After we’d finished up, we went out on the balcony for a few minutes. It was too cold to stay out there for long, but the guys knew I needed my mountain fix. Sure, I could see them from inside, too, but out here, I stared at them and breathed in the fresh air, pretending I smelled the evergreens dotting the hills around them.
“Ready to raise the bar on bartending?” Jude asked, slipping his arm around me.
“Yep.” I reached my hand up to squeeze his. “But I also like it when it’s just us here.”
“Me too.” Parker stepped up next to me on the other side.
Mason sighed. “I’d presume our public awaits. We’d better open this place up.”
Jude kept his arm around me as we walked through the suite. For some reason, it hit me anew how amazing this place was. The view, of course. But also the high-quality furniture. And the fireplace, which we’d used a lot more lately. It really was the most amazing dorm room in the city. Maybe even the country.
Jude regaled us with a story of how one of his piano students had forgotten his entire piece during a recital as we moved through the suite.
Maybe that was why we didn’t figure out there was a problem until we got to the door.
The babble of many voices reached us even before we opened the door. Parker caught my eye and we exchanged frowns.
Mason pulled open the door and we looked into the hallway.
There was a line of students stretching halfway down the hall. As soon as they saw us, they pushed forward, but Mason blocked them, pushing them back. “Are you insane?” he snapped. “Go back to your rooms!”
But nobody did. Maybe it was too much family time or the stress of the end of the semester, but everyone seemed determined to get into our suite.
Jude and Parker slipped past Mason, trying to get the crowd to disperse, but it was too late. Then students wandered off, but not because of us. No, it was because of the trio of officials from the housing office striding toward us.
The last of the waiting students finally got the message by the time two women and one man stood in front of us. One of the women was the one who’d talked to Parker and me before. She lowered her glasses and let her eyes sweep over all four of us—but the guys more than me. Not that I blamed her.
“So, you run the conversation club I’ve heard so much about.” She handed each of us a half slip of paper. “I’d love to learn all about it tomorrow morning at nine a.m. at the disciplinary hearing.” She paused a minute, letting it sink in. “See you then.”
She turned and walked away, her two flunkies following her.
Shit.
30
Kylie
Alyssa set a cup of tea down on the table in front of me. “I still can’t believe they kicked you out.”
I took the tea and sipped it slowly. It was too hot and not sweet enough, but that was the least of my problems as I sat in the tiny kitchen in her one-bedroom apartment. She lived here with two goldfish and a depressed woman sleeping on her couch.
That would be me.
“At least you’ve still got your scholarship,” she said.
“Half of it. It’s for—it was for most of my tuition plus room and board. But now, no more room and no more board.”
She winced. She seemed too well off to understand what a hardship it’d cause me, but at least she was sympathetic. “I still can’t believe the guys got off with a slap on the wrist.”
“If that.” The only thing the disciplinary committee had done was to put a reprimand in their official records. Like any student older than seventh grade still believed that much of a threat.
“It’s so unfair,” she said. “Not that I want them to be in more trouble, but the four of you were living there together. Why’d they come down so hard on just you?”
“I guess it’s more of a sin for a woman to be living with men than it is for men to be living with a woman.”
“That’s such crap,” Alyssa said with more force than I’d expected from her. “It’s like, if a guy has a woman with him, then he’s a stud. But if a woman has a guy with her, then she’s a—” She came to an abrupt stop.
“You can say it,” I said. “A slut. Or a whore. Or a skank. The people at the disciplinary hearing certainly seemed to think that when they looked at me.”
“That’s awful.” Alyssa reached out and patted my arm. “And now the guys still have their full scholarships and you don’t.”
I frowned. “I don’t think any of them had full scholarships.”
Alyssa set her tea down, having drained it all. She and I had very different tastes in comfort beverages. “No, I mean their scholarships weren’t reduced in any way. I mean, if Jude and Parker had one.”