So Close

She's so close to him, too close. It's not a big car, and the two front seats are close enough together that he can detect gentle scents drifting over from her direction. She shivers, and she looks at him miserably, but in that misery there's also something else. Wonder, perhaps, like she's happy to be here with him, in spite of her drenched condition and the circumstance of the stalled car.

The rain pours down all around them, hitting the car with a constant soft roar that almost muffles the sound of his heartbeat. He'd tried so hard to stay away from her, to keep their relationship strictly on a student/teacher level, but he'd been inwardly yearning for her for months. She was special. She was smart, pretty, and compassionate. She was everything that he'd longed for in a woman since he'd been a student himself. He'd almost made it through the year, keeping her at arm's length away, in spite of the way she looked at him, in spite of the way he found himself looking back. Their eyes would sometimes catch, and they'd look at each other from across the room until one of them awkwardly broke contact.

She’d find excuses to see him after class, or between classes. She’d ask questions about the class that they both knew she already knew the answer to, and they’d catch themselves lingering a bit too long, finding excuses to enjoy the connection just a little bit longer. Then one or...