Solo (Symphony Hall)

by Lauren E. Rico

  “Oh! So, there might be something special to celebrate tonight,” I say with a coy smile.

  He reaches out and grabs me by the waist, dragging me back into bed with him.

  “Drew!” I squeal as he manages to flip me over on my back and cage me in with his body.

  “Ha! I’ve got you!” he proclaims triumphantly. “And I’m going to keep you here, with me, in this bed. All. Day. Long,” he says, delivering a kiss between each of the last three words for emphasis.

  “Oh no!” I say with false dismay. “Whatever will you do with me all day, you wicked, wicked man?”

  “Wouldn’t you just love to know,” he murmurs, now kissing the spot behind my ear that makes my eyes roll back in my head.

  “Jesus, Drew, that feels amazing…” I murmur and then pull away slightly to get a good look at him, all sleepy, sexy, and tussled. “Are you sure this is okay? I mean, I’m still a week away from orals and my conducting final. I’m not officially graduated yet, Dr. Drew…”

  “I was thinking we could do a practice test.”

  “What? Ahhhhhh…” I can’t even finish my thought when his mouth reaches where my neck meets my shoulder. Another “point of interest” along the map of my body that he’s been drawing in his head. This guy doesn’t miss an inch when it comes to my erogenous zones, tugging at the collar of my shirt so he can kiss my bare shoulder.

  “Oh, please…” I murmur.

  It’s a plea for him to stop before it goes too far. At the same time, I want him to go so far that he can’t stop. I’m clearly unclear on which outcome I want right now. Actually, that’s not true. I know what outcome I want. I just don’t think it’s an outcome I can have and still get to work on time. But, when his warm hands find their way up and under the bottom of my blouse, I know that all hope is lost.

  “Drew, you’re going to make me late,” I half whine, half groan when he pushes up the soft cups of my bra so he can get his hands on my breasts.

  “You want me to stop?” he asks just as his tongue finds my belly button.

  “Ugh, no. Please, don’t stop…” I moan, getting his comment about an oral practice test.

  He looks up at me just long enough to flash his self-satisfied grin, and then he’s traveling to points southward, unzipping my jeans then easing them, along with my panties, down to just below my hips. I start to lift my backside so he can pull them all the way off, but he stops me.

  “Uh-uh,” he says, stopping the downward pull of my clothes when they’re mid-thigh.

  “But I can’t really—you know—I can’t…”

  “Spread your legs?”

  He seems to relish finishing the sentence for me. But before I can comment, I feel his hot, soft tongue dipping into my hot, soft folds.

  An unintelligible gurgle comes out of my mouth, and I arch my back. I try to separate my thighs, but it’s no use, they’re held tight in their denim bindings. In the meantime, one of his hands is back on one of my breasts, reaching up to gently roll my nipple between his thumb and index finger.

  He’s doing a damn fine job of swirling, licking, and tracing every spot except for the one I’m silently begging him to touch. I’m on the very edge of my sanity as he comes close and pulls back again and again. The bastard knew exactly what he was doing when he pulled my pants only partially down my legs. I can writhe under him as much as I want, but I have almost no room to maneuver myself. I cry out in frustration and hear him chuckling between my thighs.

  “Please, Drew,” I whimper from above him. “Please…”

  My eyes fly open and I arch off the bed again when he sucks my most sensitive flesh into his mouth. He moves his other hand to my stomach, holding me down so I can’t fight against the intense pleasure that’s mounting faster than I can process it.

  “Oh, Jesus, Drew!”

  I’m practically wailing when he finally decides to put me out of my misery with tiny nibbles, making the world explode around me.

  You wouldn’t think this is how the worst day of your life would begin.

  …

  I may be late for work, but I’m happy when I get there. I grab an apron from the back and throw my hair up under my cap. I’ve got a smile for everyone I encounter. But it’s still early yet. Things don’t pick up until I’ve been there an hour or so. That’s when I notice the strange looks I’m getting. I pop into the bathroom to make sure Drew didn’t leave a huge hickey somewhere visible. Nope. Nothing out of the ordinary, so I must be imagining things.

  When I get back out onto the floor, I spot them at their usual table. At least, it was their usual table until the whole coffee incident. Joanie, Ken, and company have been ducking me since then. Not today, though. Today, all four of them are sitting on the same side of the table, no one sitting across from them. It’s bizarre, really.

  She’s snickering. He’s sneering. They’re all leering and pointing. And here I thought we were past all this. Well, no matter what, I’m not going to let them ruin this day that has started so spectacularly well. I walk right up to them with a broad smile.

  “Good morning,” I greet them cheerily. “Can I get you guys some fresh coffee?” I offer as a goodwill gesture.

  That’s when I notice the newspapers. Four people. Four papers. With some secret signal they’ve prearranged, they pick them up in unison and open them so that the front page is facing me. Or, rather, the front pages. All four identical front pages. I’m still smiling as I glance down at them, but the smile doesn’t stay there for long.

  …

  Thursday May 4th 7:12 a.m.

  K: Drew! There’s an article in the paper about us. That SOB Kevin Kilpatrick. How did he find out? Was he following us? Shit!! PLEASE call me NOW.

  …

  Thursday May 4th 7:22 a.m.

  K: Where ARE you? I’ve been trying to call you…

  K: I’m on my way to your office. I’ll go in the back entrance

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Drew

  The familiar ping of a text sounds and I’m about to dig my cell out of my bag when Maureen sticks her head into my office.

  “Drew, may I have a word?” she asks.

  “Oh, good morning, Maureen. I was just putting the finishing touches on the opening comments for my tenure presentation.”

  She looks over her shoulder before coming in and closing the door. I offer her a seat but she shakes her head.

  “Drew, the tenure meeting’s been canceled.”

  The phone ping turns into a phone ring. I grab it, glance at the screen and mute it. Katherine’s going to have to wait a few minutes while I get this sorted and get Maureen out of my office so I can return her call in private.

  “When has it been moved to?” I ask, starting to flip through the calendar on my desk. “Is it still this month?”

  She closes her eyes and rubs the bridge of her nose between her index finger and thumb. After a long pause, she looks up at me again.

  “I’m going to ask you a question and I need for you to be completely honest with me. All right?”

  Uh-oh. I do not like the sound of this, or the fact that she just dodged my question.

  “Uh, sure. What is it, Maureen?”

  She takes a long pause, draws a deep breath, and finally asks.

  “Drew, are you having a sexual relationship with Kate Brenner?”

  I don’t even realize I’m holding my breath until it comes out of me in one big, blustering puff.

  “I—uh—why are you asking me that question, Maureen?”

  “Is it true, or not?”

  In the split second I have to consider my answer, I weigh the pros and cons of lying versus coming clean. Turns out the latter weighs more than the former, at least in this instance.

  “Yes,” I say in a whisper.

  She’s looking at me as if she’d like to wrap her hands around my throat.

  “What. Were. You. Thinking?” she hisses, chewing off each word individually. “Do you have any idea what kind of a liab
ility you’ve exposed us to? She could sue us for sexual harassment. And, considering your contentious relationship over the years, she’d win. Easily.”

  Is that all she’s worried about? I shake my head confidently.

  “She wouldn’t do that. She’d never do that.”

  Maureen cocks an eyebrow. “What makes you so sure?”

  “I just am,” I say.

  “Really, Drew? Then how do you explain this?” she asks unfolding the newspaper and holding it up for me to see.

  It takes me a second to process what I’m looking at. It’s a picture of Kate. And me. We’re kissing out in front of my house. Oh my God. But it’s not until I read the headline that I feel all the blood drain from my head.

  Senator’s daughter makes the grade in professor’s arms.

  “Maureen…”

  “No.”

  “Maureen, please…”

  “I said no, Drew. There is no room for interpretation in the university’s policy here. Sexual relationships between students and professors are strictly forbidden. This, Drew, looks like a relationship.”

  “Maureen, you’re right. It is a relationship. And I know how hard that must be for you to hear, after Casey.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Drew,” she says, her voice dropping in volume but rising in intensity. “There’s nothing more I want to hear from you than that you’re in love. That you’re happy. That you’re having a life after my daughter. But this was just beyond foolish. Did you really think no one would find out?”

  I really did think that. But it doesn’t matter now, because I can’t un-ring that bell. What I find more disconcerting here is the question of how they found out. We were so careful. And this picture, it’s at my house. I could maybe understand it if we’d been careless about our behavior in public. But someone would have had to tip off this reporter in order to get him to my house at that time.

  “Do you know who did this?” I ask her.

  “Are you seriously asking me that question?”

  “I am. Do you know who tipped off the press?”

  She’s shaking her head as if she can’t believe what she’s hearing.

  “Drew, you did this to yourself. And, I have to say, I’m shocked. You, of all people.”

  I take a long, slow breath and try to slow my racing heart.

  “Will this take me out of the running for tenure?”

  Maureen looks incredulous.

  “Tenure? Drew, we’ll be lucky if I can keep the president from firing you! Senator Brenner was on the phone to him at five o’clock this morning demanding your job!”

  This can’t be happening. Not to me. I realize, in that instant, that it’s not just happening to me.

  “I—I’m sorry to do this to you,” I say, my quavering voice barely above a whisper. “I’m sorry to put you in this position.”

  “You damn well should be,” she spits. “Maybe if I’d known, I could’ve helped you figure out a way to make it work. But now…” She’s shaking her head. “It’s not like this is an internal thing that can be swept under the rug. This is printed in black and white. And believe me, it may just be the local paper today, but it’ll be national news by tonight.”

  I can scarcely wrap my head around this. In the span of ten minutes, my career has ended. Over. Period. Done. My world is suddenly spinning out of control and I don’t have the faintest clue how to make it stop.

  She sighs. “Go home, Drew. Figure out what you want your official response to be. I’d recommend resigning before you can be terminated, but that’s your call.”

  “I can’t go,” I mutter. “I have final review sessions this afternoon.”

  “No, actually, you don’t. You’ve been given a week’s suspension while Human Resources sorts through this mess. You prepare your oral exam questions, though. I expect you’ll be back to work in time for those. The last thing we want is for other students to claim unfair treatment because you didn’t deliver the exam after teaching them all those semesters.”

  I get to my feet, overtaken by a feeling of numbness.

  “I really am sorry, Maureen.”

  “I know you are, Drew,” she says quietly and leaves my office.

  I’m still reeling as I pack up my bag, turn out the lights in my office, and shut the door behind me. I need to get to Katherine before she comes over here to the music department. God only knows what the idiots here will have to say to her.

  …

  I’m not sure how long Kevin Kilpatrick’s been trying to get my attention when I finally hear him calling my name out in the parking lot. I stop to see him sitting in a white car, driver’s door open, one leg in and one leg out. He’s parked right next to me. He’s waiting for me.

  Son. Of. A. Bitch.

  “You fucking douchebag!” I yell before I can help myself. I fly across the ten feet that separate us. He’s holding up his hands as I drag him out of his BMW and push him hard against the front quarter panel. So hard that it dents under his weight.

  “Dude! The car!”

  “The car? You better pray to every god you know that I don’t put your fucking face through the windshield of this car!”

  He’s laughing. The motherfucker is actually laughing. “Okay, okay! Calm down, Doc, chill!” he says, holding his hands up in gesture of mock surrender.

  “When did you know? How? Have you been following me this whole time?” I demand, my fists wrapping hard around the lapels of his jacket.

  “What? No! Doc, I didn’t know,” he protests. “Not until yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “Yesterday. She told me where the two of you would be. Where I could find you for a photograph.”

  “She told you?”

  “Aw, I’m sorry, Doc. You didn’t see that one coming, huh? I told you, Kate Brenner isn’t the innocent little ray of sunshine she pretends to be.”

  “She told you about us?”

  He shrugs. “Who else would tell me? I mean, who else knew where you’d be? Who else knew who’d you be with?”

  I feel as if someone has punched me in my gut. I let the slimy creep go and step back, raking a hand through my hair and trying to process what he’s telling me. That she’s betrayed me. That is what he’s telling me, isn’t it?

  “But, why?” I mutter, more to myself than to him.

  “Revenge, Doc. Pure. And. Simple.”

  I spin on him again and this time he’s smart enough to move just out of my reach.

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” I spit.

  He shrugs. “Kate Brenner hates her father. He kicked her out when she was a teenager and cut her off. She wanted to ruin him. Nothing like a good old-fashioned scandal to ruin a politician.”

  “But she and I…we were…I…” the words just won’t form in my mind or in my mouth.

  All of a sudden Kevin Kilpatrick looks sympathetic. “In love? Right? Is that it? Maybe you were, Doc. But her? Well, from what I hear, you gave her plenty of reasons to not love you over the years. Honestly, I can’t totally blame her. Apparently you treated her like shit because she reminded you of your ex. Is that a lie?”

  I can only stare at him. The only way he could know that is if she’d told him herself. Jesus Christ. She did this to me. Kilpatrick takes my silence as assent.

  “You embarrassed her. You threatened her. I mean, it was pretty fucking brilliant, actually. She gets you to fall for her. Maybe even call in a few favors to help her get into that swanky music school up north? Then she lowers the boom. Kills two birds with one stone. Destroys your career and your heart. It’s not her father’s fault, but it certainly opens up a can of worms about their relationship and makes him look like a real shit heel in the process. In fact, if little Katie Brenner spins this just right, she comes out looking like the girl who was abandoned by her father and forced into a relationship with a professor who took advantage of her.”

  “Drew?”

  I jump at the sound of my own name and a soft to
uch on my shoulder. I grab the hand and yank. Tessa comes stumbling into my field of vision.

  “Drew! Hey, stop it! What’s wrong with you?” she shrieks at me.

  “Oh God, Tess, I’m sorry, I thought you were…” I can’t even say her name.

  “Hey, aren’t you that reporter?” she says, suddenly turning her sharp tone and narrowed eyes on Kilpatrick.

  “At your service,” he says with a crooked grin and a mock bow.

  “What did you do?” she hisses at him. “I saw that article, you son of a bitch!”

  “Ah, well, I think that’s my cue to go. The good Doc over here will fill you in, I’m sure.”

  Tessa has extricated her hand from my grip and put it on my forearm possessively. My friend. She’s my only friend on the face of this fucking earth. Kilpatrick gets back in his car and starts to pull away, pausing briefly and rolling down his window.

  “Hey, tell Katie Kate I said thanks, okay?” He’s chuckling as I watch him pull out of the parking lot.

  “Drew? Are you okay, Drew?” Tessa is asking me, her voice growing more alarmed.

  “No, Tess,” I murmur. “I’m never going to be okay again.”

  “So, it’s true then? You and Katherine Brenner?”

  Her eyes are so full of concern that it breaks my heart. Here is yet another victim of my selfishness.

  “It is, Tessa. I mean, it wasn’t before, but, it’s a long story. I just don’t understand how she could do this to me. To us.”

  She gives my arm a gentle squeeze.

  “Drew, are you saying that she did this? That Kate set you up?”

  “She must have. No one else knew. We were so careful,” I mumble, shaking my head and staring at my feet as if the answer to this clusterfuck might be written across the top of my shoes.

  Tessa moves her other hand to my back and pats me gently. When she speaks again her voice is considerably softer, as if she’s trying to calm a spooked horse. “Oh, Drew. I’m so sorry. I wish I’d known. Maybe I could have done something. Maybe I would have seen something. But you’re right. You were careful. I mean, you must have been because you were even able to keep it from me.”

  I’m only half listening to her as my mind desperately searches for any straw to clutch at. Anything that would make this be something other than what it looks like. But there’s nothing. Kevin Kilpatrick is a sneaky fuck, but there’s no way he just happened to stumble upon our relationship. He was tipped off. He knew when we’d be together.