Winter Jacket (35 page)

I smiled broadly at the woman in the mirror.  To be honest, I looked like I just had sex in a bathroom stall.  And surprisingly, it didn’t bother me at all.

++
+++

After being out at Peggy’s until Last Call, I brought my girlfriend home to her apartment.  I could have just as easily brought her back to my house, but I wanted to make an effort to spend more time in her space and in her world.  Plus, if she was going to wake up the next morning with a hangover, I figured she’d prefer waking up in her own bed.

I parked my car on the street in front of her apartment.  With my arm around Hunter’s waist, we made it up the front steps.  When we got to the front entrance, I looked through her purse for her keys.  “Hey babe, which key is it?”

“I got it,” she said, standing up on her own.  She pulled the key ring from my hands and promptly threw the keys at the front door.  The keys smashed against the entrance and fell noisily to the ground like a wind-chime in a hurricane. 

“I don’t think that’s how keys work, love.”

She stooped and picked up the key ring.  “I’m not
that
drunk, Elle.  I saw a centipede, that’s all.  Nothing should have that many legs.”

“Oh.”  I shoved my hands into my pockets and waited for her to unlock the front door.

“You coming, Ellio?”  She gave me a mischievous grin, and I sucked in a deep breath.

The front door had a tendency to stick.  We both put our shoulders against her apartment door and pushed.  The door gave way and we unceremoniously stumbled in. 

“Shhh…” Hunter hushed me through her giggles.  “Sara’s sleeping.”

As if on cue, a light flicked on in the hallway.  “Not anymore.”

I’d started to entertain the idea that maybe Hunter’s roommate didn’t exist, but now I had proof otherwise.  A brunette in glasses and a ponytail walked into the hallway, out of room that I assumed was her bedroom.  “Hunter,” she said crossly, “do you know what time it is?”

Hunter seemed to instantly sober beside me.  “Sorry, Sara.”

Sara’s eyes narrowed behind her thick lenses.  “Professor Graft?”

Oh shit.
  I stared back at the girl.  I didn’t recognize her, but apparently she knew who
I
was.  If I’d had her as a freshman, she could have physically changed, now as a senior; plus, because of the small size of the school, it wasn’t unusual for students to know who I was without ever having taken one of my classes.

Hunter grabbed onto my elbow.  “We’re going to bed,” she announced loudly.  “See you in the morning.”

I gave Sara a weak smile and wave as my girlfriend pulled me past her.  I nearly stumbled to keep up as Hunter yanked me into her bedroom and closed the door behind us.

+++++

“I’m never drinking again,” Hunter groaned.  She rolled over on her side and curled into the fetal position, pulling her knees up to her chin.

After our brief run-in with Sara, the alcohol
had really hit Hunter.  She’d been putting on a good show up until then, but with her bedroom room closed, her sobriety had fallen apart.  I’d helped her into her pajamas and into bed, had positioned a glass of water on her bedside table, and had crawled into bed beside her.  Now, the morning after, she was swearing off alcohol entirely. 

I sat up and reached for the glass of water I’d had the foresight of putting on her bedside table.  “Have some water,” I urged.

“No,” she stubbornly refused.  “It hurts my stomach.”

“Drink it,” I said
more forcefully.  “You’ll feel better.”

“Nothing
will make me feel better,” Hunter dramatically groaned before rolling back over on her back.

I arched an eyebrow. “
Nothing?
That sounds like a challenge to me.”  I walked my fingertips up the flat plane of her stomach.

“Ellio, I’m
really
not feeling good,” she warned.

“Aw, you
must
be feeling bad if you’re turning down sex,” I teased.

She stuck out her lower lip.  “Are you calling me a nympho?”

“Not at all.  I just know I’m good at what I do.”

“Have you taken a survey?”

“I’m Doctor Elle Graft.  I do
everything
to the best of my abilities.” I raked my short fingernails down her stomach.

“You’re lucky Sara’s just in the next room and I don’t want to traumatize her.”

The mention of her roommate brought back the memory of our brief encounter the previous night.  “Sara seems to know who I am.”

Hunter blinked up at the ceiling.  “I caught that, too.”

“I can’t remember if I was ever her teacher.”

She rolled onto her side and snuggled her head on my lap.  I reflexively stroked my fingers through her hair.  “She had to take the Writing Seminar – we all did – but I don’t ever remember her talking about you.  She must not have had you as a professor.”

“Or else I didn’t make that much of an impression on her,” I pointed out.

“I don’t see why not,” Hunter said, wiggling to get comfortable.  “Even straight girls have eyes.”

“Do you think…” I paused, a little upset with myself for what I was about to ask my girlfriend to do.  “Do you think you could talk to her?  Make sure she doesn’t say anything to anyone who shouldn’t know about us?”

Hunter yawned and looked at her clock radio.  “Yeah.”  She didn’t look upset by my continued need for secrecy.  “She’s actually probably at the Farmer’s Market right now, but I’ll talk to her when she gets back.  Who knows what she even thinks though.  It’s not like we were making out in front of her or she heard sex noises coming from my room.”

I nodded.  “I know.  But it’s also not every day that a professor at your school has a sleepover with your roommate.”

Hunter made a humming noise.  “True.”

I leaned over and kissed her forehead.  Even hung-over she still smelled good.

“I need to shower,” she announced.  “I feel the alcohol oozing out my pores.”

“That’s hot, baby,” I said, wrinkling my nose.

“I know it’s not.  But what
would
be hot is my gorgeous girlfriend joining me in the shower.  You know,” she said, batting her long eyelashes up at me, “doing our part to save the environment, one shower at a time.”

I made a disgruntled noise.  God it was tempting.  Oh-so-tempting.  But I also knew I would be paranoid the entire time, wondering when her roommate would be coming home.

“I’m going to pass this time,” I reluctantly said.

“No fun.”  She raked her fingers across my abdomen.  “Are you
sure
I can’t change your mind?  Think about that carbon footprint.”

This woman was going to be the death of me.

+++++

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Monday after Hunter’s birthday weekend, I sat at my faculty desk, browsing through the pictures on my phone.  I stopped on an image of Hunter smiling, proud, holding up her first legal shot of alcohol.  The aftereffects of the pint-sized drink were in the next photo with the most ridiculous, disgusted look captured on her face forever. 

The night out at Peggy’s, even though I had been originally reticent about showing my face at that bar again, had actually been really fun.  Troian and Nikole had shown up later that evening – late as usual – but for once their tardiness had been to my advantage.  Troian, of course, instantly suspicious whenever I looked remotely too happy
, had concluded that I was either drunk or that Hunter had, in her words, “fucked me within an inch of my life.”  I had just serenely smiled and denied my friend the satisfaction of knowing the source of my happiness.  It was true though – I was happy.  Happier than I had been in a very long time.  Little more than a week ago I had been miserable, running away to California with my friends, and running away from lap dances and blue bikinis.   But now I was feeling secure and in love.  I had the best girlfriend, the best of friends, and the career I’d always dreamed about.

A knock at my faculty office door pulled me out of my Hunter-induced trance.
“Hey, Elle?”

“Yeah?”
I looked up and saw my mentor, Emily, standing in the doorway.  “Oh hey, Em.  What’s up?”

“I don’t know if it’s my place to say anything, but there’s a rumor going around
that I thought you should be made aware of.”

One of the challenges of working for such a small school with such a small student population was the rumor mill.  Even amongst the faculty members it could feel more like high school than a professional work environment
sometimes.  It wasn’t a typical week at this university without some minor “scandal” making waves amongst the students, faculty, and staff.

“Oh, I hop
e it’s a juicy one,” I said, picking up my cup of tea.

“Juicy enough,” she confirmed with a smug smile. “Apparently you’re dating a student.”

I nearly choked on my hot tea.  “What?”  I set my ceramic mug down; it felt like I couldn’t catch my breath – like someone had punched me in the gut. 

I must have worn my emotions on my face because Emily quietly cursed.  I don’t think I’d ever heard her swear before.  She shut my office door and sat down in the spare chair.  “What are you thinking, Elle?!” she hissed.  Her face had taken on an unimpressed, pinched look, and I anticipated the worst from my teacher mentor.

I sucked in a deep breath.  “She’s not my student anymore,” I defended myself, “and we didn’t do
anything
while she was my student.” My voice sounded a lot calmer than I actually felt.  “Nothing unethical happened.”

“Thank goodness,” Emily breathed. “Because that’s the
one
thing that will definitely get you canned, regardless of how good a teacher or scholar you are.” She sighed and rubbed at her face. “You know this is probably going to come up in your review, right?”

I swallowed hard and nodded. “Am I in trouble, Em?”

She shook her head, looking remorseful.  “I don’t know, Elle.  I honestly don’t know how the members of your committee are going to take this.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek.
“Do you know if it’s gotten to Bob yet?”

“Don’t worry about Bob.
Worry about the other dinosaurs. Although they’re probably wildly jealous you snagged a student,” she joked with a tight smile.

Thad and I were the only really young faculty members
in the department.  The rest were mostly grey-haired men with great beards and hiked up pants that should have retired years ago. But with the state of the economy, they clung to their endowed chairs until they died.  Because of the poor job market, I had been fortunate to be hired right out of graduate school.  I had a lot of other friends still looking for jobs, adjuncting or doing something completely outside of academia – working at libraries, writing centers, or trying their own hand at being independent authors.

“W
here did you hear the rumor?” I tentatively asked.

“One of the mail
clerks at the Student Center,” she said.  “I was picking up mail and one of the little old ladies who works there saw I was in the English Department with you.  She asked me if it was true.”

“W
hat did you say?”

Emily’s face looked stonily serious. “That you’re a grown-ass woman and that it’s not anyone’s business who you are
or aren’t dating.”

“Than
ks, Emily.” I didn’t know how this could have happened.  Had someone seen us together at Peggy’s? Was Hunter’s roommate, Sara, responsible?  Had it been the scene I had made at the site of the car accident and people assumed?  Or had it been something else altogether?  I thought I’d been so careful, but ever since getting back from California and I’d gotten my second chance with Hunter, I’d been a little bolder, a little more reckless.  This was the worst timing ever.  My tenure review was at the end of the week.  I didn’t have time for damage control.

“Listen, try not to worry about it, Elle,” Emily advised me.  “It’s out of your hands now.”

Easy for her to say.

+++++

That panicked look still hadn’t left my face when I escaped to Troian and Nikole’s condo soon after Emily left.  I cancelled the rest of my classes and meetings for the day, knowing there was no way I’d be able to concentrate. I knocked loudly and with purpose on my best friends’ front door.  I could hear music coming from the other side, so I knew at least one of them was home.   As a writer, Troian generally worked from home and could be found in her condo during the weekday unless Nikole was shorthanded and needed the extra help.  I knocked again.