Math is, was and always shall be my worst subject in school. I scraped by with C's most of my high school career and college thus far was proving to be a similar situation. Except with college math my C's turned to D's and F's and as someone who heavily relied on the grants I got from the government to attend school, grants that required a certain GPA to qualify for, I could not risk failing this stupid math course. However, I was not good at asking for help.
I am a returning college student who had taken a 5 year sabbatical to work in the "real world" once I did that for so long, and drained every bit of savings I had trying to make ends meet while working, I realized going back to school to get my degree was quite literally becoming my only option to have a better life. The issue is, I am one of the oldest people in most of my classes, as most of the students my age are graduated or will be graduating soon. It really made my confidence shake knowing there are 16 year olds in my math class that are passing with better grades than me.
But as my math final quickly approached and still no improvement was made to my grade I bit the proverbial bullet and asked my professor for help. Professor Reed is fairly young to be a college professor, maybe in his early 30's, which made him seem somewhat intimidating as he was not much older than myself and clearly had much more going for himself than I did. But in all honesty he is a nice guy; it's only my constant need to compare myself to others in my peer group that made him seem intimidating. So of course he was more than happy to hear I was finally asking for help and told me to hang around after my last evening class and he would tutor me until I grasped the concepts I needed help with. I was relieved.
My last class let out at 8:30pm, gathering my things I left the Fine Arts building and headed across the small commuter campus to the Science and Math building, stopping to pick up a hot tea and muffin on my way. I stepped out into the cooling fall air and regretted allowing the earlier sun to fool me into thinking it would stay warm all day. I pulled my hoodie closer and ducked into the wind as it blew my strawberry blonde waves around my face. Speeding up my pace I quickly reached the other building, stepping inside my glasses instantly fogged up at the sudden temperature change.
I waited for the fog to clear off my lenses and started my trek up to the second floor where Professor Reed's office was. The halls were basically empty except for a few straggling students meeting with clubs or headed to the library and a few administrators who were closing down computers and files for the day. My sneakers slapped noisily on the tile floor making me really aware of how empty everything was at the end of the day. My anxiety started to creep up my neck and I slowed my pace wondering if extra credit would raise my grade enough for me to flunk math and still get my grants.
I turned to leave and was caught by Professor Reed coming down the end of the hall I was planning my escape through.
"Marie, hi am I late? I'm sorry I got caught up by my last class."
Crap. I'm stuck now.
"Oh no, I guess I'm just early, no problem Professor Reed." I smiled as he ushered me into his relatively spacious office.
"Call me Sam, I get it I'm supposed to have this complex that demands you address me by my title but fuck it, we're adults."
I blinked at his casual demeanor. He was right, most of the professors at the college demanded to call them by their title, but they were, for the most part, considerably older than Profes-Sam.
"So what is it exactly that you struggle with?" he asked undoing the buttons at the ends of his sleeves and rolling them up to his elbows. A tattoo of a thorny black rose was revealed on his left forearm. It caught my eye, he always wore long sleeves and I never imagined it was to cover up tattoos. He seemed like such the bookish type of guy, but apparently my personality judgments were totally off with this guy.
"What's a polite way to say, I suck at everything?" I replied sarcastically.
He chuckled, it was a deep rich rumble, I never noticed how deep his voice actually was.
He had started going on about something regarding everyone being good at something different, I nodded my head along but I was not listening. I was suddenly aware of this man, more aware of him than I had been of anyone else I had encountered since returning to school. He's tall, considering I'm barely 5'3" I guess everyone is tall to me, but he had to stand over 6 feet tall. He had chestnut brown hair that flowed in a shaggy mess covering the top part of his ears and forehead, and dark brown eyes. He isn't pale, but the last of his summer tan was fading to reveal the winter skin tone everyone in Midwestern USA got during the colder months. He had pretty white teeth that lay behind soft looking light pink lips. He carried a lazy smile which when paired with his ability to manipulate his eyebrows so he raised one at a time made a seductive smirk and left girls stuttering under his gaze. Like me, right now.
"Wh-What did you say?"
"I said did you bring your notes?"
"Yeah of course, just let me..." I began to hastily and quite embarrassed dig through my back pack pulling out the scribble covered note book I had designated for math.
He had stood and walked over to his desk pulling a soda out of his bag and sat on the desk beside me. I was acutely aware of his cologne; I had always been a sucker for a guy that smelled good. He sat with one hip higher than the other and one foot on the ground, turned towards me his legs were in my line of sight and I suddenly found myself wondering how big this guy's dick was, something that had genuinely never mattered to me before.
I pulled my head out of my vagina and managed to struggle through the next hour of math tutoring showing little to no improvement. At the end of an hour, Sam sat back and said,
"It's okay, you'll get it."
"I doubt it." I replied rubbing my hands over my face.
He looked at me for a long moment, examining everything about me.
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" I asked.
"Constantly doubt yourself, put yourself down."
"I-I don't know, force of habit?" I offered up meekly.
He considered that for a moment.
"Well I'm nobody so take this as you will, but you're gorgeous and intelligent and I hear your witty remarks over in the corner Miss Sass-master, you're funny. Math isn't your thing, but I bet you're a lot of fun outside of the classroom."
I blushed hard. My face felt hot, I was surprised steam wasn't clouding my glasses.
He laughed and reached forward patting my leg before standing.
"Tell you what Marie, this is highly unprofessional, but if you aren't opposed since I have no classes tomorrow I'm not coming in, it's Saturday after all, but I will give you my address and you can come over and we will continue this tutoring lesson, I firmly believe I can find a way to help you learn this."
I shrugged, who was I to doubt his confidence.
"Deal."
He wrote down his number and address and then walked me to my car. When I got home I found myself reanalyzing everything. I sat down to try to work out some more math problems, but could only think about my professor. Ashamed I gave up on studying and went to take a shower. But even the hot water couldn't keep my mind from wandering, I wondered if he lived alone. I guessed he must to invite a female student over, just a hunch. I went to bed plagued with thoughts about what the next day would bring.
I woke up even more frustrated as my dreams conjured up the most twisted and erotic tales of my tutoring session today. I dreamt every cheesy porn plot there was with a student and teacher and woke up wet but not satisfied.
I rolled over and text Sam asking him what time I should come over. 'How's 5?' was the reply.
Agreeing to 5pm I went about my afternoon as usual. Around 3 I got into the shower once more, taking extra time to shave everything a girl would typically shave for two occasions, a date and a trip to the gynecologist. I washed my hair twice with my favorite strawberry scented shampoo and brushed my teeth even taking time to floss. It was about half way through applying lotion to my now silky smooth cream colored legs that I wondered why I was even bothering to primp this much for a tutoring session. I rationalized that I was doing it for myself but deep down I knew the truth.
Pulling green lace cheeky panties over my soft curvy hips I admired myself in the mirror. I'm short, with wavy strawberry blonde hair and gray eyes, I have a pleasant B-cup handful for breasts that were currently adorned in a black and green bra I paired with my panties. I have a few small tattoos that decorated my otherwise milky complexion. I scrunched my hair up into loose curls and pulled on some dark blue jeans that hugged my curves and a fitted t-shirt with a faded picture of Spiderman on the front. I told myself by dressing this way I was certainly not asking for it. Even though the dark eyeliner and red lipstick I put on as finishing touches argued otherwise.
At 4:57pm I pulled into the drive way of a small town house, it had a large front window facing the residential street, the curtains were partially open and inside I saw Sam standing in a t-shirt and jeans, a beer in hand eyes glued to the TV. I swallowed a nervous gulp and went to the door.
"Hey Marie, did you find the place okay?" Professor Reed asked opening the door.
"Yeah thanks." Inside I discarded my shoes in the pile of works shoes, sneakers and boots by the door.
