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“Do you know how that turned out? It ended with her dead from an aneurysm at twenty-nine and me a widower at thirty. I am so tired of following every single rule and getting nothing but pain at the end.”
He dissolves into tears, and I sling my arm around his shoulder just to let him know I’m there. Phillip—in true therapist fashion—slides a box of tissues across the coffee table at him.
Eventually, the storm blows over and Jamie sits back up looking embarrassed.
“I didn’t mean to overreact like that. I hadn’t realized how much this would stir up that grief.” He glances over at Phillip. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you like you were a child. Maybe if I’d given you the benefit of the doubt and checked my tongue, Avery wouldn’t have overheard what I said and run out of here.”
“I should have been more patient. I should have given you more space for your frustration,” Phillip concedes.
“Why was she even here in the first place?”
Now both of their eyes are fixed on me. I rub the back of my neck and take a breath to try and calm my sudden onset of nerves.
After a few false starts, I manage to tell them a sanitized rundown of the incident in the kitchen at Age Gap Academy and then last night.
“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Phillip asks.
“I was trying to figure out how. I planned to, I really did, but I just could never figure out what to say. Then we saw each other at the club and…” I shrug. “You already know how that ended.”
“What are we going to do now?”
“I guess the real question is what do we want to do? It’s not like we can put the cat back in the bag now.”
“Lovely choice of words, Phillip,” Jamie says, shaking his head.
“Was that a joke, Jamie?” I grin.
“Can we focus on my question, please, Gentlemen?”
“I’d like to keep seeing her if she’ll let me. She’s smart, creative, and fun. Spending time with her is one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in a while.”
“What about the Academy? You could lose your position. Are you sure you want that?” Jamie asks me.
“We’re all legal adults here and I’ve read the handbook. There’s nothing that explicitly forbids it. Besides, I don't think any of us plan to flaunt it.”
“That’s all well and good until the secret gets out.”
“I’ll cross that bridge if we get to it.” I shrug. “It’s not like this is my main source of income. I have wiggle room to make whatever decision I want.”
“What about her?”
“Well, there’s no morality clause for the students. If there were, that senator’s kid would have been kicked out six times over. At worst, her work comes under scrutiny and someone else reviews her portfolio. None of that is going to keep her from getting her certificate, though. That’s a completely independent testing agency.”
“You really looked into this, didn’t you?” Jaime raises his eyebrows in surprise.
“I’m interested in keeping her safe. What do you think about this, Jamie?”
“Actually, I think I’d like to hear what Phillip has to say first.”
“I’m in the same camp as Wesley, actually. I think we can keep things quiet and if we can’t, I’ll go to bat for her.”
“So?” I ask.
Jamie sighs. “If she’s willing to lay eyes on me, I think I’d like a chance to apologize and see if I can salvage things with her.”
“And if you can’t?”
“Then I’ll bow out gracefully and let her see whomever she likes.”
