Page 14 of Loved

Kristen had been pursuing me ever since I’d stepped foot on campus. She was probably shocked that I’d slept with a student that wasn’t her. But she just wasn’t my type. Her hair and figure reminded me too much of Isabella. I preferred the shy girl in the back row.

“I’m good,” I said again.

“Okay,Professor Hunter.” She said it in such a sultry way.

But it wasn’t the way Penny said it. God, I really loved the way Penny said it. Had Kristen missed the part of the article where I also said I was in love with Penny? She really needed to move on from this crush. “I’m not a professor here anymore.”

“Wait, what?” Her eyes grew round.

“Now if you’ll excuse me.” I walked past her and climbed into my car.

I was half expecting her to force herself into my passenger seat. But I was glad that she turned around and continued on her run. Hopefully she’d find someone more suited for her soon so that I could stop worrying about her popping up all the time.

I took a deep breath before pulling my car out of the parking lot. I wished Penny had skipped class. I hated picturing her in class all alone. Or in class next to Tyler. My fingers tightened around the wheel.

There were more news vans and paparazzi outside my apartment building now. But I somehow managed to evade them and pull in the parking garage. I shot Ian a text to meet me in my apartment. When I walked in, he was already helping himself to something from the fridge.

“What a mess,” I said with a sigh and tossed my keys onto the kitchen counter.

Ian put some leftovers in the microwave and turned around. “A lot of people are trying to reach you for a comment.”

“It’s still a no. I just want this whole thing to blow over.” I sat down and stared at him.

“At least they didn’t print that she was a minor.”

I nodded. Yeah, that was the one win. Ian thought they were going to say that in the story.

“So…are you going to tell me how your meeting went? I thought you’d be with Penny the rest of the day.”

“She wanted to go to class.”

“Really? Why?” The microwave beeped and Ian pulled out his plate. “Want some of this?”

“I just ate breakfast.”

“But it’s lasagna.” He sat down and started eating.

“You’re ridiculous.”

He laughed. “You didn’t answer my question. Why did Penny go to class? Isn’t that going to be…well…the worst?”

I pressed my lips together. “I think she was probably mad at me. Maybe. Actually, no. She was definitely mad at me.”

“Why?”

“Because I resigned.”

Ian just stared at me.

“I don’t think she was mad that I resigned. More so that I didn’t tell her I was going to before the meeting. Ialready had my resignation letter ready. And she was trying to figure out solutions for me to keep teaching and I kept shutting them down in the meeting.”

“So you left her in the dark?”

“She had to have known that’s where this was leading. And Joe didn’t give me much of a choice. Either I could keep my job and stop seeing Penny. Or quit and keep seeing her. It was an easy decision.”

“But you didn’t talk to Penny about it.”

I shook my head.

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