“You fell in love with her, didn’t you?”
I sighed.
“Oh, Chance,” Lindsey said, shaking her head. “I expected more of you.”
“It’s not like I had any control over how I felt,” I pointed out. “It just happened. I wasn’t looking for anything to happen, it just did.”
“How old is she…nineteen, twenty?”
“Twenty-one.”
“So, young, basically,” Lindsey said. “I gave you a lecture about not getting attached to the students you mess around with. I told you to let her down easy when the time came to end the relationship. I neglected to tell you the other side of the coin. The flip side is that you might be the novelty, and she might just be using you. And girls that age can be flighty and fickle.”
“That’s not Natalie,” I said, coming to her defense immediately. “And, that’s not what happened.”
“Oh?” Lindsey said, raising her eyebrows. “Then what did happen?”
“I broke up with her,” I replied.
She looked confused. “You broke up with her?”
“Yes.”
“You just admitted to being in love with her,” She pointed out.
“I’m aware of that.”
She sighed impatiently. “Are you going to tell me the story, or are you just going to string me along for the next hour until I get really irritated.”
I smiled. “It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time,” Lindsey said. “And, I know your next lecture is not for another hour, so you have the time, too.”
I sighed, unwilling to relive the whole thing, but also desperate to talk to someone about it. I decided on a whim that Lindsey was the best person to talk to.
“There’s this student who attended the same lecture as Natalie,” I explained. “His name is Jason, and apparently he’s held a torch for Natalie for quite some time, except she kept rejecting him. And instead of accepting the rejection like a man and moving on, the bastard kept stalking her—”
“Kept stalking her?” Lindsey interrupted.
I nodded. “I suspect he was following her around campus when we first got together. In any case, he has concrete proof of my relationship with Natalie, and he’s threatening to go to the dean with the pictures if I don’t…back down.”
“And by back down, you mean break up with Natalie.”
“Yes.”
Lindsey frowned. “And you’re dancing to his tune because?”
“He has the upper hand,” I said. “I have no doubt he will go to the dean.”
“He’ll go to jail,” she pointed out. “You have the upper hand. The most that will happen to you is that you’ll lose your job. Is he really willing to risk his record on that?”
“He’s psychotic,” I said. “And, I truly believe he’ll go through with it.”
“Then you send him to jail.”
“If the consequences fell on me alone, I would,” I nodded. “But it doesn’t. Natalie will be pulled into this, too. She won’t be allowed to graduate. She’ll have worked her ass off her whole life for nothing. Her family is not well off, Lindsey; they won’t be able to afford to send her to another university. She got in here in the first place because she got a full ride.”
“So, you broke up with her…to protect her?”