Yes, Masters (Book 2 of Desire's Den)

Chapter 17 - Emma

We were at Peet's. I was sitting in a chair opposite Malika, and while I was looking at her, I wasn't actually seeing her. My mind was somewhere far away, and I definitely should feel shitty about it, but I couldn't register anything but what I'd seen in the hallway just moments ago.

What the hell had Jennifer been doing with Mateo? Even with her back turned, she wasn't difficult to recognize—It was hard to admit it, but she was too pretty to be mistakable.

I'd known she had a crush on him—hell, that had been hard to miss, but it never seemed like he reciprocated her feelings. Though, for the life of me, I couldn't understand why she would've been at the school. From what I knew, she wasn't attending our college. And why had they been standing so damn close?

Mateo had clearly seen me, yet...he hadn't been in touch afterward. He had to know how it must've looked for them to be standing so close—for her to touch him so intimately like that. I mean, he didn't owe me anything. After all, I was the one who'd initiated our break, and he was free to do whatever he wanted, with whoever he wanted. I just...I guess I'd thought he wouldn't move on so easily and so fast.

My fingers itched to send him a text, but then again, I had given up my say when I said I wanted a break.

"You okay?" Malika asked, waving her teaspoon in front of me, clearly trying to get my attention.

I blinked, snapping out of it. "What did you say?"

She sighed as she placed the teaspoon back on her plate with a soft clang. "I asked if you were okay, but I can clearly see that you aren't. What's on your mind, Emma? Is it that professor?"

I stiffened at her question. The last time we'd hung out, I'd told her about my three men after she had mentioned that she'd seen me outside Quick bites Queens Café with one of the guys. I never found out which of them she'd seen, but now I was praying it wasn't Mateo because then she would've put two and two together and realized the Mateo I had been seeing was also the professor we'd seen in the hallway today.

Malika and I were friends, or...we were close school friends at least, and while it was my fault we weren't as close outside of school, I wasn't comfortable with her knowing about Mateo and me yet.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied, taking a sip of my coffee.

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "How can you forget about that asshole so quickly? We were literally at the student affairs a few minutes ago."

"Oh, that." I breathed out in relief. "I mean, yeah, I am frustrated that they won't do anything...." After my classes, I went with Malika to student affairs as we'd planned, and I told them all about how uncomfortable professor Peterson was making me.

"They said they'll look into it. Maybe they will." Malika tried to reassure me.

"Sure, because 'looking into it' sound so promising," I scoffed, then sighed. "I'm sorry. We rarely hang out together, and here I am, too moody to be good company."

She gave me a kind smile. "Seriously, don't worry about it. It's completely understandable that you're not in the best of moods. I wouldn't be either if a professor was making me uncomfortable at school. But think of it this way, at least now, if anything more inappropriate happens to you or another student, there will be a record of your complaint. Although, I hope he won't be a problem in the future for you. They might even give him a warning."

I smiled at the thought of how the bald-headed, beer-gutted man would react to finding out I'd laid a complaint on him. It made me feel empowered for only a while, before my thoughts were once again on Mateo. God, being hung up on a guy—guys were no joke.