Chapter 4: Drinking with your teacher

"So, tell me, how have you been adapting to the new place?" Iris asked with a friendly smile.

She had already started drinking and was clearly relaxed, letting the heavy weight of her chest rest against the table as she leaned closer to Arthur.

He didn’t want to pay much attention to that, but it was impossible not to notice how the flesh pressed against her clothes. The buttons on her blouse were fighting for their lives.

"It’s been okay..." he explained, focusing his eyes on her face.

The problem was that her face was also dangerous. Her smile was so beautiful, her thick lips painted in a strong red lipstick.

"Come on, you can say more than that. How has life with Amanda been? Are you liking the place? Tell me everything, I promise I can help you," she said with a reassuring smile.

"Amanda is great," Arthur answered. "Her food is the best, and thanks to her I’m eating much healthier. I didn’t have time to do much yet, but I’ve been able to keep running. Now I just need to find a gym so I can continue training."

"I see," Iris smiled and reached for his arm, squeezing his muscles with no shame. "I see you’re already showing the first results. Three months of training hard, and I think every girl on campus will be drooling all over you."

Arthur almost died of embarrassment over the blunt compliment.

"You don’t need to be that gentle. At most, I’ll be average," he commented, telling her his honest feelings.

"What are you talking about?" Iris took another strong gulp of her beer and asked the waiter to bring more. "If a man like you were average, I wouldn’t be single anymore!"

Arthur could only smile ironically, not believing her words. She was probably only being gentle with him because she was friends with his mom.

Thud. Iris struck the beer glass against the table, startling Arthur.

"I see... so you don’t believe me, huh?" she asked, her expression changing from friendly to frightening. Under the table, she kicked his shin with the tip of her high heel.

A sharp sting of pain ran through the man’s whole body, his muscles tensing for a second as he bit down on his lower lip to hold back from screaming.

"You can call me Teacher, or just Iris," she said, a smug smile playing on her lips. "Now, handsome, could you enlighten me on why such a fine stud as yourself thinks so little of himself?"

Arthur looked down and took a long gulp of his beer before answering. He’d always been bad with girls.

"To begin with, I’ve always been bad with girls." He scratched the back of his neck. "If it wasn’t for Clarice, and the fact that we’d known each other since we were kids, I’m sure I would’ve been single all through high school."

Iris crossed her legs, as Arthur continued to speak. She’d heard enough about this Clarice. Arthur framed himself as bad with girls, but Iris simply didn’t buy it.

He was sweet, handsome, athletic, and not the type to back down when someone pushed him on something. Besides, the man had to be six-foot-eight, maybe taller.

But she remained quiet, taking a slow sip of her beer and signalling the waiter to bring wine next.

"Besides, I’m overweight, I look just average..." Arthur shrugged, turning the bottle between his large hands. "Clarice always told me I was lucky to have her... that she stayed."

"Interesting, so you were her average boyfriend, who would never get anything better than her."

"Ye—yeah," Arthur said, the word coming out reflexively.

"So, this bitch, Clarice, she is your ex-girlfriend, right?" Iris asked, her voice getting ice cold.

"Yes... did Mom tell you about her?"

Iris shrugged, admitting she only knew the very basics, and prompted him to tell her the rest of the story. Arthur took another sip of his drink and decided to recall the story in as much detail as his tired and slightly inebriated mind allowed.

This only confirmed Iris’s theory even further, so she asked Arthur to show her the woman’s Instagram. As her eyes landed on the first picture, her expression grew even worse.

Clarice was attractive; she had to concede that. Her dark-blonde hair was well-kept, and she clearly knew how to use a higher camera angle to maximize her cuteness.

Her innocent smile might fool some people, but Iris’s bitch sensor was screaming.

Clarice was clearly spoiled, and from the stories she had heard, the girl was possessive and manipulative.

She was also a popular social butterfly. So it wasn’t hard to imagine how she could easily scare off most girls who dared approach Arthur.

And considering how, even before they started dating, she acted so close to him in their pictures together, she had probably been in love with him long before they made it official. As such, she had been keeping girls away from Arthur since he was a small boy.

Getting dazzled by an older, richer guy and eventually discarding her boyfriend when he was going through a rough patch also seemed like exactly the kind of thing a spoiled and somewhat foolish girl like Clarice would do.

However, Clarice didn’t give Iris any slut vibes, so the part about Arthur running into her and her new boyfriend moments away from having sex was really weird.

Maybe she wasn’t getting the right read on her after all... Iris doubted it, though. She was good at reading people, especially teenagers and young adults.

But anyway, Clarice had lost any right to make Iris worry about her the moment she treated Arthur so badly.

And, speaking about Arthur, he had some growing to do, so she hardened her expression and stared him in the eyes.

"Look, dating is hard, and sometimes we meet assholes. But be a man and don’t let something your bitch or an ex told you make you feel inferior."

"She is not a bitch..." he defended her in a weak tone. He had only broken up with her recently, and his hatred and lingering sympathy were still mixed together.

"She is, and I’m not hearing any arguments about that. Understood, young man?"

"Yes, Teacher," he answered, his voice sounding a little weary as the alcohol began to take effect on him as well.

"Very well, then. Puff out that muscular chest of yours. I believe what you need now is some casual dating. This will help you recover your confidence and, more importantly, teach you to get a better read on women. You need to learn that there is much better out there than Clarice."

Arthur nodded, though he didn’t feel all that confident. He had no idea where to start. But, fortunately for him, Iris had already decided when he should start: right now.

"So, man the fuck up, get up, and go ask that hot lady for her number," Iris said, her eyes discreetly turning toward a woman sitting alone at a table a short distance away.

The girl was waiting for a while, and had probably been stood up. She was in her twenties, dressed from head to toe in a fairly elegant outfit. The excessive makeup didn’t sit well with Iris, but it was good enough.

"What?" he gasped. "No way. I don’t even know her... I don’t know anything about her, or if I’d even want anything with her... And... I can’t do it."

"You are capable of speaking, so you are definitely capable of asking for her number," Iris said with a smug tone. "Besides, you’re not asking her to marry you. You need her number precisely so you can get to know her, and then decide whether you want her or not."

"This is assuming she even gives me her number."

"She will," Iris said confidently. The girl was so angry with whoever had stood her up that, if a handsome guy like Arthur invited her back to his place, she would probably be more than willing.

The only reason Iris was telling him to take only her number was because Arthur was a sweetheart, and losing his virginity to a girl he barely knew was something he would definitely regret.

"One more thing. If you don’t go over there and ask for her number in ten minutes, I will scream really loudly that you are single and looking for a date. Then we can see how many girls show interest."

She smiled like a devil.

Arthur would hate, more than anything, to cause a scene at the bar. He knew very well how hard things could be for the employees. Not to mention that he would die of embarrassment if she actually did it.

So he had no other choice.

"You have nine minutes and fifty-six seconds now," Iris said with another smug smile, showing him the timer she had started on her phone. "And believe me, I can scream really loudly."