Author's note: Please forgive any errors in grammer. In my rereading of my stories, I miss things as my mind knew what I was trying to say. I currently do not have an editor and have given up the pursuit in finding one.
Foreward: The Professor's Accidental Harem was meant to be a stand alone story. The outpouring of feedback was immense and demand for a sequel was high. But I would not write one just for the sake of writing one. There had to be a plot I would love. It finally came to me, but in order to do so, I changed from a first person point of view to an omniscient point of view.
Happy Reading!
Chapter 2:
Six weeks later:
"But..."
"Dr. Tisdale," President Richards held up his hand as he interrupted, "I'm sorry but the board has made their ruling."
Dr. Tisdale let out a huff. "If not you, then who do I have to blow to get approved?"
President Richards wanted to say 'Will Harrison' but decided to try a different tact, consoling. "Suzanne," he moved his hand to cover hers and talked in a soothing tone, "five years ago the board of trustees decided to hand out grants to a number of professor's because they wanted our university to be known for something. You're imprinting concept was just one of many that they were willing to try to get themselves on the map. But now it's not necessary and the board has decided that mind manipulation is a risky endeavor that raises too many questions." He then shook his head, "I've warned you for the past three months to offer the board something else or the grant was going to be reassigned. You didn't and now that time has come."
Dr. Tisdale slammed her hands on the president's desk as she stood, "You're talking about five years of my life!"
"I'm sorry Suzanne. I really am. Despite your young age, you are an esteemed member of our faculty and we would be delighted to have you still be a professor on our staff."
"Fuck you!" Dr. Tisdale stomped toward the door, her auburn ponytail swaying with each forceful step.
"I'll let you calm down before we speak again."
Suzanne was still fuming as she entered her office with a cardboard box. Her intent was to leave and never look back. She knew the politics involved. When President Richards first spoke to her three months ago, she knew she had to make a breakthrough quickly because the young psychology whiz kid they hired two years ago, Ethan Carter, was on the verge of fulfilling the universities dream with some sort of memory drug.
'Why did it have to be now? I'm so close.' Suzanne set a couple manila envelopes in the box and began syphoning through another stack. 'Where will I go? Why couldn't the university see the importance of my imprinting creation? Capture a terrorist, use the serum to imprint yourself to them, and voila, instant traitor. They'll tell you everything and do anything you want them to do. And what about the people in prisons? Tell them to be honest citizens and poof - no more bad guys. If I had a little bit more time, I'd be ready for the private sector. I just don't have enough concrete analysis yet.' She slumped into her office chair and started to cry. With her shoulders twitching and head buried in her hands, a gentle rapping occurred on her office door.
"Dr. Tisdale?" A concerned male voice called from behind the door.
Due to the university giving every opportunity for the professors with grants to complete their work in an expedited manner, Suzanne didn't have any classes during summer break, so it couldn't be a student knocking on her door. At least she hoped it wasn't. She scrambled for a Kleenex and put her glasses on to hide her puffy eyes before answering, "Come in."
The door opened and there stood the handsome Professor Carter. That fact bothered Suzanne more than anything else about her colleague. He was both smart and handsome. And he seemed utterly clueless to how every female member of the student body fawned over him.
"I was on my way to lunch when I thought I heard someone crying in here. Are you all right Dr. Tisdale?"
Suzanne opened another file folder, pretending she had been working the entire time, "I'm fine."
"Are you sure? You can join me for lunch and talk about it if you'd like? Or come to lunch and not talk about it since I doubt I'd be much help in the field of neuroscience," Ethan finished with a big smile.
Suzanne chuckled, "Thanks for the offer but I'm swamped here."
"Nonsense." Ethan strode toward Suzanne and then grabbed her hand. "You just need some protein and then you'll figure it out. Besides, I'm dining at the wonderful, luxurious, and absolutely exquisite school cafeteria today. It would be a shame to eat such a gourmet meal alone."
Suzanne shook her head with an amused grin. She had changed her mind. The thing that bothered her most about Professor Carter was the fact he was genuinely a nice guy. The man she wanted to hate most in the world and she couldn't, in fact deep down, she knew she liked him. Damn him. "I suppose I can spare thirty minutes."
"Ah, better make it twenty nine and a half minutes," Ethan helped Suzanne to her feet. "I have a lot of work to do myself."
*
"So how's your memory research going?" Suzanne asked as she took a bite of her Caesar salad.
"Really well. I'm in the process of analyzing my second focus groups results and they are promising. The first group went well too, but there were only a limited number of participants." Ethan tried to hold back a smile thinking about how his first focus group really went. Not only did the enhancer work but he also was now living with four former students. Making that public knowledge wouldn't have mattered if Lydia weren't still in school. "I'm hoping that by the end of the summer I'll get the board of trustees approval and we can shop the product around to some manufacturers."
"Must be nice," Suzanne mumbled.
"What was that?"
Suzanne forced a smile, "That's nice. I'm really happy for you."
"So how about your problem," Ethan took a drink of his rootbeer. "How can I help?"
"You know what? I think I just figured it out." Suzanne's smile was no longer a faΓ§ade as she stood. "Thanks."
As Suzanne headed back to her lab, she was contemplating her epiphany. 'I have eight weeks to stall Ethan. If I can get him to show a possibility of failure, the board will reapprove my funding while they give him a second chance to get his wonder drug correct. But how? My imprinting serum isn't ready for human trials. It's not even ready for animal testing. If I give that to Ethan and something happens... better let my lab assistant find someone to try it out on before I give it to the universities golden boy.
*
Ethan glanced at the clock and noted it was six in the evening. With a sigh, he clicked the save button to his PowerPoint presentation and closed down his computer. He was no longer concerned with the results of the memory enhancer; he didn't have to be. Every single person in his last focus group were able to recite a fifty page dissertation paper verbatim. His worries now stemmed from the upcoming meeting with the board of trustees. He knew his drug forwards and backwards but how to be engaging about it without sounding to clinical? He knew he was much better relaying information to eighteen to twenty two year old students than fifty to sixty year old stiffs that compiled the board.
"Britney, I think we'll call it a night," Ethan stood with a yawn. "See you tomorrow at eight."
Britney used a yellow highlighter to mark where she left off at on the page. Since coming aboard six weeks ago, her goal has been to follow up with every member of the focus group, all fifty of them, and determine if there were any side effects to note. So far, only one person has complained of a side effect. He said he had a red, blistery rash in the genital region, but a doctor's visit later and it was diagnosed as herpes. That was definitely not the memory enhancers fault. The only warning that needed to be on the bottle is 'product ineffective with use of illegal and narcotic drugs' and though Britney didn't ask, she did wonder how Ethan knew that. She closed her folder and grabbed her imitation Prada purse- as if she could afford the real thing. "Do you need a ride home tonight?"
"No, I got my car today," Ethan responded cordially as he locked up his laboratory. "Eve got her car fixed so she didn't have to borrow mine. But I did appreciate the lift home yesterday."
Ethan actually appreciated that no one was home when Britney dropped him off. Shelly was at work, getting hired day one after graduation to one of the top psychiatric practices in the state. Eve was at an interview to teach psychology at nearby Hilldale High. Kennedy was at the school's athletic department mulling over player analysis as her now former coach, Leanne Weatherby recruited her to be an assistant to the girls' softball team. Lydia was in a study group, taking summer classes so she can graduate as swiftly as possible to lessen the chances of people uncovering the truth. Ethan could only imagine Britney's reaction to seeing any one of those four was living with him, sisters or not. Especially since they would probably be dressed scandalously to say the least.
Ethan pulled up to the new three-bedroom ranch style home the five of them were renting. They would have bought a house but decided to wait and see if the memory enhancer would take off. They also kept renting the townhouse Shelly, Eve, and Kennedy used to live in for Lydia's place of residence, even if she lived there just on paper. Couldn't risk having her address match a professor's, Ethan would surely be fired if that got out. In a couple months, they'll know how secure their future will be and if all goes well, they could build a home. Not that they needed more room anyway, all five slept in a pair of king sized beds that were pushed together in the master bedroom while the other two rooms were used as a home office for whatever work Ethan or the girls needed to accomplish and a spare bedroom.