Page 20 of Kept
“What do you mean.”
I take a deep breath and decide to pull no punches.
“I heard, well I heard that you got fired from your last job for sleeping with students and,” I hold up my hand to stall his rebuttal, “I just, I’m sorry, but to me that is just a line in the sand.”
I’m surprised and perplexed when he bursts out laughing.
“Is that all?”
“What do you mean is that all? I just told you, I think that is gross, it’s akin to paedophilia in my book.”
“No, I mean, is that the only reason you won’t have coffee with me?”
I shrug. I could tell him that I also have reason to believe I might start sleeping with a cop soon, but that wouldn’t be quite true, I hadn’t seen him since Mrs Swinstone’s lurker call, and that was a few weeks ago.
“Yes.”
“Well then, if that is your only concern, I can safely assume we will have coffee Friday night.”
“Huh?”
“Josephine I was fired because my area of study and beliefs didn’t gel with those who held onto the funding purse strings at the illustrious campus I was so fortunate to have lectured at.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, as the teacher in occult studies and the supernatural, there was a concerted push to reduce my funding to a trickle and to increase funding to those areas deemed to be more in line with the thoughts of our Catholic dean and his newly elected board.”
“That doesn’t seem grounds to be fired.”
“I wasn’t fired. I left. I’d rather teach history to high school girls and pursue my own interests after hours than argue day in and day out about the veracity of my studies.”
“I see. So, what exactly does an occult lecturer teach? Were you showing them how to do witchcraft?”
“Ah,” he smirks, “are you telling me I have piqued your curiosity?”
I smirk back. “I guess.”
“So, I take it we have a date?”
“Coffee.”
“Coffee it is. Shall we meet at the Brown Sugar Bar, say 7pm?”
I do a mental calculation. That gives me most of the day to wallow, and truth be told, it would be good for me to get out of the house. I was pretty lonely lately, now that Margarita was spending every hour outside work with her potential husband.
“Yes, I’ll meet you there.”
“Perfect.”
He winks and turns to leave, and I suddenly have a thought.
“Hey, have you lost a book recently?”
He turns back to me, his brow crinkled.
“No, not that I am aware of, why?”
“No reason. See you tomorrow night.”
