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“Oh, God, I did it again.” Adrienne looked horrified. “It was a joke. I promise. I’m not usually this bad.”
Graham sighed. “She’s frequently this bad.”
“Okay, so I am. I’m horrible at reading the room. Especially when I’m nervous. Always sticking my foot in my mouth. I didn’t mean what I said; I just have a weird sense of humor.”
“It’s okay. I promise.” And it was. There were few things I understood better than people thinking I was weird because I said things they didn’t expect.
We chatted a little more while Adrienne added colors to the picture. I loved it even more now. It was me in my corset, wielding a deck of tarot cards.
She promised to digitize it and email it to me within the next couple of days. The three of us said our goodbyes and Graham and I left her to get back to her own art.
On the way out, I wanted to wander through the Computer Science building. Actually, I didn’t, but I figured as long as we were here it was a good time to push past more of my discomfort. The school itself had nothing to do with what happened, other than being where I met Tiff. I’d learned a lot of wonderful things here as well as meeting Graham. I wanted to bring more of those moments to the front of my mind.
A voice filtered out from one of the rooms as well strolled down the hall. The sign out front said
Professor Erol
Ethics in Programming, Development, and Computer Science
Open to the Public
I grabbed Graham’s arm and tugged him toward the door. “We have a little more time, don’t we?”
“This isn’t the kind of lecture you want to hear.”
I twisted my mouth and stared at him, waiting for him to take it back. “I think is. This kind of stuff fascinates me.”
“The topic, yes. The speaker? No. This isn’t a let’s learn kind of thing. I guarantee it’s going to be a self-important man ranting about who should and shouldn’t be allowed in computing. I worked with him, and I’ve never heard him do anything but.”
I tugged Graham in the back entrance and into seats near the top of the amphitheater. “He’s not going to just rant. I can sift through the opinions to hear worthwhile,” I said. Ethics were subjective anyway, and this was free knowledge.
The lecture was only about ten minutes in, and Prof. Erol was wrapping up his introduction.
And then, as he launched into a diatribe about how teaching certain types of coding in school only led to malfeasance, my stomach dropped. I was watching a real life Professor Umbridge condescend to a room full of captive ears about the evils of the magic that was security programming.
When he used my name as an example, calling me a vile specimen of immorality, Graham actually freaking growled.
Graham half-rose in his seat and I yanked him back down.
“You were right.” My voice was tight. “Let’s just go.” I wanted to be anywhere else. Now.
Graham clenched his jaw.
“Please,” I begged.
Graham nodded, and we headed toward the exit.
“Does the truth bother you?” Erol’s voice hit our backs.
Graham huffed, his nostrils flared, and turned to the stage. “The truth? No. The prejudiced meanderings of a misogynist? Quite a bit.” He squeezed my hand.
While I loved seeing him standing tall, his voice booming across the amphitheater like the professor I’d fallen for, this wasn’t the situation I wanted to see it in.
“Since we’re speaking about you, would you like to provide a defense?” Erol asked. “Ladies and gentlemen, the sole reason the school updated our ethics policy a few years back. If you’ll note the young lady on his arm, you can see he hasn’t learned his lesson.”
I wanted to curl up in a little ball and hide, but I stood there, expression blank, refusing to let this man beat me down verbally.
“I do have thoughts on the subject, yes.” Graham’s tone was firm. Confident. “If we start placing limits on innovation, we stop innovating. People need to be allowed to explore all possible avenues when they embark on discovery, and if we limit the scope of education, students will find the information somewhere else. Frequently without the structure and knowledge of an experienced individual to guide them.”
