As no surprise to me, my father didn’t try pushing his new marriage on me. By now, he knew that I was not amused by his rotating door of wives. I’m sure I’d hear about it again whenever they planned their reception, but until then, I preferred to be left out of the whole thing.

I knew it would be nice to reach out to Rebecca about the whole disaster, but I wasn’t in the mood. I wanted to reassure her that everything was okay, but I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea about us. I liked her, but clearly, things were not going to go any further. Ignoring her sent the message that there was nothing going on between us, so it was best to move on.

I was relieved to go days without a call or message from Rebecca. Perhaps she was already on the same page as me and wanted to forget that any of this ever happened.

Class this week was going to be rough. I hadn’t finished grading the papers, I had to input grades into the system so the university knew if they could print out diplomas, and I would have to face Rebecca for the first time in days. And, I still planned on naming her the summer intern, even though we weren’t on great terms. I was not looking forward to it.

Our personal problems aside, she was still the best student for the job. I was impressed with her paper on the financial crisis, even though she didn’t choose the topic I handpicked for her. Though in her defense, I think she covered that topic very well in person. There was no doubt in my mind that she would be great for the company, but I would have to create a new plan for her summer. Suddenly, it didn’t seem like such a good idea to have her in my office, working right beside me.

Any of my colleagues would be happy to have her around, so I wasn’t too worried about pawning her off on someone else. And, for all I cared, we could just stick her in the mail room with the copying machine, or have her run personal errands for the employees. She’d get the experience she wanted, she’d get paid, and she would be happy with that.

Expecting to have to talk to a bunch of students after class concerning the internship and their final grades, I came to class early, instead of exactly on time as I usually did. I nearly walked straight into one as I made my way to the front of the classroom.

“Professor Rye,” the kid said. “I need to talk to you about something.”

“Go ahead,” I told the nerdy-looking guy. “Make it quick.”

He pulled out a file folder. “Oh, I think you’re going to want to listen to this,” he said, pulling out photos.

“What’s that?” I asked, already bored at whatever he had to say. I had no problem answering easy questions. I just didn’t want to engage in long-winded conversations that did not interest me.

“That’s you,” he said, pointing at a blurry figure. “That’s Rebecca Hunter. That’s your apartment building.”

I squinted at the photos. It’s very clear that we were holding hands.

“You can’t prove anything with a blurry photo,” I said. “I have girls at my place all the time. That can be anybody. It’s definitely not one of my students.”

“How about this photo?” he asked, pulling a professional photograph from the event we attended. I hadn’t even thought about there being cameras for the event, but there always were. They used these things for publicity. In the photo, we danced in the background, our faces very close. It was obvious that we weren’t just there as friends.

“Coincidence,” I said. “We just happened to be at the same event.”

The student pulled out another picture. This one was outside of my office. Rebecca was wearing business attire, unaware that someone was taking a picture from afar. It was creepy, to say the least.

Finally, he revealed a blurry photo of a classroom door. In the narrow, rectangular window, I could make out some shapes that looked like people. Only I knew that it was Rebecca going down on me in the classroom.

I pushed the pictures out of my face. “Kevin, is it?” I asked angrily.

“Yes.”

“Have you been following people around, taking creepy pictures of your classmate and me?”

He frowned. “You’ve been having a relationship with a student.”

“Allegedly,” I said, pointing at him. His evidence was overwhelmingly clear.

“Whatever. It’s not allowed.”

“Why do you give a shit?”

“Because,” he said in his whiny, nasally voice. “You’re going to give Rebecca the internship because you’ve been fucking her. Why else would she be at your work office? You picked favorites and it’s not fair to the rest of us who have been working our ass off to win this prize.”

I sat down in my chair and rested my head in my hands for a moment. I wished I’d never decided to take on an intern. My bosses thought it would be good for the company, and I agreed to choose one. Now, I just wanted to call the whole thing off.

There was no way I could give Rebecca the internship now. It ate at me because she truly deserved it. Not only was she the most knowledgeable student with the best essay, but she had done so much for me. She put up with my childish bullshit, much better than any girl had ever done. She saved my ass by agreeing to go to the charity ball and helped me land a new client. She deserved it the most, but I couldn’t give it to her.

“Get out of my face with that,” I said to Kevin as he set a piece of paper down in front of me.

“It’s from the university handbook,” he said, pointing to the copy on the desk. “It is very clear about this sort of behavior between faculty and students. If this matter is brought up to the administration, it’s certain that you would be ousted from the university and a dark stain would remain on your reputation.”

“My reputation?” I scoffed. “Do you know who I am?”

I tried to sound tough around this dweeb, but truthfully, I was worried. As much of a pain in the ass this job was at times, I still wanted to keep it. I knew that good PR would help my career in the long run. I was successful, but I was still young and there was a lot of time for my career to go downhill. If I were close to retirement, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. But, I wasn’t even thirty yet. There was still a lot I wanted to do before I was blacklisted from the city.

“Are you blackmailing me?” I asked. “Is there anything in the handbook about that?”

He shook his head. “I think the administration would want me to come forward. I don’t want to do that, though. I think you’re just a guy who made a mistake. If you’re going to right your mistake, I don’t see any reason for you to be punished.”

I took a deep breath. I was afraid my answer was already given to me.

“Why don’t you be straight with me? I’m not going to dance around the subject anymore to find out that I didn’t do what you wanted and you fucked me over because of it. Are you telling me that you’ll take your file folder of stalker photography to the people in charge if I don’t deny Rebecca Hunter of the internship?”

“Yes,” Kevin said, his voice slightly wavering.

“Is that all?”

He looked at the ground, then cleared his throat. “I believe I am the strongest candidate for this position and you should choose me for my academic prowess and my ability to go after what I want.”

I rolled my eyes. “By cheating.”

He shrugged. “Finance is a cutthroat industry. I’m sure a lot of people do things they don’t want to do in order to make it.”

“Let me get this straight before I let some punk ruin my career—you’re going to show those pictures if you don’t get the internship?”

Kevin looked around the room before nodding.

I sighed. “Go sit down. Class is about to start.”

Looking smug, he found his seat amongst the other students. I tried not to look like I was on the verge of losing my mind. I had no choice but to hire this little asshole. He was probably qualified enough, but I didn’t want him working for me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rebecca walk in. I couldn’t look at her. She would be so upset to hear that I was giving away her internship to someone else, after all I put her through. Though she might understand if I told her what happened, there wasn’t enough time to talk. Class was starting and all of the students were eagerly awaiting news that could affect their summers and future careers.

Little by little, my family was ruining hers. I ruined her chance at having a fast-tracked career by yanking out a promise from underneath her. I didn’t know of she had become attached to me, but with the marriage of our parents, I didn’t think I could continue to see her. My dad was certainly going to wreck their home and their marriage in a short amount of time. I needed to find a way to make it up to her, but that would be an impossible feat. In a few weeks, we would part ways, more bitter than we were before. It was wildly unfair, but it was how life worked. Kevin was an ass, but his behavior would likely go unpunished and would instead suit him in his future endeavors.

Rebecca would hate me. Normally, I wouldn’t care about that, but something was different this time. I really didn’t want her to walk out of my life, but there was no way to save our friendship.

Not able to stall for any longer, I stood up from my seat and quieted the class. “Okay, settle down,” I mumbled, feeling slightly queasy. “I want to keep class short today. We’re going to have a quick discussion about careers in finance and then I’ll return your papers and announce the new intern.”

I looked up at the class, and accidentally made eye contact with Rebecca. She gave me a kind smile and I nearly walked away from the class right then and there. I felt terrible, but there was no going back in time and changing things. I had to move forward.