Love Flavored Latte

Chapter 16 - Perplexed

"You seem... strangely happy today, Matt."

That was what Eve had said out of the blue in the middle of breakfast. It really startled Matt, making him look up from his stack of pancakes.

"Oh, uh, what do you mean?"

He chuckled nervously, which wasn't helping the situation at all. Eve paused and took a sip of coffee, though she still managed to throw him a doubtful look as she did so.

"You've been grinning from ear to ear ever since we started eating, Matt," she continued as she put her mug down. "And this has happened constantly for more than a month, not just today. I only have a chance to bring this up now because the others aren't here yet."

Crap, am I that obvious? he thought and panicked on the inside while putting up a smile. "Ah, well, it's just, uh, there's been something good lately so-"

"And that is?"

She asked without even waiting for him to finish his sentence, which was very unlike her. He sweated, realizing that he had accidentally dug a bigger grave for himself. He glanced back and forth as he tried to buy some more time to think.

She did nothing but stared at him with expecting eyes, wordlessly pressuring him into spilling the tea. Her calm posture wasn't helping either. She was patiently waiting without saying a single word, yet he somehow got the mental image that she was aggressively urging him to just give in and tell her the truth already. Chills went down his spine as his vivid imagination continued to consume his very soul, making it quite a challenge to think properly. Was this some kind of girls' secret weapon? Because it was surely working.

"I, uh, I'm just happy that my grades for this semester are pretty good!"

That seemed like a strange thing to be overly happy about for more than a month, but as long as he could bluff his way out of this situation, he was fine with whatever excuse he could come up with.

Skepticism was written all over her face. She looked like she was about to press him further when they suddenly heard Chloe walking out from her bedroom. Eve quickly dropped the subject and nonchalantly greeted the red-headed girl as if she didn't just turn breakfast into an interrogation a few seconds ago. Matt secretly let out a sigh of relief, silently expressing his most sincere gratitude to Chloe.

There's no way she knew already, he thought as he anxiously used his fork to slightly poke his pancake, carefully observing Eve's behaviors without making her notice it.

It had been more than three months since Matt and Ray started dating and things had been going very well. No word could describe how delighted they both felt. Every time when Ray's class was up next, Matt would be unable to hold back a grin. During the lecture, Ray would occasionally pass him a sneaky yet charming smile that was meant for him only. Even if it was just for a brief moment, it made butterflies flutter in his stomach as his heartbeat increased, his face reddening to the point that he had to use his hand to cover his face. When they suddenly saw each other outside the classroom, there would be a strange but sweet and tingling air around them as they talked. And if they couldn't see each other for a while, then text messages would become where they exchange all their words of love and endearment with one another.

Every day felt like heaven itself, but showing affection to each other was not an easy thing to do. They still had to keep in mind that Matt hadn't graduated yet, that there was still something called professionalism between them. College was always a place full of people, so they had to try their very best to keep themselves together and not do anything that would cross the line between a professor and a student. Not to mention that Matt's friends were with him almost all the time, so every time they were with him, he always had to force himself to see his boyfriend as his professor so that he wouldn't accidentally go overboard. He knew that Ray had been doing the same thing as well, trying to look at his partner the way he looked at any of his students.