ONE
Kaye
My phone buzzes like a relentless swarm of angry bees; each text more aggressive than the last. Every word more cruel. More threatening.
Kaye, don’t ignore me.
My ex-boyfriend, ex-lover, and ex-professor (don’t judge) demands I respond, but I remain silent. Less than five seconds later, that demand turns ugly.
Dammit, answer me!
My hands curl into tight fists as his words seep into my soul like poison.
This isn’t over until I say it’s over.
Anger boils inside me, and there’s something else lingering in the background. It’s something I’m not ready to acknowledge.
You’ll regret this. You’ll regret leaving me.
Barbi, my best friend, notices the tense look on my face and comes over to where I sit on the couch. Taking the phone from my trembling hands, she swipes the screen and looks at the messages. A gasp of shock follows as she reads Scott’s texts.
“You’ve got to block him.” Her tone’s firm. Her voice hard and unyielding. “He’s trying to manipulate you and it’s going too far. These are threats.”
I retrieve my phone as another text buzzes in.
Darling, we need to talk about this.
The phone rings and I press cancel, declining the call.
You’re acting like a child.
I clench my fingers around my phone and bite down, grinding my molars. I flop back on the couch and wonder.
Answer the damn phone.
Is he right?
Did I overreact?
Should we talk it out like Scott says?
Barbi gives me a stern look. “He’s a lying, cheating, bastard, and this is going too far.”
“He’s just upset.”
“Why do you keep defending him?”
“I don’t know.” I shrug, feeling defeated. “Maybe I should give him a chance to tell his side of the story?”
“What side would that be? That you caught him fucking Denise Hamilton in his office? It’s not like his clothes spontaneously fell off and his dick slipped in that tramp’s cunt. You saw what you saw. It happened. And he’s trying to deny it. Worse. He’s trying to blame you.”
“But…” I place my phone in my lap and wring my hands as uncertainty about the whole horrible thing twists in my gut.
“No buts about it. You called things off. End of story.”
My thoughts race in circles. I need to protect myself, but also keep my dreams alive. This is where the fear comes in.
“If I make him angry… If he gets Dean Alder to pull my spot, all my hard work goes up in smoke.”
“If he dares to yank your spot in vet school, I’m going straight to his office and will feed him his balls. He doesn’t have…”
“Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’ll retaliate. You know how important this is to me.”
“I don’t know why you won’t report him. Carmen and I will be right by your side.” She spins around and drops onto the couch beside me. “He’s sleeping with his students, you and Denise. Who knows how many others? That’s a fireable offense. Let the university deal with it. If he retaliates…”
“He’ll do it to spite me. To teach me a lesson.” Barbi doesn’t understand the power he holds over me. “All my dreams will go up in smoke.”
“Then you find another veterinary school to attend.”
I’m caught in a tug-of-war between being safe and taking a risk. If I say nothing, Scott wins. If I go back to him, who knows how long he’ll be pulling my strings? If I report him, the chance I’ll ruin my future is too much of a risk. I take in a shaky breath and let it out real slow.
Professor Scott Parker may hold my future in his hands, but I’m the one responsible for giving him that power in the first place. I was so eager to get into UC Davis’s highly competitive veterinary program that I didn’t stop his advances. I encouraged them, precisely because I knew he could help me.
I used him.
This is my fault. I’m the one to blame and now I’m paying the price for trying to take a shortcut. Scott seduced me with his power and dominance. He knew exactly what strings to pull to get me into his bed and keep me there. He also knew how desperate I was to get into vet school. I’m such an idiot.
“I did this to myself.” I curl in on myself, angry and frustrated for getting myself into this mess. “I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.”
“But you don’t have to get out of this by yourself. Carmen and I are here for you, and Rosalie will be too.”
Rosalie is new to Barbi and me. New in that we’ve never met, but she grew up with Carmen, and the way Carmen talks about her childhood friend makes it feel as if we know Rosalie too. Now, Rosalie’s moving in with us, and our little trio is becoming a quartet of sisters by choice.
Barbi’s the optimist.
Carmen’s the risk taker.
Rosalie is a survivor.
I’m the idiot.
Professor Scott Parker can crush my dreams in an instant. All it takes is one phone call to Dean Alder, head of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, who happens to be Scott’s best friend, and I’m kicked out on my ass before I have a chance to begin.
Again, this is my fault.
Barbi wraps an arm around my shoulder and squeezes in reassurance. “You can do it, Kaye. I know you can. There’s always another way.”
“I just need to figure out how to handle this.” I don’t dare tell Barbi the best solution is to cave into Scott’s demands.
“How about we start by blocking that asshole from your life?” Barbi’s relentless. Like a mother bear protecting her own, she’s not going to let this go.
But I can’t let her fight my battles. This is my mess to fix.
“I’m not going to do that.” I sit up straight and inject confidence into my words. No surprise, but I fail completely.
“Why not?”
“Because…”
“You’re still hung up on him, aren’t you?”
“I don’t want to burn bridges I might need later. It’s not just the scholarship. He can…”
My phone buzzes with another text. I grit my teeth, expecting another threatening text, but it’s our bestie, Carmen. A profound feeling of relief rushes through me.
“They’re ten minutes out.” I squeal with excitement, eager to meet Rosalie. Carmen’s told us so much about her that I feel like we’re already the best of friends.
“Crap, they’re early.” Barbi glances at her watch.
“So?” I shrug because it doesn’t matter.
Only Barbi is far more OCD than me.
“We haven’t moved your things out of your room.” She hops up from the couch and claps her hands. “Come on, your things won’t pack themselves.”
It’s been only a couple of weeks since graduation, but it feels as if it’s been a lifetime. The day Carmen, Barbi, and I graduated from UCSF, we were headed out for an amazing night on the town. Only, Carmen’s father sent his goons to escort her home to Nicaragua. Which left Barbi and me to celebrate alone.