Study Buddy Ch. 02

"Good morning to you too," she said, giving him that look like he was crazy again.

"Sorry, good morning," he swooped in and dropped a kiss on her chubby cheek. "I was just pleasantly surprised to see your pretty face," he said, handing her a cup of coffee.

"Yum, thanks," she said, taking the mug from him and walking to the counter to fix it how she liked it. "I don't wear makeup just because I'm insecure," she added, "Don't get me wrong, insecurity is a factor, but mostly I just really like to do my makeup, its art, but instead of a canvas you use your face."

"Well you certainly have a lovely canvas to work with," he said, kissing her again, this time on the forehead.

She smelled delicious, like vanilla and coconut, the smell brought vivid memories of her in bed flashing through his mind and he fought the urge to bend her over the counter and fuck her again. Instead he cleared his throat and tried to focus on the words he wanted to say. He didn't get a chance to speak before she started talking again.

"Sorry I don't really have any food, I'm a vegetarian, so I don't buy bacon or anything and I ran out of eggs yesterday," she said, "Oh by the way, when I walked out of the bedroom it sounded like your pants were buzzing." Jeff groaned as reality came rushing back to him, it was probably his roommate and research partner Ted, trying to figure out where he went.

"I should probably check my phone then, I'll be right back," he said, apologetically. He put down his coffee and ran down the hall. His pants were in a lump by her bed and were, in fact buzzing. He snatched his phone out of his pocket and saw that Ted had called, texted, and left a million voicemails, basically all to the effect of "Dude what the hell, we have to be at the lab at 10:30 and nobody has seen you."

Jeff had forgotten that he started his work on Saturday morning...which was now this morning... in ten minutes!

"Is everything ok?" Lena asked, walking into the room sipping her coffee. She was so pretty and he really needed to talk to her, he would just have to tell the professor and Ted that he was sick.

"Yeah, it was my friend, he wants to know where I went and if I'm going to make it to our first session in the lab this morning. It's no big deal, I can blow it off," he said with a shrug. Lena's eyes widened.

"When are you supposed to be there?"

"In ten minutes,"

"Oh my god! Get dressed! You can't be late or not show up when you work for Professor Williams! He is known for being insanely strict. I wouldn't put it past him to fire you and get you kicked out of the project if he doesn't think you are serious enough!" Lena said, scrambling around the room, tossing his clothes towards him.

"Wait, what? He can't kick me out of the program for not showing up one time," Jeff said, sure that she was overreacting. He put his clothes back on anyway.

"Oh yes he can, and he has done it before. You just met him, but I've taken five courses taught by him, trust me, he doesn't mess around," she said, "do you need to borrow a lab coat? You won't have time to go back to your place to get yours."

She thrust a long white coat into his hands without waiting for him to reply and raced out of the bedroom.

"I'll drive you there, come on!" she shouted from the kitchen.

"I was really hoping we could have a slow morning and talk about last night," he said following her reluctantly.

"School and work are more important! You must have worked really hard to get where you are, don't blow it because you want to have a lazy day," she replied, handing him her travel mug, which she had dumped his coffee into, "lets go!"

He followed Lena out the door and into the parking lot. He didn't say anything as she practically shoved him into a little silver sedan. She jumped in the driver seat and tossed his backpack on his lap, luckily she had remembered it because he sure hadn't. As she started racing down the road towards the science buildings he tried to talk to her.

"Thanks for driving me," he paused awkwardly, feeling like her frenzy to get him out the door had more to do with her wanting him gone than caring about his career, "are you ok? Like with last night?"

She pulled up in front of the lab building, her apartment had only been a few blocks away, and turned towards him.

"I'm great, now go! If you run you can get there in time, you have two minutes, its on the third floor," she replied giving his shoulder a little shove. He wanted to say more but couldn't find the words. He reluctantly got out of the car and walked away, staring at her over his shoulder.

She waved her hands at him and mouthed "Go!" through the car window. He pulled his eyes away from her and stepped into the building. As the doors shut behind him, he realized that he hadn't gotten her number. He turned to go back, but saw her car pull away and drive down the road. He had really messed that up...

Lena:

Lena tried to ignore the throbbing ache in her chest and tell herself that she was being crazy, she shouldn't miss him this much. What was wrong with her? She had just met him, she didn't know him at all... but for some reason she had felt a flood of melancholy as soon as he closed the car door.

Her worries were eating away at her. He probably only wanted a one-night thing, that was what he had wanted to talk about over breakfast. He felt bad and wanted to let her down easy.

She knew that she had done the right thing, making him go to the lab. She had known a girl when she was a Junior in undergrad who had been one of Professor Williams' research assistants and she had told Lena all about Williams.

Apparently one of his assistants that year had gotten kicked out of the program for being hung over. He hadn't been underage or still drunk, or unable to perform his duties in lab. But Williams had overheard the guy mention his hangover to a friend and Williams said that the student wasn't serious enough and had given him the boot.

She doubted that Williams would be any more forgiving of an assistant being a no show on his first day because he wanted to have breakfast with a girl he had just slept with.

There was a part of her that felt relived that things had ended that way. She didn't think she could hold it together if Jeff had sat her down and told her that he wasn't interested, or was only interested in being occasional friends with benefits or something like that.

She didn't think she wanted a relationship, she had never wanted a relationship... but for some reason he made her irrational, he made her want things that she had convinced herself she would never have.

But this is good! She thought. Now I don't have to have an awkward conversation, I can just pretend that it never happened...

She told herself that, but she couldn't stop missing him. She pulled her car into her parking spot and went back into her apartment. She smiled at Cheesecake as he sauntered towards her to say hello.

She picked the cat up, buried her face in his fur, and was glad that he couldn't judge her for the tears that started to leak out of her eyes.