Chapter 60

Tessa’s POV

I shouldn’t have gone to bed so early. Now I was awake in the middle of the night with a stomach that wouldn’t stop growling. I hadn’t even eaten dinner.

I wondered if Joseph had eaten anything last night. I didn’t cook for him but he’s not incompetent that he couldn’t cook his own meal. In fact, Joseph was an impressive cook.

Going to bed last night was the only thing my mind could truly do. I wrote a new blog post, something that I probably should have kept in my journal, and then I crawled into bed and fell asleep. I didn’t even say anything to Joseph yesterday, so I’m sure he knew that I was upset.

I just couldn’t get that conversation with Emily out of my head. She has real feelings for him and she’s beautiful. She would be more than just a one-night stand and it’s not just her blood that attracts him.

Although, he told me that he doesn’t feel that attraction towards her, yet he could have been saying that to make me feel better.

I shouldn’t even be this upset over it. Joseph and I have a teacher/student relationship and nothing more. It could never be anything more. But still… he has this effect on me that makes me weak in my knees.

He was my favorite author. I guess I just wanted his attention for myself.

I sighed and got out of bed, not bothering to take a look at my new blog post from last night. I’m sure there were probably no comments or likes on it like most of my other posts. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t check after I got something into my stomach.

As I made my way downstairs, I saw the light under Joseph’s office door shining through. I knew he must have been working hard in there. I thought about going in to say hi, but then the memory of Emily’s confession roamed in my head, and then I figured it was better if I said nothing. So, I just continued on my way into the kitchen.

I opened the fridge just as my stomach started to angrily growl. I held my stomach, trying to calm it down before Joseph overheard it and came into the kitchen. The last thing I wanted to do was explain to him why I fell asleep so early and without any dinner.

I rose my brows at the plate in the fridge that had saran wrap covering it. It had “Tessa” written in black Sharpie on top of it.

He made me dinner?

It was certainly a heartwarming gesture, and it forced a smile to tug at the corner of my lips. I grabbed the plate and ripped the wrapping off it.

Spaghetti and meatballs, and it looked delicious.

My stomach growled violently again.

With Joseph’s vampire hearing, there was no doubt in my mind that he heard it that time. He would definitely hear the microwave if anything.

As predicted, as soon as I turned on the microwave, the kitchen door opened, and Joseph stood in the entryway.

“I thought I heard something,” he said, eyeing me carefully.

I could see the questions in his eyes, but I doubted he had any sense to actually ask them.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you. I woke up hungry.”

“Probably because you went to bed without eating.”

My face warmed at his words. He didn’t sound angry, and he certainly didn’t look angry. But I could see that he was confused, and maybe even a little worried.

When I didn’t say anything in response, he strolled over to me.

It only took a couple of long strides to reach me, but once he was near me, he was only inches away. My breathing got caught in my throat as I stared up at him.

He kept his eyes locked on mine as he brought his hand to my face and touched my cheek gently.

“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to keep my tone as even as possible.

“Just seeing if you have a fever. Are you feeling unwell?”

I shook my head.

“No. I’m feeling fine,” I told him. “I’m sorry I went to bed so early. I just needed to clear my mind.”

The microwave beeped, indicating that my food was ready. It smelled delicious and my mouth practically watered as I placed the plate on the counter and grabbed a fork.

“Thank you for dinner,” I said to him. “It was nice of you to save me some.”

“I made it for you.”

I rose my gaze to meet his very serious expression, unsure of what to say.

“You seemed down yesterday, and I wanted to do something nice,” he clarified.

I didn’t say anything, but I nodded as I took a bite of the food.

“I saw you leaving Emily’s office yesterday.”

His words caused me to freeze entirely, I stared up at him in shock. I had no idea he saw me, and I wasn’t ‘sure what to say. I couldn’t tell him about the conversation and that was the reason I was so upset.

Why was he bringing this up now?

Maybe he already knew.

“She’s not your teacher. Why were you speaking with her during your lunch hour?” He finally asked, eyeing my face carefully.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I had no excuses for him other than the truth. If I told him the truth, he would know the reason why I’d been so upset.

I bit my bottom lip as I tried to come up with something to say.

“The truth, Tessa.”

His words came out firm and caused me to release my lip and look up at him.

Looking into his eyes, I realized he already knew.

“I think she mainly wanted to know if you were single…” I paused for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts and come up with something else to say that didn’t make it look like I was jealous. “It seemed like she was accusing me of wanting you. But I must have misunderstood her.”

He raised his brows.

“And what did you tell her?”

My face warmed.

“I told her that I didn’t think you were seeing someone and that I wasn’t interested in you like that,” I answered.

He was quiet for a moment as he processed my answer.

“I had a talk with her myself yesterday,” Joseph said casually.

My heart fell into my stomach, and I looked down at my food, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore.

“What did you say?” I found myself asking.

“I told her not to cross that boundary by talking to you about that kind of thing again. It’s inappropriate for a teacher to confront a student about another teacher's in that kind of manner.”

I nodded.

“I understand.”

“I also made it clear that I’m not on the market,” he continued. “I will not be dating a coworker, especially one who feels it’s okay to question a student in a manner.”

I was surprised by this and I’m sure my facial expression said just that. It felt like a heavy weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

“When you have issues at school, I hope you feel comfortable coming to me about them. Instead of keeping them to yourself and then going to bed early without any dinner,” he said, glancing at my plate. “Not just as your professor.”

I rose my brows in surprise.

He cocked his head to the side and gave me a lopsided grin at my expression.

“I mean, you are my pen pal after all,” he continued.

I stared at him for a moment longer before I started to laugh.

“Have you seen your blog post by the way?” He asked.

The laughter was gone instantly, and I felt the blood draining from my body. How could I have been so careless and written such a personal and emotional blog post? Of course, he knew about the whole Emily situation because I wrote about it clearly.

Before I had the chance to say anything, he added, “You should take a look at the comments.”

Then, he turned and left the kitchen.

I furrowed my brows together at his words as I grabbed my phone from my pocket and went into my blog. The first thing I noticed was my following had grown even more, by at least 25 people.

My heart thudded against my chest as I opened my recent post and saw that there were a bunch of comments.

“What a beautiful post, Tessa! I’m sorry you were feeling so down!”

“You are strong and beautiful! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!”

“You should post longer posts! I would love to read actual stories from you!”

“Yes!! Make your posts longer!!”