That wiped the grin off his face in the blink of an eye. He ran a nervous hand through his hair and said, “Oh, well, I… um… the thing is…”
Between the fancy laptop and his knowledge of computers, it all fell into place for me. “Did you hack into the faculty network, Cam?”
All the color drained from his face. “I can’t get in trouble. If the judge finds out…”
“You helped me out, so your secret is safe with me,” I said. “But if I catch you doing anything like that again…”
“Understood, Professor,” he said, then hurried out of my classroom.
Judge? I wondered what that was all about. But I had my own problems to deal with today.
That was my last class of the day. I had some other small tasks to deal with today, like office hours and a few individual advising meetings, but my schedule was clear until after lunch.
I headed back to the main criminology building and stopped by a colleague’s office. Thankfully, he was sitting behind the desk, frowning at a piece of paper.
“Professor Galloway? Do you have a minute?”
He looked up and smiled. “I have as many minutes as you need, Professor Carrington. Please, sit.”
I closed the door behind me and took a seat. Professor Galloway reminded me of my grandfather: grey mustache, thick-rimmed glasses, and a warm smile that invited you in.
“Closed door? Uh oh,” he said.
“I have something I want to run by you,” I said carefully. “As long as I wasn’t interrupting anything?”
He gestured at the paper in front of him. “A student gave me this after class. It’s a note from hermother. She says that her daughter is bad with schedules, and that I should excuse her from any tardiness in class or in her assignments, because her teachers in high school always did that.” He snorted, which caused his mustache to flutter. “These Gen-Z kids. There’s always an excuse. But enough about that. How can I help you, Lila?”
“I have an interesting situation that I would love your opinion on. And your… discretion.”
“Oh my. Let’s hear it, then.”
I spent a few minutes filling him in on the situation with Jace, and even showed him the Tinder exchange. He listened patiently, his face a mask the entire time. By the end, I was terrified of what he might be thinking.
“First of all, everything is fine.” He removed his glasses and rubbed at one of his eyes, then gestured with the spectacles like he was giving a class lecture. “You didn’t do anything wrong, morally or legally. But I would send another message on that dating app explaining the situation to the student. Tell him that anything further between you two would be inappropriate now that you know he’s a student of yours. Then screenshot the conversation and save it, that way you have a paper trail in case anything comes out, or if your conduct is questioned at all.”
“Good idea,” I said.
“And obviously, beyond words, don’t take the relationship—such as it is—any further.”
“Obviously,” I replied with a nervous chuckle.
“You brought this issue to me, so I will record our meeting in my contemporaneous notes. If your conduct is questioned in the future, I can corroborate your story and defend you. But I can assure you, Lila, that nothing will come of this. You did nothing wrong. Awkward encounters sometimes happen between a professor and a student. The fact that you immediately came to me tells me that you want to do the right thing.”
“Yes! Exactly.”
He put his glasses back on and smiled. “Forgive me, but I’m terrible with technology. Is there not a way to filter who you find on that dating app? Say, by age? That would help avoid situations like this in the future.”
“There is, and I do. The student is actually twenty-seven, just a year younger than me.”
“Ah. Then the interaction is even more forgivable. Your job—and reputation—are safe, Lila.”
“Thank you so much,” I said. “I’ve spent all morning stressing about this.”
“Which, again, only confirms that you are a good professor and want to do the right thing.” He picked up the piece of paper in front of him again. “Now I need to decide what to do about this student and her punctuality issues. Have a good semester, Lila, and please let me know if you have any other concerns.”
I returned to my office feeling a lot better than before.
But now I had to text Jace.
