From Bad to Worse

A few days earlier

“That would be all for today. Don’t forget your homework. And please start preparing early for the midterms,” Thea said as she watched her students hurriedly exit the classroom with a smile.

They were always in a hurry at this time of day, heading out to avoid the lunch rush in restaurants only to fall right into it.

When Thea had to deal with her first year students, she was always aware of how difficult it was for them to go through the course load in the beginning, which is why she tended to go easy on them. After all, biology is a deceptively complicated subject.

But now that the midterms were close she knew that she had to step up her game a little bit, hence her hungry and sugar deprived students at the end of each session.

Thea slowly gathered her materials, closed her laptop, and headed up to her office.

Just as she was about to walk into her office, she was intercepted by the figure of a woman with fluffy red curls dancing everywhere and a pen stuck into them in an attempt to keep the unruly mass out of the way.

“Thea! You need to hear this!” Said her friend as she vibrated with excitement looking up at her.

“Pen. Would you at least let me put down this material? It’s really heavy,” She said and her overly excited friend looked down at her hands her eyes widening as she realized that Thea was still carrying her laptop and books.

Pen, or Penelope Grace, was Thea’s friend since their first days in college. Pen’s passion had always been chemistry. Which matched her hair and her fiery temper. Whenever she was in the lab, she looked like those classical mad scientists who were always dealing with chemical explosions with how her hair was always strewn everywhere.

“Here let me help you with that,” Pen said as she helped her carry a bunch of books into her office.

“So what made you run to me in such a hurry?” Thea asked.

“I just heard from my department head but it seems like the university is going to do a collaboration with Chim&Bio,” Pen said excitedly.

“You mean the pharmaceutical company that makes biological drugs?” Thea asked.

“Yes! I heard that the Dean is having a meeting with them today,” Pen said with a huge smile and Thea couldn’t help but smile back at her.

She was so genuinely happy about this.

“That’s great news. It’s going to open up so many research opportunities for both of our departments…” Thea said as she opened up the mailbox on her computer.

She knew someone who was going to be elated to hear this. As she thought so with a smile she frowned when she saw that there was a mail there from the dean…

“Yes! But you don’t sound so excited about this…” Pen said, eyeing her with her bright green gaze and Thea rolled her eyes at her friend.

“Of course I am. It’s just that research is not my priority right now… I have an outreach program to run and my hands are already full with that… Besides, Robert must be happy about this too.” She said with a smile,

“Oh, Robert again…” Pen said, rolling her eyes. She was always like that whenever Thea talked about her boyfriend. Not that Thea could say anything about that. Robert could be quite… competitive when it comes to work.

“You’re so much better at this,” Pen said with a sigh, “which is why you always fight with your grandfather. You know he’s probably going to want you to lead up this research program,” Pen said “My grandfather may be the dean, but he can’t force me to..." Thea trailed off as she looked at the email she had just received.

It was a notice from the dean's office. Her grandfather just…

“What’s wrong?” Pen asked as she peeked into the screen and then gasped.

“No, that can’t be…” Pen whispered and Thea felt her anger rise as she stood up, heading out of her office.

“That old geezer!” She cursed as she made her way toward her grandfather’s office, ignoring her friend’s calls.

She entered her grandfather’s office and his secretary kept typing away at his computer, not bothering to look up at her.

“He’s in his office…” He said and Thea stomped toward the door opening it not bothering to knock on it before heading inside.

“Well, hello there. It takes an Email notice to get to see you even though we work at the same place…” Her grandfather said as he looked at her from above the brim of his glasses, his eyes much like hers, sharp despite his old age.

“How could you do this, grandfather,” She said, pulling out her phone and showing him the email, “How could you just cut the outreach program like that?!” 

Her grandfather sighed as if this conversation was such a pain in the neck and then removed his glasses to look at her.

“You know very well why. I told you that the university can’t keep funding the program forever. We are running low on research funds,” he said, repeating the excuse he had been making her since she started this program.

“You are running low so soon after signing an investment contract with Chim&Bio? Where did the money they invested go then?” She asked and her grandfather smiled.

“Good, you seem to be informed then…” He said with a smile, “As you know, the contract with Chim&Bio is an important one. And the research for it needs a lot of dedication. Most of our professors are already engaged in their research programs. Since you are the only one who doesn’t have a prior engagement, we want you to take on the project. Since it’s going to need a lot of dedication, you won’t have time to run the outreach program anyway. So there’s no need for you to worry about it…” Her grandfather said and Thea felt her anger rise again.

“This is not what I asked you about. And I refuse to do the research program if you are cutting my funds,” She said.

“Too late for that, because we already gave Chim&Bio your name and they should send someone to attend your lectures soon,” He said, “They want you to give a lecture to their company’s employees about the new research theme too. I will let you coordinate with them through your department head. I am sure that HE will be more than happy to help you out.”

Thea sighed with exasperation.

“Robert could be the one doing the research, grandfather, you know how much he wanted to do it and besides, isn’t it high time you accepted the fact that we are dating?”  She said and her grandfather looked away looking annoyed.

“I still don’t approve of him…” He said, sounding like a sulking baby. 

This is why Thea couldn’t hate the man. He was annoying and liked to butt into her life, but in the end, she was always reminded that he was a grumbly old man who thought he was doing this for her good.

Damn him…

“It seems like you don’t approve of anything I’m doing in my life these days…” She said with a sigh as she turned around to leave the office.

“Thea…” Her grandfather called out and she kept walking toward the door.

“I know that you don’t like this, but you have to do research if you want to keep teaching here. You need to drop the program already and focus on your future,”

“I am not dropping the program,” She answered, “I am going to look for another way to invest in those children. They need me. And if doing the research program is going to shut the board members up, then I will do it.”

“Thea… This is for your own good…” Her grandfather said softly.

“I am the one who gets to decide my own good, grandpa,” She answered and left the office.

Making her way into the secretarial section, she found her grandfather’s secretary waiting for her with a cup of tea.

“Here. this should calm you down a little bit.” He said softly and Thea took the tea from him, taking a sip and then inhaling deeply.

“Is it verbena?” She asked and James smiled at her.

“Right, as always,” he said.

“You’re just making it easy for me. I can never guess your secret blend,” She said.

“You could try. The day you guess it. I will give you the recipe,” he said with a grin.

“It would be pointless then,” Thea laughed, and James gave her a knowing smile.

“You know he loves you…” He said with a soft tone, “It’s just that…”

“That he wants me to be a perfect replica of what my father was…” She said and James shook his head,

“You know it’s not like that. He’s been having a hard time dealing with your parent’s death,” he said.

“So am I…” Thea said and James sighed,

“I have to go meet Robert. Thanks for the tea, James,” She said, and James nodded.

“Anytime…” James answered,

Thea made her way toward the Biology department slowly enjoying the weather. As soon as she made it to the door of the department head, she realized that something was terribly wrong.

The door wasn’t closed, Robert never left his office door open. He was against the policy anyway. She was going to knock on it when she saw something lying on the ground of the office.

She stepped forward to take a closer look at the lacey piece of fabric. By then, Thea didn’t need to lift her head up to look in order to find out what was going on.

Because she already knew.

Standing before her, her boyfriend was butt-naked facing one of his half-dressed students as she moaned and writhed, while looking at her with a devious smile.