Max's POV

"Dear Kidney Boy,

Per our previously discussed terms, I find it appropriate for us to have our first tutor session today.

Place: Gloria's Coffee shop.
Time: 12:00 - 01:00 pm.

As for the payment, I will be free after seven to give you an hour of my precious time.
Place: Gloria's coffee shop
Time: 07:00-08:00 pm
Purpose: Sit and chat

P.S. I felt the need to specify the purpose of our meetup because there is something so wrong with the sentence I wrote above, I do not want Google to think that I am using their platform for prostitution.

Anyway, we could discuss the rest of the rules during our meeting.

Looking forward to your reply.
Best regards,
V."

I couldn't stop my smile as I read her email first thing in the morning, imaging her mocking professional tone and very annoyed face as she typed it down.

I read it once more because I just couldn't help it before I opened a new draft and typed down a reply;

"Dear Gingerbread,

Firstly, I just love how you assume I am free to accept your offer at any time you deem appropriate. I think we really do have many rules and terms that are yet to be discussed today.

Secondly, thank you for spelling it out to the whole platform that we are not meeting up for the purpose to have sex. You just had to reject me even in front of uncle Google. A guy can take a message, worry not.

Looking forward to seeing you today.
Wear green if possible.

Also per our agreement, I'll be getting a gingerbread latte from you, right?
I am not doing charity over here.

Best regards,
K.B."

I pressed sent and my gaze flickered to the time, knowing very well that I'll be late for class if I don't hurry up. I threw my phone on the bed and headed for the bathroom, freshening up and quickly changing my clothes. I looked at the mirror and ran my hand through my hair, fixing it and giving it the natural I-rolled-out-of-bed-like-this look.

Grabbing my backpack and phone, I left my room in a rush. The phone buzzed in my hand, I opened it up, reading the new email that just arrived as I descended down the stairs.

"Dear K.B,

Yeah, sure. One big gingerbread latte on me; with extra whipped cream, right?

And worry not, I am pretty sure uncle google won't judge you for your inability to get laid.

Best regards,
Gingerbread."

My lips twitched, smiling, which seems to be something I do quite a lot around her. Lilly came crashing into me as she went up the stairs, my eyesight was rather occupied by my phone that I didn't even notice her. She said something but I kept walking, ignoring her as I typed down my reply.

"Dear Gingy,

Yes, with extra whipped cream ;)

And please never put 'inability to get laid' and my name in the same sentence ever again.

Best regards,
Max; who is very well capable of getting laid."

I pressed sent and paused by the kitchen door, I shoved the phone into my sweater's pocket and my gaze flickered up to mom and dad, who looked like they were discussing something, or more like Mom was trying to soothe a very annoyed dad. Judging by the fact that Lilly was here minutes ago, I bet she did something. You'd think I'd be the troublemaker between us, but no, my sister wore that title with pride.

"Morning," I said as I walked inside, grabbing their attention to me. Dad pointed a finger at me, "Did I ever tell you that you're my favorite kid," He started and I chuckled in response. Yeah, Lilly must've done something.

Mom sighed loudly and shook her head, giving up on him. I picked an apple from the plate and took a bite, "I am already late, I have to head out, bye," I announced as I munched on my fruit, turning around and ready to go.

"Hold on," Mom said before she grabbed something from over the counter and came to my side, "Do I have to always remind you about these," She said, half scolding, half worried as she handed me my medicine pills. Yeah, I always forget those. She pushed a sandwich into my hand, "Eat this and then take your medicine," She stressed out, still treating me like a little kid sometimes.

Even though, I couldn't help my smile, I leaned closer and quickly pecked her cheek, "You're the best," I said, backing away as I raised the sandwich and the pills up, thanking her, "I love you," I added before I rushed out.

"Wow, look at you getting all the love, he didn't even look at me," I heard dad whine as I left the house, "Why do my kids hate me, god, where did I go wrong," He grumbled some more and mom was back again on her mission to soothe him down. I chuckled at their antics before I got into my car and drove off.

*************

When the clock hit twelve in the afternoon, I was pushing the coffee shop's door open and walking inside. I was punctual, especially when the matter included a certain beautiful ginger-head who can't seem to stand my presence.

My gaze flickered around, falling on her behind the counter, preparing the coffee orders just like yesterday. The only difference, she wasn't wearing that ugly green uniform. She had a black cap on this time and a black sweatshirt. No green. My eyebrows pulled closer, I bet she did that on purpose.

I headed in her direction, coming to a stop by the counter's other side. My presence didn't go unnoticed by her at all, she turned around, her eyes falling into mine and I shot her a glare, "Why aren't you wearing green?"

She added milk into the cup in her hands, ignoring me as she placed the cap on and ever so politely handed it to the guy standing to my right, wishing him a nice day. He thanked her and walked away, allowing her true self to show up. Her facial expression flipped a hundred eighty degrees from cute and sweet to annoyed and bothered as she faced me, "Yeah well, when you requested that, I burned all of my green clothes."

My eyebrow raised, trying not to take her words too personally and I tapped a finger over my watch, referring to the time. Her gaze flickered there, just now noticing it was time for our tutor session. Stressed lines etched her forehead and she sighed in tiredness. She rubbed a hand over her face before she pointed at the tables behind me, "Pick a place, give me five minutes and I will be there," She said, moving to the other side toward the cashier and telling her something, probably taking permission to take off.

I did as told and picked up a table by the corner and away from the crowd, I pulled out my phone, going through it as I waited for her majesty to grant me her presence. I really hate waiting. Patience wasn't one of my virtues. True to her words though, five minutes later and she was pulling the chair back and sitting down across from me, one hand busy opening the laptop she dropped over the table and the other had a hotdog in it, again.

"Come sit here," I said, pointing beside me. Her gaze lifted from her laptop, her mouth busy chewing her food and she gave me a questioning look, "How else will I see the screen?" I pointed out and she nodded her head, realizing that too, "Yeah, yeah, okay," She mumbled, getting up and coming to my side, pulling the laptop along as she took her last bite and finished the hot dog quicker than the speed of light.

The girl really knows her way around a hotdog...okay brain, stop, don't go there, don't you dare go there yet, she already thinks you are a creep and a playboy. I suppressed my instincts and tried to manifest innocent simple sexless thoughts.

"Do you eat that every day, it's not healthy," I voiced my innocent simple thoughts out loud. She turned to me, wiping at her mouth with a napkin, she narrowed those cute almond-shaped eyes at me, "It's the only close thing to here, would you rather me make you wait another hour as I wait for them to prepare me a steak," She just has to make me look like the bad guy in everything.

I raised my hands in surrender, "Okay, whatever, I am just saying-" Jesus, always attacking poor me.

"Don't worry future doctor, I know how to take care of my health," She replied back and despite her infuriated tone, I found myself smiling. My giddy state ticked her off for some reason, her eyebrows pulled closer as her gaze fell into my mouth, "Why are you smiling?"

"I liked that," I said.

She looked confused and when she finally got it, she rolled her eyes, "Calling you a future doctor?"

I nodded and she sighed loudly, "God, you are so full of yourself," She mumbled under her breath, looking back at the screen and pretending to get the laptop to work.

"You gotta admit, it sounds hot," I said, inching my head closer to her and spelling it out, "Doctor Maxwell Dolan, it has a nice ring to it," I said, my words had her look at me again, putting our faces at an approximate dangerous distance.

My gaze fluttered all over her beautiful face, using this brief moment to my advantage. I like being this close to her, it allows me to drink into every perfect imperfection there is. It lets me count how many cute freckles sat over her nose. But also being this close, it had me acknowledge how tired her eyes seemed to be, sleep-deprived and exhausted.

"How many hours did you sleep?"

Her eyebrow raised, "You are really taking the whole future doctor thing to a whole new level."

Of course, she would mock me when I am only trying to reflect on my worry, "I am just saying, you look tired."

Her eyes narrowed at me, "Are you indirectly calling me ugly?"

The corner of my lip tilted up slightly, "Are you worried that I think you are ugly?"

She nodded, fake pouting, "Yeah, that's why I didn't sleep at night, I was so worried that kidney boy thinks I am not pretty," She said, ever so sarcastically. My jaw tightened, triggered by everything she is and says, I wanted nothing more than to shut her mouth in my very own way, which includes... okay never mind. Control for now. I needed control. She is stripping it away from me.

I let out a low sigh, "Shall we start?"

"We shall, but this stupid laptop, goddammit," She groaned as she harshly pressed things over the keyboard, while the screen stayed blue, with the word Loading printed in its middle, the dots moving in an infinite loop for the last minutes, "Why do you fail me when I need you," She hissed under her breath as she kept randomly pushing buttons over it.

"Okay you little tiger, leave the laptop alone," I said as I carefully retreated her hands away from it, she seems seconds away from destroying the poor piece of technology. Looks like I am not the only one who pushes her buttons, "Just pull out your notebook, we can start from there."

"I forgot that at home, which is why I am trying to make this useless piece of- ugh," She shot back.

"Okay gingy, breathe in and....breathe out," I said, mimicking with my hand the flow of air going in and out, "Don't be angry at the world, we can fix this," I added, urging her to calm down.

She only covered her face with both hands and crashed back into her seat, sinking further into it, "I know you think I am overreacting, it's just today sucks, nothing is going right," She grumbled, her voice low but her tone so very fed-up.

I looked around, trying to figure out what to do. I mean I do have the notes from last year on my laptop but I've left it in the car. I looked at the time to see it was twelve-thirty already, to go to the parking lot and come back, I would be wasting precious time I can't get back.

I looked at the table beside us, where a group of girls was sitting and studying together. I leaned closer and nicely asked for a blank paper and pen. The blonde one flashed me a shy smile, ripped like fifty blank pages from her notebook, and handed them to me.

"Thanks," I said with a wink and her smile grew wider, her cheeks turning red. The total opposite to the girl beside me, who did nothing but snap at me since I got here. When I returned back, miss gingerbread was giving me a weirded-out look, trying to understand what I am trying to do.

I placed the paper over the table, between us both, "How about I start to explain what I remember from last year, and next time when you bring your notebook or," I pointed at her computer, which had given up and its screen turned black, "Or this laptop decides to come back to life, we can carry on with the rest?" I suggested.

She gave me a small silent nod, her eyes lost and soft now as they dropped over the paper, listening to me as I started to explain. But before I could manage to speak more than one full sentence, "Uh, excuse me-" someone said, interrupting us.

I looked up to see the cashier lady standing across from our table, "Sorry to interrupt," She flashed me an apologetic smile before she turned her head to gingy beside me, "Uh, Michaela called in sick, I am gonna need you to cover her shift."

"Of course," Gingy said, her voice so tight and I noticed the muscles of her jaw work, expecting this day to get only worse with every passing second.

The cashier lady walked away and gingy looked like she was about to slam her head over the table, so frustrated and exhausted.

"You do know I canceled plans to be here," I said and I expected her to throw a snarky comment at me. Instead, she turned her head, "I am sorry," Her words sounded genuine, "I...uh-" She shook her head, out of words as she got up to her feet, "I still took one hour from your time, even if we didn't study, so I have an hour to give back, we're still up for the evening, I'll see you at seven, okay?"

It took me a second or two to absorb the tiredness radiating off her gaze and I nodded my head, out of words to say. She gave me a small forced smile before she grabbed her useless laptop and walked back to the other side of the coffee shop.

A loud breath pushed off my nose, and I wanted nothing more than to go there and do this shift instead of her, because she looked like she needed to sit down, sleep, and rest for a bit. Why does she exhaust herself that much, anyway? She did indirectly hint that she didn't sleep at night, part of why she looks so tired. What could possibly keep her up all night? Why I am so damn curious about every damn detail that concerns her?

My knowledge till now can be summarized into four points; one, her name starts with a V; two, she is a pre-med student; three, she is not big on trust; four, she has some serious anger issues.

At least this list is growing by each day, let me look at the bright sight.

The group of girls beside me stood up, ready to head out. I looked at the blonde one and was about to thank her and give the pen back, "You can keep it with you," She said with a flirtatious smile. If this was any other day, I would've turned this around to my side and I would be going out with her tonight.

But my mind was rather busy worrying about a specific ginger-head, who had walked back behind the counter, preparing drinks with a forced smile on her face and a very tired look in her eyes.

I rushed a hand over my face and the top of my head before I got up to my feet and left the coffee shop. Whatever they call what I was feeling, worry or whatnot, I just didn't like it one bit.

*****************

Per our agreement, at seven I was walking back into the coffee shop like the fool I am. If this keeps going, I am gonna be the customer of the month from how much I drop by here. The place was calmer at this time when compared to the afternoon, only two or three students were scattered here and there, catching up on some unfinished work.

I looked around for her but she wasn't anywhere to be spotted. I walked to the seat we occupied this morning and dropped my bag on the one next to mine. I pulled my laptop out and turned it on. Right then, the door of the coffee shop opened, I lifted my gaze up to see her step in.

Her eyes flickered around, immediately falling on me and she headed in my direction. This time, she didn't have the cap on, instead, her hair was down, a beautiful mess around her face. She paused by the table, a small smile formed over her lips, her mood maybe slightly better than in the morning I hope.

"Hey," She said, softly before she sat down.

"Hey," I said back, unable to break my gaze away. With her hair down like that, she even looked more mesmerizing.

Her eyes flickered from me to the laptop placed in front of me. Her eyebrows pulled closer, "Do you have things to do, we could do this later-" Of course, she was more than ready to run away from my presence.

I finally broke my gaze, scared she will call me a creep again before I tapped on the couch beside me, "Nope, come here," I said, "We couldn't study in the morning, so we are doing it now."

My words doubled her confusion, she got up and came closer, her suspicious eyes on my screen, trying to see if I am serious. I pulled out the slides from last year and opened the first chapter. I looked up at her when she still didn't sit down, "But-" She tried to say.

I wrapped my hand over her arm, gently pulling her down to sit, "No buts, midterms are next week, and based on what I saw, we need to work hard for you to catch up and pass the course," I explained, pulling out a notebook and pen and pushing them in front of her so she can scribble down on them.

"But this hour is supposed to be for you, I mean," She shook her head, her shock made her stutter, "I mean uh, not to study."

"This hour is for me to decide what we're going to do, right?" I said and she nodded, "And right now, I am deciding we need to study," I simply answered before I pulled a water bottle from my bag and a protein bar, I extended them toward her, "Here, this is healthier than your hotdog," I said, "Eat up, it will give you some energy and let's start."

She looked down at the bar and water in her hand in pure loss, her brain failing to comprehend I was doing something remotely nice. She looked up at me, her face so cute and innocent as she came to terms with the tiny fact that I am not an utter jerk.

"Come on, we don't have all night," I urged her to hurry up.

She gave a small nod, unwrapping the bar and taking a bite as I started to explain.

The rest of our session passed in a blur. When I finally checked the time, it was already nine in the evening. Gingy's eyes widened when she noticed that as well, "Oh my god, how is it been two hours," She said, looking at my laptop again and squinting her eyes, checking if her eyesight is betraying her or not, "But really, I understood it all," She added, looking at the many notes she took as I spoke.

She looked up at me, an appreciative look in her gaze, "Seriously, I...I need to pay you back for this, not with hours, with real money, you're giving me your time, I won't accept it."

My eyebrows pulled closer, "I am not gonna take money from you."

"Why?" She asked, as if it isn't so weird, "I would've paid a tutor to do this anyway."

"Yeah, I am not a tutor, I am not doing it for the money," I said.

"Then, why are you doing it?" She asked, part of her, as small as it is, still saw my good intentions behind this as a bad thing. The girl really has trust issues, I don't know how I will ever convince her otherwise.

"Look gingerbread," I said, "You'll pay once midterms are over, I am counting them don't worry, you owe me three hours till now, it's not all free service."

"Well, till then, I am gonna owe you a full day," She said, irritated at the thought.

I shrugged, "Then, you'll spend a whole day with me," I said, and before she could protest, "That was our deal, remember."

She sighed in defeat and nodded her head, her shoulder slumping down, "Okay."

We gathered our things after and headed out of the coffee shop, "Hold on," She mumbled asking me to wait before she walked back inside. I thought she forgot something but more than five minutes passed before she returned. I was about to whine, "What took you-" My words stopped midway when she extended the cartoon coffee cup toward me.

"Your gingerbread latte," She said, triggering a smile out of me as I took it from her, "With extra whipped cream?"

She nodded her head, so giddy, "Yes, with extra whipped cream."

I took my first sip and cringed, "God, I hate whipped cream," I grumbled and she smiled widely, liking that fact so much.

No words were exchanged after and she automatically joined me as I walked to the parking lot.

"So, you won't tell me your name yet, huh?" I tried my chances as I took another sip.

She shook her head, "Still too early."

She pushed her hand into her sweater pockets and turned her head to me, squinting her eyes at me, "What would you gain from knowing my name, anyway?"

I shrugged, "I need to know what name to write on the wedding invitations."

Instead of mocking my comment, she chuckled, shaking her head at me with a genuine smile. If I wasn't holding the cup, I would've thrown my fist up in the air in accomplishment, I amuse her at least.

"Veronica?" I asked, and she shook her head, "Veronica is such a mean girl name," She replied.

I nodded, "Yeah and you are a mean girl."

"Hey!" She shot back, offended, "I am the sweetest there is."

"Not to me!" I shot back. I saw how kindly she acted with the other customers, while I only get glares and sarcastic comments.

"I stopped you from jumping to your death, did you forget that?!"

I rolled my eyes, "God, how many times I am gonna say it," I shot her a glare, "I wasn't about to jump!"

"Whatever floats your boat," She said back, unconvinced.

Thankfully, we had reached the parking lot, I nodded forward, "I could drop you off, if you want," I suggested, knowing very well how she will refuse. She will think I am off to get her address. Seriously, I feel like I am walking on eggshells around her.

She shook her head, "No, thanks, I will take the bus," She pointed at a close distance, "The bus stop is right there."

I looked around us, it was dark and literally no one was around, "It's late, at least, can I wait with you till the bus gets here?"

She shook her head, "I take the bus every night, so calm down superman, I don't need you to protect me, I have a pepper spray in my bag."

My eyebrow raised, although I wouldn't expect less from her.

"When are we meeting again?" I asked.

"I'll email you, I need to check my schedule," She said, ever so formally.

"What about my schedule?" I pointed out.

"Send me your schedule then, so I can pick a time where we are both available."

"You know it's easier to talk through the phone than through an email?" I said.

She nodded, "Who said I want to make things any easier?"

I sighed, "You tire my brain, do you know that?"

She smiled and waved her hand in the air, "Aww, stop, sweet-talk won't get you anywhere."

God, I really want to kiss her so she can shut up for once.

"Go away," I said and she chuckled, enjoying my annoyed state, "Goodnight, Max," She said, for the first time, saying my name as she turned around and started to walk away.

"Goodnight, Veronica," I said because she was really a mean girl. She turned around and narrowed her eyes at me, dissatisfied with the name before she resumed her way.

I stood there, keeping an eye on her as she reached the bus stop and waited there. I didn't get in my car until I saw the bus arriving and her getting inside. Letting out a relieved breath, I got in and was ready to take off when my phone buzzed.

I pulled it out to see a new email, from her.

"Dear future doctor,

Thank you so much for today.

I really believe that you are gonna make a great doctor one day.

Best regards,
Not Veronica."