Page 59 of The Academy
“Hey, boss,” she says, swinging around in her office chair. “What’s up?”
Audre comes in and closes the door. “Delicate question.”
Cordelia wills herself not to get splotchy. She waits.
“I just got a text from Mr. Rivera,” Audre says. “He wants to take Simone Bergeron on a date Saturday night, somewhere off camp.”
Cordelia exhales. Nothing to do with her and nothing to do with that abhorrent Zip Zap app. Cordelia takes a moment to process: Rhode wants to take Simone on a date? This is fabulous news! It will dash any interest Honey might have in Simone. “What’s the question?”
“It felt like he was asking my permission,” Audre says. “There are no rules against the staff or faculty dating. Rhode mentioned this was how the Wullys met, though that was before my time.”
“Yes,” Cordelia says. “I remember the Wullys at the Move-In Day cookout way back when. Ruth had been here a year or two, Kent was brand-new. They got together right away and nobody was surprised.”
“Chester didn’t mind?”
“He thought of himself as a matchmaker,” Cordelia says. “He presided over their wedding at Jewel Pond the day after school let out.”
“Hmmm,” Audre says. “I almost wish Rhode hadn’t asked. I prefer a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell approach. What you do in private is your own business, you know?”
Yes, Cordeliadoesknow.
“Well, I think it’s marvelous,” Cordelia says—though only in thisself-serving instance. In principle, Cordelia thinks faculty dating other faculty is a recipe for disaster. She should have steered clear of a love interest at her place of employment because it’s distracting—and, in Cordelia’s present situation, not in a good way. Knowing that Honey is only a few hundred yards away is torture. “I hope you told Rhode it was okay. Did you?”
“Not yet,” Audre says and she winks at Cordelia. “I needed to check in with my voice of reason. Thank you, Cordelia.”
As soon as Audre closes the door, Cordelia texts Honey.I guess Rhode Rivera and Simone Bergeron are dating.
That’s on Zip Zap?Honey responds.
Real life,Cordelia says.Confirmed by Audre.
Three dots rise, then disappear. Cordelia wonders if Honey is bothered by this—and if so,howbothered.
New on Zip Zap:Everyone be extra nice to Chef Haz today. Although he’s a (Draft) king, he lost his most recent (Fan) duel. He par-laid an egg.
What the hell?Haz thinks. It’s no secret that Haz is a betting man. He asks the kids who they like in Sunday’s game and would they take the points. Haz has formed a connection with the kids that way; he knows it’s not exactly wholesome, but he has never shared a single detail about his own personal betting habits, wins, losses, or otherwise.
How then would anyone at the school know that Haz took a chunk of the money he got from young Eastman and, despite his vow to quit gambling, bet it on the Philadelphia Eagles beating Houston on Thursday night? And then, when the Eagles were up by ten at the half, parlaying that bet on the over/under. At the start of the third quarter, Jalen Hurts got sacked and fumbled, Houston recovered, the momentum of the game changed, and Houston ended up winning by ten, leaving Haz out twenty-five hundred bucks.
The wound of the loss was bad enough, but now he’s the hot topic on Zip Zap? Seriously?
Weareextra nice to Chef on Friday morning: Davi Banerjee gives him a hug after breakfast service, and someone overhears Olivia H-T wondering if we should start a GoFundMe for Chef. (What? Girl, no.)
In between classes, third-former Reed Wheeler passes through the Paddock just so he can tell Chef what a beast he is. Reed expects to find Chef preparing the dough for Friday pizza lunch, but instead he spies him in some kind of meeting with Mr. Rivera. Reed overhears Mr. Rivera say, “I have a business proposition for you.” Then Mr. Rivera lowers his voice, which gets Reed’s attention—but he can’t make out what Mr. Rivera is saying. He does hear Chef respond with “Hell yes! Let me pull together some numbers and I’ll get back to you.”
Reed slinks out of the Paddock undetected, grabbing a breakfast sandwich (meant for upperclassmen) on his way out.
Is this “business proposition” anything we’d care about?Probably not,we think, but if so, we’ll hear about it on Zip Zap.
13. Limerence, Part I
Rhode’s former girlfriend Lace Ann marries her bakery investor, Miller. It’s a lavish affair downtown—rehearsal dinner for forty in a private back room at the Lowell, ceremony at St. Patrick’s,reception at MoMA. Rhode scrolls through the pictures on Instagram and thinks how, if he and Lace Ann had gotten married, it would have been City Hall followed by Korean BBQ. He’s able to think this dispassionately. He can see that Lace Ann looks beautiful but he feels nothing.
His romantic interests now lie elsewhere.
Taylor Wilson, who is one of his top students, showed him a poem that she’d written in her class journal entitled “Limerence.” Rhode was unfamiliar with the word, but when he looked it up (“a desire to form a relationship with the object of love and also to have one’s feelings reciprocated”), he thought of Simone. He sees her all the time, every day, and when he’s away from her, he’s thinking of her.
She turned down his offer of a date—the rejection felt like she walloped him with a two-by-four—but then in the morning, she texted to accept his offer.What changed her mind?he wonders.
