“With Melynda Taylor?”
“Yes.”
“With your student.”
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes, it fucking matters!” The dean boomed, suddenly all measured restraint gone as he burst out of the armchair. “Jesus Christ! I don’t know how many times I’m going to have to have this conversation with a member of the goddamn arts faculty before you get it through your heads that the student body is not your personal dating pool!”
Liam pursed his lips and took another sip of his drink. Contrition. Remorse. That would be the appropriate response to the dean’s outburst. At the very least, a little sheepishness would go a long way. He didn’t have any.
And while he knew he should be concerned with trying to save his job, all he could think about was the fact that he was losing Min – might have lost her already. The way she’d looked at him from the stage tonight, the way she’d fucked him in her dressing room – it was like she was saying goodbye.
He was losing her. And now he would lose his job, too.
When Liam looked back up, the dean was rifling through the desk in the corner of the room. “You’ll have my letter of resignation in the morning,” Liam said.
“I’ll have it now.” The dean slapped a notebook and a pen on the desk.
Liam blinked. Once. Twice. “Or you could fire me.”
“Do youwantme to fire you?”
I deserve worse. “No, sir.”
The dean inclined his head towards the notebook on his desk and, with a final sip of his Scotch, Liam crossed the room to drop into the seat in front of the desk, taking up the pen to sign his own death warrant.I, Liam Jacobs, resign my position with Burnett University effective immediately.Then he signed, dated the signature, and pushed the notebook across the desk towards the dean.
With a deep breath, the dean took the notebook and tucked it into his briefcase. To be turned into the university in the morning, no doubt. Finally, still fiddling with the clasp on his briefcase and avoiding Liam’s eyes, the dean spoke again.
“The Dietrich boy knew about you and the girl. Or at least suspected enough to cause trouble. I did convince him not to press charges against you, though given what you’ve told me about the way in which you found him, I suspect he wouldn’t have gone to the police anyway.” The dean glanced at Liam and sighed, sadness pulling at the corners of his mouth and crinkling his brow. “Where will you go?”
“I don’t know.”
“If there is any way I can help, you’ll let me know.” Liam glanced at the old man in surprise. “You’re a good professor. And an even better conductor. Not to mention that Shira would have me drawn and quartered if she knew I had an opportunity to help you land on your feet and didn’t do so.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Go home, Liam,” the dean said, holding out his hand to shake Liam’s hand. His handshake was firm, the affection in his eyes clear. “You look like hell.”
∞∞∞
“You shouldn’t be here,” Liam said as he walked past Min on his way into his house, but he left the front door open to allow her to come in behind him. She’d been sitting in her car in his driveway when he arrived. “I told Jeff to take you home.”
“Jeff is not my keeper,” she replied.
He grunted as he toed off his shoes, keeping his eyes trained on the perfectly shined patent leather, counting the creases that had sprung up along the toes.
“Where did you go?” she asked him.
He shrugged out of his tailcoat before starting on the buttons of his tuxedo shirt, as if he could shed the events of the evening by shedding his clothing. “To resign,” he said as he reached the final button.
She drew in a sharp breath. “I’m so sorry.”
“You keep doing that,” he muttered.
