Chapter 44
CECE
I settled onto the living room floor with Sophie.
The Lego castle was finished and sitting on an end table in the corner.
It was risky to move it, so for now, it was part of our living room decor.
When I had gotten home, I had to slip into Mom mode.
I didn’t get to be sad or stressed out. Sophie needed me to be her mom, not the chick that got busted with the naughty professor in her bed.
I got the email I knew was coming about an hour ago.
Dean Carver demanded a meeting. Shocker.
I knew my mother suspected something had happened on the trip, but I was not about to tell her all the dirty details.
And certainly not in front of Sophie. I knew there would be an interrogation after Sophie went to bed.
“Alright, I’ll be back in a couple hours,” Mom said with her purse over her shoulder. “We’ll have tacos for dinner.”
“Sounds good. Enjoy your flight.”
Mom was taking advantage of the good weather to get in a flight. She was a good flyer but she didn’t take unnecessary risks. Fall weather could be unpredictable. She typically stayed grounded until there was little risk.
“Alright, kid.” I smiled. “Let’s get started. We’ve got a project to do.”
I spread out the construction paper on the floor with scissors and glue on the coffee table.
Sophie knelt beside me. I had picked up some old magazines from the thrift store which we were going to use for pictures.
Her first official bit of homework was to make a collage about things she loved.
It was a way for the teacher to get to know her new students and the students to get to know each other.
Sophie was a bit of an expert in collages. The three of us loved to scrapbook. We had a stack of them documenting damn near every moment in Sophie’s life. When Sophie had gotten old enough, she helped. And now we had all the supplies needed to make a killer collage.
“Did you have fun diving?” Sophie asked. She was doing her best to cut out a starfish. Her little pink tongue was poking out of her mouth as she concentrated on her duty.
“I did. And guess what?”
“What?” She looked up, her eyes filled with excitement.
“I found a chest underwater.”
Her eyes bulged. “A treasure chest!”
I laughed. “Well, it was a different kind of treasure. It had old tools.”
She stopped cutting. Her little nose wrinkled. “Tools. That’s not treasure.”
“To someone who likes old stuff, it is.”
“Where is it?”
“It’s at my school,” I said.
“But you found it.”
“I did but it doesn’t belong to me. It will probably go in a museum. Maybe some of it will be sold.”
“Will you be rich?”
I laughed again. “Nope. It’s not mine. I don’t get the money but I get the thrill of finding it. That’s worth it.”
She went back to cutting. I flipped through the magazines and pointed out a few things. She was the one doing the cutting. It was all about her learning cutting skills.
After she had several images cut out, I grabbed the poster board. “Alright, let’s get to gluing.”
I handed her a glue stick and watched as she carefully applied it to the back of a starfish before pressing it onto the board. She reached for a cutout of a sailboat, studied the board, and decided where she was going to put it. She was growing up so fast. Too fast.
“What’s next?” I asked.
“The fish!” she said, grabbing a picture of a clownfish from the pile. “This one’s my favorite.”
I nodded and watched as she went through the process of studying and gluing.
As we worked, my mind kept drifting back to Grady.
I was certain the look of hurt and betrayal was going to haunt me for the rest of my days.
I wanted to believe that he’d understand, that he would see I had not meant to hurt him.
But deep down, I knew it wasn’t that simple.
“Mommy?” Sophie asked.
“Yes?”
“I think I want a pirate picture.”
“A pirate?”
“Because we live here so you can find pirate treasure.” Her reasoning was sound. She knew we had moved to South Carolina so I could go to school. When I was trying to sell the move, I told her I wanted to be at this school so I could look for pirate’s treasure.
“Well, let’s see if we can find something pirate-y for your collage,” I said.
We flipped through the magazines together, searching for a pirate image.
Sophie’s excitement was contagious, and for a moment, I let myself forget about the mess I’d made of my life.
She found a picture of a pirate ship with a skull and crossbones flag.
Her eyes lit up as she held it up for me to see.
“This one!” she declared.
“Perfect,” I said, handing her the glue stick. “Where do you want to put it?”
She studied the board carefully, her little brow furrowed in concentration. “Right here,” she said, pointing to the top corner. “So it’s sailing away.”
I smiled as she carefully glued the ship in place. “It looks great.”
She beamed up at me. “Do you think my teacher will like it?”
“I think she’ll love it,” I assured her. “You’re doing an amazing job.”
We continued working on the collage, adding more pictures and decorations until the board was filled with colorful images of things Sophie loved. When we were finally done, she leaned back to admire her work.
“It’s perfect,” she said with a satisfied sigh.
“It really is,” I agreed, ruffling her hair. “You’re so creative.”
“Mommy?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
Her question caught me off guard. I thought I was doing a good job of hiding my strain. “Of course I’m okay,” I said quickly, forcing a smile. “Should we sneak some ice cream before dinner?”
She looked around like she was expecting Granny to pop out and bust us. “Okay.”
I winked. “Come on. I need some rocky road.”
I grabbed two spoons from the drawer and made a big show of quietly opening the freezer, pulling out the half-eaten carton of rocky road.
Sophie was covering her mouth to cover her giggles.
No one was in the house, but the fun of sneaking made it more exciting.
I scooped a generous portion into a bowl and handed her a spoon, putting a finger to my lips in a shushing motion. She giggled again.
We tiptoed back to the living room, careful not to make too much noise. I sat cross-legged on the floor, and Sophie plopped down beside me, already digging into the ice cream.
“Mommy, do you think I’ll make lots of friends at school?”
I smiled, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “Of course you will. You’re so friendly and fun—everyone’s going to want to be your friend.”
She grinned, her spoon pausing mid-air. “What if they don’t like me?”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said firmly. “But even if someone doesn’t like you right away, that’s okay too. You just be yourself, and the right people will love you for who you are.”
She nodded thoughtfully, licking her spoon clean. “I like my teacher.”
“Me too,” I said, taking a bite of ice cream. “You’ll have fun learning new things.”
She had started school the week before and so far it had been all fun and games. I hoped we could keep her loving school for as long as possible. I was probably in the tenth grade when I developed a dislike for school. And then Dad got sick. And by my senior year, I was a rebellious terror.
I changed my outfit three times before I finally settled on the black slacks, white blouse, and sensible pumps.
I looked like I was going into court. I wanted to look professional.
And older. I didn’t want to look like a student.
Obviously, the dean knew otherwise, but I was hoping to convey an air of professionalism.
I paced in the hallway outside Dean Carver’s office.
It was the oldest trick in the book. She was making me wait to assert dominance.
I knew damn well there wasn’t anyone in the office.
Finally, she opened the door. Her hair was pulled up in a weird style that was a cross between a messy bun and a ponytail.
Whatever she was trying to pull off was not working.
She was wearing a black dress suit with a white button-up blouse.
The shirt was a size too small, pulling across her belly that was definitely not flat.
I didn’t begrudge the belly rolls, because hey, I had no room to talk, but I wasn’t trying to look like a busted can of biscuits.
“Ms. Monroe,” she said. “Take a seat.”
It was an order. No please. No hello. Just sit your ass down.
I nodded and sat down with my hands clasped in my lap. I felt every ounce of my confidence draining.
“Your actions and your involvement with Professor Stone crossed lines. You promised to watch him. Instead you became part of the problem.”
I was glad we weren’t wasting time with small talk.
The woman pissed me off. She was rude. Demanding.
And she’d seen me naked. I was a scientist…
not an actress. There was no way I could pretend to like the woman.
I didn’t care if she saw my dislike for her.
But I could put that aside and be professional.
I took a breath. “Dean Carver, I want to apologize. I did not intend to mislead you. I accepted the TA position before I knew what I was getting into. I recognize I made mistakes. However, it was inappropriate for you to ask me to spy on anyone.”
She leaned forward. “You enabled rule-breaking. It’s unbecoming behavior for anyone, let alone a TA. A grad student.”
I swallowed, doing my best to control my anger.
I knew there was a good chance I would get kicked out of school.
And I was prepared to fight her. But before I let my claws pop out, I would try diplomacy.
“I understand, and I’ll accept any consequences.
” I paused, steadying myself. “But I want to continue my graduate studies, and I truly want to be a credit to this department. Professor Stone is a good teacher and I would like to learn from him.”
She leaned back, looking at me like she was trying to decide if I was worthy of her time. “You were not at fault for Professor Stone’s inability to follow rules. That responsibility is his alone.”
I leaned forward, deciding to try and press her. I wanted to know what it was about Grady that she hated so much. “What other stuff has he done?” I asked, keeping my tone casual, though my heart was pounding. “You said there were concerns. What exactly are we talking about here?”
Dean Carver’s lips thinned, and for a moment, I thought she wouldn’t answer. But then she leaned back in her chair with a smug expression. “It’s not just about breaking the rules,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow, trying to keep my face neutral. I needed her to talk to me. “Do tell,” I said. Maybe I could be an actress.
She flashed a calculating smile that reminded me of a tiger. And not a cute one. “You really have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?”
I held her gaze, refusing to look away. “Enlighten me.”
She flashed another nasty smile that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “Let’s just say Professor Stone has a history of… let’s call it questionable behavior.”
My stomach twisted, but I kept my expression blank. “What kind of behavior?”
Her smile widened, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of something dangerous in her eyes. It made me wonder if I’d just stepped into a trap.