Page 62 of Twisted Proposal

"Yes, it was part of last night's required reading. You did the required reading, didn't you?"

For the first time since I started this class, I hadn't done the required reading.

This was actually the first time he had ever brought up the required reading in class.

It just had to be the one time I didn't do it.

Between getting kicked out of my study group, finding out that I had been moved, going to confront Artem about the gilded cage with the cameras and then getting fucked to within an inch of my life, I had forgotten to do my stupid fucking coursework.

Maybe this was the real trap.

It wasn't the domestic bliss he had given me a preview of last night and this morning; it wasn't the passionate arguments, or the gilded trappings of the life he was trying to force me into.

The real danger was that I was going to be so distracted by all of that, I forgot to do my goddamn coursework.

I couldn't even blame Artem for this.

I had just accused him of giving me an opportunity and then setting me up for failure, but I was the one who forgot to do the reading.

It wasn't even like I didn't have the time.

I could've done the reading before I confronted him.

I could've done it this morning while he was reading the newspaper on his tablet.

A vision of me reading textbooks while sipping coffee across the table from Artem reading the newspaper flashed in my head. My heart fluttered.

I pushed the thought aside.

That was something that I was going to have to work out in therapy later.

At that moment, I needed to smooth this over with my professor, so I didn't get thrown out of this class.

The professor walked up through the dreary lecture hall, his hands held behind his back as he took his time sauntering down one aisle until he got to mine and stopped directly in front of me.

Note to self: stop sitting at the end of the aisle.

"Ms. Zatasevo,” he said, glaring down at me. "I expect your full attention while you are in my class."

"I'm sorry, professor. You have my full attention. It won't happen again."

He pursed his lips as he glared down at me, and I felt about three inches tall.

"Tell me why I shouldn't just throw you out of this class."

"I—" I started to answer him, but then he kept talking and I realized it was a rhetorical question.

"Every other student in this class has had to earn their space. None of these students have community college courses on their resume, as if that were somehow good enough. Or even relevant.”

No one else here had to pull strings to get transferred mid-semester.

“I have no idea how you got into this class." He looked at the guy next to me and stage-whispered, "But I think we all have a few ideas."

Giggles erupted around me.

My cheeks burned.

"But regardless, you are here. If you are to be in my class, I expect you to apply yourself and meet my expectations as if you earned your space honorably.”