Page 55 of Bachelor

“Tomorrow,” she whispered, then sucked in a breath and opened the door just enough for me to squeeze through.

It closed on me before I’d even crossed the threshold and I heard the lock turn.

Tyler stood there with his arms folded over his chest, a smug smirk on his face.

“Well.” He shrugged. “I guess they’re not coming with us?”

“Where?”

“To get a drink. You look like you could use one.”

***

THE DAY LODGE TRANSFORMEDinto the textbook definition of a dive bar once the sun set. Skiers and snowboarders still decked out in their winter gear stood around the bar, drinking beer and chatting with each other. Older patrons, likely locals, mingled around tables or played darts or pool.

Tyler and I sat at a high-top table in the corner of the room nearest the fireplace. Outside the window beside us, snow fell in thick clumps that clung to the glass and turned the landscape into a haze of white. It was nearly midnight, but the bar was busy, yet cozy.

The perfect combination for whatever conversation I was about to have with Tyler to not be overheard.

We drank our beers in silence for several minutes, both of us watching the snow.

“So...” Tyler said, glancing at me over the rim of his beer. “Wanna talk about it?”

“Absolutely not.”

He rolled his eyes back to the window, chuckling. “What about the Cassandra thing, then? What exactly happened?”

“I think she drank way too much.”

“Well, obviously. I’m sure the other professors are going to have something to say about this whole ordeal when we get back to campus.”

“The way she’s acting is extremely unprofessional, yes,” I agreed, feeling like a total hypocrite the second the words left my mouth.

“Her dad is Whitney’s dad’s lawyer, I guess. She knows Whitney’s family well, from what I understand.”

I took a drink of my beer and turned the half empty pint glass in a circle between my hands. The strange feeling of wanting to crawl out of my skin at the mention of Cassandra’s name slithered through my body. This wasn’t the first time I’d been pursued by someone I worked with. I’d been a very green archeologist on my first independent excavation trip in Scotland when something like this had happened, so similar I had flashbacks of a drunken night gingerly tucking a very intoxicated woman into bed and having to canvass the area for another woman to keep an eye on her through the night.

I’d been young, twenty-five at the most, and at first, I’d loved the attention. However, I learned early on not to ever enter into workplace romances.

Apparently, that didn’t include going after one of my own students.

I winced and drowned out the guilt by taking another drink of beer. Tyler was watching me closely, his eyes searching mine for any hint of what had just happened between me and Whitney.

“Gatlington is incredibly tight-knit,” I said after a moment, trying to circle back to what Tyler had just told me about Cassandra and Whitney’s ties after several minutes of heavy silence. “I didn’t realize that when I accepted my tenure.”

Tyler shrugged, leaning back in his chair. “You’re right, it is, but not in like... a cool way. If that makes sense. Most of us were born to go to Gatlington. Hell, my great-great-grandfather helped found the school.”

“Really?”

Tyler nodded, tilting his head to the side to stretch out his neck. He ran his fingers through his hair, tousling it. “Yep, he did. I have a few distant cousins attending this year, too. It’s a family affair. I didn’t have a choice in attending. My parents both went there, and my grandparents on each side, so on and so forth.” He waved a hand in dismissal. “It’s like a secret little club. That’s all it is. A country club that shells out degrees. My brothers graduated from Gatlington and then had jobs making more money than most doctors by the end of the weekend, even after spending four years partying in Greek Row and never turning in any homework. It kinda sucks, to be honest. I wanted to go to Yale.” He frowned into his beer. “I got in, too. Still couldn’t go. My parents acted like I’d just told them I was going to move to Oklahoma and get a job in construction.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“No, of course not, but you understand by now, right? This is a totally different world we’re living in when on campus. Cassandra wasn’t part of that world. She didn’t go to Gatlington. She’s doing her best to fit in, but she would have been better suited working for the undergraduates than us, you know?”

Tyler exhaled deeply, continuing, “Do you know what she said to Jessica earlier?”

I shook my head, furrowing my brows.

---