And like that, he was gone. The door closed behind him leaving me in a room with a girl I’d just met, my anxiety on max and tears ready to spill from my eyes. I bit my lip, doing my best to keep it together.
“So…” I started to say, but Christy cut me off immediately.
“Do you have your phone?” she snapped.
“Uh…yes?”
“Turn it on and set it to record,” she said quickly.
“What—”
“Do it!” she hissed.
A flood of hope and excitement shot through me, almost sending my head spinning. But I did as she asked and quickly pulled out my phone and set it to record.
“Dean Warmer is blackmailing me!” she hissed. “My roommate cheated on her history exam last semester and he says I helped and is going to pin the blame on both of us if I don’t play ball!”
“Play ball?”
Is she saying what I think she’s saying?
“He made me say these things about Professor Grey,” she whispered. “But I never even met him. We never even interacted. I don’t even think I asked a single question in class!”
“And why haven’t you said anything to anybody?” I asked, feeling suddenly like a lawyer.
“He’s the dean! Who would believe me? But now he’s obviously doing the same thing to you,” she said. “What’s he have on you?”
“What’s he have—oh, uh…nothing. He just warned me that Professor Grey would try to take advantage of me.”
Christy scoffed and rolled her eyes so hard I thought she might pass out. “Take advantage? Please. Does he even know Professor Grey’s reputation?”
“Reputation?” I asked.
“He is, like, the complete professional,” she replied. “Tons of girls have tried getting with him over the years, but it never happens. We honestly were starting to think he was celibate, like a monk or something.”
“But why…” I muttered. “Why would he do this?”
“Rumor has it, his wife came onto Professor Grey,” Christy explained. “When she got denied, she got pissed and told the whole thing to her husband, who couldn’t believe she’d ever try and cheat on him, so he’s going after Caleb for it.”
My blood boiled inside my veins. My heart couldn’t beat any faster without exploding. If I’d had something nearby to smash, I would have smashed it into pieces.
That son of a bitch!
He was pure evil. Instead of getting pissed at his wife and divorcing her, this son of a bitch was going after Caleb, who had done nothing wrong, and trying to ruin his relationship with me. All because he’d been scorned, scorned by a woman who probably never loved him in the first place.
Unbelievable…
Caleb was being so professional (with everyone but me, of course), and here was Dean Warmer, plotting to ruin him like some kind of James Bond villain, threatening another student with false accusations in order to get him what he wanted. This “man” had no place anywhere near academia.
“Say it again, Christy,” I said, aiming my phone directly at her. “So everyone
can hear.”
The latch on the door began to turn, and Christy leaned in fast.
“Dean Warmer is blackmailing me!” she hissed into my phone. “Professor Grey never touched me, and now he’s trying to get…”
“Lizbeth,” I said, filling in the blank.