It was interesting that Chloe had a "no shots" rule, as it followed close to his own rule not to push his alcohol limits in public. On their way to the bar Hadey saw another familiar face. It was the bartender from earlier who was dressed more casual than he had been at the bar he tended to. Of course, Hadley was letting the two chit chat, not seeing the harm in it as long as the man didn't have any hard feelings against Chloe for flat out denying him earlier that morning.

Due to the music, it was hard to hear the two's conversation, but as he waited in line at the bar he noticed it had gone sour. When the man had tugged on Chloe, Hadley realized he needed to step in immediately. Now, Hadley was far from the confrontational type. He did not enjoy the thrill of a potential fight but that did not mean he would not assert himself in a situation that obviously needed to be defused, and quickly.

Fortunately, he had just heard the tail end of their conversation and knew how to interject just as he'd stepped out in front of Chloe, separating the two. "She's already made it clear that she has no interest in you. Take the loss and move on." There was a demeaning look in his eyes that matched the tone of disgust in his voice. If the guy tried anything well, Hadley's grip on the glass from his drink from earlier tightened, he'd make sure he'd get in the first and last hit.

"Oh sheesh." The dude rolled his eyes, but his jaw was tense and his teeth were gritted. In fact, his appearance told a very different story to the words that he was speaking. "Fine, whatever." He held his hands up in mock surrender, "She's probably not even worth the trouble.." The words were delivered to sting the woman in question, but Chloe merely chuckled, "You have a lovely evening too..." A dangerously sweet smile appeared on her lips. Hell, she'd worked in customer service, the one thing that she could pull out of the bag, was a coverall kiss-my-ass smile.

Jackass

The Australian huffed loudly and stormed through the crowd. Chloe watched in interest, but her attention some flicked back to Hadley. There was something alarmingly attractive about his assertive demeanour. And after a moment or two - she had to force herself to blink so that she stopped staring.

"Thanks." A more cheerful smile appeared this time. One that made creases appear in the corners of her eyes. "He was....." The blonde searched for a polite description.. "Intense.." And with a laugh, she pointed to the bar.. "What are we having?"

Truth be told - after that display, she didn't entirely trust herself around him.

The other man was rather annoying and contradicting. Hadley knew better than to believe his words until his body language changed, which was why he kept a strong grip on the glass in his hand. Luckily the man was all talk and no bite. Hadley's shoulders relaxed as did the grip on his glass. A frown was tugging at his lips causing his expression to look more irritable because of the other male's comment. No, it was he who wasn't worth the trouble.

"What a dick." Hadley suddenly said as the guy disappeared into the crowd far away from him. Good. The more distance the better in this case. After the man was out of sight, Hadley turned to Chloe, seeing her giving him thanks with a smile, "My pleasure."

"No kidding. Some people cannot take no for an answer." He drawled before sighing, shrugging off the tense atmosphere.

"How about tequila? Or Rum or Whiskey." Adrian called over the bartender, "Lady's choice."

Mexico felt like a blur tucked away somewhere in her distant memory. Well, it had to be. What was supposed to be just a casual, summer diversion had gone and developed feelings. Had she seen that coming? No. The young woman had never imagined herself falling so hard for someone she'd met in a bar, but there you had it. Was leaving difficult? Very. Had she spent two weeks pining? Absolutely. But still, she was over it. Well, mostly. Over it, and sorta' mad at Hadley for dropping her like a used toy.

With a silent huff, Chloe dragged herself from the cosy nook that was her dorm room and set out on the relatively short walk to the lecture hall. Mornings were a painful experience at College, especially when you lived next door to music students. Great fun, but terribly antisocial.

After a coffee stop, she meandered into the Classroom and took a seat someplace in the third row. A friend named Brad was already in situ, and chuckled when the blonde sighed her way into the seat next to him.

"That bad, huh?" He smirked, helping himself to a sip of her Coffee. His features distorted into revoltion and he laughed, "Christ, what is that?! Rocket fuel.."

Chloe smirked, "Double espresso." And with that, she tapped him lightly on the nose with her finger, "Don't be a baby.."

Had she changed much in appearances? No. The hair was still as unruly as ever, but in the more mild climate of home, she wore it down about her shoulders. A pair of distressed dark blue skinny jeans clung deliciously to the curve of her hip, and a white long sleeve top with black horizontal stripes stopped just above her hipbones.

"Did you read the text book?" Brad asked, upending the contents of his backpack onto the desk in front of him.

"A little. Not all of it though.." No, she'd been too busy moping.

"Same." He smirked, running his hand through his thick dark hair, "I just want to get this over with and get to lunch.." Everyone was feeding in slowly, finding seats and locating buddies. It was really just a case of waiting for the Professor now.

"You shouldn't wish your life away." Chloe retorted in a humorous accent, making even herself laugh.. "But I would love a bagel right about now.."

Mexico was only but a restful sleep with pleasant dreams for Hadley. Unfortunately the last week of Mexico was the alarm clock blaring in Hadley’s ears signaling for him to wake up. It was hard leaving Chloe behind without a word to her. She really was a charming girl, a girl that he could only dream of having by his side. The reality, however, was that he already had another by his side, another that he had chosen nearly two decades ago. Chloe could be nothing but a wistful desire in a vacation that was nothing but an alternate reality that would never collide to the one he lived in.

Or at least he’d thought.

Going back to his life as a husband and professor was like waking up with only a few hours of sleep, groggy and needing some substance to kick him back into gear. The cheerfulness and attention from his wife after being gone for so long did nothing to excite him. He knew her excitement of him being home would dwindle and she would return to her own life of luxury. Which quite honestly he detested. He wish she would slow down to his level but that was not in the forecast of their relationship anytime soon.

The first morning back to the University was more of a fresh breath of air than he had expected it to be. He had new faces in his class and some he didn’t recognize but he was quickly greeted by a crowd he had had the pleasure of educating before. They crowded him, asking him about the course, excited about the overview of the syllabus and the controversy around such subjects the literature they would be reading contained.

Before he had a moment to finish conversations he had to begin class, telling the students to get settled in. Once everyone was quiet and settled their full attention on Hadley he greeted the class.

“Good morning everyone, I hope you all have had an exciting summer.” He said as he was beginning to write out his name on the board at the center of the class room. “For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Hadley Foster. I prefer you address me as Professor or Mr. Foster.”

“I’m fairly laid back but I do expect the closest we humans can achieve to perfection. So, if you’re thinking on taking the challenge of writing an essay for me the night before, well quite frankly you’re not going to make it far in this class.”

At that point he went on to discuss the syllabus for that semester, trying to keep it mildly entertaining. “Please take the time to actually look over it, because if you ask me a question that you already have the answer to in front of you, I’m going to tell you to refer to your syllabus.”

“Or I’m going to start wearing the shirt my wife got me that says “it’s in the syllabus” if I get tired of repeating myself.” He said rather casually that made a couple chuckle and some sigh because they knew it to be true from previous classes.

What the actual fuck..

Chloe blinked.. And then blinked again about seven times in quick succession. No. It couldn't be. This was just some weird mind game. A hallucination brought on through too little sleep and too much alcohol. There was no way in the world that it was him. Not even a tiny possibility.

The lame joke sealed it. It was him. In the flesh. Chloe's stomach did a strange little lurch, and her eyebrow perked. Sure he'd said he was a Professor, but he wasn't her Professor. Hell, it was one of the smallest Colleges in the Country. There wasn't a cat in hells chance..

"Yo, Chlo, what's got you so perplexed?" Brad leaned in, a laugh escaping him as he checked out the facial expression that his friend was sporting. He couldn't quite place it. Well, until the word wife came up.. At that point, he definitely woulda' put money on angry. Real angry. But why?

Wife?

Wife?!!

WIFE

Chloe wanted the ground to swallow her up. She wanted to jump out of the window.. She wanted to do anything to get herself out of there. Instead, she sat. She sat calmly through the cheeky little jokes and jabs at the significant other, and waited. Waited for the end when she merely gathered up her belongings and headed down the steps with Brad. Just walk past.. Keep your head down and walk past. Don't glare, don't frown.. Just walk.

In the midst of everything to start off the first day of class, Hadley, during attendance toward the end of the hour noticed a familiar name. One he didn't think he'd see in his class, though considering he had only known Chloe's first name he'd dared not to see if it was her. He couldn't, it surely wasn't possible so there was no point in looking for the girl who was in an alternate reality he'd left behind in Mexico. Though, he was proven to be wrong. At the end of his class as the students began to file out he caught a glimpse of blonde curls and tanned skin. Looking closer he saw that it was indeed Chloe.

Hadley couldn't believe it. A part of him almost called out to her, just like he would have in Mexico when they would run into each other. Luckily he had his wits about him, so it didn't happen. He wasn't in Mexico, he was home, in his actual life. She was his student, and he was married. It was apparent that Chloe was not happy to see him as she didn't care to look at him, let alone greet him. A part of him wondered if she was embarrassed. They had gotten close in Mexico, maybe too close. He knew better than to get close to her as he did but, he just couldn't help himself.

Even now he couldn't. "Chloe. A word?" He called out to her like a teacher would call out to a student. Not that she was in trouble but he did make it a point to seem like it wasn't something non-related to what he really wanted to speak to her about.

Chloe, a word?

The blonde flinched. Oh man. Did she hate him? No, unfortunately not. Was she incredibly angry at him? Absolutely. He hadn't told her that he was married, and that was sneaky. And now? Well, she had the fact that she'd slept with a married man on her conscience. However, despite all of these factors, a part of her just wanted to jump up and hug him.

Brad cocked his head to the side in curiosity. Had Chloe had Professor Foster in the first year? He thought they were both new to his class.. That couldn't be the case though, because the dude clearly knew who she was by sight.

"Did you have him last year?"

Chloe snapped out of her stupor, "No. Why?"

"How does he know who you are already?"

"Hmmmm. Mug shots maybe?"

Smooth, real smooth.

It wasn't a totally out there reason, was it? After all, they had all sat for those stupid photographs when they'd first started. Brad, who had known Chloe for a long time, just nodded. He wasn't convinced, and it showed. "Right." He smirked. "Shall I meet you in the cafeteria?"

Chloe merely saluted her buddy and took a couple of steps backwards, her slightly goofy nature now on show. With a cool smile, she twiddled her bag strap as she turned to Hadley.

"Yes, Professor Foster?

He was still irritatingly attractive, but the now visible wedding ring reminded her of her annoyance.

"How's the wife?"

The eyebrow twitched in a manner that suggested Professor Foster had some explaining to do..

Goofy as ever, maybe even more so. It almost made Hadley smile but then he refrained due to the reason he’d called her over. Hadley was hoping to explain himself and he was struggling to find the words to do so. He didn’t think he’d see her again even though he had dreamed he would just about every night since he’d left Mexico. He sill remembered the feel of her skin underneath his fingertips, her at his mercy.

Then, like a slap, she brought him back from his thoughts by addressing him as her professor that he was. God this was messy. Was it worth it? Yes, no question about that. “Distant and self absorbed.”

The words slipped out without hesitation but it was the truth none the less. “Look, it wasn’t my intention to lie to you in Mexico. I just didn’t expect to see you again. Not that I’m unhappy to see you again.” He offered a smile but it was strained and apologetic.

Distant and self absorbed..

It wasn't exactly a glowing personality profile for Hadley's wife. Chloe was caught. Caught between knowing morally that it was wrong, but wanting it anyway. What had developed in Mexico between was wrong, how she felt right now was absolutely wrong.. Despite that, being back in the company of Professor Foster felt incredibly right. And that was the most infuriating thing.

The blonde puffed out her cheeks. It was impossible to know what to do or say. "I just can't get my head around any of this.. I just don't know what.." And it was as though something completely overtook her senses, because she leaned in. Perhaps noone needed to say anything. The room was empty, the door was closed. Without any warning to Hadley, or even herself for that matter - Chloe kissed him. Of course internally she was still angry, but she just couldn't resist.

Messy would have been an understatement, but it was difficult to ignore the pull she felt whenever he was around. Mexico had happened, and here they were again. That was going to take some getting used to. And in all honesty, it was something that Chloe had never dared to believe would happen. Still, the damage had already been done, right?

Hadley expected a smack to the face from Chloe, not a kiss. Was she not angry with him? He'd seen it on her face, in her eyes. They were full of fire but he could tell there was uncertainty there and temptation. Hadley knew he had a lot of explaining to do but at this moment it could wait.

It was Hadley's own instincts and desire that influenced his next actions. He had kissed her back greedily, having missed the feeling of her lips against his own. This was wrong and dangerous but all reason had quickly left for the time being. His hands rested on her hips, his fingertips digging in and pulling her to him. Besides her whimsical personality, he'd missed her warmth the most, and how she felt pressed against him.

After a moment he'd broken their kiss only to turn them so he could push her up against the edge of his desk, thankfully nothing was on it except for his own bag of things, or else he was sure it would've been knocked off. "I've missed you." He said before entangling his fingers through soft blonde curls. That was the truth, he'd thought about her, dreamed about her but he never thought she'd be here in front of him like this again.

"I missed you too... But I'm still angry."

Chloe was feeling a plethora of different emotions. Relief to see Hadley again, annoyance at the way he'd hidden the truth from her - even if it hadn't been intentional. Finally, there was desire. A warm burning in the pit of her stomach that was hard to ignore.. And that was entirely his fault.

As darling as it felt to back in his arms, the young woman knew they couldn't hide out there for the entire afternoon, even if it did feel as though the world had stopped still. "I should go and get lunch, I'll be late for my next Class if I don't." Of course it was declared with no minor amount of reluctance, but Chloe wasn't going to get herself into trouble the first week back.

With a smirk, she reached out and poked Hadley on the tip of the nose." We should probably talk though, I suppose." And with that, she cocked her head rather endearingly to the side. It was an intriguing sensation.. Wanting to hug and hit somebody at the same time..

Hadley nodded. Chloe had every right to be angry, after all he did keep something rather important from her. They had gotten close during their time in Mexico but he wondered if a full explination would really clear the air between them. Hadley knew better, he knows that whatever is between them or was between them, it may slip between his fingers like sand. Not that she was something he was truly ment to have in the first place.

Yet here he was, testing that rational and there she was doing the same. "Y-yeah." He cleared his throat, regaining his composure quickly, "Yes, you should." It would be wise that she did. Right now he had drug this young woman unknowingly into an affair and the last thing he wanted to do was compromise both of their statuses and the University. Hadley stepped back to give Chloe her space. He had nearly forgotten he had positioned her against his desk as though he really could have had her in this setting. What the hell was he doing?

Hadley was smoothing out his grey vest and the white button-up shirt's sleeves when she suggested they talk at some point. He looked up at her, hazel eyes looking for any sort of uneasiness about her person. Yet she seemed like her usual self, always curious. The corner of his lips turned upward into a smile, "If you're willing to hear me out then, anything you wish." At that point, Hadley was telling her his cell phone number, just so they could be in contact for the discussion they would soon be having.

"We can meet over coffee, or dinner, just call me when you're ready." Hadley wanted to leave things on her terms. Ultimately he was giving her the choice to either decide that he was the scum of the earth, an awful sleuth, or that he surely had good reason to be escaping his wife. It was up to her, whatever she decided he would respect.