The Shadow Kingdom

Chapter 3 - White Knight

"Professor Shang?" I knock on the open door. "I'm here for office hours." I have been taking his classes for two weeks now, and I have taken up his offer to come by whenever I need help with something. It's actually kind of convenient to have only one professor for all my classes because this way, I don't have to run to four different offices to ask questions.

"Of course, Scarlett. Please, come in. Close the door behind you." He gestures for me to sit down in front of his desk. The question of how he likes to dress himself has been answered. Every time that I have seen him so far, he is wearing another excessively formal outfit, each one more elegant than the last. He gives me another impossibly charming smile, and I feel my knees go weak as I approach the chair. Why does he have to be this attractive? It makes it so difficult to concentrate on science when I'm around him!

We have finally begun discussing some of the more interesting and complicated material like hypothesis testing and analysis of variance in statistics class. Adrian has proven to be uncannily knowledgeable at everything, and he is exceptionally patient when explaining things to me.

I begin to understand the material when someone else knocks on the door. Adrian rises to greet the visitor, and it is another female student who is also here for office hours. This pretty brunette however, is being brazenly flirtatiously with Adrian and is completely unaffected by the fact that I am here. I get the feeling she is not here for the same reason I am. "I'm sorry. I have another student here right now. You should come by again on Thursday," Adrian says politely and closes the door behind her.

"Don't you have to help all your students during office hours?" I ask.

"I have a first come, first serve policy." Adrian replies and returns to his seat. "And I rather enjoy discussing this stuff with you. You absorb this knowledge very naturally."

"Thank you." I blush at the compliment. "You are a very good teacher." I push my hair behind my ear involuntarily and smile at him with my head tilted to the side. Oh my god, I'm mimicking the brunette!

Adrian smiles back at me, and I immediately snap out of it. I sit up straight and restore my professional demeanour. He places his elbows on the table and rests his chin on his hands. "Scarlett, would you like to spend some time together outside of my office hours? Perhaps at some place other than the university?"

"Uh..." Is he asking me out? Oh, crap! I must have just given him mixed signals. "No, I don't think so. Thank you for the offer, but I think we should keep things professional between you and me." I collect my belongings and get up to leave, wondering how everything became so inappropriate. I thank Adrian for all his help.

"Any time," he says. He stands at the doorway, and I freeze before crossing the threshold. I examine him in explicit detail from head to toe, and my baser, more feminine side scolds me for turning down his offer. What the hell are you thinking? He is smoking hot! "Scarlett?" He interrupts my ogling. "I thought you were leaving."

"Right!" I've been standing here like an idiot for several seconds. "Yes. Yes, I was. Goodbye, Professor Shang."

"Adrian," he corrects.

I hurry away from his office in embarrassment and go to the library where I can review the stuff we just covered one more time. Could I ever be that girl? The girl who dates her professor? The professor who is ridiculously handsome, charming, intelligent, and who really knows how to pick out a suit? The professor who is more than twenty-five years older than you and probably married! My rational side chides me.

What if he is married? And with a kid! That would make him one hell of a sleazebag! Or maybe he was just trying to be friendly. Maybe he just wanted to spend some quality, platonic time with a person whose company he enjoys. I do make very good company after all. Oh, damn it! That was probably it! I plant my face in my palms, regretting that I didn't give Adrian a chance to explain himself. I really would love to spend some personal time with him.