LeilaMy palms were sweaty, and my stomach was churning. I was mulling over the many reasons why I had to go home. We’d gone to my house and now were in Christopher’s truck heading to his. He had checked in with Olin one last time to make sure he was comfortable with meeting me. I had almost hoped he would say no. I wasn’t sure I was.When he pulled into his driveway, my nerves nearly got the best of me. He reached over and put his hand on my leg. “It’s going to be okay,” he said, instinctively knowing and sensing my nervousness.“I swear to you, I will do my best to make him like me, but if he doesn’t, I apologize to you now.”“Baby, I’m not worried so don’t you worry. You just be you. You are perfect.”I inhaled, letting his words sink in. He pulled into the garage. As the door slid closed, the feeling of being locked in threatened to send me into a panic. I took a few more deep breaths and let go of the panic. I followed him down the hall. It wasn’t hard to find his son. The sound

ChristopherI got up early, hoping to accidentally on purpose get Olin up early as well. When I had gotten home last night, he’d already gone to his room with the door closed. I didn’t want to push my luck and bug him. I had left it alone, but now I was anxious to know what he thought about Leila.I was seeking his approval. I knew it. I knew it was probably not necessary, but I wanted to know that he was okay with me continuing to see her. If he didn’t like her or wasn’t comfortable with me having a relationship, it would make it very difficult for me to see her without suffering some kind of guilty conscience.It would tear me apart to lose her, but it would kill me to lose him and his respect. I wanted to buy into the idea that I had to be happy to make him happy. I could fake it. I was confident I could put on a smile and pretend I was okay to make sure Olin was okay, even though I felt a physical pain in my heart at the thought of living the next few years alone.If he didn’t lik

LeilaI wondered if I was having an out of body experience. It felt unreal. Christopher had mentioned a roller coaster. I was convinced he had pulled me along for the ride. Yesterday had definitely been an up. The whole weekend was up.And this morning, I felt like the car dumped me out from the highest point of the ride and I had fallen face-first onto the ground. I could almost feel the skinned knees and palms from my fall to the hard pavement. The moment the dean had hollered at me from across the courtyard, I had started tumbling.I had seen the look on his face and knew it wasn’t good. It was like a sixth sense. I felt like a dead man walking, except I was a fired professor walking. As if to draw out my suffering, he refused to tell me what he so urgently needed to talk to me about. Then, there was some emergency he had to take care of when we got to his office. I was convinced it was a ploy. He was trying to make me sweat.I lifted one arm and sniffed, making sure my sweat didn’

ChristopherI felt the phone vibrating, letting me know there was a voicemail after the three phone calls. I hated when people called and didn’t leave a message. I hadn’t dared pull the phone from my pocket to check to see who was calling. I kept it tucked in my pocket, as it always was when I was in class. The professor was a stickler on the no phone rule. The first day I had witnessed the professor snatch a phone and read the text messages aloud. I did not want to suffer the same humiliation. I didn’t want to make a name for myself as a rebel.An old rebel was not quite as sexy as a young rebel. I would look desperate and old. I wasn’t necessarily trying to impress any of them, but I also didn’t want to look like a total loser either. I had some pride. I shifted, reaching my hand in my pocket to push the button on the phone that would stop the vibrating. I was worried everyone would hear the damn thing and call me out.The lecture was underway when someone dared to break the rule of

LeilaI sat at the table, sipping my coffee and staring out the window. My eyes burned from lack of sleep. I could hardly think straight. The cup in my hand was my third. I was going to need a dozen more to concentrate.“All right,” Kami said sliding into the seat. “Sorry about that. That was a crazy rush.”“It’s fine,” I said, not pulling my eyes from the window. I was spacing out, staring at nothing and seeing nothing but my own thoughts.“What’s going on? You look horrible.”I sighed and pulled my eyes away from the window to look at her. “I feel horrible.”“Did you and Hot Stuff break up again?”I groaned. “I don’t know. I think so.”She looked confused. “How do you not know?”“Remember when I told you about the thing in the library?” I asked.She grinned, nodding her head. “How could I forget? I’m pretty sure that’s the wildest thing you’ve ever done.”“The dean has it on video.”Her mouth fell open. She slapped her hand over it, her eyes laughing. “Oh my god!”“It isn’t funny,”