Chapter 10: Ten

Betty

I wanted to scream in Tony’s face, tell him he was a horrible person, that this, right here is why he is so single and miserable.

Instead, I directed my frustration and annoyance at the medium steak, stabbing it with my fork over and over, as if it personally offended me or it was the one who sent that disgusting message earlier. I watched in disgust as pink juices spilled onto the plate. Ew! How do people even eat this?

It still looked alive like it barely escaped the butcher's table, it was practically mooing. Just staring at it alone made my belly churn. But Tony wouldn't know this because he didn't care, he had ordered for both of us without asking me what I wanted or if I was allergic. And now I just sat quietly across from a man I couldn’t stand with food I couldn’t dare to eat, I didn't know how to break it to him that whatever this was, it just wasn't working.

“Why aren’t you eating?” He asked after noticing I was picking on the food, and I was going to answer when he cut me off. “Trust me, Betty, Medium rare is the only way to enjoy steak, everything else is just fried meat, this and avocado, is a nice combination.”

I forced a smile on my face, trying so hard to remain calm, and not slam the meat on his annoying face.

We had barely spent five more minutes at breakfast when I started to feel overwhelmed, not angry, just stressed out. The way he kept going on about himself, his past relationships whether they were some kind of lifetime achievements.

I get it, it’s normal to share a bit about your past but then I wasn’t interested in how many followers he had on Face Gram, I’ve not been on Face Gram in years and I wasn’t impressed. What got me was that he hadn't even asked me one real question about my life, my job or even at least pretend to be genuinely interested in me. The truth was that he wasn’t interested in learning more about me. I know I wasn’t an interesting person, there was no effort on his side, it just felt like I was wasting my time here.

I looked up at him, he was laughing at something he had just said like a lunatic, his laugh made me laugh as well, not because he said something funny, I wasn’t even paying attention, it just made me want to walk straight into traffic, cause I would rather die than listen to him any more second.

I dropped my fork loudly, enough to grab his attention.

“ I think you are boring!"I chortled.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked, his face filled with so much shock.

“No, I don’t think you are boring, you are boring and self-obsessed, and not in a good way.” I straightened in my seat, still trying to remain calm while speaking my truth.

“Have I offended you?”

“You ordered food for us, without asking me, I hate medium rare, it’s yuck, I like medium, always have, but of course I don’t expect you to know.”

His brow creased together in confusion, acting shocked like no one had ever said that to him in his entire dumb life.

“You need to remain calm, I had no idea, you didn’t say anything, I’m not a mind reader…”

“How would you know? Did you ask?”

He nods, trying to hold my hands, “Okay, okay, my bad. I'm sorry I wasn’t paying attention to your needs. I guess I was too nervous, you know meeting you for the very first time, it can be so weird, but you have gotta admit, medium rare tastes better this way.”

I rose to my feet immediately, the anger simmering underneath my skin.

A wicked smile is still playing on my lips, “ Friendly advice?” I said adjusting my coat, grabbing my purse too, “ wearing gym wear on your first date is diabolical! But a stinking one? Oh man, it’s a huge red flag”

I could feel heads already focused on us, but I didn’t care. Tony managed to keep a smile on his ridiculous face thinking that would make me calm.

“You need to calm down, people are watching, don’t make a scene here, Betty.”

“No, I have every right to make a scene, firstly you look twice your age, yet you keep bragging about your fitness routine, aren’t you too old to be telling lies?”

With that, I walked past him and stormed out of the restaurant.

The cold breeze hit me hard on the face, and I felt this air of liberation. The smell of fast food and bread still wafted in my nostrils but that wasn’t important. My phone chimed.

I glanced at the screen, it was a text message from a private number, saying: You were so harsh. Taking it easy on him, he was just trying to find love.

I rolled my eyes in disgust, ignoring it. Harsh? Please, they hadn’t even seen ‘harsh’ yet. What was harsh was wasting my time with a guy who thought a first date meant a free therapy session, dumping his baggage all over me like I signed up for it. He should be with a therapist, not here.

I hailed a taxi, got in, and gave the driver my address. The moment I walked into the foyer, I couldn’t wait to rip off that annoying dress. I headed straight to the shower, had a warm bath, in silence, I almost thought I was going insane for a second staying at the crimson.

I met Kitty at her usual spot, on the couch, her eyes narrowing like she knew Tony would be a total mess from the moment I swiped right on Rumble. I poured her some cat food in her bowl and sank onto the couch wearing my fur robe, and put on Gossip Girl.

I can’t believe I spoke down on it and called it lame, yes it was full of dramas and rich people's problems with maybe unnecessary plot twists but at least Chuck Bass would never order something on my behalf on a first date or any other date.

I dozed off somewhere between Serena’s fifth crisis and Blair’s twentieth manipulation.

When I woke up, the sun was up and my head felt lighter, my body energized, maybe I just needed enough sleep and food to recover from the terrible date. I shook my head as I glanced around my messy apartment, I had barely had enough time to deep clean, but I think I would hire someone to do that for me.

I quickly took a bath and dressed, wearing a skirt and a blouse, tying my hair up. I locked my apartment with a key before flagging another cab that would take me straight to the university.

The campus was busy today, students walked past me with coffee cups, headphones, laughing, and being all merry. I didn’t expect much from today. Mondays for me are usually brief as I just had one class to take, the rest of the week is usually so hectic for me, as soon as I stepped into the lecture hall, I sensed a shift in the air.

My gaze landed on Michael and my heart skipped a beat, I could still remember how his lips felt against mine, I quickly looked away, refusing to let those memories take up space longer than they deserved.

But he seemed different today, for once he was quieter and mellow than usual.

What could have gone wrong? If it were before he would have a smug face, drumming on the table to get my attention, staring at me intensely like he wanted to devour me right there and then, but today he seems calm. I almost checked to see if the sky was blue and not pink.

Well whatever happened to him, I didn’t care to know, I cleared my throat and began the lecture.

To my utmost surprise, today's class went so smoothly even when I announced the new test date, the class murmured in disagreement but it wasn’t my fault, Michael is the one to blame but he didn’t even raise his hands to ask unnecessary questions, he just sat down there like a serious kid jotting down everything I wrote on the white board. I guess he had learnt his lessons so fast.

A few days ago, the principal had called me on the phone reminding me to sort out Michael’s F, surprisingly his tone wasn’t irritating as usual and he didn’t bring up the Favour he did for me years ago which he liked to rub all over my face if I made any slightest mistake, instead, he tried to sweet talk me, gently trying to make me see why he was right and I was always in the wrong, at one point he mentioned that his fifteenth wedding anniversary was on Saturday, I didn’t ask, maybe he thought that little detail would soften me up but I understood the game.

I ended the call with a cold, “ Alright, I will do something about it.”

I am packing up for the day when Michael approached me, his chartreuse eyes piercing, he was holding out a freshly printed project work, I glanced through it, asked what it was and he said it was a redo of the last one I rejected.

I asked if it wasn’t one of his vulgar nonsense, and he assured me that it wasn’t.

I told him I would look at it when I had the chance to, as he was about to go I cleared my throat, “ it was a mistake, whatever happened that night was a mistake on my part, I didn’t know it was you, so I apologize for that, I hope we can put it behind us and forget it ever happened.”

He rested his veiny hands on my table, his eyes taunting me, “It’s fine, I was also hoping we could start over, things have been rough between us.”

“There is no starting over Michael, you are my student and that’s all you will ever be.”

I saw a flash of hurt on his face but it quickly disappeared, replaced with a grin, “ As a student and professor I mean.”

“Goodbye, Michael.”

He didn’t move, I knew he wanted to say more, well I was right. “ I want to apologize… on behalf of my father, he was rude to you and…”

“No,” I cut him off snappily, “Let's be honest, this isn’t about your father, it has always been about you, you are an immature brat who loves riding on his daddy’s money.”