Feral: Book One (5 page)

His laughter deepened, making me smile. “Yes, well they have to do something with the buildings, do they not? It would be a waste of income just to let them sit.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I groused. “But why not a Starbucks or a Subway or something. Why McDonald’s? It’s McDonald’s! Home of the ‘would you like fries with that coronary’!”

“And over-sweetened, over-creamed coffee is better how?”

“Hey! It is not over-sweetened, nor is it over-creamed,” I defended vehemently. “It’s decadent, liquidy goodness sent from heaven. If God were a beverage, he would be a Starbuck’s white chocolate or peppermint mocha. End of story.”

“Well, in that case, I suppose I can offer no argument.” He passed several wrinkled bills to the clerk. “This is for Miss Capriola’s parfait.”

I blinked and took in several things at once: Brie was nowhere to be seen and Doctor Treviso’s hands were devoid of any food. “Oh, no. No! No, I’m good. Thank you, but I can’t let you pay. You didn’t even get anything to eat.”

He glanced at his hands without a trace of guile. “Oh, it appears you are right.” His grin was vibrant and his violet eyes seemed to glow with mischief. “I suppose I was too affronted by the injustices of mis-placed fast-food restaurants to notice.” He offered his customary nod. “Good day, Miss Capriola. I do hope you enjoy the rest of yours.”

My eyes shot to the poor young woman behind the register. She looked as shocked as I felt.

I turned back to catch Doctor Treviso to protest his offer to pay, but to my astonishment, he was already gone.

“What’s taking you so long?”

I whipped around and glared at Brie, whose eyes and smile both were just a little too wide to be real, then glanced back at the cashier. “Um…Keep the change?” It should have been a statement, but I was too confused at the moment for it to sound like anything other than what it did. “And you,” I growled quietly as I followed her to a small table near the wall, “where were you when I needed you, you traitor?”

“Hey, you seemed to be doing just fine on your own,” she said cheerfully. “So, what was all that about?”

“I have no damn clue.” When she looked at me disbelievingly, I huffed. “I don’t! I just met the guy last week, and I’ve had him as a temporary instructor. I don’t know! I’ve said less than two hundred words to him, Brie. Maybe I just look so pathetic whenever he sees me, he takes pity on me. Maybe he thinks he’s the only friend I’ll ever have.” I threw up my hands in frustration. “I don’t know. I’m as baffled as you are. And maybe the sales girl up there.” I chortled. “Did you see her face?”

“So nothing happened betwe—”

“What could have possibly happened in the whole whoppin’ forty minutes I’ve spent with the guy? And half of that doesn’t even count, because it was spent with more than two dozen other students in a classroom less than an hour ago. He’s just a nice guy who likes to socialize. Period.”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice before I ducked out that he didn’t grab anything to eat.”

“Shut up,” I muttered through a mouthful of yogurt and granola. When she pulled a face and muttered that I was ‘being gross’, I simply beamed. “Then stop asking me about Simon Treviso.”

She waited for a few minutes, until I had my maw filled with another spoonful of creamy vanilla, to blurt out, “So what’d he mean that you didn’t get to finish your conversation earlier?”

My eyes darted to the ceiling, and I studied the small holes there for a few minutes as I prayed for endurance. “When I was getting ready to the leave the class, he asked me about my studies. Madison the-universe-revolves-around-me Kinley had to be the center of Doctor Treviso’s attention and interrupted our conversation.”

This type of behavior from Madison was not foreign to me. It had been this way since high school, when I first started dating Cole. Despite being one of the most popular girls in school, it seemed like she was always trying to compete with me at everything, whether it was attempting to catch the eye of a boy who showed me attention or to appear like the smartest person in class. From the moment I accepted Cole’s first invitation of a date, Mads had turned everything into a contest.

The red-head chuckled. “Sounds like he wasn’t as impressed by her.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” I exclaimed, my gaze back on her once more. “It’s not like there’s a competition here. He’s our instructor, however temporary that may be. And as a grown adult and professional, I’m sure he knows what borders should never be crossed. He came in to get some breakfast, and we got caught up in pointless conversation. He forgot and didn’t feel like going back through the line again. Plain and simple. He’s just a nice, social guy. There’s nothing more to it, Brie.”

“Okay, okay.” She threw her hands up in defense. “But it sounds like you’re just trying to convince yourself.” When I glared, she shook her head. “Okay, I’m done. I promise.”

The worst part was that she was right. I was trying to stop my own deluded brain from reading more into a simple, mundane situation. This one-sided attraction had gone too far, and I was purely establishing the cold, hard facts with my runaway imagination: Simon Treviso was a gentleman, and a seemingly social one at that. His friendly demeanor and outgoing personality could easily be misconstrued by the wrong person, such as one with a mounting physical attraction to his person.

I let out a resigned breath.

It was going to be a long first few weeks.

Oh how right I was!

Three times a week, Simon Treviso would greet me warmly and inquire about my other classes, my opinions on the systems I was learning, and sometimes topics that were more his area of study, such as literature, history, and performing arts. And three times a week, always after the two-hour long lecture, he would accompany me to the cafeteria where I would meet Brie, and once, sometimes twice, out of those three times, he would insist on paying for whatever tasty nibble I was interested in. I kept telling Brie that if she wouldn’t run off to a table, Doctor Treviso would do the same for her, but she strongly disagreed. And three times a week, Madison Kinley inevitably tried some new flashy or dramatic attempt to get attention from the attractive man.

I was being driven crazy, slowly but surely, and had no guess as to which party would tip me over the edge first. I was more than relieved when the university found a permanent replacement for Bahr, yet overwhelmingly sad. Without him being temporarily in charge of the A&P class, Simon Treviso had no reason to speak with me, walk with me each morning.

“You’re moping,” Brie murmured in my ear as we got into line for our morning routine. She brushed off my snort of disagreement. “You are. You’re sad and you’re moping because you haven’t gotten to see Doctor Treviso today.”

“That is not true.” My response was decidedly waspishly, even though I knew full well she was right. “I can’t be moping. He’s an instructor, Brie.”

“He’s not your instructor anymore, y’know,” she replied sagely. “Besides, you even said you haven’t had any quizzes or tests with him or anything, so it’s not like your grades were ever affected by his judgment. He doesn’t even work in the same department. He teaches Humanities, for God’s sake. He has nothing to do with your education, your grades or anything else this school needs to worry about.”

“He could be married.”

“He’s not.” I could practically hear her victorious grin. “I did some casual asking around—don’t you ‘oh God’ me! I was very subtle—and I found out that he is, in fact, very single. And very straight, in case you were wondering.”

“Brie!” I hissed, pivoting on my heel to argue with her about leaving the subject of the instructor alone. I stopped short when I came face-to-face with the man in question. “Oh! Um…Hello, Doctor Treviso. How are you today?”

His lips curled slightly. “Well, I do believe my students were rather disappointed to see me today instead of Doctor Coker, and some of them are not even half as attentive as your own class. I was rather put out when I caught two of them lost to the sandman.” His eyes all but glimmered with devilish glee. “I would very much like to believe, Sofia, that in all these previous weeks, you would have told me if you found me boring, yes?”

“I think I’m going to go get us a seat, Sof,” Brie said before making a hasty retreat.

“You know, if your friend is not careful,” he teased, “I am apt to come down with a complex.”

I felt the blood rising to the surface of my cheeks. “She’s, well, she’s… She has ideas.”

A pale eyebrow nearly disappeared into his hairline. “Ideas? Would you care to expand on that?”

“I’d rather not.”

My brusque tone seemed to surprise him. “Are you quite all right, Sofia?”

I released a heavy breath. “It’s been a bad day.” I allowed myself to study his pressed black slacks, white shirt with licorice-grey blazer, and realized it just got a lot worse for me. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

What in the name of heaven and hell was wrong with me? From the moment I came in contact with the man, I was indescribably attracted to him. It was in no way natural, and it was genuinely causing me to wonder whether or not I should contact my therapist. Given that he had to be at least fifteen to twenty years older, it made me worry I might have slipped back into a destructive pattern stemming from the loss of my mother. Whatever it was, the attachment was not at all healthy.

“Do you wish to talk about it?”

I wanted to say yes, but I couldn’t. I ignored my desires, distracting myself by drawing my suddenly sweaty palms across the cotton fabric of my skirt, and liked my dry lips before pulling the matching sweater tighter around my chest like some sort of flimsy shield. “Um, that’s probably not a good idea, Doctor Treviso.”

“Are you sure, Sofia?” he gently prodded.

No, I was not sure. I wasn’t sure of anything at this point.

“I really don’t want to talk about it with—” I waved around at the hustle and bustle of students. “It’s just not the place to talk about…stuff.”

“Stuff?” he repeated with a hint of mirth in his voice. “All right. Would you perhaps like to join me for lunch to discuss… stuff?” I must have looked like I was going to say no, because he quickly interjected, “I know of an authentic Italian restaurant only a few miles from here. It does not look to be much from the outside, like one of those—what do you call them?—hole-in-the-wall types, but the cuisine is absolutely delicious. And due to its location, it is rather away from the public. I doubt anyone here knows of it.”

Logically, I knew nothing good could possibly come of my saying yes, yet there was some deep driving instinct urging me to do so, and despite my mind’s rational objections, I agreed to follow him and meet him for lunch.

If Madison were to find out, you would be in deep, hot
merda!

He let me pay for my own chocolate muffin this time, and when I finally reached the regular table I shared with Brie, she looked like she was about to burst with curiosity.

I stared at her for a moment before I gave in to a weary sigh. “I need your help. I know she hasn’t bothered caring before, but on the off-chance she shows even the most remote interest in what we are doing for lunch today, can you tell Madison we’re doing Chinese and don’t let her follow you wherever you go? I, um, I’m meeting Simon for lunch somewhere.” I cut off her delighted squeal before it could make its way out of her throat. “Don’t say or shriek anything, please. He asked, and for some ungodly reason, I said yes.” I tried to ignore her glowing features. “I shouldn’t have, Brie. I could get in a lot of trouble.
He
could get in a lot of trouble.”

“He
is in Humanities,” she returned with the same emphasis, “and
you
are in Health Sciences, and it’s not like
y’all
are going to be making out in the halls or anything.”

I gawked at her in disbelief. “Whatever,” I muttered with a hint of petulance. “I’m not talking about this anymore.”

And I didn’t. I made sure I steered clear of any subject that could lead back to the Humanities instructor.

I managed to avoid Madison in the halls before and after our second class, and thanks to Brie’s misdirection and the constant flood of students crowding the popular wing, I successfully slipped away without being caught up in her alternating intrusive questions and scathing insults. I considered it an Olympic feat, because the girl was like a leech: once she wanted something, she sank her fangs in and held on for dear life while she drained you of yours.

I drove my car toward the back end of the farthest parking lot, and my eyes widened at the sight.

Waiting there for me was a sleek, black coupe that looked like it cost a good three or four of my old Focus. The sunlight gleamed off the polished hood, making the surface appear like a fathomless lake of silver. And though I was by no means a car aficionado, even I could appreciate the smooth lines and overall beauty of the magnificent machine.

I briefly wondered how he could afford it. I mean, I was sure with a doctorate and a masters, and teaching in a well-regarded university, he made more money than, say, my old high school teacher Mr. O’Cleirigh, but it still was a relatively expensive car.

I followed him all the way to a close, but nearly-abandoned, old shopping complex.