CHAPTER 5

 

Their lovemaking was over in less than ten minutes. Grose lay on his back, his arm around her, staring up at the ceiling. Jenny toyed with the hairs on his chest.

“Are you okay, Dudley?”

“Sure, honey, why?”

“You seem, I don’t know, a bit tense.”

He shrugged. “I’m fine,” he said.

“Why did you come into the city today? I thought you had no classes today.”

“I wanted to see you, is that so surprising?”

“You see me every day, silly,” she said.

“Well, there’s ‘see’ you and there’s ‘see’ you, isn’t there?” he said. “And today I really wanted to ‘see’ you.”

“And everything’s okay at home?”

“As ok as it ever is,” he said.

“No problems with your wife?”

“She’s fine. So long as she has her garden, she’s happy.”

“Leave her,” she said. “You don’t love her. You can move in with me.”

Grose chuckled. “Live here, with you? We’d be at each other’s throats in a week.”

“Dudley, how can you say that?” She grabbed a handful of chest hair and tugged it.

He yelped and rolled away from her. “You know I can’t walk out on her,” he said. “She’d take everything.”

“She’d take half of everything,” she said, cuddling up to him again. “Living with me wouldn’t cost you anywhere near as much as it costs for her. I don’t need a garden, for one.” She grinned. “Really, I’m low maintenance.”

“Let me think about it,” he said, but she could tell from his voice that he wasn’t serious. It was the same tone that her father had used when he’d said that he’d think about getting her a pony. He looked at his watch. “Why don’t we order Chinese?” he said. “I’m hungry.”

“I feel a bit sick,” she said. “I think I’ve got a stomach bug. I haven’t felt like eating for a couple of days. But you go ahead.”

“What about sandwiches then? From the deli on the corner?”

“I’m really not hungry, Dudley.” She sat up and stretched. “What about going for a juice? I haven’t been to the Elixir Juice Bar for ages.”

“Honey, what if someone sees us? Come on now.”

“So what if someone sees us? We’ll just be having a juice? I wasn’t planning on having sex with you there.” She laughed. “Come on. It’s a lovely day, let’s go for a walk.”

“Jenny, you know that if the faculty found out what was going on, I’d lose my job. You know that.”

“So a student can’t have a drink with her teacher?”

“I think we’re beyond that,” said Grose. “I just don’t want people talking about us, that’s all. We need to stay under the radar until you’ve graduated. Even then we have to be careful.”

“Why?” asked Jenny.

Grose sighed. “You know why, honey. I’m a lecturer. You’re a student.”

“You’ve got hundreds of students.”

“Yes, but I’m not sleeping with them, am I?”

“I hope not,” she said, and pinched him around the waist.

“Don’t!” he snapped.

“Don’t worry, I won’t mark you,” she said. “I know the rules. No marks, no bites, no scratches.”

“Jenny…”

“It’s okay, Dudley.” She kissed him on the shoulder. “You should just leave her. Your marriage is dead, you said it was, and it’s not as if you’ve got kids.” She stroked his chest. “I’m serious, Dudley. You can move in here.”

“Your parents would kill me.”

“Not after I’ve told them that we love each other.”

“Jenny, honey, I’m older than your dad.”

“Not by much. And you’re nothing like him.”

He kissed the top of her head. “He’d come looking for me with a shotgun.”

“No he wouldn’t.”

“And even if he didn’t shoot me, I’d lose my job. There’s no way they’d let me continue teaching there if I was living with a student.”

She sat up, her eyes flashing. “So quit,” she said excitedly. “You hate teaching anyway.”

“That’s not true, honey.”

“You moan about the students, you moan about the Head of Faculty, you moan about the Dean. Name me one thing about the university that you like.”

“You,” he said.

Jenny giggled. “I knew you’d say that,” she said. “But that’s the point. You can have me without having to teach. You’re going to make a fortune from The Homecoming. Once the publishers have seen it there’ll be a bidding war and they’ll pay you millions and you won’t have to teach.” She snuggled against him. “Then you can just stay with me and write your next bestseller.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Grose.

“It is a plan,” said Jenny. “The perfect plan. If you get big bucks for The Homecoming you can let your wife have anything she wants. You’ll have more than enough money.”

“I guess so,” said Grose.

“Have you heard from that agent yet?”

“No, not yet,” Grose lied.

“What’s taking so long?”

“I don’t know,” said Grose, fighting to keep the bitterness from his voice.

“It’s a masterpiece,” said Jenny. “It’s bound to be a bestseller, they must see that.” She kissed his shoulder. “How long has it been? Three weeks?”

“Two,” said Grose. He felt tears welling up in his eyes and he blinked them back.

“Maybe you should call him. Tell him you want to get it sent to publishers as soon as possible.”

“Maybe I will,” said Grose.

“Everything’s going to work out, Dudley,” she said. “I can feel it in my bones. Really, I can.”

“Of course it will,” he said. He sighed. “I really do want some Chinese, you know. Can you call that place I like? The one that does the fried prawn thing?”