'Don't rule out Charlotte completely.' Tom's words replayed in Lexi's mind as she skimmed through the code her dad had sent her the night before. She'd woken up early in her dorm room after the most amazing night with Tom. They talked about what felt like everything and ended up staying so late at the restaurant, the host had to ask them to leave. After he dropped her back home and kissed her goodnight, she made her way back to her dorm room.

Lexi tweaked some lines of code and submitted it to run, hoping that this try would get them through the firewall. The estimated run time was two and a half hours. Please, God, let this work. She'd have to wait until after her class to see if it resulted in a direct link to the hacker.

Sighing, she grabbed Mindy's notebook of suspects and looked up the entry on Charlotte towards the beginning. Random facts about Charlotte were scattered across the beige surface in Mindy's curly handwriting. Information ranged from Charlotte's computer skills, which seemed to be top-notch to her favorite movie characters. Something tugged at Lexi while reading the entry. Something familiar that she couldn't quite place. She wondered about the time Cole and her parents tried looking up information on Charlotte and there was nothing to be found.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a message from Tom and like every single time, she nearly squealed in excitement.

Ron: Good morning, beautiful.

Lexi's smile grew and she turned on her side with her phone close to her face.

Hermione: Good morning, handsome! Thanks again for last night, it was a lot of fun.

Ron: Of course, baby. I'm already planning our next date. It's for tonight.

Hermione: Oh? Who says I'm free tonight?

Lexi smirked, waiting for Tom's quip back.

Ron: Are you free tonight?

Hermione: I may have homework I need to get done. I have this one professor that likes to work his students hard.

Ron: Yeah? How hard?

Heat filled Lexi's cheeks as she read over Tom's message. She bit her bottom lip and smiled widely before typing out her response.

Hermione: You tell me. ;)

The bubbles indicating that Tom was typing appeared for a moment, then disappeared. Lexi wondered what was going through his mind and if she was being too forward. Last night had been the most forward she'd ever been. But, now in the light of day, in her ripped Hogwarts t-shirt pajamas and with under-eye makeup residue, her new vixen status was being called into question. Yet, all thoughts dropped when the bubbles came back up and his response appeared.

Ron: How about I show you? Tonight.

Flutters filled Lexi's stomach and a pleasant ache filled her lower abdomen.

Hermione: I'm sure I can squeeze something into my schedule.

Ron: Good girl.

Hermione: I can't wait to see you in class today.

Ron: I'll see you soon, my love, Lexi.

Lexi re-read Tom's message a few times before putting her phone away. Tom knew her real name, the truth, and he still loved her. It had catapulted her way past cloud nine and into the stratosphere and she couldn't contain the giddy excitement that filled her. She quickly jumped out of bed and started to get ready for his class, wanting to make sure to look extra cute for her handsome professor.

***

Lexi ended up settling on high-waisted black skinny jeans and a fitted long-sleeve, low-neck white shirt that hugged her figure and showcased a hint of cleavage. Lipstick was never her go-to choice for makeup, but she wanted to spruce up her routine and feel that same boost in confidence she had the night before. A bold red lip seemed to fit her mood and she carefully applied Mindy's Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint. Despite nearly abandoning the plan after she accidentally made herself look like The Joker for a hot second, Lexi was able to finesse the look.

"Okay, you look so hot!" Mindy whistled and Lexi blew an air kiss in response. "I bet you Tom will barely get through his lesson today."

Lexi laughed. "Is it too much? I don't want to draw too much attention to us. We still have to be discreet."

"No, girl! You look great! Besides, you guys have managed to keep things on the down low for months. He's been doing a good job not staring at you in class even though I caught him just a couple of times."

"I just wanted to look cute for him."

"Don't need to justify it to me. I wore blue eyeshadow for months when I first heard it was Cole's favorite color."

Lexi cracked up. "I remember that! I thought you were obsessed with blue all of a sudden. Wait! But Cole's favorite color isn't blue."

"I know! When I found out it was green I trashed my makeup!"

The girls finished getting ready and left their dorm. A chill in the November air forced Lexi to cling to her coat tighter as the girls made their way over to Tom's classroom. Leaves were now mostly fallen off their branches, the sun was getting scarcer each day, and Starbucks had brought back Pumpkin Spice Lattes. There was no doubt Fall was present.

The classroom had already filled up by the time the girls got there and Tom was at the front podium studying something intently. Chattering voices of students filled the space as his eyes met Lexi's. He did a subtle double take and her heart rate sped up. His gaze quickly traveled down her figure and then back to his laptop. He fidgeted with the collar of his white button down and Lexi could tell he was no longer reading something, but forcibly trying not to look up again. A smile crept up as she took her seat beside Mindy in one of the middle rows.

Tom slowly looked up and he allowed himself a few seconds to stare at her before he tore his eyes away again and reached for his phone.

Ron: I may just have to cancel class altogether with you looking like that. Your lips look incredible and I'd love to see them on me.

Lexi's eyes grew wide and heat flowed through her. Before she could type out a response, a voice coming from a few seats next to her prompted her to look up. "You look really good, Hannah," Wes said before smiling warmly at her.

She smiled politely back. "Thanks, Wes." A vibration alert forced her to look back down.

Ron: Should I let him know you're mine?

Hermione: You do that and we'll be kicked out of here jobless.

Tom smirked at his phone before tucking it into his pocket and bringing everyone's attention to him. "Good morning, class! Today we'll be talking about Defense Against The Digital Dark Arts."

When Lexi heard the name of the class, her smile grew. Tom had named this session after a Harry Potter class, 'Defense Against the Dark Arts'. "I trust you all did your reading assignment over the weekend. Who can tell me the best way to implement application hardening?"

Charlotte's hand shot up first followed by a few other students. Tom ignored all hands and zeroed in on Wes. "Wesley, would you mind sharing what you learned about it in your reading?"

Wes fidgeted in his seat and sat up a little straighter. "Um, uh, it's when you protect an app against intrusions."

"I'm very well aware of what application hardening is, Wesley." Annoyance dripped from Tom's voice and Lexi tried not to roll her eyes at Tom. "What I'm asking is about the way to implement it. Let me know if you need me to repeat it."

Oh my God, Tom. Can you make it any more obvious that you dislike him?

"I, um-" Wes started but was quickly cut off by Tom.

"Charlotte, what about you? Go ahead and tell the class your thoughts on the best technique to implement."

Charlotte excitedly stood up and smoothed out her shirt, as if she was getting ready for an on-stage opera performance. "I'd have to say privilege escalation detection is one of the most effective techniques. It notifies you when the root level of a system, the most important level, has been compromised."

"Very good, Charlotte. Looks like someone was able to do the reading this weekend."

This time, Lexi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her. She glanced over at Wes who had his jaw clenched and nostrils flared. Ugh. Tom!

Lexi could sense Wes' annoyance for most of the class, and it didn't help that Tom had called him out a couple of more times. Once when Wes was zoned out and Tom asked him to leave if he was bored. And then again when Wes' phone vibrated loudly on the desk and Tom asked if he wanted to answer it and they would all wait. With each instance, Lexi's teeth ground.

As soon as Tom dismissed the class, Wes jumped up and stormed out, drawing the attention of a few classmates. It was subtle, but Lexi could've sworn she saw Tom roll his eyes.

Once the class fully cleared out, Lexi made her way to the front where Tom was packing his things up. "What the hell, Tom?"

"What?" Tom looked up with a confused expression.

As if he doesn't know why I'm annoyed! "What the hell was that? With Wes! Why were you such a jerk?"

"I wasn't!" Tom said defensively.

"Yes, you were! Is it because he complimented me? So, is that how this is going to work? You're going to be an ass to everyone who blinks at me?" Lexi crossed her arms as Tom leaned back against the desk behind him.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Okay."

"Okay?" Lexi raised a brow.

The sides of Tom's mouth tilted up slightly before he placed a large hand on Lexi's hip. "I'm sorry." He gripped her hip before pulling her toward him with a wide smile.

Lexi couldn't control the smile that Tom drew out of her. Ugh, I'm supposed to be annoyed! "Tom!" She twisted so she wouldn't be fully pressed against him.

He laughed, gripped her other hip, and leaned down to be at her eye level. "I'm sorry. You're right. I was an ass. I just started to remember when he talked about feeling you up in the theater and got annoyed. I get jealous, okay?"

"Oh, you do? I hadn't noticed." Lexi playfully rolled her eyes and let Tom pull her full body in closely.

"Did I tell you, you look so sexy?" he whispered in her ear and sent a shiver down her spine.

"You may have mentioned something." Lexi continued to keep her arms crossed despite Tom hugging her.

"Well, you do. So," he gently kissed her cheek, "so," he gently kissed her neck, forcing Lexi to unfurl her arms, "sexy."

Lexi's arms seemed to involuntarily move to return Tom's embrace and she closed her eyes, relishing the feeling of Tom's lips on hers. He slowly moved the trail of kisses back to her face and brushed her lips. She giggled and leaned into his touch. "I'm wearing lipstick, Tom."

"And it tastes amazing." Tom placed his lips back on hers and soon they were kissing passionately, caution thrown out the window and lipstick smearing all over each other's faces.

Lexi ran her hands through Tom's hair and his hands found her butt and squeezed her cheeks. She broke off the kiss and giggled. When she focused in on the red pasted all over Tom's mouth and cheeks, her eyes grew wide and she took an abrupt step back. Looking around her, it hit her that they completely lost track of where they were and how this looked. "Oh, my God! We shouldn't be doing this here." She laughed and brought her hands up to her mouth to cover it.

"Oh, shit. Yeah, you're right." Tom smiled widely and began smearing the red on his mouth against the back of his hand.

"What the fuck?" A voice that wasn't Tom's or Lexi's rang throughout the space forcing both Tom and Lexi to jump and look toward the door. Wes was standing behind the last row of desks with his mouth open and a disgusted look seared into his expression.

***

I got three more chapters left after this. I finished them offline so I may post them all at once later this week. Thank you for reading, voting, and commenting! ♥️