Wanting His Professor (Gay Romantic Suspense)

Did I Do Good or What?

Mike rolled his eyes. "He."

"Huh?" Ed asked.

"At the end of the sentence. You should have said 'he' instead."

"Are you freaking kidding me with this? You want to play grammar cop or you want to get laid since the first time your ex-boyfriend dumped your sorry ass weeks ago?"

Denise ran up to and hugged the tall guy who had just entered the room. He wore tight jeans and a Tri-State University hoodie with no shirt underneath. He had it unzipped low enough to show off the inside of his smooth, well-developed pecs.

"Well, what do you think? Did I do good or what?" Ed asked.

"He is handsome," Mike admitted.

Ed smiled. "No reason we both can't get lucky tonight." Before Mike could respond, Ed called out loud, "Denise, over here!"

Denise had barely finished making the introductions when Ed announced, "Let's blow this pop stand and go somewhere more private."

Mike pulled Ed aside saying, "Excuse us for a minute." He whispered in Ed's ear, "We don't even know those two. We can't just leave with them."

"Why not?"

"Maybe they both already have boyfriends. Hell, did you even ask?"

Ed looked over Mike's shoulder at buxom Denise and her athletic gay friend. "Don't worry. I don't think either one of them is the type to kiss and tell."

"That's not what I mean and you know it. I'm not just looking for some easy lay."

"What, you want to find a difficult one?" Ed asked. Mike simply stared at Ed until Ed broke the uncomfortable silence. "What are you being so uptight for? We're just gonna have a good time tonight." Thinking about getting into Denise's pants, Ed added, "Or maybe a great time."

Denise sauntered over. "Is something wrong?"

"Mike's just feeling like a monk tonight," Hank told her.

"What do you mean?"

Mike started to answer, but Ed cut him off. "Mike's still not over his ex-boyfriend and not in the mood for action, apparently."

"You made me text my friend and had him come over here for nothing?" Denise accused in the form of a question.

Ed shot a look at Mike.

Even if they weren't best friends, Mike would have known exactly what the look meant. Now you've upset Denise. Great. If she won't put out later, it's your fault and there's gonna be hell to pay!

Ed put his arm around Denise. "It's a huge campus. I'm sure we can find someone else who wants to party with your friend."

Mike sighed as he watched the three of them leave.

* * *

The next day, the students in Professor Jason Montell's English class opened their books. Jason told them, "As promised, we're going to do an oral reading of the Euripedes play Medea today. And no, this has nothing to do with the Tyler Perry version. Please pay particular attention to the characterizations because this play will be a good choice for your next paper. Also, please notice that the hero's name is Jason, just like mine."

"So does that make him a tragic hero?" asked Ed from the back of the class.

Several people snickered as the professor agreed, "Of course." He looked around the room, quickly making mental assessments before he assigned the parts of the nurse, Medea's sons, their tutor, and the chorus of Corinthian women. "Next we need someone to play Creon, King of Corinth. How about you, Ed?"

Ed sat up straight in his chair and cleared his throat dramatically. "Well, I have been called a royal pain in the ass!"

Students all around the room burst out laughing and several shook their heads back and forth.

"Thank you, Ed. I appreciate the enthusiasm. Please save it for your acting debut in a couple minutes. What do you all think of me playing Jason?" The class responded with applause. "Then it's settled. Finally, we just need to cast Medea herself. It's a tough role. Come on, ladies, who can handle it?"

Several of the young women in the class slid down in their seats trying to be less conspicuous. Others purposefully avoided eye contact with the professor. "Nobody?" he asked rather surprised as people usually clamored to read the lead role in a play.

Dan practically jumped out of his seat as he raised his hand. "I'll do it."

From his position sitting behind him, Hank extended his leg under the desk and kicked Dan's chair.

Professor Montell said, "All right, Mr. Zenk. I apologize. I just totally forgot your first name."

"It's Dan."

"Oh, yes, Dan, that's right. I'm sorry. I have so many students. At the beginning of a semester it can be difficult to keep everybody straight sometimes."

Dan gave the professor a calculated smile. "Especially when they're not. Straight, that is."

The professor's eyebrow went up in acknowledgment of the joke and the revelation.

The play reading commenced. The time passed quickly as various students read their parts.

The nurse said, "...Jason has betrayed his own sons and my mistress for a royal bed... Poor Medea. Scorned and shamed, she raves."

The tutor replied, "Poor woman. Has she not stopped crying yet?"

Dan read his part as Medea, "Do I not suffer? Am I not wronged? Should I not weep? Children, your mother is hated and you are cursed."

Time passed and they got to the part where the Greek Chorus says, "But look, Medea. I see Creon, King of Corinth He must have come to tell you of some new decision."

The class fell silent while they waited for the appropriate person to read his line. Finally, the professor prompted, "Creon? Ed as King Creon, it's your line."

"Oh. Yeah. Right," Ed said coming out of his daydream. He looked at the book, trying to figure out where they were in the reading, but he couldn't find his place on the page.

The girl who sat in front of him sighed and turned around. Like an elementary schoolgirl helping the class clown, she flipped his book to the correct page and tapped her fingernail on the spot he was supposed to read.

"Yeah, OK. In an overly dramatic fashion, Ed began, "You there, Medea, scowling and rage against your husband! I order you out of Corinth."

"For what offense do you banish me?"

"I fear you."

Later in the play, the professor (playing his namesake, Jason) spoke his lines to Medea, "I have noticed – this is not the first occasion. What fatal results from ungoverned rage."

"Go on, insult me; you have a roof over your head. I am alone, an exile."

"It was your own choice. Blame no one but yourself."

As the class time and the play both drew near to their conclusions, the students reading the Greek Chorus said in unison, "Jason, you have yet to learn how great your trouble is."

"What trouble?"

"Your sons are dead. Their mother has killed both your sons."

"What? Killed my sons? That word kills me. O, children, what a wicked mother fate gave you."

Dan chimed in as Medea. "O, sons, your father's treachery cost you your lives."

"It was not my hand that killed them," Jason responded in character.

"No, not your hand, but your insult to me."

"Children, how dear you were."

"To their mother, not you."

"Dear – and you murdered them?"

Dan's voice took on a menacing tone. He rose from his seat to deliver his final line as Medea. "Yes, Jason, to break your heart."

The Greek Chorus ended the play with, "Many matters the gods bring to surprising ends. The things we thought would happen, do not happen; And such is the conclusion of this story."

The class gave themselves and their fellow actors a round of thunderous applause.

* * *

Later that day, Dan and Hank plopped their lunch trays on a table in the crowded campus dining hall. They settled into their seats just as Mike and Ed approached the table holding their own trays.

"The cool kids are here," Ed said as he dropped his tray and pushed his way into the seat next to Hank, uninvited.

"Excuse you, rudeness!" Hank said as he reluctantly slid over.

"Whatever. Didn't you get the memo about you gay guys worshipping straight guys like me?"

Hank burst out laughing. "Oh, Ed, there are no other straight guys like you!"

"I'll take that as a compliment. And pass the salt."

Mike still stood awkwardly by the table holding his tray. "Do you mind?" he asked Dan.

"I don't like being on the inside. It makes me feel claustrophobic," Dan explained as he stood up and got out of the way so Mike could sit on the inside against the wall.

"Isn't this cozy?" Ed asked as he looked across at the two ex-boyfriends eating in silence. Mike looked back at him with eyes that said Cut the crap, dude. For once, Ed got the message and went back to poking at his peas with his fork.

Finally, to break the uncomfortable silence that followed, Mike said, "So, tell me about how much fun you all had in English class this morning."

Hank spoke before Dan could get a word out. "Please don't get him started on that again. It's all he's talked about since we walked out of the classroom."

"Here's the Ed's Notes version: Medea kills the woman her husband left her for. Then she kills the woman's father. Oh, and she also kills her own kids. Diagnosis: Psycho chick!"

Mike said, "Sounds more like a current headline than an ancient play. Why does she wipe all those people out?"

"Revenge," Dan answered. "She ends up hating her husband and wanted revenge. I read the part of Medea in class."

Mike laughed. "That must have been weird. But I bet you were awesome."

Dan's smile was a healthy mixture of agreement and false modesty. "The professor read the part of Jason, Medea's husband. It was so realistic. We were great together."

"I'm glad you had a good time," Mike told him sincerely. It had been so long since he actually saw Dan excited about something.

"Good time?" Dan echoed. "Are you kidding? It was incredible. The professor and I made the best team! We should act together professionally."

Mike replied, "I wasn't there, but I think you might be getting a bit carried away. It was only one play in class and you're planning your new international media career with the guy."

Dan tightened his grip on the edge of his cafeteria tray. The tension crept into his voice and facial expression as he responded. "That's right, you weren't there and you don't know what happened. You didn't see the way Jason read those lines to me."

"Dan, chill out," Hank told him.

That only made Dan more agitated. He raised his voice. "Shut up, Hank. You should be telling Mike how good the professor and I were together."

Ed chimed in through gritted teeth, "Dude, people are starting to stare at us..."

Dan looked around the cafeteria with rage in his eyes. "Screw them and screw all of you, too." Dan stood up abruptly. His hips banged the table which rattled all the silverware and spilled some soda from the top of Ed's full cup. The angry young man stormed away from the table.

Hank, Mike, and Ed all looked at each other in shock. Ed was the first one to break the silence when he mumbled, "Like I said, a psycho!"