Harley's ~James Barnes~

Excuses

"I'll be in the back, grabbing some more oat-milk since you two have been drinking way too much lately." Diane says while raising her right eyebrow up.

I don't dare to turn around and I keep looking straight forward, following Diane with my eyes as she disappears through the doors.

He takes a step forward until he stands next to me, leaning down with his arms on the counter just like I do. I play with the pencil in my hand of the nerves while looking at the word I was about to write down on the paper.

"You're asking about my private life now?" He asks as he intertwines his hands, looking at the coffee machine before he turns his face to me.

"Technically I didn't ask about it, I as-" I say but he grabs the pencil out of my hand so I would stop writing.

"You assumed yea." He says as he finishes my sentence. He lets the pencil revolve around his finger while looking me deep in the eyes like always.

"I was in the middle of writing a word." I say as I take a step closer, trying to grab the pencil out of his hand but I fail.

He brings his hand behind his back which made me lean against him and I immediately take a step back. I slide the newspaper on the counter towards him and I point at it while he's smiling at me for some reason.

"You fill it in then." I say as I smile back while his smile turned into a smirk. The tension between us is so obvious that is painful. Doesn't matter where we are, we bump into each other everywhere and we have those conversations like we're not student and Professor. I wanna know if he would ask me out if I wasn't his student but I could never ask him that.

He takes a sip of his coffee while he looks at me and he rips the paper from under my hand in a harsh movement.

He looks at the crossword puzzle for a moment before hitting it with the back of his hand. "I don't even understand how his works." He says while frowning his eyebrows.

"It's easy." I say with a chuckle, and I take it back. I jump on the counter to sit on it while he's standing next to me, giving him a good view of the crossword puzzle that I'm holding even though he only looks at me.

"These are little hints that you need to use to find the words." I say as I point at the hints above the puzzle.

I look at him really quick to see if he follows but I catch him still staring at me. "Start with the easy hints and work your way through the rest." I add while we're looking at each other.

I wanna ask why he's staring, what he's doing, but I'm doing the exact same thing. And we're not looking at each other flirtatious like we normally do, this was more of a... I don't even know how to call it.

I wanna lean forward and kiss him, but I'm not even allowed to look at him the way I do because I'm his student.

We're the same height now that I'm sitting on the counter, and I feel like he's coming closer. We both know damn well we can't do this, but the anticipation is growing... he's coming closer and so am I, so, so slow.

"She's an old friend of mine." He says in a low voice, almost whispering while closing the distance a little bit more, he's referring to the girl from the restaurant.

His hand is next to mine on the counter, but we don't move, nothing moves... only our faces just a little bit.

I give him a nod since I'm not even able to talk anymore. My whole body is frozen, and my heart is about to jump out of my chest.

"Poooh! It's a mess down there, I've got to clean it someday. Took me ages to find the goddamn oat milk." Diane shouts as soon as she burst the door open.