Filed to story: Shhh Professor! Please Don’t Tell! Novel Free
I read it over three times in a row. I held it tightly between my fingers. My heart was beating quickly, and my buoyant mood was now tap dancing on the ceiling.
She’d called me Jackson. Was I what she thought of as a spider, and now she thought of me as a star? What had changed her mind?
It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was no longer upset with me.
I glanced at the clock and realized that I had less than three minutes to get to class. I tucked the card quickly inside my desk, picked up my messenger bag, and hurried down the hallways to my classroom.
As soon as I stepped inside, my eyes were on Ellie. And her eyes were on me too.
We held eye contact for a few moments, both of us smiling a little. Warmth swirled through the room towards me through her. I could’ve sworn I could smell her perfume from all the way across the lecture hall.
“I want to do something for her.”
I was back in my office, reading Ellie’s card again. I had the door to my office shut, as if her card was somehow a secret that no one else should know about. I suppose it was.
Poetry. Maybe I should try to write some poetry about Ellie.
No, no, I mustn’t do that. She’d returned my friendless, ended her coldness. It wasn’t an acceptance of any romantic advances. As far as I was aware, those were still unwelcome.
So, I couldn’t give her myself.
What could I give her?
“What does she really love?” I wondered.
History.
Ancient Egyptian history.
Egypt.
Suddenly an idea passed through my brain like a locomotive. I stared straight ahead for a few moments, wondering if it was too crazy.
I decided it wasn’t.
Unable to keep from smiling, I opened my faculty directory and looked up the number of the head of the history department. I picked up my cell phone and dialed it.
“Professor Steele!”
I turned and saw Ellie running down the hallway toward me. Her eyes were bright and her hair was untidy and she was waving a bright yellow flyer in her hand.
It was a week later. The head of the history department and I had arranged everything. He’d seemed almost as happy about the whole idea as I was, although I guessed that his reasons for happiness were purely academic.
Mine were romantic.
“You’re coming on the winter term trip?” she asked, a little breathless. “To Egypt?”
I might have wondered how that made her feel if the answer hadn’t been clearly written on her face: she was thrilled. Her cheeks were flushed, and her smile was as bright as her eyes.
“I am,” I said, smiling. “They needed chaperones.”
An absolute lie.
Well, they might have needed chaperones. But they didn’t because I’d immediately insisted on coming. I was, after all, paying for the trip.
It wasn’t free for students; the head of the history department had insisted on that. He said it was the best way to make sure the trip only involved students who truly wanted to learn about Egypt instead of students just looking for a free vacation. I suspected he also just wanted more money for the school, but I didn’t fight him on it. I also was benefitted by the trip costing a little for each student. I didn’t want word to get out that I had financed it. I’d made something highly affordable that otherwise would not have been, and that was good enough for me.
“I’m so excited,” she said breathlessly, her eyes on the ceiling, like she was imagining the trip up there.
I knew she’d probably just meant she was excited about the trip itself, but I still liked that she’d said so right after I’d verified that I was going.
“I am too,” I said, smiling. “I haven’t been to Egypt in a long time.”
“You’ve been?” she asked me, starry-eyed.
“A long time ago,” I said. “In college.”
“How long ago was that?” she teased. I wondered if she really didn’t know how old I was. Wikipedia could have told her.
“Does it matter?” I said. I passed the sentence off as a joke my tone was jovial but I was genuinely wondering.
“No,” she said, tilting her head back a little as she smiled at me.
Was it my imagination, or was she being coy?
She was standing close to me, almost as closely as she had the night of my Halloween party in the upstairs hallway. When I’d almost kissed her.
I imagined stroking her hair behind her ear here, in this hallway, right now. A stray wisp was floating just next to her cheek. I imagined leaning in toward her, hesitating just a moment to be sure she didn’t want to stop me, and then pressing my lips against hers.
All this passed through my head in a few seconds. Ellie was looking back at me, her eyes like two pools glimmering in sunlight.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, her voice quiet.
“Poetry,” I said.
I couldn’t believe it.
A trip to Egypt. It was practically free I couldn’t believe how low the fee was. It had to be less than the cost of the plane tickets, let alone hotels and food. The whole thing felt like a miracle. And Annie was also going.
And Professor Steele was going too.