Page 37 of Deep Daddy

Harrison took a big breath and walked through the heavy mahogany entry doors and made his way toward Hoffman’s office. Harrison stood outside the shut door and knocked.

No answer.

Harrison knocked again. And then another knock.

‘Jesus. Where is this asshole?’ Harrison muttered, feeling angry at the possibility that Hoffman had taken him out of his rock climbing and then not even bothered to show up.

‘You may enter,’ came the voice from inside Hoffman’s office.

Harrison rolled his eyes. Another Hoffman power game. It was getting very old indeed and Harrison wasn’t sure how much longer he could deal with this situation.

Stepping inside the office, Harrison waited as Hoffman stood with his back to him as he picked a book off the shelf. The office itself was pretty much a standard college office. Wall to wall shelving full of books. A comfortable and tasteful couch in one corner. A large desk.

But the one thing that separated this from a normal office was the large, gold-framed portrait of Dean Hoffman than hung on the wall. It was grotesque and spoke to Hoffman’s enormous ego that he would even contemplate such a thing.

When Hoffman turned around, Harrison noticed that his mostly bald head was looking shinier than ever. Not only that, but Hoffman’s strands of remaining hair were looking thinner than ever.

Just shave it all off, man.

Own it.

Harrison sensed that Hoffman was toying with him. But the fact that Hoffman was simply not speaking was beginning to border on very strange behavior indeed. What the hell was Hoffman expecting Harrison to do? Hoffman was a fifty-five-year-old man in a senior management position, he should have been far, far better than this.

Then, with the atmosphere getting tangibly intense, Hoffman focused his grey-blue eyes on Harrison…

‘You’ve had a good run, you really have,’ Hoffman said, taking delight in the sound of his own voice. ‘But like your publishing record, all good runs come to an end.’

‘Wait, what the hell is this?’ Harrison interrupted, not appreciating Hoffman’s tone. ‘You call me here out of the blue, and you’re going to start talking down to me like this? It’s not acceptable.’

So much for keeping your cool.

Fuck it. This asshole has gone too far…

Harrison was angry. He wanted to tell Hoffman exactly what he thought about him. It was time to put this arrogant sonofabitch in his place.

But Hoffman had other ideas, and he had plenty more to say too…

‘Calm down, darling,’ Hoffman sneered. ‘All I’m saying is that you need to rethink your approach. You need to work harder. Do more around the place. Be a good boy and play by the rules. You’re not the hot shot author so much now, and I’m not the soft Dean who hired you.’

Harrison was seething with anger. This was simply not acceptable. In all his years working at the college, Harrison had never faced criticism like this. He did work hard and the students appreciated him. This was Hoffman talking out of his ass for his own reasons, whatever they were.

But Harrison knew that he had to keep his anger under control. The last thing he wanted to do was make a tricky situation a hundred times worse. Instead, Harrison attempted to reason with Hoffman. Surely that had to be worth a shot?

‘Dean, respectfully, I do work hard,’ Harrison said, ensuring to keep his voice calm and in control. ‘My student appraisals are amongst the best in the faculty. Hell, they’re amongst the best in the whole damn college.’

But Harrison’s words were falling on deaf ears.

Not only was Hoffman unmoved, but it seemed like he had something else he wanted to get off his chest.

‘We can work this out,’ Hoffman said, moving closer to Harrison. ‘We’re both adults. I’m sure we can come to some kind of… arrangement.’

Hoffman ran his thin, spindly fingers up Harrison’s arm and grinned a horrible, sleazy smile. Harrison felt totally repulsed and immediately backed away.

‘Fine, have it your way,’ Hoffman said, clearly furious at his advance being knocked back. ‘See how long you last. There are authors who would do anything for your job. And if I have anything to do with it, that’s exactly what will be happening!’

Harrison was livid. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Not only was this incredibly unethical, but it was the clearest sign yet that Hoffman’s problem with Harrison had never been to do with his work - it was all part of some twisted plan to sleaze onto him.

‘You know what, you can go to hell,’ Harrison said, turning and storming out of the office, slamming the door behind him to the sound of Hoffman’s cringe-making high-pitched laugh.