Tinder | tayley ✓

For You

Taylor and Hayley returned to that same building the following day. They arrived separately, of course.

Taylor sat with his hands on the table, his eyes focused on the wooden surface.

"Mr. York," one of the men spoke, which caused Taylor's head to jerk up.

"We did not want to dismiss you. But after hearing your statement yesterday, we fear that your current position could be harmful to the university. We understand that as an educator, you are excellent. But we cannot take any chances. You stated that you would not end your relationship with Miss Williams, even if there's a chance of you losing your job. We will not tolerate this. So, Mr. York, we have no choice but to dismiss you completely. We'd like you to complete the semester and give your students the education that they are paying for. In the meantime, we will find another educator to take your place for next semester."

Taylor nodded slowly. He mumbled, "I understand. Thank you."

His eyes scanned the room to look at the faces of the administrators who had made the decision to take his job from him. Then he looked at Hayley, who refused to look up at Taylor or any of the other men in the room.

Taylor was unsure of how to feel. Even though he had lost his job and likely ruined his own career, he felt a sense of pride for standing up for himself.

Hayley, on the other hand, felt terrible. Taylor was going to be unemployed. And none of this would have happened if Hayley's roommate had never made that damn Tinder account for her.

"Miss Williams," the same man spoke, causing the girl to immediately lift her head to look at him.

"We do not blame you for any of this, considering Mr. York should have been more responsible and should have refrained from this inappropriate behavior."

"I'm a consenting adult," Hayley argued.

"We understand this, but we would not blame you for being unaware of this university's policy against intimate relationships between teachers and students. Mr. York, on the other hand, should have known better than to do this. We also understand that this is your final year here, which gives us even more of a reason to refrain from punishing you in any way."

There was a brief silence before he continued. "We would like to keep this as private as possible, which I can imagine is what the two of you would like as well. We do not want to hurt your career, Mr. York. You have been an excellent educator, highly liked by your coworkers and students. But we cannot keep you here."

Taylor sighed and again, repeated, "Thank you."

He exited the room, soon being joined by Hayley. She found him outside, sitting down on a bench with a cigarette between his lips.

Hayley frowned and sat down next to him. "I didn't know that you smoke," she commented. Taylor shrugged.

After exhaling a puff of smoke he replied with, "There's a lot you don't know about me. Besides, I don't do it a lot. Only when I'm stressed."

Now, Hayley felt even worse. This current stress would not have existed if not for her. Taylor easily realized how guilty Hayley felt.

"It's not your fault, you know. I could have stopped you, but I didn't. I brought this upon myself."

Hayley remained silent for a few seconds. She decided to break the silence. "You know you're not supposed to smoke here, right?"

Taylor let out another smoke filled breath and smiled. He chuckled a little bit. "What are they gonna do? Fire me? They already got that over with. You don't have to be so uptight."

"Why did you do this? Why did you just let them fire you? You could have fought for your job. What the hell are you gonna do after the semester is over?"

Taylor looked at her with a puzzled expression. Not because she had a point, but because she had assumed that she knew everything about him.

"I have money saved, I'm not an idiot. I'll look for a new job, but in the meantime, I'll budget. And are you really asking me why I did this? I did this for you."

"I never asked you to! I never even wanted you to," Hayley answered. Taylor scoffed, stood up, dropped his cigarette to the ground and crushed it with his shoe. He forced his hands into his pants' pockets.

"I'm just going to go home. I have no reason to be here if you mean that. Do you mean that? If you do, then I guess there's no reason for this relationship either. So what you say now will decide where we go in this."

Hayley stood up, her hazel eyes aimed up at Taylor's face. She slowly shook her head and wrapped her arms around Taylor.

"Hayley, we're in public," Taylor whispered.

She quickly removed her arms from around him and took a step back.

"I didn't mean what I said. I'm just...scared. For you."

Taylor tried to fight back a smile, but ultimately failed. He reached forward to give Hayley's shoulder a little shove. "You're an idiot. Come to my place tonight."

Hayley nodded. Taylor looked around, checking to be sure there were no witnesses — even though he didn't have much to lose at this point. He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to Hayley's forehead before heading off.