Page 9 of Dear British Professor
There's a knock on the door before someone tries to open it. Thankfully, I had the foresight to lock the door. Better to look suspicious with the door locked than to actually get caught.
“Come on, Simon!” Jack calls through the door.
Willa and I freeze and then look at one another in horror before we spring into action. I lunge for the papers on the ground and scoop them up and toss them on top of my desk. Willa adjusts herself and sits down in the seat across from my desk. I adjust my hard cock as I walk over to the door.
I look back at Willa. “Are you all good?”
She gives me a thumbs up and then pretends to look interested in the book in her lap like I wasn't just going to town on her a moment ago. To anyone besides Jack, she’d look innocent enough that they would believe her act, but he already knows.
I unlock the door and open it. The moment there is enough room for him to push his way inside, he does. I step back so he doesn't knock me down in the process.
"I figured you two would be together," he says, looking between the two of us. I try to give him a look to tell him to shut the hell up, but he either doesn't see me, or he doesn't care.
“We’re just going over the research notes that Miss Munro has compiled for me,” I lie.
Jack scoffs. “You two are about a subtle as an old man driving his Buick through a crowded farmer’s market.”
Willa's neutral expression turns into a frown, and she looks at me. “You told him?”
“Not everything,” I say.
“I know about the love letter, but I didn’t have confirmation that you two have been hooking up until just now.”
I cringe, knowing that Willa is not going to be happy to hear about this. She was adamant for my sake and her own that we keep what's going on between us secret. We both have too much to lose to let gossip about our relationship ruin any current or future academic careers for either of us.
“What are you doing here, Jack?” I ask, annoyed.
"I'm here to warn you that someone has caught you." He looks at Willa and then at me. He holds up his hands in surrender. "It wasn't me. But I heard that some student named Nicole Brooks filed a complainant against you, Simon. They are going to be calling you in for a meeting."
It takes a moment for his words to register in my brain. I knew the risks, we both did, and yet we were still so reckless. Willa and I exchange looks of concern.
“When?” I ask, turning back to Jack.
“Today,” he says. “At any moment.”
7
SIMON
The call comes to my office a few minutes later. Willa wants to go with me to meet with the Dean, but I won’t let her. As far as I know, it's only my name on the complaint. I don't want her name anywhere near this if it doesn't have to be. I try not to think about the repercussions of what will happen to me and us if I get fired. I know what we did was reckless, but on the walk across campus to meet with the Dean in his office, I realize I don't feel any regret. The time I've been able to spend with Willa has been the best in my life.
I stop outside of Dean Ludwick’s office and wait for his secretary to hang up the phone. She looks up and notices me standing there.
She puts her hand over the phone and says, “You can go on in. He’s waiting for you.”
I nod and walk over to his office door. I take a deep breath before knocking three times in quick succession.
“Come in,” Dean Ludwick’s muffled voice calls out to me.
I turn the knob and step inside.
He’s sitting at a large oak desk in a large leather-bound chair. An old memory of being sent down to the Headmaster’s office as a young boy pops in my mind.
“You asked to speak with me, sir.”
Dean Ludwick looks up from the papers in front of him. The stern scowl on his face snuffs out any tiny flicker of hope that I might have had that this isn’t as serious as I thought it might be.
“Professor Waller-Jones,” he gestures to one of the chairs sitting on the other side of the desk. “Please take a seat.”
