Chapter 12 Lila
Lila
Jace texted me the next morning while I was getting ready for class.
Jace: I hope you enjoyed my photo as much as I enjoyed yours.
Me: That depends. How much did you like mine?
Jace: A dangerous amount. I barely slept.
Me: I hope you don’t have class first thing this morning. Oh, wait.
Jace: I would skip class and go back to sleep, but my professor is kind of a babe.
Me: Kind of?
Jace: I just checked my reference photo, and yes, I can confirm that Professor Mathers is a babe.
Me: Ha ha, the old switcharoo. Speaking of photos that should or should not be seen, have you deleted our Tinder conversation from your end yet?
Jace: I haven’t gotten around to it. I have an extremely busy schedule this semester.
Jace: For example, I’m taking you out on Friday.
Me: You are not. Unless you mean a Friday in May.
Jace: You know that’s not what I mean. But if you want to skip the date and go straight back to my place, that’s also an excellent idea.
That idea sounded dangerously tempting, even though it was seven in the morning. I ate another bite of my breakfast toast and decided to push a little more.
Me: I like dancing. That’s a fun date to me. Can you dance?
Jace: I prefer the horizontal dance.
Jace: (sex)
Me: Thanks for mansplaining it to me. But I think a proper man should be able to dance his way into a woman’s heart.
Jace: I marched in formation when I was in the Army. Does that count?
Me: It does not. I guess you’re not the man for me. But if you want to learn, you can take ART 317.
Me: (Dance and Expression)
Jace: If I do that, you’ll go out with me on Friday?
Me: First of all, we’ve already passed the class signup date. Second, I’m not doing ANYTHING with you until you delete our Tinder messages.
Me: If you ever want a shot, you’ll do this for me.
Jace: Isn’t destroying evidence illegal? I wonder if we know anyone we can ask. Someone who’s an expert.
Me: Nothing we’re doing is illegal. Just against school policy.
Jace: Send me a more scandalous photo and I’ll delete our thread right now. But it has to be good. I don’t want to see a stitch of clothing on you.
Jace: I’ll reciprocate, too. I’ve got one I’ve been waiting to send you.
Ohh, once more it was tempting. I’d pulled up his bathroom photo several times this morning alone.
But my better sense was wide awake and screaming at me to stop this.
Me: Prove that you’ve deleted our messages, and then I’ll send another photo. Not before.
Jace: I’ll think about it while I’m in class, fantasizing about my professor.
Jace: Gotta go. See you there. I hope you’re wearing a skirt again. Your ass is mesmerizing in a skirt.
His refusal to do this one thing for me was beginning to annoy me. I wasn’t asking for a lot. And my request was pragmatic, all things considered.
Jace was smiling at me from the moment he walked into class that morning. It was distracting… but I still got a sexy tingle up my spine from the attention. And part of me was disappointed that he didn’t leave a present on my desk, even if it was something as boring as a can of tuna.
After class, Jace made a phone call and immediately hurried out of the room. That made me sad, because I was looking forward to hearing what he would say to me, but it was probably for the best.
Another student approached me, though. “Professor? Got a second?”
It was the bartender from last week. Brock something. “How can I help you?”
“I have a question about one of the review questions we went over in class.” He put his notebook down on the edge of my desk and pointed. “What about this scenario? Would it be elevated to aggravated assault, or no?”
I read the page, then shook my head. “It has to be the use or display of a deadly weapon. The next chapter will go over it in more detail, but there’s precedent that merely having a baseball bat within sight isn’t enough. It would only be simple assault.”
Brock nodded along. “That’s what I thought. Thanks.”
He picked up his notebook and started to leave.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” I said.
He turned around. “Sure, I guess?”
I waited a few seconds for the last student to leave class so that we were alone. Even still, I lowered my voice just to be safe. “You understand the situation between me and Jace. Right?”
“I do,” he said carefully. “He showed me the texts.”
“Do you know if he deleted them?”
“Sorry, but we’re not really friends,” Brock replied. “We’ve studied together twice since the semester began, but we don’t talk about personal stuff.”
“Ah. Okay. Thanks.”
Brock lingered a moment. “If you’re asking because you’re worried… I wouldn’t be. I don’t know him very well, but Jace seems like a good guy. He wouldn’t show anyone the texts.”
“He showed them to you, someone he’s never met,” I pointed out.
“He was shocked and hungover on the first day of class. He could barely believe you were his professor. And as far as I know, he hasn’t shown anyone else. And I genuinely don’t think he will.”
“That’s nice to know. Thanks.” And then, just to make small talk, I asked, “You working Friday?”
“And Saturday, and Sunday,” he said with a hint of a groan. He scratched at his short-cut beard. “If you want another free drink, stop by.”
I thought about that while walking to my next class. The way this week had gone, I was already looking forward to my end-of-the-week cocktail.
Those Tinder messages were still on my mind. I wasn’t concerned that Jace would reveal them to anyone, like Brock assumed. I just didn’t like knowing they were out there at all. And I wouldn’t be able to properly enjoy my texts with Jace until that was taken care of.
I was able to focus on my next class, and there were a lot of good questions and discussions about the subject matter. But when class ended, and Camden Keene grinned at me on the way out, an idea came to me.
“Hey, question for you,” I called after him.
He frowned like something was wrong. “I, uh, swear I haven’t done anything illegal on the faculty Wi-Fi.”
“I’m sure you haven’t. I have a computer-related question. Let’s say I have a Tinder conversation with another person. If I delete our conversation from my phone, it still exists out there in the cloud or whatever, right?”
He immediately nodded. “I don’t know what their data retention policy is like, but it would be stored somewhere on their servers. And on the other person’s phone.”
“Is it possible to delete it? Remotely?”
Cam flashed an excited smile. “Are you asking me to hack into Tinder’s servers?”
“You’re right,” I quickly said. “I was just curious, but I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Hey, I didn’t say no,” he replied. “I need some more info. My next class isn’t until after lunch.”
“I’ve got office hours now, so let’s go to my office,” I said.
We left the building and walked across the campus lawn to the primary Criminology building. Cam was humming a song that sounded familiar.
“Is that… Dancing Through Life? From Wicked?” I asked.
“Uh…”
“It is! I’ve been trying to figure it out since we walked outside.”
Cam seemed flustered. “No. Yes. Whatever. I’m not embarrassed about it. I like musicals. They calm me down when I’m stressed.”
“You’re stressed right now?”
“Maybe. It depends on how difficult Tinder’s enterprise security system is to break into.”
When we got to my office, I closed the door. Cam plopped down into the guest chair and opened his laptop, turning it sideways so I could see. There was already a web browser open to the school athletics page. It was the profile for one of the basketball players, Joshua Davenport.
“What’s that about?” I asked. “Got a crush on an athlete?”
“God, no. It’s nothing. And I’m straight.” Before I could interrogate him more, he opened a new browser. “Login for me here?”
I reached for the laptop, then hesitated.
“You can trust me,” he said. “You know that I have access to the faculty Wi-Fi, and haven’t ratted me out. I’m not going to mess with you. If anything, I owe you one.”
He made a good point, so I logged into my Tinder account. “It’s this message here. With Jace Strickland.”
“I figured it was about him.” He smirked and took the laptop from me. “Anything in here you don’t want me to see?”
“Nothing scandalous. A photo or two. Don’t go snooping, though.”
“I hear you loud and clear.”
For a few minutes, he typed so rapidly that his fingers made a machine gun sound on the keys. While he worked, I went through my inbox and replied to various student questions.
“I think I have a way in,” he finally said, snapping his laptop closed with a click. “Let me talk to a buddy and get back to you.”
“Keep me updated,” I said. “Even if you end up not being able to help. And… if anyone ever asks…” I struggled to think of the words.
“I’m good at keeping secrets,” Cam said. “But I’ll gladly take some extra credit, if you’re giving it out!”
He had this boyish charisma that was cute, in a totally different way than Jace’s charm. “Your reward is that I’ll keep your secret about the faculty Wi-Fi.”
“Oh. Yeah.” He flashed a grin. “Mutual assured destruction it is. I’ll email you when I have news.”
“Actually, have you heard of an app called Signal?” I asked. “I’m not sure I want this information going across my faculty email.”
“Signal? Now you’re speaking my language. I didn’t realize you were so cool, Professor. I’ll hit you up on there.”
He gave me a mock salute, then left in a hurry.
I smiled to myself after he was gone. I hoped Cam was able to work a miracle. Mostly because I didn’t want those messages floating out in the world somewhere.
But also because I couldn’t wait to see the look on Jace’s face.