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I choke on my herbal tea and have to set it down and stick my fingers in my ears. “Gross.”
Katie laughs and holds her belly.
“Well I’m sorry to dampen the mood but I came here with bad news.”
Katie pets my hair and says, “You haven’t looked this gloomy since that time with your student…”
“Don’t finish that sentence,” I say, holding up my hand. “The bad news involves ‘that student,’ too. You see, the Chamberlains are being represented by that student.”
Katie’s mouth flies open, and she looks ready to rumble on my behalf. “Hold my earrings.”
“No, no. I can’t let you get involved in this dispute.”
“Is it about the statue of Mary?”
I nod, sipping my tea.
“What are you going to do?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I can’t afford a lawyer.”
“The school will take care of you. They pay into a legal pool with other private schools; they will get you legal help.”
“I don’t want legal help. I want this to go away and for the Chamberlains to eat shit.”
She pulls a face at my language. Which is funny, because I learned to cuss from her. “Besides,” I add, “I don’t want the school to pay for this. It was my decision to have it removed. Mine alone, with the blessing of the school board. And a lawyer hired by the school is going to tell me to settle. And I’m not going to settle. I just need to vent.”
Now Dean has come back out and joined us in the living room. I eye him, but ultimately I know I can trust him with this information.
Katie sighs. “Miles McRae. I always knew he was a little twerp!”
I shake my head
.
“No, you didn’t. You change your story about him daily depending on my mood. It’s not like that. He’s new to the firm, he wasn’t given a choice.”
My aunt is not having it. “But still. I mean…I thought…I’m just going to say it.”
“What?”
Katie twists her hands together. “Well, I always sort of thought you and Miles would end up together and now this throws a wrench into everything.”
I goggle at her. “Why would you think that?”
“Because he was so clearly in love with you, even after you pushed him away again and again. Remember how you came to me crying on graduation day because of how conflicted you were?”
“Katie,” I say, aghast. “You know I could have lost my job…”
She dismisses me. “I know, I know. I didn’t mean you should have hit that when he was still in school. I mean…you didn’t hit that, did you? Tell me you didn’t hit that?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “No, I didn’t. And please stop making me listen to my sixty-something ex-nun aunt use the phrase ‘hit that.’”
Dean laughs. I point a finger at him. “No smart-ass comments from you, mister.”
Dean puts up his hands in surrender. Although I act put out by their cutesy behavior together, my aunt’s happiness in retirement with the love of her life does make me a bit envious.
“He kissed me, that’s all,” I say.
