Page 49 of Beautiful Place By the Sea

“An incident?”

She gives a meek nod.

“Laurel, what happened?”

“It doesn’t matter, okay? I’m just going to meet with Spillinger and straighten this out next week.”

“No, that’s not good enough. If something happened, I want to know what it was.”

She laughs bitterly. “You’re not my mother, okay, Ivy? And even if you were, you couldn’t do anything to intervene. I’m 26 years old; I have to handle this on my own.” She takes a deep breath, as if convincing herself. “I’m going to handle this.”

“Fine,” I say, reclaiming my arm and draping it across my bent knees. “But as your super cool older cousin, I’d love to know what’s going on regardless.”

Laurel smirks. “I’m sure you would.”

I wait patiently. I’m not breaking this silence, because I want her to spill the beans.

“Okay, fine,” she concedes. “There was a guy.”

“And there it is.”

She looks confused. “Huh?”

“It’s always a guy in these stories, isn’t it?” I shrug.

Laurel tightens her lips. “I guess so, yes. In this case, it was a very cute guy in the history department. We started seeing each other, and things were going really well. Until it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who’d dated him.”

I gasp when it hits me what she’s implying. “No! Spillinger was sleeping with a student?”

“Right? I was as disgusted as you are when I found out. And Nick—that was his name, Nick—insisted everything with her was over. But I guess it wasn’t over for her. As soon as she found out Nick and I were together, she started getting really nasty toward me.”

“Laurel, that has to be a violation of every HR rule your university has.”

“Oh, absolutely.” She holds up her hand to admire her manicure. “And I’d report it, but she’s been tenured for quite some time, and I very much doubt they’re going to fire her. She hasn’t actually done anything wrong, see? Spillinger’s actually an evil genius. Nick was never her student, and they declared their relationship through some formal university process. And she isn’t even that much older. She might be 35? So the court of public opinion won’t even judge her all that harshly. Rule of half plus seven, and all that.” Laurel sighs deeply. “I still need her to like me so I can finish my dissertation and get out of there. So I’m holding off on reporting her, at least for now.”

“But what about Nick?”

Laurel shrugs. “That fizzled out after a few months anyway; Nick’s great, but I was just so focused on school. Unfortunately, I think Spillinger is still holding a grudge. She used to love me, but it’s been extremely awkward ever since the first day she saw Nick and me holding hands outside the mailroom.”

“God, what drama! This is entirely insane. You realize that, right?”

“Of course I do.”

“But you’re kind of loving the drama, yes?”

Laurel sticks out her tongue. “You suck.”

“Look, even if you like being the center of a forbidden love triangle, it’s not fair for you to have to jump through hoops with your dissertation because of it. You should tell someone. Or at the very least, be straight with Spillinger about it.”

I can tell from her face that she’s considering my suggestion. “I guess I could level with her when we meet next week.”

“I really think you should try. Remember what Grandpa always used to say?”

She nods. “There’s always another way.”

“Exactly. Don’t suffer in silence.” I crack a smile. “Hey, maybe you can appeal to her feminist side. Show up there and bitch about how Nick is an evil man who broke your heart. That’s probably an experience she can get behind.”

Laurel snorts loudly. “Have I ever told you that you might be a genius?”