Mr Malloy: A BWWM Teacher-Student Romance

by Cherry Kay

  "Pa!" she gasped. "Why would you do that? They are going to make me return! I will lose everything I have worked for!"

  "It was not a sensible dream, Amara." Her father replied calmly. "Maybe you would have graduated, I don't know, but how would you have been a lawyer with children or when your mother grows old and needs the care of her daughter? It is better this way. Now you can come home and marry Matthieu as planned."

  Amara was speechless. She was so shocked at the behavior of her father that she hung up the phone and stared at the wall in a daze as tears stung her eyes. Her whole life was falling to pieces. She could feel the hopeful eleven-year-old child inside of her dying under the weight of a demanding father and old-fashioned cultural traditions that bewildered her.

  Amara had dreams. She wanted to fight injustice, save lives, and make a better future for so many others. If she returned to South Africa, she would be made to marry Matthieu, the son of her father's business partner and she might be lucky to find an office job at a failing company.

  The only student Amara had spoken to at any length since she'd arrived at the university was Casey, but she certainly wouldn't have considered her classmate a friend just yet. In fact, there was nobody in this place Amara could consider her friend; but she desperately needed someone to talk to, someone to help her try to figure it out and find a solution. The only person she had grown close to in the six weeks she had been studying here was her professor, Jason.

  Yes, he had been there for her in those difficult first weeks in this new country when the schedule was confusing and friends were hard to find. He'd taken her under his wing to help her find her place on the campus and to help her flourish in her studies. He was the only one who knew her and the only one likely to care at all that everything she'd worked so tirelessly for was about to be stolen away from her by her jealous father.

  With nowhere else to turn, Amara headed to his office and knocked on the door. He called her in and she found him sitting at his desk, grading papers, as he usually did. He looked up when he saw her and smiled with pleasant surprise.

  "Amara!" he greeted brightly. "I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to grade your latest assignment yet. It's in this pile somewhere..."

  Amara shook her head sadly. "It's something else, Professor." She said with a miserable undertone.

  Jason could hear the worry in her voice and he stood up to come around the other side of his desk to better listen to her and look her in the eye.

  "What is it?" He asked, with concern filling his voice as his tone consoled her subtly.

  "My father has sabotaged my visa application!" Amara told him tearfully. "It's being revoked! He's doing this so that I have no choice but to go back to him in South Africa!"

  Jason was stunned by her words, and as the shock washed over him, his face fell in sorrow and disappointment. He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder for comfort. Although he was behaving calmly on the outside, inside he was fuming. How was it right that a bright, inspirational young woman like Amara could be pulled away from all of her dreams just because one man in another country far away wished it to be so? Even if he was her father, what gave him the right?

  "It's going to be alright, Amara." Jason promised her adamantly, looking at her with a determined expression. "We'll work this out." he withdrew his hand from her and began to pace swiftly back and forth across the old wood of his office floor.

  "I'll speak to the Dean! We'll start a petition. We'll write to the consulate." He turned sharply and looked at her with fire in his eyes. "I'm not going to let anyone remove you from this place. It's where you're meant to be! You have so much potential! They just can't take you out of here. What a tremendous loss that would be for you and the field of law!" he raked his hand through his blonde waves and sighed in exasperation.

  Amara wiped at her tears and shook her head helplessly, collapsing into the chair in front of Jason's desk as though all the strength had gone from her body.

  "Even if there was something that could be done, I'd have to go back to South Africa and wait for it to be processed." Amara predicted. "I would lose my place here, and once I am back there, there would be no way my father would let me leave again. His mind was made up before I left! He would keep me there and I would be forced to marry that awful Matthieu at my father's command. I don't want to end up like my mother. I'm meant for so much more than that in my life!" Bitter tears coursed down her dark cheeks.

  He wheeled on her again, facing her with a look of shock and horror on his face. "Is that why your father did this?" Jason asked her in amazement. "Just to force you to return to your country so that he can make you marry a man he wants you to marry?"

  Amara nodded weakly. "He's so fixated on tradition. I thought when I had finally made it here that I was free at last, but it turns out that he just found another way to put me in a cage."

  "You can't leave!" Jason insisted. "You're brilliant, the law needs you! The world needs you to be a lawyer. They can't take that away from you. And for what, for marriage? For an arranged marriage to a man you obviously don't love or want to spend the rest of your life with? That's unthinkable! Your life would be wasted!"

  There were many things in his life that Jason did not feel strongly about, but Amara's plight was something that struck him to his core. Amara would indeed be wasted in the life of a housewife. She was brilliant in every way. When she spoke about the law, it was as someone who was destined to redefine it in so many ways.

  When she spoke about injustice, it was as someone with a heart for what is right. She was headstrong, determined and sophisticated in her work, thought and character. Jason made a living studying and teaching the effects of injustice and now the consequence of injustice was sitting right here in front of him and she was a nineteen-year-old young woman with tear-stained cheeks.

  Jason sat down heavily on the edge of his desk in the same defeated way that Amara had sunk down into her chair. He tried to think of a way to make this right. Never in his life had he met someone whom he believed in quite so much. To lose Amara as a student would devastate him and this college, not to mention the industry of law at large. He thought for a long, long time and his mind wandered back to the first time that he had laid eyes on Amara, when she had offered him a challenge with a steady gaze. Her question then had been how much a teacher would sacrifice for one of his students, and he began to realize that the question now was the same, and so was the answer.

  "Amara." he began tentatively, looking up at her with a pensive look on his face. "I have a radical idea and it would be dangerous to you and me, and it would definitely be crossing a lot of lines, including legal lines. It would affect your morality and character, but it may just keep you here so that you can finish school and become the enormously successful woman that I know you're destined to be."

  "What are you saying, professor?" Amara asked him uncertainly. "What’s your idea?" She felt a little nervous about what he was going to say because of the way he had just introduced the idea to her. But, at this point, she was desperate and willing to listen to any concept that might give her a way to stay in the States and finish her schooling.

  "Have you ever heard of a green-card marriage?" Jason asked, biting his lip slightly.

  "You mean a sham marriage for a visa?" Amara's eyes widened incredulously.

  "Yes, essentially."

  "Well, yes, I have heard of those kinds of things happening, of course, but I don't know how I could make anything like that happen. None of the other students even speak to me, let alone would they offer themselves as a fake husband for my sake," she stated flatly.

  "I'm not talking about a student." Jason said pointedly, his gaze intense and steady on her.

  Amara's eyes widened even further, when she realized what he was suggesting to her. "You?" she gasped in shock.

  "Me." Jason agreed. "Think about it, Amara. I have my own property, a good job. We could show the immigration agents that I would look after you and they would not need t
o worry about you draining resources, or whatever it is that immigration agents worry about. We're similar in age and we have been spending a lot of time together. We could pretend that it started a long time ago, even right after you arrived here."

  The young woman didn't know what to say. She didn't know whether to be touched by his suggestion or alarmed. Why would he do something like that for her? She needed to know his reasoning before she could even begin to think about such an offer.

  "Why would you do something like that for me?" she asked him in confusion.

  Jason paused for a second as he tried to think of how best to explain it to her. "I studied law because I saw it as a way to fix injustice." He walked over to her and knelt before her as she sat in the chair. He lifted his hands and held on to the arms of the chair, curling his fingers around the old wood and looking up at her with his light, serious eyes. His voice was soft, but his words were adamant.

  "I became a teacher because I wanted to help brilliant students change the world. In front of me right now, I have a gross case of injustice and a singularly brilliant student. Everything I believe in is on the line. If I don't help you now, then everything I've preached for all these years has been meaningless. If I can't act on those things I say I believe in, then I'm nothing but a fraud. I really want to help you, Amara and this is the only way I know how to do it."

  Amara listened carefully and as she looked at Jason's sincere expression and intense eyes, she knew he was telling her the truth and that he simply wanted to help her because he was a good man with ideals. If she hadn't been a good and idealistic person herself, perhaps she would never have believed anyone could be so selflessly kind. But her heart was bigger than her home continent, and she could see Jason clearly for what he was trying to do for her; it touched her to her soul, but the cost was too great.

  "I can't let you do it." She said at last. "It’s too big a risk for you. There is no sense at all in both of us losing our futures over a fake marriage."

  "It is worth the risk." Jason insisted. "Not just because you're going to be a brilliant lawyer who changes the world, but because you are a kind and innocent girl who deserves better. My job as a teacher is to get you your degree and set you on the right path for the future. If a sham marriage is part of that deal, then I'll take it. Amara, you have come too far to let it fall apart now. I can help you. Let me help you." He looked at her imploringly, and it tugged at her heart, but she was anchored down by reality.

  Amara appreciated his kindness and friendship, but the thought of putting him in danger made her feel like she was betraying all he had done for her. She believed that he wanted to help her for noble reasons, but she didn't feel that she could allow him to commit a federal crime for her sake.

  "Professor, I am so touched that you would do this for me," Amara told him softly and sincerely, "but I can't let you marry me. It’s a crime."

  He stood up and started pacing back and forth through his office once more, jamming his hands down into his pockets. "The crime is letting a woman with the potential to become a superior lawyer fall through the cracks!" Jason retorted bitterly.

  He stopped in his tracks and looked at her sharply. "Amara, I have seen fellow classmates who did worse on every exam than me, go on to do far greater things than I can ever hope to achieve here, myself. Your situation is a chance for me to do something major and important. I know that you're going to go on to make this world a better, fairer place. You future is so valuable and you want me to let it be thrown aside because it's risky?

  If we can't take risks when the things we value are threatened, then we don't really value them at all. Amara, I will do this for you, but it is for me too. I am a grown man, I am a dedicated teacher and if you will have me, then this will be my choice."

  He walked back over to her and knelt down in front of her as he had a few minutes earlier, looking up at her with the same earnest expression. "So, let me ask you, Amara Botha, my brightest student and daily inspiration, will you please marry me?"

  Chapter3

  There they were. Amara wasn't quite sure how he had convinced her to do it, but somehow, Jason Malloy led her down the aisle. She supposed it was the look in his eyes when he had asked her to marry him. He had looked at her with such intensity and his sincere belief in the cause. It was also the thought of the people she would not help if she didn’t become a lawyer.

  In addition to that, it was the prospect of a life spent doing dishes and then going to bed with a man she didn't love.

  It was her passion for the future she yearned for, along with the contempt for the future her father would force upon her if she returned to her country and married the man he had chosen for her. On top of all of that, it was the persistent and genuine urging of a true friend who wouldn't let her down.

  All of that made her agree to this marriage. And now, here she was, standing in a clerk’s office, wearing a white summer dress that held itself close to her generous feminine curves and long athletic legs. She wore a pair of golden ballet pumps and golden leaves in her hair that Casey had threaded in after Amara had asked her to be a witness for the ceremony.

  With them was Jason's old school friend Max, who genuinely believed that a friend he hadn't seen in a while had fallen in love with a student and decided to marry her. Casey too, was under the impression that Amara's relationship with the professor had flourished in their private sessions together, and she'd half-teased her about being slightly jealous and wishing she had had the courage to go to the sessions herself.

  Amara and Jason had decided it was safer if nobody knew their true intentions. After their discussion in Jason's office that day, it had been agreed that Amara would mention her visa to nobody and that she and Jason would begin to publicly act enamored with one another, in the hope that people would believe they were truly in love. They knew they had to cover all of their bases.

  It wasn't so hard to believe, really. After all, Amara was nineteen and Jason was only twenty-seven. They were both highly academic and nobody who was looking could have failed to notice the amount of time they had spent together talking about the law and confiding in each other.

  Even Amara's difficulty in making friends was now playing in their favor, when nobody who knew the girl could rightly say whether or not she had won the heart of the attractive young professor. The only thing that anyone knew about Amara was that she was the first to raise her hand in class, and when she did, Jason's eyes would light up.

  Amara didn't know whether to be touched by the effort Jason had gone to in order to make this little ceremony just perfect, or to simply be duly impressed with his dedication to the ruse. As she slipped the wedding band he had chosen onto his finger and allowed him to slide one onto hers, her hands trembled.

  She tried her best to still them, though she was unsuccessful. Jason, however, seemed calm to her and he covered both her hands with his to stop them shaking, and he fixed her with a warm and steady gaze which made her feel safe.

  She forced a smile through the rest of her vows, despite her worry, which only faltered for a moment when it was time for the groom to kiss the bride and her professor leaned forward to kiss her for the first time.

  For a split second, she drew in her breath as nerves steeled throughout her body, but they had to be convincing, and so she gave it her very best effort. Perhaps it was the gratitude for what he had done for her, or the watching eyes of Casey and Max, but Amara returned his kiss with genuine tenderness, in such a way that it made their witnesses say “awe,” in unison.

  And then, as quickly as the idea had come to them and been rushed forward, the ceremony was over and the hand in Amara's hand was no longer that of just her professor, but of her husband, too.

  It was only when all the vows were exchanged and the couple was announced legally wed that Jason was truly hit with the reality of what he had just done. This girl, who had simply been a student in need, was now his wife. The reality of the matter was that the wedding was the easy p
art.

  Amara looked beautiful with the white cotton of her dress against her dark skin and her hair lifted up in that lovely way which exposed her slender neck. Jason reasoned that any man would be proud to have her on his arm, but the fact remained that there had never been anything romantic between them, and now they had to convince the world that they were newlyweds in love, and that was going to prove to be the challenging part of the task.

  "So why is this wedding on the down-low?" Max teased him as the four young people walked towards the restaurant near the clerk's office for their simple reception.

  "It's the teacher-student controversy,” Jason lied, although he wasn't entirely sure that in and of itself wasn't another cause for concern. "We thought it was best not to advertise that the staff are marrying the students."

  Max laughed. "Well, I won't say anything. She's a beautiful girl. She seems very smart, too. She's definitely your type. I'm really happy for you. Congratulations."

  "Thanks, Max." Jason said with a smile.

  Casey too, had her questions for Amara. The student and her teacher had prepared for such inquisitions and had agreed on their answers beforehand, so Amara knew what to say to her classmate.

  "That happened so fast, Amara! You two seem good together, so I'm really happy for you, but why the hurry? Are you pregnant?" she asked with a wink and a giggle.

  "No, I'm not pregnant. Actually, there are two reasons we rushed it." Amara told her. "First, we were worried about what the university regulations were. We thought that if we were married it would be much harder for them to forbid the relationship or come after Jason. We both felt it was heading that way, anyway. I mean, when you know, you know, right? Aside from that, though, I'm a traditional girl and I'm really tied to my cultural beliefs. I wanted to be married before... you know."