#anyways an excuse to draw habit shirtless. say less

[mudzdale]

im so sorry im turning this in late. please dont dock points off please

[max-is-really-okay]

Ink On Skin Chapter Two

Closing up, Ethan saw that Lex and Hannah had already gone home. He shrugged it off and locked up, glad that it had gotten a little warmer. He shrugged off the flannel and wrapped it around his waist.

A few people still walking eyed him suspiciously, not trusting him. Some women clutched their purses a little tighter, and some had their hands ready to grab something from their pocket. He hated that they saw him as a threat, he hated that they had to see everyone as a threat at night.

The only people who acknowledged him with an emotion other than fear were the hookers that liked to stay outside of his building. A woman called Tiffany and a man who went by Richard. Ethan knew that they were lovely people, so he always made sure to say hello.

Ethan got home around twenty minutes later, happy to see Greg screaming at his food bowl. As he fed Greg, he noticed that Greg was running low on food. He sighed, that meant that he would have to go to the store the next day.

Ethan hated going to the store. The store meant that he had to leave work early and go to a place where he would be surrounded by people he didn’t know just so that he could empty his wallet of anything that wasn’t already going to bills. But Greg needed to eat.

He looked at the ever growing grocery list taped onto the fridge and added cat food to the list. The front and back of the list was filled, so Ethan supposed that it was around time to go to the store. It would be nice to drink milk without a sour aftertaste and maybe have some real food to come home to.

He kicked off his boots once he was finished doing chores. He was exhausted as hell. He went to his room and changed into his pajama bottoms and decided to just go shirtless. He laid down on the couch and grabbed a red sharpie from the floor.

‘Hey.’ He sent his soulmate. He wasn’t sure if they would respond because of how late it was. He wondered what time it was in California. He was shocked when he felt the slight tingle of a message being written back.

‘You’re up late.’ It said. Ethan smiled down at it, closing his eyes and imagining who it could be. Was it the guy at the movie theater who took the late shift? The girl who lived down the street? An actress in L.A having the time of her life at a Hollywood party? There was no way for him to know.

‘You are as well, you know. I just had to work late. What’s your excuse?’ He smiled down as there was a frowny face drawn next to the comment about working late.

‘No fun. And I’m just settling down for the night. I just made dinner a little while ago.’

‘Oh. What did you have?’ Ethan asked.

‘Just pasta. It’s the only thing I really know how to make.’ They admitted, ‘What about you?’ they asked.

‘I didn’t have dinner’

‘Why not?’

He paused. There was more to the answer he thought of than he wanted to write down.

‘Don’t have much food. Shopping tomarrow’

‘Okay. Get some sleep weirdo.’

‘You too’ He drew a little smiley face next to his last comment.

Ethan grinned to himself as he tried to fall asleep. He always felt better when he talked to his soulmate. Something about them caring about him, even a bit, made him feel all warm and fuzzy in his chest. It was a feeling he wished he could hold onto forever.

It was gone when he was thrust into another one of his nightmares. This time it was more of a memory, which made it all the worse.

He was ten when it had happened. He had forgotten his homework. His teacher didn’t tell him that she had called home. He came home with a big smile on his face, proud of his loose tooth. He walked inside, and suddenly all of the air was taken from his lungs.

His mom and dad stood, waiting for him. His mom had her hands on her hips and his dad’s arms were crossed. Ethan had only been in trouble a few times before that, but he knew what those looks meant. He wasn’t getting dinner, at best.

“We got an interesting call from the school today. Can you guess what it was about?” His mother had asked him. Before he could respond, she kept talking. “Apparently our son couldn’t get off of his lazy ass and do his homework. So he might start failing.” She spat.

“Go to your room. If we see you before tomorrow morning on the way to school, you’ll regret it.” His dad threatened.

Apparently he didn’t move quickly enough, since his mom pushed him. He fell onto the bannister next to the stairs. He ran upstairs with blood running down his face. He looked in the mirror to see that his nose was bleeding. And his tooth was missing.

Ethan woke up, Greg clawing his way as he fell off of his chest. It was just enough to draw blood. He made sure his cat was okay before getting up and going to the bathroom to clean himself up.

He felt the tingle of a message and looked at his hand, ‘Are you okay?’ was written in sloppy letters.

‘I’m fine. Cat just scratched me while I was sleeping.’ He wrote back with an eyeliner pencil he had in his bathroom as he slowly applied rubbing alcohol to the wound. He groaned and then bandaged it.

He didn’t get a response, so he assumed that his soulmate had just fallen back asleep. Ethan looked at himself in the mirror and flipped himself off before going back to his bed and crawling back under the covers.

He didn’t sleep well, and woke up feeling like shit. He didn’t feel like doing anything, but Greg was on his last can of food, so Ethan got himself dressed.

He didn’t even attempt to look presentable. He knew he wouldn’t be going into work that day, which made things a little easier. He just needed to go to the store and come back. There wasn’t much that could go wrong. That’s what he kept telling himself.

Ethan pulled on a green muscle shirt and put deodorant on before slipping on some slippers. He ordered an uber to drive him to the store, glad he had put away money for when he couldn’t walk somewhere.

He climbed into the back, not bothering to say anything but a simple ‘hello’ to the driver. When he got out of the car, he made sure to give the driver five stars for driving his living corpse around.

He walked into the grocery store and grabbed a basket. He made a habit of stocking up when at the store so he wouldn’t have to go back until later. Even though it took more of a chunk out of his balance than he would like, it was worth it.

He felt like a zombie walking around. He got some cereal for himself first. Off brand lucky charms. Just as much magic for a fraction of the price. As well as some apples and bananas. If anything, they were easy to grab.

He continued to take items, even getting a box full of cat food. Ethan was glad to report that on Wednesday morning, Walmart wasn’t very full. He also wasn’t the worst dressed out of everyone there.

He used the self checkout, making sure he ignored the candy beside the area, not wanting to give into temptation. It took all he had.

He got another ride and sat down at a bench to wait until they got there. There was a Subway inside of the Walmart, so he got himself a drink and waited. He was half asleep on the table when he saw them.

Ethan suddenly felt even more sick and had to swallow bile that rose in his throat. He wished he had brought his jacket, so he had some way to hide himself. Walking into the store were his parents.

He felt sick as they walked by, praying that they would pass him. He thought that he had gotten unreasonably lucky when they walked by, but then his dad stopped, turned around, and walked over.

“Well well well.” He had a fake smile plastered on.

“Hey dad.” Ethan could hit himself for how weak he sounded.

“Look at that. You still don’t even know how to dress yourself.” His mother sneered down at him.

Ethan hated that he was shaking. He could easily get up and leave. He had been through everything, if he was in his normal condition he could easily take down both of them with no problem. Who ever said that nothing good came from fighting? Now he knew how to throw a punch.

The issue was that he couldn’t move. His stomach felt odd and any time he tried to move he couldn’t breathe. He was about to hyperventilate when they finally left, realizing that he couldn't interact with them. He didn’t miss them calling him stupid once again before they left.

It was then that he got the notification that his uber had arrived. He grabbed all of his reusable bags and walked outside. The man in the car waved him down. Ethan all but collapsed into the seat with his ten bags and box of cat food next to him.

The driver tried to make small talk, but Ethan couldn’t really process anything. He took the water that was offered and gave five stars when the drive was finished. As soon as he got back up to his apartment, he threw up.

He had just barely made it to the toilet, and he collapsed next to it. Throw up had even gotten on his shirt. He only moved when his phone started buzzing and an unknown number was shown. He picked it up anyway.

“Hello?” His voice sounded like he had cut his vocal chords with a cheese grater.

“Jesus Christ, what happened to you?” Lex’s voice asked.

“Sick.”

“I can tell. What’s your address?” She asked.

“What?” He mumbled, half asleep.

“What is your address? I can’t have you dying on me, we just started hanging out.”

“How did you get my number…?”

“Business card babe. Now stop avoiding the question.” Lex’s voice was stern, so he told her. She hung up after telling him not to die before she got there.

Ethan didn’t want to smell more like vomit than he had to, so on the bathroom floor he lazily took the sleeveless shirt he had on and put on a long sleeved shirt that was already on the floor. Wrinkled, but less smelly.

He closed his eyes for just a moment, leaning on the cool tile of the bathtub, then woke up to someone poking his face. He brushed whatever it was away, thinking that it was just Greg. He opened his eyes to see Lex leaned down looking down at him.

“Your door was unlocked. I put your groceries away.” She told him bluntly. Ethan was barely sure that she was speaking English.

She helped him up and walked him into his room, saying something about how light he was. He tried to mumble something defensive, but she didn’t even flinch.

“You stay in here. I’m going to get you something to eat and maybe something to drink.” She told him. Ethan didn’t respond until she walked out.

He blinked slowly, feeling as his body begged him to go to sleep. This was the worst he had felt in ages, since he had lived with his parents. His tired mind finally put together that he had had a panic attack, one directly after another. No wonder he felt like shit.

Lex walked back inside with a glass of orange juice he had bought since it was on sale and toast next to some soup. She handed him the juice and he took a long drink.

He looked back up at Lex, she was still kind of out of focus, “Why are you helping me?” He asked.

“Because I was worried about you. Hannah was too, and I couldn’t say no to her. By the way, she’s in the front room playing with your cat.”

“His name is Greg.” Ethan told her unhelpfully. Lex nodded thoughtfully.

“I’ll tell Hannah when you’re done eating. Now, what do we want to try first? Chicken soup or lightly buttered toast?”

“I didn’t buy soup…?” Ethan tilted his head, which made the pounding pain worse.

“I picked some up from Panera. And that means soup.” Lex told him, smiling as she opened the lid. Ethan had to admit, it smelled really good.

He moved his hand to take the spoon, but it was shaking so badly that he couldn’t get a good hold on it. Lex took the spoon and fed him the soup. If Ethan was any more lucid, he would be embarrassed. If Ethan was any more lucid, he could probably feed himself.

That’s why Lex didn’t think about it as she started humming as she fed him. It was something she did for Hannah when she had a breakdown or panic attack, and something her adoptive dad did for her during a depressive episode.

Ethan relaxed slightly and soon his stomach was full again. He didn’t really think about it as Lex ran her fingers through his hair in a soothing manner as he slowly fell asleep. It was the type of affection he craved at all times.

When Lex was sure that he was asleep, she slowly stood up from the bed. Ethan had looked worse for wear since she had started talking to him. It couldn’t have been the beginning of the issues, since he was so light. He shouldn’t have been that easy to carry.

She smiled when she saw Hannah playing with Greg the cat. Hannah had taken really well to Ethan, faster than Lex had ever seen her warm up to someone. It made her a little more comfortable coming over when he wasn’t at work.

She couldn’t tell what exactly was wrong. From what Hannah had told her, he had seemed fine the day before, if maybe a little tired. Lex only got the way he seemed during a bad depressive episode or after a bad panic attack.

“What do we do now Banana?” Lex asked her sister, who looked up to acknowledge that she was listening. “Do we stay here until he needs something or to feed his cat? Is that weird?”

Hannah shook her head. “We should stay.” She told her older sister. Lex nodded.

That’s how the two of them found themselves lounging around Ethan’s apartment. Hannah continued to play with the cat while Lex put her feet up on the table and turned on the television to watch a shitty lifetime movie about a pregnant teenager.

She laughed at some of the poorly acted moments and soon found herself fully relaxing. The small apartment was cozy and warm, and Ethan had bought enough groceries to last through the next month.

She messaged her soulmate a few hours to see how they were doing. ‘How are you doing?’

It took maybe thirty minutes, but they responded. ‘Honestly? Not amazing. I’m sick from a panik attack and I just woke up from another nightmare. And it had started out so nice…’

Lex frowned softly, sympathy blooming in her chest. ‘I’m sorry to hear. My friend is sick too. I think he’s going through the same thing as you.’

‘That’s rough’

‘I know. I’m at his house right now taking care of him.’

‘Well he’s a lucky duck.’

‘Eh. I just bought him soup.’

‘Weird. A friend did that for me.’

‘That is weird. Now we both know we have good friends.’

‘Maybe they’re soulmates too.’

‘Maybe.’

Lex smiled down at that.

Ethan smiled down at his wrist. He felt slightly better knowing how his soulmate was at least as nice as Lex. And that was more than he could believe he deserved. Ethan took a moment to calm fully down before deciding that he needed to feed Greg.

He climbed out of bed and thanked god that the world now felt still under his feet. He walked into the front room to see Lex napping on his couch and Hannah with a purring cat in her lap.

“Hey Hannah, do you want to feed Greg?” He asked, and Hannah lit up, nodding so violently that her braids jumped up and down.

Ethan showed her how, and soon Greg was eating while Hannah had this proud grin on her face. Ethan smiled. “Are you allowed to have sugar?” He asked her. She nodded, and he got out the fixings for ice cream sundays.

He made Hannah a banana split upon her request, and made himself a sunday covered in chocolate sauce and cherries. He poured them both big glasses of chocolate milk.

They sat in his front room eating their ice cream while Lex snored away. “I’m going to wake your sister up so she can make her own.”

“Lexi is always grumpy when you wake her up.” Hannah smiled.

“Oh is she?” Ethan smiled back. Hannah just nodded and Ethan laughed. He still stood up and walked over, gently shaking Lex to get her to wake up. She did with a groan.

Instead of making her own sunday, Lex grabbed a spoon and took turns stealing from both Ethan and Hannah’s ice cream. While Ethan pretended to be offended, he still let her without much struggle.

Hannah fell asleep on his couch once they finished their dinner, and Lex looked at her little sister fondly. “I think that means that we should get going.” Lex told Ethan.

“Right. Um, thank you for helping. You didn’t need to come over, and I know that you closed up early, and that was real fuckin’ cool of ‘ya.” Ethan told her.

“I think you’re a really cool person. And If Hannah wants to keep having lunch with you, you can’t be dead. That wouldn’t work.”

“You’re so right. So we’re even?” Ethan joked. Lex laughed and nodded. He wanted to hear her laugh forever.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She asked, scooping up her sister.

“Are you walking?” He asked.

“No, my friend Deb is giving us a ride.” Lex reassured.

Ethan nodded and watched as she left. He grabbed a pen from the table.

‘I know that you are my soulmate, but until I meet you, do you think that I could date someone else?’

About twenty minutes later, he got a response.

‘Oh thank fuck. I was about to ask the same thing.’

[lfthinkerwrites]

High School Teacher AU: Fraternization Policy

Superintendent al Ghul does not care for Ellen’s comic and Edward and Penelope finally get on the same page.

It had taken the better part of four hours holding Jonathan under a shower in the boy's locker room for the man to, somewhat, sober up. Edward and Jervis had deposited him in the nurse's office and went their separate ways when the lunch bell rang, Jervis off to the teacher's lounge, Edward to the guidance counselor's offices. Or rather, to one guidance counselor's office in particular. He passed Harley on her way out and she gave him a wink and a thumbs up. This made him even more nervous. Yes, nervous. Anyone might have thought he'd consider a private meeting with Penelope Young his due, but the truth was, Ellen's existence notwithstanding, he'd never really had an easy time talking with women. So for a long moment, he stood outside of Penelope's door and hesitated. What could she have to say to him? She'd been cold to him since they'd met at best, outright antagonistic to him at worst. It had only been in the past week that she'd shown any sign that she liked him. He took a deep breath, then knocked three times on her door.

"Yes?"

Edward steeled himself. Here went nothing. “It’s me,” he said.

There was a brief pause before Penelope responded. “Come in, Edward.”

Edward reached down to straighten his tie before he entered the office. Penelope sat behind her desk, pen in hand. Edward could see a notebook in front of her, which she closed as he approached. "You said you wanted to talk," Edward said. "Well, here I am. What did you want to talk about?"

He watched as Penelope brushed her fingers through her bangs. A nervous habit, he'd noticed. One of the many things he'd noticed about her. "Harley and Pamela told me something at the poker game last night," she said at last. She looked up at him then and Edward noticed that she looked almost...hopeful? Must be a trick of the light. "They told me that you're in love with me."

Edward's world stopped turning at that precise moment and a chill went down his spine. "T-they-did they now?" Goddamn them both. This wasn't how he wanted her to find out.

Penelope cocked her head slightly, her expression as blank as usual. "Are you?"

Edward could deny it, but he'd never been a good liar. "Yes."

Penelope looked almost taken aback. "You-you are?" Then the professional mask slipped back into place. "How long?"

Edward began to pick at the sleeve of his dress shirt. "Since I met you."

Penelope looked less than convinced by that. "Seriously?"

"Alright," Edward admitted. "I've been attracted to you since I met you. I knew I was in love with you the moment I saw you take Valentin down with your taser."

Penelope's mask fell again and she gaped at him for a long moment. "You-I-" then her face flushed and she looked almost angry at him. "Why didn't you ever say anything!?"

"What, was I supposed to come marching up to you and start slobbering over you like that cretin Bolton?" Edward said defensively. "I was slowly wooing you using my intellectual charms-"

"You were playing games because you were afraid of being rejected," Penelope finished, getting up from behind her desk. "I can't believe you! All this time, I thought you tolerated me at best, when we could have been-" she cut off, covering her mouth.

"'Could have been' what exactly?" Edward asked. Wait. Wait a minute. "You mean to tell me that you-how long have you-"

"I didn't fall for you at first sight or anything like that," she said quickly. "But...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't...attracted to you too, when you're not being an ass at least."

Edward felt his own jaw drop. She was attracted to him? That explained why she seemed to have his schedule memorized, how even though she was frequently irritated by him, she didn't shy away from being in his company. Then his own elation turned to irritation. "Why didn't you ever say anything!?"

"Becuase until a week ago, I didn't know if you even liked me!" Penelope shouted, walking up to him. "You seemed to delight in finding new ways to be obnoxious-"

"I'm like that with everyone!" he shouted back. "That's just who I am! Believe me, if I didn't like you, you'd know it!"

"That still didn't mean you couldn't have been honest with me!"

"Likewise!"

Penelope was about an inch away from him, fuming. "You are," she said in a low tone. "The most impossible person I've ever met, Edward Nashton." She grabbed a hold of his tie and yanked him down. "And I need you to kiss me."

Edward blinked once. He had heard that, hadn't he? "What?"

Penelope made an exasperated noise. "I don't want to waste any more time. We might not get another chance. Please."

Edward had both of his arms around her in a moment. "Alright." Then he leaned in.

"Well, I have to say, this morning could have gone worse," Gordon said with a confidence he didn't feel.

"Well, it certainly could have gone better," al Ghul said. "I thought you said that Dent had completed anger management!"

"He did," Bruce defended.

"Then why did he call that boy in his class a son of a bitch, a pipsqueak and a mad dog!?"

Gordon bit his lip. "In his defense, Machin has been a disciplinary problem since he was a freshman-"

"That doesn't excuse Dent using that language," al Ghul said with a finality that no one dared to speak against.

"Anyway," Vreeland said, clapping her hands together. "It's lunchtime. Let's go out in the quad."

The group moved through the still vacant cafeteria and into the outdoor quad, where most of the students chose to eat, given that the food trucks were still there. One crowded table caught their attention. As they moved closer, Bruce recognized Dick, Tim, Cas, and Barbara. "Hey kids," he said in greeting.

The group looked up as one and Bruce noticed that Harvey's daughter Duela and Nashton's daughter were at the center of the table. Nashton's daughter was scribbling away at something. "Hi, Bruce!" Tim waved. The other children gave polite greetings.

al Ghul nodded slightly at Nashton's daughter. "You're Edward Nashton's daughter, aren't you? The resemblance is striking."

The girl nodded. "Yeah. My name's Ellen."

"What are you drawing, Ellen?" Gordon asked.

"Nothing," she said a bit too quickly.

al Ghul frowned a bit. "It's not obscene, is it?"

"No!" Ellen shouted before remembering exactly who she was talking to. "It's for a comic Duela and I are making."

"The girls are very creative," Gordon explained. "Why don't you go ahead and show us?" Ellen and Duela exchanged a long look with each other before Duela shrugged. Ellen slid the paper over to Gordon. He took one look and his eyes nearly bugged out. "Oh my."

Bruce looked over his shoulder at the drawing and read the captions out loud. "Beautiful Captain Zodiac Sparkles and the Perils of the Perverted, Perfidious Professor Pyg?" The drawing was of a girl in fishnet stockings, steel-toed boots and a tight-fighting top doing battle with a grotesque figure holding a meat cleaver and wearing a pig mask. "This is based on Valentin, I take it?"

"Dad said we couldn't use Coach Bolton as the villain anymore," Duela explained. "So we had to make a new villain."

"And just why do you think it's appropriate to draw comics casting members of the faculty as villains?" al Ghul asked.

"Because one of them chased me with a meat cleaver, that's why!" Ellen argued. The other kids at the table said nothing, but Bruce caught Tim nodding in agreement.

al Ghul glared at Strange. "Is that true?"

"The situation has already been handled," Strange said. "I don't think this comic is appropriate, girls."

Duela rolled her eyes. "First we couldn't use Toxic Masculinity, now we can't use Professor Pyg? Lonnie was right, you guys are all a bunch of fascists!"

"'Toxic Masculinity'?" al Ghul repeated. "You drew Coach Bolton in your comic and named him 'Toxic Masculinity?"

"It's what he is," Ellen said. "Ms. Isley said so."

al Ghul took the comic from Bruce. "And your fathers know that you've been creating this?"

"Yeah," Ellen said. "My Dad says as long as he doesn't get sued for libel, he doesn't care."

"He would say that," al Ghul muttered. "Well, we'll just see what your guidance counselor has to say about this, young lady!" al Ghul turned on his heel and stormed back towards the school's interior, the principals and the school board scurrying behind him. It wasn't until the group had entered the cafeteria that it occurred to Bruce that Jason was absent from the table.

"Dr. Young's office is just down here," Gordon said, taking the lead as they walked down the hall that led to the guidance counselor's offices.

"What kind of counselor is she?" al Ghul asked.

"Oh, she's terrific. Very professional. Never had a complaint about her," Gordon said.

"So in other words, she's the opposite of Dr. Quinzel. Good," al Ghul said. The group had just arrived outside of her door when they heard a thump come from inside.

"What was that?" Falcone asked. A muffled groan came from inside the office and Gordon felt sick. He opened the door wide anyway. "Oh, good Lord!"

As soon as the door opened, they were greeted by the sight of Dr. Young perched in the lap of a shirtless Edward Nashton who was sitting on top of her desk. Both looked flushed and their hair was loose. Vreeland made a scandalized noise and left the room, along with Falcone. Strange and al Ghul looked like they were about to have an aneurysm. Nashton, for his part, kept his arms tight around Dr. Young's waist and gave the group a look of bored irritation. "Do you mind? We're on our lunch break."

This quip seemed to bring al Ghul to life. "What is the explanation for this!?"

Nashton shrugged. "Does paradise need an explanation, Superintendent?"

al Ghul's face turned dark red from anger, but Strange saw an opportunity. Nashton had given him the perfect excuse to send the irritant packing. "You do realize," he said in a slow tone, "That this is in violation of our fraternization policy? Faculty and staff are forbidden from having relations with each other."

Dr. Young looked like she was about to say something when Nashton interrupted once again. "We're well aware." He then turned his gaze to Bruce and let out a smirk. "Fraternization between members of the faculty and the school board is forbidden too, right Bruce?"

Bruce felt his face burn. That son of a bitch. al Ghul turned and gave Bruce a sharp look. "You and that gym teacher! I knew it! You whoremonger!" Then he did something unexpected. He backhanded Bruce.

"Superintendent!" Gordon cried out. Bruce took a deep breath to keep himself from retaliating. All the while, Nashton looked on smug, while Dr. Young looked somewhat scandalized. al Ghul stormed out of the office, Elliott, Fox, and Queen following. Bruce then glared at Nashton. If nothing else, at least one of the teachers would finally be removed-

"Edward! It's been forever! Nice to see you're doing well!"

Cobblepot stepped forward and Nashton let out a grin. "Ozzie!"

'Ozzie?' Bruce and Gordon exchanged a long-suffering look when they realized what this meant. Cobblepot and Nashton were friends. Nashton, and by extension, Young, Crane, and Tetch, probably, were untouchable.

"Well, let's not take up too much more of your time," Oswald chuckled. "Do feel free to bring your lady to the Iceberg Lounge. Drinks are on me!" Oswald let out another laugh. "You incorrigible young rascal!"

"See you soon, you old crook," Edward laughed. Oswald walked out, leaving the principals and Wayne no choice but to follow him. Wayne shot him one final glare before he slammed the office door shut behind him. Edward shook his head. "Well, that was amusing."

"If you say so," Penelope sighed. "You never told me you knew Oswald Cobblepot."

"Oh, Ozzie and I go way back. He got me my first programming job. And in my defense darling, you never asked."

Penelope raised an eyebrow. "Darling?"

Edward felt a bit flustered. "Well, I'm assuming that you want more than just a single furtive groping session in your office. Right?"

In response, Penelope got off of his lap and walked towards her office door. Edward's heart sank. Then he watched her lock it. She turned back towards him with a heated look in her eyes. "We still have fifteen minutes left for lunch break, you don't have computer lab until 1:30 and I cleared my calendar for the rest of the afternoon." She then slowly began to unbutton her blouse and Edward's brain shut down. "I'd say we're going to go a bit past a single session, Eddie."

Where had she been all his life?