There’s part-time work with any of the families, but who knows what they’d want from me in exchange for the money.
No.
I’d rather serve behind a shop counter than get myself entangled with an underworld organization before I can consider my options.
The Uber pulls into the security gates, just as the first rays of sunlight are hitting the spikes of barbed wire along the university’s high walls.
“What is it with that place?” asks the driver.
“What do you mean?” I slip my phone into my bag.
“All that security and secrecy. And what is it with the armed guards? The place is more like a prison than a college.”
I open the door. “Maybe it is.”
Before he can ask what I mean, I step out, close the door behind me, and jog toward the gate house, a brick building twice the size of a garden shed. The security guard opens the window.
“ID.”
My eyes widen. “Come on, you know me.”
He raises his brows. “Sure I do, but I still need to see your card.”
“I didn’t bring it.”
“All students exiting campus must present ID cards for reentry.”
He’s memorized the rule book.
“Can you scan my QR code in my digital wallet?” I ask.
“Show me.”
I dig into my bag and pull out my phone. There’s a notification from Professor Segul filling the screen. I scroll out of it and navigate to the wallet app. It’s something we have to load to use the campus services.
After scrolling down the various codes, I find the one for Marina University and hold it up to the window.
He touches my screen with the barcode scanner, making it buzz. “Thanks for the tip.”
“What?”
He grins and flicks his head toward the open gate. “Go on.”
“Shit.”
He shoos me away. “Next time, remember your card.”
Ugh. What a dickhead. I glance at the phone, only for notification from the wallet app to announce he deducted £50.
Fuck!
That was my hard earned cash and I didn’t leave the campus without my ID, I was abducted. Another message from the professor makes my phone buzz. I turn off the handset and slip it back into my bag.
My skin tightens with annoyance, and I ball my hands into fists, walking through the campus crackling with fury. Fury at myself for being too bloody naive. Fury at Professor Segul for all the times he made me think he actually cared.
It never occurred to me that the food and the hangover cures were just his attempt to make me available to satisfy his unusual sexual urges.
Silly me for thinking he was different.