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“I’m heading there now. Listen, Barbie and I did an investigation of our own,” I continued, filling him in on things.
“So the dean showed up there? Hm. That only adds to our suspicions about Karen. I gotta go, but I’ll see you in a little while at your place.” He clicked off. Tears threatened my eyes hearing his voice. I missed him, and I didn’t relish being in this situation away from him at all.
After he got to my place, he barely stepped through the door before he started. “Did you know Karen has a daughter named Gail who is around your age? You might have gone to school with her—Gail Ruskin? You see, Hall is Karen’s name by her third husband, but Ruskin was her first married name, and her only child was Gail.”
I paused, wracking my brain of any old memories I had with that name. “It doesn’t sound familiar. Even though it was a small town, small school, you know how I was back then. I stuck my nose in my books and helped my parents at the motel. I didn’t socialize much, of course, the one and only time I tried to be in with a group of popular girls, they pressured me to keep up with them and—well, you know what happened. At least, I hope you haven’t forgotten the first time we did a body shot. The first time our lips connected.” I turned my voice sultry, reaching out a hand, trailing it from his chest to his waistband.
He stepped back, clearly still hurt by me. “Yeah, and I remember Chad and everything else, after that, too.” He shrugged out of his lightweight jacket and laid it on the back of the chair.
I sighed. This was as good a time as any to get this out. “I’m really sorry about how my loose words flew out of my mouth last week. I didn’t mean that you are not included in my life. I was only talking out of frustration about my career. Teddy, I love you, and I don’t want you to ever feel like I don’t. All of this has been stressful, that’s all.”
His face softened, while muscular arms pulled me in and held me close to his chest. Me fitting so perfectly under his chin was like the feeling of home and I never wanted to leave it. “I love you too. I’m sorry. I kind of pouted after hearing those words from your mouth.”
“Kind of?” I looked up at him with my eyebrows raised.
He chuckled. “Fine. I pouted a lot. Are you happy now, bringing all the emotions out of me? I’m a big ass grown man and I pouted like a baby when the woman I love said she’d lose everything. But it’s not true, you know. You could lose your career, your parents could be mad at you, a hellfire could come along and destroy your house. Whatever. There’s one thing you need to come to terms with. You’re never, ever losing me.”
His hands cupped the back of my neck, pressing me hard into him with a kiss so deep, so passionate, it filled with a guarantee of his love never faltering. I grasped his thick forearms, holding onto his promise of love never ending. And I prayed it never would.
We made out for a while, comfortable in quiet serenity, resting together on my bed. Words weren’t necessary when our eyes, our hands, our bodies spoke a love language all our own.
“Hello-o?” We heard Barbie finally arrive home. “I have pizza. Who’s hungry?”
We got up to greet her, but I already missed the safety of my man’s arms.
Barbie held a pizza box in one hand and a pile of papers in the other. “I have proof,” she announced. “These are copies of notes from Karen’s desk, some from her trash, showing information from our conversations. It’s bits and pieces, but clearly she’s been listening for some time. I also printed out copies of the dean’s schedule. I don’t know if it’s helpful at all, but maybe something is here?”
I hugged her. “Thanks, Barbie. We’ll look through it. Teddy has some information, too.”
We sat around munching on pizza, trying to figure out our next steps. Barbie joined us in the confusion of it all.
“So Karen has a daughter you went to school with? That’s no reason for her to sabotage your career, is it?” She questioned.
“I really don’t see another option. You two need to confront Karen and see what her issue is.” Teddy wiped his hands on a napkin and leaned back on the love seat.
“Ugh.” I threw my body back against his chest. “Why does life have to be so difficult?”
“It’ll have to be done in a public place. Diego and I can watch from afar and make sure you ladies are safe at all times,” Teddy started building a game plan. “We’ll work it out and have everything in place.”
“Okay. We got this, right Mia?” Barbie pointed her fist at me. I bumped her hand with mine, trying to remain confident, while inside I was nervous as hell.
15
MIA
The next day dragged out in slow-motion. My energy drained worrying about this afternoon. Dealing with conflict was never my strong suit.
It finally reached four o’clock and time to face Nosy Karen. As I walked over to meet Barbie in front of her building, I received a text from Teddy letting me know that he and Diego were at their posts, ready to protect us if needed.
I suddenly worried about what this confrontation would accomplish. If Karen was sabotaging my career, would she stop? I would like to say that Teddy and I could move on and progress in our relationship forward after this. But I’d still be his professor, and he’d be my student. Everything would still be a test of our patience. Then it hit me. In order to be together, one of us would have to move on. But who?
I didn’t have time to dwell on it. My adrenaline pumped harder with each step closer to the Dean’s building. When Barbie came into view, we were minutes away from this showdown.
“Hey, girl, are you ready?” She greeted me, still giddy as this morning. I wanted to hurl my lunch in the grass.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
A minute later, Karen walked out of the building down the sidewalk. It was exactly like Barbie and I had rehearsed a million times because we both fell into sync and executed the plan perfectly to get her over to the nearby park bench.
