Twin Flames, Two Souls Journey Through Time – The Professor - Chapter 18

                  “Hey honey, how am I supposed to dress for the interview?”  “I would probably wear a suit or at least dress slacks with a dress shirt and tie.  I’m going to wear a nice dress and sweater.”  “What color, so we don’t clash?”  Amelia could hardly believe her ears, not only was she dating a sweet, funny, incredibly intelligent, kind and patient man who also just so happened to be incredible in bed, but he still has the thoughtfulness to ask about coordinating with her.  Her inner teenager was doing cartwheels.  “I’m wearing navy and pink, if you have a navy suit, a pink or white dress shirt, and maybe a pink tie would be nice.”  “I have a dark blue suit, and a white dress shirt, but not a pink tie.”  “I can go to Nordstrom’s and pick you up one.”  Daniel could tell she was trying to hide her glee at the idea of shopping for him, “am I a real life Ken Doll for you?”  Amelia smiled at him, “I’m not going to lie and say that the inner teenager inside of me isn’t rather happy at the prospect, but in truth it’s the fact that you were considerate enough to ask.  I don’t normally care, but it does look nice when a couple’s outfits complement each other for special occasions.”  “I know, that’s why I asked.  I also appreciate that you are not feral over always matching. my ex Rachel was such a shrew about it.”  “Some people care far more about appearance over substance, so what if we wear matching outfits if we can’t stand each other, I don’t see the point.”  “Yet another reason why I love you,” he said as he leaned over to give her a kiss.  “I’ll pick you a tie up tomorrow while you are at work before I go home.  I have to wait till after 10am anyway so that I can drive in the carpool lane.”  “It is only Tuesday, isn’t it?”  “I know I keep reminding myself of that too.  Quite the eventful six days we have had?”  “The first two were a little rough, and the last two, but those two days in between were pretty great,” he said with a lighthearted chuckle and grin.  Daniel could always make her smile even during some of the worst days of her life, “I don’t know about that, they may have been challenging, but I do seem to recall some rather lovely highlights from every single one of those six days,” her mouth curving up into the slightest of a coy smirk as her cheeks tinged her unique shade of pink.  The sight of her pink cheeks always seemed to travel directly to Daniel’s groin, he was beginning to wonder if that was his kryptonite, because he seemed powerless against it.  Sitting in bed next to her didn’t help, or that they had had sex not even an hour before, and four or was it five times prior to that?  Her body beckoned to him, the electricity, the magnetism it was always there summoning him to her, his soul had been wondering in the desert, but she wasn’t a mirage she was and is his oasis, “care to add another highlight to the reel Ms. Jenkins?”  Amelia couldn’t help but shake her head and roll her eyes, knowing that that would achieve the desired result, and true to form Daniel took the bait, and they added to their highlight reel.

                  They sat nervously in the green room, Sherri was also with them, impressed that they looked unified without appearing to try too hard.  “Just be yourself, remember to keep the answers truthful and simple.  Don’t answer questions they don’t ask.  If you can answer the question with a yes or no, then do that.  Try not to make news.”  “You sound like the attorney,” Daniel said.  Sherri laughed, “we both clean up other people’s messes, and in your guys’ case, messes created by no fault of your own.”  A producer knocked on the door to bring Daniel and Amelia to the stage, it was going to be pre-recorded and aired later that day.  Sherri was going to be watching from the wings.

                  “I’m here with Harper Jones and Daniel Hillard, Harper is the author of the book, Twin Flames, Two Souls Journey Through Time - the Professor, and Daniel is her partner and the inspiration for the book, thank you both for being here today.”  They both nodded and said thank you for having them.  “Harper, you have been adamant that the book is a work of fiction, yet you are here with your partner Daniel, who is a professor.” Daniel gently squeezed her hand as she spoke, “The book is a work of fiction, but like most writers I used some of my personal experiences while writing this book.  The character of the Professor was inspired by some of my interactions with Daniel, but they were highly embellished, particularly the characters responses to those interactions.”  “In the book the characters run into each years later and there is a spark at this encounter, are you maintaining that that was how the two of you got together?”  “While the circumstances are different from what is written in the book, this is what wound up happening.  Daniel and I met at an appearance I was doing last week, and that was the catalyst to our relationship.”  “Daniel, why did you go to this television appearance?”  Amelia subtlety caressed his hand with her thumb to reassure him, “Honestly I went there to confront her, I was unaware of the book, and a colleague showed it to me, and recognizing some of the events I wanted to ask her about the book.”  “You didn’t tell Daniel you had written a book about him?”  Amelia could feel herself turning pink, “I had the intention of letting him know, but five years had passed.  I used fake names in an attempt to obfuscate our identities.  The idea of contacting him out of the blue to tell him I had written a romance novel with him as the protagonist felt daunting.  I convinced myself that he would never find out, and I thought I was saving both of us an uncomfortable and possibly unnecessary conversation.  I should have told him, but as they say hindsight is 20/20.”  “Is it fair to say you were angry with Harper?”  “Initially yes, but upon further reflection it is probably more accurate to say it was a combination of fear tinged with embarrassment at having a coworker bring it to my attention.”  “How did that turn into a relationship?”  “We met after the show to talk things over, during the course of that discussion we discovered that we were mutually attracted to one another, and we are currently exploring those feelings.”  Daniels tone was polite but concise, the attorney would be so proud, Amelia certainly was.  “As you know a student in your class and the former President of the school have made allegations against you, how would you like to respond to those?”  “Firstly, he was the interim President, he hadn’t been hired permanently for the position, secondly, this is an ongoing situation that the schools’ attorneys are handling, I’m not able to discuss them in depth.  I can say that the student saw my appearance on the show, she had read Harper’s book and made assumptions about me based upon the book and decided to make thinly veiled threats against me.  I immediately contacted the Dean of my department, who discussed it with the former President, who based upon his reaction implied that those accusations had merit.”  “Harper, what was your involvement with this situation?”  “Daniel told me about what happened with the student, and I came to speak with the Dean and President of my own volition to let them both know that her allegations were ridiculous and based upon a book that is a figment of my imagination.  As Daniel implied the former President of the school’s reaction was accusatory, so the issue was referred to the union and other Deans of the school for their input.  The prospect of which, apparently was more than the President felt compelled to deal with, so he voluntarily stepped down.”  “So, there is no validity to the accusation that you two dated while you were his student?”  “None!  Even the book which the student took as gospel, states that we didn’t date for several years.  I haven’t been a student of Daniels’ for over five years; I hadn’t seen him in person for four years and haven’t even been a student of Oceanview for two years.  We met for the first time in years a week ago.”  “How do you explain the chemistry between the two of you, you seem to have a bond that would take longer than a week to form?”  Daniel and Amelia looked at each other, he smiled and gave her a slight nod signaling for her to explain, “As the book has implied, there is a bond that Daniel and I share, some call it a twin flame, the concept of which is while the two of us are separate individuals we are two halves of one soul.  We have gone through lifetimes together, while he and I may have only known each other for five years, our souls have known each other since the beginning.”  “Is that how you would explain it Daniel?”  Amelia could tell Daniel was starting to get uncomfortable by how sweaty his hands were, “I am aware that this is hard to understand it was for me and still is if I’m being honest.  Have you ever met someone and felt like you have known them forever?  There has always been this immediate attraction to her, and I don’t mean physically, though I do find her extremely attractive,” he smiled affectionately towards Amelia as he said this, he continued, “I don’t know how to explain it, something inside of me knows her, and has always known her.”  Amelia thought he explained it perfectly.  “Can you elaborate on what you mean?”  Amelia was about to speak but Daniel continued, “Unfortunately it is just one of those things that you can’t understand until it happens to you.  For me, it was as if I was walking through life and everything was in black and white, meeting her was like being able to see in color suddenly.  It happened gradually; it was almost imperceptible at first.  I hadn’t even noticed how grey my world had become again until I went down to that studio in person, and suddenly I have super vision and can distinguish every color in the world.”  “That’s quite a lovely analogy Daniel; would you concur Harper?”  “I agree that was a beautiful way of putting it.  I use a similar analogy but not nearly as eloquent as Daniel’s,” she looked over sweetly at him and playfully said, “maybe you should be a writer too,” and she gave him a little wink and continued, “I liken it to everything being out of focus, and then when I met him things started gradually coming into focus, things started making sense.  Seeing him again was like instantly having 20/10 vision.  It’s an amazing feeling but also overwhelming.”  “What do you mean?”  Shit there she goes saying too much, “It’s a lot to handle emotionally, you realize that you have a shared history with this person, yet you don’t really know the person standing in front of me.  At least for me, I won’t speak for Daniel, it is like my heart, head and soul are not on the same page, my soul is tired of waiting, my heart is afraid of getting hurt, and my head isn’t quite sure what to think.”  “I can see why that would be overwhelming.  Sitting here seeing your closeness in person, I will say it is easy to see why they didn’t believe you.”  “Feel free to watch the recording of the interview, when Daniel asked his question, the look on my face was very much of shock.  One thing about me you should know is I am a horrible liar, just awful.  I don’t have the time, nor the inclination to lie and try to keep track of what lies I told to whom.  I am very much a what you see is what you get kind of person.  If you watch the video, you will clearly see I was surprised to hear his voice.  If I was acting, I deserve a damn Emmy for the performance.”  Daniel squeezed her hand, as she was starting to get animated, the way she does when she is defending her honor, or his. “I have watched the video, and I would have to agree with you Harper, if you were acting, you should get an Emmy.  Let’s have the television audience take a look at the video so they can decide for themselves.”  Amelia winced in embarrassment, she had thought she reacted sooner than that, Daniels demeanor was very serious while asking his question, she could tell he was angry and trying to mask it.  “How do you feel watching that back?”  “I’m embarrassed; in my head I thought I had pulled it off.”  “How about you Daniel?”  “In the moment, I enjoyed watching her squirm.  Not my proudest moment.  Can I just point out that IF we had been dating all along, going down to the studio to ask her a question was the dumbest thing I could have done.  If there was something untoward with our relationship, it would make absolutely no sense for either of us to draw unwanted attention to ourselves.”  “I hadn’t really thought about that, that’s a fair point Daniel.”  Amelia was so proud of Daniel; she was beginning to think that she wasn’t even needed for this interview.  “Not to mention if it were true there would be no point in trying to lie about it, in this day and age even a cursory look at someone’s electronic devises would immediately confirm the truth anyway.”  “Another excellent point, I think based upon your two excellent arguments Daniel, as well as the clear expression of shock on your face Amelia, confirms that there is no validity to the claims against you.  Thank you so much for coming down here today to speak with me.”  Both Daniel and Amelia thanked her for her time and the opportunity to clear their names. 

                  Once they made it back to the green room Amelia wrapped her arms around Daniel, overwhelmed by how proud of him she was.  Sherri said, “Damn Daniel, you were a rock star out there, you were calm and articulate.  I can tell Jo was impressed by you.”  Amelia felt a little prick of jealousy; she had thought that Josephine was rather taken by Daniel and paid a little too much attention to him.  “You were so great during the interview sweetheart, I wasn’t even necessary, I think Josephine would have preferred that herself.”  Daniel had also picked up on Josephine’s attentiveness to him, with his arm swung around Amelia’s shoulders he pulled her closer to him and said, “I have heard you describe it about one hundred times in the last couple of days, I wanted to give you a break.  Those two epiphanies came to me in the moment, it wouldn’t make sense to open ourselves up to closer scrutiny if we had done something wrong.”  He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek and whispered, “I’m glad you were next to me,” and gave her a little wink.  “I think that ought to end this silly debate once and for all, and hopefully Nigel and Nadine come to their senses, if not, you both might want to think about filing a defamation suit, considering this could tarnish both of your reputations,” Sherri said.  “I was actually considering that myself,” said Daniel, “I’m going to call the school’s attorneys in the car, we had made them aware that Amelia and I were doing the interview today, and that it would be broadcast later in the afternoon.  I’ll ask about countersuing, I know they are not representing me but the school, but Bennett seemed like a reasonable man, and he can at least let us know if our case would have merit.  Maybe he can use it as a scare tactic against both Nigel and Nadine.”  “I did tell Nigel that I had an attorney on retainer, perhaps he thought I was bluffing, if Bennett says it would be a good idea, I’ll give them a call.  At the very least a cease and desist letter on their fancy stationary would probably scare them into shutting the fuck up and quitting with their BS.”  Sherri excused herself from the room leaving Daniel and Amelia behind.  “I’m so incredibly proud of you Daniel, you were great.”  Daniel’s cheeks started to turn pink.  “It was easy because you were by my side, did I catch a little tinge of jealousy over Josephine Ms. Jenkins?”  Amelia, feeling embarrassed over her possessiveness, looked away and tried to avoid the question.  “You know you have nothing to be concerned about, right?”  Amelia knew she didn’t have anything to worry about, she trusted Daniel implicitly, maybe people would think her foolish for doing so, but she also knew that some women turn trying to steal a man into a sick competition.  She took his face into her hands and looking him square in the eyes said, “Yes I trust you Daniel, I just know how some women can be,” and she gave him a kiss before releasing his face.  “She can be anyway she wants; it doesn’t matter to me.  Even if she looked like Zendaya with Scarlett Johansson’s curves and Oprah’s money, she wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”  “That’s sweet of you to say, I don’t know how much of that I actually believe, but I love you for saying it just the same.”  “I mean every single word, now let’s go back to my apartment and I’ll prove it to you.”  Amelia feigned shock at his proposal but got her purse as a secret little grin formed on her face as they left the green room and made their way to his car.