“On the platform.” Hannah pointed.
“I don’t-”
“Get on the platform, Dash,” Alyssa pointed as well and then walked over to stand beside Hannah. “I was right, wasn’t I?”
“She’s beautiful.” Hannah took Alyssa’s hand. “And my girl has an eye, Eva.”
“See? Thank you, Han.”
“What do you think, Ember?” Hannah was asking Ember a question, but her eyes were on Eva and her mind was on how amazing she looked in that dress, and on what a dress like that meant.
“Ember? You with us?” Alyssa questioned her after another moment. “I think I was right,” she told Eva.
“Yeah?” Eva watched the silent Ember who hadn’t removed her eyes from Eva’s body since she emerged from the dressing room.
Ember merely nodded because she couldn’t form words at that moment. The dress had a fitted bodice with modest flair in the skirt and one shoulder strap over the left shoulder. It was stunning and molded to Eva’s body perfectly.
“Eva found a dress, but I didn’t. Did you?” Alyssa asked her fiancée.
“Nothing today, but I’m hungry. I think we should try again later.”
“Sounds good to me,” Alyssa agreed. “Dash?”
“Yeah.” She was still watching Ember’s expression and Ember realized she still hadn’t said anything. “This is silly. I’m going to take it-” She motioned with her thumb to the dressing room.
“You look perfect,” Ember finally stated.
Eva smiled wide and then turned to go back into the dressing room to change.
“You’ve got it bad, girl,” Hannah teased Ember and Ember knew she was right.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know Al would do that,” Eva told her as they walked behind Alyssa and Hannah toward the restaurant for dinner.
“Do what? The dress thing?” Ember asked and took her hand.
“She works in the industry and meets with designers sometimes, who want their stuff in her stores and-”
“Babe, she was right. That dress was made for you. I’m glad I got to see that.” She watched as Eva smirked. “What?”
“You just called me babe.”
“I guess I did.”
“It’s a lot better than Scout.” Eva placed her head on Ember’s shoulder.
“Can I tell you something?”
“Of course.”
“I’m in this, Dash. I’m 100% in this relationship with you. I’m not going to freak out when we approach certain steps or are around people who are, okay?”
Eva lifted her head and looked at her.
“I’m sorry. Was it that obvious that I was worried about that?”
“I know my history might make you think I’m that person, but I’m not. I wasn’t in a relationship because I never met anyone I felt was worth it. I never felt what I feel for you, but that doesn’t mean I was afraid of commitment or avoided it. I always knew that if I met the right person, it wouldn’t be a problem for me.”
“Okay,” Eva replied.
“And I know that it’s really only been about a week for you, but it’s been longer for me.”
Eva stopped them.
“How much longer?” she asked.
“Why do you think I put a napkin in your lap?” Ember answered.
“You saw Kayla and-”
“I saw you and Kayla, yes, but I saw you first. I saw those eyes and that smile. I looked at who you were smiling at, and I stopped smiling because I recognized her. I couldn’t stand the idea of her pulling that crap on you.”
Eva tilted her head. “And what makes you think this has only been going on for a week for me?”
“Hasn’t it?”
“For a genius, Ember Elliot, you are very dumb sometimes.”
“Hey, you two coming or what?” Hannah yelled back at them.
“Since when then?” Ember asked without paying attention to Hannah.
“Since I saw you in the doorway of the restaurant after you put the napkin there.”
“Really?”
“I told you I thought you were beautiful the first moment I laid eyes on you.” She leaned in and pressed her hands to Ember’s chest. “I am very glad I went on a date with Kayla DeWitt.”
Ember’s facial expression showed jealous anger for a moment and Eva laughed.
“I get the point of that sentence, but I don’t like how that sounds at all,” Ember told her. “Come on. Your friends are waiting.” She took Eva’s hand again and pulled her along while she was still laughing.
CHAPTER 18
Eva woke early on Monday morning and felt Ember’s body next to her. She’d insisted on staying over for Eva’s first day, and when Eva opened her eyes, she caught Ember’s blue ones staring back at her.
“You’re up already?”
“I woke up a few minutes ago. I turned your alarm off so it wouldn’t just force you awake. I thought you’d prefer me rubbing your back to wake you up instead.”
“I do.” Eva moved in and kissed her gently. “Is it weird that I’m nervous?” She rolled onto her back.
“I don’t think so.”
“It’s not like I’ve never done this.”
“Well, that’s flawed logic.”
“What?”
“Are you saying that after you’ve done something once, you’re never nervous again? You had sex before me, so you weren’t nervous when we did it for the first time?”
“Of course, I was.” Eva turned to face her.
“So, your logic is flawed. You have every right to be nervous and even if you didn’t, which is ridiculous because no one can give you that right, you feel that way. It’s your feeling. You can’t control it. You have to meet it head on and deliver some kick-ass lectures about…” She squinted. “Help me out here.”
Eva chuckled and slid out from under the blanket.
“I have a class on the romantics, one on the transcendentalists, and then a section with grad students on Twain.”
“Busy doctoring today. When will I see you again?” Ember sat up in the bed.
“You work tonight, right?” Eva asked. Ember nodded. “I’ve got lectures all this week, babe.”
“I’m off Wednesday night this week,” Ember said. “Do you think you could grab dinner? Maybe Charlie and Hails could join us.”
Eva had made her way into the bathroom and grabbed her toothbrush.
“Grad seminar late, but if they can meet near campus, I can be there.” Eva began brushing her teeth.
“We can probably do Windy’s or BBZ’s. I have an in.” She walked toward the bathroom to join Eva. “Can I grab a quick shower?”
“If you can wait two minutes, I can join you.”
“I can wait.” Ember wiggled her eyebrows.
◆◆◆
Eva fell right back into teaching and by the end of the day, she wanted nothing more than to teach another class. She’d missed it and she knew she should just go home and work on her article, but she wanted to see Ember. She wanted to kiss her quickly and tell her about her good day and that she missed her, had to see her and then she’d let her get back to work.
“Is Ember here?” she asked the teenager behind the podium.
“Over there.” The girl pointed at Ember who was standing next to a computer with another employee.
“Thanks.” Eva walked toward her, noting that the restaurant was packed tonight, which according to Ember was unusual for a Monday night.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” Ember turned just in time to see her, a smile on her face.
The employee walked away, leaving Ember and Eva standing alone in an alcove.
“I wanted to see you. Is this okay? I stopped by without asking.”
“Of course, it’s okay,” Ember told her. “Do you want dinner? I can try to find you somewhere to sit.” She looked around the packed place.
“What’s going on tonight?”
“We got slammed. It’s this church group. They called ahead, but only by about
twenty minutes. There are forty of them fresh from a choir concert.”
“I should go. You’re busy.”
“Stay. I can get you something. What do you want? You can take it upstairs if you want or eat at the bar.”
“Babe, I’ll just go. Can you call me later when you get home? It doesn’t matter if it’s late.” She stepped toward her girlfriend.
“I’m sorry, it’s so busy tonight. I wish I had time to sit with you.”
“It’s okay.” Eva leaned in and kissed her.
Ember placed her hands on Eva’s hips to hold her there a moment longer.
“November Celeste!” The voice was deep and ragged, and it came from a man Eva hadn’t yet met, but she could guess who it was and she pulled back from Ember immediately.
“Dad, Jesus! Yell a little louder next time.” Ember pulled her hands back.
“You are in the restaurant and you’re kissing a woman!”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean-” Eva tried.
“It’s okay,” Ember comforted. “Dad, this is Eva. Eva is the woman I tried to tell you about. She’s my girlfriend. She just stopped by to say hello, so you can calm down.”
“First, you had that outburst last week. Then, you don’t show up for your mother’s dinner. Now, you’re kissing someone while you’re working.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what has gotten into you, Ember, but this isn’t-”
“What? The daughter you raised?” Ember interjected. Eva stood completely still. “That can’t be what you were going to say because you didn’t raise me. You ignored me for my entire childhood.” She took a deep breath. “And you couldn’t have meant that this isn’t me because you don’t know me, dad. You have never known me. I’m not sure I really knew myself until recently, but now I do. I don’t want to be ignored by you, or be told to run the front of the house, or pretend like I’m not as smart as I am and that I can’t figure out how to fix the espresso machine, so you can pay someone else to do it, because you can’t just let me help.” She pulled on Eva’s hand. “Dad, I think you should start looking for another manager.”
“Ember…” His anger seeped into her name.
“I can’t do this anymore,” she admitted. “I’ll stay on until you find a replacement, but then I’m done, okay? I’ll tell mom right now, but I want you to take this seriously. Find someone else because I can’t anymore.”
“We need to talk about this. It’s not just about running the restaurant. You’re supposed to take it over when your mother and I retire.”
“And I thought that’s what I wanted, but it’s not. I’m sorry, but we can talk later about the specifics.” She turned to Eva. “I’m sorry. I should get back to work. Can I walk you out?”
“That’s okay.” Eva looked sideways at Ember’s father. “Mr. Elliot, it was nice to meet you.” She lied, but she couldn’t help but be polite.
“We will talk later,” he said to Ember.
“Fine,” Ember replied.
He turned and left them alone.
“Babe, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you. I wasn’t thinking.”
“I’m glad you did.” Ember smiled.
“What? Why?”
“Because I’ve wanted to do that for a very long time and I never had the courage.” She gripped both of Eva’s hands. “You gave me that. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome?” Eva shrugged. “You just quit your job.”
“Yeah.”
“You sure about that? I’m asking as someone who currently has no full-time employment.”
“I’m good with it. They won’t start looking right away. They’ll try to talk me out of it, and then they’ll start the search. And they won’t approve of anyone until I force their hand. I’ve got at least a month.”
“You know them well.”
“They ignored me. I didn’t ignore them,” she explained. “I’m okay financially. I have savings. I’ve also invested well.”
“Of course, you have,” Eva said.
“I’ll be okay. I want to start something else, something new.”
“I think that sounds perfect.”
“Ember, I need a discount,” a server requested from behind Eva.
“I should go.” Ember kissed her cheek. “I’ll call you when I get home. You can tell me about your day.”
“Okay.”
As Ember walked off, Eva was so tempted to say the three words to her as part of their goodbye. It nearly slipped out, but she’d been able to hold them back because when she did say them, she didn’t want it to be in a crowded restaurant after Ember just quit her job and had a fight with her father.
◆◆◆
“Excuse me, I’m looking for a hot lit professor who hasn’t seen her girlfriend in two days.” Ember asked with a smile just outside of Eva’s on-campus office building.
“What are you doing here? I thought I was meeting you later,” Eva replied. “I still have a section to teach, babe.” She approached Ember and kissed her quickly. “I’m on my way there now.”
“I was hoping maybe I could sit in.”
“You want to audit a graduate seminar on Twain?” Eva quirked an eyebrow at her.
“I want to see you teach. I was here already. I kind of popped into a few classes today actually,” Ember explained as she allowed Eva to direct them toward her building.
“Here?”
“Yes, you have math and sciences departments, you know?”
Eva laughed and slid her arm through Ember’s as they walked.
“I do know that, but you’ve been checking out UC. Are you interested in this place?”
“Not particularly. I figured I wanted to see you teach something today. It made sense to make it your last class so we could leave together for the bar. I hopped into four classes and then came here.”
“Four?” Eva replied.
“I started early,” Ember admitted. “A class on polymers, methods of mathematical physics, advanced statistical mechanics, and an introduction to logic.” She turned to Eva. “The last one is an intro philosophy course, but it was fun.”
“You’re turning into a college girl. I’m a professor. I don’t know if this can work. I don’t date students,” Eva teased her.
“I’m not enrolled. Just taking advantage of the fact that no one seems to care about a person walking in off the street to soak up the free knowledge, so I think we’re technically okay.”
“Are you thinking about it?” Eva asked as they walked up the steps to the building.
“Thinking about…”
“Enrolling,” Eva answered and pulled open the door for Ember to walk through and then followed behind.
“I don’t know,” Ember said and then followed Eva down a hallway where students and teachers were coming and going in a hurried fashion.
“Have you looked into a program?”
“No, I’ve just been sitting in.”
“You could be getting credit for what you’re doing, babe,” Eva pointed out and opened the door to the room. “Oh, this is a small section. It’s just six grad students, and they were mine before I left, so they know me pretty well.”
“And?”
“And they’ll want to know who you are and why you’re here.”
“Oh.” Ember followed her into the room. “Should I go then?”
“No, babe. I just wanted to prepare you. All six of them were here as undergrads so they’ve known me for years. I’ve never exactly brought any girlfriends to class.”
“I’m the first?” Ember asked with a smirk.
“In many ways.” Eva took her place behind a small desk. “Aubrey, Katie, how are you?”
“Dr. Dash, I’m so glad you’re back,” One of the girls replied as Ember sat in an empty leather chair toward the back of the small room that was more an oversized office than a classroom.
“I’m not, officially. I’m just filling in, but thank you,” Eva replied to the student. “Micah, welcome,” she greeted a tall boy with jet
black hair and dark-rimmed glasses as he entered.
“Dr. Dash? Awesome.” He sat next to one of the girls.
Three more students shuffled in, and all had the same reaction to Eva standing there instead of Kayla. Ember felt proud that her girlfriend garnered that kind of response from her students.
“Alright, let’s get started,” Eva said. “I’m not back forever.”
Ember was instantly even more enamored with her.
“I’m filling in for Dr. DeWitt while she’s out.”
“But why is she teaching us to begin with?” one of the students asked.
“It’s a long story that we do not have time for today because, from what I can tell, you guys are behind where you should be, based on Dr. DeWitt’s notes. We need to get you caught up.”
“Dr. Dash, do we have a new student?” The same student pointed with her pen backward toward Ember, who perked up when all eyes turned to her.
“No,” Eva replied and met Ember’s eyes. “This is November Elliot and she is my girlfriend. She’s sitting in with us today.”
“Girlfriend?” another student questioned.
“Yes, Aubrey.” Eva’s tone showed that she knew she was being teased.
“Can we use this class to question her instead?” a girl who Eva had greeted as Katie asked and then smiled in Ember’s direction. “She’s definitely the most interesting guest we’ve had in here.”
“I’m not that interesting,” Ember spoke up.
Eva wiggled her eyebrows in Ember’s direction in apparent disagreement with that comment.
“Maybe we should make you participate,” Eva challenged.
“In the class?”
“You’ve read the books, why not?”
“You’re into Twain?” Aubrey asked Ember.
“Not particularly,” Ember replied. “I’m mostly into her.” She pointed to Eva with a smile. “But I recently read everything he wrote.”
“So, you game?” Eva again challenged her with a smirk.
Ember leaned forward in her seat as if preparing to go into scholastic battle. “Bring it on, Dr. Dash.”
◆◆◆
“You were a good sport in there,” Eva told her as they walked in the direction of the bar hand in hand. “And I think you impressed my students.”
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