I was on my way to class early when I saw Isobel, leaning against the wall outside her own class. She was deep in thought, clutching books to her chest. She was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. Her dark hair framed her face, her body was slender and flashbacks to last night flooded my mind. I remembered her naked and bent over in front of me, her ass a gift from the gods.

Like a stalker, I stood a few feet away from her and just watched her. Everything about her was mesmerizing.

Finally, I walked toward her, and she saw me. She smiled when she did, her face changing.

“Good morning,” I said. “You doing okay?”

She nodded. “More than okay.”

I put my hands into my pocket and rocked back and forth on my feet. “I wanted to thank you,” I said.

“For what?” She asked.

“For trying so hard with Beth,” I said. “It means a lot to me.”

Isobel nodded. “Any time,” she said. She smiled at me, and it was dazzling. Her eyes were a bright evergreen, her lips perfectly kissable and I leaned in toward her. She hesitated, but let me kiss her. I put my hand on her hip, touching her as much as I dared. My tongue slid into her mouth, and she tasted like good memories and familiarity, like a chance to try again when I hadn’t allowed myself that before.

I got lost in her. Everything about her made me feel alive. The last time I had felt this way about a woman, it had been with Liz. I wasn’t trying to convince myself that I was in love with Isobel, but I recognized the feelings.

When I broke the kiss, Isobel’s cheeks were flushed, and she was smiling. She looked a little shy; I liked it that way. She surprised me every time.

Someone cleared a throat behind me, and I turned around. One of my students stared at me, and I knew that he had seen us. His eyes were dark with a question on his face.

Shit.

“Terence,” I said, but he turned around and walked away. He wasn’t going to discuss this with me.

We were in trouble.

“I have to go,” I said to Isobel. Her face had changed, too. How much trouble would we be in?

I walked to class and arrived in time for it to start. My students filed in one by one, Terence arriving last. I was suddenly paranoid. Had he been to see someone? Why was he late? Of course, students were late all the time, and he was still in time for the beginning of the class.

There was nothing I could do about it other than teach my class. So, I stood in front of the class, going through the lesson. I was struggling to concentrate. I was scared that this would come back to bite me in the ass. I glanced at Terence, but he didn’t make eye contact. Did he usually pay attention in my class? Did he usually stare at me when he wasn’t staring at me now? I wasn’t even sure.

All my classes were the same length, but today it felt like it was carrying on forever. I didn’t have enough study material to cover the class, and I tried to fill in the gaps with exercises that didn’t make sense and didn’t help. The class was getting irritated, and so was I. It was awkward and strained. Or maybe, it was just because I felt like I had been caught. But, what is it they say about doing the wrong thing? If you were going to break the rules, you had to be willing to suffer the consequences.

The problem was, I hadn’t considered the consequences. Everything about Isobel had been distracting; everything had been something that I wanted. I hadn’t thought as far as considering that I might have to lose something in return.

Finally, the class ended and my students left in the same trickle they had arrived. I was left alone in the lecture hall, turning the events before class over and over in my mind. It was going to be okay, right?

I didn’t have any other classes, so I decided to go home. Spending time in my office where I would torture myself with what had happened would only make things worse. I packed my bag with the papers I still needed to grade, locked my office and walked through the corridors toward the parking lot.

“Alec,” someone called me from the side, and I turned to see Harry Nicholson. He was the Dean of the Psychology Department, a stocky man that looked like he didn’t put up with any shit. “In my office, please,” he said. I swallowed. He called me in a couple of times before, and I’d never been in trouble. It would be fine, I told myself. This would probably just be a routine check-in, like before.

Nicholson’s office was raw and uninviting. He had only what he used in the office, and nothing more, not even photos of friends and family. There was no plant in the corner, nothing but blinds in front of the window, nothing to make you feel at ease. Or maybe, it was his stern expression that made me feel nervous.

“How are things going?” He asked. I sat down on the chair opposite him and nodded.

“Can’t complain,” I said. “Midterms are coming up and its always a crunch,” I said.

Nicholson nodded. “Good, good. I wanted to talk to you about one of your students.”

I waited for him to keep talking. I wasn’t going to ask. If I answered like something was wrong, it would just show that I knew something was wrong. I would carry on like I wasn’t assuming.

“There is no easy way to say this, Alec,” Nicholson said. “I heard something that is of some concern to me.”

I nodded. I knew what this was about. Terence had run away and told on me like a primary school kid. I guessed I couldn’t blame him.

“You want to tell me if this is true?” Nicholson asked.

“If you tell me what you heard, I can tell you what happened.” Sometimes, the easiest thing was to act like I didn’t know what was going on. That way, I couldn’t talk myself into a corner.

“There is an allegation that you are having an affair with one of your students,” Nicholson said.

Blood drained from my face even though this was what I had expected. A hollow feeling opened in my chest, and it filled very quickly with regret. Could what I had with Isobel be classified as an affair? How much could I say without digging myself a grave?

“The woman in question is a teacher’s assistant,” I said, starting with the simple things. Maybe, if I pointed out who she was, it would seem less intense.

Nicholson shook his head. “You know as well as I do what the consequences of something like this can be,” he said. “We’re looking at a suspension, Alec. I would hate to lose a good professor like you. But, rules are rules…”

I nodded, pursing my lips together. There was nothing I could say in my defense. It would be unfair to assume that they would give me a lighter punishment when there were other professors and teachers that did worse things.

“I will open an investigation on this, Alec,” Nicholson said. “We have to get to the bottom of this, and maybe a student was exaggerating. I’m not sure if I should take your silence as a confession of sorts, or confidence that this is just a rumor.”

I was surprised that he was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that was because I had given a lot of years to this university, sticking to the rules, doing what I did best. Maybe it was those years I was sacrificing, now. What was it they said about hindsight?

“Once I have a bit more information from the parties involved, I will call you in again, and we can see where we go from there.”

This was a ray of sunshine. It gave me a bit of time to see if there was something I could do about it. It wasn’t like I could threaten Terence, telling him to withdraw his accusation, but maybe there was something I could do.

“Thank you, Mr. Nicholson,” I said, standing up and extending my hand to shake his. He took my hand in his. He was just doing his job; it was a pity that a man as willing to root for me as he was would have to find out that what he had heard was true.