The first Friday after the break is the day the workshop Brian and I signed for starts. The one that Spencer Wright is leading it. Anushka decided to join us, bless her soul, at least I won't be alone.

Melody left a few hours ago, so I stand in front of my mirror, nerves wreaking havoc as I stare at my reflection.

Through the break I managed to set myself and my priorities straight, reminding myself of my goal and working towards it.

And it leads me to, mission innocent seduction is about to kick off... today.

I release a rush of air through my red-painted lips. I lean towards the mirror, running my hand through my hair, trying to give it more volume since I'll be leaving it open and well... look irresistible for a certain someone.

Contemplating my lipstick and faint eye makeup, I can't decide if I'm overdoing it. I groan, why is this so hard?

I pull my white shirt down, to reveal a better cleavage but change my mind. Be subtle, that's the key. So I pull it back up. To have an idea how he would see me, I plaster a flirtatious look on my face and cringe. With the makeup remover pad, I wipe away my lipstick, but let the mascara stay. Rummaging through my make-up bag, I pull out a lipgloss and draw it over my lips. Better.

I pace my room and decide to change my clothes again, ignoring the building pile on my bed. I change into a long-sleeved white crop top with a butterfly at its center and wear a marron skirt barely reaching below my knees, along with black tights. Much better. I slip into my beige coat and fasten my boots, and sling my bag over my shoulder, I head out of the house.

Soon, through the snow, I reach the campus, and on my way to the workshop's classroom, I spot Anushka and we head inside together.

"Girl, I'm glad you're back at your game," she says as we step inside.

I grin at her. "Thanks, I've been really trying."

She throws her arm around me in a tight side hug.

Brian is already seated in the front row. His gaze lands on me and his eyes widen, his lips parting slightly. That's a good sign. If it affected him that much, it ought to have a little effect on Spencer too. I smile at him, his cheeks flush and he offers a small smile before quickly looking away.

Every desk has a computer on it and I'm taking a wild guess that it's one of the computer science department's labs.

I take the seat next to Brian, more because it's the front row, and I'm pretty sure Anushka wouldn't want to sit next to him since she thinks there might be something between the two of us.

Anushka and I spend the remaining time talking and catching up, she tells me about her family gatherings while I happily listen and eventually all the desks fill up. Minutes later, Spencer Wright, in his classroom's usual attitude, cold eyes, and hard face walks in and everyone falls quiet.

For a fleeting moment his gaze pauses on me, but too soon he moves on and I fail to catch any sort of sign from his initial reaction to my improved appearance.

He jumps straightaway into the details of the workshop, what we'll be doing, and at the end, what's expected from us.

Without wasting any time, he dives into teaching, but I note how when he surveys the class, he lingers a bit longer on me than the rest, but brief enough no one notices.

An hour into the course, he gives us a programming code to work on and break it into different parts, while he sits across from us, observing and answering the occasional questions students ask from him.

I finish faster than most of the students and lay my forearms on the desk, gazing at Spencer. Feeling my eyes he turns to me, our eyes lock, and for a moment it seems like the few feet distance between us disappears along with everyone else present and it's just him and me. But I snap out of it and while his unreadable gaze is on me, I offer a discreet coy smile.

He shifts in his seat and makes a point to look at anywhere but me. Asshole.

So I move on to my next move, can't have him ignoring me now, can I?

Flipping through the methods I've memorized from my research; I settle with waiting for Anushka until she's done so I can execute my move with her help.

In a matter of minutes, she wraps up her code and leans into her chair, throwing a questioning look in my way.

Thankfully, we're sharing the same long desk placed on the right side of the room. In a voice that's supposed to be only for her but it's loud enough that Spencer can hear too, I whisper, "Ugh, the yoga I did yesterday has left me so sore." I tilt my head and my hair falls behind my shoulder as I run my hand over my neck as if massaging it.

An understanding gleam passes her dark brown eyes. "You poor thing, but gotta stay flexible."

I hum, agreeing, still running my hands along the length of my neck, and subtly bite my lip to stop myself from cracking up and guffawing. It's insane how fast she can catch up with my plans, even without telling her anything beforehand.

Her eyes move past me, and I know she thinks my comment was meant for Brian's attention, but I take this chance to steal a glimpse in Spencer's way.

May that TikToker reach the highest peaks of popularity. Spencer's smoldering gaze is fixated on me.

Move A is a success.

"Let me fix your hair," Anushka says and leans to me as she pretends to sort out a strand of hair. "Brian is ogling you like crazy, girl."

We silently giggle as she moves away and from the corner of my eye, I catch Brian seeming like he's entranced, glassy eyes set on me. I offer a small smile and heat rushes to his cheeks, an awkward smile arches his mouth before he looks away.

To my utmost surprise, when I glance ahead, Spencer Wright is glowering at no one in particular as he glares at the desk placed next to him.

By all means, I hope he saw this transaction between Brian and me and now he's burning with jealousy.

Feeling my gaze on himself he meets it with cold eyes. Abruptly Spencer gets to his feet and continues teaching, making sure to stump on Brian on every possible chance, asking unnecessary questions, hard enough that has the smartest students in class fumbling, only to point out time and time again he's not listening, resulting in having the poor guy sweating and turning red from embarrassment.

I almost feel bad. Almost.

The workshop ends and as everyone flies out of the class, Brian being the first to flee, I send Anushka off too. Soon it's just Spencer and me.

With slow steps, holding his gaze I approach him.

"Professor," I start, looking up through my lashes, turning the corners of my mouth upwards. He watches me from above the black frame of his glasses and arches an eyebrow. "I was hoping if we could talk about my research," I finish, purposely in a soft voice.

His expression remains cold and distant as he gives me a curt nod.

Without another word, we leave the classroom and head to his office.

Once inside, I shut the door and he moves to behind his desk, placing his bag on the floor instead of where he usually places it.

I make an act of slowly taking off my coat and accidentally flashing skin as I hang my coat. Even though my back's facing him, I can feel his gaze burning into me.

Men. They're all the same when it comes down to perving on little flashes of skin.

Putting on a mask of innocence, I situate myself on the chair and smile at him.

He twirls a pen between his fingers in deft motions. I meet his eyes. "I read the books you'd given me, and I'm pretty sure I got a hang of it."

He nods. "Good, so Reimann is final?"

"Yeah."

The pen halts between his fingers, he leans into his chair and furrows his brows. "Have you decided which paper to work on? If I recall correctly, their subjects were a bit different."

"Not really."

He exhales deeply and starts twirling the pen around his fingers once more. For a long moment, I stare at the smooth movements.

"Okay..." he straightens himself and drops the pen in the penholder. "How about we settle with something today? Finalize the topic we'll be focusing on?"

Excitement rushes into my system, I barely stay put in my seat. I'm getting so close to having my plan reach its final step.

He piles his books and papers on top of each other, making space on the desk and placing some of them either on the floor or on the single plastic chair in the far corner of his room.

And when he tells me to place my chair next to his, I do so, without a heartbeat's hesitation.

For two almost three hours, we sit next to each other with about five inches of space between us as he breaks into each of the papers, untangling the complicated matters for me.

I make sure to touch him, accidentally of course, either brushing my fingers past his, or my leg lightly grazing his as I shift on my seat to become comfortable. Either way, I make sure I do all the subtle touching I've read during my special research.

Each time, I also notice him freezing a little, even though he masks his face with indifference like he can't care less, I know that's not the case. Or how he stares deeply at my face every time I give my two cents about the paper we're discussing.

But I don't overdo it and pretend like I don't notice the handful of times his eyes drop to my lips and linger for longer than necessary.

By the time we're somewhat done for the day, I'm satisfied with both academic-wise and driving Spencer Wright a bit closer to losing his head and logic when it comes to me.

The man sure has an iron fist grip on his self-control. But the poor thing doesn't know, that's no match for me.

∞ ∞ ∞

So... I know nothing much happened in this chapter, but we're building up and nearing something good (and I can assure you that chapter is quite close ^^ [about 2-3 chaps away xD])

Anyway, since I'm really desperate for finishing this book (Idk why all my books never hit the finish line ugh) I was thinking of updating daily again since I'm working on chap 73 so I'm quite ahead of the update schedule... it should be okay. Would you guys be okay if I updated on Sunday too? And I was also thinking about double updates, would you, my dearest readers, be okay with that?

Comment your thoughts and vote if you enjoyed the chapter, next update will be up tomorrow 

Thank you for reading my crazy imaginations XD

Lots of love, stay safe and happy reading <3