Part 2: The Man Who Learned Her Language Wrong on Purpose

Coffee turned into dinner the following week, then a habit neither of them properly labeled but both quietly protected Tuesdays after class, sometimes Thursdays too, conversation stretching easily past closing time at whatever small café happened to still be open.

"I have to know," Nadia said, three weeks into whatever this had become, "what was your actual plan? Did you intend to keep pretending you couldn't conjugate verbs indefinitely?"

"Honestly, no," Elias admitted, laughing at himself. "I figured I'd confess within a month, tops. Then you corrected my pronunciation on 'khoshbakhtam' in week two, and I panicked, realized how charming I found that, and decided extending the ruse was worth the risk."

"You're a menace," Nadia said, though warmth colored the accusation entirely.

"A menace who's genuinely enjoyed every single Tuesday since," Elias said, more seriously now. "I wasn't lying about my grandmother, by the way. She passed two years ago. I signed up for your class partly because hearing Farsi spoken regularly again felt like holding onto something I was scared of losing entirely, once she was gone."

Nadia's teasing softened into something gentler. "That's not deranged at all, actually. That's rather beautiful."

"The falling-for-my-teacher part happened somewhere in the middle of that," Elias admitted. "Unplanned, but not unwelcome, on my end at least."

"Definitely not unwelcome," Nadia said, reaching across the table for his hand. "Though you should know, I noticed you were fluent by week one. I let it go on because I liked having a reason to look forward to Tuesdays too."

Elias stared at her, delighted. "You knew? This entire time?"

"Your idioms gave you away immediately," Nadia said, grinning. "Beginners don't casually use expressions their grandmothers say. I just didn't have the heart to call you out, given how hard you were clearly working to keep coming back."

"So we've both been quietly, deliberately fooling each other for a month."

"Seems that way," Nadia said. "Rather efficiently too, if I do say so myself."

Elias laughed, pulling her hand to his lips in a small, warm gesture. "Well. Since we're apparently both terrible at hiding things I'd like to properly, deliberately keep doing this. No more classroom pretense required."

"Good," Nadia said. "Though I expect you to actually learn the subjunctive at some point. Purely for your grandmother's sake."

"Deal," Elias said. "Tuesdays forever, then."

to be continued... ☕💫