Better when He's Bold

“Ms. Carter, can you make a minute for me after class? I would like to speak to you in my office.”

I sighed. I didn’t need him to tell me I was failing and that there was no way I was going to graduate at this rate. I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and nodded.

“Sure, Professor Hammond.”

He pushed his glasses up his nose and went into the classroom. Drew frowned at me and followed me to our seats.

“What’s that all about?”

“He probably wants me to know just how screwed I actually am.”

“That’s not cool, Brysen.”

It wasn’t, but I didn’t know what kind of alternative I had. Again, I was going to tell Drew that I felt bad for taking out all my bitchiness and stress over the last week on him. After all, he was a nice guy, and the fact that he liked me and sometimes it made him overstep his bounds wasn’t reason enough for me to be mean without reason. However, the words died on the tip of my tongue when my mortal enemy, the TA from hell, came in the room. Normally he looked right at me and smirked, plotting my educational demise, but today he looked anywhere but at me as he walked up to the professor and said something to him in a tone too low for the rest of us to hear.

The professor made a startled noise as he looked at the TA in shock and then cleared his throat loudly enough that the class in all of its entirety watched as the jerk of a teaching assistant walked out of the classroom without a backward glance. I shared a confused look with Drew as the professor got to his feet and began to pace back and forth in front of the room.

“Elliot just informed me that he has asked for a transfer. He will no longer be acting as the teaching assistant for this class during this term. That puts me at a little bit of a loss. Elliot has been solely in charge of all the grading and evaluation of work up to this point.”

Yeah he had. The oily bastard. I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe with the jerk out of the way, I actually had a chance at pulling my grade up from the bowels of failing hell after all.

The professor cleared his throat again and I felt his gaze land steadily on me.

“Elliot also mentioned that I might want to take a look at a few specific assignments where he might have not understood the concept in the material, and as a result, gave out inaccurate marks. I will have to go through all our past assignments and make sure everyone has the correct grade and that you are all up to speed before we get ready to start the review before finals.”

Holy shit! This couldn’t actually be happening. I was finally going to catch some kind of break. Was that even possible? I looked at Drew to share my over-the-top glee, but he was watching the TA’s hasty exit with narrowed eyes and not paying any attention to me at all. I was so excited I squeezed his arm, which had him jerking his head back around in my direction and a little grin pulling at his mouth. If it hadn’t been the middle of class I would’ve hugged him in my overwhelming glee.

Class flew by, and when I walked up to the professor’s desk afterward, he looked up at me over the edge of his glasses and gave me a sheepish shrug.

“Elliot told me he has been unrightfully hard on you this semester, Ms. Carter. Our meeting can be postponed until I have a chance to further investigate the circumstances. I will be going over all your quizzes, tests, and assignments.”

I tilted my head to the side and considered him. “No offense, sir, but I told you he was being unfair and that I felt like he had a personal vendetta against me on numerous occasions. You’ve ignored me and my concerns all semester.”

He had the good grace to look apologetic and contrite. “Sour grapes, Ms. Carter. It happens every semester. An attractive young woman doesn’t do as well as she thinks she should and it is always my fault, or the TA’s fault, never the student’s fault. I’ve learned to turn a deaf ear to it all. This is a good reminder to pay attention and not just go through the motions. If there are inaccuracies, I will make sure they are corrected.”

“Thank you.”

I wanted to skip to my next class I was so excited. I was running a little behind, so I almost ran over Dovie when our paths crossed as I was racing across campus. She looked windblown and rumpled, and her shirt was buttoned all cockeyed. I stopped for a second and pointed it out to her while babbling about the newest development in my academic drama.

She blushed, her fair skin turning pink as she straightened out her appearance. Her green eyes glinted in humor.

“I ran into Race and Bax when I got here for my first class. Bax wanted to say good-bye properly.”

She shoved her orange-ish-colored hair back and asked me if she looked presentable. I told her she did, but I was stuck on her words.

“Why were Race and Bax here?”

It could be any number of reasons, none of them very pleasant I was sure, but then I remembered that the TA hadn’t even been able to look at me. In fact, he had seemed terrified to let his eyes even land on me, as if there would be horrible consequences if he did so.

She lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “It was one of those things Bax didn’t feel like sharing with me.”

I had a sneaky suspicion that I might know exactly what they’d been up to. “That doesn’t bother you? It doesn’t make you crazy that he keeps things from you?”

She lifted both her copper-colored eyebrows and grinned at me. “No. If I asked him to tell me what he was up to, he would. Most of the time I feel better not knowing. Bax has a scary and dangerous life, but he leaves it in the Point when he comes home to me, and that’s where I want it to stay. I trust him to keep himself safe. I trust him to keep me safe, and that’s all that matters to me.”