Page 19 of Kisses

Yeah, this is beyond awkward.

His attention goes to me and then back to her. He questions, “I didn’t know you were a student here too.”

Sully chuckles behind him.

She answers, “Yeah, I am. Are you?”

Sully laughs harder.

Todd smiles, “No. I’m a professor in the Engineering department.”

“Engineering! That’s cool, I guess.”

Sully taps on Todd’s shoulder and says, “We need to get going. I’ll be seeing these ladies in class soon.”

Todd looks down at Kandace and says, “It was good seeing you. I hope you are doing well.”

She sighs, “It was good seeing you too.”

I look up at Sully, and he is just impatiently glaring at me. What a douche!

Todd and Sully walk away from us. Kandace watches as they leave. She looks sad.

I sympathize, “He did come up and say hi.”

She sighs, “Yeah, I know. But…I pretty much screwed that up when I acted like a crazy woman leaving his house.”

“Clearly, you didn’t screw it up too much. He seemed to be mesmerized by you.”

“It’s never going to happen. You and I both know the student-teacher relationship is a big no, no.”

“Is it? I mean, he isn’t one of your professors.”

“Seriously, you know it’s a no-go.”

“One could only hope that her best friend can date who she wants to.”

“Yeah, after graduation. By then, we both will have forgotten about each other and moved on.”

“You don’t know that. You two could be like those Hallmark movies.”

She laughs, “You’re stupid.”

“Well, that’s not very nice. I’m a hopeless romantic.”

She laughs harder, “I’m calling bull shit right now.”

I snicker, “You shut your mouth.”

We continue to laugh at one another. I love Kandace. I do feel for her. You can tell that one night they hung out together that something was there for them. She has always told me, ‘You know when you meet someone special’. I am pretty sure Todd is that person for her. It sucks. The timing for them. She’ll move on. That’s what strong women do.

***

Arriving to our class, I am anxious. We get our reports back today. Both Kandace and I spent an entire weekend discussing the criminal intent of the latest murder in Lincoln. I feel pretty confident that I scored one of the top grades in class.

Professor. James goes through his lecture on reporting and listening to the police scanner for leads. Once class is about to finish, he passes out our papers.

Kandace receives hers and she smiles, “Look at that. I got a B.”