“I said you should lock the door if you’re going to watch porn,” he said. “Damn, who’s she? I didn’t realize you had such strong Tinder game, my dude.”
“Don’t you have lacrosse practice?” I asked.
“It ended early. We won our scrimmage. I had three assists.”
“Wow, good for you,” I said sarcastically. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m busy.”
“Can you take us to the liquor store later?” he asked. “My girl wants some peppermint schnapps to mix with hot chocolate before the big basketball game this weekend.”
“Text me what you want and I’ll get it tomorrow,” I replied.
He left me alone, and I settled into my Joshua Davenport project. But I couldn’t get the image of Professor Carrington out of my head.
I shouldn’t have been doing this. Any of this, whether it was the Davenport stuff or the favor for my professor. If I got caught, I doubted the judge would be lenient with me again.
But I couldn’t let Davenport keep getting away with his bullshit. He was a menace. Without people like me to knock him down a peg or two, he wouldcontinuebeing a menace.
And as for Professor Carrington?
Well, I found myself wanting to do whatever she asked. Anything to see her smile at me again the way she did in her office today.
When my buddy from Singapore emailed me back, I tabbed over to that screen and grinned widely.
“Jackpot.”
Things were about to get a lot more fun around here.
14
Lila
Thursday was a blur. I had three straight hours of student advisory meetings, plus two class lectures. I was looking forward to the peacefulness of my regular office hours, but that was ruined by a steady stream of students with questions about the semester’s first test on Friday.
One of those students was Brock. I didn’t mind his questions. Unlike the young Freshmen who seemed clueless and asked a lot of questions that I had already answered in class, Brock dove deeper into the material and asked things that would be relevant in a future Criminology career. Besides, he had a quiet confidence that I liked. It was no surprise that he was twenty-six. People aged a lot between eighteen and twenty-six.
Men especially, I’d learned.
I woke up on Friday with a Signal message that was sent at two in the morning. At first I was afraid it was a drunk text from you-know-who.
But it was even better than that.
Cam: This is Cam. Mission accomplished. Plus I did a little extra favor for you.
Extra favor? I wondered what that meant. But if the Tinder messages were deleted, I was happy.
I opened my Tinder app and checked my history. The entire chat thread with Jace was missing. It was like it had never existed. And I trusted that it appeared the same way on Jace’s end.
I walked into class with my head held high. It was like a weight had been lifted from my shoulder. “Good morning, class! Today’s exam is five essay questions. I’ll give it during the second half of class, so you can leave after turning it in. But for now, please turn to the chapter eight review questions.”
While connecting my laptop to the projector, I got a text.
Jace: You’ve got a little extra pep in your step this morning. Excited to torture us with an exam?
Me: Nope! I’m happy for another reason.
I left it at that and smiled even wider. Jace didn’t know, yet. I was going to enjoy dropping hints after class until he figured it out.
I gave my lecture, then put the exam questions up on the screen. The room was quiet except for the sound of pencils and paper. I smiled out at the students, occasionally locking eyes with Jace.
