he’s off-limits.”
“Damn. I could use a good…yeah, never mind. Anyway, so do you want to go? The pizza here is to die for though.”
“Ethan? What are you doing here?” Ethan cringed, and when I looked up at the source of his discomfort, I wanted to puke. I was almost positive I knew who the pompous, arrogant asshole standing there was.
“Professor Stone. We were just leaving,” Ethan said as he tossed a ten down on the table to cover our drinks and tip. He pushed his way out of the booth, and I was quick to follow. Unfortunately, the asshole didn’t take the hint and quickly caught up with us just as we came face-to-face with Anderson and Professor Summers.
“Mr. Phillips. Everything okay?” Anderson asked while looking between Ethan, me, and the asshole.
“Yep, sure thing, Professor Engleson. We were just leaving. Good to see you again, Professor Summers.”
“Dax. Glad to see you’re hanging in there. Who’s your friend?”
Ethan looked at me and gave me a pleading glance before looking back at the asshole. I could take a hint.
“Oh, this is my boyfriend, Ethan,” I told them. I was sure that everyone standing there with us knew that was a flat-out lie, but Ethan grabbed on to my hand like it was a lifeline, and I wasn’t going to push him away. He’d always been there for me, and I sure as hell was going to be there for him.
“We really need to get going. Nice meeting you, Professor Engleson, Professor Summers. Professor Stone, wish I could say the same,” Ethan said as he all but pulled me from the restaurant. I heard footsteps behind me, and I wanted the sidewalk to open up and swallow us when I saw that it was Professor Asshole.
“Faster, he’s right behind us,” I whispered, and Ethan picked up his pace and we made it to his Jeep and inside before dickwad made it to the edge of the parking lot.
“Okay, change of plans. McDonald’s good?” Ethan said with a sad look on his face.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Wherever you want to go. Just…maybe head back toward our place?” I suggested. I’d had enough of this side of town for now. And Ethan owed me a huge explanation since I’d already told him my hottie from Saturday night had ended up being my new professor. At least mine ended up being a one-and-done thing. His was so much worse.
We hit the drive-thru on the way home, each of us getting extra fries, and by the time we made it inside, Ethan had to turn his phone off because it wouldn’t stop ringing or chiming with text messages or emails.
“Does he know where we live?” At Ethan’s wince, I had my answer.
“Yeah, but he has to have a key to get in downstairs. But we’ll just make sure the chain is locked tonight, all right?”
I nodded while shoving lukewarm fries in my mouth. At least they weren’t cold because cold fries were just a no.
“Okay, spill. When did it start? When did it end? All that.”
“Last fall, right before Thanksgiving when I caught him out with his wife at a restaurant. I didn’t realize they were together, and I yelled for him. She heard me and got his attention, and he was forced to introduce me. He made up an elaborate story about how I helped out during office hours grading papers, and I played along. I haven’t talked to him since except to call him every name in the book, and that’s that. I honestly didn’t know he was married.”
I got up and went to the fridge and grabbed two beers. After setting one down in front of Ethan, I clinked my bottle to his and took a long pull from it. Yep, men were assholes, and I was through with them.
Ethan and I stopped at two beers each because we both had homework to do, and we had discovered that doing it while drunk wasn’t ideal. Been there, done that, had to redo the homework later. So not worth it.
Once we both retreated to our desks we had set up in our own tiny bedrooms, I chanced a glance at my own phone. Nothing. Not that I really expected anyone to call because I had nobody. Once I’d spent several hours working on homework, I looked at the time on my phone and decided to call it a night. I stripped and pulled on a pair of shorts before walking to the bathroom across the hall