I let out a shaky breath, my hands hovering uselessly for a second before I dragged them back, hooking my thumbs into my pockets like that would fix anything. “You’re my professor. My boss.”
“I am,” he agreed, but it did absolutely nothing to stop him from sliding his hand to the back of my neck.
“You’re not even a little concerned?”
“I’m aware of the implications.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
He rubbed circles against the nape of my neck like he was keeping me right where he wanted me.
“I’m concerned with whether you’re overwhelmed. Whether you’re eating enough, sleeping enough, and not running yourself into the ground trying to compensate for something that wasn’t your fault.”
Oh.
I caught his free hand, closing my fingers around his.
A low sound left him. “Good boy.”
My brain short-circuited so fast, I couldn’t even pretend to recover.
“You realize this ends badly?”
His mouth curved slightly. “Is that what you think this is?”
I glanced down at where our hands were linked, his fingers threaded through mine like it was the most natural thing in the world. “Do you make all your TAs want to kiss you, or is this a me problem?”
“I’ve never had a TA before.”
“Well then,” I cleared my throat. “Technically, this could be anybody.”
“Archie, baby.” He drew me half an inch closer. “I’ve crossed paths with thousands of people. I’ve had hundreds of brilliant minds sit across from me, speak to me, challenge me?—”
He pressed his forehead to mine.
“—and not a single one of them has made me feel this way.”
Something in me gave.
It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t dramatic.
Just…gone.
The quad still existed somewhere behind us, but we’d cut far enough along the side of Hargrove that the path curved inward,half-hidden by the building and a line of trees that blocked the main flow of foot traffic.
No one was looking this way. No one had a reason to.
It was just us.
His forehead stayed pressed to mine. “You’re thinking too hard.”
“I’m trying not to ruin your life.”
“You’re not ruining anything.”
“You don’t know that,” I said, but there wasn’t much conviction behind it. “That’s… a lot of confidence for someone who’s known me for, what, a week?”
“Archibald.”