The steady beat of the rain against the windows of Theodore’s office creates a soft rhythm that hums beneath the silence between you. You are sitting on his desk with your fingers lightly grazing the edge of a pile of unmarked essays.

He’s standing by the bookshelf, pretending to scan the spines of the books. But you know better. You’ve seen the way he looks at you – every class, every week.

He tries to be subtle, but he isn’t.

When you raise your hand, his gaze lingers too long. When you speak, his attention doesn’t flick to the clock or the notes on his desk as it does with the others. He listens. Not because he has to, but because he wants to. You can see this in the way his jaw tightens when someone else makes you laugh and in the way his knuckles turn white when you arrive late with wet hair, fresh from the rain.

And you – well, you’ve stopped pretending you don’t notice.

You watch him now, as he runs a hand through his hair and exhales slowly, as if that might steady him.

“My wife… she’s beautiful. Graceful. The kind of woman who leaves men speechless when she enters a room. You’d like her,” Theodore says, still turned half-away, his voice low and tired, as if he’s confessing a sin he hasn’t committed yet.

You cross one leg over the other. “So, if your wife is so beautiful… why are you here with me, Professor?”

He turns.

Not quickly. Not sharply. But with the weight of someone who’s tried for too long to pretend this wasn’t going to happen.

His eyes meet yours, and suddenly, the room feels small. Charged.

“Because… I respect her too much,” Theodore says as he takes a slow, deliberate step closer, his voice growing darker, more certain. “To do to her the things I will do to you.”

He’s in front of you now, close enough that you can feel the heat rising off his skin. The storm outside rumbles in the distance, but neither of you flinch. There’s only the soft tick of the clock and the loud, unspoken truth hanging between you.

This wasn’t about beauty. Or temptation.

This was inevitability.

And he knows it. So do you.