She will be mine!
Her smell was still on me, her wetness was on my lips and cheeks. I wiped them the best that I could with the back of my hand just so that when I had my little chat with the dean, it didn’t look like I was wearing lip gloss. I took a deep breath when I reached his door, then knocked.
“Come!” the dean called out like he was Captain Picard from Star Trek. I twisted the thick knob and stepped into his office.
“Ah, Professor Grey,” Dean Warmer mused. “Why don’t you have a seat over there?”
Was he doing a To Catch a Predator routine? Trying to throw me off, make me feel vulnerable as he sat there in his ridiculous suit, just out of reach of the desk lamp, hidden in the shadows like some kind of mobster?
I’d never gotten along with the dean. He was one of those old-boy-network kind of guys who enjoyed his position more for the power and prestige it gave him than for the good he could do for the school and its students. He was the kind of guy who thought he ran the world because no one had ever checked him. It was doubtful he’d ever even been in a fight his entire life, and after all the shit that was happening now…I was strongly considering giving him his first punch in the face.
After all, I had already given someone else a first today…
We’d gotten off on the wrong foot at the faculty dinner when I was first hired. He’d been telling a joke, some terrible one about a bear chasing two men and one of them lacing up their running shoes and the other one telling him he couldn’t outrun the bear. The punch line of course being, “I don’t have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you.”
But the bastard had held such a long silence before the punch line that I’d filled it in for him. I honestly thought he wanted someone to. But I was wrong. The guy looked at me like he was ready to fire me on the spot. He still finished the joke, but I’d stolen his thunder. Things were never the same after that, but that wasn’t even the worst of it.
His wife, Bianca Warmer, liked to drink. I didn’t blame her. If I was married to a hog like him, I’d pop a bottle every morning. After graduation last year, Bianca had a few too many, and followed me to the bathroom. She forced herself in, dropped to her knees and tried to pull my cock out of my pants—no shit. I stopped her just as she was trying to stuff it in her mouth, and hurried out ahead of her, hoping no one would notice. But someone obviously did, and when word got back to her husband…well, let’s just say I was glad he didn’t carry a gun.
So when the allegations came out and made their way to him, I knew I didn’t have an ally on my side. In fact, I had a fresh new enemy.
“So,” he said, drumming his fingers on the desk. “This is an unfortunate meeting but a necessary one.”
“There’s no basis for it, Chuck,” I replied. “You know there isn’t.”
“I don’t know that, Caleb. The only thing I know is that these allegations need to be taken seriously. They’re not good for you and they’re even worse for this institution.”
Allegations. I knew exactly what he was talking about:
My former student. Christy Jenkins…
The allegations had come out of nowhere like a guided missile, seek and destroy, and blasted my entire world apart, sending me scrambling to pick up the pieces. “
Misuse of authority, inappropriate sexual comments and conduct, and sexual assault.”
It was all bullshit. There was no way it could be true. I’d never even met one-on-one with Christy; the TA had handled all her questions. She’d never stayed after class; Hell, I don’t even remember her ever asking a question during class. But that didn’t matter—not to Dean Warmer and not to the public. If these allegations got out, it could be the end of me.
“I’m giving you a chance to resign, Caleb,” he told me. “You do that and I’ll make sure these allegations never see the light of day.”
“They’re not true, Chuck. And you know it!”
“I know what you’ve said, and I know what she’s said,” he scowled. “And they’re just not jiving.”
“And that’s all that matters to you?” I roared. “How about the truth?”
“The truth is I don’t care what happened,” he snapped. “I only care about this university and its reputation, and if word gets out that I kept you here after learning what this young woman said to me—”
“Yeah, yeah, Chuck. I get it,” I scoffed. “You’ve got no balls. Because if you did, you’d fight for me.”
I got to my feet. This was going nowhere. The writing was on the wall, but I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
“My hands are tied, Caleb. This is a gracious deal I’m offering you. Don’t make me regret offering.”
“I’ll see you later, Chuck,” I growled as I stormed out of his office, slamming the door behind me.
I wasn’t about to let the rumor mill destroy the career I’d worked so hard for and toss me out on my ass with nothing. Even if I did resign, there was no way Chuck would give me a reference to another college. I’d be out of academia forever.
No. All I had to do was find Christy, get in touch with her, and figure out why she was doing this to me so I could clear my name, but most importantly get back to her…Lizbeth, my beautiful princess who’d changed my life forever.