Free Live-In Position by V.S. Tice Page A

my waist, catching me before I hit the floor. Pulling me into a standing position, I blinked a couple of times before focusing on Dr. Bishop staring back at me.
    “Th-thank you,” I stuttered, still a little shaken.
    He didn’t say anything, only stared into my eyes. His arms still around my waist, an odd sense of comfort fell over me. Not allowing the feeling to linger, I pushed away from him. Dr. Bishop seemed to snap out of a trance.
    “I apologize.” He stepped back with clenched fists before heading toward his room.
    That night my dreams were filled with warm strong arms embracing me, comfort and heat raging through me from the man with the emerald eyes. In the morning, I would blame the raw cookie dough I consumed the prior evening.

C hapter S ix
    CHRISTMAS WAS RAPIDLY approaching, and things started to get a little hectic. Victoria may not have had Spanish, but her piano instructor decided to take the hour on those Fridays to prepare her for the recital he put on each holiday season. In addition to everything else, there was the school holiday party and play.
    The school play was the Nutcracker. Victoria had a part as a snowflake. The school had sent a flyer home with the date and time of the play. I put it in Dr. Bishop’s mailbox along with the information about the piano recital, hoping he would attend.
    I signed up to help Victoria’s teacher with the holiday party and was asked to bring fifty cupcakes. The night before the party, after Victoria was tucked into her bed, I began baking cupcakes, waiting for them to cool, and then squeezing icing onto them. Making, baking, and decorating cupcakes become more difficult when there are so many. The heat from the oven mixed with moving around the kitchen finally caught up to me. I tossed my sweater on a chair and felt far more comfortable in my super baggy jeans and white tank top. My socks had already been tossed on the floor in hopes that the cool tile floor would relieve the heat. I had my ear buds in and was moving a little to the music while squeezing icing onto the most recently cooled batch when something in my peripheral vision scared me.
    I squealed and clenched my fist around the icing tube. A huge glob of green dropped onto the countertop. One hand on my chest and my eyes shut tightly, I tried to calm myself. Finally opening my eyes, I could see his lips moving, but the only thing coming out of his mouth was Bob Marley.
    “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you.” I held up the ear buds. “I didn’t realize you were there.” I forced a smile and started scraping the icing off of the countertop.
    I didn’t have to look to know he was still in the room. The mixture of chill and pull buzzed between us. The fidgeting began, but I stopped myself. It bothered me that he could invoke such reaction from me. I took a deep breath and looked toward the source of my irritation. His eyes were as intense as always. The green orbs were not the familiar hard emeralds but instead were swirling pools of lime distracting me from my irritation.
    “Was there something you needed Dr. Bishop or did you just want to help decorate some cupcakes?” I attempted to lighten the intensity surrounding us.
    His eyes shifted from my face down my body and then back up to my face. The hard emeralds returned.
    “Could you please try to keep your clothes on when you are walking around the shared areas of the house?”
    My mouth gaped open for a moment and then I snapped it shut. He gestured to my sweater and socks hanging on the chair. I looked down at myself. Anger boiled up from pit of my stomach.
    “I am clothed, Dr. Bishop.” I returned my focus to the cupcakes and tried not to take my anger out on the icing tubes. What I really wanted to do was get a Bible and beat the Antichrist with it.
    “I do not wish for you to roam around my home barely clothed.”
    I slammed the tube down on the counter and spun around. Gasping, I backed against the counter, realizing how close he’d gotten.