Hidden In Plain Sight

Needy

When Sadie arrived in college and connected to the school WiFi, her phone buzzed immediately.

M: Kitten!!! U didn't eat any breakfast!!!

She giggled and noticed he had sent it five minutes after she left.

He's cute for noticing! Oh look, Starfucks is open already... think I'll grab one of those pain au chocolats and get another coffee... it's gonna be a long day.

As she stood in the very short queue and gazed at her phone while sending Mary a quick text back, a voice with a strong Northern twang rang in her ear. "Good morning Sarah! How are you? Did you have a nice break?" Pat was grinning and he had a twinkle in his eye.

Fuck shit fuck!

Sadie locked the screen immediately.

"Hi Pat! I'm great thanks! I had a blast! Did you?" She blushed hard.

Did he see Mary's photo in the chat? Fuck!

"Oh I had a great time! I was at the Audio Engineering Society conference in the Big Apple last week, wow it was amazing stuff! Your friend Professor Goore was there too!"

My friend Professor Goore? Cheeky!

She noticed the barista was waiting for her order. "Americano please! Regular. Oh and this!" She held up the pastry.

Feeling flustered but hiding it super well, she turned to Pat. "Professor Goore? That's lovely! Did you go together?" She tapped her phone on the machine and moved to the right, allowing Pat to place his order while she waited for her coffee.

"I'll have the same!" He turned to Sadie. "You have me in the mood for something sweet! That looks tasty!" He grinned and she couldn't help but giggle. He seems like a kindly but cool father! Pat is really nice. "Yes," he continued, "we went together. Goore presented a research paper! He was excellent."

"Wow, amazing!" Sadie pretended she had no idea even though she had watched his presentation at least three times in full while he was away and took some screenshots of his finest moments. These were shared in her band chat and discussed in detail.

When the two got their coffees, Pat asked "Are you going to the meeting at 10? I believe you weren't happy with one of your grades? Goore told me..."

Ah, so that's what he's referring to!

Sadie breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, I sure am! We've a lecture with you though first, right? At 9?"

"Correct. I believe Goore has someone lined up to examine your work if needs be." He lowered his voice and leaned in, pulling Sadie away from the kiosk. "Between you and I, he mentioned this could be a follow on or a repercussion from your incident last semester. Will you let us know if there's any trouble later?"

"I will. Thanks Professor!"

"Alright Sarah. Talk to you later on! And well done on the rest of your exams!" He winked. "Top of the class! Just like Goore said you would be!" He turned and hurried off toward his office, leaving Sadie dumbstruck standing in the corridor with her coffee and pastry.

Those two seem to do a LOT of talking! How much does Pat know?! Or suspect?!

She sat down at the nearest table and waited for her classmates to join her which they did in the usual order. It was great to see the gang and she delighted in listening to their stories from over the break.

"Professor Goore played a gig with his metal band! Did you guys know?!" Ruthie looked at Sadie. "Did you know?"

"How would I know? Infact, how do you know?"

"He has a gig flyer on his blog! Plus he posted some photos from it last week!"

"He has a blog?"

Why didn't I find this?

"Eh, yeah! Thought you would know about it! He's got bits and pieces up there! I think he went to New York as well recently, he posted a link to some conference in his latest post!"

"Aren't you the little detective?!"

I'm going to have to snoop through all of this later!

"I wanted to find out more about him. For science!" Ruthie grinned.

"Well, I heard that he has a girlfriend!" Sadie snapped. She couldn't help herself, she was annoyed at Ruthie's smug face and a jealous flare hit her in her tummy.

Ruthie's face dropped. "OMG! How do you know?! Did he tell you?!"

Shit.

"Uh, I dunno, I heard it somewhere. Maybe I heard it in passing last semester? I'm pretty sure someone locked that down!"

Ruthie studied Sadie's blushing face. "You two became quite pally last semester! You started off hating him and saying he was self-centred but by the end of the exams you were going for coffees with him and stuff!"

"We got to know each other. So what? He's quite nice... we are friends... sorta."

"Girls, it's time to go to class. Come on!" Alyssa interjected.

Sadie met Ruthie's suspicious eyes as they rose from their seats and marched towards the lecture hall they were assigned to. Pat was already waiting for them and he had his usual wide smile on his face. When the class had finally finished filtering in he began.

"Good morning everybody and welcome back! So great to see all your lovely faces on this chilly Monday morning! Congratulations to you all on last semester's examinations, I am pleased to see the high standard set by your contemporaries in years 2, 3 and 4 is being continued.

Before I give you your new timetable which has just been released by the head of department not five minutes ago, I'm reminding you that the examinations queries meeting is taking place after this lecture. Do go if you have any issues. It's very important.

Your next class would have been at midday with Professor Goore for Studio Environment but he's absent. He's recovering from a serious bout of jet lag after getting back from New York in the early hours this morning. He will be back tomorrow. But make sure you stay for Popular Music Genre Studies with Jack at 2 pm! I recommend anyone who has a four hour gap after this class go to the library and either do some reading or listening."

Sadie bristled at the mention of Mary and she giggled silently at the thought of him fast asleep in her bed right now while everyone else imagined him to be anywhere else but in a student's bed. She knew he was still cuddling Ginger Baker right now.

Fuck! She remembered the image of Mary bound to her bed only hours before. His wrists above his head, wearing those kinky cuffs! The hunger in his eyes... all he wanted was a good ride... and he got it! She felt butterflies in her tummy as she recalled their passionate love making.

Pat handed out the timetable which also detailed the new class grouping system. Sadie glanced over the information and noticed she wouldn't be home until at least 4:30 that afternoon. Mondays look heavy! But at least my first class isn't until midday on Tuesdays. I will lie in! I can't wait to see Mary later, I hope he's enjoying his lie on...

Fifty minutes later, Sadie's class trickled out of the lecture hall and spilled into the corridors along with several others.

"You going to the results meeting?" Alyssa asked.

"Yeah, are you?"

"Yeah. I'm so nervous! Let's go together!"

"Let's! We've got this!"