Unexpected Encounters

Chapter 31

I didn't want to admit it, but I knew Gabbie was at least partially right. I tried to block out what had happened in my last serious relationship, but I knew it had taken its toll on me.

I really didn't feel like it was having an effect on what was happening between Whitney and I, but maybe I was wrong. I just didn't know how to tell her that.

I didn't think it was necessary to try and explain anything at this stage, and maybe I'd never have to. I liked where we were at and I was hoping that it stayed that way.

                                        ***

A few days after Gabbie and I's conversation, I was in the living room working on my computer when an email from the dean popped up.

"Good Afternoon Bailey, please come to my office at 3:00 today for a quick discussion. Thank you."

"That's weird," I said to myself.

"What's weird?" Kaia asked as she joined me on the couch.

"I just got an email from the dean saying he needed me to come and meet with him later today," I said.

"Huh," Kaia said, "yeah that is weird...maybe he's just going to review your TA stuff with you since it's almost the end of the semester?"

"Yeah," I nodded, "that's probably it actually, I think all of the TAs have an evaluation with him or whatever. Guess we'll find out."

"When do you have to go?" She asked.

"I'm supposed to meet him at 3:00, so I'll head over there soon," I said.

"Alright well, good luck with whatever it is," she responded.

"Yeah thanks, hopefully I don't need it," I said.

I finished up what I was working on and then went to get ready for my meeting. I knew it was probably just an evaluation or something, but I still had a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When I got to his office a while later, the nerves only got worse when I saw Whitney sitting there.

She was probably just part of the whole TA meeting thing too, right? I could only hope.

"Miss Dawson," the dean said, "come in and have a seat, you can shut the door behind you."

Whitney quickly glanced over at me as I came in and sat down next to her.

"What is this about?" I asked him.

Probably not my best idea to just come out and say it, but I had to know.

"Well," he said as he cleared his throat, "there's been some concern from another student about the nature of you and Professor Lawrence's relationship."

Oh fuck, fuck this was not good. Okay, take a deep breath, I'd gotten myself out of plenty of situations like this before.

"What?" Whitney and I both said.

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" I asked him as I narrowed my eyes.

"Someone overheard a comment about you two meeting at your apartment," he said as he looked at me.

God damn it, of course that's what it was.

"Oh that?" I asked him, trying to come up with a quick excuse.

Whitney looked over at me like she wasn't sure where I was going with this. Hell, I wasn't either.

"Yes," he nodded, "that's not exactly appropriate."

"Oh no sir," I said, shaking my head, "it wasn't anything like that at all."

"One of my roommates asked for help with her math course this semester," I continued, "I was telling Whit - Professor Lawrence about it, and she offered to come over and help."

I had no idea where I'd come up with that, but hopefully it was believable.

The dean looked over at Whitney like he was waiting for her to confirm my story. Come on Whit, jump on board with me here and make this work.

"Right," she finally said, "her roommate Kaia was having a hard time with one of her classes so I've stopped over a few times to help, that's all it was."

"Okay," he sighed as he rubbed his hand over his face.

"I apologize for the confusion," Whitney said, "I didn't even think about how that would look, that's my fault."

"It's okay," he said as he put his hand up, "we always just have to look into these allegations to see if there's any truth to them, I hope you both understand."

"Of course," I nodded.

"And in the meantime," he said, "let's move these studying sessions to a location on campus maybe?"

"Right, we can do that," Whitney quickly said.

"Great," he said as he stood up from his desk, "thank you both for stopping in and clearing everything up."

Whitney and I both nodded as we got up and walked towards his office door.

"Have a good rest of your day," he said as we left.

We walked in silence out of the building, and it felt like my heart was going to beat through my chest. I had no idea how we'd managed to pull that off, but thank God that we did.

We got outside, and before I could say anything to Whitney, McKenzie appeared next to us.

"How did your little meeting go?" She asked with a sly grin, "you both finally getting in trouble?"

"Of fucking course it was you," I said through gritted teeth as I took a step closer to her.

"Sure was," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest, "I knew there was something going on between the two of you."

"So is that why we're walking out with no punishments and continuing on with what we've been doing?" I asked.

"You - what?" McKenzie stammered, "how is that allowed?"

"It's allowed because there's nothing fucking going on," I sneered as I got in Mackenzie's face.

"Excuse you," she said, "you need to back up."

"Bailey," Whitney cut in, "come on."

"No," I said firmly, "because you need to get it through your fucking brain that there's nothing going on between us, and stay the hell out of my business."

"If I see something going on that shouldn't be going on," McKenzie said, "I'm going to report it."

"Then I don't know what the fuck you were reporting because you didn't see anything," I yelled in her face, "quit being so fucking nosy for once in your life."

"Oh come on now Bailey," she grinned, "what are you going to do? Go ahead and hit me, it'll just give me another reason to file a complaint about you."

I clenched my fists at my side, there were few things I wanted more right now than to hit her. Before I could consider it any longer, Whitney grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

"You both need to stop," she said, "let's go."

She put her arms on my shoulders and turned me around as she looked back at McKenzie.

"You need to get out of here too," she said, "quit trying to cause problems that aren't there, or I'll have a word with the dean as well."

I took one more glance back at McKenzie and I saw her roll her eyes and finally walk away.

"Hey," she whispered intently so only I could hear her, "you need to calm down, okay? Come over to my house in a bit and we'll talk."

I nodded as I stood there and took a deep breath. Whitney walked towards her car and I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried to regain my composure.

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