don’t know, Anderson. Maybe just give him space. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You told him nothing could happen. He’s respecting that,” Dave said as he got up and went to the refrigerator for another bottle of wine.
I picked up my wineglass and drank it in one go before I replaced it on the table. “It’s not as if I’m asking him to come over so I can sleep with him again. If nothing else, I’m his professor and he won’t respond to me, which is a problem.” I watched Dave open the bottle, and when he held it out, I nodded. After he filled my glass, I picked it back up. “Thanks.”
“It’s your wine. I just poured it. So he won’t talk to you. Did you try emailing him?”
“No. The only email I have is his student account, and I’m almost positive those are monitored.”
“You know they are. Think about how many have gotten in trouble because of something that was in the emails. Okay, so call out to him in class.” Dave sat down and pulled another slice of pizza onto his plate. I thought it was ironic that the pizza cost less than one bottle of wine. We were up to our third.
“I have. He rushes out with the rest of the students and is gone before I can get to him. Aside from chasing him down and running over the other students, I can’t force him to stay and chat.” It was frustrating, but I couldn’t. Dave winced, and I nodded while taking another drink of wine.
“We still golfing tomorrow?”
“Yeah, at eleven since you were whining that it was cold.” Dave sent me a glare which I raised an eyebrow at. He had been complaining about it being January. But he’d had a shitty several weeks, and I was cutting him some slack.
“Fine. Brunch before?”
I nodded because I was going to do anything I could to keep my mind occupied until Monday morning. Then I’d try again to see if he’d talk to me. Eventually he would have to because in the end, I was still his professor.
“What are your plans for Sunday? Want to hit the gym?”
“Hell no. You go regularly. I, on the other hand, am a middle-aged soon-to-be-divorced guy who…you know what? Yeah, the gym sounds good.”
Dave looked at his glass of wine and then the pizza that he had added to his plate. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
“Eat the pizza. Drink the wine. You’ll find someone that will love you for you completely. Stacy obviously wasn’t that person. And if you don’t have a chiseled six-pack, oh well.” I picked up my own slice of pizza and took another bit, washing it down with the red that was one of my favorites. I spent more time at the gym simply because I didn’t have a wife to go home to. Not that I ever would. I shuddered a bit at that thought. I loved women, respected them even. But I couldn’t sleep with them. They did nothing for me.
“Okay, so I think I might need a gym membership. What do you think?”
I chuckled and shook my head. “You can get one Sunday. They’ll even give you a great starting price on a personal trainer if you want. But you don’t need one, trust me on that. We’ll get you whipped into shape if you’re determined.”
Dave gave a curt nod before he picked up his wine and took another drink. I sat back and did the same. After all, we had the rest of the bottle to finish, right?
Things were absolutely ridiculous. I could not get Dax to even talk to me, which I simply didn’t understand. The looks he sent me during lectures said one thing, his silence another. I was too old for this shit.
He was an amazing student. It showed in the detail he’d put into his first paper as well as the test that I’d just graded. There wasn’t a single point taken for anything, and if he kept that up, he certainly had a bright future ahead of him. I sighed as I walked over to the printer and made a copy of Dax’s test. Dax Phillips was obviously a very stubborn man, which might in fact be a contributing factor to how well his work was completed.
I placed everything in my bag and headed to class. Hopefully, Dax wouldn’t ignore me again because I simply needed to talk to him.