“I’m watching too. I’m waiting for Kevin to start talking about his wine club.”
“I know! I love when he does that.” I glanced back up at the T. V. It was such good quality that I could almost see each of Kevin’s pores. Little T. V.’s had their advantages.
“It’s definitely the best part of the show. I’m DVRing it. I can pause it if you want to come over.”
“That’s very tempting. But I’ve had a pretty crappy day. I think I just want to stay in. Thanks, though.” I could just imagine how James would react if he came back and I was gone.
“What happened?”
I looked up at the T. V. Maybe another perspective would be good. Tyler’s first reaction probably wouldn’t be to punch Professor McCarty in the face. But I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to think about how I felt frozen. His hand lingered on my ass for close to a minute before I got the courage to slap him. Just thinking about it made me feel sick to my stomach. “I’m just not sure I can do this anymore. I think maybe I should try to change schools. All of this just seems too hard.”
My phone started ringing. I guess that wasn’t a sufficient answer. “Hi, Tyler,” I said, putting my phone to my ear.
“Penny, really, what happened?”
“It’s nothing.” I could hear my voice catch in my throat.
Tyler was silent.
“It was really stupid. I don’t even know why I’m upset about it. My intro to marketing professor made a pass at me. He wanted to work out an arrangement for extra credit or something. I don’t know. Like I said, it was dumb.” I felt so weak. I wanted be able to believe that it wasn’t a big deal. But it was. I wished James would come home.
“Penny, that’s not…” he sighed into the phone. “You should be upset. Shouldn’t you tell the dean about this?” Tyler had said I should tell the dean about Professor Hunter. But this was different. He wasn’t saying it out of spite this time.
“He said he’d say I came onto him if I tried to tell the dean about it. I got two strikes for what happened with James. I’ll be expelled if I do anything else wrong.” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. I felt so stupid.
“Have you told James?”
“Yeah. He said he thought he could fix it. But I don’t know if I even want him to try. Today was harder than I thought it would be. Everyone’s so mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you. And I’m sure everyone who wasn’t doing well in James’ classes loves you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, Eli seemed happy about it.”
“See.”
I sighed and leaned my head against the back of the couch. “I just don’t want to be here anymore.”
Tyler was silent for a few seconds. “Where would you go?”
“I don’t know. I think James wants to go back to New York. Maybe I can try to enroll in NYCU or something in the spring. I want to finish school. I just don’t know if I can here.”
“That would be kind of awesome if you went to New York. If I get that job I’m not going to know anyone when I move there after graduation.”
“Yeah, it would be nice.” I thought back on my pro con list I had made between James and Tyler. One of Tyler’s cons had been that I didn’t know where he’d end up after graduation. It was weird that we might end up in the same place after all. “Ah, Kevin’s talking about his wine club!”
“Yes!”
We were both silent as we watched Kevin O’Leary go off on a weird rant about the Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.
“I’m pretty sure those people aren’t going to get a deal now,” I said.
“No way. So what’s Professor Hunter’s brother like?”
“Like the complete opposite of James. He’s not reserved at all. He says the most inappropriate stuff. But he’s really funny. It was nice having him here tonight. He kind of made me forget about everything going on. I think he makes James really happy.”
“Well that’s good. Professor Hunter always seemed very tightly wound in class.”
“Yeah. So are you excited for the formal tomorrow? Are you still going with Natalie?”
“Mhm. It should be fun.” He didn’t sound convincing at all.
“Melissa is really excited about it.”
“Isn’t Melissa always really excited about everything?”
I laughed. “Fair enough.” The show had just ended. I had been right, the couple hadn’t gotten a deal. “I think I might head to bed early.”
“Okay. I need to get back to going through possible interview questions anyway. I was just taking a break to watch Shark Tank.”
“I never thought you’d be one to stay in on a Friday night studying and watching T. V.”
“I really want this job.”
“Well, you should be super prepared. I really hope you get it.”
“Thanks, Penny. Text me if you want to toilet paper your pervy intro to marketing professor’s house or something.”
I laughed. “That’s actually a really good idea. I’ll think about it.”
“Night, Penny.”
“Night, Tyler.” I hung up the phone and looked back up at the T. V. I wasn’t sure if I’d actually be able to fall asleep. I flipped through the channels. There were tons of scary movies on because it was getting so close to Halloween. After several minutes of searching, I turned the T. V. off. I just wanted today to be over. And I missed James. It had only been a few hours since he had left. I wanted him to have a good time tonight. He needed this.
I wasn’t sure when I had become a needy girlfriend. Maybe I always had been. We fought a lot. He had been right when he said I took up a lot of his time. No wonder he didn’t have any hobbies. He had said that Rob wasn’t independent. I wanted to be independent. I wanted to be able to take care of myself.
I climbed into Professor Hunter’s bed. Our bed. I loved that the sheets smelled like him. I couldn’t seem to help it. I wanted to be with him all the time. Especially right now. When I closed my eyes I kept picturing myself behind Professor McCarty’s desk. Maybe I should toilet paper his house. Eventually I drifted off into a fitful sleep.
***