Sorry?
Except she wasn’t sorry. This wasn’t her fault.
They probably could have talked more.
But that was the funny thing. Alex had felt like she’d spent more time talking and opening up to Emily than she had with just about anyone else.
And yet she didn’t know that Emily’s new job was at her college.
This was just her luck. That’s all that Alex could think about at this point. Three times in a row now she’d been completely blindsided.
Emily hadn’t ended it with her yet, but Alex jumped every time her phone chimed, assuming it was Emily, sending her a text that said they couldn’t see each other anymore.
No teacher wants to date a student.
And Alex just couldn’t see Emily being the exception.
17
Emily should have been more sociable today with her colleagues, but at six o’clock she was holed away in her office, still in shock. A dull ache started just above her eyebrow an hour ago, and now she’d wished she’d taken something for it, because now it was a pounding headache.
Emily found some painkillers in the bottom of her bag and swallowed them along with some water.
This first day had been a complete blur. She hoped she did okay, but she honestly wasn’t sure, because the focus from the moment she’d seen Alex in her classroom was to get through this day.
There was a college handbook in the top drawer of her desk, and she was too afraid to look at it, knowing that it more than likely had a very clear line in it somewhere about how teachers were forbidden from having any kind of romantic relationship with a student.
She spent the entire day wondering how she’d let this happen. If she’d known Alex was a student after the first few nights they’d spent together, Emily would have asked what she was studying and where, probably out of interest more than fear.
But it would have come up. It should have.
How hadn’t it? That’s all Emily could think about. Because it kind of brought into question what they were doing exactly if they didn’t know such basic information about one another.
And right behind those thoughts were always ones about Melissa, about how much time and energy Emily had spent complaining to anyone who would listen how awful it was that Melissa thought it was appropriate to not only cheat on her but with a student.
And not just any student.
Her student.
A wry smile came to Emily’s lips as an image of Melissa finding out popped into her head.
Melissa would fall over herself laughing. She wouldn’t be mad. She would actually be struggling to breathe she’d be laughing so hard.
And then she’d probably justify everything that had happened between them, saying she had to follow her heart, and that it didn’t matter if she was in love with a student.
Emily shook those thoughts away before she got sick.
What a mess.
Emily exhaled loudly as she picked up her phone, her eyes dancing over the dozens of texts that she’s exchanged with Alex the last few weeks.
She should text her.
Emily started typing, but then her fingers stalled.
What if someone suspected that there was something going on and at some point, someone asked to see Emily’s phone. Check her records.
Emily got out of the thread.
