Chapter 3: Epiphany
A text arrived as Ridge was sorting his laundry. He and Alex shared playful banter and double entendres. When Ridge finally went to bed, he took a picture of the half-empty bad and sent it to Alex with a sad face. Alex sent him a picture of her naked from the waist down. Ridge sighed and considered for a while, then sent her a picture of his cock with the message, "And I thought we were adults."
Apparently chastened, Alex stopped sending messages after a message consisting of just a pair of lips. When Ridge woke the next morning, he responded with the same. While he bathed, he tried not to think of Alex with him by planning out his day. And after he had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, he packed his laptop into his bookbag and couldn't help but think of first days of school from earlier in his life. Finally, he sent a message to Alex just before heading out.
**Ridge:** *Thinking of you. Dinner tonight?"*
He drove to campus and found a parking space, then headed into the English building. When he found the room his Freshman Composition class was scheduled for, he found a seat towards the back, pulling out his laptop and preparing for his first class in a decade. His phone pinged, and he picked it up. Alex had sent him a picture; she had her hair up with a few dangly bits, and she was wearing glasses. She looked lovely and he sent her a thumbs-up. She responded.
**Alex:** *Dinner sounds lovely! Thinking of you!*
And then another picture arrived, of Alex making a kissy face for him. Ridge was studying those heavenly blue eyes in the picture when a few girls walked into the classroom and just stopped at seeing him, giving him a very blatant once-or-twice-over and then giggling amongst themselves as they took their seats. Other students came in, and then the teacher came in. She was wearing a nice black knit blouse and a long skirt, and her blonde hair was up on her head. She shut the door and turned to face the room.
Ridge's heart stopped and then accelerated to max speed. Alex looked around the room and then her eyes landed on Ridge, and she gasped and blushed. The other students looked around the room for a moment to see what the issue might be, and Alex continued into the room and set her books down on the desk. She took a slow deep breath and leaned on the desk, showing off her legs. Ridge wondered quickly if that was an accident or intended for him, and Alex apparently read his mind as she boosted herself to sit in the edge of the table.
Alex began, "Welcome folks. I'm Dr. Hardesty and this is Freshman Composition 101. Please feel free to call me 'Alex' when we're here together or in my office, and 'Dr. Hardesty' or 'Professor' or even 'Prof' elsewhere." She scanned the room catching people's eyes and nodding. "Let me start by taking the roll and learning how you want to be referred to."
Grabbing a pencil, she started down the list of students and wrote down what each one said they wanted to use as a name. Ridge suddenly had an idea, and when Alex got through to him, she called out "Ridge McKoy?" Ridge raised his hand. "Here. Ridge is fine. Ma'am." Alex looked up at him as the class tittered as his overly polite response. She paused and swept her bangs from her eyes, and a real smile crept onto her features. She nodded and went on.
After the roll was taken, he handed out a sheet with her office information and general guidelines on one side and a high-level schedule for the semester on the other. There would be five papers and an essay final exam for the course. The focus was both on reading comprehension and interpretation as well as grammar and rhetoric. Alex laid out what all that meant and pointed out that the papers' due dates were marked on the schedule she had handed out. She grimaced and went on, "Now listen up. You may think that since you know the dates when your work is due, you have no reason to come to class except to turn the papers in. And technically, you'd be right. But I promise we're going to be discussing things in class that will make your papers better and if you are on the border between grades at the end of the semester, I will take your class participation into account." Her eyes flew up to Ridge's face and she blushed a little. Ridge tried very hard to not grin at the idea of his participation meaning something to his grade. He kept his expression neutral, but the memory of her naked body pressed against that window, the way she had moaned his name, the way her nails had dug into his shoulders—it was all he could do to keep from smirking. He shifted in his seat, subtly adjusting himself as he tried to focus on her words.
Alex moved to the whiteboard, her skirt hugging her hips as she wrote out the syllabus in neat, precise letters. "Now, let’s talk about your first assignment. It’s a short reflective essay on a piece of literature you’ve read recently. Something that resonated with you." Ridge actively focused on not looking at her ass and took copious notes. But when she turned back around, his hand was raised.
Alex blinked, and then pointed towards him. "Ridge, was it? Do you have a question?" Ridge lowered his hand and nodded. "Yes, ma'am." The class tittered again, and he looked around for a moment. "I've been working since I graduated high school and to be honest, farm life isn't real conducive to reading literature. I don't think I can tell you the last piece of literature I read. Is there something else I can write about?" Alex looked around the room and then back at Ridge. "That's a fair question. How about i we expand the parameters a little and make the essay be about any piece of writing that's important to you?" The class made general noises of approval, and Alex nodded. Ridge said, "Thank you, ma'am."
The class went on in general conversation and then, after a bit, Alex said, "I think that's it for the day." Students immediately started packing up. Several immediately approached Alex at the front of the room to ask questions. The three girls that examined him approached Ridge as a unit and started trying to flirt with him. There was even a suggestion of group study sessions. Ridge looked toward Alex and found her staring back, her mouth slightly open at the attention he was getting. And Ridge had to admit, to be fair, if he were 18 or 19 years old, the girls standing around him would be the center of attention for his teenaged mind.
But he winked to her and rolled his eyes, and she grinned a little, returning her attention to the girls. He admitted that having study partners might be a good thing, but since he was returning to school after a decade, he really needed to get a feel for how things were going to go before he committed. The girls seemed disappointed, but still they each managed to give him their phone number and didn't notice that he did not share his own.
Finally the class emptied and Ridge put his packed bag over a shoulder and approached Alex as she erased the whiteboard. "I'm sorry, Alex. I had no idea...it didn't occur to me that this might happen." Alex turned part way towards him and then went to the door and closed it again. She returned to Ridge and put a finger over his lips. "You gorgeous man. We'll fix this, but you're not getting away so easy." Alex's finger traced his lips slowly, her blue eyes darkening as she studied him. The room felt suddenly smaller, the air charged with the same electric tension that had crackled between them in his apartment.
They were silent for a moment, both experiencing whatever was happening between them. Then Alex smirked. "I have to say, the idea of you being my student has a number of benefits that makes me warm all over...". Alex's voice trailed off as she stepped closer to him, the scent of her perfume—something floral and warm—lingering between them. Ridge felt his pulse quicken, his body responding to her proximity, the memory of her skin still fresh in his mind. Alex's finger traced a slow line from his lips down his jaw, her touch feather-light. "But that will just have to be our fantasy." She exhaled, her breath warm against his cheek. "The university has rules, Ridge. Strict ones."
Ridge nodded and reached up, gently catching her wrist, his thumb brushing over her pulse point. Alex sighed sharply at his touch, then pulled her hand away. "When you cook me dinner tonight at your apartment, we'll make plans. I am *not* losing this just as it gets started." Ridge nodded again. "See you at 7?" Alex smiled brightly and kissed her fingertip, then pressed it to his mouth. "Let's say 6. I'll be bringing a bag of clothes." She took a step back and ran her eyes up his body. "I see you like the idea."
Ridge chuckled softly. "Yes, *ma'am*. I'll let the concierge know to let you in, unless you want me to come down to the lobby?" She grinned back at him. "No, no, tell the concierge. They're going to get to know me, I think." Alex smirked, her eyes glinting with mischief as she adjusted her glasses. "I'm not just some hot professor who shows up in your class and disappears. I'm the one who's going to make sure you actually learn something." Ridge chuckled, his eyes lingering on her lips. "Oh, I have no doubt about that, ma'am." Alex rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her smile. "Stop calling me that. It's weird now." Ridge laughed and kissed her brow quickly before putting his bag over his shoulder and heading out into the hall and on to his next class. Alex's eyes were on his ass as he left the room. She shivered a little and gathered her supplies, then left the room herself.