Maggie Finale thread #5!

Well, here we are, entering an epic 5th(!) installment to the comments for the last Maggie.

Here is another outtake for you. This is the scene with Maggie and Carmichael that I actually wrote out and then tanked because it never felt quite right. More like a suspense novel or something, rather than a hotwife romance. In the end, I like it much better being told secondhand to one of our heroes by Maggie's other suitor. Very hurtful.

So here is the scene, relatively unfinished and unedited, but cleaned up so you can read it:

There was a slight twitch to his face, the easy demeanor fading slightly, his brow lowering and making him look mildly puzzled. He leaned back in his chair, said, “Why is that?”

“Well, you may be aware that Jay and I entered into a friendship of sorts.”

Professor Carmichael nodded, still expressionless.

“We entered into a friendship of sorts, and he was not pleased with how it ended.”

At first he seemed unaffected, weighing her words and studying her face. And after he’d measured their weight, he shrugged, cocked his head and lowered his eyes and though he mumbled he clearly spoke: “You’re an engaged woman.”

Maggie ran her tongue across her upper lip and raised her own eyebrows. She said, “Jay knew that as well.”

“Perhaps, Margaret, you told him many things that he found to be untrue. Though, you, yourself, may not have thought them untrue.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“No, I didn’t. I don’t talk to my son about the girls he sleeps with.” Now he leaned forward and attempted a look of menace, winding his big black fingers together on his impressive desk.

“Professor Carmichael, I made no promises to Jay. None whatsoever. In fact, our involvement was so ephemeral his brutal reaction was shocking.”

“Brutal?”

“Jay came to my dorm room yesterday.”

“Oh,” Professor Carmichael said, and he began to stroke his thumb across the other hand.

“He came to my room when I was alone. I wasn’t prepared for him and he wasn’t welcome. I wasn’t dressed appropriately and I asked him to leave but he did not leave. He made horrible accusations and called me terrible things.”

Professor Carmichael nodded. Putting up a defensive barrier again. He rearranged pens on his desk.

“On top of that, he made threatening movements, intimidated me greatly. You know how strong he is. He tore my shirt off. Stripped me naked and ripped my clothing in front of me.”

Professor Carmichael didn’t look in her eyes but he inhaled silently and held it.

Maggie said, “He also took something of great value to me, a drawing, and he tore it up. Destroyed it.”

“I see,” he said and he settled back into his chair his brow low in his mouth working around. Maggie stared at him and waited for a response.

He said, “That’s it?”

“It is. Were you expecting more?”

“Not at all. It doesn’t sound like his reaction was unwarranted. Affairs of the heart can be difficult to deal with. I’m sure you felt slighted before, I’m sure you felt hurt.”

She said nothing. He leaned forward again. “A young woman can make a young man do crazy things. It’s not only young female students that could be victimized. How much?”

She said, “How much what?”

Professor Carmichael moved his pen again back to where it had started. He said, “For the drawing, Maggie.”

“How much for my drawing?”

“This amounts to property damage. How much did you want?”

“Money?” She choked back a laugh.

“So what is it that you do want?”

“I want him to leave me alone.”

“I think he will. I think he said what he needed to say.”

“He did more than say things.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“There was no crime committed—I mean beyond some minor property damage.”

She resisted rolling her eyes and kept her gaze on Professor Carmichael. “The property he destroyed had sentimental value.”

“Margaret, I fail to see where this can go. Jay has said his peace. It’s over.”

From her pocket she withdrew her iPhone. She watched Professor Carmichael as he waited to see what she would do. She flicked her thumb over the screen and tilted the speaker toward him. There were muffled bumps, sliding sounds across fabric, muffled voices. Then it began. His son’s voice clearly saying, “What is that?” Then the play played out. Him taunting her, examining her drawing. Her own voice now pleading with him not to destroy it. The sounds of it being destroyed, the sound of her crying.

When she listened, her eyes welled up reliving that horrible fear. In that moment she didn’t know if she would ever get out of that dorm room. It was all in Jay’s hands. She was powerless. Now she wasn’t. They both listened and she drilled her gaze into Jay’s father. Watched as he listened to her son say horrible, awful, disgusting things to her. Listened as he berated her, uttered bizarre misogynistic taunts. Winced as he said something that was racially bigoted. More raving and Maggie sniffed, wishing she had a Kleenex to wipe at her eyes. Then a loud crack and it made her jump even though she knew it was coming. His eyes darted to hers and she said, “That’s when he punched a hole in my wall.”

He nodded solemnly, clasped his hands together.

She closed her phone and put it back in her pocket. “This is my one and only time I talk with you about this outside of a Tribunal. And believe me, it won’t stop there. I will involve the State Police. Arrange with your son to make an admission of his guilt in writing, an apology to me,  and an agreement that he is not to step foot on the Farmingham Campus as long as I am a student here.”