The minute I saw You | Teacher-Student romance | BWWM

Chapter One | Nick

She's relentless.

This is my first day back in town, and even though I haven't been successful in dodging her previous attempts, I don't know why I thought today would be any different. Would she ever stop trying to get me down the aisle?

I heave a sigh and glance down at the time on my phone that sits on top of the table, seeing a whole five minutes passed before my mother brought up the topic of my singleness.

And here I thought she'd at least wait until the appetizers were served before she blind-sided me.

Fuck.

The smell of the ocean fills the air around me, my sister is chatting with her husband to my right and one of the servers is filling my mother's glass with ice to my left.

Frustration boils in the pit of my stomach. If she was armed and ready on my first day, then only the Lord knows how many women would be thrown in my path the next few months. You'd think she'd be subtler or that the women would have more pride.
But no. Unfortunately my love life is a game and I'm the prize.

I grab my jacket out of the coat closet near the foyer and slide my phone into my pocket. I slip my arms through the jacket and adjust it over my blue button up. Brunch with my mother is an event, so God forbid I show up in something as casual as jeans and a T-shirt.

"And where do you think you're off to Nicholas?" Ruth Cross asks, standing in the middle of the foyer with a glass of scotch in one hand.

I glance over at my mother, her blonde hair stops below her ears and her gold chiffon blouse is tucked neatly inside a matching pencil skirt.

"I'm not going to sit here and let you offer me up like I'm some prized bull." I tell her as I finish buttoning the last of the buttons on my jacket. "I'm sure I can find some place to eat breakfast where I'm not the one being served on a platter."

She finishes swirling the scotch in her glass and looks at me like she wishes she could go back in time so that I was never born.

What's new?

I wish I could say that's the first time I've seen that look in my mother's eyes, but that wouldn't be the truth.

There's a good chance that the beautiful brunette woman in the living room is a friend of my mother who just happens to be visiting for brunch on my first day back in town. A small chance. She could be an amazing woman that will make any man very happy. Or she could just be a willing participant in my mother's quest to get me to settle down.

I've gotta get out of here. I've got to get out of here now.

Besides, she's not my type, and I would be a bigger dick than my mother already thanks I am if I lead her on. Caitlin is happily married so that just leaves me as the remaining Cross left for grabs whether I liked it or not.

I fold the lapels on my jacket feeling like the family's black sheep.

I exhale deeply, shoving down my frustration for the moment. She's like any mother who wants to see their child married and happy, but I'm not looking to walk down the aisle anytime soon. Or ever.

I can't blame the brunette either. She's probably only doing what she was raised to do— be perfect and land a husband. Maybe that's the problem, they're all just carbon copies of my mother.

Turning around, Ruth sends an apologetic smile towards Kay— the brunette— and downs her scotch while glaring at me over the brim of her glass.

"You're thirty Nicholas," She reminds me. "How much longer do you think you can keep coasting through life with your charm and good looks?"