His response came in less than a minute. “Why aren’t you in Stat? Are you okay?”
I wiped away my tears. “I’m okay. Please can you come?”
My phone buzzed immediately. “I’ll be right there.”
I wasn’t sure what I was going to tell him about today. He already had enough to deal with. I didn’t want him to have to worry about me on top of everything else. Maybe it was good that I had come to my dorm and cried for awhile to get it off my chest.
My phone buzzed. “I’m here. Do you want me to come up?”
I wiped my eyes and looked down at my phone. How did he know that was what I wanted? I liked my room. It was warm and cozy. His apartment was big and cold and empty. I quickly texted him back. “I’ll come let you in.”
I blew my nose and then left my room. I just wanted him to hold me. I didn’t want to talk about today. When I opened the door, he was standing there, concern etched on his face before he had even seen me.
He took the stairs two at a time and wrapped his arms around me. “Penny, what’s wrong?”
His arms around me and his soothing voice made me burst into tears.
“It’s okay,” he said and kissed the top of my head. “It’s okay, I’m here.” He lifted me into his arms and carried me through the hallway of my dorm and up the stairs.
I felt safe in his arms. He smelled like his cologne and sweat. It was my favorite combination of things.
He opened up the door to my room, kicked it closed with his foot, and then set me down on my bed. He put his hands on the bed on either side of me.
I was momentarily distracted by the sight of him. He hadn’t changed out of his workout clothes. He was wearing athletic shorts and no shirt. It looked like he had thrown on a zip up hoodie at the last second before coming to get me, but it wasn’t zipped. His torso glistened with sweat. God was he sexy.
“Penny.” He grabbed my chin in his hand. “Talk to me.”
“I just wanted to see you. Can you hold me?”
He smiled. “I’m all sweaty.”
“I like when you’re sweaty.”
He smiled again. “Okay, move over.” He kicked off his sneakers and climbed into my bed next to me, wrapping his arms me.
I sighed and pressed the side of my face against his chest.
“If you’re upset about your conversation with Joe, I convinced him to change the incomplete to a withdrawal. It looks better on your transcript.”
“But Mr. Vespelli said you couldn’t withdraw from a class that was canceled.”
“Yeah, well Joe was being an asshole.”
“Thank you.” I listened to his heart beating.
“If that isn’t what’s bother you, what is it?”
“It’s nothing important.”
James was quiet. He ran his fingers through my hair. “Why did you come here?”
“I don’t know. It’s cozy.”
“Okay.” He tilted my head up to his and pushed a strand of hair out of my face. He seemed hurt that I hadn’t come back to his apartment. Our apartment.
“I’m sorry. Your apartment is so big and it’s always cold. And it was farther away and I was crying.”
“Why were you crying?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Penny, no more secrets. Just tell me.”
I put my hand under my head to prop myself up. “It’s harder than I thought it would be. I don’t know if I can do it James.”
“Tell me what happened today.”
“It wasn’t just one thing. It was everything. It was awful.”
“Tell me.” He put his hand on my cheek. “Please tell me.”
“On my way to class I got a text from Professor Nolan telling me not to come to class. And that the investigation went south or something. He said Mr. Vespelli would be calling me with details.”
“Well, it’s good he told you not to come. I’m sure everyone had a lot of questions. You didn’t need to be there for that.”
“Yeah. And I ran into Tyler. He took me to breakfast.”
James made a face.
“Stop. As friends. He was being nice. He knew I was upset.”
“Okay. I’m glad that he was there for you. You could have come home though. I want to be the one that’s there for you.”
“You are that person. That’s why I asked you to come.”
He pushed another strand of hair out of my face.
“And at breakfast I talked to Mr. Vespelli. He told me that there were now three girls who accused you of…”
“I know. I talked to him too. Penny, if that’s why you’re upset, we’ve talked about this. You know me. You know how I feel about you.”
“It did upset me. How could it not upset me? But I know it isn’t true. And it was more upsetting that Mr. Vespelli was just going to give up the investigation. I don’t understand why they don’t want to find the truth. They’re going to put it in the paper, James. They’re going to tell everyone, and then people will think it’s true even though it’s not.”
“Penny, I want them to stop the investigation. It’s fine. It’ll make the news vans go away.”
“But those girls lied. Clearly they just wanted to get As. Mr. Vespelli even said that they all had bad grades in your classes. It’s ridiculous.”
“It’s fine. The sooner it’s over, the sooner things will go back to normal. Isn’t that what you want?”
“I’m not sure anything will ever go back to normal.”
He sighed. “I know. I told you to take the rest of the semester off. You can switch schools, Penny. You can pick up where you left off somewhere new in the spring. It’s okay. We can go wherever you want.”
“That isn’t why I don’t think things can back to normal. At breakfast, Tyler warned me that it was going to be bad. Apparently everyone loves you. Which makes sense. You’re very loveable.”
He lowered his eyebrows slightly.
“Everyone’s mad at me. I was hiding in the bathroom before Psych and I overheard these girls talking. People are upset that your classes are canceled. And it’s because of me. Because I’m a slut and a whore. I ruined your career. I ruined your life.”
“You saved me. Penny, I was drowning. Don’t you see that? I’m not a professor. I was never meant to be a professor. It was an escape from my life back in New York. It was just like everything else I’ve ever done. It was just another escape.”
“But you loved teaching. You were a great professor.”