Outside the Box (22 page)

The song ended so we made our way through the crowded dance floor, I was stepping behind a group of people that were talking when
a guy took a step back and ran into me.  He spun around and grabbed my shoulders to keep me from falling.  “I’m so sorry.”

My skin broke out in goose bumps, I laughed a small laugh, “It’s okay, I’m fine really.” I looked up and my eyes must have about bugged out of my head.  “Pro..Professor?”

“Spencer, I was only your professor for a week.” He slid his hands down my goose bump covered arms until his fingers were on my wrists.  He lifted it and looked at the tattoo, I watched as he stared into my eyes and brought my wrist up to his nose and inhaled deeply.

“It’s you.” He said and tried to pull me into him.

“What?” I stuttered out but didn’t try to pull away. 

“That smell, your laugh, I know it’s you Ember.”

I know he could feel my heart beat thumping in my wrist, “I…I don’t know who Ember is, you must have me confused with her though.  I’m Alexia.” I yanked my hand out of his wrist and hurried past him.  Carter was coming back through the crowd to find me.

“Where’d you go…whoa, you look a little flush are you okay?”

“I want to go home.”

He looked past my shoulder, “Is that him?”

“It can’t be, he was my teacher last week.”  I shook my head and started to walk around him.  Carter stopped me by stepping in front of me, he cupped my face in his hands;

“Lex, that has to be him.  I’ve known you for a long time and even I can tell that you’re about to combust from him touching you.  Go talk to him, I’ll keep Derrick occupied.”

“I…”

“Alexia?  We need to take a little walk.” Spencer’s deep voice said from behind me.  I spun around and looked up at him. 

“Just go, I’ll cover for you for ten minutes, if the guard dog comes looking for you I won’t be able to stop him.” Carter said and pushed me towards Spencer. 

Spencer grabbed my hand and pulled
me quickly behind him through the crowd, down a dimly lit hallway and into an office.

“We can’t be in here!” I said as the door
he shut behind him.

“It’s my
friend’s office.”  He spun me around, wrapped one arm around my waist and lowered his mouth to mine.  I didn’t open my mouth when his tongue swept across my bottom lip.  “Fucking kiss me.” He growled.  I opened my mouth when he pressed our lips harder against each other, once our tongues met, the familiar taste of him filled my senses and the blood coursing through my body grew hotter.  I was backed against the large black desk with him pressing his body against mine.  When he pulled his mouth away from mine I slowly opened my eyes.  “It is you.” He whispered against my lips. 

I stood there speechless, both of our chests were heaving and we couldn’t take our eyes off of each other’s
.  “Why are you doing this?” I asked.

He reached behind me and grabbed a small remote, ‘Set Fire to the Rain’ started playing through the speakers.  I closed my eyes as Adele sang, the song sent tingles throughout my body.  “Please, don’t.” I said.

“Ember, I’m not losing you again.  I meant what I said that night.  Open your eyes and look at me.”

Slowly I opened them, his eyes were boring into mine as the song started to repeat again,
his eyes were the most beautiful shade of dark blue with a starburst of light blue streaked through them.  He cupped my face in his hands and gently pressed his lips against mine again.  This time I ran my hands up his arms, past his shoulders, until I had them twisted in his silky thick hair.  He groaned and laid me down on the desk.  We poured all of our passion and feelings into this kiss, my cell phone chimed causing him to pull away.  “Text whoever it is and tell them you’re fine.  I’ll take you home.”

“I…I can’t
, one of them is going to come looking for me.” I pushed him off of me. 

“Give me your number then.”

I shook my head, “No.”

He reached into his pocket and grabbed the same blackberry that I had to carry when I worked at the Box.  “Take this.  I’ll use it to text you since you don’t want me to have your number yet.”  He shoved the phone in my pocket and stepped away.  I walked past him and grabbed the door, “Alexia…it’s a beautiful name.  I’m going to blow the mother fucker u
p as soon as you leave because we need to talk.”

I nodded my head then walked out of the
office, I made it across the dance floor when Derrick spotted me with Carter not too far behind him.

“He said you wanted to leave but then I couldn’t find you, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, one of my classmates is having guy trouble.  She’s really drunk and was alone in the bathroom crying, then she started puking, her ride just picked her up.”

“Do you want to leave still?”

“Yeah, I’m still tired.”

The three of us got in the taxi, we dropped Carter off at the hotel he was staying at.  I hugged him before he got out of the car.  I knew that I would spend the next hour on the phone with him.

“Can I stay with you tonight?” Derrick asked as the taxi drove away towards our building.

“I really just want to go to bed and get some rest.” I told him.

“Okay, but don’t forget Sunday we are hanging out.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder, “I know.  I’ll never give up our Sundays.”

Spencer

****

I should have known that it was her when I smelled her familiar scent that day in the classroom when I had her stay after to work on the assignment.  The fucking tattoos threw me off, she had to have gotten them in the last week.  Since I had never seen her without the UCSS blindfold off, I didn’t know that her hair was such a beautiful shade of blonde, that her eyes were such soft sky blue, and that she had a freckle at the corner of her left eye like a beauty mark. 

She tried to deny that I knew who she was, but the very second we touched I knew…the way her body covered in goose bumps, the way her pulse started racing, and the way her scent grew stronger.  I pinned her against the desk in Vincent’s office.  She kept her lips pressed together until I demanded her to kiss me, our tongues met and that was the very second that I knew it was her.  I poured as much passion into the kiss, I swallowed her moans…her taste.  Then I watched her walk out the door, she was leaving with another man, all I could do was shove my work phone in her pocket.  Vincent came in the office, “What are you in here for?  Is a real club too much for you?” He asked with a laugh then looked at me, “Please tell me you didn’t bang some random chic on my desk.”

“No I didn’t bang some random chic or any chic I just had a conversation with somebody that I know.  I promise.”

“Thank fucking god.”  He grabbed a bottle of tequila from the shelf, “You up for a couple?”

“I’m going to head out, I’ve got some shit to take care of, don’t forget about next Sunday.”

“Right on.  Later man.” He said as I walked out of his office. 

I went out the back exit and climbed into my Hummer, Alexia didn’t tell me where she lived, I could have tracked her phone but I knew that if I went to her apartment and found her with that guy I would be in jail and have to call my brother or Peaches to come bail me out.  Once I got home I went for the kitchen, heated up some pasta and cracked open a cold beer.  I pulled my phone out, and scrolled to my own work name in my contacts, the first thing I did was change it to Alexia.  That put her name at the very top of my list.

S
: 
Are you alone
?

A
: 
Yes
.

“Thank fucking god.” I said out loud.

S
: 
Can I come see you
?

A
: 
Not tonight
.

I shook my head and wanted to throw my phone across the room.

S
: 
Why not
?

A
: 
Because I’m tired and honestly I’m confused
.

S
: 
Can I at least call you
?

A
: 
I’ll call you Monday after class, I have some more friends coming to town tomorrow.  They’ll be here until Sunday
.

S
: 
If you don’t call me, I’m going to use the tracking on the phone to find you.  We need to talk, you and I both know that
.

A
: 
That’s a tad bit creepy
! 

S
: 
Did you just call me a creep
?!

A
: 
Well…you are kind of creepy looking
.

S
: 
That’s just mean.  I met this banging hot chic at the bar tonight
. 

A
: 
She probably didn’t want to hurt your feelings and tell you how creepy you are
.

S
: 
As long as you call me Monday, you won’t have to find out how much of a creeper I can really be.  Please call me, we can go out for supper or something
?

A
: 
Okay

S
: 
Am I really that creepy looking
?

A
: 
Um no, not even close.  You’re pretty hot if you really want to know.  Actually I’m sure you already know that…I probably just inflated your ego
.

S
:
 
please keep talking.  Something is inflating along w/ my ego
!

A
: 
OMG, I’m going to sleep.  TTYL
!

S
:
Night beautiful Alexia.

I finished my beer, then went and took a shower.  Normally I didn’t look forward to Monday, but since I had met her…Monday’s had turned into one of the best days.  Without her around I dreaded the week and the weekends.  I wasn’t going to let her go now that I had finally figured out who she was.  My phone chimed with another message;

A
: 
Quick question, I thought you had all my info on file, couldn’t you have looked up my address and phone number
?

S
: 
Had I not been in L.A for the last week I would have done that before Peaches deleted you from the database
. 

A
: 
Oh…Tell Peaches I say ‘Hi’ I actually miss her
.

S
: 
You miss Peaches only
?

A
: 
Never mind I just realized her number is in this phon
e

I can text WHOEVER I want right
?

S
: 
You didn’t answer my question

There was no reply for a minute or two;

A
: 
I missed you more than Peaches

S
: 
I miss you, I can’t wait to get to sit down and actually talk.  You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on
. 

A
: 
I will talk to you Monday…night
.

The next day
just like I expected Peaches called , “Okay, were you drunk texting me last night.  I got a text that said and I quote “I miss you Peaches with a smiley face.”

“
Have I ever drunk text you?”

“Well no but...”

I interrupted her, “To answer your question, no I wasn’t drunk texting you.”  I told her. “For the record you’re not ugly, you’ve actually very beautiful.  I never did tell you that the other night.”

“Are you okay, you’re being really nice.  So who sent me that text, do I need to call and have the phone tracked or have it shut off?”

I laughed, “Nope, I know who has it because I gave it to her.”

“HER?”

“Mmhmm.”

“My god, quit being so vague!
?”

“Ember or Alexia I should say, has the phone.”

“Huh?”

I told her
about everything that had transpired between when I substituted at the college, what happened at the club then forwarded the text messages to her so she could read them.

“
Wow
!  So now what?” she asked with a dreamy tone to her voice.  “This is straight out of a romance novel I think.  Why don’t you just take her out for a romantic dinner profess your love to her and live happily ever after?”

“Hold up, I didn’t say I’m in love, the last time I thought I was in love I got my heart ripped out.”

“You can try to deny it, but that doesn’t stop your heart from wanting what it wants.”

“Shit just go
t deep in here.” I said with a laugh. 

Peaches
laughed, “You better let me know what happens when you talk to her again.”

“Nosey much?” I asked with a grin.

“Nope, I’m just tired of my boss being moody as hell.”

“I have not…”

“Whatever, I’ll just get all the juicy details from her then.” She laughed then hung up. 

I took a shower, made some breakfast, then went to my home office and did some paperwork.  When I finished up I tried to call Josh but got no answer, “Jesus man did you fall off the face of the earth?  I haven’t heard from you in a while.”
I said to his voicemail.  It wasn’t like him to go this long without talking to me, if I didn’t hear from him by mid-week I would have to send somebody to find him.

I wanted to text Alexia, but she said she had company coming to visit, I thought about calling
Tilly’s and having flowers delivered to her apartment then I remembered that I didn’t know where she lived.  So I called Peaches back,

“Already had something juicy happen?  You don’t waste any time!” she answered.

“No, I need you to call either Shawn or Joe and have them go pick up an arrangement at Tilly’s and deliver it to her apartment.”

“You don’t even know where she lives?”

“Nope.”

“Oh my god, okay, why don’t you call them yourself?”

“Well, I would but I don’t want her to think I’m stalking her since she didn’t give me her address herself.”

“Sneaky!  Okay, I’ll see who is on duty and have them do it.”

“Thanks.”

I called Tilly’s and ordered the biggest mixed flower arrangement they would make and told them that my driver would be picking them up.