Esther broke in, "Five evaluations out of nearly 200?"
"Well most of the 200 were pretty bad." Suddenly realizing how this sounded, he quickly amended, "You see, it was the kind of comments that tipped me off that they were not real student feedbacks. They didn't sound the same. She was making these kinds of comments to the students—exerting influence on them to write the derogatory remarks. That's what was undermining my confidence."
Anuse brought him sharply back out of harm's way by asking if there had been trouble between him and Trenchant.
This opened a floodgate of accusation and crocodillian remorse. He had no idea why she would be so resentful of him since he had gone out of his way to be nice to her. "Once, I even complimented her on the cute sweater she was wearing. Instead of acting normally, she complimented me on my cute shirt. Go figure!"
Pressed to answer what he thought might be her reason to sabotage him with fictitious student evaluations, he lost it. Although he had been carefully coached by both the chairman of NERD and the university attorney, all that training went out the window. The mask slipped and his answer was pure, vitriolic, undiluted, vintage Randy.
Perhaps it was because he sensed a kindred spirit in Frank Anuse. "Well," sneered Randy, "you know broads, they get crazier than ever at that age and...."
Oh, God, thought Henry and nearly shouted, "It's getting late," over the rest of what Randy was about to say. "This would be a good time to adjourn for the day. All right?"
He glanced around quickly, stood up and was halfway to the door before anyone could disagree. Damned idiot, he thought to himself. He'd see to it that this boy got a talking to and had his priorities straight as well as his head before he came back the next day.
Henry kept his bad mood at bay with difficulty during the drive home by thinking only of his comfortable chair and a huge drink....or two before dinner. He had just entered the door and placed his briefcase on the hall table when his wife's voice floated down the stairs, jarring the hell out of him.
"That you, Henry? Hurry up now and get dressed, we're due at the Bakers in half an hour."