Eve Langlais by The Hunter

mysterious.
    “Please, when it’s just us, call me Damian. Professor Draco sounds so old and stodgy. You don’t think I’m old, do you?” he’d asked, his mesmerizing grey eyes boring into hers as if the answer was of the utmost importance. Unable to hold his gaze, Suzie dropped her head.
    “What? No, of course not Pro—Damian.” Despite his years, mid thirties to her bare twenty-three, he definitely couldn’t be considered an old man. On the contrary, his entire being exuded strength and virility. Standing across from him, Suzie felt drawn to him like metal to a magnet.
    “I’m sure you’re wondering what this is all about?”
    “I failed my exam, didn’t I?” she replied in a little voice, still looking at her toes.
    His rich laughter filled the room. “Failed? By no means. You passed with flying colors, my dear Suzanne. That’s why I called you in here. See, I’ve selected you to be my assistant in a project I’m doing.”
    “Really?” she exclaimed, her head coming up, an incredulous look on her face.
    “Yes. It will have to be done after school hours, of course, as this is an extra project. Will that pose any problems with your boyfriend or family?”
    “I don’t have a boyfriend, and my mom lives back east. I’ve got plenty of time to help you. What’s the project about, and when do we start?”
    “Why don’t I tell you over dinner?”
    That became the first of many dinners—first, out in public places, where he fed her a web of lies on this supposed project. Then, the dinners and meetings started happening at his condo.
    In retrospect, she realized he’d been grooming her, easing her into the relationship. Cutting her off from her few friends, consuming all her time till her only focus became him.
    The first time they had sex, a painful experience due to her virgin state, he’d put on a great act afterward.
    “Oh, Suzanne, how I love thee. Alas, our love is doomed. I shall be cast from my job at the university. Will you still love me when I am penniless and shamed before my peers?”
    39

    Rushing to reassure him she’d said, like an idiot, “No one has to know. I’ll never tell. In another year, I’ll graduate, and we can be together then. I don’t mind hiding our love for now.”
    The next few months, they snuck around like star-crossed lovers. He gave her a key to his place so she could come over whenever she had free time. She’d cook dinner and wait for him, like a good little wife would, not that they ever talked about marriage. In fact, he never talked about a future with her at all. But he had said he loved her. Surely he wouldn’t lie about that? And she had loved him with every inch of her being.
    The budding trees signaling spring was when she started feeling ill.
    After throwing up for the third morning in a row, she had to face the truth. She either had the flu or she’d become pregnant. After buying the test from a pharmacy, she smuggled it back to his place in her purse and peed on the little stick. She spent an agonizing three minutes waiting.
    Double cross. Oh-oh, definitely pregnant.
    She skipped all her classes that day, huddled in a ball in his apartment, dreading telling him. How would he react? Would he make her get an abortion? Would he still love her? Would they marry? The parade of questions seemed endless, the fear of losing him overwhelming.
    His reaction was not what she expected.
    “That’s fantastic!” he exclaimed when he finally came home and heard the news.
    “Really?” Suzie said, stunned.
    “I’m finally going to be a father. This is fabulous!” he said, wrapping his arms around her in an exuberant hug. “You’ll move in with me once the semester is done.”
    Suzie should have asked more questions. Such as, what about marriage? And how would she manage school with a baby? But it was hard not to get caught up in his excitement, so she just assumed everything would all work out. Naive? No, blindly in love.
    When they found out at her