The Professor's Daughter

Maria awoke the following day, surrounded by thick soft sheets that smelt freshly of washing powder. The light was mellow as it filtered in through the muslin curtain and the ceiling was a muted white for that was all she could see. Maria pulled herself up, taking in the subtle hue of the bedroom furniture that surrounded the double bed; the room was not big but had a feeling of space and order.

Where was she?

Taking a quick glance down at herself, Maria noted the vest and leggings she’d been wearing the day before at the hospital.

“Maria?” Came a voice and a knock on the door.

Her head shot up and her hands instantly brought the covers up around her body.

“Yes?”

The door opened a little. “Can I…?”

Maria patted down her hair and wiped hastily at her eyes. “Sure.”

When Leighton entered the room, neither knew quite where to look, of course it was easier for Maria. Leighton was fully dressed in his normal work clothes as he sat apprehensively at the end of the bed.

“You are going?”

He did not meet her wide eyes, instead he kept his gaze downcast and out of trouble.

“Yes, I would stay here but I simply have to go in. I have a, err, an interview.”

“A job interview?”

Leighton nodded and Maria wished he would look at her, only if to show how much better she already felt being under his care, how much stronger and more positive.

“Where to?”

“At the university still, it’s just a higher position that’s becoming available.”

“When will you be back?”

“Early afternoon.”

Maria bit her lip. “I’ll be gone by then.”

Leighton’s gaze travelled quickly up to Maria, his eyebrows pinched together. “Why?”

This time it was Maria’s turn to look away and she fiddled with the white sheets.

“I have to go home, don’t I? I don’t belong here.”

“Don’t be silly. You are welcome here for as long as you want.”

“Really?”

“Of course, Maria. I’ll be back later and we can go and visit your mother. Help yourself to whatever.” He said standing and straightening his tie.

“Thank you.” Maria said quietly.

Leighton headed over to the door after picking up his briefcase and was nearly out of the room when Maria called to him.

“Professor? I mean, Thomas?” Leighton turned back, his hand gripping the door with white knuckles.

“Yes.”

“Why are you doing this for me?” Maria took in the shaken professor with his pink cheeks. “What I mean is, you could have left me at the hospital, put me in a cab and sent me on my way. You’re my professor after all. But you didn’t. You brought me back here and you’re just being so nice and I know I don’t deserve it. Especially after the horrible way my father treated you.”

Leighton sighed and smoothed his hair back in a way that made Maria feel all befuddled.

“The thing is, Maria, you are a girl who...” He paused and looked smoothly at the girl sat ruffled up in his bed.

Shit. What was he doing? She was his student for Christ’s sake.

He had to get out of there. And fast.

“I-I, urm, I have to go. Sorry. Bye.”

Leighton’s hasty departure left Maria confused. She was a girl who… what? Who imposed herself rudely on others? Who pushed people into being more generous then they would have to anyone else? Because that was how she felt.

Maria sighed heavily and promised herself not to over think it, he had said she could stay. Later she would talk to him, no putting it off. She needed to know where she stood and what all of this meant.

For now she reluctantly pulled off the covers and padded through to the bathroom. To one side stood a claw-foot bath and she ran some water and peeled off the clothes that must have been a couple days old at least. The water was just right and she felt like she was back wrapped up in the bed covers or in Leighton’s ar-

No. She was relaxing, not obsessing over the man. It was unhealthy to have him in her thoughts all the time but what else was there? She didn’t mean it in a rude way but everything else in her life was going to rack and ruin: her mother, her run-down relationship with her father, Susie’s strange manner towards her. Even Curt’s fiendish attitude played on her mind.

Maria stood and wrapped herself in a towel, smiling at the way the water gurgled noisily as it rushed down the drain. She went back to the bedroom and pressed her fingers against the window glass, she was so high up and from here the city looked almost enticing from Leighton’s apartment. Perhaps the future wouldn’t be quite as bleak at least with him by her side.

Because at the moment it seemed that Thomas Leighton was the only good thing in her life…

Maria was interrupted by the phone ringing on the bed side table. Apprehensively, she picked up the receiver and held it to her ear.

“Hello?”

Leighton meanwhile was sat on the plastic chairs outside Professor Daniels’ office. He was doing his best to think straight, after all in a minute or so he would be called in for his interview and because ultimately it was an important interview. Getting the position would mean more responsibility and his involvement with the university would be more secure. Plus it meant an increase in salary but money was really not important to the man.

Sure, men were often concerned with having enough to buy the next sports car or flat screen television, but none of those material goods really appealed to Leighton. He was comfortable money wise and didn’t have to worry which was again an advantage. The professor hated worrying and so he did his best to avoid it.

He didn’t worry what other people thought of him particularly, he warmed to very few people and those were who were truly important; he didn’t have to worry about a wife or children because he, well, didn’t have any; he had only a few people to worry over but even those few people seemed to live problematic lives.

Naturally Maria appeared to be part of that group and yes, professor, we have to address the subject at some point. You took her back to your flat after all, not in some perverted way of course.

I’m not that type of person.

Exactly but it’s not particularly regular practice for a professor to have his student sleeping in his bed.

I just sa-

I know, ‘it’s not like that’. But you didn’t have to get involved.

You mean I should have just left her be? She was in a vulnerable state, she needed me.

Dells needed you. And you know full well what happened there.

Fine. Just remember that was a long time ago. I’m older now. More mature.

So find someone your own age. Look up, at the receptionist. You know she keeps glancing over here and you know she’s no longer with her fiancé. She clearly likes you even if you can hardly look at her when you speak to her. Please, Maria’s barely an adult.

She’s nineteen.

And you’re thirty-two.

That doesn’t matter. Anyway it doesn’t seem to have affected her.

Oh come on Tommy, she barely talks to her father, she’s replacing him. With you.

No… you’re…. you’re wrong?

I’m just saying.

Well don’t. It’s not that kind of relationship.

Then what kind is it?

It’s, well, it’s the kind that…

“Professor?”

Leighton looked up and did his best to hide the frustrated face he’d been pulling. The receptionist was watching him with friendly eyes.

“They’re ready for you now, Sir.” Leighton stood and brushed down his suit. “Good luck, Sir.”

“Th-” He stopped for a brief moment and looked directly at her. Come on, he could do this. “Thank you, Clara.”

Oh Tommy.

“Finally Tom, I’ve called at least ten times over the past couple days.”

Maria stood stock still in her towel, her eyes were wide but she wasn’t looking at anything staggering. No, it was the voice coming down the line that startled her. The female voice.

“Tom, are you there?”

“Professor Leighton isn’t here at the moment.” She said, her voice came out as it did when she was five and Maria chided herself mentally.

“I thought his voice sounded a bit feminine. I just assumed he had a frog in his throat but clearly not.” The voice was mature, someone clearly around Leighton’s own age. She sounded so confident when she was supposedly talking to ‘Tom’ that Maria instantly took a disliking. “Sorry but who am I talking to?”

“Professor Leighton isn’t here.” Maria repeated, her head buzzing but deadly silent at the same time.

“Well yes, I know that, you just said, but-“

Maria slammed the receiver back into its position and stared at the phone.

What had she done?

She shouldn’t have picked up the phone, it wasn’t like she lived here (though that did sound nice) and then she went and hung up on them. Maria thought herself to be one of the rudest house guests at that point. Why couldn’t she just have simply taken a message?

Because it wouldn’t have been that simple.

The woman on the phone had surprised her, she didn’t think Leighton was friendly with that many people, he wasn’t the warmest of people, but that woman. The one that sounded so cheery and candid. It wasn’t fair that she was able to speak so freely to Leighton, to be able to share her funny anecdotes from her day, to hear him laugh at her jokes in casual conversation.

Maria wanted that intimacy with him, not for him to share it with that Other Woman.

Who had she been anyway?

A simple acquaintance? A friend? A lover?

Maria’s heart sunk at the thought of the last option. What if she had been pining over a taken man? He had been acting more nervous around her recently. Maybe he was scared that she would start coming on to him. What if all of these feelings were being wasted on a man who had them for someone else?

For the rest of the day, as Maria looked repellently at food or the bright sunshine, questions bumbled about her head. The more she thought about the phone call, the more questions, the more she became dejected.

At half two, she heard the door go and he appeared in the kitchen. Maria took a short breath, what if this beautiful man could only love her as a friend?

Leighton, equally confused, could not look at Maria. Even if she did not act it, she was only barely an adult. What if she could never love a man that much older then herself?

“Are you ready to go?” He asked.

Maria nodded and slipped on some shoes.

And then they left the apartment.