The Better Side of Me - Jerry Cole Page 0,15

to scattered laughter. “Anyway, Caesar. Like I was saying, he could see the path he needed to take. But that path was riddled with tasks that Caesar had sworn he would never participate in – he had to literally defy the constitution. To do that would have him questioning the very essence of who he—”

His cell vibrated again; somehow it felt even more aggressive than before. Kirk grimaced a second time and indicated for his class to wait a moment.... again. He shoved his hand in his pocket, was about to shut the darn thing off, when he caught sight of the clock at the back of the auditorium. There was only one-minute left until the bell.

“You know what!” he shouted and clapped his hands together. “We can finish this next week—”

He’d barely finished his sentence before the vast majority of the student body pushed themselves to their feet and began to race from the auditorium like it was on fire.

For a third time, his phone began to vibrate against his leg. Kirk sighed and yanked the phone free... only to groan when he saw who was calling. It was his ex-boyfriend, Gregory. Kirk felt sick just looking at the name.

The break-up was messy, but that has already been covered. What happened after was what had Kirk retching at the mere thought of Gregory. After they had broken-up, and after Kirk had moved out of the apartment they had bought together, and after Gregory had sold said apartment, he refused to split the money with Kirk. Refused!

“Soon,” Gregory had assured Kirk when he had first made the sale. “Soon.”

“It’s all tied up in assets right now,” Gregory had purred when Kirk had asked a month later.

“Trust me, darling, you don’t want me to just hand you the money. You’d only blow it,” Gregory had stated matter-of-factly two months after that. The man owed him a small fortune, yet Kirk was too much of a pansy to do anything about it.

The phone vibrated in his hands, but Kirk didn’t bother answering it. Instead he let the call ring out, and then waited for the fourth.

“Professor Little Man!” The high-pitched, sing-song voice of Kirk’s mortal enemy called out from the back of the auditorium. Her name was Clarice Bucker and as she called out to Kirk, she hurried down the steps and toward him looking just so darn pleased with herself.

“Hello, Clarice,” Kirk muttered to himself in his best Hannibal Lecter impersonation. He then hurried to collect his things, desperate to not get caught up in a conversation with her.

“So, have you heard?” Clarice was a large woman; both in physical appearance and persona. Her hair was dyed bright red and worn in a modern-day beehive. Her glasses were black like Kirk’s, but with pearls running across the top. Her lips were painted red, her clothes were always bright colors, and her girth was such that she rarely sat in normal seating, lest she get stuck. “I bet you haven’t!”

“Heard what?” Kirk didn’t want to ask. But he knew Clarice, and the best way to be rid of her was to let her do whatever it was she had set out for, and then duck past when she was done.

“About the History Symposium! Two months from now!” She looked so darn pleased with herself that Kirk though she might just burst. “Surely, you have heard?!”

Oh, how Kirk hated Clarice. And it was a good thing too, as she hated him just as much. Like he, she was also an Ancient History Professor, and like him, she specialized in Rome, Greece and ancient military tactics. The two were contemporaries of one another, and thus enemies for life.

“I haven’t,” Kirk said dismissively.

“Of course, you haven’t,” she rolled her eyes. “I have a very good relationship with the Head of the Department— he told me earlier over breakfast, in fact.”

“Good for you. Old Roger could use a root. Put that new hip to the test.” With his things scooped up, Kirk made for the back of the auditorium. The exit.

Clarice hurried in beside him. “It’s in three months—”

“You told me that already.”

“In Hawaii.” She giggled, and Kirk came to a dead halt. “Oh yes, didn’t expect that did you?” she giggled again. “Special invite only— but, just to make things interesting, only one professor from Morgan University can go.”

Kirk turned back slowly to face Clarice. She could not have looked more excited. “And this one professor... the one of us that’s chosen to go...?”

“All expenses