The Summer I Said Yes

by Tess Harper

  Fortunately, Jack’s perfect firm ass was ready for me. My hands palmed Jack’s clenched and rock hard cheeks. At the same time, one of Jack’s arms python gripped the top of my thighs, keeping me from launching off of his shoulder, as his other free hand conveniently cupped my ass.

  Typical.

  Once I was secure, Jack bounded down the stairs two at a time.

  “Uh—uh—uh—uh—uh—uh—uh—,” my breath bounced making me sound like a six year old yelling trying to sound like Tarzan as he banged on his chest.

  “C—an…y—ou…slo—w…dow—n?”

  “Last flight, I promise.”

  I bobbed and banged into Jack’s back for the last flight of stairs, my only solace being the strange attraction I had for Jack’s ass as it clenched-bulged-and-unclenched with each step. #emilysstrangeobsessions.

  Jack threw open the door. The cool morning air rushed up the curtain, making my hair stand on end.

  “Where are you parked?”

  “Across the street.” Jack turned his body to the side so that I could take peek through my hair-mask.

  Sure enough, it was there. All eight cylinders of that big, beautiful machine. Some people think owners look like their pets. Well in this case, Jack looked like his car: five hundred and fifty horses of sexy, streamlined perfection.

  Jack turned and jogged up to his Benz. He set me down on the road and stood in front of me, shielding me from the fifty-plus eyes that were most likely staring at us from his dorm.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “What?”

  Before I could think Jack opened the door, picked me up, and tossed me into the backseat, shower rod and all. Then he ran around and jumped in the front, grabbing his keys off the passenger seat.

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Where do you live?” he asked as the engine roared.

  “5th and Burdock,” I yelled. “Is this thing diesel?”

  Jack laughed. “Since when did you know so much about cars.”

  “Since always. I love cars.”

  I caught a glimpse of Jack’s smile in his rear-view mirror. He signaled his blinker and took off to my apartment.

  * * *

  Jack drove like a crazy person, weaving in and out of traffic like a mad man. But I wasn’t complaining. The drive should have taken us thirty minutes, but he got us there in fifteen.

  I called Sophie on the way and told her to get her ass like yesterday to the curb with some clothes. When she started asking questions, I told her what the car looked like and hung up. Luckily, my shortness with her didn’t stop her from being there with the clothes when we pulled up.

  She jumped in and screamed.

  I looked up at her, my hair matted over my face, the disgusting shower curtain plastered to my body. “Soph, it’s me.”

  “Emily? Is that really you?” I moved and she cringed as the smell of the shower curtain wafted her way. “What the fuck is that?”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Jack and I yelled at the same time.

  She gave me a sympathetic, puzzled expression. “Ok…moving on. I have your clothes Emily.”

  “I love you,” I mouthed back, grabbing a shirt. “Shit. Soph, can you help me get out of this stupid thing?”

  Sophie frowned. “Seriously, what the hell is this Em?” she touched it, then retracted her hand. “Ew, it’s wet.”

  “I know it’s super gross!” I cried. “I promise I’ll explain everything later—please just help me get out of it.”

  Sophie and I danced around each other as we struggled to unwrap the disgusting shower curtain from my body.

  “Ugh.” She turned her face away. “Is that mold?”

  Jack coughed in a sad attempt to cover up his laugh.

  “What are you laughing at?” Sophie turned and spat sassily. “HOLY SHIT YOU’RE NAKED!” Sophie whipped her face back toward me, her eyes as round as saucers. “Oh my god!”

  Jack laughed.

  “Emily, change faster!” Sophie barked.

  I rolled around in the shower curtain. “Um, I’m trying!”

  “Who is that? Oh my god, is it Jack?”

  I pinked. Everywhere.

  Jack turned around in his seat toward us. “I see my reputation precedes me.”

  Sophie shut her eyes. It looked like she’d just thrown up in her mouth. “Dear god, put that thing away!”

  Jack sat back down with a grin. “Too much?”

  She looked at me with a WTF stare.

  I hid my head shamefully. Get me out of here! “Soph, grab the rod,” I grunted.

  “Gross, I’m not grabbing his rod!” Sophie wailed.

  “Not, his rod, dummy, this rod!” I said pointing to the shower rod on the floor.

  She looked at the long metal tube. “What the hell is this? Oh my god, is this a shower…are you wearing a shower curtain? What the fuck Emily!”

  “Only because they stole my clothes!” I whined pathetically.

  “Who stole your clothes? What the hell happened to you last night?”

  “I really don’t want to talk about it right now,” I said motioning my head toward Jack.

  “Okay, okay.” She tried to grab the rod. “This thing is just so heavy.”

  “Want me to help?” Jack offered.

  “NO!” Sophie and I screamed.

  I finally got my legs free and tugged on my sweatpants. “Okay. I think I’m good.”

  “Ok, great.” Sophie opened the door. “It was, err, nice to meet you.”

  Jack smiled. “The pleasure was all mine. Take care of yourself, Emily.”

  Sophie and I looked at each other and then jumped out of the car. I mean, it wasn’t like we wanted to get into a long conversation with him. He was still naked!

  Once the door was closed, Jack waved to us and then zoomed off.

  “Oh Emily,” Sophie sighed. “What are we going to do with you?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “But I really need to take a shower.”

  Sophie nodded and led me to the stairs. She knew now was not the time to interrogate me. She’d get the story out of me soon enough.

  “How about I make you pancakes?” she offered.

  Oh, Sophie was damn good, but I was a tough negotiator. “Blueberry pancakes?”

  “Done,” she smiled.

  And just like that, my spirits began to rise.

  But it was way too soon to start feeling good about anything, and no amount of blueberry pancakes or hugs from Sophie could shield me from what happened next.

  Chapter 23

  My heart pounded in my chest. The man behind the mahogany desk in front of me was only 5’3”. He wore round glasses pushed to the tip of his nose, and looked up at me with beady little eyes and pursed lips. He should have looked ridiculous behind that gigantic desk, not intimidating.

  I did my best to stay completely still. I wasn’t expecting to be called in so soon. I thought for sure they’d wait a few days to investigate the matter, or at least it would take that long for the rumors to get around the school, but they’d called me in later that evening after class.

  Class. Oh God. I didn’t think it was even possible to get more embarrassing than it had the first day when I arrived fifteen minutes late and everyone could see through the coffee stain on my shirt at my red bra. If only Professor Hepburn had fired me then. Sure, I’d be out a scholarship and maybe even a year or two behind where I wanted to be, but that was better than decimating those dreams. Two nights ago I’d had one of the worst nights of my life, but the embarrassment I’d felt when I turned around in the dark to see Sarah, Bret, Donny, Mike and Molly staring out at me from the illuminated window was nothing compared to facing them in class the next day.

  Listening to Professor Hepburn stroke his own ego during class often made me nauseous, but that morning the sound of his voice seriously made me want to puke. Not that I did, of course, but from the looks I got, it seemed like other people could see how sick I felt. I don’t even know how mu
ch time had passed before I heard Professor Hepburn’s sharp voice slice through my thoughts.

  “Miss Vaughn!”

  My arms ached as I pushed myself up to find Professor Hepburn’s red face glaring at me. How long had he been calling my name?

  “Please pass out the papers,” he enunciated.

  Most teachers just passed around the papers, or left them at the front of the room and had the students come up after class to find them in the pile. Professor Hepburn, however, didn’t want anyone to know anyone else’s grade, and took that seriously. Hence why I was the one stuck passing everything out.

  I nodded and kept my head down as I grabbed the pile on the edge of the desk. Great. I’d done everything I could to avoid looking at Bret, Molly, Sarah and Donny. I really never wanted to see any of them again. But mostly, I didn’t want to see Jack.

  I shivered as I thought his name. And I wasn’t sure if it was desire, or rage, or something else entirely that made me do it, but I almost dropped the papers, just as I’d done the first day.

  Get a grip Emily. You’re acting like you’re twelve. You’re not twelve. You’re twelve plus twelve.

  I inwardly cringed at that stupid comment. I needed another cup of water and another aspirin. Vaguely, I remember Jack holding my head as he put an aspirin on the tip of my tongue and as I sipped from the cup in his hands…

  “Anytime now, Miss Vaughn,” Professor Hepburn added.

  Shit! How long had I been daydreaming in front of everyone? Now they weren’t going to think I was just hung over, they were going to think I was on something. I hurried forward and glanced at the first name.

  Molly McCoy.

  Dammit. Just my luck.

  Molly and Sarah sat in the back of class. Well, that was pretty far away. Why didn’t I take papers to people who were closer first? Yeah, that sounded smart and not at all like I was trying to avoid doing something.

  I shuffled Molly’s paper to the back of the pile and took a look at the next name.

  Sarah Davis.

  My hands started to shake. Shit.

  Well, if I took a minute to think about it, those girls always sat next to each other so I guess it made sense that their papers would be right by each other. And since I’d already decided on making Molly wait, I guess I could make Sarah wait to.

  I took a deep breath and shuffled Sarah’s paper to the back.

  Bret Papworth.

  Alright, now the universe was just fucking with me.

  “Do you have a problem with my grading metric, Miss Vaughn.”

  I jumped forward, clutching the papers to my chest. Slowly, I turned my head. “Sorry Professor Hepburn. You startled me.”

  He raised his brows.

  “Of course I have no problem with your grading metric,” I babbled.

  “Then please stop reading the papers and pass them back,” he responded sharply.

  Oh, he thought I was reviewing the papers? Well really I was…

  Wait, I couldn’t tell him what I was really doing. I nodded, feeling my cheeks flush, and started to pass them out. When I got to Sarah, Donny, Molly and Bret, I avoided eye contact and thrust the papers in their general direction. And when I got to Jack…

  It felt like my heart stopped. I couldn’t not look at him. I don’t even understand why I couldn’t. Some stupid, masochistic part of me just needed to see him. And when I gazed into his deep blue eyes, my hangover got worse—so bad, in fact, that my knees almost gave out from the pounding in my head.

  I got through it, just like I’d gotten through the rest of class. I hoped the worst was over, until the dean of the department stepped into the back of the room when class was over and asked to see me and Jack in his office.

  The Dean sat back with a sigh. “It has come to my attention that there may be some sort of relationship between the two of you.”

  My face got hot. In fact, every part of me did. And in the least pleasant way possible.

  Jack stepped forward and closer to me at the same time. This did not make things better.

  “Our university doesn’t have any explicit rules on the relationship boundaries between students and teaching assistants,” the Dean continued. “However, such relationships raise many concerns. The TA is an extension of the teacher. He or she is able to be the teacher’s face to a large class, and takes on the responsibility for not only teaching and tutoring activities, but also grading. It is never acceptable for a teacher to date a current student, and so taking into consideration the duties and responsibilities of a TA, by extension, it is never alright for a student to date a TA.”

  A horrible worry knotted itself in my stomach. This is it. They’re going to fire me. I’ve lost everything. Everything. And I can’t even blame this on anyone else.

  “This has nothing to do with Miss Vaughn,” Jack said, moving closer to the desk and in front of me. “I was the one who pursued her even when she expressed concerns. If anyone should be punished, it should be me.”

  “Jack,” the Dean responded, “I understand that you may feel some loyalty to Miss Vaughn given the circumstances—”

  “If there’s any problem, I’ll simply withdraw from the class,” Jack interrupted.

  The Dean sighed and rubbed his temples. “This is exactly the kind of situation we are trying to avoid. The fact that you’re willing to accept a permanent incomplete on your report card, and that you are trying to protect Miss Vaughn who is responsible for fostering your education, is unacceptable.”

  “Don’t you dare try to twist my words around. Did you not hear anything I said? I was the one who pursued her. She did nothing wrong.”

  The dean wouldn’t be cowed. “Showing up drunk at your dorm and yelling at your window at 2am in the morning isn’t unacceptable behavior for a teaching assistant?”

  I wanted to die. Right then. Right there. I couldn’t listen to this anymore. Why had I done that? What the hell was I thinking? And right after I thought that, I silently thanked God that he didn’t mention the fact that I mauled Jack in public right in front of a group of students. Maybe he didn’t know about that yet…

  “We’ve all been there,” Jack responded.

  I glanced at the bald, portly man in front of me. No, I’m pretty sure the Dean hasn’t ‘been there.’

  “That doesn’t matter. Educators represent the school. They’re supposed to ensure the safety of our students, and while they are free to act as they wish on their own time with their own friends, on school grounds and in front of students certain things are expected of them. Drunk and disorderly conduct at a frat house is not how this institution wants to represent itself to the public. Disrupting student’s sleep and study—”

  “Disrupting their sleep and study?” Jack asked incredulously. “You do realize you’re talking about a frat house, don’t you? Emily’s behavior last night was downright saintly compared to the kind of shit that usually goes on in there.”

  Did he really just say ‘kind of shit?’ Was he trying to help me or get me fired? “Jack, that’s enough,” I said.

  “No it’s not Emily. I’m not going to sit here and listen to someone disrespect you.”

  “He’s right, Jack. My behavior last night was absolutely inexcusable.”

  “Oh come on—”

  “No, you come on. I’m an adult and your teacher. I can’t call myself either of those things if I don’t accept responsibility.”

  I held my ground as Jack turned around. “Just think about this for a second, Jack. He’s right. If anyone has to leave the classroom, it should be me, not you. I’m here to help you, not jeopardize your academic future.”

  “I think dropping out of one class counts as a little less than ruining one’s entire career.”

  Jack’s comment hit me like a slap. My throat felt tight. A part of me just wanted to turn my back and scream. “You’re right. It is worse. I’ve lost everything I’ve worked for for years all because I couldn’t keep it together. I’m not going to let you take the bla
me for my own behavior. I just have to live with the fact that I was the one who ruined my career.”

  Jack opened his mouth but the Dean’s cough silenced him. “There have been a growing number of complains about you from your professor, Miss Vaughn, about tardiness, daydreaming, and other unprofessional behavior during class.”