Page 98 of Solo

It takes me a second to process what I’m looking at. It’s a picture of Kate. And me. We’re kissing out in front of my house. Oh my God. But it’s not until I read the headline that I feel all the blood drain from my head.

Senator’s daughter makes the grade in professor’s arms.

“Maureen…”

“No.”

“Maureen, please…”

“I said no, Drew. There is no room for interpretation in the university’s policy here. Sexual relationships between students and professors are strictly forbidden. This, Drew, looks like a relationship.”

“Maureen, you’re right. It is a relationship. And I know how hard that must be for you to hear, after Casey.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Drew,” she says, her voice dropping in volume but rising in intensity. “There’s nothing more I want to hear from you than that you’re in love. That you’re happy. That you’re having a life after my daughter. But this was just beyond foolish. Did you really think no one would find out?”

I really did think that. But it doesn’t matter now, because I can’t un-ring that bell. What I find more disconcerting here is the question of how they found out. We were so careful. And this picture, it’s at my house. I could maybe understand it if we’d been careless about our behavior in public. But someone would have had to tip off this reporter in order to get him to my house at that time.

“Do you know who did this?” I ask her.

“Are you seriously asking me that question?”

“I am. Do you know who tipped off the press?”

She’s shaking her head as if she can’t believe what she’s hearing.

“Drew, you did this to yourself. And, I have to say, I’m shocked. You, of all people.”

I take a long, slow breath and try to slow my racing heart.

“Will this take me out of the running for tenure?”

Maureen looks incredulous.

“Tenure? Drew, we’ll be lucky if I can keep the president from firing you! Senator Brenner was on the phone to him at five o’clock this morning demanding your job!”

This can’t be happening. Not to me. I realize, in that instant, that it’s not just happening to me.

“I—I’m sorry to do this to you,” I say, my quavering voice barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry to put you in this position.”

“You damn well should be,” she spits. “Maybe if I’d known, I could’ve helped you figure out a way to make it work. But now…” She’s shaking her head. “It’s not like this is an internal thing that can be swept under the rug. This is printed in black and white. And believe me, it may just be the local paper today, but it’ll be national news by tonight.”

I can scarcely wrap my head around this. In the span of ten minutes, my career has ended. Over. Period. Done. My world is suddenly spinning out of control and I don’t have the faintest clue how to make it stop.

She sighs. “Go home, Drew. Figure out what you want your official response to be. I’d recommend resigning before you can be terminated, but that’s your call.”

“I can’t go,” I mutter. “I have final review sessions this afternoon.”

“No, actually, you don’t. You’ve been given a week’s suspension while Human Resources sorts through this mess. You prepare your oral exam questions, though. I expect you’ll be back to work in time for those. The last thing we want is for other students to claim unfair treatment because you didn’t deliver the exam after teaching them all those semesters.”

I get to my feet, overtaken by a feeling of numbness.

“I really am sorry, Maureen.”

“I know you are, Drew,” she says quietly and leaves my office.

I’m still reeling as I pack up my bag, turn out the lights in my office, and shut the door behind me. I need to get to Katherine before she comes over here to the music department. God only knows what the idiots here will have to say to her.

…