Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 97846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
He grinned and looked down at his food. “Sounds like he deserved it.”
“The guy’s a piece of shit.” I got a blueberry on my fork and placed it in my mouth. “The guy didn’t even give her partial credit for getting the right answer and marked all over her work on her assignment because it wasn’t the way he taught it. He failed her for doing it in a different way than he demonstrated, which is so fucking narcissistic, and then he accused her of cheating. How stupid does he think she is? All he had to do was talk to her after class and question her about it. She would have said her tutor is teaching her in an alternate way, and it’s easier for her to understand. And that’s it, conversation over. But no, he decided to take the route of destroying a twelve-year-old girl…” How small of a man do you have to be to be threatened by a twelve-year-old? “Fucking bullshit, man.”
“You had a few teachers like that. Remember that professor at Harvard?”
I rolled my eyes.
“After you corrected his errors, he had it out for you for the rest of the semester.”
“Yeah, I remember.” I continued to eat. “The basis of being a teacher is to make your students be the best they can be. But they can’t be better than you? That’s where you draw the line? They say money is the root of all evil…I think it’s the ego.”
He nodded. “You have a point there. Emerson wasn’t angry with you?”
She was so touched by what I’d done that she snuck me into her apartment so she could show how much she appreciated it. “No.”
“Good. You think you’ll tell Lizzie anytime soon?”
I shrugged. “No idea. That’s Emerson’s call…”
“So, that means you’re ready?”
“I…I don’t know.” Lizzie was a great kid, and I liked her a lot. More importantly, she liked me. “But I’m just her tutor right now. That’s why she treats me that way. But if my role changes to being her mother’s boyfriend, she might treat me differently.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it.”
“So, you think I should?”
He shrugged. “Up to you. But it sounds like it wouldn’t be a problem, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I haven’t been seeing Emerson very long. It’s only been a couple months…”
Dad continued to eat, wearing a blank stare.
“It’s just soon.”
“I think time is a finite integer, but I also think humans experience the passage of time differently.”
I stared at him, unsure what that meant.
“Loving your mother had no beginning or end. It was just there, and I don’t know when it actually started. Maybe it happened the moment we met. I have no idea. I’m just saying, you can’t measure your feelings for someone with time as the unit. Studies suggest that people fall in love within twenty-four hours of meeting someone…so there’s that.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“And then people wait to say how they really feel to make sure they’re compatible before that commitment is put in place. I guess that’s what you’re doing now, making sure your relationship is compatible before taking that step. But, from my point of view, you seem compatible. But you’re the only one that can decide that.”
I shut my laptop and answered the door.
Emerson dropped off Lizzie for our biweekly tutoring session. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Can we go out to eat after?”
“No.” Emerson shook her head. “Once in a while, Lizzie. We aren’t going out after every session.” She turned to me and gave me a polite nod. “Hey, Derek. Thanks again for doing this.” She left the penthouse and walked down the hallway.
I tried not to stare at her ass as she walked away in those tight jeans and boots. I shut the door and turned to Lizzie.
She beamed as she looked at me, like we were friends. “Everyone at my school is talking about how you were there.”
“Yeah?” I walked to the dining table and took a seat.
“Yeah. Kids recognized you in the hall. I told them you were my tutor.” She set her backpack on the table and took a seat. “Everyone thinks I’m cool now.”
“You are cool, Lizzie.”
Her cheeks reddened as she took out her things.
It was getting easier to talk to her. I didn’t have to think so hard anymore. “What did you do over the weekend?”
“There was a Greek festival in the park, so we went to that. My grandpa had knee surgery a little while back, and he’s been able to get around a lot better now, so he came along. That was fun.”
“That sounds nice.” I smiled at the news of her grandfather. It made me happy to know he was doing well, getting his life back. And it probably made him happy to spend the day with his family out and about.