Another Sunday detention with Professor Ward

Professor Ward looks faintly surprised when you ring her doorbell.

“Alex!” she says, casually smoothing out a crease in her dress. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to show up today.”

“Skip detention with my favorite professor? I could never,” you say. “Who else is supposed to help me do the rest of this problem set?”

“I am not doing your homework for you, Mr. Knight,” she says, glancing at the thick stack of papers that you’ve pulled out of your backpack. Then, she gawps at your open backpack and the rest of the books and papers and electronics stuffed in there. “How do you fit so much junk in that?”

“My junk?” you echo, hefting your backpack with a few choice thrusts of your hips. “Yeah, you could say it’s a lot to handle. But I’m sure a woman like you has experience dealing with all kinds of… junk.”

Professor Valerie Ward arches an eyebrow at you.

“Somebody’s feeling bold today,” she says. “Come on in. We wouldn’t want the neighbors to overhear.”

The two of you settle down in her living room. While Valerie hunkers down and immediately starts clacking away on her computer, you take a gander at the albums on display on her wall. It’s a great collection of hip hop classics. You listened to Enter the Wu-Tang last week, so…

“Any of the albums catch your eye? I usually work with some music in the background,” Valerie says.

“I’m feeling some MF Doom,” you say. “Operation: Doomsday, coming right up!”

You walk up to the wall and reach for the record. But when you touch the album cover, you quickly realize something.

“The vinyl, it’s missing!” you exclaim, craning your neck to the side to try to see if it might be hidden within the folds of the cover. But that’s not possible. There’s not enough space.

You hear Valerie chuckling as she gets off her couch, heading over to her record player.

“I was feeling Doom too this morning,” she says, giving you a tired smile as she starts up the player. “Guess it’s just that kind of a day, isn’t it? Doom and gloom. A real downer. Only Dumile’s raspy baritone is going to save me at this point.”

“It’s a Sunday, what could possibly have gotten you down?” you ask, giving her a concerned look.

She plops down on the couch, sighing. You take a seat next to her, noticing the way that she looks back at you, searchingly.

“Rejection is always tough to deal with,” she shrugs, laughing a little, though even that sounds **** to you. “Just had a tough run at it last night.”

You hide the shock that you feel—Valerie Ward, this super-hot, super-successful professor of yours, has guy problems? Instead of voicing that thought, you rest a hand on her knee, nodding in commiseration.

“You wouldn’t believe the number of times I’ve been rejected in the last week alone,” you say. “Sometimes, it sure seems like all the coeds around here got their fill of the Freshman 15 and have sworn off sex. So we’re in the same boat, you and I. Just can’t get with the right people… it’s tough.”

Valerie blinks at you a couple times, and her **** laughter falls into a far more genuine guffaw.

“Oh, Alex, that is so… so awfully sweet of you to say, but that’s not what I meant at all,” she chuckles, her hand falling to a rest over yours on her knee. “All I meant was that a paper I’d submitted to a journal got rejected, that’s all, not…” She takes a second to catch her breath, still chuckling. “Not your kind of rejection, though I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Damn, you mean I just outed my romantic failures for nothing?” you grumble. Of course she meant her research getting rejected. How could you take that any other way?

“You did brighten my day!” Valerie says, giving your hand a quick squeeze. “Those referees were brutal with my paper, and I have to admit, I wasn’t sure how I was going to pull through this day without spending the whole time moping.”

“That sucks,” you say. “I’m sure they were stupid and that your paper deserves to be published.”

“You flatter me, but you don’t even know what I do research on, do you?” she asks, her lips quirking as she sees you shaking your head. “I was working on developing a theory of the firm that… you know what, I shouldn’t dwell on it so much, and it’s really not that interesting. Let’s talk about something else instead. Tell me about how your date with {if HelenAuctionDate == true}Helen {else} Mallory {endif}went!”

“Oh yeah. About that…”

The two of you spend most of the afternoon talking about your love life: all the women you’ve been chasing, with all the ups and downs that entails. It turns out that there are quite a few girls that you still want to get in the pants of, even concealing some of your more sensitive interests, including Professor Ward here.

“I wouldn’t call you a total failure,” she laughs, touching your arm. “{if The Count > 0} You’ve managed to score already! {else} It sounds like a couple of those girls are into you, I’m sure some of them are into you! {endif}“

“Sure, I just wish it could be easier. Sometimes a guy just wants a hot girl to fuck,” you say, feeling increasingly comfortable being frank with this professor. “Must they all play so hard to get?”

Valerie nods, understanding, and says: “Most of us women want a little more emotional connection before we put out. Because otherwise society calls us sluts. Plus, I find the sex more fun when I know the man behind the body. Casual sex isn’t quite my cup of tea. Not that…”

Her voice drifts away. You catch her eye, giving her a questioning look, gesturing for her to finish the thought.

“Not that I’ve been getting much recently,” she finishes. “Casual or otherwise.”

“Seriously?” you ask, mildly surprised. “I gathered that you weren’t married, but really? No boyfriend? No guys around here that you’re into?”

“Work just keeps me too busy,” she replies. “And we’re in Stonewall, the college town to end all college towns. There’s nothing here but the university. It’s too small. People talk too much for a fling to end well. So it’s been… gosh, a good year since the last time, probably.”

“That must be frustrating,” you whistle. “Not getting any for so long, I mean.”

“It makes me consider more options than I usually would. It’s not every day that a hot guy wanders into my house,” she says, meeting your eyes with an unusually steady gaze. “It makes me feel like I should take advantage of the situation.”

“You should,” you reply without hesitation.

The two of you stare at each other, some tension passing between the two of you. Her hazel eyes bore into yours, lingering over your face and your lips. You grab her hands just as she leans in, and no more words need to be said. The two of you connect with a spark that has you pressing her up against her couch, your lips pushed hard against hers.

It’s pure energy, the kiss full of heat and fire, her needy hands pushed against your chest, your lips locked tight until the push of her hands forces you back. You take a deep breath.

“What?” you ask, unable to quite rip your eyes away from her heaving chest.

“You’re my student,” Valerie says sharply, turning away from you. “We really shouldn’t be doing this. You’ve just caught me at a bad time.”

She pushes you further away.

“But—”

“I’m not mad at you,” she says, still avoiding your gaze. “Just disappointed in myself for letting go like that. You can stay and finish up your problem set.”

And with that, she pulls open her computer and buries herself in work. You, not really sure of how to react, ignore the beginnings of your boner and begin working on your problem set. Your few half-hearted attempts to strike up a conversation again are quickly shot down by Valerie. In fact, she seems content to ignore you as she continues to be absorbed by her work.

“I’m your professor, not your friend,” she eventually sighs, as you try unsuccessfully to get her talking about MF Doom. “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

So after an hour spent solidly concentrating on your problem set, when you eventually ask her for help on a problem that you’re stuck on, you find yourself slightly surprised that she’s more than willing to explain the problem to you. She just… maintains a bit more distance as she does.

“Does that clear it up?” she asks at the end of her explanation.

“Perfectly,” you nod, jotting down the last of the key points that she made. “I’ll work on sorting out the math myself, but the intuition is clear.”

“Good,” she nods curtly, turning back to her work. “Then you should get going.”

“Uh… yes,” you say. You begin packing up your things. “Thanks for letting me stay today.”

She glances up at you, waiting to see if you have anything more to say.

“So, should I come by next week?” you ask, running a hand through your hair.

Professor Ward’s expression softens.

“Sure, why not,” she laughs. “So long as you’ve got an academic reason to be here, it should be fine.” She pauses, musing on something for a second. “I’ll just make sure to assign some extra tough problems next week.”

“What have I done,” you laugh, shaking your head as Valerie bids you farewell.

As you walk away, the lingering feel of that kiss with your professor still warm on your lips, you get the sense that she is just as confused as you are right now.

Ward +10

And… I’m back! Thanks to everyone who left comments in the meantime. You all rock. Special thanks to 11. You know who you are.