The Campus Bully Hounded Me Out of My Seat, Then I Told Him I Was Pregnant novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: The Benefactor
Gunnar Kvale asked to see me through Halle.
He did not call, and he did not send anything on the fund's paper.
He stopped her outside the bookstore on a Friday, took his hat off, and asked whether Miss Solheim would be willing to meet him anywhere she liked.
"He had his hat in both hands," Halle said.
"I swear to God, Thea, he looked like a farmer asking for a loan."
I said I would meet him at the boathouse.
I said it was the only place on the campus that belonged to someone else, and he could stand on it.
He came at four on Saturday, down the switchback stairs in the thin gray light, in his tweed jacket and his boots.
I waited on the dock.
The river had a skin of ice at the edges, black in the middle, and the pilings creaked in the cold.
I had my mother's coat buttoned to the chin and my hands in the pockets.
I did not turn around when his boots reached the planks.
"Miss Solheim," Gunnar said.
"Mr. Kvale."
"May I stand here?"
"It isn't mine," I said.
He came up beside me, six feet off, and stopped.
For a while we both watched the water.
He was a big man gone soft, with a broken vein in one cheek.
His hands shook a little on the brim of his hat.
He did not look at me.
I let him not look.
I had decided in the clinic corridor, with the tuition form in my hand, that I would not make this easy.
"I've been a coward for thirty-nine years," Gunnar said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Campus Bully Hounded Me Out of My Seat, Then I Told Him I Was Pregnant are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 15 · All chapters · Chapter 17 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend