Being Harrison Bloom’s Girl

Chapter 3

“What?”

Leigh looked at her returned paper in disbelief.

“This cannot possibly be happening,” murmured Leigh, and tried blinking.

It didn’t help.

It still said ‘B-’ with a little comment that said that she needed improvement, better research, and all-important precedents, many of which she had apparently missed.

“Sh*t,” said Leigh, glaring at the paper, as if she could magically change it with just the power of her mind.

Well, perhaps, thought Leigh, she should’ve used the power of her mind properly and not gotten a bad grade to begin with. A ‘B minus’ might not have been too bad for some people. But it was bad for Leigh. Anything less than an A minus was bad for her. Even an A minus was only a sign that she needed to do better.

Leigh was used to being extremely good at her job. Her job was to be a student, and she was not performing anywhere near the standards that she expected of herself.

Even worse, she hadn’t been in class to collect the paper. She’d skipped her Criminal Law lecture to finish her Contracts paper, and Hana had picked it up for her.

“It’s not so bad,” said Hana, from across the room.

Leigh shook her head in disbelief.

“You don’t even sound like you mean that. It’s awful. A B minus. I never get Bs. Never.”

Hana shrugged.

“Well, considering how much time you spent on it, a B isn’t too bad. You have been pretty distracted lately. You’re lucky the Contracts deadline got pushed or you would’ve been really screwed.”

That was true, and it didn’t help her feel better – not even a little bit. It only reminded her that she was really dropping the ball.

And yet…

“Maybe I can talk to Dr. Keenan and see if I can do it again. I really don’t want this on my record.”

Hana considered it.

“You could, but Dr. Keenan just took a leave of absence. Some family drama, I gather. We’ll get a guest lecturer to fill in soon, probably within a couple of days.”

Leigh pursed her lips and considered.

That could work in her favor, she realized. If she could make a good case for herself and make the B minus sound like an aberration – which it was, damn it – then she might get the chance to redo the paper.

“Besides,” went on Hana, “how are you going to find the time to redo it? You have your Prince Charming to worry about, too.”

Leigh shook her head.

“I’ll have to tell him I can’t see him for a few weeks. I need to get this sorted out. You were smart to break up with your guy before school started.”

Hana smiled, a little wistfully.

“Maybe, but I miss him. If I’d thought there was the slightest chance that we could make things work despite the distance, I wouldn’t have broken up with him. I would’ve stuck it out. But I know him – he would’ve got bored, and drifted, and then cheated. I know myself, too. I would’ve reached a place where I hated him for cheating, and hated myself because I was a little relieved that it was over. So, I called it quits while we still had even a tiny chance of getting back together somewhere down the line.”

Leigh smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile.

“Sounds like a very tough choice.”

“It was, but hey, this place is stuffed with cute guys, so that does help.”

The cheeriness was forced, but Leigh went with it.

Still, she was determined to do something about that grade.

“Well, who do you think our guest lecturer will be? Somebody old and brought out of retirement? A hungry young thing who will usurp the spot?”

Hana laughed.

“You make life here sound so much more interesting. Probably somebody who’ll be called an assistant professor for now. It’ll probably be one of those people who’ll jump at every loud sound.”

“Or,” persisted Leigh, “it might be a practicing attorney who does fancy murder cases. Imagine!”

Hana shook her head.

“No, you imagine. I shall get to work on dinner. You have work to catch up on. Relax. I like cooking.”

Relieved, Leigh got to work going through the paper. She was glad that the Contracts paper wasn’t due back for a while. The professor was notoriously slow at giving papers back. But she had a feeling she wouldn’t exactly cover herself in glory with that one, either.

For the next two days, she stuck to a schedule – she would speak with Harrison twice a day, and she would give him her entire attention and focus while she did. But for the rest of the day, she worked, and she worked hard.

Finally, Hana turned up with the news she’d been waiting for.

“His name is Roger Hutton. That’s Dr. Roger Hutton, he has a PhD and a string of other degrees. Amazing that he’s only thirty-six, really, you’d think all those credentials would’ve taken a lot longer. At any rate, I saw him today. He’s going to be taking classes from tomorrow. If you want that chance to redo your paper, you’d better work fast, before he finds his feet.”

And that, thought Leigh, was excellent advice.

“I’m going to do just that,” she declared, and grabbed her backpack – she was getting used to backpacks again – and made her way over to the building where Hana had confirmed that she could find the man who could get rid of that unsightly B minus from her record.

She found the office quickly enough. The door was slightly ajar. Leigh hesitated for a moment before knocking smartly.

“Ow! Fu*k!”

Leigh stepped back, alarmed.

“Sh*t! Who… What!”

“I’m sorry, I can come back later,” said Leigh.

The last thing she wanted was to initiate a conversation about improving her grade when the man who could do that was irritated and swearing.

“No, it’s fine, come in, I… Oh, crap!”

There was the unmistakable sound of a pile of books crashing to the floor, finished off by a louder, sharper crash of something breaking. It ended with a ‘ting.’ Leigh half expected a little wheel to come rolling out through the door, as befits most crashes with such promising sound effects.

Obviously, she couldn’t hover outside the door like that anymore.