Page 51 of Byte

Iknocked on the wooden door and waited.

“Come in.”

I took in a deep breath and opened the door. “Hi, Dr. Harmon. Thank you for meeting with me today.”

She gestured to a chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat,” she said with a kind smile. “What can I do for you today, Gabriella?”

I clasped my hands together tightly, hoping to hide my nerves. “First, I want to make sure that everything said during this meeting will remain confidential.”

She peered at me over her glasses. “I’m sure you know there are some things I can’t keep confidential, such as allegations against a teacher or student.”

“It’s nothing like that. This only involves me,” I said.

“If it’s something I can legally keep confidential, I assure you I will,” she promised.

I nodded and swallowed thickly. “I’m dealing with a rather personal situation. My house has been broken into twice, and I’m being threatened and harassed. After some investigation, it appears the person doing this to me is a woman who has been posing as a student at this university. I met her at the libraryand have been studying with her every other week for quite some time, but I recently learned she’s not a student here. The reason I’m telling you this is because I would like to change my clinical location. I understand we’re in the middle of the semester, but this is for my safety.”

“Well, this is definitely an unusual request,” she said. “I’d like to help you, but I’m not sure if we can find someone for you to work with on such short notice,” she said.

“I’ve already found someone who’s willing to let me start right away,” I said. “The only issue is that his practice is located in Croftridge, not Cedar Valley.”

“I’m sorry, Gabby. I’d love to help you, but we can only approve facilities located in this county,” she said as her phone began to ring. She pressed a button to silence the phone and returned her attention to me, but her phone started ringing again. “Excuse me for just a moment. This appears to be urgent.”

While she took her phone call, I tried to think of anything I could say to change her mind. I hadn’t told her that Lauren worked at Dr. Gordon’s practice, but I didn’t want to share that information unless I had to.

Dr. Harmon cleared her throat and gave me a tight smile. “That was Dean Winston. I’ve been authorized to grant you special permission to finish your clinical hours at your desired location in Croftridge.”

I couldn’t mask the surprise on my face. “How is that possible? I haven’t spoken to the dean. I didn’t go above your head,” I blurted.

Her face softened. “It’s okay, Gabriella. I didn’t want to deny your request, and now I don’t have to.”

The amount of relief I felt was overwhelming. “Thank you,” I said in a shaky voice. “The past few weeks have been difficult to say the least.”

“I hope this change will make things better for you.”

“It definitely will,” I said, and took a moment to choose my next words carefully. “This is what I was referring to when I asked for confidentiality. I don’t want anyone other than you and the dean to know where I’m finishing out my hours.”

“You have my word,” she promised. “I won’t change anything in the computer system. Email your completed hours and sign-off sheets to me at the end of each week, and I’ll manually enter them into the system.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I really appreciate your help.”

“I’m glad this worked out for you,” she said with a smile.

With that, I left her office and hurried back to Byte’s truck. Being on campus made me feel uneasy, and I didn’t want to be there any longer than I had to.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“It was kind of weird. She initially denied the transfer, but the dean called in the middle of her explanation and told her to approve my request.”

“Really? So, you were approved?”

“Yes, but I don’t understand why. How would the dean know about my situation?” I asked.

“Come on, Gabby,” Byte laughed. “This has Jacquelyn written all over it.”

I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Do you think I should call and thank her, or pretend like I don’t know?”

He shrugged. “You should probably ask Shaker about that one.”

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