Page 100 of Solo

“What did you do?” she hisses at him. “I saw that article, you son of a bitch!”

“Ah, well, I think that’s my cue to go. The good Doc over here will fill you in, I’m sure.”

Tessa has extricated her hand from my grip and put it on my forearm possessively. My friend. She’s my only friend on the face of this fucking earth. Kilpatrick gets back in his car and starts to pull away, pausing briefly and rolling down his window.

“Hey, tell Katie Kate I said thanks, okay?” He’s chuckling as I watch him pull out of the parking lot.

“Drew? Are you okay, Drew?” Tessa is asking me, her voice growing more alarmed.

“No, Tess,” I murmur. “I’m never going to be okay again.”

“So, it’s true then? You and Katherine Brenner?”

Her eyes are so full of concern that it breaks my heart. Here is yet another victim of my selfishness.

“It is, Tessa. I mean, it wasn’t before, but, it’s a long story. I just don’t understand how she could do this to me. To us.”

She gives my arm a gentle squeeze.

“Drew, are you saying that she did this? That Kate set you up?”

“She must have. No one else knew. We were so careful,” I mumble, shaking my head and staring at my feet as if the answer to this clusterfuck might be written across the top of my shoes.

Tessa moves her other hand to my back and pats me gently. When she speaks again her voice is considerably softer, as if she’s trying to calm a spooked horse. “Oh, Drew. I’m so sorry. I wish I’d known. Maybe I could have done something. Maybe I would have seen something. But you’re right. You were careful. I mean, you must have been because you were even able to keep it from me.”

I’m only half listening to her as my mind desperately searches for any straw to clutch at. Anything that would make this be something other than what it looks like. But there’s nothing. Kevin Kilpatrick is a sneaky fuck, but there’s no way he just happened to stumble upon our relationship. He was tipped off. He knew when we’d be together.

Only someone who knew could have told him.

Only someone who hated me would have told him.

…

Thursday May 4th 7:35 a.m.

K: Where are you? I’m just pulling into the lot now. Going to your office.

…

Thursday May 4th 7:38 a.m.

K: Drew, you’re really starting to scare me. You’re not in your office or the classroom. You should see the looks I’m getting… Holy fucking shit. Please call me! Going to check with Dr. Morgan.

Chapter Forty-Six

Kate

His office is dark when I get there at seven thirty, but Tessa Morgan’s isn’t. And I don’t know what else to do.

“Uh, Professor Morgan?” I ask quietly from the door.

When she looks up, I know she knows. Her jaw is set, her face is stone.

“Kate.”

“I was just wondering if you’d seen—Dr. Markham?” I make a concerted effort not to call him Drew. She notices and her lip curls up with the hint of a snarl.

“Why yes, Kate. This morning. Right after Maureen told him he was no long under consideration for tenure and that he would very likely be fired for sleeping with a student.”