Page 8 of Her Filthy Professor

“You know I can’t tell you that,” he replies, typing something on his computer. “Look, I’m gonna have to ask you to take the rest of the week off while I figure out what to do. I’ll have to reach out to Miss Simmons and some other faculty about this as well. We’ll try to keep this quiet if we can. Fewer people know about this, the better.”

At least we’re in agreement about that.

As soon as I’m able to, I make my way to my car to go back home to Grace. We need to have a serious discussion about what we plan to do. Leaving the office, I see Maise in the waiting room of the building, scrolling on her phone. I stop and stare at her for a moment, contemplating if I want to ask her about the video or not. She looks up from her phone and stares back at me. The usual friendly, eager look on her face is gone, and she looks shocked. I know instantly that I was right to think it was her.

I shake my head and leave the office, fumbling in my briefcase for my car keys.

“Dr. Griffin!” Maise calls behind me, jogging to catch up with me before I get to the car. I don’t turn around to talk to her. “Dr. Griffin, wait!”

I hit the lock button on my car and stand by the driver’s side, ready to get in when Maise catches me. “Are you still gonna be teaching here?” she asks me, panting as she waits for my answer.

I don’t know what to say to her. I can see in her eyes that she feels some kind of guilt, like she regrets sharing what she did, but she clearly wasn’t thinking. On top of that, answering her question might harm me if this comes to an investigation.

“Why do you ask?” I look at her with as straight of a face as I can manage.

“The video,” she whispers, stepping closer to me. “As soon as I showed it to Dean Carlton, I realized I made a mistake. I was just so messed up after seeing you with someone else.”

“I really ought to get going now,” I say without acknowledging her.

“Can you please forgive me? We can start over,” she begs, standing much closer to me than before. “I’ll do anything for you. I can be so much better than her.”

She reaches a hand out to touch my chest, looking up at me with big, puppy dog eyes. I grab her wrist and stop her before she does, shaking my head and climbing inside of my car.

Maise stares at me for a moment, and then her face wrinkles into a pout before she runs off.

“What the hell just happened?” I mutter out loud before rushing back to Grace.

6

GRACE

Gabriel sits on the couch while I pace back and forth, running my fingers through my hair, distraught about what to do. I'm angry at Maise for taking the video and sharing it, but I'm even more angry that she tried seducing Gabriel.

On top of that, I realize that Gabriel could very likely lose his job over what we did, and I can't help but feel guilty about it. Both of us knew before we began anything that there might be risks involved, but I was too hopeful we could avoid them.

“What are we going to do?” I ask, calming down enough to take a seat next to him.

Gabriel drapes an arm over my shoulder, and I lean into him, sinking into his warmth as he tries to comfort me. “Whatever happens, we'll get through it.”

“You can't lose your job because of me,” I continue, wincing away the stress forming between my eyes. “There has to be something we can do to help you before the investigation.”

As I sit there, my phone buzzes in my pocket, and my heart sinks at the idea of it being the Dean. Of course, when I pull it out to look at the phone number, I see that it is the university calling.

“He said he was going to interview you,” Gabriel sighs, leaning forward to watch me as I answer the phone.

I slide the call button and press the phone to my ear, pretending like I don't know anything about what's really happening.

“Grace Simmons,” I say with a faux cheery tone.

“Miss Simmons, this is Dean Ian Carlton, and I’d like to schedule a time within the next day or so to have a meeting,” he says, his voice heavy on the other end.

“Can I ask what this is about?”

“I think it's best we discussed that in person,” he says before reading off the available times he has.

After scheduling a meeting with him for the following day, I end the call and lean forward on Gabriel once again. Even though he's facing serious consequences for our relationship, he is still calm and doing everything in his power to comfort me. Truthfully, I don't think anything will happen to me because he's the one employed by the university. I'll more than likely be able to attend, but I don't know if I would want to if he's fired.

The feelings I have for him are strong, and the idea of hurting him in some way kills me. I know that I might only have one chance to express that to the Dean and change his mind about possibly firing Gabriel.

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