I stood there and didn't know what to do. Here was Holly, one of my students from my public relations writing classes, standing on my doorstep as the snow fell outside. She had knocked on my door and I was a bit startled, but I was even more startled to see one of my students on the porch asking to come in.
Holly was one of my favorites, a sharp student who had that rare quality of being able to be respectful without abandoning her strong views in class discussions. Every once in a while I get a student that I get to spend some time with outside of classes, and Holly was one of those. We had a standing appointment to have coffee every two weeks to talk about the class material and whatever else she was thinking about at the time. Holly had a keen mind and thought really deeply about what she was absorbing in all her classes. I found discussions with her to be stimulating and challenging, which is exactly why people like me go into university teaching in the first place.
As luck (for me) would have it, Holly also was a beautiful girl, which gave me every incentive possible to keep our standing coffee appointments. Her green eyes had a distinct twinkle when she really got going on a topic she cared about. It was hard not to gaze at her while we talked, and I'll admit I was taken with her. She had a small frame but a great body, about 5-foot-3 with perky breasts and amazing legs to go with long brown hair. I had to consciously keep myself from gawking at her while we talked; it's not that I didn't enjoy our conversations, but her beauty was distracting and I didn't want to be the creepy professor who hung out with his students only to ogle them.
I often had groups of students over at my house for dinner as a way of getting to know them better, and Holly was a regular at my place. Thus that Holly knew where to find me wasn't a huge surprise because she knows where I live. The question was why she was here now, and why the tears? I knew from our meetups that she'd been going through some difficult times, but she was never direct about what it was. I always figured it was the typical stress that students got as they approached graduation.
"Are you okay? Come inside," I said.
Holly came in without a word and I took her jacket, then put on a kettle to make her some hot tea. The snow had just started but it was plenty cold out there already. I came in with a cup and sat down on the couch across from her.
"So do you want to tell me what's going on?" I asked after a few seconds of silence. I didn't want to push but she clearly was having trouble.
"It's Brett," Holly said. "He dumped me tonight."
Brett was her longtime boyfriend. I was furiously trying to remember how long they'd been together, but I knew it predated college. They were high school sweethearts and I had always expected they'd get married after graduating. Even without the tears, I knew this was crushing news for her.
"I'm so sorry, Holly," I said. "That's terrible news and totally unexpected. What happened?"
She steeled herself and then told the story. They had been having problems for a couple months and she knew something was wrong, but she figured it would work itself out. Apparently, though, he had decided that their lives were going in two different directions with graduation looming.
It was sort of true. Holly already had work lined up at a PR firm in New York City, whereas Brett had always wanted to return to their small hometown in Connecticut and apply his social work degree in his own community. They always seemed like a good personality match, but career-wise they were going in opposite directions and that was going to require some compromise.
"I knew this was coming," she said with a sigh. "He's right. We're just headed to different futures. I came to college to escape that small town and he loves it there. I think I'm just too ambitious for him."
"Well I suppose he could have a change of heart," I said, trying to find the silver lining. "I mean, you two wouldn't be the first couple to get back together. Sometimes people just freak out before graduation, you know?"
Holly shook her head.
"No it's worse than that," she said. "He also chose that time to tell me he'd been sleeping with Megan, one of my sorority sisters, for about a month. It was only after a month of screwing her that made him realize we weren't going to be together anymore. What an asshole."
I was stunned. I knew Brett a little from having him in my classes, but he didn't seem like that kind of kid. I found myself getting a little angry on her behalf, the parent part of my professor personality coming out. I think she caught a little bit of the anger written all over my face.
"Wow, you want to go kick his ass for me?" she asked with a chuckle.
We both started laughing at just the idea of it. Just the thought of a professor avenging one of his spurned students was pretty absurd.
"Yeah I'll just put on my superhero cape," I said sarcastically. "He teaches by day, fights boyfriend crime by night."
That got a smile out of her, one of the few times I'd seen it tonight. Holly's smile always lights up the room.
"Thanks," she said. "Thanks for listening and for making me laugh a little."
"It's not a problem," I said. "It's never a problem. Why Brett would be so crazy as to cheat on you and then dump you is beyond me. I wouldn't let you get away like that if I were him."
I paused for a second, realizing uncomfortably that I'd basically just subbed myself into Brett's place. I tried to change the subject.
"I'm curious why you came here, though," I said. "Were your friends not around?"
"Well my friends are in the sorority, and they're being careful not to take sides between Megan and I," she said. "Everyone's on eggshells there tonight, and you and I talk so freely that coming here seemed natural. I just had to get out of there and this was the only safe place I could think of where I could talk."
"Well I'm glad to help," I said. "Hopefully it won't be awkward for too long. You do have to live with these people for a few more months. Which, speaking of that, shouldn't you be getting back so that they don't worry about you?"
I just realized we'd spent about two hours talking, but it didn't seem that way.
"Yeah, I think so," she said.
With that I helped Holly get her jacket and I grabbed my keys so I could walk her down. And then after opening the door, we stopped. It was a winter wonderland outside, and in the few hours that Holly had been inside we'd gotten over a foot of snow on the ground.
"Ugh," I said. "Lake effect snow again. I didn't realize the snow was supposed to be this bad."
I called up the weather app on my smartphone and got more bad news.
"Already 14 inches and we're supposed to get another two feet overnight," I said. "I don't know if I'd want you driving in this. I suppose I can give you a ride back assuming the streets are plowed."
I walked to the end of the driveway and looked up and down the street. The plows had made one pass but hadn't done much. As I looked around, I realized visibility wasn't that great either. I wasn't feeling confident my tiny Honda could handle this.
