28

I sat at the piano, my fingers skimming the keys in a soothing rhythm.

But my mind was miles away, consumed with thoughts of the upcoming trip to Greece.

Well, Spanish Olympiads.

I had tried to talk to my dad the previous night, but he had come home late and left early the next morning.

And I knew that arguing with Adeline even more was worth nothing if my dad was on her side.

As I continued to play, my phone suddenly buzzed with a text message.

I glanced down.

Unknown number.

I hesitated for a moment, unsure of who it could be.

But curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the message.

"Meet me at the café at the university in 20 minutes," the message read. My heart skipped another beat.

"Who is this?" I text back.

"Daniela." She texted back.

My eyes widen.

I glanced at the time on my phone.

It was still pretty early in the morning.

But I had a hunch that this was important.

Maybe it was about yesterday before Adeline interrupted us.

I still think about that and the more I do, the more I realize how fucked up it is.

Making out with my professor.

I can't keep on doing this.

I need to chose.

Her or my sanity.

I quickly typed a reply, "Okay. Leaving now." Then I slipped my phone into my pocket, closed the piano, and headed out the door.

Only a few minutes of walking later, I was on campus and neared the coffee shop.

When I arrived at the café, I spotted professor Garcia sitting at a table by the window, sipping a cup of coffee.

She looked up as I approached.

"How the hell did you get my number!?" I whisper shout as I took a seat opposite side of her.

Daniela chuckled lowly at my outburst. "Not even a 'hello?'," she smiled, amused. "I have my ways, Victoria."

I rolled my eyes, a ghost of a smile flickering across my face.

Despite my irritation, there was something about the professor that always made me feel at ease.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Me and you sitting here alone?" I asked, my eyes scanning around the café.

"Don't worry," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "No one will think anything of it. People see professors and students sitting together all the time. We'll say it's a study session."

I raised an eyebrow, somewhat doubtful.

"Study session?" I mumble, "It's break. Who on earth studies on vacation?"

"Do you want to continue being a smartass or actually have a mature conversation?" She said lowly, placing her coffee down.

"Depends." I said, folding my arms, "Did you invite me on this date to make it up to me, for kissing me and not taking me out to a dinner first?"

She tilted her head to the side, "You keep forgetting you kissed me first a few days ago. Before I even touched you. You owe me the dinner."

My cheeks heated up slightly at the memory of me kissing her.

It makes me sound so desperate.

"I was acting on impulse," I muttered, avoiding her gaze, "I was emotional in that moment and it was a long time ago."

"I acted on impulse too." She said lowly, implying on yesterday.

I take a sharp breath in and squirm around on the chair before leaning forward with my hands clasp together on the table.

I stare straight into her eyes, trying to match her intimidation technique.

"When I did it, it didn't count." I said, but honestly knew how stupid that sounded, "I'm talking about yesterday. Wha- why... I don't know what's going on between us, and I really want to know, Daniela."

"We're on campus." She warned.

I sighed, remembering her rule. "Right, sorry. I want to know what's happening between us, professor." I corrected.

She raised one eyebrow, folding her arms. "So now you finally want to talk about it?"

"That's why I'm here, aren't I?"

There was silence for a few seconds before she clicked her tongue against the top of her mouth and leaned forward.

She mimicked me, clasping her hands together.

She was inches away from my face and my body grew warm.

"Actually, I wanted to talk about the Olympiads." She said lowly, "But since you brought all of this up, sure. Let's talk about the kiss."

I clench my jaw.

Was she not going to talk about us if I didn't bring it up?

"Then speak. I want the truth. I want the truth about everything. Why you pushed me away, but then kissed me. You told me to slap you, but then you wanted to kiss me again."

There was an awkward silence before she leaned back in her chair.

Thank goodness it was interrupted by a familiar voice coming from the front, calling my name.

It was Eleanor, who made her way towards us with a friendly smile on her face.

I greeted her back and stood up to give her a hug.

She looked back at Daniela and pointed to her. "Oh hey, you're the woman from the bar." She stated.

Yet she still doesn't know that it's 'miss hot stuff.'

Daniela tilted her head to the side and looked Eleanor up and down almost like she's judging her.

"It's professor." Daniela muttered.

Eleanor looked puzzled so I gave her some context by leaning into her side.

"The Uni's 'miss hot stuff'" I whispered, "Professor Garcia. Spanish professor."

Her eyes widen, "Oh snap."

I chuckle before sitting down again. It really looked suspicious sitting here with professor, so I needed to clear the air.

"We were just going over some assignments. Study session, ya' know?" I said, going with Daniela's plan.

Eleanor's eyes flick from me to Professor Garcia and back again. She frowns. "In break?"

I freeze and look to Daniela who had a minor smirk displayed across her face. She bit her bottom lip to prevent it from showing.

I knew making up an excuse, like this being a 'study session,' would be so obvious.

There's no books or anything that we possibly could've studied from on the table besides her coffee.

Which she picked up her coffee again and brought it up to her lips, looking at us from the top of her eyes.

She was clearly amused, not bothered at all.

Professor really thinks nothing about this at all. That what we're doing is normal.

Fortunately for me, like my wishes came true, my phone rang and I quickly excused myself.

Even better, Eleanor also said goodbye to professor as she walked to the front to place her order in.

Now standing a few feet away behind a fake plant, I was on the phone with my dad who asked me to come home since he brought food.

He got off very early because he wanted to make the time he missed spending with me, up.

This was the perfect excuse to leave that awkward conversation still lingering between Daniela and I.

Turns out I'm not ready to talk about it yet.

It, being the kiss and whatever is happening between us.

I'm just running away like I always do when I don't know how to handle it.

She was right.

And before I reconsidered walking back to her, I rather left without saying anything.

Dad asked me all about my tests and assignments these past few days, since he didn't get chance to ask me before.

And I also caught up on some juice going on at his work.

Adeline just got out of her 'rookie' rank, and is no longer considered as the 'newbie' at the station.

Besides discussing those things, we were now sitting at the living room eating Chinese takeaways he brought.

Corbin's feet were kicked up on the glass coffee table, a box of noodles in his hands while digging in with the chopsticks.

I sat crossed legged on the couch with a cushion on my lap to hold my plate of sweet and sour chicken and rice up.

We were in the middle of watching Dune before dad reached out for the remote and paused it.

He turned to me, slurping his last noodle.

"You're usually not this quiet," he joked, earning a snicker from me, "Something on your mind?"

I stabbed my food with the fork, blankly staring down at the plate. My mind wonders around. "Well, I do need to talk to you about the flight to Greece." I mumbled, already preparing for words I don't want to hear.

My dad sighed, putting down his own chopsticks. "Ah, that," he said, his tone weary. "I'm guessing Adeline already told you that we talked about it?"

I nodded.

"I want you to go, Victoria. I know how much it means to you, to fly around the world, see places you never had seen before. But, Adeline--"

I immediately stop him, "Adeline? Is she the one stopping me from going?"

"She's just concerned," he said softly "You'll be traveling halfway around the world with... your professor, no less. You can understand why she feels uneasy about it."

"Iris is coming with. She passed 80%." I said, "Dad, come on. You have to let me go. Adeline doesn't have a word in this, because she's not my parent. You are. And that doesn't even allow you to make the decision for me. I make decisions on my own now, and I'm sure as hell mature enough. I'm going."

My father leaned back against the couch, eyeing me.

There was a pause.

Finally, he spoke.

"I'll tell you what," he said, crossing his arms. "If you can convince me right here, right now, that this trip is worth it, I'll consider letting you go."

I blink heavily, now feeling like I've been put on the spot.

There's so many things I could say, but my brain just stopped processing everything.

"Well?" My dad waited.

I take a deep breath in.

"I'm one out of two students, out of all the Spanish classes in university, that gets a one-in-a-life-time opportunity to fly first class to one of the most beautiful countries in Europe. It's one of the safest too. Iris and I had our future planned to visit Europe together, and now we can. For free. Even though we're adults, we still have someone older to look after us, even though we don't need supervision. Professor Garcia will be there."

I gasp, out of breath from talking way too fast.

He seemed to consider my words, mulling them over in his mind.

"Hmm..." He stroked his beard.

"I'll bring you back some Greek sweets and snacks?"

"Deal."