As Adele was walking across campus carrying a cup of coffee after her second meeting with Dr. Hennessey, she heard someone call her name. She turned to see Hadley taking long strides toward her.
“Adele!” he said. “Addie!”
Curse him. Now in his forties, he was devilishly handsome. Just the slightest touch of gray graced his temples. His face was tanned, his eyes as blue as the sky and his long lean body lithe and hard. She remembered that body, all of it.
Suddenly, she thought about Scott and how he’d spent so much money on hotels and spas for his affair while Hadley had seduced her in his campus office, the front of his car or on a blanket on a hideaway beach.
“Professor,” she said, looking up at him.
His face was bright with happiness, his eyes twinkling. When she addressed him as professor, a smile broke across his lips. Oh those teeth—big and straight and super white.
“Adele, what a sight you are,” he said. “You look wonderful! It’s been years! And look at you. You’ve grown even more beautiful! What are you doing here?”
“I...ah... I was visiting an acquaintance who has an office here. And I guess this means you’re still teaching here?” She was scrambling to sound casual even though Dr. Hennessey was not actually an acquaintance and she knew perfectly well he was still teaching at the university. She checked the website regularly.
“I think about you all the time, hoping we’d see each other again. I assume you finished your degree at another university?”
“Not exactly,” she said. “It’s a long story, but I was needed at home. Listen, I’ve got to get—”
“Please,” he said. “Don’t run off. I don’t want to lose touch with you again. Do you have time for a cup of coffee? Oh, I see you have a cup. Lunch then, or something. Please, I’ve thought about you for years. Can we at least sit somewhere and catch up? For just a little while?”
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” she asked. “We didn’t part on the best of terms.”
“My fault,” he said. “You can’t imagine the regrets I’ve had about that. Or the number of times I wanted to track you down and insist we at least talk it through!”
“But you didn’t,” she said. “I never heard from you.”
“You told me you’d never speak to me again! You were so angry. And so hurt. I couldn’t...”
That was at least partially true. Yes, there had been a fierce argument after she told him she’d seen him with his wife. She’d told him to stay away from her.
“You lied to me about everything!” she said.
“You don’t even know what you saw! Did it ever occur to you that she was emotional because I’d told her I wanted a divorce?”
“She was pregnant!”
“I know. I felt terrible about that. It happened before...us. I found out about it after us. I planned to take care of them, of course. And I have.”
“What do you mean, you have?” she asked.
“We’re not together. It’s only been a few years now, but the problems started a long time ago. I have two daughters. We work out the custody arrangements. It’s been complicated and at times difficult. But what’s done is done. Obviously my marriage was in trouble or there couldn’t have been...us.”
Adele felt her heart plummet in her chest. No, that wasn’t how it was. It wasn’t that way. He begged for more time to do what had to be done, but meanwhile, while she waited for him, she was to get an abortion. That was how it was.
“I remember it a little differently,” she said, and to her horror a tear slid down her cheek.
“Oh darling, I know how traumatic it was for you,” he said. “And you were so young. I must’ve been a monster to let myself fall in love with you.”
Yes, he had said all those words—that he was being selfish, that many men would want her and he would probably be her worst choice, but still, he couldn’t help what he felt.