“No,” I whisper. I bring up the email on the screen and wave him toward it. “Everything’s not okay at all.”
* * *
Two hours later, my office is crowded with people. Sameer’s there, holding a mug of tea, his expression somber. Steve Ashworth, the department head is there. And so is a woman called Peggy Wilkerson, who is, as best as I can tell, a lawyer from the University administrative office. For a brief moment, I wonder if I’m being fired now, until I reason that if that were the case, Steve and Peggy would have made sure to kick Sameer out.
“I didn’t do this, Steve,” I say for the first time. When I say those words aloud, a cloud seems to fall away from me. “This email is talking about plagiarism in the Patagonia section. That’s not me. That’s Pierre Landrieu.”
“I know, Bailey,” Steve starts to say, then Peggy nudges him and he closes his mouth. I guess the university can’t acknowledge that I’m innocent in case I turn around and sue them when they fire me.
And they will fire me. NYU hates scandal, and plagiarism is a cardinal sin in our profession. I’m good at what I do, but in the larger scheme of things, I’m an easily replaceable assistant professor, while Pierre Landrieu is a super-star who has his tenure. As Trevor has pointed out, people with liberal art PhDs are working in his fast-food restaurants. The university will have no trouble finding a replacement.
But I won’t go out without a fight, because this is unfair.
“There’s going to be a review,” Steve mumbles, looking everywhere but at me. “We’ll discuss the matter with the Smithsonian Press and with Valentin Perez in Buenos Aires. I’ll keep you posted.”
“What about Dr. Landrieu? Aren’t you going to talk to him?”
“Yes,” he blinks. “We’ll talk to him too.”
This is bullshit. The fact that they are not even trying to talk to Pierre Landrieu, possibly the only person who can prove my innocence? They’ve already made their decision. I’m getting fired.
Steve and Peggy take their leave, and Sameer remains behind. “This blows,” he says frankly.
“Yeah, well, what do you do?” My voice is gloomy. “You heard them. They’ve made up their minds to fire me.”
“Fight this, Bailey,” he urges, patting my shoulder. “Write letters. Petition people who have influence. Take this public. What the university is doing is wrong and unfair. Don’t let them get away with it.”
I don’t reply. I’m in shock as I watch him leave my office. My life feels like a house of cards, all tumbling down. I can’t believe how quickly Steve must have agreed to fire me.
I grope around in my purse for my phone. Usually, Daniel, Sebastian and I message each other multiple times a day, a fact that caused no end of giggles at the last Drinking Pack night. When I glance at the screen, it’s dead. Crap. My battery must have run out, and I haven’t noticed. A sudden, overwhelming urge to talk to Daniel and Sebastian washes over me. They can’t fix this situation - no one can, but when I’m with them, I feel cared for.
There’s a spare charger somewhere in my clutter. I hunt around for it, when a thought strikes me. A thought I’m tempted to dismiss right off the bat.
Petition people who have influence, Sameer said. Who has more influence than Daniel Hartman? NYU has a hundred and fifty million reasons to listen to him.
Part of me doesn’t want to do this. I’d like to do this on my own. Maybe I should trust in the system and let the review process work.
I’m many things, but I’m not naive. In the real world, Dr. Landrieu is famous and world-renowned, and I’m an assistant professor. It’s going to be far more convenient if I take the fall for the plagiarism. After all, who’s going to fight for me? Sameer? He has a kid and he doesn’t have tenure. He’d be stupid to interfere.
Steve? The university administration can exert a lot of pressure on the head of my department. Delayed funding, slower hiring, inconvenient class schedules. Steve will know not to mess with the powers-that-be.
No. If I want to keep my job, I have only one option. Though I’ve made it explicitly clear that I want nothing to do with his money or his influence, I need to ask Daniel for help.