Eve Polastri
Eve Polastri.
She was all curls, rushed nerves, and unfiltered brilliance balancing atop hideous department store pumps. Villanelle was...amused.
This was the fifth day that she was sitting in on one of Eve's classes.
She didn't attend the university Eve taught at. No, universities were much too boring and suffocating for Villanelle's tastes. Villanelle wasn't ever going to go to college. She had already decided that at her young age of 20.
Yes, it was her decision. The complete unattainable nature of higher learning for Villanelle had nothing at all to do with the fact that she had no money and no support system. No. It was her decision.
She smiled when Eve's eyes landed on her for the 12th time – she was counting.
She was probably wondering who she was and why she was there. Valid curiosities. So Villanelle allowed her to look and wonder.
It was quite thrilling.
Eve Polastri.
She knew Eve's name, but Eve didn't know hers. She knew Eve's husband...well, soon-to-be ex-husband. She knew Eve's routines. She knew everything about Eve. Eve knew nothing of her.
Villanelle pressed her legs together. Knowledge was arousing. Power was even more so. And at the moment, she had both.
When the class ended, everyone began to file out. Villanelle stayed seated. It was time she and Eve finally met. She had laid in wait for long enough.
Eve gathered papers together and pushed them into her black business bag. She turned off the projector and went to her desk to begin to needlessly straighten random objects. She was casually going about her business all too aware that Villanelle was still there. Eve was waiting for her to approach.
But Villanelle was waiting for her attention.
So they both waited for an awkward amount of silent moments. Even after everyone had filed out of the classroom.
Villanelle smiled. She loved games of will. She would win. Just for the sake of it.
Silence laid heavy upon the room. Eve finished straightening up her desk. Then she walked behind her desk, took her jacket from the back of the chair, and put it on. She swept her hair out of the collar, leaving it to bounce around her shoulders in wild curls.
Villanelle's eyebrows raised. She was being seduced. And the funniest part was that she was sure that Eve wasn't even trying. It was effortless. That made it all the more sexy.
Eve grabbed her bag from her desk and rolled her shoulders before looking up once more.
'Yep. I'm still here,' Villanelle thought, giving Eve another smile.
Eve sighed. And Villanelle knew she won. She congratulated herself silently.
“You're not one of my students,” Eve said, her voice tired. She was giving every nonverbal signal that she was ready to leave. It was at this time that Eve would go to her office for some last minute work, gather most of it up when she got tired, and then take the rest home with her to work there. Probably with a glass of wine.
“I'm pretty sure you're only allowed to sit in on two of my classes for free. Otherwise, you have to start paying,” Eve continued.
“You're pretty sure?” Villanelle asked. She didn't disguise her accent. She allowed the Russian to come through. She wanted to see how Eve would react to it. The Russian language seemed to have one of two effects on people – it either scared them or aroused them. Villanelle was hoping for a mix of the two in Eve.
Whatever she felt, Eve didn't let it show on her face.
“It's your class,” Villanelle continued. “Shouldn't you be sure sure?”
Eve sighed again. “Fine,” she said. “I'm sure sure. You can't be here. Get out.” She waved her hand dismissively toward the door.
Villanelle smirked. Sexy. “That's rude, Mrs. Polastri.” Villanelle's tongue rolled smoothly on the 'r'. And there was a flash of something. A small shift in stance.
Aha. Arousing then.
Villanelle stood up and walked toward Eve who was still standing in front of her desk. “Are you rude to all of the students who are hot for teacher? Or is it just me?”
Eve's mouth fell slightly open and pure shock slid onto her features. Villanelle loved it. She loved catching people off guard. In those moments, she felt powerful. And she had found that the most effective and easiest way to shock people was usually to tell them the direct truth. It was so delightful.
Eve's brows performed a cute little dance of confusion before her expression settled on suspicion. She tilted her head. “What's happening?”
Villanelle stepped forward into Eve's space. Eve continued to look at her with a question in her eyes.
Villanelle was delighted to find that she was actually a few inches taller than the professor. Especially in her knockoff Dolce Vita heels. (Hey, she didn't have the funds for real Dolce Vitas but she made do.)
Villanelle continued to saunter forward until she was well into the range of too close. Her hand rested in the pocket of her fashionable high-waisted and belted black cargo pants. They flared a bit at the top and then tapered down to cinch tightly around her ankles. Her top was a tight white shirt with a scooped neckline and princess sleeves. These clothes were authentic...She had stolen them from a social media influencer whom she may or may not have seduced for the sole purpose of taking her outfit.
But, hey, she shouldn't be blamed. Today was the day that she was introducing herself to Eve Polastri. She had to be ready.
To Eve's credit, she didn't move back when Villanelle towered over her.
That wouldn't do.
Villanelle leaned forward to place her palms on the surface of Eve's desk, caging Eve in between her arms. Eve was forced to lean backwards since Villanelle was so close.
Villanelle silently congratulated herself on another victory.
“Are you trying to scare me or something?” Eve asked.
“Are you scared?” Villanelle asked back.
“No,” Eve answered. “Just...confused. What are you doing?”
Villanelle could tell that Eve was being truthful. She wasn't scared. Which was good. Villanelle didn't want to scare her. Yet.
“I'm seducing you,” Villanelle responded.
Eve's brows did that cute little dance of shock and confusion again. And Villanelle was satisfied with herself...until Eve started laughing. It was a loud laugh that rolled straight from the chest, rang around the room, and continued for much too long.
Villanelle was offended.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing. It's just...Sorry, it's just...” Eve could barely get the words out because she was laughing so hard.
Villanelle started imagining ways in which she could possibly kill her without being found out.
“What?” Villanelle asked again, sharper this time.
“It's just...” Eve started to contain her laughter. “You're a baby!”
Villanelle pulled a face of disbelief. “What?”
Eve pushed Villanelle's arms out of the way and escaped her cage. “How old are you?” she asked. “19?”
“20,” Villanelle said quickly, defensively.
Eve waved her hand. “Same thing. Listen...It's common to have fantasies about teachers or professors. I had my share of them when I was growing up as well. And I'm flattered. But that's all it is – a fantasy. Now just...go away and this'll stay between us, okay? I won't tell anyone.”
'Just...go away.' She was being shooed! Like a fly!
Villanelle stood back up to her full height and pushed her hands inside of her pants pockets once again. “You're hurting my feelings, Eve,” Villanelle said. She pulled her lips down into an exaggerated frown. “I don't like people who hurt my feelings. And I really wanted to like you.”
Eve's brows furrowed. Villanelle focused in on them; she really moved them a lot. It was distracting.
“What's your name?” Eve asked. She leaned back against the edge of her desk and crossed her legs at the ankles. She was wearing a skirt in an ugly brown that fell just past her knees and a light blue button-up that was tucked in at the waist. Villanelle wondered how someone could have such a horrible fashion sense yet be so damn seductive at the same time.
Villanelle lifted her chin. “Villanelle,” she responded.
Eve stared at Villanelle for a moment and then let out another short laugh.
Villanelle scowled and glared. This really wasn't going the way she had imagined it in her head.
“Is that from a comic book?” Eve asked. “Or...”
“It's my real name,” Villanelle shot back. “You know...” Villanelle crossed her arms. “You are very, very rude.”
“So you've said,” Eve replied dismissively. “Listen, I have to go...Villanelle...So if that's all...”
“It's not all,” Villanelle said quickly.
Eve fixed her with another stare. An exasperated one. She wanted to go home and curl her aching feet up onto the couch. Spending hours standing was not fun.
“I want to have sex with you,” Villanelle stated, her voice firm. Determined.
Eve had no idea what to say. What was one supposed to do when they were approached so directly for sex with a stranger? Was she supposed to say yes just for the novelty of it all? Was she supposed to refuse because normal people didn't give in to sudden sex propositions with strangers in polite society? Was this sexual harassment?
Eve didn't know. So she went to her go-to whenever someone approached her in a bar...She lifted the hand that still held her wedding ring. “I'm married.”
Villanelle rolled her eyes. “Pfft! Barely!” she exclaimed. “You're in the middle of a divorce, right?”
“Wha-? Wait. How do you know that?”
“Because I've been watching you, Eve.”
“Okay. Are you still trying to seduce me? Because that's not sexy. That's just creepy.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Can I have sex with you anyway?”
Eve stared at Villanelle. The girl was looking at her with wide, slightly crazed eyes but they were sincere. And she still didn't understand what was happening.
“Why?” Eve asked.
Villanelle groaned and rolled her eyes up toward the ceiling. Since when did seducing someone become so hard? Usually, she just batted her eyelashes and got what she wanted. But with Eve, there were all of these questions! Couldn't she just go with it?
“Because I'm sexy and you're sexy! We should be sexy together!” Villanelle implored.
Eve continued to stare at her. The girl...Villanelle...she was still serious. “Mmm...” Eve said, as if she was thinking. But her following answer was too quick for Villanelle to believe she had honestly been giving it serious thought. “No.”
“But why~?!” Villanelle whined.
“Because of that,” Eve said as she walked around Villanelle and headed for the door. “You're a child. Now go to class.”
“I don't have class,” Villanelle said with a pout.
“Then go home!”
Eve walked out of the room, letting the door swing shut behind her.
Villanelle groaned again and stomped her feet. She was a huntress who had just let her prey get away. And that was unacceptable.
* * *
Eve spotted Elena and Bill through the crowd of patrons in the bar and she made her way up to them. As she sat down, the bartender nodded at her and she nodded back. It was understood that she would be having her usual. She was a regular here.
“Eve. Come on.” Elena's exasperated and disappointed voice brought Eve's attention to her. “Are you a toddler?”
“What?” Eve asked, confused. “What do you mean?”
“You have dry cereal in your hair!” Elena said, picking two Froot Loops out of Eve's curls.
“Oh,” Eve said. She ran her hand through her hair to make sure there wasn't anymore there. “That must be from when I was eating cereal on my couch.” She had taken a nap in her living room after work and then hadn't wanted to move so she had grabbed the nearest snack – the box of Froot Loops she had also eaten for breakfast that morning. “Hey, you know, don't judge me!” Eve intercepted the judgment she saw on Elena and Bill's faces. “I had a weird day and then I had to spend hours reading through papers of kids whom I have no idea how they were accepted into college. And I got hit on by a student!”
“Was he hot?” Elena asked.
Eve's drink appeared in front of her and she thanked the bartender with another nod. “She,” Eve said. “And, yes, she was.”
“So what's the problem?” Bill asked.
Elena shrugged in a nonverbal agreement with Bill, causing Eve to laugh and almost spit out her drink. “I'm sorry...” she said. “Did you two not hear me? I said she was a student.”
“Maybe that would be a problem if this was high school, Eve,” Elena said. “In college, it's fair game. Everyone meets the age requirements. Well...unless they're, like, a child genius or something. But you know what I mean.”
Bill nodded and pointed at Elena, agreeing with her.
“Will you two stop agreeing with each other?” Eve bit out, irritated. She took a drink and then a thought crossed her mind. “Then...are you telling me that you two have been with students before?”
“No,” Bill and Elena said at the same time. “But we don't teach sexy subjects. You teach a sexy subject. Literature? Come on. Practically foreplay.”
Eve scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Right. It sounds more like you two are pushing me to do something that you're too chicken shit to do yourselves.”
“We're living vicariously through you. So what?” Bill asked with a shrug.
“Besides...” Elena said. “I haven't had the chance to sleep with a student yet. But if a hunky 20-something came to me and offered me a good time, I'd race him to the bed.”
“Sure,” Eve said. “But you're also 31. I'm 40. I could be the girl's mom.”
“But you're not so...” Elena shrugged again. And Eve wondered when her friends became so annoying.
“Okay,” Eve said. “If you two don't stop trivializing this, I'm going to tell Frank that you guys have changed your minds about going to his dinner party.”
“Oh, God!” Bill said.
“You're a monster!” Elena said, scandalized.
“Well...” Eve said. “It's what you'd deserve.” She took another drink of her alcohol and appreciated the way it burned going down. “Besides!” she said, suddenly thinking of the most important point. “I'm not a lesbian!”
“So?”
“Are you sure?”
Elena and Bill asked at the same time.
Eve looked between her friends in disbelief. “What do you mean 'so'?” she asked Elena. “What do you mean 'are you sure'?!” she asked Bill. “I'm 40 years old-” She chooses to ignore Elena's interjection of, “So you keep saying”. “I think I would know if I'm a lesbian or not.”
“You'd be surprised,” Bill said. “I didn't know I'd like penis until I had it.”
Eve almost spit out her drink. Again. “You've dated men before?” she asked. “How did I not know about this?” She looked between Elena and Bill as if seeing them for the first time. “Are the two of you even my friends?”
“I didn't know either,” Elena said, holding up her hands as a sign of innocence.
“I didn't consider it announcement worthy,” Bill said. “You two met me when I was already married to Keiko. My past dating history isn't of much importance. I just dated whoever interested me at the time. And when I met Keiko...we just clicked.”
Eve nodded. She still felt somewhat betrayed, but she could let it slide. “What about you?” she asked Elena. “Have you ever been with other women?”
“I experimented once or twice when I was in college,” Elena said. “But...” she heaved a huge sigh. “Sadly, I'm straight.” She shuddered. “Ugh. I hate men. Heterosexuality is a curse, really.”
“Enough about us,” Bill said. “What are you going to do?”
“About what?” Eve asked. She knew; she was just tired of this conversation.
“You know what,” Bill said. “Ever since Niko gave you divorce papers, all you've been doing is working, sleeping, or drinking. Maybe a sexual tryst with someone half your age is exactly what you need to put a spark back in your life.”
“Do you hear yourself?” Eve asked. “I'm not having sex with someone just to put the 'spark' back into my life, okay? I spark just fine on my own!” She downed the rest of her drink and then stood up to leave the bar.
“That was not the badass quote you thought it was!” Elena shouted after her.
Eve gave her the finger and kept walking.
* * *
Okay. Maybe Eve lied. Maybe there weren't sparks in her life.
She tied her hair up into a low, messy bun and sat back with a bowl of cereal. She was on her fifth episode of some procedural crime drama. And she had decided that she would probably just stay up all night instead of try to go to sleep and then wake up early to head into work.
The main character of the show was just having his 'I've-figured-it-out' moment when Eve's phone made a series of vibrations, indicating multiple notifications.
She picked up her phone and unlocked it to see that all of her social media pages had an update. She had a new follower on every single one. And when she opened them, she saw that each one was the same person. Villanelle. The profile picture was the same for each – a pretty selfie of a pretty, smirking face. The same pretty, smirking face she had seen in her classroom. When she clicked on the profiles, she saw that each had been created that day and there wasn't really any information on them.
Eve stared at her screen.
Okay...So she had a stalker.
She examined her feelings to see whether she was afraid. She wasn't. Just curious...intrigued.
What did Villanelle want with her? Was it really just sex? Seemed a bit over-the-top for just a hookup.
Her finger hovered over her social media app. And then she followed back. On all accounts. Why not see where this was going?
When that was done, she turned off her display and went back to watching television and eating her soggy cereal.
* * *
The next morning when all of her students had entered the classroom, Eve's eyes flicked around the room. Her brain accused her of looking for Villanelle. But then she forced her brain to take that back. Why would she look for that strange girl?
Besides...she wasn't even there.