I said as I gave him a fist bump and pulled him next to me. “See, we are a team.”
“Well, then… if my little man here is on board, then my answer is definitely yes.”
“Yes?” I asked to verify. “Dude, did your mom just say yes to marrying me?” I whispered as I kneeled next to Connor and gave him a hug. “I think she really did say yes.”
“Yep, she did.”
“Yes. I said yes, you silly boys!”
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THE PROFESSOR’S VIRGIN
By Claire Adams
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to per
sons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 Claire Adams
Chapter One
Natalie
I stared at my laptop screen, taking in the newly completed schedule for my semester ahead. It was looking a little full, but that was how I liked it. I turned my gaze away from the screen as a call came in on my cell phone.
“Mom!” I exclaimed, glad to hear the sound of her voice. “Hi.”
“Hi, sweetheart,” she said. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
“Of course not,” I insisted. “I was just looking through my schedule.”
“Excited?” she asked. “This is your senior year of college… only two more semesters left.”
“I can’t quite believe it,” I nodded. “It feels like I moved into campus just yesterday.”
“Funny, your dad and I feel the opposite,” Mom replied. “We miss not having you around the house.”
I smiled. “You guys should have had a couple more kids,” I countered. “Then you wouldn’t have missed me so much.”
“That’s one of my biggest regrets in life,” she said unexpectedly.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you and dad have more kids?” I asked curiously, shocked that I had never really asked the question before.
“We couldn’t afford to,” Mom replied, and instantly, I felt foolish for not figuring that out on my own.
Throughout my childhood, Mom and Dad had both worked double shifts and we still had to rely on food stamps. Our clothes were always purchased at secondhand stores, and when we went shopping, Mom always carried a bag full of special discounts and coupons that she’d spent months collecting.
“It’s not too late, you know,” I said teasingly.
She laughed. “You’re funny.”
“I’m thinking of becoming a stand-up comic after I graduate.”
Our conversation was cut short as the door to my dorm burst open and Missy walked in with a harassed look on her face.
“Sorry, Mom, got to go,” I said. “Speak to you tomorrow?”
“Whenever you’re free, honey,” she replied.
“Love you,” I said, before I hung up and turned to Missy. “What’s wrong?”
“I am so over college boys,” she sighed, collapsing onto her bed. “Seriously, they’re all immature pricks.”
“What happened?” I asked, in amusement.
“Dalton.”
“Oh,” I said. “Him again.”
“Yes,” Missy nodded. “Him again. I finally caved and decided to give him a second chance.”
“I take it he disappointed?”
“More than you know,” she responded, with her standard eye roll. “We went back to his dorm and had sex on his desk; five minutes later, it was all over. I mean, how rude is that?”
“I don’t get it,” I said seriously. “How was that rude?”
“I didn’t even have a chance to reach orgasm,” she complained. “It was all about him.”
“Oh,” I said lamely.
“He zipped up his pants and looked at me all smug, too… Like he had done me a favor,” she continued.
“What did you do?”
“I told him that I could barely feel his penis inside me,” Missy replied, with a wicked smile. “Then I made a dramatic exit.”
I smiled. “You were never one for subtlety.”
“Subtlety is so boring,” she agreed, as her smile relaxed a little.
Sometimes it surprised me that Missy and I had become friends at all. She was the stunning, green-eyed redhead with the outgoing personality and the sharp tongue, and I was the shy, bookish nerd who hid behind glasses and loose clothing.
“So… I take it you and Dalton are definitely done?”
“He doesn’t deserve me,” Missy said, with finality. “Whatever… I have other fish to fry.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning there’s this hottie who sits in front of me in Spanish class – and he looks like he knows his way around a woman’s body.”
“This is based on…”
“My keen intuition,” she replied.
“Funny that your keen intuition let you down with Dalton,” I pointed out.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Sometimes it’s really annoying to have a smartass for a best friend.”
I laughed. “Forgive me for pointing this out, but shouldn’t you be in class to, oh, I don’t know…actually learn something?”
Missy shook her head at me. “You are so disappointing, Nat.”
I adjusted my glasses and pretended to look hurt. “You wound me.”
“Can I ask you a serious question?” she asked, looking me straight in the eye.
“Um, no thanks?”
Missy narrowed her eyes at me, making it clear that she expected an answer from me. “How many guys have you kissed in the nearly four years we’ve been in college?”
I sighed. “Missy…”
“Answer the question.”
“Um…”
She cleared her throat pointedly.
“All right fine,” I conceded. “None.”
“And, how many guys have you dated since we started college?”
“None,” I replied reluctantly.
“And, how many guys have you slept with since we started college?”
“None.”
Missy kept silent for a moment, almost as though to drive home her unmade point. “So, what exactly do you think you’ve gained from the college experience, Nat?”
I rolled my eyes. “Um…a degree.”
Missy waved away my answer. “Fuck that,” she said. “College is more than just about credits and assignments and study groups. It’s about the experience. It’s about living life and experimenting with different things. It’s about getting drunk and partying hard and fucking a bunch of random guys who you don’t have to see or speak to the next day. It’s not like you can do that shit when you’re forty. So why are you depriving yourself?”
“I feel like we have this conversation every year,” I said, desperately trying to wriggle my way free of the topic.
“And every year, you avoid it,” Missy said. “But this year is different.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s our last semester,” she said forcefully. “We’re never going to be young and hot and carefree after this. In less than six months, we’ll graduate, join the workforce, and assimilate into adulthood. And then it’ll be too late.”
I smiled. “I’m going to miss these dramatic little soapbox speeches of yours.”
“You’re trying to change the subject,” she said.
“I am,” I agreed firmly. “And, you’re making it really difficult.”
“You’re going to be twenty-one next month, you realize.”
“I remember,” I said.
“What are you planning?”
I had wanted to go to the movies and then dinner with her and a few other girls, but I knew this plan would thoroughly disappoint Missy.
“Um… I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Well, I have,” she said immediately.
“Oh no…”
“Very funny,” she said, glaring at me. “Trust me; you’re going to love what I have in store for you.”
“See, all that does is make me really, really nervous,” I admitted.
Missy turned to me with a serious sort of curiousness. “Tell me honestly,” she said. “Do you really feel as though you haven’t missed out on anything?”
The question made me feel sad, and I realized instantly that I wasn’t as content as I thought I was. I had hidden behind denial because it was easier to settle for my safe little corner of the world rather than jumping into Missy’s.
“Nat?”
I looked up to find my friend staring at me. Her face was patient and kind, and I realized that I could tell Missy anything and she would be more than willing
to help me. That was why this unlikely friendship had worked so well. We were different, polar opposites in fact, but what had bonded us from the start was the fact that we were always willing to look out for one another.
“I know I’ve missed out on a lot,” I admitted. “And sometimes it does bother me. But… It’s just…easier…”
“What is?”
“Sitting here in this room,” I tried to explain. “Rather than putting myself out there.”
“You wouldn’t be alone,” Missy pointed out. “I’d be with you.”
“Babysitting the loser, while you miss out on a good time yourself.”
“You’re not a loser,” she said instantly, and I loved her for the vehemence with which she said it.
“You pointed it out yourself,” I reminded her. “I haven’t even kissed a guy yet.”
“That doesn’t make you a loser,” she said immediately. “That just makes you different.”
“Since when has being different ever been a good thing?”
She smiled and came to sit on my bed beside me. “It’s a good thing to me,” she said. “It’s the reason I liked you in the first place.”
“What do you mean?”
“Every other girl in that lecture hall looked like some version of what they thought men liked. You were the only one who wasn’t looking around hoping that someone would notice you. It was obvious you didn’t give a damn what anyone thought about you. That was the reason I chose to sit next to you that day.”
I smiled. “You’ve never told me that story before.”
“I never had a reason to before now,” Missy replied. “You’ve worked harder to get here than any other student on campus, and I understand why you’ve had blinders on this entire time. But I think it’s time to concentrate on more than just the degree you came here to get. Life is not just about a piece of paper.”
I smiled. “You’re quite the philosopher you know?”
She smiled. “Does that mean you’ll hand over all planning for your twenty-first over to me?”
I took a deep breath. “I don’t know…”
“Aw, come on, Nat,” Missy said impatiently. “It’s not going to be excessively wild.”