Private Relations (17 page)

Chapter 29

Simone entered the conference room and took a seat opposite the Board of Trustees. She wore a formfitting black sweater with gray slacks, silver hoops dangling from each ear. I could see the effect she had on men -- the way their eyes glazed over the minute she walked into a room, or even how they stuttered when addressing her verbally.

“Is there a reason I’ve been asked to come here today?” she asked.

Russell Grant, head of the Board of Trustees, cleared his throat and handed Simone a manila envelope. Her face darkened as soon as she saw the contents, and I even noticed her hands began to tremble as she sifted through each page.

“As you can see, there’s been a change of heart when it comes to Drake,” Russell continued. “We have his word that you and he
did
in fact engage in a sexual relationship during your tenure here at New Hope Academy.”

“He’s lying,” Simone said. “Just because he says we slept together doesn’t make it true. And unless you have any tangible proof I will not resign and let you besmirch my reputation like this.”

She really was an incredible liar. And though I loathed admitting it, she was also one hell of a fighter. Even now, with her boy toy no longer on her side, she still thought she could make it out of this mess with her reputation intact.

Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t the case.

“There’s more,” I said. “It’s nice to see you again, by the way.”

“What the hell is he doing here?” she snapped. “I don’t need any of this. If you have anything further to say, you can contact my attorney.”

“Just walk away now and no one will press charges,” I said. “It’s your last shot. Or shall we discuss the contents of Drake’s laptop?”

That caught the attention of everyone in the room -- Simone, Kurt, Russell and the rest of the Board of Trustees. At that moment, I did something incredibly unorthodox: I asked everyone to clear the room, in order for Simone and me to have a quick chat alone. The other board members protested, adding that I’d all but kept them in the dark for the course of the investigation.

“I’d also like to know why Victory & Associates allowed a
kid
to do such sensitive work,” one of them added. “What are you, twenty-five?”

“Twenty-seven, actually. But thank you for confirming that I’m aging well.”

“Jesse…” Kurt’s voice was deep and grave, a stern warning that I was taking things a step too far. “Everyone, perhaps this was a mistake…”

“No mistake,” Simone said. “Jesse, if there’s something you’d like to say to me, go ahead and say it. But remember, I know quite a bit about you as well.”

“Yes,” I said. “Well, moving back to--”

“Isn’t it true that you had a sexual relationship with a staff member when you were a student at the Academy as well?”

It was then that I knew that Simone felt like she had nothing to lose. She was going to lose her job. She would also lose her teaching license -- meaning that she would never be able to step foot into a public or private institution again. If that was the price she had to pay for carrying on an affair with Drake, then she was going to make sure that Bobby -- the one person at the Academy I cared about most -- went down with me.

“Is that true, Jesse?” she asked. “Or is that just a rumor?”

Kurt shot me a glance as if to say,
what the fuck is going on
? The rest of the Board looked equally puzzled, and for the first time in my career, I didn’t know what to do or say next.

“What happened while I was a student is in the past,” I said. “You’re the one making headlines, not me.”

“Let’s move back to the matter at hand,” Kurt said. “Russell, would like to--?”

Simone closed the manila folder and handed it back to Russell. She slipped on her leather coat and walked to the door, then paused as she reached for the doorknob. “I’ll resign under one condition,” she said.

“We’re not negotiating anymore,” Russell said. “Either leave on your own accord or we’ll work with Drake and his family to bring charges against you in court.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Kurt added. “The minute you get labeled a sex offender and put on the registry, your life will be a living hell until the day you die.”

Simone turned around with renewed confidence, and I could tell by the glint in her eye that she only had eyes for me. Her mouth turned up in a smirk, and when she brushed a wisp of hair away from her face, it was like the rest of the room just faded away.

“You want me resignation?” she said. “Fine. But Jesse, I think the Academy has the right to know that
you
had a sexual relationship with Bobby Allen, Drake’s uncle, for more than two years.”

The room fell silent. Kurt sighed, avoided eye contact with me at all costs. The rest of the trustees looked as stunned as Russell did, as it was clear that this domestic saga ran far deeper than any of them had previously thought. I’d greatly underestimated how vengeful Simone was deep down, and now I was paying for it.

“Please leave the school grounds immediately,” Russell said to Simone. “I’ll have security escort you out.”

“No need,” she said softly. “I just thought you had a right to know what’s been going on under your own noses for the past ten years.”

*
    
*
    
*

The Board of Trustees knew everything now.

They knew that Bobby had “seduced” me as a seventeen-year-old boy, and that ten years later, the same thing happened to his nephew, his own flesh and blood. To call it Shakespeareans didn’t quite do it justice. This was an all-out, all-encompassing, motherfucking disaster of epic proportions.

True, the Academy got what they wanted. Simone resigned, saving them an even more severe round of bad press and falling enrollment. I didn’t know how Kurt felt. I’d confessed everything to him back in New York, but revealing that he’d allowed me to work the case even though I’d suffered a similar situation myself?

He wasn’t returning my calls. That was proof enough that things would be strained between us for quite some time.

And now here I was, back at Bobby’s townhouse in downtown New Hope. Given that he’d already been placed on leave from the Academy for allowing this disaster to happen on his watch, he didn’t seem too fazed at my forced confession.

He sat down beside me on the sofa, ran a hand over my back. “Jesse, I keep telling you it doesn’t matter. What is the Board of Trustees going to do? Fire me?”

“I sacrificed you to get what the client wanted,” I said. “Forgive me if I feel like a bit of a heel right now.”

“Still, this case can be considered a success, right?”

“I suppose so. Simone resigned, after all. Kurt has the team back in New York working on getting that news to all local media here in Philadelphia. Beyond that, the new Dean will have to give a sit-down interview -- probably to the
Inquirer
-- about how they’ll ensure nothing like this will happen again.”

“They can’t realistically promise that, can they?”

“No,” I said, a tired smile across my face. “But that’s PR for you. Keep up appearances and say what people want to hear.”

“No wonder you have sex for money,” Bobby said. “It sounds much more honest.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, though it ended with a groan. Bobby snaked a hand up my shirt, let his fingers graze the bare skin of my back. Everything would be fine, he told me. And, for the record, there was one last thing I should know.

“I don’t regret what happened between us,” he said. “I never have, and I never will. Even now, after you revealed it to the Board of Trustees, I still wouldn’t change a damn thing.”

“That either makes you a fool or a romantic, Bobby. Perhaps both.”

“I don’t suppose I could convince you to stay in town a big longer? Just so we can have some more time together to iron things out?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” I said. “But I need to get back to New York. I need to figure out where things stand with Kurt, not to mention…”

“What is it?”

“I have other clients waiting for me, if you catch my drift.”

“Right. No shortage of people willing to pay to have sex with you, it seems.” He leaned in, kissed me on the cheek. “I don’t like it.”

“I knew you wouldn’t. But a man’s gotta eat. I’m leaving tomorrow night.”

“I’ll miss you,” Bobby said.

“What about you? What are you going to do now?”

“I have no idea. I’ve got plenty of cash saved up, so I’m good for a while. One of the benefits of never getting married or having kids, I suppose. Plenty of disposable income.”

“If I asked you to come to New York, would you?”

“Permanently?” Bobby said. “Or, just for a weekend?”

“The latter. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“I’d certainly entertain the thought.”

Part of me truly didn’t want to go back to New York at all. Isn’t that what happened to all Manhattanites eventually? The lure of other cities began to creep into our minds, mostly the promise of lower rents, more spacious apartments, and a lifestyle that promised more leisure time?

It was tempting to throw in the towel, to leave New York and never look back. There were plenty of other cities out there. Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, even Boston or Miami. Right now, all I could think of was how warm and comfortable Bobby’s bed was -- and how much warmer it would be when he made it known that the two of us wouldn’t be sleeping without another few rounds of sex first.

Alas, I had to leave.

“Are you sure you can’t stay the night?” Bobby asked. “I promise I won’t handcuff you to the bed in your sleep.”

“Nothing you haven’t done before,” I teased. “And yes, I really do need to leave. I need to go back to the hotel, sort things out with Kurt.”

“All right. You do that.”

He walked me to the door and gave me one last kiss. “There’s just one last thing, Jesse. Something I need to know.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you think Drake will be all right?”

“In time I hope he will be. This won’t be easy for him. But the important thing is that now, Simone should be out of his life forever.”

Chapter 30

I found Kurt sitting alone at the hotel bar. I walked over, sat on the stool beside him and ordered a rum and coke. Normally, that would be his cue to tease me for drinking something meant for a nineteen-year-old, but tonight, nothing but silence.

He was pissed, and I didn’t know how to fix it.

“What else did you want me to do?” I asked him. “Lie to the Board of Trustees? Tell Simone she had her facts wrong when she had them right?”

Still nothing.

“Drake told Simone everything,” I continued. “He found out about Bobby and I after going through Bobby’s things. Photos, old letters, that kind of stuff. It’s been over between Bobby and I for years, but I’m not surprised he kept some stuff. We were very close.”

“I remember the story, Jesse. You don’t need to repeat yourself.”

The ice had thawed. Kurt took a long sip of beer, set down the glass and cracked his knuckles. He ordered another, and proceeded to give me a rundown of what happened after I’d left the Academy at his request.

“We’re still getting paid, thankfully,” he said. “But as you can imagine the Board of Trustees was mortified beyond belief that you had sex with Bobby. In addition, they questioned my judgment in allowing you to work this case when clearly you couldn’t be unbiased in your work.”

“Do you think I was unbiased in my work?”

“Let me finish,” he said. “On the other hand, we delivered what they wanted. Simone resigned and will be out of their hair for good. That saves them the agony of a trial, and what would have been another round of bad press -- on the national level, most likely.”

I couldn’t tell where Kurt was going with this. Was he not as upset as I thought he was? Did he feel that in a way, I delivered what the Academy wanted, even if it meant revealing a part of my past I would have preferred to keep private? I sacrificed my reputation for the good of the case. Simone wanted revenge -- and the only way to get her out of Drake’s life was to let her have it.

“I need to get something off my chest too,” I said.

He guffawed. “Well, by all means…”

“I don’t regret doing what I did. I don’t regret coming back here. I don’t regret bypassing the typical crisis communications bullshit and doing what I do best: solving problems.”

When my drink arrived, I all but downed it in one shot. It might have been the alcohol, but suddenly, I felt good. Better than good, in fact. Confident. Content. Absolutely, positively, certain that I’d made the right decision. I was finished being ashamed of my past or letting it dictate my present. Coming back to New Hope was long overdue -- and to top it all off, I even got laid along the way.

“I’m going to bed,” I said. “Call me when we’re back in New York if you need anything. And if you don’t want to work together anymore, just say the word.”

I tossed a few bills onto the bar and was about to leave when Kurt pulled me by the arm and told me to wait. I was out of my fucking mind, he said. It wasn’t any wonder that I didn’t even
want
a full-time job. I wasn’t cut out for it, plain and simple.

“Your point?” I asked.

“Is there anything else I should know about you? Did you sell drugs? Work in porn? Commit insider trading?”

“I’m the same person I’ve always been, Kurt.”

“That’s the scary part,” he said. “That you could keep so much hidden for such a long time and have everyone fooled.”

“So what now? Are we good?”

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘good’ to describe things right now,” he said. “I’m not sure that you and I are ‘good’ either. But one day, I hope we might be.”