A Wifey for the Bad Boy(209)
Sadly it only proved to me how empty and hopeless my life was. I tried not to compare everyone to Lucy but it was difficult because the feelings were raw inside me, and I didn't want to enter into a relationship where I felt like I was deceiving the other woman. I always felt strongly that the person you are with should be the person you want above all others, and with Lucy on the scene it was always going to be her, such was my misfortune.
So I decided to do my job to the best of my ability and hope that one day someone would come into my life who would rival my affection for Lucy, else I knew that I would be alone forever.
Chapter 3
“Right then, for next class I want a discussion about whether Odysseus is an admirable character or not. Think about the different cultural attitudes between then and now, think about everything he does in the book and decide whether you think his actions were heroic. Think about what being heroic means. I just want your opinions about it and I hope that it will provoke an interesting discussion. Cecilia will e-mail you some links to further reading about the character of Odysseus but I only want you to use them as jumping-off points. I want to hear your opinions next week because if you want to be writers then you're going to have to put forward your own arguments and your own feelings. The best writing is that which is borne from truth, so don't just regurgitate something you've read. I'm hoping to hear some good arguments so don't let me down!” Lucy said as she dismissed the class. Loud chatter sprang up as the students descended down the stairs and made their way out of the auditorium. I gathered up my notes and watched with narrowed eyes as the men checked out Lucy's ass. She stretched her limbs to wipe away the notes she had made on the whiteboard, and I wanted to fling myself at them and tell them to move along. How dare they ogle her like that, as though she were just a piece of meat for them to salivate over?
It sickened me. A few other students went up to her and I couldn't hear what they said but I was always there, watching. Eventually they all left and it was just her and me in the room. My favorite part of the day.
“What is it with you and The Odyssey anyway?” I asked as I helped her pack up her things on the desk. When I was near her I breathed in her sweet perfume and took a moment to let the scent linger around me, ad I felt like I had been transported from the lecture hall to an orchard where the sun was shining and I was standing in the middle of it, surrounded by happiness and sunshine.
“It's the most perfect book ever written. You know, when I studied it myself I read it about four or five times over the course of that year and I never grew tired of it. It was the first book where I really examined the text and swam among the words, almost like I was inside the book and I could look around and see all the different meanings and symbolism. It opened my eyes to what literature can be and aside from that it's just a great story. It has everything in it,” she said. She spoke with awe and reverence, and I loved seeing her like that because her eyes glowed with passion and she had the beauty of an ethereal being.
“It doesn't have giant robots,” I said. She narrowed her eyes at me and pressed her lips together.
“You are your giant robots. One day you're going to have to show me one of these movies you rave about so I can understand what you're coming from because I just don't see the appeal.”
“I'll be more than happy to show you the wonders,” I said, loving the thought of us sitting on a couch together under a blanket, feeding each other popcorn, cuddling up as the movie flickers in the dark room, our bodies pressed together, the faint feeling of aroused sweat in the air, our hands moving closer together under the blanket, daring to go to forbidden places and then we'd look at each other and it would all explode before my eyes.
“We'll have to pencil that in then. I have to admit I've never really been interested in the big Hollywood blockbusters. Perhaps it's something to do with my generation.” She spoke as though she was so much older than me and I suppose she was, but whenever I was with her and I never felt the age difference. She was simply Lucy, beautiful and perfect.
“A lot of them are mindless entertainment but some of them can be fun. Luckily you have me to guide you through the best and worst of them.”
“And I couldn't ask for a better guide,” she said, placing a hand on my shoulder and squeezing it slightly. Oh if she only knew how much anguish that simple gesture caused me she would surely withdraw her hand...and yet I would not want her to for even the slightest touch was worth all the torturous agony.
“These are the links that I'd like you to e-mail out to everybody,” she said, handing me a piece of paper, “and if you could just remind them in the e-mail that I'm expecting them to come up with some original thoughts that would be great. Did you get a chance to look over the notes for the next lecture?”