Page 5 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

Wednesday

Breathe. No, I wasn’t about to make a mistake.

It didn’t matter that Penny was young. She was old enough to know that she fucking loved me back.

I had a hard time trusting people. But I trusted her.

I trusted what we had. And we’d get through this together.

We had to. Because I wasn’t going to let myself slip again.

"Then I guess I resign," I said. I pulled an envelope out of my pocket and put it down on top of the desk. "Here's my letter of resignation." I slid it toward Joe. And for just a second, I couldn’t breathe.

"James?" Penny sounded panicked.

I’d wanted to talk to her about all this last night. I’d wanted to make this decision together. But I didn’t have a fucking choice here. Didn’t she see that? I was doing this for her. I was giving up everything for her.

I swallowed hard. No. That wasn’t true. This job didn’t matter. I had to believe that. Yes, I loved teaching. But I loved her more. She was all I needed.

"That makes you look guilty of everything people are saying,” Joe said. “You'll never get another teaching job."

I know. I expected to feel as panicked as Penny looked. But I was eerily calm. "I only see two possibilities. I do everything your way, except I keep seeing her in secret, or I quit. And since continuing to work here and keep seeing her seems to be out of the question, I quit."

"Is this really worth ruining your reputation over?

The press is already jumping to conclusions.

If you resign it'll basically be a confession that you slept with all your female students.

It'll look bad on the school too. I need you to say you made a mistake and stop seeing her.

Stay out of the news during the investigation.

Keep quiet for your six months of probation.

That's it. I need this to disappear as soon as possible. Don't screw me on this."

"I don't know what to tell you, Joe. I love her. I'm not doing that."

"You've got to be shitting me."

"I'll have an interview with the press," Penny interjected.

"Penny," I said. "Please let me handle this." This wasn’t a discussion. I’d already made the decision. It was done.

"I'll tell them that it was completely consensual,” she said. “And that I love him. Everyone will calm down. Maybe they won't care if we date then. And you can still conduct the interviews with other students. Everything will come back clean. It will all blow over."

Joe eyed Penny again. He looked mad at her too. But I could see his mind working. And I didn’t like that one bit. Under no circumstances was Penny talking to any of those idiots in news vans.

I shook my head. "No. I don't want her talking to the press. I'm not dragging this out longer than necessary."

"James, let me help you keep your job,” she said.

"Enough," I said. I stared into her eyes. Please, Penny. I’m doing this for you.

She turned back to Joe. "Do you think it will help?"

"Several news stations have already called me.

It'll be national news by the end of the day.

I don't know if it'll matter at this point.

It's just a matter of public opinion. They've already labeled him.

And in my opinion the only way to change their opinion is for you to terminate your relationship. "

What the fuck? Why were we still talking about this?

"Can't we at least try my idea?" she asked.

I knew she was trying to help, but this was ridiculous. "Penny and I need to talk in private for a second." I stood up.

"Nothing about your relationship is going to be private now." Joe stared at us. "Sit down, James. Let's just get this over with." He looked down at a paper on his desk.

I slowly sat back down. I knew that Penny and I should have talked about all this. But we had talked about some of this already. Some very important details and I thought we were on the same page. I leaned toward her. "Penny, we've already talked about this," I whispered.

"No we haven't. You never said you were going to resign..."

"I mean about waiting until you graduate. I'm not doing it. We've had this discussion. If I stay we won't be able to be together. I'm not waiting to be with you. I've already made my decision. And it was the easiest decision I've ever made. Please just let me handle this. I'm not changing my mind."

Joe cleared his throat. "Midterm grades are due at the end of this week. You'll still need to submit those. I've already gotten other professors to cover your classes during the investigation.”

I wondered who he’d gotten to teach my class that Penny was in.

“They can just continue doing it until the end of the semester,” Joe said.

“You two have one class together. The validity of your grades is in question, Penny.

You'll have to re-present your speeches to your new professor so he can sign off on them.

This way you won't have to completely retake the course.

Or you can stop taking the class. That's up to you.

But the drop/add window has passed, so you'll have to withdraw and pay the fee for changes in registration.

It'll appear as a W on your transcript, but it won't hurt your G.P.A.

You'll have to let me know by next Tuesday before the window closes.

"So I'm not being expelled?" she asked.

"No," Joe said. "I'm giving you two strikes which will go on your record.

You broke the rules too, but the blame for this lies on James.

It has to. The university has standards for their professors.

I don't know how your relationship started and I don't want to know.

Don't give me reason to make your punishment harsher. "

Penny pressed her lips together. It looked like she wanted to say more, but she was finally staying quiet. And she looked a little relieved.

She’d gotten a slap on the wrist. Which was all she deserved. This was all on me. And it was a good thing Joe did like me. Or I think all of this would have been much worse.

I ran my thumb along her palm. She was going to be okay. And so would I. Eventually.

"So I'll talk to the press today and let them know about your resignation," Joe said. "Unless there is any way I can change your mind?"

"I'm sorry, Joe." If I could help him out, I would. But I wasn’t walking away from the first good thing that had happened to me in years. I needed Penny. And I knew how fucked up that sounded. But I did. I needed her.

"I'd prefer if you didn't flaunt your relationship around the school.

I know I can't tell you what to do anymore, James.

But I'm asking this as a favor. Let things settle down.

We're still running the investigation. The university has to come out looking like we did everything we could do.

Especially now that you're resigning. It makes you look guilty.”

Yeah. I know. Isabella had gotten exactly what she wanted. And that was the only part of this I wasn’t okay with.

“I believe that it's just her, but this is only just the start.

It's going to get worse before it gets better.

" He grabbed the newspaper off his desk and tossed it in the trash.

"And I have to ask, under the circumstances.

What happened to your eye?" He stared at my black eye.

It was fading, but it was still visible.

"Just a misunderstanding,” I said.

"Good." Joe sighed. "I thought the next thing you were going to tell me is that you got in a fist fight with a student."

Well… technically I had. But Joe didn’t need to know that.

Joe laughed and shook his head. "That's the last thing this school needs right now. And I didn't want to have to talk about that in the interview."

I shifted in my chair. Tyler wasn’t going to tell anyone about that.

He was a piece of shit, but he did care about Penny.

And he was at least smart enough to know that telling anyone about our fight would hurt her.

Honestly it was probably a good thing I wasn’t a professor anymore.

Because there was a pretty high chance I was going to fail that kid for just being an asshole.

"Penny, do you mind if I have a word alone with James?" Joe asked. "We need to discuss a few more things."

"No, that's fine,” she said.

"Go to class. And be prepared for most of the student body to already know."

Penny glanced up at me. She looked so…defeated. And hurt. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms and kiss her. But I had a feeling that Joe would really be pissed if I did that. So I just nodded at her and let go of her hand.

She stood up. "Thank you for being so understanding, Mr. Vespelli. And I'm sorry about all of this."

"Well you really should have thought about that beforehand, shouldn't you have? One more strike and you'll be expelled. Don't let me see you in here again."

She gulped and looked once more at me before turning her attention back to Joe. "Thanks," she said quietly and walked out, closing the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed, Joe put his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh. “Seriously, James? You couldn’t keep it in your pants until at least the end of the semester? Winter break would have been a lot better for me.”

I laughed. “Sorry, Joe.”

He finally smiled. “You’re going to get me fired you know.”

“I think you’ll be fine. They’re not going to find anything else in the investigation. And I’ll say anything you want to the press about it.”

“But you won’t stop seeing her?”

I shook my head. “No. I won’t.”

“So it’s true what the paper said? You’re in love with her?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“She’s 19, James.”

“Well, the papers weren’t right about that. She’s 20. Her birthday was last week.”

He stared at me like he didn’t think that made much of a difference.

And honestly it didn’t. Because I’d been with her longer when she was 19 than since she’d turned 20.

And I would have pursued her either way.

I couldn’t stay away from her. I knew how fucked up all of it was, but I couldn’t stop myself.

“Fucking Isabella, man,” Joe said.

I nodded. “Fucking Isabella.” Joe knew all about my past. He’d been a good boss. This had been a great job. And I was really going to miss it.

“Just lie low. Please.”

“I’ll do my best. Who do you have teaching my Comm class?”

Joe glanced down at a piece of paper. “Professor Nolan. I figured it would be better to get someone who you got along with. For Penny’s sake.”

“Thanks for that. Well, if there’s nothing more…I should get going.” I needed to make a call to Professor Nolan.

“Nothing more?” Joe cursed under his breath. “Sure, nothing more for you to do. I’m going to be cleaning up this mess for weeks.”

“Will a donation to the university help smooth things over a bit?” I asked and stood up.

“Yeah, I’m sure a Hunter Hall will be really well received right now.”

“It was just an idea,” I said.

“Well. Hold on a sec. Of course I want that. Just wait a bit, okay?”

“You got it, Joe. Have a good rest of your morning,” I said, holding back a smile.

“Oh, fuck you.” But he laughed too. “Ah, wait, I almost forgot. Sign these real quick.” He handed me a few papers.

“And what are these?”

He waved his hand through the air. “You quit. You don’t get severance. All that stuff. Not that you’re worried about severance. I promise I’m not fucking you over like you fucked me over.”

He was right. I didn’t care about a severance package. And I knew he wouldn’t screw me over, even if he was a little pissed at me. I signed the papers.

Joe gave me the finger.

And I waved goodbye and walked out of his office. It felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I wasn’t a professor anymore. I smiled. I wasn’t dating a student. I was no longer breaking any rules. But I had a lot of damage control to do.

I immediately called Professor Nolan.

He answered in two rings. “Hey, James. Joe already sent me over all the information. I’m heading over to your class now.”

There was an awkward pause. “Just ask it,” I said.

“Is it true? About you sleeping with students?”

“It’s just Penny.”

He whistled. “Have you seen Joe yet?”

“Yeah. I just resigned.”

“Damn. I’m really sorry, James. If there’s anything you need from me, just let me know, okay?”

“Well, that’s why I’m calling. I’m going to try to get Penny to skip class today. But in case she shows up…can you look out for her today? I’m worried about how the other students are going to react.”

“Yeah, this is going to be a shit show. What does she look like?”

“She has red hair and she sits in the back row. You can’t miss her.” That was the whole problem I had when I was trying to be a good professor and keep my distance. My eyes were always drawn to her.

“I’ll do my best to look after her,” he said.

“It is probably best if she drops the class though, don’t you think?

” I asked. There were a few reasons why I wanted her to drop the class.

But there was one beyond the obvious of other students being assholes to her once they found out.

I hated the idea of her sitting with Tyler without me there.

And there was that dick in the front row that would probably give her a hard time.

Raymond Asher. He was always joking around, but he was going to jump all over this. I hated that kid.

“Let’s see how today goes. But I promise I’ll look after her.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”

“No problem.”

I ended the call and texted Penny: "I hope that you're holding up okay. Can I convince you to come back to the apartment instead of listening to speeches?" She really didn’t need to be there today.

My phone immediately buzzed with her reply. "I want to face this. Waiting will make it worse. How did the rest of your conversation with the dean go?"

I really hated that she wouldn’t listen to me.

Going to class was a mistake. But I couldn’t force her to skip it.

"I just had to sign a few papers. Can we at least meet for lunch?

We really need to talk." I wanted to at least try to convince her to not go to the rest of her classes in the afternoon.

"Okay.”

I took a deep breath. Good. I slid my phone back into my pocket. There were students walking around campus now. I was used to the stares. But there were definitely more today. And lots more whispering too.

I tried to keep my head down as I made my way to my car.

“Professor Hunter!” someone yelled.

I turned around. Oh, fuck me.