Private Lessons Read Free Page A

Sylvia, was a chronic smoker and over the past few years it had begun to really take its toll. This wasn’t her first tripto the hospital and if she didn’t do something about her habit, it wouldn’t be the last. She worried about Sylvia, and particularly about Alexis. As much as Alexis may fuss about her mother, she adored her. Sylvia had been a single mom who sacrificed to make sure that Alexis had whatever she needed and Alexis never forgot that.
    â€œWell, you just tell her to behave herself and that I’m thinking of her.”
    â€œI will. So, now back to you. How is it going?”
    Naomi hugged the phone between her cheek and shoulder while she took off her sandals and put them in the closet. “Could be worse, I suppose.”
    â€œOh, Nay, what happened? You didn’t introduce yourself as doctor and act like your usual self did you?”
    â€œWhat’s that supposed to mean?” She smoothed the bedcovering and sat down.
    â€œYou know exactly what I mean. Distant and above it all.”
    â€œYou’re wrong for that, Lexi,” she said, feigning hurt.
    â€œDid you at least try to meet anyone?”
    She thought about the gorgeous man named Brice who kept invading her thoughts and then her space, and what a disaster that turned out to be. Finally, she spilled it all to Alexis. She could almost see her friend shaking her head with disappointment.
    â€œGirl, what am I going to do with you? Don’t you remember anything that I told you?”
    Naomi sighed. “Lexi it’s useless. I’m not like you. I’m not a party girl. I’d just as soon teach my class naked than flirt with a perfect stranger.”
    Alexis moaned. Naomi Clarke was clearly the African-American version of Dr. Brennan on the television show Bones . They were both unbelievably brilliant, beautiful and totally naive about the ways of the regular world. Rather than give in to feelings, they would prefer to rationalize everything away. It was both endearing and frustrating.
    She’d lost count of the number of times that she set Naomi up with a date that Nay turned into an inquisition or a telethon about the state of the world, people, politics, religion, education. You name it and Naomi Clarke could talk to you about it. On and on and on. Besides her bedazzling the men with her sheer volume of knowledge, Naomi had this standoffish air about her.
    The sad part was, she was the complete opposite once you got to know her. But she rarely gave anyone the chance. The only man who could even come close to holding a conversation with her were some of the other professors on campus. But that relationship choice was a definite no-no to the college administration.
    â€œNay, do me one favor?”
    â€œWhat?” she asked halfheartedly.
    â€œWhy don’t you spend the rest of the week pretending to be someone completely different?”
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Alexis groaned. “Playacting. Role playing. Didn’t you ever play ‘pretend’ when you were a kid?”
    Naomi frowned in concentration. “No. I don’t think so.”
    If this was anyone other than Naomi, Alexis would swear that she was lying. “Listen, this is what I want you to do…”
    Â 
    Naomi took her time dressing for dinner. She’d spent most of the afternoon sitting on the balcony of her room, rereading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, and watching with envy the lighthearted frivolity on the beach below. Why she couldn’t unwind she wondered for the umpteenth time. She didn’t “party” as Alexis would say, although that girl made it a point to hook her up with every eligible bachelor she could find, and drag her to every night spot in Atlanta that played music, served drinks and had men. Those were Alexis’s only criteria.
    But Naomi wanted more than a good-time man. She wanted someone with a brain, ambition. Someone who