"Don't forget: be here in my classroom by 5:30 tonight," Suzanne yelled over the commotion of her students packing up their belongings as the dismissal bell rang. Suzanne's school band was having a concert that night, and she had prepared them as best she could beforehand. Now it was up to them to shine.
Suzanne was relatively young to be teaching high school--27. She had been teaching for about five years now, and started right out of college. But she had pretty good control of the kids, and since they were all musicians, they all wanted to be there, which really helped.
Jose walked up to her after all the others had left. "Mrs. Baines," he smiled as his voice was very low, "Sorry about what happened before school today. I don't know what I was thinking." He was referring to the meeting they had earlier that morning, at which he made a pass at her. He actually planted his lips on hers before she pushed him away with a shocked look on her face. At that, he immediately walked out. Now here he was, apologizing. "I accept your apology, Jose. Please understand that I am a married woman with two children and don't want to do anything to jeopardize my family. Besides the fact that it is very inappropriate for us to have any type of relationship like that." He shook her hand and said, "I understand. It'll never happen again." As Jose walked out of her room, Suzanne took a deep breath. Jose certainly was one of the most handsome students in her band, and she was definitely flattered that he was obviously attracted to her. But she knew that there was no way she was going to become a local news story! She packed up her things to get herself home in time to eat, kiss the family, and dress up for the evening. Just as she slung her purse over her shoulder and turned off her adjacent office's light, there was a call on the intercom from Mr. Jefferson, the school principal. "Mrs. Baines, could you come to the office?" She pushed the Reply button and said, "Yes, I'll be there in a minute." While her mind went through the reasons Mr. Jefferson might want to speak with her, she locked her classroom door and made the cross-campus trek to the main office.
Randy "Bull" Jefferson was a tall, broad-shouldered black man, about twenty years Suzanne's senior. He was known for being "gruff" and stern, rarely smiling, and the teachers all wanted to stay out of his radar range.
When she arrived, Mr. Jefferson was talking lightly to his secretary. "Ah, Mrs. Baines. Thanks for coming in! Step on in to my office." He followed her and closed the door behind him. "Have a seat," he said as he gestured to one of the leather chairs sitting in front of his gorgeous desk. He had a very comfortable office, with matching furniture: burgundy leather desk chair, two guest chairs, and couch.
"So, we ready for this concert tonight?" he began.
"Yes, I think so," she replied.
"Good. I'm going to be there tonight," he said.
This didn't surprised Suzanne, as he had been to nearly every concert all year. "Wow, that's great. Thanks for supporting us. I'll be sure to introduce you at the beginning of the concert."
"Great. I'll look forward to that," he said matter-of-factly. Then he paused for effect, making Suzanne a little uncomfortable. Then he picked up a manila envelope and removed what appeared to be photographs from it. He turned one of them around so she could see the image. "Recognize this?"
The blood drained from Suzanne's face and her heart began to race as she looked at the picture. It was a photo of Jose kissing her from that morning, evidently from a security camera.
"M-Mr. Jefferson, I can explainโ" she began, but Mr. Jefferson interrupted her.
"I'm sure you can, Mrs. Baines," he said, emphasizing the "Mrs." "But no matter what possible explanation you can come up with, these photographs are very incriminating," he continued.
"B-but you have to understand, I did not kiss him!" she stammered.
"Nevertheless," Mr. Jefferson calmly responded, "the boy felt comfortable enough with whatever relationship you do have to kiss you. That's still damning."
Suzanne didn't know what to say. Tears began to well up in her eyes as she looked away from the photograph, at a wall of the office. "Bull" Jefferson, as he was known, let that thought linger for a few moments.
"Now, I can see you're upset, Suzanne," he said gently. "Let me tell you, I can understand the circumstance. But if these photos were to get into the wrong hands..." He then let that awful thought linger.
"Tell you what I'm gonna do for you. Do you like your job here?" he asked.
Sniffling, she shook her head "yes."
"Do you like being a teacher? Do you want to stay on here?"
She sniffled again, this time saying a shaky, "Yes."
"OK, then here's what's gonna happen." He paused again.
"Suzanne, I got needs. You've met my wife Sharlene. She's just getting old, flabby, and I'm no longer attracted to her. We haven't been..." he searched in his head for the right wordโ"intimate, as you might say, in over a year. Mostly, that's my doing. I don't want to do it with her."
Suzanne couldn't believe what she was hearing. What did this have to do with anything?
"But Suzanne, I've had my eye on you since we first met at the interview. You are beautiful, and I've wanted to get to know you better for the past few years now," he said as he looked her up and down.
Now Suzanne was getting it. It was blackmail. What was she going to do? She was completely stuck! If she reported him, he'd release the photos. If she went along with the blackmail, she would be committing adultery.
But as she weighed the problems on either side, she realized that she was not prepared to deal with a public shaming, not to mention what it would do to her marriage! Was it possible to do it for a short time, keeping it a secret?