Page 54 of Teaching Roman

My eyes swept the bar, but the girls weren’t here yet. It was just like them to set up a mandatory girls’ night and then be late to it. But as I plopped onto a stool to wait, the door swung open and Lillian stepped inside.

I’d drafted a pissed-off text to Jillian before my sister even spotted me. This was betrayal worthy of execution in my book, which meant it was a good thing she hadn’t bothered to bring her here herself. Jillian needed a butt-the-fuck-out intervention.

Lil caught sight of me and waved. There were lines under her eyes and I noted the wrinkles in her suit as she approached. Not only had my sister been dragged into this, she’d been busy from the looks of it.

“Working late?” I asked. The question came out sounding as lame as I felt. My big sister had been called in to save me. Could things get any more humiliating?

“I stayed at the office last night. Big case coming up.”

Guilt overtook anger as I took in how disheveled she looked. Lil already worked around the clock and now she had to come all the way out to Olympic Falls. I wasn’t simply screwing up my life. I was wrecking hers.

“So Jillian called you,” I guessed as I led her over to a table.

“No,” she said. “You sent me a text message saying you had an emergency.”

“That’s funny I don’t remember doing that.” I gritted my teeth as I spoke, making a mental note to buy some sort of waterproof case for my phone. From now on I would have to take it into the shower with me.

“You said you needed my legal help,” Lil prompted. “What’s wrong, Jess?”

Jillian had intentionally made sure I couldn’t back out from telling my sister what was going on. I considered lying to her about a nonexistent speeding ticket, but Lil knew my driving record was more spotless than Snow White’s. Plus, I didn’t have a ticket to fix. I was still searching for an excuse when she reached out and grabbed my hand.

“I love you, kid. No matter what. I know it was Jillian who sent the message, but I hope you’ll tell me what’s going on.”

I crumbled, the logic holding me together cracking, and the story spilled out of me. All of it. Lil managed to order us two drinks without interrupting me. She nodded in the right places, and when I got to the pregnancy scare, the muscles in her jaw tensed, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. My version of events included plenty of self-flagellation on its own.

“First of all, you aren’t stupid and you aren’t an idiot,” she said when I finished. She drew a steadying breath. “How old is this professor?”

“Twenty-six! He’s not even a professor. He just finished his doctorate last week.” My voice broke as I remembered my plan to jump him in his regalia. I’d planned to go to his graduation. I had wanted to share that with him. How had things fallen apart so quickly?

“So mostly this is all bad timing and not an abuse of power.” She was already starting to form her argument. I could see it in her eyes as she thought about how she would spin this case.

“I don’t need you to do anything about this.”

“Like hell,” she said. “I will be at that SEC hearing. He might be an instructor, but if he was a graduate student, then this is clearly a case of a student relationship. You weren’t in his class, right?”

I swallowed hard and shook my head. “Not this semester.”

“And you didn’t sleep with him while you were in his class, did you?”

“No.” I half-expected a spotlight to flip on overhead as she interrogated me. Jillian was always telling me I had a doctor mode. My sister had a lawyer mode. Still, I was comforted by her argument that Roman and I were in a purely student relationship. She was right after all. I’d known that until Brett start messing with me. Hearing my incredibly smart sister say it made it finally sink in. The trick would be to get other people to see it that way.

“If this was a real case, I wouldn't even take it to court. I'd have had the charges dismissed before the ink dried on that letter.” Lil took a swig of her beer and grimaced. “Nothing like the good old university ethics system.”

“Weren't you on the Ethics Committee at Yale?”

“Sure.” She shrugged like I’d asked her if she had wrote an essay in college. “You had to be in law school. It was pretty much a requirement, but I thought it was stupid then. We have an actual court system for a reason.” Something about seeing Lil's hackles up made me smile, but she pointed an accusatory finger at me. “You might not have done anything to get you kicked out of school, kid, but that doesn't mean you were smart.”

I wished I could hide under the table. I'd opened up to her like a book, which meant she knew all the drama I'd been through with Roman.

“There’s something about your story that I’d like you to clarify. What did you mean by 'I thought I was pregnant?’” she asked.

Right now the ability to turn invisible seemed like the greatest super power in the world. Unfortunately, I didn't possess the skill, so I had to answer her. “My period was late. I'd been having sex so I assumed.”

“Did you take a test?”

“No, I'm pre-med but that didn't occur to me. I was planning on waiting to see if a baby fell out.” I stole the line from Jillian. But Lillian wasn’t going to let me hide behind sarcasm. We both knew that mistake wouldn’t have been so easy to handle.

“Don't be a jerk,” she said. “Getting into a relationship with a grad student might not warrant getting kicked out, but how did you plan on staying in school if you got knocked up?”