Office Hours |h.s|

thirty one

Harry

I don't think I've ever been this busy in my life. Between building our case, teaching, and keeping up with all my relationships, I'm swamped. My family wants me to come to England for the holidays, Niall and Shea keep bugging me about going out with them this weekend, and then I have Maude.

She hasn't been super happy with me, especially after what happened the day after Halloween. Things are getting better now that it's been a couple days and I just hope we can move past this for good. I do feel really bad for how I reacted since I knew already that she's already on edge about me wanting to end things. It was just a knee jerk reaction to her friend showing up when she wasn't supposed to.

We haven't really gotten to spend time together since Sunday, but I've been trying to figure something out for us. But just like how last weekend she had to go out with her friends and show them that nothing weird was going on with her, I have to do the same. I've spent two weekends avoiding my friends completely, and it's getting obvious. I knew this relationship wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't factor in how it would affect all my other relationships.

I really do like Maude, though. I don't want to end things just to make my life easier, mainly because I know I'd be miserable without her. We just have to get through this semester and then figure out a way that we could start being more open. Once the semester is over, yeah people will look at us weird but technically it won't be wrong for us to be together since she wouldn't be my student anymore.

The rules against it do make sense though. It could be seen as sexual harassment or an abuse of my power as her professor. It could be seen as me giving her good grades in exchange for sex. And even if you take the sexual harassment accusations out of it, it still calls into question how I grade her considering we're together and it's just an unhealthy balance. It doesn't matter that her family has this hold over the administration to where no Sterling is allowed to fail, it would still look bad on me.

I'm the one that would get in the most trouble for it. I should have known better and stopped it from happening, at least until the power dynamic wasn't an issue anymore. I'd lose my job, my reputation would be bruised, and I just can't afford that right now, especially with the case we're handling. Not only would it look bad for me to be fired for sleeping with my student, but I'd probably get thrown off the case because that student is the prosecution's daughter.

This just keeps getting more and more risky for me, and I can recognize just how bad my life will fall apart when this gets exposed, but I can't bring myself to leave her. She's not just some young girl I'm having sex with. She's Maude.

Sitting back in my desk chair, I grab my phone, just needing a break from reading student papers. That is probably the worst part of my job, and I should probably get a TA to help me with grading, but I've learned that it's necessary to give papers here and there to help these students boost their grades. I could be a dick and just give them a midterm and final, but I know how stressful that could be. Plus, they aren't learning anything if they're just cramming for two tests.

To my surprise, I don't have any unread texts or missed calls from Maude. Then again, she knows Wednesdays are always super busy for me and has started to really know and adjust to my schedule. I pretty much know her schedule now too, and when the right times to call her are.

I shoot her a quick text, telling her I miss her and wish I could be with her instead of grading papers. It's the truth too, since hanging out with Maude would be a million times more fun than sitting here for hours until my eyes hurt.

There's a knock on my door, and a slight smile tugs at my lips, hoping Maude is gonna walk in right now. I sit up a little straighter and take off my glasses, "Come in."