‘Miss Lucas?’

Abbey turned around and saw her genetics professor, Robert Coley, holding a cup of coffee. He sat on the bench next to her. This wasn’t the first time she had bumped into him outside of class; she was starting to think maybe it wasn’t an accident.

‘Professor Coley,’ Abbey said, unsure why he was sitting with her.

‘Lovely day, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, very warm for September.’ Abbey wasn’t an approachable person, which made her immediately suspicious of people who were nice to her. In her experience, those people always wanted something.

Robert Coley was an older man, in his sixties, with tufts of white hair above his ears and a smooth rounded head. He had a dark grey moustache and brown eyes. He was clean and smart, and he did seem friendly, but she had met friendly people before whose kind faces had turned out to be nothing more than masks.

‘How are you enjoying the course so far?’ he asked.

‘It’s good.’

‘You seem to have a knack for it.’ He sipped on his coffee; his smile seemed disingenuous.

‘Thank you,’ she said. She didn’t want to tell him that she had studie the module before when she went to university the first time in Exeter, she didn’t care if he knew she had an advantage, but she didn’t want the questions about why she’d left. She had put that part of her life behind her. She had come here for a fresh start. A new life.

‘I’m going to be starting a study group after Christmas for my most promising students and I wondered if you might like to be involved?’

‘I’ll have to see if I have time,’ she said, aware this was an opportunity she shouldn’t dismiss out of hand purely because of her trust issues. ‘I have some evening commitments.’

‘You’re not from Bristol, are you?’

‘No, Devon.’

‘Devon is a pretty place. How are you enjoying the city?’

‘It’s been very welcoming. Lots of nice places to walk,’ Abbey said. She stood up and picked her backpack off the ground. ‘I have to get to a class now, Professor.’

‘Please, call me Rob.’ He stood up and held his hand out for her to shake. She didn’t want to take it, but she did anyway. She felt uncomfortable and she didn’t know why. He was just being friendly. Was she being oversensitive or was something deeper at work here?

She pulled away and he sat back down. She could feel him watching her. Did he know that she had lied? She didn’t have a class, but she wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.

She had been manipulated and misused before, and she found that it clouded her every relationship. Every judgement she made of people was tainted with the idea that they may want to hurt her in some way. She was distrustful, but that didn’t mean that she was wrong.

She started walking away and could feel the professor’s eyes on her. No, there was something very wrong with Professor Coley.