Chapter 29
The man returned with a bunch of paper towels from the bathroom. He pulled a water bottle out of his briefcase and crouched on the floor, insisting I step aside and let him handle it.
He asked me what happened with the cupcake, and I’m not sure why, but I just told him everything.
About Susan being my only friend at the start of the year. About how she begged me to go along with her to the Full Moon Ball, and then completely flipped out when, through no fault of my own, I was chosen by the prince instead of her. And about how I reached out to her last night, and felt so full of hope this morning, and how she got mad about my earrings, and all of the awful stuff she said about my family.
Never before in my life had I just opened up and spilled my guts to a total stranger like that. But he was easy to talk to, a good listener, and kept asking questions.
Finally I said, “I’m sorry, I’ve been rambling on about my problems and haven’t even properly introduced myself. I’m Yena.”
“I know,” he said, smiling. “You’re the princess. And I’m Adan.”
He held his hand out and I shook it.
He lingered, holding my hand just a fraction of a second longer than seemed normal. But that was it — just a fraction of a second — so decided not to read too much into it.
“I’m a new professor here,” the man continued, “in the Philosophy department.”
“Interesting,” I said. “I just made a new friend recently, and she studies Philosophy. Do you have any students named Lucy?”
The professor squinted and looked up, like he was trying to place the name.
“Not that I can remember at the moment,” he said, shrugging. “But I’ve only been teaching for a few weeks, so to be honest, I don’t know any of my students’ names at all. I just moved here a little over a month ago.”
“Oh?” I asked. “Where did you move from?”
“Well, I was actually born here. But I spent the past ten years living in the human world.”
“Really?” My eyes went wide. “What were you doing there?”
He smiled, clearly enjoying my attention.
“Traveling, writing, trying out different careers,” he said. “Working on a relationship that ultimately didn’t work out.”
His eyes dipped from mine and I saw them flicker, very quickly, up and down the length of my body. When he met my gaze again he gave me a knowing, mischievous smile.
A little flurry of butterflies did a quick turn in my stomach.
I felt my face get hot. I was starting to understand that this man was flirting with me.
“I should be going,” I said. I pushed my hair behind my ear with my left hand, giving him a good view of my wedding ring as I did so.
“That’s too bad,” he said. “I was enjoying our chat.”
“Me too,” I replied. “And thanks again for your help with the whole cupcake incident.”
He smiled and said, “Any time.”
I left the library and was a few steps out the door when he jogged up from behind me.
“Sorry,” he said, touching my arm lightly to stop me. “But I thought maybe you’d like to take this, since you’re interested in the human world?”
He handed me a slim hardcover book.
“Just read it if you feel like it,” he said, “and keep it either way. I have another copy.”
He smiled and turned on his heels, then disappeared into a stairwell before I could say anything in response.
The book was titled Stories From The Other Side.
I flipped it open to a random page.
On Love and Monogamy, read a chapter heading at the top of the page.
I laughed. That was definitely a subject I could use some help with.
I got home late after a full day of lectures and sat down to eat in the dining room. I wasn’t expecting to see Nolan tonight, but he came striding in just a few minutes later and sat down beside me.
A pair of servants hurried to fill wine and water glasses in front of him. He ignored them, gave me a sort of bedraggled smile and asked, “How was your day?” His voice sounded about as tired as I was feeling.
“Pretty boring,” I said. He did not need to hear about my meeting with Susan. Or the professor.
“You know, the usual.” I shrugged. “What about you?”
He eyed me a little suspiciously.
“I guess about the same,” he said flatly. “Boring. Usual.”
He started to smile and darted his eyes away from mine. I guess he was onto me, but it didn’t matter because he didn’t want to tell me about his day, either.
“Have you talked to your parents lately?” he asked. “How are Tina and Peter doing?” He was swirling the wine in his glass and watching it closely.
I suddenly realized I’d lost count of how many days it’d been since I’d talked to Tina.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess it’s been a little while. I’ll check in on them tomorrow.”
He took a sip from his glass and let out a little groan of pleasure. Then he turned his head and looked at me, narrowing his eyes.
“You should try this,” he said, nodding like he was quite pleased with his own idea.
I said, “Okay.” If there was ever a day to take up drinking, this might be it.
A big, delicate wine glass was in my hand next thing I knew, with a maid pouring burgundy liquid into it. I almost brought it right to my lips, but Nolan raised his eyebrows and cleared his throat, so I set it down on the table instead.
He put his hand over mine on the bottom of the glass. “Do this first,” he said, pushing my hand in a tight little circle and making the wine swirl inside the glass in a perfect whirlpool. “Then, you smell it.”
He lifted his own glass to his face and put his nose right into it. He took an exaggerated inhale through his nose, pulled the glass away, and exhaled noisily.
I let out a little chuckle and he squinted at me.
“Sorry,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
I put my nose in the glass and tried sniffing it like he had done. I was surprised. The aroma was actually incredible – and delicious.
“Whoa,” I said. “Can I taste it now?”
He grinned, satisfied, and said, “Yes.” He lifted his glass and tapped it against mine lightly.
We drank together and laughed. He enjoyed teaching me things, I could tell.
It was good wine, and that meant he cut me off after one glass. He walked me up to our suite but left me there, saying he needed to finish up some work in his office.
I ran a bath and dumped in more pine-scented soap than I probably should’ve. I brought the book with me, the one the professor had given me in the morning, and set it aside to read later. I stripped in two seconds flat and was fully submerged in three more.
I washed my hair and body and felt so much better. Like I’d finally scrubbed off all the frosting and hatred Susan had thrown at me.
Then I dried my hands and picked up the book, settling in to soak. I had to bat away some of the bubbles that were overflowing the tub.
When I flipped the book open, something caught my eye right away.
On the inside of the dust jacket was a black-and-white photo of the author.
It was him. Adan — the professor.
I smiled. He was an interesting man.
I read a couple chapters in the tub and lost track of time. It wasn’t until I started shivering that I realized the water had grown cold, and I’d been in there almost an hour.
Finally I got into some pajamas and slid into bed. I took the book with me.
It covered a lot of different topics. Anecdotes about human culture. Interviews and studies.
I found a chapter on Art and Design. The professor’s writings confirmed what I had learned on my honeymoon, when Nolan and I toured the museums of the human world. That the werewolf world was indeed inferior to theirs, at least in this aspect.
The human art world was inventive. The artists played with color, with form, and with technique, finding new ways to express their joy, their sadness, their frustrations, and their passions. They pushed boundaries, explored the grotesque, and were not afraid to be sexually explicit.
Their culture embraced creativity and individuality.
But here, the art that sold and made people famous was work that followed the rules of tradition.
I planned to go see Adan again the next day. I had to ask him more about the human world. He was the only person I’d ever met who had lived there.
I stayed up late and almost finished the entire book.
When I woke up, I found it wedged between the bed and the nightstand, having fallen into that gap when fell asleep reading and dropped it. A bunch of the pages were all crumpled up.
