“Angel—”
“No. Fuck no! This is exactly what I thought would fucking happen,” Angel spat, sneering at them all. “I told you I’d be fine with it if somethinglike thiswould never happen.”
Seth was frozen to the spot. Leaf was pulling up his pants, and Dev got up.
“Angel, can we talk about this?” he begged his brother, but Seth could see Angel’s expression.
“No. There’s nothing to talk about.” Angel turned his gaze to Seth. “And you, you promised me too. What the fuck were you thinking, Professor?” he snapped, the words like barbs. “You crossed a motherfucking line.” Angel turned on his heel and marched to the right.
The closest exit was on the left.
“He’s going to the administration,” Seth said weakly. “My boss’s car was in the lot when we came in.”
“Jesus…,” Dev hissed, and was about to go after Angel, but at Seth’s expression, Leaf grabbed Dev’s arm. “No. It won’t help anyone.”
Seth sat heavily in his chair. His boss, Professor Helena Mills, was nice woman. She’d been there for Seth from the beginning. Her no-nonsense attitude and fondness for rules made her probably the best boss Seth had ever had. He knew, though, that her liking of him was based on the fact that Seth was a rule-follower, someone easy to work with, an employee who did his job well, on time, and never caused trouble.
“Hey, Seth, you need to breathe for us, love,” Dev said suddenly, and Seth looked at him, feeling confused.
Then he realized he wasn’t breathing right.Panic attack.
“Come on, I’ll take you home. Professor Mills can come calling or email you,” Leaf stated firmly, then manhandled Seth out of the chair and the room, telling Dev to lock up.
Seth wondered if he’d lose his job. The job he loved, tired of it as he was. This had been his life for so long, he didn’t know anything else. What would they even accuse him of? Sexual misconduct? Something else?
“Hey, we’ll be at home soon,” Leaf said, squeezing his thigh.
Home? Yes, they were in the SUV.
Seth collected himself, trying to stay focused on the moment, and managed not to let his mind spin out of control. It was close, though, and by the time he sat on the couch at home and Dev had gone to let Grace out of the study, the dog stuck to him like a dog-shaped Siamese twin. Panic attack or just pure anxiety? He didn’t care. Instead, he concentrated on breathing with Grace.
Weasley came to the couch to examine the situation and walked promptly onto Seth’s lap, then up his chest until he could brush his cheek against Seth’s chin.
Seth chuckled. Emotional support cat in training?
“No, it’s not your fault, or mine, or Seth’s,” Dev said in the kitchen, loud enough to alert Seth. It sounded like a conversation that had been going on for a while.
“But it was my fantasy, Dev!” Leaf snapped.
“If you want to blame someone, blame my idiot brother. Or fuck, all of us, Leaf. If you want to lay blame, it has to be all of us.”
“Hey,” Seth called out loudly enough for them to hear. “Quit it.”
Dev and Leaf came into the living room, looking sheepish and somewhat distressed.
“She’s going to call me soon, I bet. I’m….” Resigned to whatever his boss would say? Yeah. “Dev is right in this,” he said finally, after both men had sat down, Dev next to him and Leaf on the edge of the coffee table in front of him.
“How so?” Leaf asked, sounding gruff.
“My idea, my office, my faulty door that should’ve been fixed months ago. Your fantasy and your birthday. Dev was my accomplice, and his brother doesn’t know how to knock, it seems. It’s… it is what it is, and I’ll bear the consequences of this idea. Whatever they are.”
Dev cuddled against him, and Leaf took his hand. Weasley toddled from behind his head to Dev’s shoulder and tried to bat his ridiculously long eyelashes with his tiny, ginger paw.
They all chuckled at the cat, enjoying the moment of levity, and then, naturally, Seth’s phone rang.
He took a deep breath, got to his feet, and grabbed his phone from the coffee table. Then he went to the study and closed the door behind himself. “Professor Mills,” Seth answered.
“Seth,” she said simply, and he knew he wasn’t in the worst possible trouble because she was using his first name. “I was hoping to catch you here, but it looks like you went home?”
